Issue 11 of Sino US English Teaching

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/334597150
A Study of EFL Learners’ Receptive and Productive Knowledge of Semantic

Prosody: With Implications for Vocabulary Teaching
Article · May 2011
CITATIONS READS
0 1,179
2 authors:
Moussa Ahmadian Ali Darabi Bazvand

Arak University Catholic University in Erbil Kurdistan Region Iraq
48 PUBLICATIONS 170 CITATIONS 26 PUBLICATIONS 17 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Sociocultural Theory and SLA View project
A joint research with my doctoral student mr. Ghasemi View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Ali Darabi Bazvand on 08 February 2021.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Sino-US
English Teaching
Volume 12, Number 11, November 2015 (Serial Number 143)
David Publishing
David Publishing Company

www.davidpublisher.com
Publication Information:
Sino-US English Teaching is published monthly in hard copy (ISSN 1539-8072) and online (ISSN 1935-9675) by David
Publishing Company located at 1840 Industrial Drive, Suite 160, Libertyville, IL 60048, USA.
Aims and Scope:
Sino-US English Teaching, a monthly professional academic journal, covers all sorts of researches on English teaching
theory and practice, linguistic research, literature criticism, translation research and other latest findings and achievements
from experts and foreign language scholars all over the world.
Editorial Board Members:
Yingqin Liu, USA Ivanka Todorova Mavrodieva Georgieva, Bulgaria
Charmaine Kaimikaua, USA Ali Nasser Harb Mansouri, Oman
Annikki Koskensalo, Finland Anjali Pandey, Zimbabwe
Jose Manuel Oro Cabanas, Spain Donghong Liu, China
Tamar Makharoblidze, Georgia Sholpan K. Zharkynbekova, Kazakhstan
Cecilia B. Ikeguchi, Japan Fawwaz Mohammad Al-Rashed Al-Abed Al-Haq, Jordan
Delia Lungu, Romania Jianxin Ding, China
LOH Ka Yee Elizabeth, Hong Kong, China Nektaria Palaiologou, Greece
Shih Chung-ling, Taiwan Lilit Georg Brutian, Armenia
Balarabe Zulyadaini, Nigeria Elena Maryanovskaya, Russia
Irina F. Oukhvanova, Belarus Mohammad Hossein KESHAVARZ, Iran
Manuscripts and correspondence are invited for publication. You can submit your papers via Web Submission, or E-mail to
linguist@davidpublishing.org. Submission guidelines and Web Submission system are available at
http://www.davidpublisher.com.
Editorial Office:
1840 Industrial Drive, Suite 160, Libertyville, IL 60048, USA
Tel: 1-323-984-7526, 323-410-1082
Fax: 1-323-984-7374, 323-908-0457
E-mail: linguist@davidpublishing.org, linguist@davidpublishing.com, us2003language@hotmail.com
Copyright©2015 by David Publishing Company and individual contributors. All rights reserved. David Publishing
Company holds the exclusive copyright of all the contents of this journal. In accordance with the international convention,
no part of this journal may be reproduced or transmitted by any media or publishing organs (including various websites)
without the written permission of the copyright holder. Otherwise, any conduct would be considered as the violation of the
copyright. The contents of this journal are available for any citation, however, all the citations should be clearly indicated
with the title of this journal, serial number and the name of the author.
Abstracted/Indexed in:
LLBA database of CSA (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts), USA
ProQuest Research Library, UK
OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.), USA
CrossRef
Chinese Database of CEPS, Airiti Inc., Taiwan
Chinese Scientific Journals Database, VIP Corporation, Chongqing, China
Polish Scholarly Bibliography, Poland
University of Southern Denmark Library
CNKI, China
Summon Serials Solutions
Google Scholar
Academic Keys
Electronic Journals Library
SJournal Index
WorldCat
Subscription Information:
Price (per year):
Print $520 Online $300
Print and Online $560
1840 Industrial Drive, Suite 160, Libertyville, IL 60048, USA
Tel: 1-323-984-7526, 323-410-1082. Fax: 1-323-984-7374, 323-908-0457
E-mail: order@davidpublishing.com
Digital Cooperative Company: www.bookan.com.cn
D DAVID PUBLISHING

www.davidpublisher.com
Sino-US
English Teaching
Volume 12, Number 11, November 2015 (Serial Number 143)
Contents
Teaching Theory & Practice
Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom by Mediational Artefacts: A Comparison Through
Materialization and Verbalization 811
Morvarid Lavasani, Parviz Birjandi
Flipping the College English Classroom 816
YUAN Jing-jing
The Influence of English Movies on English Listening Teaching in College 822
SHI Xi-chun, CHEN Meng-jie
Considerations on Speaking Skills: Essence of Learning and Teaching Speaking 827
Betul Ayse Sayin
How to Improve Spoken English Teaching in College English Class 835
ZHENG Ling
Language Research
Foreign Language Teacher Recruitment: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings 839
Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, Seyyedeh Mobina Hosseini
Extensive Reading and Writing Reader’s Response Journal: The Very Way to Improve
Students’ English Proficiency 850
XU Xiao-qin
A Review of Second Language Structural Priming Research 856
WANG Li
When Prior Knowledge Helps: Self-Report of First-Year University Undergraduates on
Academic Writing 861
Uju C. Ukwuoma
The Application of Stylistics in British and American Literature Teaching 869
XU Li-mei, QU Lin-lin
Literary Appreciation
On the Confrontation Between Masculinism and Feminism in The Great Gatsby 874
LI Bao-feng, JIA Xue-ying
Alienation in Carol Plum-Ucci’s The Body of Christopher Creed 881
YANG Chun
Humbert’s Self-defence for His Relation With Lolita 886
PANG Ren-shan
Sino-US English Teaching, November 2015, Vol. 12, No. 11, 811-815
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.001
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom by Mediational Artefacts:

A Comparison Through Materialization and Verbalization
Morvarid Lavasani, Parviz Birjandi

Department of Foreign Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
One of the challenges in foreign language teaching, specifically teaching listening skill, is to create a low-anxiety
classroom environment, since many learners believe listening induces anxiety. This study compares learners’
anxiety in two different classrooms in which learners were instructed by two forms of artifacts: materializing and
verbalizing. The Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) scores before and after a 13-week
experimental treatment course were used to compare learners’ anxiety before and after receiving intervention by
two means. In this study, the lower score of anxiety was for the group which did verbalization practice in the class;
however, both groups showed the same performance on listening test.
Keywords: anxiety, verbalization, materialization
Introduction
Most learners complain about difficulties of listening and consider this skill as the most difficult skill
(Graham, 2003; Hasan, 2000). Learners’ failure to comprehend the speech at the pressure of time induces
anxiety (Arnold, 2000). In addition, most listening activities in the classroom put learners in a situation that
merely measures how much learners have understood (Graham, 2006). In other words, most listening activities
focus on the outcome and play the role of a test (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Learners’ negative perception
about listening and the product-based nature of listening activities contribute to a high level of anxiety in the
class (Mendelsohn, 1994). In listening activities, learners are expected to complete all the tasks without any
help or mediation (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Clearly, it is important for teachers to support learners with
necessary mediational artefacts in order to reduce their anxiety. Mediation in Socio-cultural Theory (SCT) is
considered as a pedagogical instrument for helping learners overcome problems during learning (Poehner &
Lantolf, 2010). Lantolf and Throne (2006) point out that “psychological tools, or what are often referred to as
artifacts, include various kinds of human constructions: numbers, charts, figures, art, music, and the most
powerful and pervasive artifact of all, language” (p. 26). This study tried to use mediation to reduce learners’
anxiety in the process of learning listening. There are numerous pieces of research in the area of learners’
anxiety, yet scanty research has been carried out on the role of teachers in alleviating anxiety by equipping their
teaching with appropriate mediational artefacts. Vogely (1999) believes that for reducing learners’ anxiety, two
important factors should be taken into account, which are making input comprehensible and improving
Morvarid Lavasani, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Foreign Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic
Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Parviz Birjandi, professor, doctor, Department of Foreign Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Tehran, Iran. (Corresponding author: pbirjand@srbiau.ac.ir.)

812 CREATING A LOW-ANXIETY CLASSROOM BY MEDIATIONAL ARTEFACTS
instructional factors. In addition, Young (1991) summarized six possible sources of second language anxiety
two of which can be mentioned as instructor and learner interaction and classroom procedure that emphasize
the role of teacher for controlling anxiety. Truitt (1995) believes that teachers can change learners’ anxiety
through the way of instruction. In order to create a low-anxiety environment, different forms of mediational
artefacts such as materialized objects and verbalization activity were presented to two different groups. This
paper suggests that learners’ level of anxiety can be lowered when teachers use different mediational artefacts
in the process of teaching.
Materializing Listening Concepts

Materializing tools include the pattern or model, means, objects, rules of action, and the orienting chart.
Materializing tool refers to the model which tries to show the intended output of the action (Lee, 2012). It is
intentionally and systematically constructed by the teacher (Fogal, 2015) and sometimes by the learners
(Ferreira & Lantolf, 2008).
It reflects Gal’perin’s (1992) educational philosophy that learners should be provided with complete
guidance. He believes that teachers’ guidance is more effective when accompanied by symbolic and graphic
representations. Materialized tools can be in different forms such as image (Yáñez-Prieto, 2008; Lee, 2012) or
charts (Negueruela, 2003). The logic behind this way of presenting is that in the initial stage, learners carry out a
task with the external support that illuminates the concept to be learned. In this study, materializing tools refer to
charts and tables that represent rules for each listening concept. It is a tool that learners can refer to when they
face problems in accomplishing listening tasks.
Verbalizing Listening Concepts

Verbalization or Languaging refers to “producing language, and, in particular, to producing language in an
attempt to understand—to problem solve—to make meaning” (Swain, 2006, p. 96). Verbalization is in the form
of oral or written explanation of the concepts in order for learners to monitor and evaluate one’s action
(Negueruela, 2003) while working on a particular task, and help them externalize their understanding of the
concepts. Speech is accepted to mediate thought and this mediation may occur through different ways such as
collaborative speech among learners (Swain & Lapkin, 2002), speech between learner and expert (Aljaafreh &
Lantolf, 1994), or the private speech of individual learners (DiCamilla & Anton, 2004). Speech in any
form—social or individual—serves to mediate learning and leads learners to gain self-regulation.
The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effects of two mediational artefacts on learners’
listening anxiety and listening performance. To this end, this study addresses the following questions:
(1) Is there any significant difference in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ level of anxiety
between two groups of mediation (STI-EM & STI-EV)?
(2) Which form of classroom (materialized versus verbalization) leads to learners’ better listening
performance?
Method
This study followed experimental design through which the data of 60 EFL students was drawn from an
initial pool of 72 (23 males and 49 females) in two intact classes. The differences among groups were related to
the kind of mediational artefacts they were exposed to during their instruction. One group was exposed to
materialized tools developed by the researcher as well as teacher’s oral explanation of listening concepts.

CREATING A LOW-ANXIETY CLASSROOM BY MEDIATIONAL ARTEFACTS 813
Another group was just exposed to teacher’s oral explanation of target concepts and for accomplishing listening
tasks, learners did collaborative verbalization for better concept understanding. Learners were divided into one
level of language proficiency, that is, intermediate, based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT).
The mean obtained was 67.4 and the SD was 10. Those who scored one SD above and one SD below the mean
were included in the study. Those who scored above and below 77 and 57 were excluded from the study.
Instruments
Six instruments were used in this study as (1) Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLAS) (before & after
intervention); (2) instructional units; (3) materialized objects for the related group; (4) verbalization tasks for
related group; (5) the listening section of Preliminary English Test (PET) (pre & posttest); and (6) OPT
listening section for selecting the required participants. All the instructional tasks were collected and adapted by
the researcher from different intermediate instructional listening textbooks. Verbalization activity was carried
out through both spoken language and written. The oral verbalization was accomplished dyadically to support
the understanding of listening concepts. Spoken form incorporated learners’ overt speech to another (their
partner in the class for two tasks in each unit). Then, the learners were provided with researcher-designed
listening homework assignment; only the group mediated by verbalization did the written form of languaging.
This activity for the materializing mediated group was carried out without writing their explanation. The
investigation on learners’ anxiety relied on learners’ responses to the FLAS scale developed by Kim (2000) two
times before and after instruction by two forms of mediation. The scale consisted of 33 Likert-scale items. The
response continuum is from one “Strongly Disagree” to five “Strongly Agree”. In addition, some steps were
followed for materializing listening concepts. The procedures can be summarized as follows: (1) finding
listening concepts and knowledge based on literature; (2) categorizing all the necessary rules for listening
comprehension in each concept; (3) imaging all the rules for each concept in a diagram and providing some
examples; and (4) adding the corresponding strategy in each diagram in order to use the rules of each concept.
Results
Anxiety change in groups. A one-way between-groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was run to
measure the effect of different ways of mediation on learners’ listening anxiety reduction. The result of
Levene’s test indicated that the homogeneity of variances, the prerequisite condition for running ANOVA with
covariate, was not violated because the value obtained was greater than the alpha level of 0.05 (p = .32 > .05).
It is clear that the covariate (students’ level of anxiety before receiving any instruction) significantly predicted
the dependent variable (students’ level of anxiety, after receiving instruction by different forms of mediation),
because the significant value is smaller than 0.05 (p = .001). Therefore, there is a significant difference in
learners’ anxiety among two groups mediated by two different ways. In other words, the mean (90.10) of group
which mediated by doing verbalization was lower than the group which was exposed to materialized objects
(mean: 100.09).
Learning change in groups. Again, a one-way between-groups analysis of covariance was conducted to
compare the effectiveness of two different mediational artifacts on listening. Before running ANCOVA
analysis, preliminary checks were conducted to ensure there was no violation of the assumptions. The
assumption of homogeneity of regression slopes was checked. In the output obtained from the procedure, p
= .72 which is greater that significant value and indicated that the assumption of homogeneity of regression
slopes was not violated. The result of Levene’s test indicated that the homogeneity of variances, the

814 CREATING A LOW-ANXIETY CLASSROOM BY MEDIATIONAL ARTEFACTS
prerequisite condition for running ANOVA with covariate, was not violated because the value obtained was
greater than the alpha level of 0.05 (p = .96 > .05). It is clear that the covariate (students’ listening scores on
PET before receiving any instruction) not significantly predict the dependent variable (students’ listening
scores after receiving instruction), because the significant value is greater than 0.05 (p = .82). Therefore, there
is not a significant difference in learners’ listening performance of the two groups studied. In other words, the
mean of group mediated by verbalization was approximately the same as the materializing group (16.64 and
16.48 respectively).
Conclusion
The results regarding learners’ level of anxiety before and after intervention provide justification for the
role of verbalization. It is considered as an efficient mediational artefact to provide a low-anxiety classroom. It
should be noted that verbalization or languaging changes the listening activities from product to
process-oriented approach when learners detect, identify, and explain the rules in aural texts. To Vandergrift
(2007), in product oriented approach towards listening, there is no information regarding the reasons or
processes underlying learners’ performance, and only learners’ success is important. In product approach,
educators do not find enough information about the reasons behind learners’ comprehension breakdown.
Verbalization or languaging could be considered as an efficient tool for checking learners’ understanding of the
related concepts in this study. Verbalization practice draws learners’ attention to the process of listening which
helps learners control their listening and reduce anxiety. This finding is also line with Vandergrift and Goh’s
(2012) ideas that “the way of teaching listening can contribute to or reduce anxiety” (p. 271). However, there is
no significant difference among learners’ listening performance in two mediated groups. The reason behind
their equal performance could be attributed to the same efficacy of two mediational artefacts in listening
concepts. In the study conducted by Serrano-Lopez and Poehner (2008), the findings confirm the effective role
of materialization in language development because the experimental group in which learners constructed
mediational tool themselves outperformed the control group which was only exposed to teacher’s oral
explanation in teaching Spanish locative prepositions. The only difference between this study and
Serrano-Lopez’s one is that the learners in the current study were exposed to prefabricated tools developed by
the researcher. On the other hand, the findings of earlier studies (Donato, 1994; Ganem-Gutierrez, 2008)
support the mediatory role of collaborative dialogue in language use and language learning that was practiced
in this study for one group. To summarize, verbalizing as well as materializing mediated classroom could
equally help learners in listening performance, while verbalizing classrooms provide an environment that
reduces learners’ anxiety. The study suggests that language educators who intend to reduce learners’ anxiety
need to allocate some time of the class to learners’ verbalization in different forms such as self, collaborative,
oral, written, and group.
References
Aljaafreh, A., & Lantolf, J. P. (1994). Negative feedback as regulation and second language learning in the zone of proximal
development. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 465-483.
Arnold, J. (2000). Seeing through listening comprehension exam anxiety. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 777-786.
DiCamilla, F. J., & Anton, M. (2004). Private speech: A study of language for thought in the collaborative interaction of language
learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14, 36-69.

