The Study of Syntactic Avoidance On The Written Production of Persian University Students Majoring in Teaching English As A Foreign Language PDF
The Study of Syntactic Avoidance On The Written Production of Persian University Students Majoring in Teaching English As A Foreign Language PDF
The Study of Syntactic Avoidance On The Written Production of Persian University Students Majoring in Teaching English As A Foreign Language PDF
2008
THE STUDY OF SYNTCTIC AVOIDANCE ON THE WRITTEN PRODUCTION OF
PERSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS MAJORING IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
by
June 2008
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
supervisor, Professor Dr. Ambigapathy Pandian. It has been a real privilege for me
to work under his astute supervision. Professor Ambigapathy has indeed been a
wise facilitator of my learning especially during the process of writing this PhD
thesis. His insightful and critical comments have been especially helpful in
assisting me to complete this research. His benevolent nature and the moral
beloved motherland.
constant prayers served to motivate and inspired me. To my father, who since
young, has always instilled in me the spirit of independence and to the sole of my
dear grand father and grand mother (May They Rest in Peace).
Last but not least, I extend my special and sincere thanks to my dear wife,
Mahta, whose sacrificed and steadfast endurance and whose total and unflinching
loving emotional support conferred me the strength and the determination to scale
the heights of success despite all the trials and tribulations I faced.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Table of contents ii
List of Tables viii
List of Figures xi
List of Symbols xii
Abstrak (BM) xiii
Abstract (English) xv
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Background to the Study 3
1.2.1 An Overview of the Islamic Republic of Iran 3
1.2.2 The Iranian Education System 4
1.2.2.1 Pre-university Education 4
1.2.2.2 Procedures for University Enrolment 5
1.2.3 Foreign Language Teaching in Iran 5
1.2.3.1 The Goals of Teaching English in Iran 7
1.2.3.2 English for Specific Purposes in Iran 8
1.3 The Importance of Writing as one of the Language Skills 9
1.4 Statement of the Problem 10
1.5 Objectives of the Study 12
1.6 Research Questions 13
1.7 Significance of the Study 14
1.8 A Brief Overview of the Study 16
1.9 Definition of Important Terms 17
1.10 Limitations of the Study 20
1.11 Organization of the Study 20
1.12 Conclusion 21
ii
CHAPTER 2 –REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction 22
2.2 Learning Strategies in Second or Foreign Language Learning 22
2.2.1 Background and Definition of Learning Strategies 23
2.2.2 Taxonomy of Learning Strategies 24
2.2.3 Importance of Learning Strategies in Language Learning and
Teaching 33
iii
2.5.7.3 Context of Learning 78
2.5.7.4 Communication Strategies 79
CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY
iv
3.3.1.3 Comparing the Results of Grammar Test and
First Paragraph writing Test 117
v
CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
vi
5.3.4 Error Correction and Attitudes towards Errors 219
Bibliography 225
Appendix A 239
Appendix B 249
Appendix C 251
Appendix D 256
Appendix E 257
Appendix F 270
Appendix G 283
vii
List of Tables
viii
Table 4.13 Subjects’ Responses to Statement 11.a 172
ix
Table 4.30 Gender and Number of Respondents in the
First Group 202
x
LIST OF FIGURES
xi
List of Symbols
xii
Kajian ini menyiasat satu strategi komunikasi yang dikenali sebagai
mereka yang belajar bahasa kedua atau bahasa asing apabila mereka
menghadapi masalah dalam komunikasi. Apa yang biasanya dielak oleh mereka
adalah kosa kata bahasa tersebut, struktur dan kadang-kala bunyi yang dirasakan
susah untuk disebut. Mereka sentiasa menggunakan bentuk atau struktur yang
dianggap lebih mudah, yang membawa maksud yang sama atau hampir sama
dengan apa yang hendak dikomunikasikan. Fokus kajian ini merupakan struktur
sintaksis, yang biasa dielak oleh pelajar universiti Parsi yang bermajor dalam
Pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris sebagai Bahasa Asing. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk
guru pelatih. Data telah dikumpul dengan 3 instrumen yang berlainan iaitu 1)
Ujian Penulisan, II) Soal Selidik, dan III) Temuduga. Data yang telah dianalisa
untuk mengelak Klausa Adjektif dan Klausa Adjektif yang mudah semasa menulis
dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Didapati para pelajar mengelak penggunaan jenis struktur
