Beauty and the Beast

Once upon a time there was a merchant who lived with his three daughters. One day before going to the market, he asked each of his three daughters what they would like as a gift on his return. The first daughter replied a brocade dress, the second asked for a pearl necklace, but the youngest and prettiest of all, whose name was Beauty said to her father "All I'd like is a rose you've picked specially for me!"

After finishing the work the merchant set off for home. However, a sudden storm blew up, and his horse lost his way in the howling gale. The merchant now had lost all hope of reaching a safe place to stay for a while. Suddenly he noticed a bright light shining right in the middle of a wood. As he went nearer, he saw lightening palace.

"I hope to could get some shelter there for the night," he said to himself. When he reached the door, he found it open, but still he asked ‘Is there anyone’, but there was no reply. He slowly went inside. On the dinning table a splendid dinner was ready to be served. The merchant still shouted for the owner of the castle. But no one came, and so the starving merchant sat down to have the meal.

After having the delicious meal, he went upstairs, where the corridor led into magnificent rooms and halls. Fire was burning in the first room and a soft bed looked very inviting. It was quite late so the merchant could not resist and he went to sleep. Next morning when he woke up, an unknown hand had placed a cup of coffee and some fruits bedsides him.

The merchant after having breakfast went downstairs to thank the person who provided tea and fruits to him. But he could not find anyone so he went towards the garden where he had left his horse. There he saw a large rose bush. He remembered his promise to Beauty so he bent down to pick the rose. All of a sudden a horrible Beast appeared from the rose garden. The angry Beast shouted at him, "Ungrateful man! I gave you shelter and food and you are plucking my favorite flowers. Now I shall put you to death for this slight!"

The merchant fell on his feet and asked him to forgive him. He further clarified that the rose was not for him but for his daughter Beauty. The Beast thought for a while and said, "I shall spare your life, but for this you have to bring me your daughter!" the merchant was so terrified that merchant he promised that Beast to do so.

When the merchant reached home, his three daughters ran to greet him. But they were quite surprised to see him crying. Why are you crying father said the eldest daughter? So he told them of his dreadful journey, Beauty immediately replied that I can do anything for you father so you don't worry. The merchant hugged his daughter and then they both went towards the palace.

The Beast welcomed Beauty graciously, which was quite surprising. Beauty was frightened of the Beast in the beginning but day by day her horror was gradually fading. She was given one of the finest rooms in the palace. She sat for hours, embroidering in front of the fire. And the Beast would sit, for hours on the other end observing her. Soon little conversation started between Beauty and the Beast. Days passed, and Beauty and the Beast became good friends.

One fine day, the Beast asked the girl to be his wife. Beauty didn’t know what to say. Instead of marrying such an ugly Beast I would rather die, she said to herself. But at the same time she didn’t wanted to hurt Beast. "I really can't say yes," she began shakily. "I'd so much like to..." The Beast interrupted and said its ok! Life went on as usual.

One day, the Beast presented Beauty with a magnificent magic mirror. When Beauty peeped into it, she could see her family, far away. "You won't feel so lonely now," said the Beast. Beauty stared for hours at her distant family. She became quite worried and kept weeping for her family. The Beast saw her crying so he asked "What's wrong? So she told that "My father is very ill and close to dying. I wish I could see him again, before it's too late!"

But the Beast only shook its head and went away. After sometime, he returned back and said “If you promise to return back in seven days then you can go to see your father!". Beauty replied “I swear! I swear and she went to her fathers house. Everyone at home was happy to find her back especially her father. She told them about the kindness of Beast. Soon her father also recovered from illness. Beauty was happy at last. However, she had failed to notice that seven days had already passed.

One night she saw a terrible dream that the Beast was dying and calling her in great agony. She rushed to the palace; the Beast was in the garden his eyes were shut as if he is dead. Beauty threw hugged him tightly. Don't die! I'll marry you . . ." these magical words turned the ugly Beast's into a handsome young man.

“I've been waiting for this moment since a long time, he said. Then he told his story to Beauty that an evil witch turned him into a monster. The witch had told that the true love of a woman who will accept me as I am, could transform me back into my real self. I am so glad to have you in my life.

Soon Beauty and the Beast married each other and lived happily forever.

Cinderella

Once upon a time there lived a young pretty girl. Her mother was dead and her father had married a widow with two daughters. Her stepmother didn't like her and scolded her always. She only loved and cared for her own daughters. For this reason Cinderella always lived unhappily.

Her step mother never gave her good clothes to wear, good food to eat and any time for rest. Her life was very miserable. She worked hard all day. Only in the evening she was allowed to sit near the cinders, for a while. That’s why everybody called her Cinderella. 

One fine morning, an announcement was made in the town. It was about the ball dance to be held in the palace. The step mother and her daughters became very excited for the ball dance. They purchased new gowns, new shoes and new jewelries for the function. When Cinderella heard about it she also wanted to go there but she didn’t have the guts to ask her stepmother.

 She went back to her room and started crying on her destiny. She was missing her mother very much when suddenly a fairy appeared in front of her. Don't worry Cinderella, said the fairy. I know you want to go to the ball dance. And so you shall... But how can I, asked Cinderella.

 The fairy smiled. With a flick of her magic stick Cinderella found herself wearing the most beautiful dress she had ever seen with lovely shoes and jewelries. The fairy also brought a sparkling coach for Cinderella to reach the palace. Cinderella could hardly believe her eyes. She was very happy. Cinderella thanked the fairy and went towards the palace.