CREATING A LOW-ANXIETY CLASSROOM BY MEDIATIONAL ARTEFACTS 815
Donato, R. (1994). Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In J. P. Lantolf and G. Appel (Eds.), Vygotskian
approaches to second language research (pp. 33-65). Westport, CT: Ablex.
Ferreira, M. M., & Lantolf, J. P. (2008). A concept-based approach to teaching writing through genre analysis. In J. P. Lantolf and
M. E. Poehner (Eds.), Sociocultural theory and the teaching of second language (pp. 285-320). London: Equinox Publishing.
Fogal, G. G. (2015). Pedagogical stylistic and concept-based instruction: An investigation into the development of voice in the
academic writing of Japanese university of English (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Toronto, Ontario).
Gal’perin, P. I. (1992). Stage-by-stage formation as a method of psychological investigation. Journal of Russian and East
European Psychology, 30, 60-80.
Ganem-Gutierrez, A. (2008). Microgenesis, method and object: A study of collaborative activity in a Spanish as a foreign
language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 29(1), 120-148.
Graham, S. (2003). Learners’ strategies and advanced level listening comprehension. Language Learning Journal, 28, 64-69.
Graham, S. (2006). Listening comprehension: The learners’ perspective. System, 34, 165-182.
Hasan, A. (2000). Learners’ perception of listening comprehension problems. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13, 137-153.
Kim, J. H. (2000). Foreign language listening anxiety: A study of Korean students learning English (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, The University of Texas, Austin).
Lantolf, J. P., & Throne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Lee, H. (2012). A concept-based approach to second language teaching and learning: Cognitive linguistics-inspired instruction of
English phrasal verbs (Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. Equinox Pub).
Mendelsohn, D. J. (1994). Learning to listen: A strategy-based approach for second language learner. Carlsbad, CA: Dominie
Press.
Negueruela, E. (2003). A sociocultural approach to the teaching and learning of second languages: Systemic-theoretical
instruction and L2 development (Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA).
Poehner, M. E., & Lantolf, J. P. (2010). Vygotsky’s teaching-assessment dialectic and L2 education: The case for dynamic
assessment. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 17, 312-330.
Serrano-Lopez, M., & Poehner, M. (2008). Materializing linguistic concepts through 3-D clay modeling: A tool-and-result
approach to mediating L2 Spanish development. In J. P. Lantolf and M. E. Poehner (Eds.), Sociocultural theory and the
teaching of second languages (pp. 321-346). London, England: Equinox Publishing Ltd..
Swain, M. (2006). Languaging agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced
language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky (pp. 95-108). London: Continuum.
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2002). Talking it through: Two French immersion learners’ response to reformulation. International
Journal of Educational Research, 37, 285-304.
Truitt, S. (1995). Anxiety and beliefs about language learning: A study of Korean university students learning English
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas, Austin).
Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research. Language
Teaching, 40, 191-210.
Vandergrift, L., & Goh, C. M. (2012). Teaching and learning second language listening: Metacognition in action. New York:
Routledge.
Vogely, A. (1999). Addressing listening comprehension anxiety. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second
language learning: A practical guide to creating a low-anxiety atmosphere (pp. 106-123). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Yáñez-Prieto, C. M. (2008). On literature and the secret art of invisible words: Teaching literature through language (Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, PA).
Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low anxiety classroom environment: What does the language anxiety research suggest? Modern
Language Journal, 75, 425-439.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.002
DDAVID PUBLISHING
Flipping the College English Classroom
YUAN Jing-jing
Linyi University, Linyi, China
The flipped classroom is an emerging teaching mode which is originated from the United States and is now
prevalent in many countries. It is helpful to build a more harmonious relationship between the teachers and the
students, to enhance the students’ self-study ability, to create a favorable learning environment, to realize the
individualized teaching in class, and to improve the students’ English ability. The study focuses on the college
English classroom in China. The author tries to prove that the flipped classroom is a helpful way to improve the
teaching and learning effect of college English classroom. A teaching procedure for the flipped college English
classroom is designed in the hope of changing the current college English teaching condition.
Keywords: the flipped classroom, college English, activities design
Introduction
In the People’s Republic of China, College English (CE) is an English-language course offered to
non-English majors in 1,983 universities. As of 2004, there were about 50,000 Chinese English teachers
teaching CE to an estimated 19,000,000 students (WU, 2004). CE instruction in Chinese universities has
sometimes been labelled as “deaf and dumb English” (DU, 2012, p. 1). Through many times of reforms, the
effect of CE is still not satisfying. The current situation is that the credit and class hours of CE are reduced. So
the new task of College English teaching is to transmit useful knowledge, maximize the effect of classroom
teaching, and truly promote the college students’ English ability.
The flipped classroom originated from the United States. Its student-centred principle and new teaching
forms spread quickly in countries all over the world. Now the flipped classroom has become a world-renowned
effective teaching mode. Now, more and more universities in China start to adopt this new teaching method.
However, it is not rational to just “get and use” it. We should take our own teaching condition into
consideration. This paper tries to introduce the relevant concepts and the advantages of the flipped classroom
and to design the whole process of the flipped college English classroom in China.
The General Concept of the Flipped Classroom

In 2000, in the paper Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment,
Maureen Lage, Glenn Platt, and Michael Treglia introduced how they used inverted classroom model in their
economic classes and the achievements they have got. However, they did not propose the definition of the
“flipped classroom”.
In 2007, Wookland Park High School’s chemistry teachers Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams proposed
the term “the flipped classroom” by recording their lectures and posted them online in order to accommodate
YUAN Jing-jing, teaching assistant, Ph.D. candidate, Foreign Language School, Linyi University.

FLIPPING THE COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASSROOM 817
students who missed their classes. Afterwards, they asked all their students to self-study the videos before the
class and in the class they only discussed the videos and help the students to solve the problems they have
encountered (Y. G. ZHANG & Y. J. ZHANG, 2012). From then on, the flipped classroom model became
prevalent in the primary and middle schools.
In 2011, Salman Kahhan set up Khan Academy. In the website of this academy there were more than
3,500 teaching videos. In the meantime, the website also offered some learning tools for online exercising,
self-assessing, and the following-up tracing (H. J. ZHU & B. ZHU, 2013). In 2011, Salman Khan mentioned
the concept of “using videos to rebuild education”. The flipped classroom of Khan Academy was taken as a ray
of hope for the future education.
Then, what is the flipped classroom model?
The flipped classroom describes a reversal of traditional teaching where students gain first exposure to new
material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then class time is used to do the harder work
of assimilating that knowledge through strategies such as problem-solving, discussion, or debates (Brame, 2013).
The core of the flipped classroom is to turn the classroom into a place where the teachers and students can
solve problems together and the students study cooperatively to fully utilize the class hours.
The Differences Between Traditional Classrooms and the Flipped Classrooms

Teaching involves teaching processes in which the teachers impart knowledge and learning processes in
which the students absorb knowledge. For traditional teaching, the students preview what they will learn before
the class. Then, the teachers teach new knowledge to them and finally the students review what they have
learned through doing some exercises. As for the assessment system, although many schools and universities
adopt the formative evaluation and the summative evaluation, the final outcome depends mostly on the latter
scores. In this process, the teachers are knowledge transmitters and the students are passive receivers of
knowledge. Students are not the masters of their own learning in this process.
In the flipped classrooms, the teachers are instructors and promoters. The students learn through active
study and discussion. Before the class, the students watch teaching videos and finish the relevant tasks. In the
classroom, the teachers and students work together to solve the problems posed by the video. So compared with
the traditional teaching, the teachers and students in the flipped classroom have more communications and the
students are more dependent. After class, the teachers would reflect on all the activities to make them more
reasonable and scientific. The students summarize what they have learned to improve themselves. For the final
assessment, the teachers use a dynamic evaluation based on the whole process of learning.
Table 1
The Differences Between Traditional Classrooms and the Flipped Classrooms (WANG & ZHANG, 2013)
Teaching procedure Traditional classroom Flipped classroom
Get a rough grasp of the
Function Grasp the basic content and finish the requirements
learning material
Preview Form Read by the students Read the text books and other materials and watch the videos
Feedback No To get to know the effect of the students’ study through certain tests
Before class Through exercises and tests to get to know the preview condition
Function No special requirements of the students in order to adjust the classroom activity before the
class
Exercise
Form The students do exercises Online exercises or tests
Immediate feedback
Feedback No
Teach and discuss

818 FLIPPING THE COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASSROOM
(Table 1 continued)
Teaching procedure Traditional classroom Flipped classroom
Help the students to Help the students solve their puzzles , lead the students to
Purpose
understand the content summarize what they have learned
In the class Explanation Content The problems, puzzles and understandings of the students after
All the contents
watching the videos
Form Explanation Answer questions, discussion, teaching and explanation
Strengthen the
Purpose Lead the students to reflect and summarize what they have learned
comprehension
After class Assignment Form The teachers assign
Exercises and discussion
tasks to the students
Guidance No Teachers offer online instruction through the internet
Use the network teaching platform to issue the learning
Platform No
instructions, resources, videos, online tests and give the feedbacks
The Design of the Flipped College English Classroom

In China, CE is usually a comprehensive course which means that there is no separated listening, speaking,
reading, and writing classes. What is more, the average class hours for CE every week are only four hours. This
kind of arrangement actually puts forward higher demand for college English teachers. So how to design the
whole procedure of English class to really improve college students’ English level and at the same time to make
the students to be interested and to be active to participate in the class is very important. The flipped English
classroom is a good way to solve the above problems. Now we are going to design a whole procedure for the
flipped college English class.
Pre-class Activities
The major difference between the pre-class activities in the flipped classes and that in the traditional class
is that the former is a designed and task-based one while the latter is not. The students need to perform some
tasks, find out the problems and bring them to the class to discuss them with the teachers and other classmates.
For designing the activities, the teachers need to find out the key points and difficult points in every class and to
design different kinds of activities to arouse the students’ interest. The students should also attach great
importance to the activities and to be prepared before the class. Without the two parts completed, the effect of
the following parts would be greatly reduced.
Teachers make the teaching videos. First of all, the teachers should have an overall grasp of the whole
textbook including the topics, the key points, and difficult points. When designing pre-class activities, each
class should have its teaching objectives and proper forms are used to show the objectives. Secondly, when
making the teaching videos, the teachers should put more emphasis on improving the students’ listening and
speaking ability. Finally, in order to guarantee the teaching effect, the teachers should make concrete objects
for each part, make proper exercises or tests, and urge the students to finish the tasks on time.
Students watch the teaching videos. First of all, while watching the videos, the students can take charge
of the watching speed and time. The advantage is that the students whose English is not so good can spend
more time on watching them thus can finish all the tasks. That would solve the problem of one class containing
learners of different proficiency levels. Secondly, students should try every way to solve the problems that are
within their ability and leave the ones that are beyond their ability to be solved in the class.
Teachers and students discuss through certain communication platform. New technologies provide
more media for the teacher and students to communicate and to solve some problems before class such as QQ

or V-chat. By this way, the students may have more chances to communicate with the teachers and other
classmates and can get over of the feeling of tension while they are communicating face to face with the
teachers.
Classroom Activity
HUANG Yang (2014) proposed four steps for the flipped classroom. First, check the students’ preview.
Second, give the takes in the class step by step. Third, hold the cooperation part to help the students to solve
their difficulties. Fourth, let the students show what they have learned by the form of group report.
Using his procedures for reference, we designed a procedure for the flipped college English classroom.
The first step: The teachers explain the difficult points and assign the tasks for the students. The difficult
points are the problems that the students encountered when they are watching the teaching videos. That means
that different classes may have different problems, so the pre-class communication is very important for this
part. Then, the teacher would assign certain tasks for the students to complete, for example, practicing the
dialogues or discussing certain topics.
The second step: The students complete the tasks in groups. Group collaboration is an effective form of
classroom activity. Many tasks can be done by this way such as dictation. The students read the words in turn
thus got more chances to learn the new words. Therefore, the students’ learning effect may be improved.
Another advantage of group collaboration is that the students can help each other and to get progress together.
The third step: The teachers communicate and guide the students. In this process, the teachers should try to
give different kinds of guidance or advices according to the different learning characteristics of the students.
Also, the teachers should encourage every student to use English to communicate with the teachers and other
students.
The fourth step: The students and teachers summarize the learning procedure together. Group report is a
good way in this part. Every group can show their learning result by different forms such as lectures, contests,
performances, and so on. The students cannot only review what they have learned, improve their speaking
ability, but also can use their imagination and creativity thus get a sense of achievement after this part.
After-Class Activities
Through pre-class and class activities, the students can get a good grasp of the basic content of the
textbook. However, English is a language. We can hardly improve our language skill through only one or two
classes every week. In a sense, we can say that the after-class activities are more important than the class
activities.
For after-class activities, the teachers should assign certain tasks according to the characteristics of the
students. The tasks can be a topic for the students to write, a film or short videos for them to watch to express
their thoughts, a play script for them to play, and so on. The teachers should find an appropriate time to check
the effects of the students’ learning. The feedback the teachers give to the students would promote the students’
learning in turn.
College English Teaching Evaluation System
Traditional college English teaching evaluation systems adopt the summative assessment. We think that
the flipped classroom should adopt the formative assessment plus the summative assessment.
The formative assessment check the students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing ability by way of
the teachers’ observation, the group members’ feedback, and so on. The summative assessments mainly check

