ERIC EJ659413: The "Lecture Buddy" Project: An Experiment in EAP Listening Comprehension.

10 Pages·2002·0.44 MB·English

by  ERIC

In the Classroom/En ciasse
The Lecture Buddy Project: An Experiment
in EAP Listening Comprehension
DavidMendelsohn
Thisarticledescribesastudyofthelisteningcomprehensionoffirst-year, non-na
tive speakersofEnglish (NNSs) inalarge North American university. Thegoal
was to find out how the students, all economics majors, were coping with
listeningtoeconomicslecturesandto tryanexperimentinmentoringbylinking
them with a"lecture buddy": anative speaker in their course who would meet
with them weekly and help them with notetaking. The lecture buddies kept
journals oftheir meetings, made copies oftheir lecture notes, and wrote afinal
reporton theirexperience. In addition, theauthorinterviewed the informantsat
the end of each semester, and these interviews were transcribed. The study
confirms that these students were having substantial difficulty with their lec
tures, were taking poor notes, and were doing poorly in the courses as aresult.
The mentoring projectwas judged to be helpful to the informants, and the help
thatthelecturebuddiesgavewentfar beyondworkingonnotetaking. Thearticle
endswithalistofrecommendationsaboutwhatthe universityandtheprofessors
coulddo tomakeiteasieroftheNNS studentsandwhatthestudents themselves
coulddo.
Danscetarticle,I'auteurdecrituneetudeportantsurla comprehensionauditive
d'etudiantsdont I'anglais n'est pas la langue maternelleetquisonten premiere
annee dans une universiff nord-americaine. Le but en etait double: d'abord,
determinercommentlesetudiants,dontla majeuretaitlascienceeconomique,se
debrouillaient dans les cours de leur specialisation et ensuite, evaluer I'utiliff
d'un programme de "partenaire de cours" qui consistait en Ie jumelage d'un
etudiantallophoneavec un etudiantquisuivait Ie meme cours etdont I'anglais
etait la langue maternelle. Les deux etudiants se rencontraient une fois par
semaine pour que l'anglophone assiste son partenaire avec sa prise de notes en
classe. Les mentorsanglophonesonttenu unjournaldes rencontres, ontfait des
copiesdes notesqu'ils prenaientenclasseetontecrit un rapportfinal decrivant
leurexperience. De plus, l'auteurapasseenentrevue les etudiantsallophonesa
lafin dechaque semestre. L'etudeconfirmequecesderniers trouvaientles cours
assezpenibles, neprenaientpasde bonnesnotesetdonc nereussissaientpas tres
bien. II aeffdetermineque Ie jumelageavec un "partenairede cours"aeteutile
auxetudiantsallophonesetqueIementoratnes'etaitpaslimiteadel'aideavecla
64 DAVIDMENDELSOHN
prisede notes. L'auteurconclutavec une liste de recommandations portant sur
des moyens que pourraientadopter l'universite, les professeurs et les etudiants
allophonespourfaciliterl'experienceuniversitaireacesdemiers.
Backgroundofthe Project
Drawing onmy experience in teachingcredit, content-based ESL courses to
first-year university students for many years, I have long been aware that
these students did notcope well with their lectures in the first year despite
havingentered the university withaTOEFLscoreofapproximately560 (on
theoldscale).Moreover,thereisasenseinmanyESLprogramsforuniversi
tystudents,includingourownprogram,thattheoneskillthatwill"takecare
ofitself"islisteningcomprehensionbecauseofthelargeamountofexposure
thatthestudentswillhave.
My nagging discomfort has been exacerbated by some of the research
findings on academic listening: Dunkel and Davis (1994) found that the
non-nativespeakersintheirstudy,allwithTOEFLscoresofabove550,were
still "at a distinct information-processing disadvantage vis-a-vis native
speakers" (p. 65). McKnight (1997) confirmed my feeling when he reported
thatthelisteningcompetenceofenteringnon-nativespeakingstudentsinan
Australian university was also problematic. Mason (1994) found that when
lectures were interactive and not "straight talk-and-chalk," even a score of
600ontheTOEFLdidnotassurecomprehensionwhenlistening.