ini kerana – I) Perbezaan struktur tatabahasa antara Bahasa Farsi dan Bahasa
Inggeris; II) Masalah pembelajaran serta penggunaan kedua-dua jenis struktur ini
kerana struktur tatabahasa Bahasa Inggeris yang lebih kompleks dan relevan,
xiii
Berasa selamat atau yakin dari membuat kesalahan ketika resah semasa
Adjektif yang mudah. Berdasarkan data yang dikumpu, didapati kedua-dua jantina
xiv
This study investigated one of the communication strategies named
typically a target language word, structure, and sometimes a sound that is thought
that the student finds easier, which conveys more or less the same content as the
expression or structure initially envisaged. The focus of this research was on the
while writing in English. This study also primarily attempts to identify the reasons
underlying this avoidance. The problem was investigated based on six research
questions. The subjects were 20 trainee teachers. The data was gathered by using
different instruments which were writing tests, questionnaire, and interview. The
analysed data illustrated that Persian TEFL learners tend to avoid Adjective
Clauses and Reduced Adjective Clauses when they write in English. In analysing
the reasons behind this avoidance, it was found that grammatical differences
between Farsi and English with regard to these two structures constituted one of
the reasons for the deployment of Avoidance Strategy by Persian TEFL learners.
The findings also revealed that Adjective Clauses and Reduced Adjective Clauses
are difficult to be mastered by the subjects due to various reasons including the
rules, and the large number of grammatical rules surrounding the two structures
that led to confusion. So this difficulty is another reason for avoidance of these
structures. The results also revealed that when the subjects were not sure about
the correctness of these structures they preferred not to use them in their writings.
xv
The analysis of the results also disclosed that the subjects resorted to avoidance
strategy to feel safe from errors mainly in moments of anxiety such as during
and non-use of the Adjective Clauses and Reduced Adjective Clauses as the data
revealed that both genders either used or did not use these clauses in equal
proportions.
xvi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
major subject begins in the second year of junior high school. Thenceforth, English
utilised oral-based activities, reading activities and grammar with minimal focus on
writing skills, of which the sub-skills of handwriting, spelling, and dictation are
institutes. In these institutes, English is taught to different age groups ranging from
six year olds to adults. Most of the courses offered at different levels focus on the
four language skills (Yarmohammadi, 1995). Although most private institutes offer
English courses of similar content, the teaching standards are higher in some due
Many universities and colleges in Iran also offer specialised courses at B.A.,
M.A., and PhD levels in English literature and teaching, linguistics, and translation.
1
The goal of these courses is to produce experts in teaching English and linguistics
entry of experts who possess expertise in teaching and designing English materials
The study of English involves the acquisition of the two receptive skills
which are reading and listening as well as the two productive skills, speaking and
effectively transmit new ideas and concepts, a majority of TEFL [Teaching English
as a Foreign Language] students, as will be discussed in Section 1.4, are not able
to use this skill effectively (Zahedi, 2005). Narafshan (2003) in her research on
finding that is especially worrying as these students will be future teachers of the
language.
The mastery of the four language skills by most English language learners
proficiency and communicating in the target language (Selinker, 1972; Dornyei and
strategies that serve to assist the learners in the language learning process. This
2
research aims to study one of these strategies which is the utilisation of Avoidance
before proceeding to delineate the statement of the problem, the objectives of the
kilometres. The capital of Iran is Tehran. Iran shares its northern border with
frontiers are with Turkey and Iraq. Iran is bordered by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf
of Oman in the south while its eastern neighbours are Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iran has a population of about 72 million. Farsi is the official language in Iran while
about 90 percent of its population are Muslims who adhere to the Shia sect. Sunni
2004).