820 FLIPPING THE COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASSROOM
the students’ learning condition of the textbook after a term’s study. The major form is writing.
The teachers are already very familiar with the summative assessment because we have used it for years.
More attention should be paid to the use of the formative assessment. This form of assessment is based on the
teachers’ observation, so it requires the teachers to make their own standards to reflect the students’ real levels.
The Challenges
The flipped classroom is a newly emerged teaching mode, so people may need time to accept it. In
addition, it is developed by the American teachers, so we should make certain changes to suit the current
teaching conditions in China.
The Challenges for the Teachers
In the flipped classroom, the teachers’ roles are changed. They are the makers and suppliers of the
teaching resources. The teachers should know how to choose the suitable learning materials for the students and
to use the related technology to make them into teaching videos. They are the guide of the students; they should
know how to design different learning activities for the students. They are also the problem solvers. In the class,
the teachers should answer any questions the students encountered. So it is necessary for the teachers to
improve their own qualities.
The new roles give the teachers new tasks to complete. The teachers especially the old teachers may need
a long time to adapt to the new teaching mode.
The Challenges for the Students
The students are in a sense changed from a knowledge receiver into a self-instructor. The teachers give the
students the same learning materials but every student should choose their own learning points and ignore the
parts they are already familiar with. The result of this part is that every student find out their own problems
before the class and the teachers should try to solve different kinds of questions for all the students.
The new roles of the students give them a much higher demand. If the students do not preview the
materials before the class, the flipped classroom would have no effect at all.
The Challenges for the Teaching Environment
First of all, the flipped college English classroom requires every classroom to be equipped with advanced
equipment such as computers and multimedia. Now in China, most of the universities can have enough
multimedia classrooms for English classes. However, the maintenance of the equipment is sometimes not so
perfect. So it is necessary to keep the teaching equipment in a good condition in order not to affect the teaching
effects. Secondly, besides the teaching videos the teachers made by themselves, the teachers may find many
learning resources useful online. However, there are many resources which are outdated or even with wrong
information, so the teachers should know how to choose the suitable resources from so many resources.
The flipped classroom presents many challenges for the college English teaching in China. But if we
realized the problems and try to deal with them, the challenges can be turned into chances eventually.
Conclusion
According to WANG Xiao-dong, college English teaching should be different from that of the secondary
schools. In college, the students should know how to study by themselves. In the college English classes, the
teachers should help to solve the students’ problems they are encountered after class and guide the students to

study by themselves scientifically and effectively. The flipped classroom is a means that can help to realize
such teaching objectives. It can help to promote the students to study and think independently; it may contribute
to build a more harmonious relationship between the teachers and the students and it is also helpful to integrate
the teaching resources reasonably. However, the reality is that our traditional teaching concepts are so strong
that it is difficult to change them in a short period. In addition, the flipped classrooms make a higher demand
for the teachers which is also a tough problem because the levels of the teachers are uneven. Therefore, it is in a
sense that the flipped classroom is both a chance and a challenge for the Chinese college English teaching.
Every college English teacher should try to design a teaching procedure for their own classes and make better
changes while implementing the procedures.
References
Ash, K. (2012). Educators evaluate “flipped classrooms”. Education Week, 32(2), 6-8.
Du, H. (2012). College English teaching in China: Responses to the new teaching goal. TESOL in Context Special Edition , S3.
Enfield, J. (2013). Looking at the impact of the flipped classroom model of instruction on undergraduate multimedia students at
CSUN. TechTrends, 57(6), 14-27.
Fulton, K. P. (2012). 10 reasons to flip: A southern Minnesota school district flipped its math classrooms and raised achievement
and student engagement. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(2), 20.
Graham, R. (2012). Commentary: The Khan academy and the day-night flipped classroom. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Education, 5, 337-338.
HUANG, Y., LIU, J. Y., YIN, P. P., & CHEN, L. (2014). Several reflections on the design of the “flipped classroom” teaching
mode. Modern Educational Technology, 12, 100-106.
Hughes, H. (2012). Introduction to flipping the college classroom. In T. Amiel and B. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of EdMedia:
World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2012 (pp. 2434-2438). Association for the Advancement of
Computing in Education (AACE).
Lage, M. J., Platt, G. J., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment.
The Journal of Economic Education, 31(1), 30-43.
MacIsaac, D. (2011). “The Flipped Classroom” and Khan Academy video-lecture-based educational reform discussed by The
Economist magazine, MSNBC, Salman Khan, and Frank Noschese. The Physics Teacher, 49(8), 526-526.
Sankey, M. D., & Hunt, L. (2013). Using technology to enable flipped classrooms whilst sustaining sound pedagogy. Paper
presented at Proceedings of the 30th Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference,
ASCILITE, Sydney, Australia.
Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning
Environments Research, 15(2), 171-193.
Tucker, B. (2012). The flipped classroom. Education Next, 12(1), 82-83.
WANG, X. D., & ZHANG, C. J. Z. (2013). The applied research of “the flipped classroom” in the college teaching-taking the
professional English courses for the educational technology as an example. Modern Education Technology, 23(8), 11-16.
WU, Q. D. (2004). On the direction of CET 4 & CET 6 reform. Retrieved August 8, 2010 from
http://www.edu.cn/20040219/3099260.shtml.
ZHANG, Y. G., & ZHANG, Y. J. (2012). Perspective to the flipped classroom. Primary and Secondary Information Technology
Education, 3, 8-10.
ZHU, H. J., & ZHU, B. (2012). A rustic opinion on the flipped classroom and its effective implementation strategy. Research on
the Electrified Education, 8, 79-83.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.003
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Influence of English Movies on English

Listening Teaching in College
SHI Xi-chun, CHEN Meng-jie

Changchun University, Changchun, China
Listening, in language teaching, is a skill that requires active engagement. To help their students become effective
listeners becomes one of the great challenging tasks for the language teachers. In the Chinese contexts, this
challenge is greater for college English teachers, for listening skills, an important part of communication skills,
have not been given as much attention as reading or writing skills in teaching non-English majors, especially a
decade ago. This paper introduces English movies on English listening teaching in college, and puts forward some
application strategies of English movies in English listening teaching.
Keywords: English movies, English learning, listening
Introduction
English movies, acquiring a variety of information, such as the image, text, animation, etc., have gained an
important role in college English listening teaching by its unique advantages. At the same time, English movies
have become an effective teaching method in English listening. The introduction of English movies to English
listening teaching can improve students’ learning interest, expand their knowledge, and improve their listening
ability, thus promoting the level of listening teaching. Therefore, college English teachers should fully integrate
the teaching resource, and bring more English movies to classroom.
English Movies Help Stimulate Students’ Thirst for Knowledge

and Improve Their Learning Enthusiasm
Interest is the best teacher. When a person is interested in something, he will have a huge power to
understand it, and further grasp it. So we must take all possible means to stimulate students’ interest in learning,
so as to improve their listening by mobilizing their enthusiasm. Interest of study includes two kinds, namely
direct interest and indirect interest. Among them, direct interest comes from the learning process, while the
indirect interest from the study purpose. Direct interest will reinforce the interest of learning, and reduce the
burden of learning and psychological pressure of students; indirect interest is to enhance the students’ learning
perseverance and confidence in their learning. Both direct interest and indirect interest are not born, but are
formed by the cultivation of the day after tomorrow. Interest arises from the emotion,; it is difficult to produce a
SHI Xi-chun, lecturer, master, Public Foreign Language Teaching and Research Department, Changchun University.
CHEN Meng-jie, lecturer, master, Public Foreign Language Teaching and Research Department, Changchun University.
THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH MOVIES ON ENGLISH LISTENING TEACHING IN COLLEGE 823
strong interest in something in the lack of real environment of the emotional development. Art is the best bridge
of emotional communication, especially in English listening learning. English movies is the creation of life,
which has an obvious effect on the emotional change.
The story, rich, colorful pictures, and actor’s emotion in the English movie can stimulate students’ learning
enthusiasm than the boring English teaching materials, as well as improve their learning enthusiasm. When
students have a strong interest in English movies, they will be interested in the language in movies, which further
stimulate students to imitate and pursue the passion for film language.
English Movies Help Adjust the Classroom Atmosphere

English is our second language; in the process of listening training, we should maximize the mobilization of
positive factors, and reduce the impact of adverse factors. If a student is in a helpless and passive state when
learning, there must exist some obstacles, and the learning effect is definitely unsatisfactory. Especially not too
much of the resources can be used in listening course, classroom teaching will go into a dead end simply listening
to the tape recorder for a long time. Besides that, the whole classroom atmosphere will also become very
awkward, and the teacher-student relationship will appear a rift. To let students speak English and be willing to
speak English, teachers must establish a harmonious relationship between them. Thus, open the students’ hearts,
promote them to enter into the activities of oral dialogue through their own enthusiasm to infect students. As one
of the important media showing the Western cultures, English movies suppress sweep classroom atmosphere in
traditional class, bring more happiness to students, and achieve the combination of listening teaching and
practical application, which greatly improves the communicative competence of students. The famous English
film Kramer vs. Kramer, for example, brings everyone to a real and flesh family scene with tears and laugher;
students’ mood varies with changes in the story. In the face of Joanna’ leaving, they feel difficult to understand;
in the face of Ted, they feel helpless; in the face of Billy, they have a kind of sympathy and compassion. The plot
of the film really goes into students’ heart, which creates more common language between students and students,
as well as students and teachers.
English Movies Provides a Real Learning Environment

by Reproducing the Real Language Scene
The study without learning environment is blind and invalid. It is of great importance for students to feel
problems, put forward problems, and solve problems in the study of college English listening. The creation of
ineffective scenario makes students have a sense of boredom and boredom, which affects the quality and level of
English listening teaching. In college English teaching, the creation of situational teaching can fully tap the
initiative and creativity of student, as well as improve their interest of classroom teaching. The traditional
listening teaching mainly relies on the repeated learning of the listening material, and there is no real teaching
situation. While the most important of language learning is the perfect combination of teaching theory and
language environment, only in a real environment can students not help thinking of the relevant language, and
use the language of the association right. Language learning lack of real environment can not be avoided in the
end of the small alley of mute English. The information provided by English movies is European and native
language, whose artistic conception is quite rich and flexible. In that case, students attracted gradually in the plot
824 THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH MOVIES ON ENGLISH LISTENING TEACHING IN COLLEGE
of the story, imitate the hero in tone unconsciously, just like going into a vivid English scenes, which lays a solid
foundation for English learning. The language environment provided by the famous English movie “nuclear boat
storm”, whose theme focus on sea battle, is real and vivid. The sharp language style of Colonel Ramsey, the
helpless and anger of Colonel Hunter both creates a real language learning environment for students. In particular,
the infective and impactive film plots make students learn more effective learning close to the reality language,
and enhance their understanding of language and memory.
English Movies Provide Students With a Broad Space to Listening and Speaking
English is a kind of arts about language, as well as a professional course. Since it is language, surely is
practical, which needs to open the mouth to speak. At present, the study of English in junior high school is mostly
mute English serving for the examination oriented education. It is important to improve the level of college
English teaching and the quality of oral English teaching and listening teaching. There is no shortcut to language
learning, if so, it must be listening and saying. The language in the movies comes from life, which is the
reprocessing of life language. On one hand, watching English movies and repeatedly listening to the dialogue can
open up the vocabulary of students, so that students can easily remember more practical words; on the other hand,
they also cultivate their sense of language and improve their information sensitivity. English movies reappear the
real life, learning, and life scenes in its full implementation of the story, will not let the students feel tired and
boring, but stimulate their morale, which provides more choices for the students’ oral expression.
English Movies Help Dig Cultural Connotation and Improve

Students’ Intercultural Communication Ability
Under the influence of American structuralism, the content of English teaching limits the language system
itself, such as vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and so on. At the same time, the purpose of English
learning is only developing students’ English ability, thus language is regarded as a independent system
regardless of cultural background. Under the influence of this kind of teaching mode, basic English education and
non-professional college English education in China generally put focus on the cultivation of examination ability,
resulting in a huge difference of written test and interview scores. Besides that, high score low-energy
phenomenon is particularly serious, and intercultural communication process is full of loopholes, unable to meet
the requirements of countries on the application of communicative language talent and quality education
philosophy. Language reflects culture and culture should be expressed in language. The process of language
communication is a process of cultural collision and fusion. The difference between Eastern and Western culture
is so big that if we do not pay attention to cultural differences, there will be communication barriers and
embarrassment in language communication, which restricts the further development of intercultural
communication. English movies are a mirror showing the foreign culture, also a bridge between culture and
communication culture, as well as a reflection of cultural model, habits of thinking, way of life, concentration of
customs, and cultural history of a nation. Bringing English movies to listening teaching can help students have a
broad understanding of western culture, social system, customs, historical figures, and meet their curiosity of
Western culture.
THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH MOVIES ON ENGLISH LISTENING TEACHING IN COLLEGE 825
Application Measures of English Movies in College English Listening Teaching

Theme Choice
As the saying goes, “The right choice makes a bright future”. The reason why college English listening
teaching introduces English movies is that teachers want to bring foreign advanced ideas and relaxed atmosphere
of learning into the classroom. Therefore, the choice of introduction of English movies is very important. The
reference of foreign culture should be to take its essence; teachers should be strictly, and strive to teaching
materials before the selection of subject matter. Only in this way can we ensure English films on college English
listening are helpful. In the practice of college English listening teaching, some hit movie is very efficient,
because this will precisely meet young people’ chase fashion psychological understanding of these films, which
will let students be full of yearning in English, thus English movies are bound to have great help to student’s
literary attainments and hearing level.
Selection of Original Material
At present, most students can obtain different types of English resources through the Internet, but many
English resources are not from native English. In order to better reflect the help of English movies to college
students’ listening, the original film must be full of authentic foreign language. Thus the students can understand
the characteristics of foreign culture.
The Choice of English Movies Vary From Person to Person
English movies should be used in the analysis of the dialectical thinking in classroom, not all English movies
are suitable for teaching, and not all of the original films reflect the real foreign culture. The process of teachers
choosing subject matters is also a kind of a kind of discrimination of culture, because English teaching is not only
language teaching, the more important is a kind of cultural education. Only by achieving the combination of
culture and language teaching, can it be called successful language teaching, and reach a higher level in the way
of English learning.
Conclusion
The reform of college English teaching must be combined with the practical application of the teaching
resources and students’ English ability, and the emphasis on the reform of English teaching in the training of
students’ listening and speaking ability. English teaching needs the method of modern teaching and scientific
teaching. To ensure that, each student can integrate into the classroom teaching, in the process of learning to
achieve their own rapid progress and full development. English movies gain rapid attention from university
English listening teaching with its characteristics and advantages of the illustrations and vivid images. English
movies reproduce the rich international culture, extend the students’ knowledge, break the resources limit of
traditional listening teaching, and stimulate the students’ thirst for knowledge, which has a important role in
improving the teaching level of college English listening.
References
Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz and Copes construct of foreign anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modem
Language Journal, 78(13), 154-168.
Arnold, J. (2000). Affect in language learning. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
826 THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH MOVIES ON ENGLISH LISTENING TEACHING IN COLLEGE
Baldry, A., & Thibault, P. J. (2006). Mutimodal transcription and text analysis (pp. 21-25). London: Equinox.
Harmer, J. (2003). The practice of English language teaching. Beijing: World Affairs Press.
Hill, B. (1991). Making the most of satellites and interactive video. London: Information Language Teaching and Research.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. New York: Worth Publishers.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics (pp. 256-258). London: Routledge.
XIAO, L. H. (2008). Effect factors and coping strategies of university English listening teaching. Journal of Shenyang Normal
University, 33(21), 57-59.
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.004
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Considerations on Speaking Skills: Essence of

Learning and Teaching Speaking
Betul Ayse Sayin

Canik Basari University, Samsun, Turkey
Acquisition of speaking skills is among the most essential language skills for students currently, especially among
Turkish students since language competency is measured through speaking. Every language learner desires to
acquire correct communicative skills and fluency in speaking, while teachers aim to give the necessary education in
speaking, as well. This study reveals the essence of acquiring speaking competency for learners, and how important
it is to teach speaking skills with correct methods and methodology. With the questionnaire analysis on Turkish
students and teachers at a Turkish university, the theoretical knowledge on “essence” is blended with the
questionnaire results provided from students and teachers in order to emphasize the necessity and reach more
practical solutions for the current need of learning and teaching speaking.
Keywords: speaking skills, teaching speaking, learning speaking, communicative competence, essence of speaking
Introduction
The mastery of speaking skills in English today is a priority for the majority of foreign language learners.
As a result of this, learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their
English course on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency.
Oral skills have hardly been neglected in ESL/EFL courses (witness the huge number of conversation and other
speaking course books in the market), though how best to approach the teaching of oral skills has long been the
focus of methodological debate (Richards, 2008).
In study after study, communication skills emerge as one of the most important, if not, the most important
quality that employers require of graduates. Possessing good communication skills is often seen by employers
as an indicator of potential success (Harvey, 2000). In Turkish schools and colleges, it has not been the major
skill to be acquired till the last decade. It has gained a gradual recognition as an important step of acquiring the
target language.
Communicative competence is a dynamic rather than a static concept that depends on the negotiation of
meaning between two or more persons who share the knowledge of the language. This implies the appraisal of
the individuals’ thinking capacity leading them to take heed of the linguistic environment, to formulate their
hypothesis in an attempt to grasp the meaning of the new information, and to test the hypothesis within the
context suitable to such information, i.e., “meaningful learning” as proposed by Ausubel (1968).
While communicative competence is regarded as a meaningful way of learning a language, it is seen that
both Turkish teachers and students realize the necessity of speaking skills, and started to put an emphasis on
Betul Ayse Sayin, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., lecturer of English Language Teaching (ELT), Canik Basari University.