The listening difficulties identified in these three studies are hardly
surprising when we consider that the International TESOL Organization's
official statement on the acquisition of language proficiency: "The acquisi
tion ofacademic language proficiency ... is more demanding and [it] takes
LEP (limited Englishproficiency) students from sixtonine years to achieve
paritywiththeirnativeEnglishpeers."
For the reasons described above, I decided to launch a pilot research
project,whichItitledtheLectureBuddyProjectwithtwospecificgoals:
1. tofind outhowstudentswereinfactcopingwithlisteningintheirfirst
yearofuniversitystudy,and
2. totryanexperimentinmentoringsomenon-native-speakingeconomics
studentsbylinkingthemwithwhatIcalled "lecturebuddies"tohelp
themintheirnotetakingand intheircoursesingeneral.
This study also serves as a preliminary study to a larger and broader
study on the special language needs of non-native-speaking students at
university, whichwillbereportedonatalaterstage.
The Project Design
Twofirst-yearstudents,referredtoasBuddy1andBuddy2,wereselectedas
thelecturebuddies.Theydidthisworkinreturnfora"servicebursary"from
the university and were selected by me. They were native speakers of
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English,majoringineconomics,required totake thefirstsemesterIntroduc
tion to Microeconomics and the second semester Introduction to Macro
economics courses (referred to below as Micro and Macro). The projectran
throughthefall andwintersemesters.
Eachofthebuddiesworkedwithsixnon-native-speakingstudents(NNS)
whowerealsofirst-yeareconomicsmajorstakingthesameMicroandMacro
courses withthe sameprofessors. TheMicroand Macrocourses are offered
inmultipleautonomoussectionstaughtbyvariousmembersoftheEconom
icsDepartment.Eachprofessorgiveshisorherowntestsandexamsaswell.
Buddy 1 and her NNS students were all in what I call Prof l's section of
Microand Prof2'ssectionofMacro. Buddy2and herNNSstudentswerein
Prof2'ssectionforbothMicroandMacro.
Buddieswererequiredtomeetweeklyone-on-onewitheachoftheirNNS
students. The students were asked to write summaries of the previous
lecture and to bring them plus their lecture notes to the meetings. Buddies
were to go through the summaries, go over the lecture notes, and clarify
anything that the NNS student had missed or not understood. Only one
student(NNSll)actuallyeverwroteasummary,sothatpartoftheplandid
notmaterialize. Buddies were required to keep ajournalofwhathappened
ateachmeeting,andalsotowriteupareportonthewholeprojectattheend.
Inaddition,Iinterviewedtheinformantsattheendofthefirstcourseand
againclose to theend ofthe second, and these interviewswere transcribed.
The interviews at the end of the first semester were more structured (see
Appendix). Interview 2 focused on such matters as what they were doing
differently from what they had done in the first semester, what they had
learned,andwhetherthesecondcoursewaseasierforthemthanthefirst. In
thecaseofNNS15/ whodidnottakepartinthefirstinterview,Ialsocovered
manyofthesequestions.
The Informants
The12non-native-speaking(NNS) participantshadallbeenadmitted tothe
university with the requirement that they take a credit ESL course in their
first year: TOEFL scores were between 530 and 590. They had all been in
Canadaforthreeyearsorless.Participationintheprojectwasvoluntary.The
informantswerefromthefollowingcountries:People'sRepublicofChina,2;
Taiwan,1;HongKong,2;Chinesespeaker,countrynotspecified,4;Ukraine,
2;RussiaviaIsrael,1.
Likethebuddiestheywerefirst-yeareconomicsmajorsinthesameMicro
and Macro sections as their lecture buddies. Of the 12 informants who
participated in the project, 10 took part in at least one of the interviews: 4
wereinterviewedtwice;5cameonlyfor thefirstinterview,and1cameonly
for the second interview. Issues of attendance and retention are discussed
below.
66 DAVIDMENDELSOHN
General Observations by the Two Lecture Buddiesand the
Non-Native-SpeakingInformants
Buddy1commented,
Iwas tryingtohelpthestudentsunderstand theirlectures.WhatIthink
Iendedupdoingwas ... providingthemwithatutorialservicewhere
theycouldaskmequestionsabouteconomics.Ithinkthatstudentscan
onlyunderstand theirlectureswithbetterunderstandingofthelan
guageandbetterpreparationforeachlecture.