3
1.2.2 The Iranian Education System
education. The school system is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education
and Training. The two ministries responsible for university education are the
Ministry of Health and Medical Education and the Ministry of Culture and Higher
Education. The Ministry of Health and Medical Education is responsible for medical
training while Ministry of Culture and Higher Education is responsible for the
Before being admitted into the university, Iranian students undergo pre-
primary education, primary education, middle or junior high school education, and
secondary school education. This system consists of twelve years of study which
commences at the age of six. The primary phase is designed to provide the basic
3R skills and is of a five year duration. The second phase, middle or junior high
school education, is of three years duration while the high school education phase
covers a period of four years. This final pre-university period comprises three years
of formal upper secondary education while the secondary level comprises three
potential interests and the grades obtained in the junior school period are allowed
to choose from one of these options (Jahani, 2006). On completion of the upper
4
secondary stage, the students precede to a one year period of pre university
education. The goal of this compulsory period is to prepare students for their
competency exclusively on subjects studied during their high school years and is
conducted in Farsi except for those candidates who want to study a foreign
language. Candidates who pass the Konkur exams are then offered places in the
language study in Iran. Consequently, the first group of Iranians sent abroad by the
government for further studies, went to francophone countries that were France
and Belgium. When these graduates returned, they introduced French into the
5
works were translated from French into Farsi and vice versa. The dominance of
lustre, decoration, saloon, balloon, were incorporated into Farsi and are still being
The fact that English replaced French in Iran and became a subject in the
school curriculum is a direct result of British and American imperialism. This began
with the discovery of petroleum in the early 1900s which attracted the attention of
(later British Petroleum) was founded and southern Iran came under British
suzerainty. After the Second World War, the United States of America began to
play a more active role in Iran in line with its superpower status and its geo-political
affairs, its growth in Iran was propagated through organisations such as the US
subject to learn and the Iranian government encouraged the teaching of English as
Society and the British Council played pivotal roles as western cultural centres that
used English as a medium of instruction for all subjects while native speakers of
6
1.2.3.1 The Goals of Teaching English in Iran
Cultural Revolution Council was set up in the Ministry of Culture and Higher
scenario under the prevailing system. In its conclusions, the council stressed that
all university educated Iranians should have a knowledge of English to meet the
2) Utilising English for cultural exchanges and for the introduction of the
should ensure the students’ mastery of the four basic language skills, i.e., listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. It was further recommended that these skills should
be taught at the pre-university stage with special emphasis on the reading and
7
1.2.3.2 English for Specific Purposes in Iran
recommended the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) approach for university
level classes. Based on the specific needs of the learners and their level of
basic English already taught at the pre-university level. The course was designed
to extend students’ control over the four skills with greater emphasis on reading
and writing.
Stage Two: A three-credit ESP course of four hours a week was designed
reading passages relevant to the students’ general field of study, i.e., medicine,
Stage Three: A two-credit ESP course of two hours a week was tailored to
provide learners with a wide range of specialized materials in their own specific
fields. The course was designed to enable students to read and understand
8
Pursuant to these recommendations, textbooks for General English and
ESP courses were written for both Arts and Science students. The books were
then revised and modified to ensure that they could meet the goals and needs of
consists of four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Cook, 2001).
Among these four skills, listening and reading are categorised as receptive skills
knowledge. This is because writing involves the composition of new meaning from
fresh ideas and existing facts in which sentences have special relationships to
Axelrod and Cooper (1988) point out that writing is directly related to the
way one learns. This is because this skill helps students to be active thinkers and
Hughey et al. (1983) noted that the skill of writing helps students to reinforce
vocabulary skills as they search for the appropriate words required in their writing
task. Similarly, grammar patterns are also enhanced by writing as when learners
9
write, they have to make correct decisions on the appropriate syntactic patterns,
discourse markers and registers to be utilised in order to convey their thoughts and
ideas effectively.