 When she entered the palace she was very surprised to see it so beautifully decorated. She met people around, danced and enjoyed a lot at the ball. Soon the prince and the king entered the hall. Everyone stopped dancing. They wanted to meet the prince, but... but the prince was finding someone lese in the huge crowd. He was finding his princess of dreams. He saw Cinderella standing far off near the stairs; the prince went towards Cinderella and offered her to dance with him. Both of then danced together for a long time. It seemed as if the prince was in love with Cinderella.

 Now it was half night, Cinderella had to return back home before her stepmother and sisters returned. She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her shoes, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up!

The Prince who was now madly in love with her picked up the shoes and asked his ministers to go and search for the girl. I will never be content until I find her!”

So the ministers tried the slipper on the foot of every girl in the town but were not successful. When they reached Cinderella’s home, her sisters too tried to wear the shoes but unluckily they failed. The shoes didn’t fit anyone of them. Cinderella was standing nearby, the ministers asked her to try the shoe as well. Her sisters laughed at this. When Cinderella wore the shoe it fitted perfectly. Everyone was surprised to see that. The prince also reached there, he was happy to find her dream girl. He took Cinderella to his palace and soon they got married.

Cinderella begins a happy life with the prince…..

Text Types

Based on generic structure and language feature dominantly used, texts are divided into several types.
They are narrative, recount, descriptive, report, explanation, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, procedure, discussion, review, anecdote, spoof, and news item.

These variations are known as GENRES or KINDS of TEXT

NARRATIVE
Purpose: To amuse/entertain the readers and to tell a story
Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Complication
3. Resolution
4. Reorientation
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Chronologically arranged

RECOUNT
Purpose: to retell something that happened in the past and to tell a series of past event
Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Event(s)
3. Reorientation
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Using adjectives
Narrative and recount in some ways are similar. Both are telling something in the past so narrative and recount usually apply PAST TENSE; whether Simple Past Tense, Simple Past Continuous Tense, or Past Perfect Tense. The ways narrative and recount told are in chronological order using time or place. Commonly narrative text is found in story book; myth, fable, folklore, etc while recount text is found in biography.
The thing that makes narrative and recount different is the structure in which they are constructed. Narrative uses conflicts among the participants whether natural conflict, social conflict or psychological conflict. In some ways narrative text combines all these conflicts. In the contrary, we do not find these conflicts inside recount text. Recount applies series of event as the basic structure

DESCRIPTIVE
Purpose: to describe a particular person, place or thing in detail.
Dominant Generic Structure:
1. Identification
2. Description
Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Using adverb
4. Using special technical terms


REPORT
Purpose: to presents information about something, as it is.
Generic Structure
1. General classification
2. Description
Dominant Language Feature
1. Introducing group or general aspect
2. Using conditional logical connection
3. Using Simple Present Tense

EXPLANATION
Purpose: To explain the processes involved in the formation or working of natural or socio-cultural phenomena.
Generic Structure:
1. General statement
2. Explanation
3. Closing
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using action verbs
3. Using passive voice
4. Using noun phrase
5. Using adverbial phrase
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using conjunction of time and cause-effect.

ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION
Purpose: To reveal the readers that something is the important case
Generic Structure:
1. Thesis
2. Arguments
3. Reiteration/Conclusion
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using modals
2. Using action verbs
3. Using thinking verbs
4. Using adverbs
5. Using adjective
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using connectives/transition

HORTATORY EXPOSITION
Purpose: to persuade the readers that something should or should not be the case or be done
Generic Structure:
1. Thesis
2. Arguments
3. Recommendation
Dominant Language features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using modals
3. Using action verbs
4. Using thinking verbs
5. Using adverbs
6. Using adjective
7. Using technical terms
8. Using general and abstract noun
9. Using connectives/transition
Then what is the basic difference between analytical and hortatory exposition. In simple word. Analytical is the answer of "How is/will" while hortatory is the answer of "How should". Analytical exposition will be best to describe "How will student do for his examination? The point is the important thing to do. But for the question" How should student do for his exam?" will be good to be answered with hortatory. It is to convince that the thing should be done

PROCEDURE
Purpose: to help readers how to do or make something completely
Generic Structure:
1. Goal/Aim
2. Materials/Equipments
3. Steps/Methods
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using Imperatives sentence
3. Using adverb
4. Using technical terms

DISCUSSION
Purpose: to present information and opinions about issues in more one side of an issue (‘For/Pros’ and ‘Against/Cons’)
Generic Structure:
1. Issue
2. Arguments for and against
3. Conclusion
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Use of relating verb/to be
3. Using thinking verb
4. Using general and abstract noun
5. Using conjunction/transition
6. Using modality
7. Using adverb of manner

REVIEW
Purpose: to critique or evaluate an art work or event for a public audience
dominant Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Evaluation
3. Interpretative Recount
4. Evaluation
5. Evaluative Summation
Dominant Language features:
1. Focus on specific participants
2. Using adjectives
3. Using long and complex clauses
4. Using metaphor

ANECDOTE
Purpose: to share with others an account of an unusual or amusing incident
Generic Structure:
1. Abstract
2. Orientation
3. Crisis
4. Reaction
5. Coda.
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using exclamations, rhetorical question or intensifiers
2. Using material process
3. Using temporal conjunctions

SPOOF
Purpose: to tell an event with a humorous twist and entertain the readers
Generic Structure:
1. Orientation
2. Event(s)
3. Twist
Dominant Language Features:
1. Using Past Tense
2. Using action verb
3. Using adverb
4. Chronologically arranged

NEWS ITEM
Purpose: to inform readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important
Dominant Generic Structure:
1. Newsworthy event(s)
2. Background event(s)
3. Sources
Dominant Language Features:
1. Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline
2. Using action verbs
3. Using saying verbs
4. Using adverbs : time, place and manner.

