(3) (PDF) Constraints experienced by EFL literature students: A case study from an Algerian university

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Per Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-20T Bouazid & CS le RouxCONSTRAINTS EXPERIENCED BY EFL LITERATURE STUDENTS: ACASE STUDY FROM AN ALGERIAN UNIVERSITYMr T Bouazid (University of Mohamed Boudiaf, Msila, Algeria)Prof CS le Roux (University of South Africa)*___________________________________________________________________________This article investigates the perceptions and experiences of second language reading andcomprehension of Arabic-speaking university students in TEFL (Teaching English as aForeign Language) literature classes. In reflecting students’ observations and experiences ina variety of classroom activities, the study attempts to uncover the constraints and challengesstudents experience and to suggest ways in which these difficulties could be overcome. Thefindings of the study reveal that lecturers have a significant role to play in helping studentsovercome barriers to understanding and interpreting literature. Recommendations forimproving comprehension and enjoyment in L2 literature studies include the teaching andmodelling of appropriate reading strategies that improve critical and analytical thinkingskills; teaching and learning within a collaborative learning environment which fosters thedevelopment and exploration of ideas; and improving students’ background knowledgerelevant to the text being studied.KeywordsEFL learners, reading competence, comprehension competence, schema theoryINTRODUCTIONAttempts to describe the actual process of reading vary greatly, with Goodman (1967; 1988)commenting that reading is really a mystery, that nobody knows how reading works and thatreading is in effect a psycholinguistic guessing game! Although these comments could beconstrued as cavalier, they perhaps point to the difficulty of defining a process so complexand at the same time so integral to modern human existence.Proposed explanations of what reading entails are attempts to capture the core essence of theprocess. To illustrate, MacLeish (1968:43) proposed that reading firstly requires gettingsounds from the printed page or, as Goodman (1998:11) puts it, matching sounds to letters, aprocess that is either oral (audible) or silent. Following this, meaning needs to be assigned tothe sound and the information derived needs to be interpreted appropriately (Grabe & Stoller,2002:9). This process of interpreting information to facilitate comprehension ismultidimensional. For example, Harmer (2001:200) states that a reader uses a variety of cluesto understand what the writer is implying, thereby moving beyond the literal meaning of thewords to the contextually and conceptually implied meaning. Chastain (1988:228) suggeststhat the reading process entails active, cognitive interaction between mind and text in order tointerpret and comprehend the text. During the writing process, the writer tries to activate

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T Bouazid & CS le RouxPer Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-2034background and linguistic knowledge to create meaning: the reader‟s task is to activatebackground and linguistic knowledge to recreate the writer‟s intended meaning. This processis critical to studying and understanding literature.It would follow from the preceding that the reading process comprises (1) learning to interpretsymbols and pronounce words (MacLeish, 1968; Goodman, 1998:11); (2) identifying wordsand understanding their meaning (Chastain, 1988; Dechant, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2002:9;Grabe, 1991:392); and (3) learning to bring meaning to a text in order to derive meaning fromit (Foertsch, 1998; Harmer, 2001; Rumelhart, 1977; Smith, 1985; Wallace, 2003; Weaver,2002). Grabe (1991:396) suggests a concomitant components approach to reading anddistinguishes six skills and knowledge areas, namely automatic recognition skills; vocabularyand structural knowledge; formal discourse structure knowledge; content/world backgroundknowledge; synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies; and meta-cognitive knowledge andskills monitoring.It is evident that, when a person reads, she or he engages in a complex set of emotional,symbolic, moral, intellectual and social processes and activities (Lye, 2003). Engagement inliterary studies presupposes adequate reading skills, which Urquhart and Weir (1998:37)describe at the most basic level as recognising letters and words and automatically promptingthe meaning of words. Grabe and Stoller (2002:56), Anderson (2007:5-7) and Wallace(2003:3-4; 7) emphasise that the reading process extends beyond these basic mechanistic andcognitive skills and calls for interpretation, comprehension and critique in a search formeaning. When students engage in literary studies it is assumed that they are equipped notonly with adequate literacy or reading skills, but also with the ability to interpret andcomprehend what is read. Support for this tenet is provided by Isenberg (1990) and Torell(2001) who confirm that literary competence cannot be reduced to internalised literaryconventions and that literary competence includes more than a form of information