Within the Iranian context, writing has gained prominence due to the special
complicated structures that underpin the writing component so that they can impart
strategies to circumvent this difficulty. One such strategy often utilised is Avoidance
10
Strategy. Nevertheless, the deployment of such strategies often results in outputs
that are structurally limited in variety and lacking the fluidity and coherence often
associated with good writing. The lack of structural variety not only hinders
coherence but also compromises other elements such as the cogency of ideas and
the logical and clear elucidation of facts and argument. This fact is attested to by
Tajadini (2006) who observes that the written production of Iranian university
students (both male and female) are not structurally well developed owing to their
use of Avoidance Strategies when writing. He further points out that Avoidance
Strategy, which disguises itself in different shapes and is misapplied for various
on their composition in particular. On the other hand, Keshavarz (2003) states that
the low frequency of certain errors may be due to the low frequency of diverse
general avoid using complex structures. Similarly, Henning (1978) in his research
Yarmohammadi (1995) observes that one of the most important strategies which
foreign language learners resort to, the moment they come across a
several different reasons: differences between the first and target language,
11
Avoidance Strategy to feel safe from errors (Schachter, 1974; Kleinmann, 1977;
Dagut & Laufer, 1985; Hulstijn & Marchena, 1989; James, 1992; Laufer & Eliasson,
It can thus be argued, based on the above observations, that the utilisation
process amongst Iranian students particularly in writing. Thus, this study proposes
to examine the use of Avoidance Strategy in writing amongst Iranian TEFL learners
as it is crucial to determine to what extent the strategy has an effect on the written
output of this group of learners who are prospective English language teachers.
University Learners.
between Farsi as the first language and English as the target language on
12
4) To investigate the influence of complexity of grammatical rules on avoidance
has an effect on the exam results of Persian TEFL learners and resorting to
Avoidance Strategy.
13
1.7 Significance of the Study
skill. Since Iranian students of English use the strategy of avoidance and do not
use complex structures, they tend to produce written work that is often flawed in
meaning.
role of Avoidance Strategy in the writing process. This is because any absence of
error in one area does not necessarily mean the mastery of that area (Kleinmann,
1977; Brown, 2000). As a result, two problems arise. Firstly, the learner will not
improve in that specific area (writing) and secondly, if the errors are overlooked
actively, they may become fossilized. This study as mentioned in Section (1.5),
these structures and introducing them to Persian TEFL learners, they will be able
to understand the nature of these structures and use them effectively in writing
It has to be pointed out that many studies have shown the failure of Error
Analysis to take into account the use of Avoidance Strategy (Schachter, 1974;
Kleinman, 1977; Tarone, 1981; James, 1998). This is because Error Analysis only
studies errors which learners commit and not those structures and features which
they refrain from using due to certain reasons. Lightbown and Spada (2003) stress
that when learners resort to Avoidance Strategy this leaves the analyst without
14
information about the learners’ developing Interlanguage. In this regard Brown
(2000) states:
their task have to anticipate it (Brown, 2000). If students commit errors in their
course of language learning they are actually revealing their weaknesses, which
will help the teacher to know what to emphasise, identify areas of difficulties, and
areas in which learners need more practice. All these can be very helpful in the
preparation of textbooks for the learners (Corder, 1986; James, 1992; Keshavarz,
Accordingly, test developers can benefit from the findings of this research,
since by identifying the structures which Persian TEFL learners tend to avoid, they
Thus, the findings of this research will offer insights to language teachers to
emphasise all those structures that are normally avoided by English language
learners while teaching and help Persian TEFL learners to use these structures
15
while writing in English in order to overcome the problem of resorting to Avoidance
Strategy.