Teaching English Pronunciation Skills to the Asian Learner. A Cultural Complexity or Subsumed Piece of Cake?

Article Title

Teaching English Pronunciation Skills to the Asian Learner. A Cultural Complexity or Subsumed Piece of Cake?

Author

Paul Robertson

Bio Data

About the author - Paul Robertson received his Ph.D in 2002. He has lived in Korea since 1997

Introduction:

For the last two decades academics and publishers have propounded theories on pronunciation acquisition and on pronunciation training. For the greater part, they have paid lip service to the critical issue underlying both the aforementioned, namely the culture behind the target of the pronunciation theory. With a broad sweep, all L2 learners were grouped as though there were no differences that could possibly affect the learner. Politzer and McGroarty's 1985 survey, fleetingly cited by Ellis (1996:559) notes the early suggestion that cultural differences are important. Carmichael (2001) identifies the issues that immediately precede the role of pronunciation teaching, whilst Robertson (2002a, 2002b) examines the Korean learner's characteristics and the impact of Confucianism on the Korean learners learning style. Otlowski (1998) leads the future in Asian pronunciation teaching by arguing for pronunciation programs to be included in all L2 students training, and further believes there is optimism for success in the outcomes of such programs.

Yet Dash (2002) researched and analyzed the Korean classroom and found that an English Only policy was seriously flawed. Thus we have a chasm between what some believe is the academically ideal way to proceed in any pronunciation program, and those who consider clearly identifying cultural peculiarities within the target (Asian learning zone) leads to identification of alternate approaches in delivery of pronunciation programs in Asia. However, despite propounding the inclusion of pronunciation programs, (Otlowski, 1998, Kenworthy, 1996) the method of delivery is thrown into doubt by Dash's (2002) findings. This paper will submit, {i} based upon the evidence to date, that pronunciation programs in Asia must and can be delivered successfully by native speakers of English irrespective of their varying levels of educational background. This view is supported by Kenworthy (1996:69) whilst Fromkin and Rodman (1998:349) extend the category to those with near native speech. Secondly, {ii} that the mode of delivery of a pronunciation program must relate to that particular countries culture so as to complement, and not offend, cultural complexities.

Otlowski (2001) notes the oft cited view that little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation, which was supported by research done by Suter (1976, 233) and Suter & Purcell (1980, 286). They concluded that pronunciation practice in class had little effect on the learner's pronunciation skills and moreover, 'that the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a matter substantially beyond the control of the educators,' Suter & Purcell (1980, 286). The findings were subject to the caveat (as also noted throughout literature in numerous places) that variables

Error Questions

Type 1: Verb + Noun

1. Can you…..an eye on my car while I go in the shop? Keep
2. If we…..a mistake in the exam can we cross it out. Make
3. Whose turns is it to …the housework? Do
4. I’m going to…. a chance and ask her if she wants to go out somewhere. Take
5. I’ve tried telling him that I don’t want to see him again but he doesn’t seem to be…the message. Getting.
6. The mountaineers…. the summit on the fourth day of their ascent. Reached
7. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I keep…. my temper with everyone. Losing
8. You should try to….more attention in class. Pay
9. Can I….an appointment to see the doctor today?
a. make
b. accept
c. invite
10. They’ve….all of their friends to the wedding.
a. refused
b. made
c. invited
11. Have you….any arrangements for the weekend?
a. Booked
b. Made
c. accepted
12. I’ve… a table for us at a Vietnamese restaurant.
a. Booked
b. Refused
c. made
13. My boss wasn’t happy when I refused her…to dinner.
a. Booking
b. Invitation
c. arrangements
14. Carlos has made….to go to Thailand with his girlfriend.
a. Invitations
b. Appointments
c. Plans
15. She’s good at writing stories for children and is always keen to…up new plots.
a. Do
b. Get
c. Make
d. Take

16. The son assured their father that they would work hard to…out the treasure.
a. Find
b. Sort
c. Seek
d. Try

17. I ….a lot of presents for my birthday.
a. Got
b. Became
c. Become
d. have



Type 2: Verb + Adverb
1. It’s going to be impossible to get this finish in time.
a. Highly
b. Deeply
c. Virtually
d. Severely

2. She was temped to resign immediately.
a. Sorely
b. Fatally
c. Perfectly
d. Highly

3. Your car needs servicing. It sounds terrible
a. Severely
b. Desperately
c. Sorely
d. Deeply

4. I remember asking you to post that letter.
a. Eagerly
b. Perfectly
c. Distinctly
d. Virtually

5. He regrets sending you that mail.
a. Fatally
b. Bitterly
c. Distinctly
d. Severely

6. We await your replay and hope that your response will be positive.
a. Deeply
b. Desperately
c. Eagerly
d. Distinctly

7. I don’t know why you could not follow his directions. They were clear.
a. Highly
b. Deeply
c. Virtually
d. Perfectly

8. He was very sorry about being late and apologized .
a. Interminably
b. Deeply
c. Profusely
d. eagerly
Type 3: Noun + Verb
1. Bikin sendiri
Type 4: Adjective + Noun
1. Don’t talk to him about politics because it’s like a rag to a bull.
a. Blue
b. White
c. Red
d. black
2. she lost the company a lot of many last week and as a result has got a mark against her name.
a. red
b. blue
c. white
d. black
3. you’ll notice that as soon as the children come home from school, the dog will jump up and show its great ¬ for them
a. infection
b. affection
c. affectation
d. protection