828 CONSIDERATIONS ON SPEAKING SKILLS
teaching and learning speaking more than grammar and vocabulary skills. The questionnaire results emphasized
the students’ awareness on the importance of acquiring speaking skills, while at the same time the questionnaire
on teachers displays the essence recognized on teaching speaking.
Essence of Acquiring Speaking Skills (From the Students’ Point of View)

Good oral communication is essential to every aspect of life and work. Many surveys have identified it as
one of the skills most highly valued by employers. People with good communication skills:
(1) can relate well to colleagues and customers;
(2) are able to get information they need from organizations and individuals;
(3) can explain things clearly and contribute to meetings and discussions;
(4) are more successful in their careers;
(5) have more positive and productive relationships with others (Cole et al., 2007, p. 2).
The demand to oral communication and speaking skills is a good motivation for learners of English to see
the essence of English as a global reality and improve their ability in this respect.
While speaking skills may have been somewhat underemphasized in schools, they have not been
underemphasized in the real world (Palmer, 2011). The essence given to speaking skills should be arisen day by
day among students which is a real-life measure of learning a language. Some students perceive the necessity of
acquiring good communication skills with self-motivation, while some do not comprehend the need for
speaking even though there are examples of foreign language exposure around them from foreign films, songs,
brand names, and store names to the chance of meeting a foreigner in culturally diverse big cities.
Even though many Turkish students nowadays receive foreign language education from elementary school,
they need to develop new perspectives in language learning, and focus on speaking skills as a practical real-life
device.
The curriculums at schools in Turkey have focused on teaching first and foremost grammar skills, and
then on vocabulary till the last decade. When the foreign language education is realized to be inefficient when it
comes to speaking, and when the current and increasing need for communication in target language instead of
just knowing the usage is realized, learning to speak and teaching speaking gained importance at schools.
Methodology I
In order to shed light on the awareness of the students on the essence of speaking skills, a questionnaire is
held on language skills among 90 prep school students at a Turkish university who are aware of importance of
language learning process and language skills. The questionnaire includes six types of skills of English
language; reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, and vocabulary. The questionnaire consists of two
separate ranking parts which are aimed to measure the consistency among the language skill selection of
students. The ranking parts of the questionnaire bring the question of whether students simultaneously show
success in the language skill which they regard as more important. In fact, it is expected to come out with
difference in the results in order to support the research proposal of this study.
Results I
The first part of the questionnaire reveals the opinion of students about the essence of speaking skills.
They are asked to rank the skills from the one that they think is more important to the less (from 1 to 6).

CONSIDERATIONS ON SPEAKING SKILLS 829
Table 1
Ranking of the Skills of English Language From More Important to the Less
Frequency Percent (%) Mean
Reading 5 5.62 4.0111
Writing 2 2.2 4.2444
Listening 12 13.3 3.2444
Speaking 38 42.2 2.1778
Grammar 13 14.4 4.1333
Vocabulary 22 24.4 3.1111
As shown in Table 1, speaking skills display the highest rank with the frequency rate of 38 and with a
percent of 42.2 which explicitly reveals that majority of students regard speaking skills highly important. The
average mean of speaking shows the lowest degree (2.1778) which also reflects the first rank among six skills.
In the next half of the questionnaire, it is asked to rank the skills in the order from the one that they are
most successful to the least. The questionnaire item aims to find out whether their answers in both ranking
questions on skills reflect similarity.
Table 2
Ranking of the Skills of English Language From the One That the Students Are Most Successful to the Least
Frequency Percent (%) Mean
Reading 15 16.7 3.2444
Writing 5 5.6 3.7778
Listening 12 13.3 3.3556
Speaking 13 14.4 4.0222
Grammar 24 26.7 3.3444
Vocabulary 21 23.3 3.1889
Table 2 displays the difference between the two ranking items. In this questionnaire item, it is observed
that speaking with a frequency rate of 13, a percent of 14.4 is not skill that students are the most successful; on
the contrary it is among the skills at which the subject Turkish students are less successful with a mean of
4.0222. It can be deduced from Table 2 that while writing skills is the one at which the students are the least
successful, speaking skills of Turkish students need to be improved, as well. Considering both Table 1 and
Table 2, it can be inferred that while speaking skills are regarded as more essential than the other skills,
grammar and vocabulary skills still preserve their importance for students, and they study those skills more.
Students do not show success in speaking as it should be.
The last part of the questionnaire includes language learning aspects. Students are asked to put a tick on
the items which they think are highly important in language learning. Among 90 students, 88 students answered
the last part of the questionnaire with two missing. The items are evaluated as “yes” when they put a tick, and
“no” without a tick.
Table 3
Aspects of Language Learning
Yes No
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Mean
Communication 81 90.0 7 7.8 1.0795

Meaning 66 73.3 22 24.4 1.2500

Sentence structure 31 34.4 57 63.3 1.6477
Oral practice 77 85.6 11 12.2 1.1250
Written practice 44 48.9 44 48.9 1.5000
Vocabulary knowledge 75 83.3 13 14.4 1.1477
It is obvious from Table 3 that “communication”, “oral practice”, and “vocabulary knowledge” were
evaluated as highly important aspects of language learning process, while “sentence structure” and “written
practice” did not convey the expected value among the subject students. The questionnaire outcomes repeat the
necessity of oral communication in language learning.
While the results of the questionnaire explicitly show the inclination and awareness of students towards
speaking skills, they still do not achieve success in speaking as much as in grammar and vocabulary skills
which is the result of a wrong habit and failure in understanding the language learning and teaching process.
Acquiring good speaking skills is not merely the responsibility of students. Instead, it is principally upon
teachers to motivate students. Students are constantly expected to show efforts to speak fluently; however, the
awareness of the essence comes first so as to adopt the skill, and it needs to be achieved with mutual efforts of
students and teachers. Students need to engage with the target language through in class speaking activities in
order to be acquainted with the language. While task-based speaking activities, oral presentations, use of visual
aids on contexts are helpful materials to make the students speak, “project-based learning, done well, has
already been shown to be effective” (Larmer & Mergendoller, 2012, p. 74). However, project-based learning is
one of the main tools of speaking classes as well as presentations which motivate students and provide a more
realistic environment.
Essence of Teaching Speaking Skills

Approaches to the teaching of speaking in ELT have been more strongly influenced by fads and fashions
than the teaching of listening. “Speaking” in traditional methodologies usually meant repeating after the teacher,
memorizing a dialog, or responding to drills, all of which reflect the sentence-based view of proficiency
prevailing in the audio-lingual and other drill-based or repetition-based methodologies of the 1970s. The
emergence of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the 1980s led to changed views of syllabuses and
methodology, which are continuing to shape the approaches to teaching speaking skills today. Grammar-based
syllabuses were replaced by communicative ones built around notions, functions, skills, tasks, and other
non-grammatical units of organization (Richards, 2008).
A useful framework for organizing lesson is the Presentation, Practice, and Production (PPP) model. PPP
is particularly effective for lower language skills levels where students have little input apart from their teacher
and course books (Baker & Westrup, 2003). Students are going to be active in the Practice, and especially
Production phases. According to Baker and Westrup (2003), if the students have a high level of English skills,
another possibility is to start with the Production phase. Students may already know a lot of grammar and
vocabulary and may need practice in using it in less structured activities. In this case, one monitors the speaking
activity carefully, dealing with errors and sorting out any difficulties later, even sometimes going back to a
brief presentation phase and practice phase if needed.
PPP refers to the lesson structure that can be used for the teaching of speaking as well as other language
skills. To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities

approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output (Burkart, 2003–2004).
Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language
heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin producing language
themselves.
Language input may be content oriented or form oriented.
Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple weather report or an extended lecture
on an academic topic. Content-oriented input may also include descriptions of learning strategies and examples
of their use.
Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from the teacher or another source
on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguistic competence); appropriate things to say in specific
contexts (discourse competence); expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social
aspects of language use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use to ask for
clarification and repair miscommunication (strategic competence) (Burkart, 2003–2004, p. 2).
In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented and form-oriented input
(Burkart, 2003–2004). However, when learners first begin to speak in another language, their speaking will
need to be based on some form-focused learning. An effective way to begin is to base speaking on some useful
simple memorized phrases and sentences. These may be greetings, simple personal descriptions, and simple
questions and answers. These can be practiced in “repetition drills”. The teacher says a phrase or sentence
several times and then asks the learners to repeat. Some learners can be called on to repeat individually, and
then the class may repeat together.
Drills play a useful part in a language course in helping learners to be formally accurate in their speech
and in helping them to quickly learn a useful collection of phrases and sentences that allow them to start using
the language as soon as possible. The use of drills, however, should be seen as merely one kind of form-focused
activity that needs to be balanced with other types of form-focused activities, as well as with meaning-focused
and fluency development activities (Brown & Nation, 1997). Language learners should also be exposed to and
given opportunities to practice and use meaning-focused communication, in which they must both produce and
listen to meaningful oral communication.
In meaning-focused speaking activities, it is necessary to make sure that the activity is actually developing
the learner’s ability to use language items in the process of speaking. In a meaning-focused activity, the
speaker’s and the listeners’ attention is on the message being communicated (Brown & Nation, 1997). Today’s
world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because only
in that way students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in
each communicative circumstance. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and collaborative learning serve
best for this aim. EFL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life
communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when
students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task (Kayi, 2006). Some activities to promote
speaking stated in Kayi’s article are discussions, role plays, simulations, information gaps, brainstorming,
story-telling, interviews, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing and
finding the difference activities.
Teaching speaking is a really important part of teaching a foreign language. Leading students to acquire
the correct communicative and collaborative skills is highly essential rather than using only memorization

techniques. Teaching interactive skills is not only necessary for life, but also meaningful and enjoyable for
students. For that reason, it is crucial for teachers to use Communicative Language Teaching Method in their
speaking classes together with choosing the correct type of language input and speaking function the students
need.
According to a study held among foreign language teachers in Turkey by Atay, Kurt, Çamlıbel, Kaşlıoğlu,
and Ersin (2009), teachers are concerned to teach English predominantly for practical purposes more than
providing language knowledge and skills. This is a good sign that reflects the awareness of teachers for the use
of language instead of simply teaching the usage. Yet, it is necessary to learn the point of view of teachers on
how to teach speaking and what aspects of teaching speaking they pay attention to.
Methodology II
The study is held among 20 English language teachers working at a university in Turkey. The participants
are selected arbitrarily from one university who teach speaking to different level groups.
The first section of the questionnaire involves common speaking activities used in classes. The activities
are chosen basically by taking the techniques used in Communicative Language Teaching. Some of the
activities are taken from other methods and language classes. The teachers are asked to indicate the frequency
of the activities they use in their speaking classes in order to see how often they apply communicative activities.
The responses are evaluated with descriptive statistics, and given in the descending order to make the data more
understandable.
Table 4
The Most Common Activities Used in Speaking Classes
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
1. Real life questions 20 4.6500 .48936 .10942
2. Picture descriptions 20 3.6000 .94032 .21026
3. Brainstorming 20 3.5500 1.05006 .23480
4. Games 20 3.5000 .76089 .17014
5. Group discussions 20 3.5000 1.00000 .22361
6. Problem solving tasks 20 3.2500 .78640 .17584
7. Role plays 20 3.0500 .75915 .16975
8. Drills 20 3.0000 1.25656 .28098
9. Storytelling 20 2.7500 1.01955 .22798
The responses indicate that the most commonly used speaking activity is a CLT-based activity “real life
questions” with a frequency of 4.65. The use of authentic materials such as newspaper articles, advertisements,
menus, or timetables which aid to discussion and question-answer activities are regarded as real communicative
activities. The second common activity is “picture descriptions” with a frequency of 3.6 which is also a
technique used in CLT. “Brainstorming” is the third most common activity with a frequency of 3.55. The table
displays that “role plays”, “drills”, and “storytelling” are not used as often as other activities. Despite the
importance of role play in approaches which take speaking skills as a base, it can be deduced that Turkish
teachers do not apply the method in their language classes in the expected frequency.
The second section of the questionnaire involves 14 items which aim to evaluate the considerations of
teachers on self-attitudes about teaching speaking.