processingor cognitive ability – hinting at comprehension being an integrated, holistic process, assuggested by Harmer (2001), Grabe (1999) and others.Recent studies (Afzali & Tahririan, 2007; Grenfell & Erler, 2007; Zengier & Shepherd, 2003)have indicated that many university students find literary studies extremely challenging andunrewarding. It appears that they struggle to fully understand or appreciate what they read,ostensibly because they have not yet learnt or developed strategies that support or promotereading and comprehension. This appears to be especially true when studying literature in aforeign language (L2). Chun and Plass (1997:61) concede that there are significant challengesrelated to teaching L2 reading and comprehension.The primary researcher and author, who teaches British and American Literature toundergraduate students at university level in Algeria, has consistently encountered difficultiesteaching English literature to Arabic-speaking students. The students generally appear to lackthe ability to read, proficiently comprehend, or appreciate the literary works studied in theliterature studies programme. The research reported on in this article consequently comprisedqualitatively establishing, examining and analysing students‟ experiences with L2 reading andcomprehension and the challenges and constraints encountered. At the same time, an attemptwas made to establish which learning strategies students used when attempting their readingassignments. The purpose of this research was to inform the pedagogy of teaching literaturestudies in a TEFL context.

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T Bouazid & CS le RouxPer Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-2035THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKWallace (1986:70) suggests that the basic process of learning to read is acquired only once.Learning to read a second language is an extension of that literacy. However, specific readingstrategies may vary from language to language and when literary competence is sought in L2,because languages vary in their meaning-making conventions, the reading (and writing) skillsthat need to be mastered invariably differ from those required for L1. These variations canhave critical implications for L2 reading and comprehension and also for teaching L2.Furthermore, unlike L1 reading, L2 reading involves two languages. The dual languageinvolvement implies continual interactions between the two languages, as well as continualadjustments in accommodating the disparate demands each language imposes. L2 learningcan be described as being cross-linguistic and inherently more complex than L1 learning(Koda, 2007:1).Kitao and Kitao (1989:10) add that, apart from the cross-linguistic issue that complicates theprocess of L2 reading and comprehension, the differences between the socio-cultural contextof the reader and the context of the L2 text further complicate interpretation andcomprehension. Since meaning is socially constructed and text is understood and interpretedwithin the framework of existing knowledge (Wallace, 2003:9), what the reader knows is asimportant as what is on the page.This notion that reading or language comprehension is linked with a reader‟s prior knowledgehas been formalised as schema theory (Bartlett, 1932). According to schema theory, readingcomprehension is an interactive process between the text and the reader's backgroundknowledge (Adams & Collins, 1979; Rumelhart, 1980; Wallace, 2003). A semantic bridgebased on the reader‟s schema stored in the memory is formed between the meanings of thewords and their interpretation. It is this interaction of new information with old knowledgethat is described as „comprehension‟ (Anderson & Pearson, 2002:255). Readingcomprehension thus depends on the reader being able to relate information from the text topre-existing background knowledge (Grabe, 2004:50). Since schemata are cognitivelyconstructed within specific social or cultural contexts, this has specific implications for L2reading and comprehension where the text that needs to be comprehended relates to a cultureother than that of L1 (Wallace, 2003:22, 57). Readers comprehend texts better when the textsare culturally familiar to the reader and consequently students tend to interpret L2 textsaccording to the most similar schema that they have (Grabe, 2004:50; Kitao & Kitao,1989:10-11) – which would be L1 schema. Consequently the inferences drawn when readingL2 texts tend to relate to established L1 schema, rather than that of the culture of L2.Research into L2 reading strategies commenced in the 1970s with the seminal work of Rubin(1975) and Stern (1975) who suggested that a model for a good language learner could beconstructed by looking at the specific strategies used by successful L2 students. Interest insuch research appears to have been renewed recently (Takeuchi, 2003; Chamot, 2005;Cooper, 2002; Koda, 2007). Chamot (2005:112-130) emphasises the significance ofdetermining and studying students‟ learning strategies in L2 contexts since this providesinsight into the meta-cognitive, cognitive, social and affective processes involved in languagelearning and reading comprehension and offers teachers the opportunity to improve thepedagogy of teaching in L2 contexts.