4. There is a huge in the local paper about the special offers available in the store this weekend.
a. Announcement
b. Display
c. Notice
d. advertisement
5. Sociolinguists maintain that some of the film on show today have created a generation of children.
a. Frighten
b. Afraid
c. Fearful
d. Frightening

6. He tends to forget things very quickly and behaves more and more like the typical professor.
a. Clear-minded
b. Absent-minded
c. Well-minded
d. Cool-minded
Type 5: Adverb + adjective
1. The election is very DELICATELY BALANCED at the moment. Either party could win.
2. The new production of 'Hamlet' was ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECEIVED by the first night audience.
3. She's too HIGHLY QUALIFIED for the job -- we don't want someone with a degree.
4. The house is IDEALLY SITUATED, ten minutes from the sea, and ten minutes to the mountains.
5. If you think I'm going to agree to that, you're BADLY MISTAKEN
6. The disco was already DANGEROUSLY OVERCROWDED when the fire started.
7. His words were CAREFULLY CHOSEN to ensure they appealed to different sections of the audience.
8. The President has been CLOSELY ASSOCIATED with the idea from the start, so he's very anxious that it is a success.
For each sentence, choose the best word or phrase to complete the gap from the choices below.
1. The cost of a new house in the UK has become high over the last few years.
2. The drug company should not have put a new product on the market with fatal side-effects.
3. After a warm start to the month, the weather in the second half of June was cold.
4. Even when the cost of running the event were subsidised by local government, tickets were still in the region of fifty pounds.
5. For the last ten years Malcolm Sargant's gossip column in the Daily Planet has been read by thousands of readers.
6. To award a man like Thomas Green with the greatest lifetime achievement award seems unfair.
7. Our test this week is quite challenging in places but the one we got last week was easy.
8. There were some exciting moments in the second half of the film but the first ninety minutes were slow in places.
9. Hugh Tomlinson is believed to be the best director of his generation in Hollywood at the moment.
10. I am appalled by the thoughtless attitude of people who needlessly endanger other people's lives by using mobiles while driving.
11. This holiday offer does seem attractive but I think we are going to have to pass on it because of the high cost.
12. After all her hard work, Martha was disappointed when she got a grade B in her CAE exam.
Your answers


1. A
astronomically B
totally C
utterly D
blatantly
2. A
partially B
particularly C
potentailly D
painfully
3. A
unfortunately B
unseasonably C
unpredictably D
astronomically
4. A
tremendously B
avidly C
heavily D
atronomically
5. A
avidly B
vividly C
heavily D
tremendously
6. A
painfully B
blatantly C
widely D
bitterly
7. A
laughingly B
humorously C
highly D
absurdly
8. A
massively B
astronomically C
utterly D
painfully
9. A
thoroughly B
widely C
greatly D
massively
10. A
tremendously B
terribly C
awfully D
utterly
11. A
avidly B
absolutely C
irresistably D
heavily
12. A
painfully B
bitterly C
completely D
totally

Educational Settings and Second Language Learning

A. Introduction

This research was done by Rod Ellis. Professor Ellis, a renowned linguist, received his Doctorate from the University of London and his Master of Education from the University of Bristol. A former professor at Temple University both in Japan and the US, Prof. Ellis has taught in numerous positions in England, Japan, the US, Zambia and New Zealand. Dr. Ellis, who is known as the "Father of Second Language Acquisition", has served as the Director of the Institute of Language Teaching and Learning at the University of Auckland. This research was published in online journal website at http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/December_07_home.php volume 9 issue. 4.



B. Content

It is stated in introductory paragraph that a general distinction can be drawn between ‘natural’ and ‘educational’ settings. The former arise in the course of the learners’ contact with other speakers of the L2 in a variety of situations—in the workplace, at home, through the media, at international conferences, in business meetings, etc. In considering the relationship between setting and language learning, it is important to clarify what is meant by ‘setting’, according to which social life is viewed as ‘a structured set of social categories which, to some extent, control our social characteristics and opportunities’ which is called type 1. Also, sociolinguistics assumes that ‘social life and our entire experience of society is best seen as structured through local actions and practices’ which is called type 2.


Types of educational settings

Skuttnab-Kangas distinguished a number of different types of educational settings, ‘non-forms’; types that do not use two languages of the learner as the media of teaching and learning, ‘weak forms’; types that have monolingualism, strong dominance of one language or limited bilingualism as their aim, and ‘strong forms’; types that aim to promote high levels of bi- or multilingualism and multiliteracy for all participants.

The language classroom setting

‘The language classroom’ is defined here as a setting where the target language is taught as a subject only and is not commonly used as a medium of communication outside the classroom. In this sense it includes both ‘foreign’ language classrooms (for example, Japanese classes in the United States or English classes in China) and ‘second’ language classrooms where the learners have no or minimal contact with the target language outside the language classroom. Foreign-language classroom contexts can be distinguished from second language classroom contexts in that native-like cultural and pragmatic competence is not a high priority in the former.

The role relationships between teacher and student influence learning in a classroom. In the case of traditional approaches to language teaching, where the target language is perceived primarily as an ‘object’ to be mastered by learning about its formal properties, the teacher typically acts as a ‘knower/informer’ and the learner as an ‘information seeker’. Parents may play an active role by monitoring their children’s curricular activities. They may also play a more indirect role by modelling attitudes conducive to successful language learning. Skuttnab-Kangas noted that foreign language classroom settings are characterized by very varying degrees of success.

Submersion
Submersion is a programme where linguistic minority children with a low-status mother tongue are forced to accept instruction through the medium of a foreign majority language with high status, in classes where some children are native speakers of the language of the instruction, where the teacher does not understand the mother tongue of the minority children, and where the majority language constitutes a threat to their mother tongue—a subtractive language learning situation.