Table 5
Evaluation of Teacher’s Self-attitudes About Their Speaking Classes
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
1. I find it easy to get the students speak and communicate in the class. 20 2.8000 1.19649 .26754
2. The most essential factor for a student to learn speaking is to speak a
20 4.0000 .91766 .20520
lot in the target language.
3. I speak more than students do in the class. 20 3.0000 .91766 . 20520
4. I use all the opportunities to let the students speak. 20 3.9000 .64072 .14327
5. I motivate my students to speak at every lesson. 20 3.8500 .87509 .19568
6. I motivate them to speak with their classmates in the class. 20 3.9000 .78807 .17622
7. I give them useful hints to improve their speaking. 20 4.2500 .55012 .12301
8. I lead them to use their grammar knowledge to speak. 20 3.5500 .75915 .16975
9. I lead them to use their vocabulary knowledge to speak. 20 4.2500 .63867 .14281
10. I teach them how to become autonomous learners. 20 3.8947 .73747 .16919
11. I teach them socio-cultural knowledge of the target language. 20 4.3000 .73270 .16384
12. I instantly correct mistakes of my students at the time of speaking. 20 2.7500 1.11803 .25000
13. My students are quite successful in speaking. 20 2.9500 .88704 .19835
14. I consider myself successful in teaching speaking. 20 3.6000 .82078 .18353
The Table 5 displays the descriptive statistics. Teacher responses show high frequencies on the items 2, 7,
9, and 11. Participants believe that it is necessary for students to speak a lot in order to learn and improve
speaking skills as indicated in item 2 with 4.00. It can be deduced that teachers pay more attention to
vocabulary use and development rather than grammar use. The high frequency of item 9 in leading students to
use vocabulary knowledge also indicates that teachers focus more on vocabulary knowledge. Besides, the mean
frequency of 4.25 of item 7 shows that teachers try hard to give useful hints to improve students speaking. In
this regard, the highest frequency of 4.30 of item 11 on teaching socio-cultural knowledge of the target
language supports item 7. Moreover, items 4, 6, and 10 display that teachers try their best to let the students
speak in the class, motivate them and help them become autonomous learners. As a result of these efforts, in
item 14, teachers reflect high frequencies on self-evaluation, and regard themselves successful in teaching
speaking. In item 1, it can be deduced that teachers are aware of the difficulties of teaching speaking, and item
13 illustrates that students do not show high success in speaking skills since items 13 and 14 are not positively
correlated. The data of the Table 5 above illustrates that teachers believe they do their best to improve speaking
skills of students.
Results and Discussion

This study examines the ideas of students and teachers separately in order to identify the given importance
to speaking skills by each side. The results of the study may be obtained from students of one particular
university; however, it is believed to reflect the general idea of Turkish students of that age who focus on
learning a foreign language. Likewise, the participant teachers were not from various institutions, yet they
intensely engaged in teaching English, focused on teaching skills separately, and paid attention to teaching
speaking, as well. The groups are used to be a sample to reflect the idea that is desired to be presented for the
language learning process in Turkey.
The sample population of students and teachers displayed positive attitudes and ideas towards the
acquisition of oral skills. Despite the low success of students in speaking which was indicated in both student

and teacher questionnaires, it can be stated that both teachers and students lean to speaking currently.
It can directly be dedicated from both questionnaire results that learning and teaching of oral skills carry
high importance among university students and teachers in Turkey. They both have gained the awareness on
the essence of acquiring speaking skills in language learning and teaching. It is a good sign for Turkish students
and teachers towards a change in language learning from a structural approach to a communicative approach. It
is strongly believed and hoped that the realization and recognition among teachers and students will spread to
primary and secondary educational institutions and larger groups.
Students urgently need to gain self-autonomy and self-responsibility of their learning, and move towards
their goals. Receiving correct acquisition of speaking skills is related basically with self-determination and
self-study guided by the teacher.
It is also believed that effective teaching can be achieved only if it is reflective. If teachers analyze the
process of teaching and the outcomes, and based on their analysis and self-assessment, if they try to improve
themselves and classes even when it is already good enough, it can be remarked that students will improve and
show success, as well.
Conclusion
As Souza (1994) states, considering the learner’s communicative needs where communicative competence
is seen as an oral phenomenon nowadays, one assumes that production of materials must appeal to the
development of communicative competence. While oral skills are considered as a global necessity in all fields,
it is expected that both students and teachers gain this understanding and confidence during their language
learning and teaching process. The acquisition and development of speaking skills is related with mutual
responsibility of teachers and students. As a productive skill, speaking requires more practice and effort to
become successful. The questionnaire results revealed a positive attitude and understanding towards this
essential skill. It is hoped that speaking is soon going to be the main skill taught and acquired at every section
of Turkish educational institutions as well as other countries in the world.
References
Atay, D., Kurt, G., Çamlıbel, Z., Kaşlıoğlu, Ö., & Ersin, P. (2009). The role of intercultural competence in foreign language
teaching. Inonu University Journal of Faculty of Education (Special Issue), 10(3), 123-135.
Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Baker, J., & Westrup, H. (2003). Essential speaking skills. London: Continuum and Voluntary Service Overseas.
Brown, R. S., & Nation, P. (1997). Teaching speaking: Suggestions for the classroom. T. O. Editor (Ed.). Retrieved from
http://jalt-publications.org/old_tlt/files/97/jan/speaking.html
Burkart, G. S. (2003–2004). Teaching speaking. Retrieved from http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/spindex.htm
Cole, D., Ellis, C., Mason, B., Meed, J., Record, D., Rosetti, A., & Willcocks, G. (2007). Teaching speaking and listening: A
toolkit for practitioners. Bristol: Portishead Press.
Harvey, L. (2000). New realities: The relationship between higher education and employment. Tertiary Education and
Management, 3-17.
Kayi, H. (2006, November 11). Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking in a second language. Retrieved from
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html
Larmer, J., & Mergendoller, J. R. (2012). Speaking of speaking. Educational Leadership, 70(4), 74-76.
Palmer, E. (2011). Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students. Portland, Maine, USA: Stenhouse Publishers.
Richards, J. C. (2008). Teaching listening and speaking: From theory to practice. NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Souza, M. B. (1994). Motivating learners: Using songs in the classroom. In V. J. Leffa (Ed.), Autonomy in language learning (p.
341). Porto Allegre: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.005
D DAVID PUBLISHING
How to Improve Spoken English Teaching

in College English Class
ZHENG Ling
Spoken English teaching is an important part of college English teaching. With the enhancement of emphasis on
the education level, the importance of spoken English teaching in college teaching is obvious. In the face of
problems in spoken English teaching, how to use various means to actively and effectively improve the quality of
college oral English teaching has become the main task and responsibility of the college English teacher.
Keywords: spoken English, teaching, college English
Introduction
With the development and progress of society, the comprehensive talents need is larger and larger. At the
same time, international exchange and communication demands English professional talents urgently,
especially pays attention to people’s oral communication ability. However, English speaking in college English
teaching is often downplayed or ignored, because most of the school’s energy is mainly used in English
listening, reading, writing, and translating, to cope with the so-called CET-4 (College English Test Band 4) and
CET-6 (College English Test Band 6). This drastically affects the students learning oral English skills, and the
students’ spoken English ability cannot be played and applied.
The Importance of Learning Spoken English

Language is an important means of communication; the ultimate goal of learning language is to be able to
put it into use, and can better communicate with people. People will be restricted in the actual work when they
only learning to listen and read, without communicating oral English in daily life and study. Besides, it is
difficult to have a workplace in today’s highly competitive situation. National development and progress also
need a large number of comprehensive talents with knowledge, quality, and ability. Therefore, the purpose of
college English teaching is to improve the ability of oral communication training on the basis of improving
students’ ability in listening, reading, writing, and translating.
Problems Existing in the Spoken English Teaching

Teachers Factors
Teachers’ factors in spoken English teaching mainly include the following three aspects:
ZHENG Ling, lecturer, master, Foreign Languages College, Changchun University.

836 HOW TO IMPROVE SPOKEN ENGLISH TEACHING IN COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASS
First of all, China’s foreign language teaching has been given priority to teachers for a long time, and
make teachers as the center in the classroom teaching mode ignoring the training of the students’ language
skills. Influenced by traditional education, many teachers ignore the regularity of language teaching and the
cultivation of the students’ listening and speaking skills in the classroom instruction, but overemphasize the
accuration of the language foundation knowledge and grammar exercise. This old and backward teaching ideas
and methods are difficult to effectively improve students’ oral English ability.
Secondly, classroom activity design is lack. Classroom activities carefully designed by teacher can
effectively stimulate the initiative of students to participate in the oral training class. But many teachers do not
understand the principles of classroom activities design, which results in little effect, and causing many oral
English activities are still confined to talk to a great extent. Besides, because most activity scenes are away from
the real life, students have no interest in talking about the topic, and are unable to stimulate their motivation to
improve their spoken English; they cannot make them consciously use existing language resources to deal with
the practical problems in communication. Sometimes, classroom communication means maybe inform a fixed
form, that is, teachers play as the center asking the students to answer, which absolutely within the framework
teachers set in advance, thus teachers become the monopoly in communication. It seems that innovating the
pattern of English classroom teaching activities is necessary to really improve the students’ oral English ability.
Thirdly, the behavior of continuous enrollment expansion of colleges brings increasing pressure to the
English teaching, and the pressure teachers withstand is far beyond their current ability. This phenomenon
causes the teachers’ imbalance of in quality, ability level, and teaching tasks. Besides, college attaches great
importance to the education only, and ignores the quality of oral English teaching; many teachers’ variety
ability should be improved, such as pronunciation, grammar, culture, and teaching method. Besides that, many
young teachers have no experience in teaching before, and rarely have the chance to study language ability,
which directly affects the effectiveness and enthusiasm of student in learning English. Under above causes,
most students are unable completely to meet the requirement of oral English teaching in the new period.
College Students Factors
English foundation of college students is weak, which mainly performs varies aspects, including: (1)
Subject use frequently makes a mistake; (2) Voice and tense application is incorrectly; and (3) misnomer.
Besides that, students come from different cities, so does language level, and the lack of students’ language
knowledge system will produce barriers to oral English greatly. At the same time, as beginners to learn the
international phonetic and pronunciation rules, many students speak English with different dialects, which
greatly affects the students’ enthusiasm for spoken English. Because of the lack of a lot of reading, students
cannot fully grasp vocabulary, sentence patterns, and ways of expression, which results that college students
have serious psychological barriers, and are lack of confidence in their oral English ability. Thus, they dare not
speak, are afraid of making mistakes and fear of ridicule, thus it is difficult for students to speak and express
smoothly. In the long term, it is easy for students to produce psychological barriers to oral English class, and
make a serious influence on oral English teaching and the improvement of students’ oral ability. Not only that,
due to the promotion and popularity of the CET-4 and CET-6, English teaching goal focuses on the pass rate,
and does not pay attention to the cultivation of oral English ability. It is because of this that many students
ignore the improvement of speaking ability.
HOW TO IMPROVE SPOKEN ENGLISH TEACHING IN COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASS 837
External Environment Factors

English course system, course structure, and course setting in College oral English teaching has not been
paid attention to; colleges are lack of enough understanding in the oral English class, and the teaching aids are
imperfect. Not only that, wright, the advocates of the communicative teaching thought hold the view that, the
success of language learning lies in putting students in the language communication context which needs to use
the target, so that students’ ability of judgment and understanding language and meaning combining with the
context language will be cultivated. It is an essential condition for students raising their oral ability to make a
language input and output of language communication environment. Most college oral English teaching
environment in China is limited due to the class hour and the number of students. It is difficult to provide
students with sufficient language input or output, and other oral English communication environment outside of
the classroom is less, such as English corner activities, whose role in helping improve the majority of students
oral English level is limited.
Measures to Improve the Quality of Classroom Teaching

Change English Teaching Concept, Improve Teaching Method, and Design Classroom Activities
The contemporary education theory holds that, learning depends on the students’ active participation in the
learning process, and learning activities is the best way to acquire knowledge. It is very important for teacher to
guide spoken language activities regarding the students as the center. Therefore, teachers must change the
traditional English teaching ideas and adjust or formulate syllabus suitable for students.
Improve teaching methods. Teachers have more time to teach knowledge in the traditional teaching
method, while students have less time to practice language. In order to effectively improve students’ oral
English teaching effect and quality, teachers should teach earnestly, and guide students to communicate from
the existing life experience through a variety of activities, such as answering questions, group dialogue,
discussion, retelling, and so on.
Equipped With the Appropriate Faculty
When choosing spoken English teachers, colleges should choose those who have rich related teaching
experience and new teaching ideas and thinking ways. At the same time, teachers’ English oral pronunciation
and intonation should be standard and words fluency. Teachers should be given the opportunity to further study,
broaden their knowledge field, and improve their spoken English. Thus, the spoken English teaching will be
certain instructive and targeted for students. Teachers themselves should better be lively and affinity, because
they can quickly melt into a whole with students, further to encourage students to be brave in speaking.
Break Through Psychological Barriers of College Students
Teachers should create a good classroom environment for students, try to make every students speak
English in each class, even if only one or two words. The thinking of oral English classes are just for a few
students whose basic English are good is wrong; teachers should make students know that teachers do not ignore
any classmate, even their results are very poor. After a classmate answering “sorry, I don’t know ” when asked
some difficult questions, teachers should guide him/her to give the right answer instead of asking him/her to sit
down and to listen to other students’ answers. Teacher can try to give him/her hints, a recall for example, or
give him/her a sentence to finish making sentences. As long as the students dare to say, teachers should give
838 HOW TO IMPROVE SPOKEN ENGLISH TEACHING IN COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASS
them praise, thus cultivate the students’ courage and confidence at the same time. The most important is that
teachers not only help the students to recall, but also help students to memorize and deepen the previous
knowledge during this period. It is certain that students play the role of main body in oral English teaching, and
they themselves should give correct learning attitudes, make proactive efforts in study, so that the oral English
is fluent and normative.
Pay Attention to Spoken English Class
Spoken English classroom teaching should make students become the “leading role”, and make all kinds
of games as far as possible in the process of classroom organization, thus enrich the classroom training mode,
and avoid boring repetitive practice, arouse the enthusiasm of the students. With the wide application of
network technology and multimedia teaching, oral English teaching method has been enriched. Teachers make
English program for students to watch to learn authentic language; edit film or video to make students guess,
and dub according to the content of speculation; choose English newspaper magazine articles and topics,
expand students’ knowledge aspect and increase the language input through discussing. Also, language is the
carrier of culture, one of the important purposes to learn a language is to prepare for the understanding and
culture communication. Teachers should give students British and American culture material and data, design a
variety of real life situation from different countries, thus strengthen their cultural awareness by teaching
students to analyze the two different cultures. On the other hand, it is suitable to open English corner activities,
because those will train the courage and confidence of speaking English, stimulate students’ interests in
learning, and effectively improve their language ability and quality.
Conclusion
This paper concludes three factors which have an effect on college spoken English through the
understanding of the current status in China, namely teachers, students, and teaching environment. The author
finds some solution countermeasures through the analysis of these problems. In a word, teachers should strive
to improve their own quality in the teaching process, and create language environment from the specific
situation of students, thus developing a simultaneous with cultural background, customs, language, basic
knowledge and skills, and eventually improve students’ oral communication ability. The improvement of the
effect of college oral English teaching and language application in language theory remains to be further
research, which is also a difficult and lengthy process, relying too much on students and teachers’ work
together to success and be perfected.
References
Anderson, A. (1984). Teaching talk: Strategies for production and assessment (pp.126-129). Cambridge: CUP.
FAN, L. Y. (2010). How to improve learners’ oral English ability in practice application. The New Campus (Theory), 76(2), 77.
HUANG, X. N., & WANG, B. (2011). Basic strategies on the implementation of a personalized teaching. Journal of Inner
Mongolia Normal University (Education Sciences), 23(8), 66-67.
Littlewood, W. (2000). Foreign and second language learning (pp.74-78). Beijing: Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press.
Ur. P. (1981). Discussions that work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ZHANG, P. (2008). Status analysis and countermeasures of college oral English teaching. Journal of Heilongjiang Institute of
Education, 36(14), 15-16.
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.006
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Foreign Language Teacher Recruitment: Theoretical

Perspectives and Empirical Findings
Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, Seyyedeh Mobina Hosseini

University of Shahrood, Shahrood, Iran
In some contexts such as private language schools of Iran language teachers are recruited mainly on the basis of
their speaking fluency and in other EFL contexts they are recruited simply because they are native speakers.
Moreover, previous studies mainly focus on comparing the effectiveness of native and non-native language teachers
by exploring learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of native and non-native language teachers. Since recruitment
criteria are theoretically unjustified and the results of previous studies are subjective and inconclusive, this study
aims at making a case in the opposite direction. That is, the researchers argue that there should be: (1) a shift away
from recruiting language teachers on the basis of their speaking fluency and native language background towards
hiring language teachers on the basis of their professional performance in the language classroom; (2) a shift away
from exploring learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of native and non-native teachers towards studying the effect of
teachers’ native language on learners’ proficiency, accuracy, fluency, and achievement. To pave the way for these
shifts, this study first reviews the theoretical perspectives and empirical findings concerning effective language
teachers and then draws conclusions and implications which help interested stakeholders, i.e., supervisors, make
informed decisions when they recruit language teachers.
Keywords: teacher effectiveness, native language teachers, non-native language teachers, recruitment criteria
Introduction
When language teaching profession was in its infancy, there were no professionally trained teachers;
hence, employers recruited language teachers on the basis of what Phillipson (1992) calls “native speaker
fallacy”. That is, it was wrongly supposed that native speakers are effective teachers simply because they know
their language. Although language teaching profession has come of age and there are lots of professionally
trained native and non-native language teachers, even today language teacher recruitment is still based on this
fallacy. Still worse, in some contexts such as Iran many language schools hire teachers on the basis of teachers’
speaking proficiency. That is, in some contexts professionally untrained teachers are recruited simply because
they are native speakers while in some other contexts professionally untrained teachers are recruited simply
because they can speak English fluently. This study aims at problematizing these recruitment criteria and
making a case for recruiting professionally trained language teachers by presenting theoretical perspectives and
empirical evidence which substantiate this position and provide interested stakeholders with a solid framework
for language teacher recruitment.
Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, Associate Professor of TEFL, Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Shahrood.
Seyyedeh Mobina Hosseini, MATEFL Candidate, Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Shahrood.