Buddy2believedthatthestudents definitelyimproved,butthatshehad
topushthem.
IaskedeachoftheNNSswhattheyfelt aboutthis project,and they
wereconsistentlyverypositive-theyspokeofithavinghelped themto
takenotes,and toclarifyunclearpointswithoutembarrassment.Inform
ants reported thatinthesecondcourse(Macro) they read aheadmore
and putmoreeffortintothecourse.Itwould benaive toclaimthatthis
morepositivefeelingwasaresultonlyofthe lecturebuddyproject. The
NNSs reported thatbecausethematerialwasmoreinteresting,theycon
centratedmoreinthelectures. Ipersonallyfeelthatanadditionalfactor
hereis thatbythisstagetheywereprobablycopingbetterwiththelan
guage,hadmastered muchoftheeconomicsjargon,and thereforedid
notfeel asdefeatedorhopeless.
Findings
In this section I describe the the buddies' journals and reports and the
interviewswiththevarousstudents.
The NNSs took veryfew notes. In general, the buddies observed that the
NNSseithertookfewnotesornonotesatall,andfurthermore thatthenotes
they did take were inadequate at best and often incomprehensible (e.g.,
NNS21, whowas describedbyBuddy2as "veryweakinEnglish," and had
no background in economics). The buddies photocopied the lecture notes
andpassedthemontome,andIconfirmtheirincomprehensibility.Themost
common reasons givenbythe NNSs for this were that the professors spoke
toofast, used unknown words, and madelittleuse oftheblackboard. Over
headscorrespondedtothecontentsofthestudents'coursekits,buttheNNSs
tended nottouse thesemuch. NNS14didnottakenotes atall,orwouldnot
sharethemwithhislecturebuddybecausehewasashamed.
Thebuddiespointed outthatthestudentsnotonlyneedtohaveaccurate
notes, but they also need to "fully understand the notes they are taking."
"We know that notetaking has proven to be very beneficial because once
[NNS22]begantotakenotesandwecomparedournotes,hismarksbeganto
rise" (Buddy 2). However, Buddy 2 went on to note that good notetaking
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aloneis notsufficienttoachievesuccess.TalkingofNNS23, Buddy2wrote,
"Ifindithardtobelievethatwithsuchbeautifulnotessheishavingtrouble."
InfactNNS23failed the Microcourseand withdrewfrom economics.
Vocabularywasamajorproblemfor the NNSs. Thelecturebuddieswerenot
trained in linguistics or second-language acquisition, but still made some
extremely insightfulcomments about whatimpeded and whathelped their
students,particularly aboutvocabulary. Theyidentifiedgaps invocabulary
asthebiggestsinglefactorhinderingtheNNSs.Buddy2:"Oncethestudents
begin trying to understand the vocabulary, they lose sight of the general
ideasthatarebeingtaught." Inotherwords, whenthe NNSsencountereda
word they did not know, they "gotstuck" and lost the thread ofwhat was
beingsaid. This would alsoexplainthe recurrentcomplaintthat the profes
sorsspoketoofast(NNSll,12,21,22,23).Theyclearlywouldhavebenefited
from some strategy instruction in listening, for example, focusing on the
stressed words at the expense ofthe unstressed words, guessing from con
textandmovingon,andsoforth (Mendelsohn, 1994).
Buddy 1 observed that students also had difficulty when looking up
words in the dictionarybecausemanywords have more thanonemeaning,
and she cited an example of the word yield. NNS students at this level still
insistonusingbilingualpaperorelectronicdictionaries,andthisisoftenthe
source ofthis problem. Buddy2pointed outa glossary ofterms atthe back
ofthe textbook, andsheencouragedherstudentstouseit,buttheNNSsdid
notseemtodoso.