Segregation
Segregation occurs where the L2 learner is educated separately from the majority or a politically powerful minority, who speak the target language as their mother tongue. Skuttnab-Kangas claimed that segregation settings produce poor results. But, in certain situations, the provision of separate educational facilities may have beneficial effects. Segregation also has some advantages where L2 learning is concerned. In particular, because the learners are likely to be at the same level of development, it is possible to tailor input to their level.

Mother tongue maintenance

Skuttnab-Kangas pointed out that mother tongue maintenance can take the weaker form, pupils are given classes in their mother tongue, directed at developing formal language skills, including full literacy and in the stronger form, pupils are educated through the medium of their mother tongue. Mother tongue maintenance programmes are based on enrichment theory, according to which high levels of bilingualism are seen as a cognitive and social advantage. There is also evidence that mother tongue maintenance settings, particularly those of the strong kind, result in considerable educational success.

Immersion
Immersion programmes began with the St. Lambert Experiment, a French immersion programme for English-speaking children living in Quebec, Canada. In the context of the Canadian French immersion programmes, it referred to programmes where members of a majority group (native speakers of English) were educated through the medium of French, the language of a minority group.



C. Conclusion

In this article, the researcher has considered the relationship between different educational settings and L2 learning. The aim has been to identify the potential learning outcomes associated with different types of settings, defined in very broad terms. It is important to note that there will be considerable variance in learning outcomes within settings as well as between settings.

It is possible to identify a set of general principles that underlie likely language learning success in educational settings. The following is a list of such principles.

1. L1 maintenance—ensuring that learners achieve a high level of both oracy and literacy in their L1 will promote learning of the L2.

2. Perceptions of L1—learning is enhanced when the setting confers status on both their L1 and the L2.

3. Social need—learners learn best when they have a clear social need for the L2. This social need is highly varied, however.

4. Target norms—success in L2 learning cannot always be measured in terms of a set of norms based on a standard form of the language.

5. Initial learning—initial L2 learning is more successful if learners have the opportunity to learn within an L1 speaking group


D. Comment

After reading this journal, I considered that this journal is not well organized. The structure of the content is not good enough because some of the necessary parts; for example, the methodology, are not exist. But, in some parts, the explanations of the contents are quite clear and understandable. For other students who interested in this journal, I suggest to read this journal more than two time in order to get full understanding.

The Study of English Learners’ Synthesizing Process While Reading

A. Introduction

This research was done by Lu Fang Lin, Ph. D, an assistant professor in the Foreign Language teaching and Research Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan, who is involved in research into English teaching in the EFL context and English reading comprehension instruction. This research was published in online journal website at http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/March_08_home.php in March 2008.

This research investigated how English learners can retell two kinds of text with culturally familiar and unfamiliar topics, in this case they are Chinese and non-Chinese topics. Firstly, Lin, the researcher examined whether there was difference of English learners’ way of synthesizing between those types of passages/texts and it was showed that there was no significant difference. Then secondly, synthesizing information was classified by function and strategy to explain how the participants utilized the synthesizing process to comprehend an English passage on Chinese versus non-Chinese topics. Thirdly, Lin, the researcher, explained the process of how the participant utilized prior knowledge to produce synthesizing information. And in the last section of her paper, the researcher gave some recommendations for classroom practice in an effort to help language teachers apply the result of the study to the actual instructional context.




B. Body
In the introduction of this research, it is said that most of researcher in the field of reading comprehension have agreed that the readers’ prior knowledge can affect the degree of text comprehension. Furthermore, a great number of empirical studies have demonstrated significant impact of prior knowledge on reading comprehension. Because of its important role, prior knowledge is viewed as the key resource in the meaning construction of reading process. The followings are summary of each subtitle in this study.

Cognitive reading process

In cognitive science, reading can be viewed as a literacy process connected with cognition which refers to any internal or mental aspects of reading. This process included attending, analyzing, associating, predicting, inferring, synthesizing, generalizing, and monitoring and these processes might operate on various sizes of text units which are depended on the reader purpose. However, these all cognitive processes require knowledge. Then, prior knowledge will be added as a factor influencing the operation of these cognitive processes.

Macrostructure Formation during comprehension

Kintsch claimed that macrostructure formation occurred as an integral of comprehension. During the comprehension process, a reader can select a macroproposition and delete several micropositions. Thus, in forming a generalization, several microproposition can be replaced by an appropriate macroproposition which is called reduction process.

Effectiveness of Prior Knowledge in L2 (second language) Reading Comprehension

In previous studies, the effect of cultural specific prior knowledge and global knowledge still compete with each other. For example, research on the effect of content schemata held the perspective that L2 readers’ culturally specific schemata might cause reading difficulty. Therefore, comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text was more difficult than comprehension of a culturally familiar text. On the other hand, readers’ comprehension of text could be attributed to cross-cultural prior knowledge, which was not culturally bound but a global knowledge of the world. Some parts of this type of knowledge in some studies could be termed as subject knowledge or content knowledge which might as well, to some degree, facilitate L2 students’ reading comprehension.