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T Bouazid & CS le RouxPer Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-2036Researching students‟ learning strategies relies extensively on collecting data through variousself-report procedures (Chamot, 2005). Although self-report is always subject to error, nobetter way has yet been devised to identify students‟ mental processes and techniques forcompleting a learning task. Grenfell and Harris (1999:54) comment that „it is not easy to getinside the “black box” of the human brain and find out what is going on there. We work withwhat we can get, which despite the limitations, provides food for thought.‟ While most of thelearning and comprehension strategies cannot be observed, some are associated withobservable behaviour (Chamot, 2005:113) which justifies researcher observation as a datacollection strategy when conducting research into L2 reading and comprehension processes.From the foregoing it is evident that engagement in literature studies requires criticalengagement with the text and presumes the construction of meaning and comprehension whileacknowledging that comprehension depends on the extent to which new information can belinked to existing schema. Within the context of the research undertaken, it was argued thatwhat students say about their experiences when engaging in literary studies should provideinsight into the constraints and obstacles experienced in their studies and provide insight intothe reading and comprehension processes and strategies employed.RESEARCH DESIGNA qualitative research approach was selected to determine, examine and analyse the readingexperiences of L2 literature studies students to identify the barriers and challengesexperienced in reading and comprehending L2 texts. A qualitative approach was chosen sinceit, by nature, is exploratory, interpretative and descriptive and is an attempt to understandmultiple realities (Babbie & Mouton, 2001:270-271; Leedy & Ormrod, 2001:102). Qualitativestudies furthermore have the potential to provide rich, detailed data (Carr, 2008:716). Theresearch findings would be used to establish appropriate strategies to support L2 students intheir reading, interpretation and comprehension of foreign language literature.RESEARCH CONTEXT, POPULATION AND SAMPLING PROCEDURESThe research focused on examining the perceptions, thoughts and experiences of second-yearEnglish literature students with regard to their studies of a compulsory English Literaturemodule in the four-year BA Didactics TEFL programme at a residential university in Algeria.All students who register for this module have passed their first year in English Studies.However, this module is their first encounter with English Literature. The literature studiescourse is divided into eight semesters, spread over two years. The tuition provides for fourBritish and four American literature studies modules, plus a choice between a British or anAmerican literature seminar course in the final year.The time allotted to the literature studies module is 1 hr 20 min per week. The second-yearBritish Literature syllabus covers a general introduction to literature, literary terms and thevarious literary genres. The British literature programme covers the beginnings of Englishliterature (450-1066); the Middle Period (1066-1500); literature from the accession of James 1to the Restoration (1600 to1660); the development of the sonnet form; lyrical ballads; and theworks of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dryden and Alexander Pope. Other authors and their worksincluded in the syllabus are Bacon, Milton, Bunyan, Swift, Defoe, Fielding, Goldsmith and

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T Bouazid & CS le RouxPer Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-2037Sheridan. Apart from attending and participating in the lectures, students are also required toprepare project work on these authors and the periods covered.Three hundred students registered for the module and the class was divided into two groups,each comprising 150 students. The observation and interaction component of the researchinvolved both groups of students while the analysis of learning log entries was restricted to asample taken from the registered student cohort. Fifty students whose learning logs would becollected for analysis were randomly selected from the enrolment list. Random samplingreduced the likelihood of bias, since research participants were chosen entirely by chance andeach student on the list had an equal chance of being selected (Birchall, 2009).MEASURES TO ENSURE RESEARCH VALIDITY AND RELIABILITYTo ensure validity and reliability, the research process was designed and conducted inaccordance with established research principles pertaining to choice of appropriate researchapproach, data collection instruments and data analysis (cf Birchall, 2009; Cresswell, 2003;Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2002). Research bias was eliminated by using simple randomselection methods in determining the research sample (Birchall, 