presented.
language learners face. Contrastive Analysis does this by comparing the linguistic
system of the learner’s native language with that of the target language.
language which are similar to the learners’ native language would be relatively
easy to learn, and that those elements of the target language which differ from the
Error Analysis, which is the study of errors made by second and foreign
language learners, examines empirically the actual errors in the target language
16
based on Contrastive Analysis. Instead, errors in the target language are analysed
and where appropriate, are attributed to differences between the native language
and the target language, overgeneralisation, false assumptions and other reasons
What is avoided is a word or structure in the target language that the learner thinks
is difficult and prefers to evade it with a parallel and easier word or structure.
and differences between the native and target languages and their role in the
deployment of Avoidance Strategies. This study also uses Error Analysis, since
Avoidance Strategy is classified and studied in the domain of Error analysis. Both
Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis and their relation to Avoidance Strategy
often try to avoid a difficult word or structure, and will use a simpler word or
17
Error: “The use of a linguistic item in a way which a fluent or a native speaker of
1989: 95).
TEFL students: TEFL students in this research refer to students undergoing the
Competence: “The unconscious knowledge that every speaker has toward his or
Rodman. 1998).
18
Interlanguage (IL): “A type of language produced by second or foreign language
learners who are in the process of learning a language” (Richards. et al 1989: 145).
speaking, reading, and writing are called the four language skills. Speaking and
writing are called productive skills and reading and listening the receptive skills”
Proficiency: “Refers to the degree of skill with which a person can use a language,
such as how well a person can read, write, speak, or understand language”
learning, in which a learner extends the use of a grammatical rule or linguistic item
beyond its accepted uses, generally by making words or structures follow a more
Transfer: “The carrying over of learned behaviour from one situation to another”
19
Grammatical Inconsistencies: Refer to the grammatical structures which have a
Farsi: The official language spoken in Iran (where the research is conducted).
Furthermore, as this research is descriptive and deals with the skill of writing, only
a limited sample was surveyed as the procedural aspects such as correction and
Chapter One outlines the background of the study, the education system in
Iran, the statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, the research
20
Chapter Three provides an extensive description of the methodology and
design utilised in the study. It also describes the procedure pertaining to sample
Chapter Four analyses the collected data and presents the statistical
1.12 Conclusion
Avoidance Strategy when they write, this research aims to study syntactic
Strategy, the relevant literature and the areas related to the strategy as well as the
21
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Introduction
This chapter deals with the review of the related literature and has five main
Avoidance Strategy and the related literature are covered in the third section. Error
the final part with discussions of notions related to it, different versions of
Since the subjects of the following research are TEFL learners, discussions
this part. It also aims to highlight the importance of language learning strategies in
researchers.
22
2.2.1 Background and Definition of Learning Strategies
strategies, the primary concern has been on identifying what good language
learners do as they learn a second or foreign language, or, in some cases, observe
doing while learning a second or foreign language (Wiliams and Burden, 1997;
Brown, 2000).
or techniques that learners employ to learn a second language.” Ellis (2002) also
that these strategies are problem oriented. That is, learners employ learning
strategies when they face a problem. In contrast, Wenden and Rubin (1987: 19)
define learning strategies as "... any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used
by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information."
Richards and Platt (1992: 209) state that learning strategies are "intentional
behaviour and thoughts used by learners during learning so as to better help them
understand, learn, or remember new information." Faerch and Kasper (1983: 67)
23
consciously engage in activities to achieve certain goals and learning strategies
tasks in the language classroom. Since the language classroom is like a problem-
solving environment in which language learners are likely to face new input and
difficult tasks given by their instructors, learners attempt to find easy solutions to
information and performing tasks have been identified and described by a number
(Wenden and Rubin 1987; O'Malley et al. 1985; Oxford 1990; Stern 1992, etc.).
more or less the same categorizations of language learning strategies without any
24