Restraints and Conflicts in Previous Research

1. The cognitive process variable, the synthesizing process, has not been examined closely.
2. the inconsistent results
3. Conflicting opinions that that non-natives had more trouble synthesizing the information

Methodology Elaboration

In this study, the researcher elaborated on the methodology used in previous research by Cohen (1988) and in previous research on the issue of macrostruture. In the previous experiments for measuring macrostructure comprehension (Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; Guindon & Kintsch, 1984; Lorch, Lorch, & Mathews, 1985), they focused on the recognition task to study the speed and accuracy with which reading times for topic and detail sentences were calculated, and words from topic and detail sentences were recognized. In this study the researcher used the retelling technique to examine how L2 readers form macrostructures. As used to analyze readers’ retellings, synthesized information at intra- and inter sentential levels might “[come] from more than one part of the passage” (Alberta Education, 1986, p. 44) and included synthesis of single words, clauses, phrases, or sentences. For a higher level of synthesizing information, the reader might reconstruct the author’s words and ideas and produce synthesizing information across paragraphs. Also, to show the reader’s dynamic development of reading process, the present study increased the number of the topics to prolong the period of data collection.
To generate a concept of English learners’ general English reading, the present study added more topics that did not demand discipline-specific information.



Research Purpose and Research Questions

The purpose of the research:

1. To examine the effects of prior knowledge on L2 readers’ synthesizing process of the text with cultural specific topics (Chinese topics and non Chinese topics).

2. To explore how English learners apply their prior knowledge to comprehend English passages with Chinese and non-Chinese topics.



Three research questions were formulated to guide this study:

1. Is there a difference between English learners’ synthesizing information while retelling passages with Chinese versus non-Chinese topics?

2. How do English learners utilize the synthesizing process to comprehend an English passage on Chinese versus non-Chinese topics?

3. How do English learners use prior knowledge to produce synthesizing information?



Methodology

Participants

The participants in this study were from a senior high school in Taipei, Taiwan. In this study, the researcher considered the students’ cultural background and made an adapted Informal Reading Inventory (IRI). After each student was given an English reading test through the IRI, 14 Grade 11 senior high school students were selected to join the study. According to the results of the IRI, their English reading proficiency level was at the grade seven instructional level. The rationale for using this level of students as participants was that according to teachers’ comments on this group of participants’ general English ability, their English academic achievements were at the top ten from the highest scores in their class and they would be better able to express their own opinions.



The Procedure of the Study

The study began with a retelling practice session to ensure that all participants have the necessary abilities to retell the passage in Mandarin, if their retelling performances were satisfied, each of them joined individual retelling meeting. After that, the researcher had an immediate interview with each participant to confirm some vague description in his/her retellings.

Retelling Assessment Technique

The retelling technique encourages participants to retell the story in their own words. With such perspective, participants may be encouraged to restate the essential part of the original text, relate what they knew about the content of the text and to reconstruct the information they have just read without looking at the passage again.

Materials

In this study, twelve passages were used as reading materials for the retellings.

Six passages have topics on Chinese culture:

1. Chinese Farming (CF1),
2. Chinese New Year (CNY3),
3. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (SYS5),
4. The Great Wall (GW7),
5. The History of Tea (HT9), and
6. Cooking and Eating (CE11).
7. The other six passages have topics on non-Chinese culture including Canadian and European historical events, peoples, and customs. They are;
8. River of Salmon (RS2),
9. Railway across Canada (RC4),
10. First Peoples in Canada (FPC6),
11. Easter (EAS8),
12. Fishing in Canada (FC10), and
13. Ways of Sending a Message (WSM12)

Scoring and Labeling the Participants’ Retelling Protocols

After the participant finished retelling, the researcher transcribed the recorded retelling in Mandarin and further translated it into English. Then the researcher adopted the DRP procedure for judging the students’ retellings and divided the participants’ retellings into smaller meaningful independent units called thought units. A thought unit is a group of words representing a syntactically grammatical and meaningful unit of information represented in a text or retold by the participants. For example, one simple sentence is regarded as one unit for it conveys a piece of meaningful information independently.

After the participant’s retelling was divided into thought units, the parsed retelling information was further screened and labeled into synthesizing information (S). The thought units of this category were then summed up. To ensure the credibility of the analysis, the researcher asked another PH. D. student who was a native English speaker as a second rater.

Results and Discussion

Synthesizing Information

The statistic analysis in Means and Standard Deviations for Synthesizing Information Chinese and Non-Chinese provided the answer to the first research question that there is no significant difference in the participants’ synthesizing information when retelling the passages with (on) Chinese and those with non-Chinese topics. The possible reason can be that the participants may have had the competence of an awareness of the macrosturures and then combine some information in the text to make a synthesized statement over the passage on culturally familiar and unfamiliar topic.

A process of integration
In this study, most participants generalized ideas from several sentences and produced a larger gist or general meaning. That is, one synthesizing statement extracted the words directly from two or three sentences and interweaved another new statement.

A process of reconstruction

In this study, the participant reconstructed the meaning of the text by using their own words rather than the author’s words. Such kind of synthesizing information usually conveys the essential meaning presented in sentences.

A process of deletion

In this study, the participant retold a generalized statement by reducing some minor details, especially those with unfamiliar vocabulary. In the interview, the participants expressed that they did not use much of their life experience to understand this unfamiliar word because they did not have that in Taiwan. They stated that they had no idea about the words, so they skipped retelling the segment with unknown vocabulary in it, and thus made a generalized statement for the paragraph with their general knowledge of date sequence.

A pragmatic strategy of opening a talk and filling up the gap
In the beginning section of most retelling meetings, there was a period of silence. Most participants usually prefaced their retelling with a short over-generalization for the whole passage. Most participants directly used the topic to produced such synthesizes. These broad over-generalizations were still categorized as synthesizing information in this study although they were a much different synthesis that did not exactly summarize main ideas from the original text. Such over-generalizations could be a strategy they used to opening their talk.


Utilization of cross-cultural prior knowledge

In this study, the participant expressed that they did not have much of prior knowledge about non-Chinese topics, so they mostly could not retell many detailed contents of the passage but they could retell synthesizing information.