Buddy 2 made an important observation about vocabulary: Students
werehavingdifficulty"notbecausetheydonotunderstand theconcept,but
becausetheydonotunderstandthemeaningofthewords."Theexampleshe
cites is of the terms implicit costs and explicit costs. Elsewhere in her report
Buddy2said, "Ibelieve the results ofthis studywould havebeendifferent
had it been in a subject that did not use such elaborate vocabulary." These
twoobservationsalmostseemtocontradicteachother.Thesecondissaying
thatmuchterminology(jargon)isspecifictothedisciplineofeconomics.Her
earlier comment suggests that the problem is not the jargon of economics,
butratherageneralweaknessinmoregeneralwords(anotherexamplecited
isconsumersurplus).Ibelievethatbothobservationsarecorrect:thatinmuch
economicsterminology wordsare used as denotingspecific economics con
structs and that in addition these NNSs do not have sophisticated general
vocabularies. Two months after the start of the academic year, Buddy 2
wrote: "Thestudents arenothavingextreme difficulties with words as they
once were. Now they are simply having trouble keeping up with the
professor'space."
Some ofthe lectures did not correspond to the textbook. The NNSs made this
point repeatedly, that one of the professors' lectures corresponded to the
textbook,and onedidnot. TheNNSsstronglydisliked theformer approach,
68 DAVIDMENDELSOHN
clearly because it made it that much harder for them, and they could not
reallypreparethematerialbyreadingaheadorreinforcethelecturecontent
bysubsequentreadinginthe textbook(NNSI4,15,25).NNS14describedthe
lectures as being "more like psychology than economics," and moreover,
"youget20%informationfrom 100%oflecture."
Some ofthe NNSs hadasenseof"unworthiness andinsecurity."Thebuddies
reported that the NNSs were easilydiscouraged and felt insecure and even
"unworthy" (Buddy l's word). NNS13 and NNS14 did not go to class very
oftenand did nottake many notes whenthey were there. "Itwas as ifthese
two were embarrassed that they had difficulties, so they wouldn't do any
thingatall.... 1tried tomake themfeel OK." "[NNSI4] didn'tshow up very
often, [and] bothwanted togetawayasfast aspossible,didn'tlikeshowing
me their notes and treated them like garbage" (Buddy 1). Their embarrass
ment also manifested itself as disdain for the professor. Buddy 1 said that
neitherofthesestudentsdid well,and theypossiblyevenfailed.
NNS24wasalsoreluctanttotakenotes. Buddy2comments: "Iknewthat
thisreluctance ... wasduetothefactthathewaslosingenthusiasm,andwas
becomingfrustrated." However,shegoesontocommentthattherewasalso
a lack of preparedness on this student's part. This is a classic chicken-and
eggsituation.
Thereadingloadwasveryheavy.Buddy1pointedoutthatthelargeamount
ofreadingtheywererequiredtodowasdifficultfor theNNSs.
The amount ofbackground in economics was avery significant variable. The
students who had studied economics previously found the material much
easier than those who had not (e.g., NNS22). However, having some back
grounddidnotguaranteesuccess.
Students did notalwaysavail themselves ofthehelp thatwas available. Listen
ingto the interviewswith theNNSs, onegets the impressionthattheyhave
manycomplaints and are unhappyaboutseveralaspectsoftheireconomics
courses. However, when one probes, itbecomes clear that the students did
not always work hard or avail themselves of all the assistance that was
available. 1mentionabove that they did not make a greatdeal ofuse ofthe
glossaryprovided.Attendanceattheweeklymeetingswiththebuddieswas
also poor. Anotherexample is thatoneofthe professorsmade acopyofhis
lectures available in the library onvideo, butwhen1asked NNS13 whether
heused these, hesaid thathedid notbecausetheywerenotallowed totake
themhomeandhedidnothave timetoviewthem intheuniversity.NNS14
saidthathislecturebuddyhelpedhimagreatdeal,buthedidnotattendthe
meetingsoftenbecausehehadajobandcouldnotafford thetime.
Factorsandstrategies thatworkedwellandhelpedthe NNSs
Reading the textbook ahead or after the lecture. This was stated by several stu
dentstobeofgreathelp.
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Askingthelecturebuddyclarificatoryquestions.SeveraloftheNNSs(andthe
buddies)reported thattheNNSswerescaredoruncomfortableaskingques
tions oftheprofessororevenoftheirofficialteachingassistants,butfound it
easy and comfortable asking their lecture buddy because she was a fellow
student who made the students feel comfortable and did not mind going
overthingsseveraltimes.