840 FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER RECRUITMENT
Theoretical Perspectives
Stronge and Hindman (2006) stated that one of the most critical elements in the success of any school is
the quality of teaching that occurs every day in every classroom. If we want students to succeed to their
maximum potential, having a qualified teacher working with every student is paramount. For this reason,
recruiting, selecting, inducting, and sustaining highly effective teachers are the greatest challenges facing
today’s educational leaders (p. vii). However, recruiting effective teachers is not possible unless we know
professional and personal traits that effective teachers should possess.
Many studies have tried to define who an effective teacher is (Anderson, 2004; Stronge, 2002; Anderson,
1991; Kounin, 1970; Rubio, 2009; Burton, 2000). Anderson (2004) stated that effective teachers are those who
achieve goals which they set for themselves or which they have set for them by others. From another point of
view, Stronge (2002) suggested that an effective teacher is the one who always produces a class of
high-achievers, or a teacher who will be evaluated positively by supervisors and administrators. Similarly,
Anderson (1991) believed that “…an effective teacher is one who quite consistently achieves goals which
either directly or indirectly focuses on the learning of their students” (p. 18). In addition to this, effective
language teachers have been described in the literature as having not only a profound competence in the target
language but a set of personal qualities like sensitivity, warmth, and tolerance (Vadillio, 1999). By the same
token, Burton (2000) holds the opinion that good teachers need to have knowledge, uniqueness, reciprocity, and
professionalism. Since effective teachers should be good managers and handlers, Kounin (1970) defines
“effective teachers” as those who “accurately handle inappropriate student behavior, manage competing or
developing events more smoothly through instruction, maintain appropriate pacing, and maintain a group focus”
(p. 49).
Similarly, Rubio (2009) defined an effective teacher as a perfectionist who is encouraging, approachable,
caring, enthusiastic, affective, and understanding. According to Ethell and McMeniman (2000), effective
teachers have a larger knowledge base from which to draw and usually organize their knowledge more
efficiently in complex interconnected schemas and utilize it more effectively. They also believe that having
both superior subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge is essential for successful teachers.
What makes a teacher effective has been a subject of importance for many educational scholars. Pettis
(1997) identified three main characteristics for a professionally competent teacher. According to her, an
effective teacher must firstly be principled and knowledgeable in addition to being skillful. Secondly,
professional needs and interests of an effective language teacher must change over time and develop during
his/her teaching. Thirdly, a teacher must be personally committed to his/her professional development. In
another classification, Clark and Walsh (2002) categorized characteristics of an effective English language
teacher into four clusters of discipline knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of context, and personal
knowledge. Owing to the fact that in English language teaching and learning some teachers are regarded as
more successful than others, Brown (2001) believes successful teaching depends on the teachers’ language
proficiency, language-teaching skills, interpersonal communication ability, and personality. A checklist of good
language-teacher characteristics is also offered by Brown (2001), which consists of four categories: technical
knowledge, pedagogical skills, interpersonal skills, and personal qualities. On the other hand, focusing on
intrinsic features, Ruiz-funes (2002) characterizes language teachers in terms of the love for the target language,
attitude towards the profession and students, motivation and enthusiasm which should be apparent in potential

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER RECRUITMENT 841
EFL teachers. The foregoing traits can be used as a basis for teacher evaluation. Cullingford (1995) emphasized
the fact that students are able to detect, as well as to analyze not only English language teachers’ personalities,
but also how far teachers have accepted their professional role.
Although one can find some consensus regarding traits of effective teachers, one issue remains
controversial, i.e., “Who makes a better language teacher—native speakers or non-native speakers?”
Throughout the history of language teaching, there has been a heated debate between scholars and practitioners
about who is best suited for teaching English language, i.e., native or non-native English speaker teachers.
While in fact the belief that a foreign language should be taught by a native speaker of the language is
widespread, a considerable attention is given to non-native English teachers in the higher educational
institutions in field of English language teaching. However, Wong (2009) asserted that many employers of
private language centers and public school principals in non-English speaking countries, especially in Asia,
have begun hiring native English teachers to teach at their centers or schools. Phillipson (1992) calls this
ideology a “native speaker fallacy” to refer to unfair treatment of qualified non-native speakers (NNSs). He
perceives that NNSs can acquire such attributes through teacher training. Having gone through the language
learning process, they are more qualified to teach a language than native speakers.
Conversely, Stern (1983) favors native speakers by claiming that native speakers have (1) a subconscious
knowledge of rules; (2) an intuitive grasp of meanings; (3) the ability to communicate within social settings; (4)
a range of language skills; and (5) creativity of language use. Following this logic, a growing number of native
English speakers, who have no teaching qualifications, have been hired as ESL teachers (Maum, 2001).
Rejecting this professionally unjustified criterion, Maum (2002) pointed that one whose mother tongue is
English cannot be considered as a qualified English teacher. Likewise, Canagarajah (1999) asserted that not all
native speakers may make good teachers of their first language.
Despite the foregoing objections, native speakers enter the profession on the basis of their superior English
competence (Samimy & Brutt-Griffler, 1999). Shin (2008) stated that native speaker proficiency in the target
language is not a sufficient qualification for such teaching positions. Rather, as Lasagabaster and Sierra (2002)
state, a great deal of training and practice is required in language teaching. Regardless of their native language
background, qualified ESL and EFL educators not only demonstrate a high level of written and oral proficiency
in the English language, but also demonstrate teaching competency. Besides pedagogical challenges, there are
also demographic challenges that render it impossible for all language teaching positions to be filled by
teachers from native-English countries. Even if all native speakers were to be employed in ELT, they would not
be enough to quench the fever-like quest for native-speaking teachers of English.
Instead of favoring one or the other, however, some scholars recognize both native language teachers and
non-native ones by arguing that in an ideal EFL environment there should be a good balance between native
and non-native language teachers (Medgyes, 1994). As many researchers believe, a kind of collaboration
between native and non-native English teachers would be beneficial (Maum, 2001; Medgyes, 1992; Swales,
1993). In so doing, both sides of this continuum can complement each other in their strengths and weaknesses
in various aspects such as linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. For example, native English
teachers are better aware of the appropriate contexts of language use but not necessarily in the “context of
language learning” (Widdowson, 1994) while non-native language teachers, can explicitly explain rules and
structure of language to the students, especially those teachers who share the same mother tongue with their
students (Harmer, 1991). Along the same lines, Medgyes (1992) believes that native speakers have the

advantage of being highly proficient in the target language, whereas non-native speaker teachers can serve as a
good learning model for students. He also argues that non-native teachers, in addition to speaking the learners’
L1, are able to share the difficulties they experienced and their learning strategies with learners.
While some scholars favor native English teachers and others argue for balancing the proportion of native
and non-native language teachers, Medgyes (1994) favors non-native language teachers by asserting that
non-native language teachers have much unique strength on the following grounds: (1) Since they have learned
the language and attained a high label of proficiency in it, they can be considered as a good model for language
learners; (2) Since they are consciously aware of the strategies they used to develop their proficiency, they can
teach those strategies more effectively; (3) Because of their conscious knowledge, they are able to supply
learners with more information about the English language; (4) Since they experienced the difficulties of
learning a language, they can anticipate and prevent language difficulties of their students better; (5) Since they
themselves have learned the language they teach, they are more likely to be more empathetic to the needs and
problems of learners; and (6) Since they have the same language background as the students, they can use
students’ L1 to their advantage.
To sum up, based on the foregoing review, there are three arguments concerning the effectiveness of
native and non-native language teachers: (1) native English teachers are more effective than non-native English
teachers; (2) native and non-native teachers are equally effective and as such they should cooperate with each
other in EFL contexts; and (3) non-native English teachers are more effective than native English teachers. This
heated debate will never settle unless we acknowledge that an English teacher should be qualified in two
dimensions: (1) s/he should know English and (2) s/he should know teaching. Along these lines, there should
be a shift away from arguing whether effective teachers are native or non-native speakers towards arguing
whether they are professionally trained or not, i.e., irrespective of whether language teachers are native or
non-native speakers, they should be professionally trained in teaching English as a foreign language.
Empirical Findings
Instead of involving themselves in the endless and futile arguments concerning the comparative
effectiveness of native and non-native language teachers, some scholars have tried to put their assumptions to
test by collecting empirical evidence. Various scholars have tried to find out the most salient characteristics of
effective English language teachers either from students’ perceptions (Salahshour & Hajizadeh, 2012; Chen,
2012; Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008; Mollica & Nuessel, 1997; Feldman, 1976) or teachers’
perceptions (Khojastemehr & Takrimi, 2009; Lang, McKee, & Conner, 1993; Witcher, Onwuegbuzie, & Minor,
2001).
Some studies have tried to explore learners’ perspectives concerning effective teachers. In a recent study,
Salahshour & Hajizadeh (2012) identified the main features of an effective EFL instructor based on language
students’ perspectives. Their quantitative research showed that effective teachers have an interest in their job,
have a sense of responsibility towards their job, are enthusiastic and lively, are self-confident, and have
knowledge of subject matter. In another study, Chen (2012) investigated the favorable and unfavorable
characteristics of the EFL teachers as perceived by Thai university students. The characteristics were grouped
into personal trait-related and classroom teaching-related characteristics. The personal trait-related
characteristics included emotion, kindness, fairness, lenience, and responsibility and the classroom
teaching-related characteristics were concerned with aspects of lesson delivery, language used in teaching,

classroom activity organization, and classroom atmosphere creation. An interesting finding, according to Chen,
was that some students favored teachers who spoke English and Thai in the classroom. Some students preferred
teachers who could speak Thai. According to this study, if the teacher spoke English and Thai while teaching,
they could understand the teaching better and would have higher motivation to learn.
Similarly, Arikan, Tasher, and Sarach-Suzer (2008) conceptualized Turkish EFL students’ perceptions of
an effective English language teacher. The results showed that effective teachers teach both formal and
informal English, incorporate games into teaching, and organize group/pair work activities in the classroom. In
addition, they favored teachers who use real life situations in the classroom effectively, but do not favor
teachers with high teacher talking time. These students perceived foreign language teachers as ineffective if
they: (1) heavily depended on their lesson plans; (2) did not employ a variety of methods; and (3) disregarded
the needs of the learners.
In an attempt to discover characteristics favored by college students, Feldman (1976) analyzed 72 studies
and found that effective teachers: stimulate interest in the learners; are clear and understandable; are
knowledgeable in subject matter; are prepared and organized for the course and being enthusiastic about the
subject matter and teaching. Friendliness, helpfulness, and openness to others’ opinions were traits that students
preferred in teachers, especially when they freely described their ideal or best teacher.
Chen and Lin (2009) investigated Chinese students’ perceptions of the characteristics of effective EFL
teachers. The results revealed that the instructional competence, personality, and teacher-student relationship
aspects were all important to be an effective EFL teacher. However, personality and teacher-student
relationship were considered more important than instructional competence. More recently, Barnes (2010)
examined the students’ beliefs about the features of effective EFL teachers. The results of the study were
framed under five categories including rapport, delivery, fairness, knowledge and credibility, and organization
and preparation. Students considered rapport and delivery as very important characteristics of an EFL teacher.
The foregoing empirical studies clearly show that learners evaluate their language teachers in terms of
their professional competence and personality traits rather than their native language. Thus, the studies that give
voice to learners’ perspectives concerning effective teachers and effective teaching have clear implications for
language teacher recruitment. It is true that language teachers are hired by employers and supervisors but it is
the language learners who evaluate their efficacy; hence, instead of judging language teachers based on their
native language, supervisors should evaluate language teachers in terms of their performance in the classroom.
Another group of researchers have tried to explore language teachers’ perspectives on effective teaching
performance. Khosjastemehr and Takrimi (2009) designed a study to identify teacher effectiveness factors
according to the perceptions of English teachers in Khuzestan. The results indicated that, to these teachers,
instructional strategies were viewed as more critical for teacher effectiveness than other characteristics.
Similarly, Witcher, Onwuegbuzie, and Minor (2001) examined pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the
characteristics of effective teachers by asking the participants to identify, rank, and define three to six
characteristics that excellent teachers possessed. They found a total of 125 characteristics which were classified
into the following six categories in order of endorsement rate: student-centeredness (79.5%), enthusiasm for
teaching (40.2%), ethicalness (38.8%), classroom and behavior management (33.3%), teaching methodology
(32.4%), and knowledge of subject (31.5%). Among the demographic variables, gender made the strongest
contribution to the participants’ responses with females endorsing learner-centeredness and males endorsing
classroom and behavior management. In another study, Walls, Nardi, Von Minden, and Hoffman (2002)

examined the perceptions of prospective, novice, and experienced teachers. The results yielded five dimensions
in which effective and ineffective teachers differed. These dimensions are: (1) emotional environment; (2)
teacher skill; (3) teacher motivation; (4) student participation; and (5) rules and grades.
Better results will be obtained if both students and teachers’ perceptions on characteristics of an effective
teacher were compared. Therefore, some researchers tried to make a comparison between these two groups to
find the discrepancies on each side. To investigate the characteristics of effective English language teachers,
Babai, Shishavan, and Sadeghi (2009) compared the perceptions of Iranian English language teachers and
learners. The results indicated significant differences between teachers’ and learners’ views on some
characteristics of effective English language teachers (EELTs). Teachers seemed to agree more strongly than
students that an EELT should assign homework and integrate group activities into the classroom. Other areas of
significant difference in opinions included preparing the lesson well, using lesson plans, and assessing what
students have learned reasonably. On the contrary, students agreed more than teachers that teaching English in
Persian (first language of the learners) was one of the prominent characteristics of an The qualitative analysis
indicated that teachers perceived the features like mastery of the target language, good knowledge of pedagogy,
and the use of particular techniques and methods, as well as a good personality to make an EELT, whereas,
learners gave more weight to characteristics relating to a teacher’s personality and the way he or she behaves in
the classroom.
In a similar study, Park and Lee (2006) investigated the characteristics of effective EFL teachers as
perceived by 169 teachers and 339 students in Korea with a self-report questionnaire consisting of three
categories, i.e., English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills. The results revealed
that teachers perceived English proficiency the most important, whereas the students ranked pedagogical
knowledge the highest. More recently, Wichadee (2010) investigated the characteristics of effective EFL
teachers as perceived by 400 Bangkok University students and 53 full-time EFL teachers. The findings were
organized in four categories, i.e., English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, organization and
communication skills, and socio-affective skills. The results showed that Bangkok University students defined
effective EFL teachers as those with good preparation, effective communication ability, and a pleasant
personality. This contrasted with the EFL teachers, who believed that having good English language
proficiency was the most important for their job.
To sum up, a comparison of language teachers’ perspectives with those of language learners clearly shows
their conflict of interest. While teachers consider language proficiency as the main criterion for teaching
effectiveness, learners focused on teaching performance and teachers’ teaching skills. This difference in
opinion clearly reflects local norms. Since language teacher recruitment is mainly based on language teacher
proficiency in many contexts, this criterion has been normalized and language teachers have taken its truth
value for granted. Language learners, however, are less concerned with teacher recruitment and more
concerned with learning; hence, they take pedagogical skills as more determinant. Teachers do not just teach;
rather they teach the students. As a consequence, it is learners’ perspectives and priorities that should be taken
into account in language teacher recruitment rather than teachers’ perspectives.
Another group of researchers have tried to collect empirical evidence by comparing native and non-native
language teachers. With this in mind, Medgyes (1992) conducted a study to compare native and non-native
teachers. Questionnaires were distributed to those responsible for recruitment at English language teaching
institutions in the UK in order to investigate the extent to which employers regarded being a native English