General findings can be summed up to show that the production of synthesizing information may primarily depend on the participant’s prior knowledge. If the participant lacks culturally specific knowledge about the text, they may rely on their cross-cultural prior knowledge and thus synthesize information in generalized way. In this study, the passages with non-Chinese topics may include several messages related to culturally specific prior knowledge and cross-cultural prior knowledge. When retelling the passages with non-Chinese topics, synthesizing information may occur as often as in passages with Chinese topics. Therefore, there is no difference found in synthesizing information between the two types of passages. This study also finds that if the participant has neither culturally specific knowledge nor cross-cultural prior knowledge, most of the message in the text cannot be synthesized.


Author’s Recommendations

1. In this study, most participants could provide a synthesized topic statement in the beginning of their retellings. This result recommends that the instructor notify the students the text with a topic or a paragraph with a topic sentence.
2. This finding can also suggest that the instructor may lead the students to read a passage without a topic first and ask them to assign a topic for the passage they have just read.
3. The study finds that the synthesizing information integrates main ideas from several sentences. The teaching activity can be that after learners finish reading a passage, the instructor asks them to figure out the essential parts in the passage and use the following patterns to lead them to describe the generalized concepts of the segments of a text
4. The result of this study shows that the participants still can do well in synthesizing the information from the English passages on non-Chinese topics. The result recommends that except the familiar topics, the teacher can lead the student to read a passage on unfamiliar topic to produce synthesizing retellings as long as the readability of the passage fits English learners’ English reading ability.
5. In this study, the researcher recommended another way of summary writing. Teachers may also focus on the summary retelling activity for collapsing a whole paragraph into smaller meaningful chunks, pointing out essential features in each chunk, and then asking learners to integrate the essential features in larger synthesizing statements.

C. Conclusion

In this study, this group of teenagers has proved that they have the ability to retell synthesizing information over familiar and unfamiliar topic passages with the assistance of their prior knowledge.Moreover, the results of the study provide further evidence in the field of prior knowledge studies to ensure the essential impact of the cross-cultural knowledge (Brantmeier, 2005; Hammadou, 2000). More than that, the findings of the study suggest that the reader’s cross-cultural knowledge can facilitate English learners to operate a synthesizing process. In contrast, the result of the study was not in agreement with Cohen et al’s (1988) conclusion that non-natives had more trouble synthesizing the information at the intra- and inter sentential levels as well as across paragraphs than natives. The different result from this study and the classification of synthesizing information can add new knowledge to the field of English learners’ cognitive reading process. In the near future, the researcher will include other groups of English learners with different levels of English reading abilities to further examine the non-natives’ synthesizing process via culturally specific and cross-cultural topic passages.



D. Comment

After reading and trying to understand this journal, I can say that this is a good journal. It stands for some reasons. First, this journal is written systematically and has complete composition / content, also the author biography and references are provided. It means that this journal can be used for academic usage. Second, the method in retelling assessment in this study is slightly different from that of recall. The third reason, then, it provides data of the study and it seems quite valid because in collecting data the researcher asked another PhD student who was a native English speaker as a second rater to ensure the credibility of the analysis. Then, the last reason, but not the least, I said that this is a good journal because this journal provide a study which can give a new finding/result that fix the misunderstanding/restraint in the previous research.

Finally, I suggest to other student to read this journal because this journal provides new knowledge which might be useful for us. After all, this journal uses communicative language and easy to be understood as well.

“Universal Characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic Textbook evaluation”

Hasan Ansary and Esmat Babaii

Criticized by : Khumaidah

In February 2002 a TESL journal “Universal Characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic Textbook evaluation”, Hasan Ansary and Esmat Babaii at the Shiraz University presented the study about the common- core characteristics of standard EFL/ESL textbooks by using checklist approach. It discussed about whether or not a de facto consensus exists all over the world and what makes a good standard EFL/ESL textbook. Besides, the discussion is for looking for some theory-neutral, universal and broad consensus-reached characteristic of EFL/ESL textbooks and also for drawing up some guidelines for the generation as well as systematic evaluation of EFL/ESL textbooks and the last for a graphically represented mode of EFL/ESL textbook analysis.


Hasan Ansary and Esmat Babaii (Shiraz University), in his article “Universal Characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic Textbook evaluation” say that no textbook is perfect. Teachers should be more careful in taking the materials for the students. They should base on the suitable purpose and needs and be used judiciously. By using the 10 EFL/ESL textbook evaluation schemes and 10 EFL/ESL textbooks reviews, the study has stated that there is a limitation to teach the materials which can be expected to do for us because for getting the complex satisfaction in managing the language learning is difficult to get. In this study the researcher has described that however perfect the textbook is, it is just tool in the hands of the teacher. It depends on the teacher what will be done with the textbook

Critique of Kazuya Saito in “The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English”

by: Tony Anggadha

In his article entitled “The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English” Kazuya Saito stated that Japanese learners have difficulty in learning English pronunciations, especially in segmental phonology. This is because Japanese learners have to learn many phonemes that do not exist in Japanese but do exist in English. Experiments are made to solve this problem, and the result demonstrated that explicit phonetic instructions enhance learners’ pronunciation of the target language. This result is true and can be accepted. Moreover, most researchers agree that teaching phonetic is more effective through explicit instructions.