Attendinganadditional setoflectures. Twoofthestudents (NNS15 and 16)
reportedthattheyattended(audited)adifferentprofessor'slecturespriorto
theirown,and thishelped themverymuch.Buddy1confirmedthis.
Developing notetaking strategies. Buddy 2 in particular taught her NNSs
certainnotetakingstrategies,whichwasreportedtohavehelped(particular
ly noted with regard to NNS24). One strategy thatwas particularlyhelpful
was for the NNS to note in the margin anything or any word that was not
clear,and thenaskhisorherlecturebuddyattheirnextmeeting.
The Human Variable
Prof1andProf2clearlyhavedifferentteachingstylesandgivedifferenttests
andexaminations.Oneoftheprofessorslectured"tothetextbook,"and was
therefore preferred by the NNSs, and the other dealt with topics that were
not covered in the textbook. The buddy who took one course with each of
these professors felt just the opposite. In the second set of interviews, stu
dentsemphasizedthedifferenceinstudyingunderthetwodifferentprofes
sors.
Onthewhole, the informantsreported thattheywerefindingthesecond
course, Macro, easier than the first, Micro. The reasons for this were
numerous, and the confoundingvariables makeitdifficult to determine the
mainreason. However,clearlythehumanfactorisimportant.
The Tests and Examinations
The tests and examinations were difficult for the NNNs. On the whole, the
students found the multiple-choice tests/sections easier than the open
ended,short-answersections.(NNS23andNNS25disagreed,explainingthat
multiple-choiceisconfusing.)
One ofthe professors gave only multiple-choice tests and examinations,
whereas the othergavea mixofmultiple-choiceand open-ended questions.
Buddy 1 clarified that all students, not just the NNSs, were under time
pressuretofinish, and Buddy2said thatthe final examwaschallengingfor
everyone.
Buddy l's experience was that the NNSs preferred the multiple-choice
testsbecausetheysaidtherewasless toread [sic], [whichIfindstrange],and
because"theanswerwasoneoftheselections."Also,theyhadastudyguide
withpracticemultiple-choicequestions.
70 DAVIDMENDELSOHN
I was surprised to learn in the interviews that the students did not feel
that the tests and examinations should be in their first language (NNS25
disagreed), nor did they feel it would help them given that all their know
ledge ofeconomics was in English. Most did, however, feel that the NNSs
shouldbegivenextratimeonthetestsandexaminations.NNS24andNNS13
disagreed,arguingthatthiswouldbeunfair.
NNS14 was not pleased that the students were not allowed to use dic
tionariesintheirtestsandexaminations.
RecommendationsAboutthe Courses
Thisand thefollowingsectionoutlinetherecommendationsthatweremade
bythetwolecturebuddies plusthenon-native-speakingstudents.
1. Professorsshouldbeurged toprovidelectureoutlines,tospeakslower
inthefirstfew lectures,tomakemoreuse oftheblackboardtowrite
downkeyconceptsand words (NNS24),andconsciouslytorepeatthe
mainpoints (NNS22).
2. Studentsshould bepairedwithabuddy,asintheproject.Havinga
buddyhelpstomotivate thestudents(Buddy2).
3. Analternativetosuggestion#2,madebyBuddy1,was thatthere
shouldberegulartutorialsintheseeconomicscourses (alsosuggested
byNNSI3,21,22,23)and thatthereshould bea tutorialspecifically
designatedasbeingfortheNNSs(alsoexpressedbyNNSI4).
4. TheNNSsshouldbegivenextratimeontheirexams (Buddy2).
5. Studentsshouldbeallowed tousedictionariesintheexamsandalsoto
raisetheirhandsandaskquestions.
6. Studentsshouldbetaughtnotetakingskills-evensuchelementary
strategiesasusingpointform (Chaudron,1995;Morley,1995).
7. TheESLdepartmentshouldoffercoursesonhowtosucceedin
university,drawingontheexperiencesofthesuccessfulstudents.
8. Asystemshouldbeimplementedinthe ESLclassesthatmakesit
mandatoryforstudentstofulfill readinghoursonmaterialrelated to
theirmajor.