2009).Ethical principles were followed. Students were informed of the researchers‟ intention toundertake the research. The purpose of the research was explained and students were asked toindicate whether they were willing to engage in the research and, if they objected, they wereassured that their contributions to the class interaction and discussions would not be taken intoaccount. Furthermore, they would not be included in the sample from which learning logswould be collected for analysis. Participants were informed that the research findings wouldbe used to improve the teaching of L2 literature studies and that the results would be reportedin academic forums. Students were assured of anonymity. None of the students indicatedreluctance to be involved in the research.The designated data-collection tools were used systematically, consistently and reflectively.Multiple methods of data collection were used – observations, discussions, unstructuredinterviews and text analysis – to ensure richness, comprehensiveness and depth of thefindings. The use of multiple data collection methods increases the validity of the researchfindings and the conclusions drawn. This, in turn, contributes to the rigour and soundness ofthe study.To reach construct validity, the researchers first undertook a comprehensive review of theliterature to establish the theoretical foundation of the study and to ensure that, in the researchprocess, the meaning attached to the concepts was consistent. As noted previously, qualitativestudies are primarily descriptive, explanatory and exploratory, and the literature reviewprovides a rich background against which the research results can be analysed and interpreted.Literature reviews also stimulate theoretical sensitivity to concepts and to relationshipsbetween concepts (Cresswell, 2003:32). Concepts that repeatedly come up in literaturereviews could have particular significance and draw the researchers‟ attention to details andideas that need to be probed during the research process.During the analysis and interpretation of the data, the deductions were constantly evaluatedagainst the background of the literature. The researchers tried to establish a holistic view of

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T Bouazid & CS le RouxPer Linguam 2010 26(2):33-49http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/26-2-2038the different causes and factors that impede students‟ ability to read and comprehend L2literature.RESEARCH PROCESS AND DATA COLLECTIONThe study was undertaken between January and June 2009. Data were obtained in theclassroom setting through participant observation, unstructured interviews and interactionwith students. A sample of students‟ written responses to a specific literature studiesassignment entered in their learning logs served as an additional data source. The researchersbelieved that the emerging data could serve to clarify and provide insight into the following: how students experience literature studies how students engage with literature and approach assigned tasks how students interact with fellow students and the lecturer in the classroom factors that constrain students‟ reading, interpretation and comprehension of literaturePARTICIPANT OBSERVATIONAs part of regular teaching sessions, the primary researcher assigned reading tasks andobserved how learners approached these assignments. Participant observation is integral tounderstanding the breadth and complexities of research participants‟ experiences. Factors thatare significant for a thorough understanding of the research problem can be uncoveredthrough observation. Participant observation also helps one understand and interpret dataobtained through other methods, because it provides a context for understanding that data.Students‟ responses to the learning activities were noted and written up as descriptivenarratives in the researcher‟s journal for analysis and interpretation.INFORMAL DISCUSSIONS, INTERACTIONS AND UNSTRUCTUREDINTERVIEWSThe informal discussions and unstructured interviews conducted with students focusedprimarily on asking them to elaborate on their experiences related to reading and interpretingliterature studies text. Students‟ comments were noted in the researcher‟s journal for analysisand reflection.ANALYSIS OF LEARNING LOG ENTRIESAn in-depth analysis of students‟ written reports on their appraisal and reflections of aspecific reading task formed a third component of the data-collection process. For this task,the researcher chose Chaucer‟s The Physician’s Tale, (cf Bookwolf, 2010) which is one of theprescribed readings in the module. The students were asked to read the tale, reflect on andreport their thoughts and experiences while engaging with the material, and then provide anappraisal of the literary meaning of the text. Students were asked to write up their commentsin detail in their learning logs. They were given one month to complete the Chaucer reading.The students‟ learning logs were collected and the logs of the research sample were removedand coded from 01 to 50 to ensure anonymity.