Kazuya said that it is important to give attention to pronunciation teaching in English education. He explains two difficulties in teaching pronunciation. First, the class cannot always have native speakers of English as teachers. Second, since teachers are usually non-native speakers of English, they might not be confident, or still not competent enough, to be able to provide students feedback that is very crucial to successful pronunciation teaching. This study emphasizes how explicit phonetic instruction can improve pronunciation teaching in Japan and presents a research-based experiment that provides tangible results in which Japanese learners of English improve their speech production greatly. In addition, this study explores the capabilities of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in order to make pronunciation teaching more explicit. Ultimately, the present study aims to make a valuable contribution to the field of TEFL, particularly for Japanese learners of English. The pedagogical idea describe in this study may be advanced to other EFL contexts in Asian countries which are similar to that of Japan.

If we see from the subject matter, the research is important to discuss. As Kazuya quoted form Wei, this subject is necessary to discuss because although English has become more disseminated globally the importance of pedagogies for English has increased, pronunciation teaching is still not given enough attention, especially in English education in Asian countries. So, this article is really helps for the development of pronunciation teaching.

Based on my experience, I agree that the differences in phonemes can cause difficulties in learning others language. For instance, when I try to spell ”teuing”, a sundanese word, it is hard for me to spell /eu/ (I do not know what is the correct symbol), because I don not have that phoneme in my daily talk/conversation. I face the same problem when I spell /æ/, because this phoneme does not exist in Indonesian. This result of the study shows that Japanese learners of English have difficulties in spelling phonemes whose phonemic inventories differ considerably from that of English. It is no surprise that they have difficulties in pronouncing English due to the fact that English has many phones that do not exist in Japanese. In fact, Tsujimura notes the segmental differences between English and Japanese both in vowels (English: 12, Japanese: 5) and consonants (English: 24, Japanese: 14). According to Ohata (2004), many Japanese learners of English have difficulties pronouncing certain sounds that don’t exist in Japanese but do in English.

In my point of view, the learners usually change the phonemes which “strange” for them with the closest phoneme of their mother tongue. This opinion is based on Fledge’s study. His inventions states that second language learners usually substitute the closest first language phones for similar ones.

As the conclusion, it is common for English learners have difficulties in learning pronunciation, especially segmental phonemes which do not exist in their first language. As the result, the learners will search for the closest phoneme for the second language phoneme and replace the phoneme.

Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners

Derrick Nault
Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Reviewed by: Khumaidah

In a June 2006 critiquing standard approaches for teaching literature to English learners in Japanese university settings, Derrick Nault reports on his findings “Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners” which focuses on the specific technique to improve students’ English competence by using an intercultural approach-a new concept as an alternate pedagogical framework. He describes the concept by doing three specific techniques include in Culture Clashes, English Snapshots and Contrastive Analysis. This finding is fascinating and understandable to be applied.

Derrick Nault, in his study “Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners” describes three specific approaches as his technique in improving students’ abilities. The Culture Clashes as the first step of the technique is done by demonstrating a clash of cultural values or conceptions based on a scene from a story. For the following step- The English Snapshots, writer use passages from literary works to raise learners’ awareness of non-standard varieties of English. Referring to the last step-The Contrastive Analysis, learners involve comparing the cultural assumptions in a text and contrasting features of particular cultural. The writer believed that this last step is one of the best ways to draw attention to the importance of culture in the communication process.

Regarding to the four most common methods for teaching English-language literature in Japan-stylistics, literary criticism, the English language teaching (ELT) approach, and the yakudoku method (“translation method”), the intercultural approach seems to modification of the English language teaching (ELT) approach. Derrick Nault claims that no single method can be used in all contexts, “As teachers and students vary in learning styles, it is up to the instructor to decide what is most effective and practical for a given educational context. Hence, the weak points of standard approaches should be kept in mind and strive to involve students in their own learning, pique their interest in reading, raise their cultural awareness, and improve their language skills”. From his argument it is as if he was not satisfy with the effectiveness of the common method used in Japan but in my opinion Derrick Nault actually just want to find suitable method for his students although he must examine hardly with insufficient sources and references because this technique is still the new one. 

Derrick Nault tells that while language teaching traditionally has treated language and culture separately, more recently ELT specialists have begun emphasizing that linguistic competence alone is insufficient for a learner to be truly proficient in a language. What is also needed, they argue, is an understanding of the culture in which the target language is used. But Seelye in (1997) said that “the study of language cannot be divorced from the study of culture, and vice versa. The wherewithal to function in another culture requires both prowess in the language and knowledge of the culture” (p. 23). Then Derrick Nault inform that an intercultural approach to ELT is advantageous in that it integrates both language and culture into lessons, more adequately preparing learners for real world communicative contexts. Responding to his argument, I assume that this approach is designed to be interesting and challenge method in which teacher and learners should be more active than usual because as my experience, learning with the real world context or condition will be more joyful and easy to understand the lesson. We can see how and when we use the language. 

In the last discussion, Derrick Nault tells,” I have yet to gather concrete data on the effectiveness of the teaching techniques I have just outlined. Nonetheless, I would judge my intercultural competence-oriented literature lessons to be successful”. Besides, he has even had students express a desire to visit African and other Asian nations as a result of lessons based on world literatures. What all of this means for actual language acquisition is difficult to say, but an intercultural approach to ELT and literature does appear to intrigue and motivate learners and this can only help improve their English proficiency. It is also one of proof of intercultural effectiveness in literature class. Due to incomplete Derrick Nault’s concrete data, I wonder more about the effectiveness of intercultural approach. In short, I am interested in this new approach.

In conclusion, the intercultural approach which Derrick Nault recognized to improve students’ English competence seems to be good invention. The procedure of the technique is understandable enough. The reason that the research give in supporting his argument also logic but there is some suggestion for further research, it is better for the next research to provide detailed data and more supporting idea in order to make the reader more attract and fully understand with the procedure of the technique.