9. Buddy2madeasensiblebut,sadly,unrealistic recommendation: that
everydepartmentshouldhiretwoprofessors "whospecializeinboth
ESLandanotherdiscipline."
AdviceProposedfor Future NNS Students Entering Economics
I asked the NNSs in their interviews what advice they would have for
non-nativespeakersenteringthesecourses.Itisinterestingtonotethatthose
listed below are the recommendations ofthe NNSs, butwhen Iasked them
whethertheydid these things, in the mainthe answerwas No, for example,
readingaheadoraskingforhelp.Thefollowingwouldbetheiradvice.
1. Read aheadorshortlyafterthe lecture.
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2. Cometoclassregularly.
3. Choosetheprofessorwhoisclearest:consultwithpeoplewhohave
completedthecourse.
4. Askforhelp. Don'taccumulateproblems.
5. Bepreparedtospendalotoftimereading.
Conclusions and Implications
The answers to the two central questions thatthis pilotstudywas designed
toanswerareclear.
1. TheNNSstudentswerefoundnottobecopingverywellwithlistening
tolecturesinthisfirst-yeareconomicsprogram.
2. Despitelogisticalandotherproblems,thismentoringprogrammustbe
deemedasuccess.
The nine recommendations listed above warrant serious consideration.
ProfessorswithlargenumbersofNNSstudentsintheircoursescouldimple
mentactions withoutmuchdifficultythatwouldgreatlyassistthestudents.
Forits part, the university could implementseveral ofthe recommenda
tionsatlittle ornocost.
Thedepartmentcouldbeaskedtorethinktherulesfortestsandexamina
tions, for example, to allow NNSs extra time and to allow the use of dic
tionaries.
Finally, the university could hold more workshops on notetaking, and
"Understandingyourlectures."
Clearly the implementation of the recommendations from this prelimi
nary study is not simple. Moreover, when planning any such initiatives, it
willbe essential to setup a mechanism that ensures that the students avail
themselvesofthesesupportsandputenougheffortintotheircourses.
Inconclusion,thispreliminarystudyhasshownthatmuchcanbedoneto
helptheNNSstounderstandtheirlecturesandmuchtobelearnedfrom the
studentsthemselves(Yorio,1982).
Note
lThenumberingofthe12informantsisnot1-12:eachbuddy'sgroupwasnumbereddifferently,
andsomewhosignedupthendroppedout.
The Author
DavidMendelsohnisa professorofESL and applied lingusiticsatYorkUniversity,Toronto,
Canada.HehasbeenteachingESL/EFLandtrainingESOLteachersfor38years.Hehaswritten
fivebooks:twotextbooksandthreebooksforteachers.Inaddition,hehaspublishednumerous
bookchaptersandjournalarticlesandhasbeenaprincipalinvestigatorinthedevelopmentof
threemajorEnglishproficiencytests.Davidhasgivenover200conferencepresentationsaround
theworld. These include two plenaryaddresses atTESOLInternationalConferencesinVan
couverin1992andChicagoin1996.
72 DAVIDMENDELSOHN
References
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teachingofsecondlanguagelistening(pp.74-96).SanDiego,CA:DominiePress.
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lectureinformationbyspeakersofEnglishasanativeorsecondlanguage.InJ.Flowerdew
(Ed.),Academiclistening:Researchperspectives(pp.55-74).Cambridge,UK:Cambridge
UniversityPress.
Mason,A.(1994).Bydintof:studentandlecturerperceptionsoflecturecomprehension
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Appendix
Interview QuestionsAfterFirst Semester
1. Howdifficult/easywasittounderstand theMicrolectures?
2. Whatwasdifficult?
3. Whatwaseasy?
4. Whatthatyourprofessordidmadeit/couldhavemadeiteasier?
5. Whatthatyourprofessordidmadeitharder?
6. HowwasitworkingwithBuddyl/Buddy2
7. Whatwould youhave theuniversitydohelpL2speakersunderstand
theirlectures?
8. WhatsuggestionswouldyouhaveforNNSfriends corningintoMicro?
9. Howdoyouprepareforthelectures?
10. Doyoureadahead?
11. Whatabouttheexams?
12. Shouldtheexamsbeinthestudents'L1?
13. ShouldyougetmoretimethantheL1 students?
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