speaker as an important criterion when making hiring decisions. 72.3% of the 90 respondents judged the
“native English speaker criterion” to be either moderately or very important. Nonetheless, an overview of the
results reveals that teaching qualifications, performance in interview, teaching experience, educational
background, and recommendations are the most important criteria for recruiters.
Along the same lines, Wong (2009) conducted a case study of untrained ESL tutors and analysis revealed
that: (1) The untrained native English teachers (NETs) tended to use authentic materials rather than traditional
grammar textbooks and that most of them were very creative in lesson plans; (2) the untrained NETs were
concerned about the length of the class and being incapable of explaining grammar and vocabulary; and (3) the
confidence level of the untrained NETs in teaching gained immensely in a short period of time. In another
study Ulate (2011) investigated insights towards native or non-native English teachers and found that a good
language teacher is neither native nor non-native, but one that is professionally and personally prepared to
perform the demanding task of educating others.
In a similar study, Al-Nawrasi (2013) investigated the effect of teachers’ native language on students’
achievement in speaking skills. The findings revealed that teachers’ native language had no significant effect on
students’ overall speaking achievement test scores amongst 10th graders at (ά = 0.05). However, the in-depth
analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between native-ness and pronunciation in favor of the
NESTs and a significant correlation between accuracy and native-ness in favor of the NNESTs.
Some researchers have explored students’ perceptions of native or non-native English speaker teachers
(Cheung, 2002; Samimy & Brutt-Griffler, 1999; Torres, 2004; Lee, 2000). Samimy and Brutt-Griffler (1999)
surveyed and interviewed 177 non-native graduate students. In addition to using a questionnaire they used
classroom discussions, and in-depth interviews. They identified the NESTs as being informal, fluent, accurate,
versatile, and flexible. Moreover, they used conversational and authentic English, provided positive feedback to
students, and had communication as the goals of their teaching. Non-native English speaking teachers
(NNESTs) were perceived as: relying on textbooks, applying differences between the first and second
languages, being aware of negative transfer and psychological aspects of learning, being sensitive to the needs
of students, being more efficient, knowing the students’ background, and having exam preparation as the goal
of their teaching. However, they did not consider the former to be superior to the latter.
Torres (2004) examined the preferences of 102 adult students for NESTs or NNESTs. The results
indicated the students have a general preference for NESTs over NNESTs. They also have stronger preferences
for NESTs in teaching specific skill areas such as pronunciation and writing. Similarly, Madrid (2004) carried
out a study on 459 L2 learners to obtain a deeper insight into students’ perceptions of the influence of native
and non-native teachers on the English language classroom. The results of the study portrayed that students did
not evince a preference for native teachers, whom they value as much as non-native ones. Nonetheless, as the
students advance on to the higher grades, their preference for the native teacher also increases.
In a similar study, Alseweed (2012) conducted a study about university students’ perception of the
influence of native and non-native teachers. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in two stages by
means of students’ questionnaires and interviews. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in
the respondents’ perceptions in favor of NESTs. Students showed more preference for NESTs as they go to
higher levels. Students’ previous learning experiences may affect their general preference for NESTs since they
were taught by both types of teachers. Subjects also exhibited an explicit preference for NESTs in relation to
the teaching strategies adopted. However, the respondents showed moderately favorable attitudes towards

NNESTs who provide a serious learning environment and a favorable response to learners’ needs.
In another study, Kelchand Santana-Williamson (2002) aimed to determine if ESL students could identify
a native from a nonnative accent and if they held a more positive attitude towards teachers with “native”
accents. The results showed that students were able to correctly identify native and nonnative speakers of
English in only 45% of the occasions, and that their perception of the teachers’ nativity strongly influenced the
attitudes they held towards them. Additionally, teachers who were perceived as native speakers were seen as
more likeable, educated, experienced, and overall better teachers, especially for speaking/listening skills.
However, students also mentioned the importance of NNES teachers as role models, source of motivation, and
language learners who understood students’ learning difficulties.
Cheung (2002) indicated that Hong Kong university students made good comments on NETs’ English
proficiency, knowledge of the English speaking cultures, and skills in using English effectively. The subjects
agreed that NNETs are good at grammar, have understanding towards their students as second language
learners, and have common culture knowledge with them. In a similar vein, Mahboob (2004) showed that
students view the speaking ability, lexical and culture knowledge as the strengths of NETs. However, in
Walker’s study (2001), NETs see their responsibility of being cultural consultants to be less important as
language teachers. Instead, they see their teaching roles as improving students’ oral skills. In a similar study,
Walkinshaw and Oanh (2014) conducted a study about native and non-native English language teachers from
student’s perception. Students viewed NESTs as models of pronunciation and correct language use, as well as
being repositories of cultural knowledge, but they also found NESTs poor at explaining grammar, and their
different cultures created tension. Non-NESTs were perceived as good teachers of grammar, and had the ability
to resort to the students’ first language when necessary. Students found classroom interaction with non-NESTs
easier because of their shared culture. Non-NESTs’ pronunciation was often deemed inferior to that of NESTs,
but also easier to comprehend. Some respondents advocated learning from both types of teachers, depending on
learners’ proficiency and the skill being taught.
To sum up, empirical findings can be categorized in to three sub-categories of personal qualities,
professional qualities, and pedagogical skill. Personal qualities include language teachers’ being friendly
(Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008; Feldman, 1976), creative (Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008),
enthusiastic (Salahshour & Hajizadeh, 2012; Witcher, Onwuegbuzie, & Minor, 2001); responsible (Salahshour
& Hajizadeh, 2012; Chen, 2012), young (Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008). Professional qualities include
being either native or non-native English speaker (Ulate, 2011), giving homework (Shishavan & Sadeghi,
2009); incorporating play games (Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008), teaching formal and informal English
(Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008), using pair and group work (Chen, 2012; Arikan, Tasher, &
Sarach-Suzer, 2008). Finally, pedagogical skill include using visual material (Molica & Nuessel,1997), having
correct pronunciation (Arikan, Tasher, & Sarach-Suzer, 2008), managing the classroom (Witcher,
Onwuegbuzie, & Minor, 2001), having subject matter knowledge (Salahshour & Hajizadeh, 2012; Witcher,
Onwuegbuzie, & Minor, 2001).
Implications for Practice

Having reviewed the theoretical perspectives and the empirical findings related to effective teachers and
native or non-native English language teachers, researchers found that the previous studies aimed at improving
the practitioners’ work. In the realm of practice, as far as the improvement of foreign language teaching is

concerned, hopefully the results of this paper and those from a number of related studies may suggest new
approaches to the process of language teachers’ recruitment. Taking theories and empirical findings into
account, it is suggested that supervisors should:
(1) be qualified enough to be the decision maker of the teacher selection process;
(2) consider a set of scientifically acceptable criteria in the process of teacher admission;
(3) incorporate various aspects of effective English language teachers in recruitment;
(4) have critical reasoning and analytical skill to distinguish the best applicants among others;
(5) leave their prejudice behind and consider all important skills related to an effective teacher.
Moreover, the study has precious implications for English language teachers. They:
(1) will be assessed based on the same criteria not supervisors’ subjective judgments;
(2) can be well-prepared before applying for the job;
(3) can adopt characteristics of an effective English language and try to improve themselves based on
these standards.
Conclusion
In the modern competitive world, employers and supervisors are willing to hire professionally qualified
teachers. When they study theoretical perspectives, however, they find them inconclusive and contradictory.
Moreover, they cannot hire teachers on the basis of claims, beliefs, and assumptions. Compared with theoretical
perspectives, empirical findings provide a better basis for hiring and firing teachers. What is missing in the
empirical findings, however, is experimental studies which explore the effect of teachers’ native language on
learners’ language development; hence, though more promising, empirical findings are limited since they
mainly explore teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of native and non-native English teachers rather than explore
the effect of teachers’ native language on learners’ proficiency, fluency, accuracy and achievement. Thus,
instead of judging teachers based on their native language, the field is in urgent need of experimental studies
that study the differential effect of teachers’ native language on learners’ language development.
Moreover, following the discourse of professionalism, irrespective of their native language background
both native English speaking teachers and non-native English speaking teachers should be professionally
trained in TEFL before they enter the profession. Once certified, however, both groups are equally qualified to
enter the profession. Thus, language teacher recruitment discourse needs a shift away from native speaker
fallacy towards professionalism. If native English speaking teachers are qualified to teach English as a foreign
or second language, they should be equally qualified to teach English as their first language. It goes without
saying that native speakers who teach English in their home countries have gone through rigorous training
program. When it comes to teaching English as a foreign language, they are welcomed to the profession on the
basis of their speaking fluency. Not only is this practice professionally unjustified, it is ethically unacceptable
because it goes without saying that a great many native speakers are illiterate in their own language.
References
Al-Nawrasi, O. (2013). The effect of native and nonnative English language teachers on secondary students’ achievement in
speaking skills. Jordan Journal of Educational Sciences, 9(2), 243-254.
Alseweed, M. (2012). University students’ perceptions of the influence of native and non-native teachers. English Language
Teaching, 5(12), 42-53.
Anderson, L. W. (1991). Increasing teacher effectiveness. Paris: UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning.

Anderson, L. W. (2004). Increasing teacher effectiveness. In Fundamentals of educational planning. Paris: UNESCO.
Arikan, A., Tasher, D., & Sarach-Suzer, H. (2008). The effective English language teacher from the perspective of Turkish
preparatory school students. Education and Science, 33(150), 42-51.
Barnes, B. D. (2010). The attributes of effective lecturers of English as a foreign language as perceived by students in a Korean
university. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35(1), 139-152.
Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York: Addison Wesley.
Burton, J. (2000). Learning from teaching practice: A case study approach. Prospect, 15(3), 15-21.
Canagarajah, S. (1999). Interrogating the “native speaker fallacy”: Non-linguistic roots, non-pedagogical results. In G. Braine
(Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp.77-92). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Chen, J. (2012). Favorable and unfavorable characteristics of EFL teachers perceived by university students in Thailand.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(1), 213-219.
Chen, Y., & Lin, S. (2009). Exploring characteristics for effective EFL Teachers: From the perceptions of junior high school
students in Tainan. STUT Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2, 219-249.
Cheung, Y. L. (2002). The attitude of university students in Hong Kong towards native and non-native teachers of English
(Master theses, The Chinese University of Hong Kong).
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Clark, J. C., & Walsh, J. (2002). Elements of a model of effective teachers. Paper presented at AARE Conference, Brisbane.
Cullingford, C. (1995). The “effective” teacher. London: Cassell.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2002). The research and rhetoric on teacher certification: A response to “teacher certification
reconsidered”. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 10(36), 1-55.
Ethell, R. G., & McMeniman, M. M. (2000). Unlocking the knowledge in action of an expert practitioner. Journal of Teacher
Education, 51(2), 87-101.
Farmer, F. (2006).Accountable professional practice in ELT. ELT Journal, 60(2), 160-170.
Feldman, K. A. (1976). The superior college teacher from the students’ view. Research in Higher Education, 5(3), 243-288.
Garcia, E. E. (1991). Effective instruction for language minority students: The teacher. Journal of Education, 173(2), 130-141.
Harmer, J. (1991). The practice of English teaching. Harlow: Longman.
Kelch, K., & Santana-Williamson, E. (2002). ESL students’ attitudes towards native and non native speaking instructors’ accents.
CATESOL Journal, 14(1), 57-72.
Khojastemehr, R., & Takrimi, A. (2009). Characteristics of effective teachers: Perceptions of the English teachers. Journal of
Education and Psychology, 3(2), 53-66.
Kounin, J. S. (1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Lang, H., McKee, B., & Conner, K. (1993). Characteristics of effective teachers: A descriptive study of the perceptions of faculty
and deaf college students. American Annals of the Deaf, 138, 252-259.
Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (2002). University students’ perceptions of native and non-native speaker teachers of English.
Language Awareness, 11(2).
Lee, I. (2000). Can a non-native English speaker be a good English teacher? TESOL Matters, 10(1), 19.
Madrid, D. (2004). Teacher and student preferences of native and nonnative foreign language teachers. Porta Linguarum, 2,
125-138.
Mahboob, A. (2004). Native or nonnative: What do students enrolled in an intensive English program think? In L. D. Kamhi-Stein
(Ed.), Learning and teaching from experience: Perspectives on nonnative English-speaking professional. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
Maum, R. (2001). Non-native English speaking teachers in the English teaching profession. ERIC Digest.
Maum, R. (2002). Nonnative-English-speaking teachers in the English teaching profession. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied
Linguistics.
McKeachie, W. J. (1997). Wanting to be a good teacher: what have we learned to date? In J. L. Bess (Ed.), Teaching well and
liking it: Motivating faculty to teach effectively. Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Medgyes, P. (1992). Native or non-native: Who’s worth more? ELT Journal, 46(4), 340-349.
Medgyes, P. (1994). The non-native teacher. London: Macmillan.
Medgyes, P. (2001). When the teacher is a non-native speaker. In M. Celece-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or
foreign language (pp. 429-442). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Mollica, A., & Nuessel, F. (1997). The good language learner and the good language teacher: A review of the literature. Mosaic, 4,
1-16.
Nayar, P. B. (1994). Whose English is it? TESL-EJ, 1(1), F-1. Retrieved from
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESLEJ/ej01/f.1.html
Park, G., & Lee, H. (2006). The characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by high school teachers and students in
Korea. Asia Pacific Education Review, 7(2), 236-248.
Pettis, J. (1997). Developing our professional competence: Some reflections. TESL Canada Journal, 16(2), 67-71.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rubio, C. (2009). Effective teachers—Professional and personal skills. ENSAYOS, 24, 35-46.
Ruiz-funes, M. T. (2002). On teaching foreign languages: Linking theory to practice. London: Bergin & Garvey.
Salahshour, N., & Hajizadeh, N. (2012). Characteristics of effective EFL instructors: Language learners’ perceptions.
Procedia-Social Behavioral Sciences, 70, 163-173.
Samimy, K., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (1999). To be a native or non-native speaker: perceptions of non-native students in a Graduate
TESOL Program. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp.127-144). London: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Samimy, K., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (1999). To be a native or nonnative speaker: Perceptions of non-native students in a Graduate
TESOL Program. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 127-144). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Shin, S. (2008). Preparing non-native English-speaking ESL teachers. Teacher Development, 12(1), 57-65.
Shishavan, B. H., & Sadeghi, K. (2009). Characteristics of an effective English language teacher as perceived by Iranian teachers
and learners of English. English Language Teacher, 2(4), 130-143.
Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stronge, J. H. (2002). Qualities of effective teachers. Washington DC: ASCD.
Stronge, J., & Hindman, J. (2006). The teacher quality index: A protocol for teacher selection (Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development Alexandria, Virginia, USA).
Swales, J. (1993). The English language and its teachers: thoughts past, present and future. ELT Journal, 47(4), 283-291.
Torres, J. (2004). Speaking up! Adult ESL students’ perceptions of native and non-native English speaking teachers (Unpublished
M.A. Thesis, University Of North Texas).
Ulate, N. (2011). Insights toward native and non-native ELT educators. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language &
Literature, 4(1), 56-79.
Vadillio, R. S. M. (1999). Research on the good language teacher. EPOS, 15, 347-361.
Walker, E. (2001). Roles of native-speaker English teachers (NETs) in Hong Kong secondary schools. Asia Pacific Journal of
Language in Education, 4(2), 51-77.
Walkingshaw, I., & Oanh, D. H. (2014). Native and non-native English language teachers: Student perceptions in Vietnam and
Japan. SAGE, 1-9.
Walls, R. T., Nardi, A. H., Von Minden, A. M., & Hoffman, N. (2002). The characteristics of effective and ineffective teachers.
Teacher Education Quarterly, 39-48.
Wichadee, S. (2010). Defining the effective English language teacher: Students’ and teachers’ perspectives. In A. M. Stoke (Ed.),
JALT2009 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.
Widdowson, H. G. (1994). The ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 377-389.
Witcher, A., Onwuegbuzie, A., & Minor, L. (2001). Characteristics of effective teachers: Perceptions of pre-service teachers.
Research in the Schools, 8, 45-57.
Wong, C. Y. (2009). Are native speakers “good” language instructors? A case study of untrained ESL tutors. ARECLS, 6,
122-140.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.007
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Extensive Reading and Writing Reader’s Response Journal:

The Very Way to Improve Students’ English Proficiency
XU Xiao-qin
Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China
This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English
language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them
opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response
journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students’ ability
and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come
out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process
indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by
means of reading a lot, thus improving the students’ language competence, enlarging their cultural and language
field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in
mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have
been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.
Keywords: communicative competence, extensive reading, reading response journals, language skills
Introduction
Selected Readings in British Literature is one of the required courses in the English B.A. program, and it is
one-semester compulsory course for juniors of English majors at School of Foreign Languages Leshan Normal
University. The course focuses on reading influential pieces, looking at the historical events occurring during
each era, the life of the authors, and writing papers based on English Literature. The course also provides a
sampling of the work of some of the important authors in British Literature. Works are required to be read and
examined for an understanding of them at aerial, an appreciation of the literary forms and for the awareness of
unifying themes that hold together a culture’s conceptual framework. The specific goals are as follows:
(1) Providing the students with a brief outline of the history of British literature up to the first half of the 20th
century;
(2) To help the students to appreciate literary language and to consolidate their fluency in English by reading
a variety of literary texts;
(3) Introducing students the imaginative use of English and to help them towards an appreciation of literary
language and literature;
XU Xiao-qin, professor, Ph.D., School of Foreign Languages, Leshan Normal University.

EXTENSIVE READING AND WRITING READER’S RESPONSE JOURNAL 851
(4) Enabling students to explore their own humanity by trying to discover how they react to literary works,
and what that reaction says about them;
(5) Grounding students in the literary methods or tools used by British writers;
(6) Strengthening students’ ability to read insightfully, to think critically, and to communicate effectively in
discussions and writing;
(7) Preparing the students for the study of literature in English at a higher level and to help them develop
interest in and, hopefully, the habit of reading extensively;
(8) Consolidating and extending the students’ knowledge and fluency in English through interaction with
literary texts;
(9) Exploring the “cultural work” of British literature in many forms—including prose, poetry, drama, and
visual texts such as film and art;
(10) Enhancing students’ understanding of the ways that literature works in particular cultural
contexts—that is, why it emerges when it does and what it targets;
(11) Developing the students’ ability to recognize and express emotional and moral attitudes on a higher
level than about daily occurrences so as to facilitate their communication with educated native speakers.
In order to achieve the teaching goals, the students must do a lot of reading. Only in this way, can they really
master the reading skills, enlarge their vocabulary, enhance their sense of language, and improve other language
skills. Throughout my teaching experiments on English reading, I focus my interests on incorporating the reading
response journals in extensive reading. The result is effective and pleasant. What I stick to do is to make use of
English newspapers and magazines, stories and novels, history books and background information, etc., for
reading response journals activity to fulfill the content objectives of the course and give the students opportunity
to develop skills in reading, speaking, writing, and listening at the same time.
Problems With Reading and Writing

One hundred and forty-eight students of four classes taking Selected Readings in British Literature Course
attend a two-hour course a week in a 17-week semester. Actually they were at a poor level of proficiency in
English capacity especially in reading ability, although they are the juniors. Their abilities to use English are very
low, unable to listen, speak, read, or write in the proper way. In my literature class, the students usually feel at a
loss and encounter many kinds of problems as follows:
(1) Their reading speed is slow. A 500-word reading material takes them over 30 minutes from A to Z. What
is more difficult for them is that they are required to answer the reading comprehension quits;
(2) They are not ready with reading skills, such as scanning, skimming, and screening;
(3) The very limited vocabulary building is one of the obvious obstacles on their way of reading
comprehension;
(4) They have not acquired the habit of reading a lot.
The reason for all the above mentioned is obvious. The students have been influenced by the traditional or
out-of-date English teaching methods still prevailing in most parts of China. At that time of the reading class, a
language teacher played the role of dominator. Until now many teachers still do the same thing. Let us take a
serous look at what the teacher and the students do in the class. The teacher first reads the reading material for the
852 EXTENSIVE READING AND WRITING READER’S RESPONSE JOURNAL
students and then they read it after their teacher. He/She gives a detailed explanation of the new words and
phrases, background information about the reading material. Lastly, he/she helps the students understand the
reading material and checks the reading comprehension exercises. The whole process of teaching generates no
stimulation for students to participate in the reading activity. They just listen to their teacher, take notes, and do
the comprehension exercises. The whole class emphasizes words and phrases, with the students focusing on
grammatical rules instead of ideas, language fluency, and critical thinking. To conclude, the features of
Chinese-English teaching methods go as follows: a concentration on intensive reading as a basis for language
study; a preoccupation with the careful, often painstaking examination of grammatical structure and a
corresponding lack of attention to more communicative skills; the use of memorization and rote learning as a
basic acquisition technique; a strong emphasis on the correction of mistakes, both in written and oral; a view of
literature and a reverence for the printed word which tend to the teaching of non-extensive skills; the use of
translations as both a teaching and learning strategy; the monolithic examination system in China and the
perceived role of the teachers.
Performances With Reading

In the past few years and as a consequence of the multiple changes and innovations taking place in English
language teaching, a great emphasis has been placed on the learner as the main focus of attention. This gives rise
to the notion of learner-centered or learner-based curriculum, which differs notably from the traditional
curriculum, as it is based primarily on a collaborative process between teachers and learners rather than on a
number of rules and norms imposed from outside. I trust many teachers will agree that extensive reading should
be a learner-centered curriculum. Extensive reading outside the classroom is a way of language learning through
large amounts of reading. As well as facilitating acquisition and learning of vocabulary, it is believed to increase
motivation through positive affective benefits.
Proponents such as Krashen (1989) claim that reading alone will increase encounters with unknown words,
bringing learning opportunities by inferencing. The learner’s encounters with unknown words in specific
contexts will allow the learner to infer and thus learn those words’ meanings. While the mechanism is commonly
accepted as true, its importance in language learning is disputed (Cobb, 2007). The purpose of language teaching
is to help students acquire communicative development on that respect. In a broad sense, a person’s
communicative competence can be summarized as four domains of skills: (1) The learner must attain as high a
degree as possible of linguistic competence; (2) The learner must distinguish between the forms he has mastered
as part of his linguistic competence, and the communicative functions that they perform; (3) The learner must
develop skills and strategies for using language to communicate meanings as effectively as possible in concrete
situations; and (4) The learner must become aware of the social meaning of language forms. In Theoretical Bases
of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing (Canale & Swain, 1980), Canale and
Swain elaborate and clarify communicative competence as having three parts: grammatical competence,
pragmatic competence, and strategic competence. We have already noted the necessary competences of forming
correct sentences/grammar and understanding how social context influences speech (sociolinguistics). The
strategic competence involves strategies of avoiding or remedying breakdowns in communication, which are
common occurrences in everyday speech. In fact the strategic competence is knowledge of verbal and non-verbal
communication strategies. They are famous Canale and Swain’s Model of Communicative Competence (Canale
& Swain, 1980). These four kinds of competences are inseparable, with grammatical competence the basic one.
A solid grasp of grammatical knowledge helps to improve other abilities. Without the ability of the other three, it
is difficult to get the meaning across. Hence, language learning should not only include the knowledge of
language, but also the ability to use that language. A teacher should offer students opportunities to do a lot of
reading. They should read all kinds of authentic language materials , such as newspapers, magazines, science
fictions, novels, autobiographies, jokes, detectives stories, and history books, instead of reading their textbooks
only.
At the beginning phase, they are required to read easy English readers, which are simple and interesting.
Gradually, they are required to read newspapers, journals, English books that available in the library. A list of
reading materials for my students’ selection is provided. There are some English Reading Reference Materials as
following:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, Rebecca, The Catcher in
the Rye, Great Expectations, Gone with the Wind, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, David Copperfield,
Treasure Island, The Scarlet Letter, The Portrait of a Lady, Martin Eden, The Great Gatsby, The Old Man and
the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Wuthering
Heights, Great Expectations, Shanghai Students’ Post, 21st Century English, Readers’ Digest, Crazy English,
English World, and English Study. The students have choices in selecting reading materials.The free selection
helps change their attitude toward English reading. They are active in reading activity now. The students are first
required to read one article of their own choice from newspapers, magazines, and books each week before the
class. All these provide the students as the raw material of the reading response journals. After a semester they are
required to read one book each week and the majority of the students can complete the reading task. They are
required to keep a record of their reactions, questions, opinions, and comments about the reading material they
choose to read before class. In the class, these reading response journals are used for discussion. The reading
materials have been proven useful. They provide springboards for lively discussions over social, political,
economic, and sports events. Their topics cover as widely as fields like history, science, people, and technology
and so on. In the summary section, the students are required to summarize the article in more than 100 words. So
the students’ reading journals are useful for the teacher.
Before reading becomes a habit, the teacher needs to be able to monitor the students’ reading, so that he/she
can offer guidance and give encouragement. In the reading class, students read their reading response journals in
pairs, groups, or in overall-class discussions respectively. The students can exchange their views and their
comments, clarify their understanding of problems, enjoy the knowledge and information they have learned
through the reading. While they have discussions, the teacher can check the students’ work and the students get
feedback from the teacher and their classmates. In the class, there is a special question time/period. The students
can ask all kinds of questions. It is the time for the teacher to try his/her best to help the students. More students
enjoy sharing their response journals with their peers and discussing their journals in the whole class because they
are exposed to a variety of interesting and meaningful topics. The activity gives them a chance to practice their
spoken English and listening comprehension. Most of the students feel their understanding is enhanced through
writing reading response journals. The emphasis of the communicative approach is on authentic communication,
854 EXTENSIVE READING AND WRITING READER’S RESPONSE JOURNAL
as well as the integration of the four skills rather than on grammatical analysis, in the classroom, teaching is
student-centered as the core. In the class, there is a special question time/period. In a word, students are
encouraged to take risks and to express their ideas in a creative way with “minimum intervention” from the
teacher as long as the meaning is expressed clearly. Communicative activities give learners more opportunities to
express their own ideas in the classroom and also help learners to integrate the foreign language with their own
personality.
Conclusion
Selected Readings in British Literature is just a one-semester compulsory course for juniors of English
majors at School of Foreign Languages Leshan Normal University. One hundred and forty-eight students taking
Selected Readings in British Literature Course take part in the teaching experiment, and they participate in a lot
of reading activities and writing practice inside and outside the class. They made a rapid progress in reading and
writing. TEM-4 (Test for English Majors-Band 4) as the only national standard test for English majors, has been
increasingly recognized both at home and abroad in recent years. The certificate of TEM-4 is the most
well-received and popular one for English abilities in China. English majors are required to addend the test to
prove their English proficiency. The mandated TEM-4 focuses on testing students’ language proficiency in
listening, reading, and writing. In 2014, all the students took part in the nationwide, standardized English
proficiency test—Test for English Majors-Band 4, 95 percent of the students passed the test finally. Most of the
students performed well in TEM-4, especially in English reading and writing. I should say they have improved a
lot in reading indeed.
As the conclusion to sum up as follows:
(1) Extensive reading opens up a whole new world, enabling students to learn about different people, their
cultures, traditions, customs, outlooks, and the reasons why they behave in certain ways;
(2) Skills learned through extensive reading are transferred to other areas of the language, such as writing,
speaking, and listening;
(3) Extensive reading allows for students to different registers of the target language that they will meet in
varied contexts;
(4) Students build up and increase vocabulary through extensive reading, very important for effective
communication;
(5) By means of reading response journals in extensive reading, students have the chance to read and write
on topics they are interested in before they have a discussion in class. The activity helps improve the students’
writing skills and train them to express themselves;
(6) Thinking in English is the foundation of expressing oneself in English. To achieve this, keep a habit of
reading is one of the most effective pathways.
As a working language in the fields of international finance, trade, industry, information technology, and so
on, English is playing a more important role than ever before in international communication. English is a
worldwide as well as a science research language. English is one of the most indispensable tools in the 21st
century. English is the dominant language of international communication and with increasing globalization, it is
important to have a refined understanding of the nature and structure of English and how we communicate with
each other. Reading extensively and writing reader’s response journal should be the universal channel and the
very way to improve students’ English proficiency.
References
Bell, T. (1998). Extensive reading: Why? and how? The Internet TESL Journal, IV(12).
Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied
Linguistics, 1(1), 1-47.
Cobb, T. (2007). Computing the vocabulary demands of L2 reading. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 38-63.
Harmer, J. (1983). The practice of English language teaching. London: Longman Group Ltd..
Howatt, A. P. R. (1997). A history of English language teaching (6th impression). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis. The Modern
Language Journal, 73(4), 440-464.
Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative language teaching: An introduction. Combridge: Combridge University Press.
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.008
D DAVID PUBLISHING
A Review of Second Language Structural Priming Research
WANG Li
Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
Structural priming reveals a new horizon in the research of bilingual syntactic representations. It facilitates the
interpretation of bilingual syntactic transfer and syntactic misuse. So structural priming in L2 (second language) is
practically meaningful for L2 teaching and learning. This paper attempts to review the within-language and
between-language priming, as well as interaction studies to examine how far research has delved into this field and
suggestions for future research are provided.
Keywords: structural priming, within-language, between-language, interaction
Introduction
Research shows that language users tend to employ a specific syntactic structure after they have had a
previous experience with that structure (in contrast to an equally acceptable structure). This phenomenon is
usually referred to as structural priming. It has been examined in L1 (first language) processing and acquisition,
as well as in L2 processing and learning. The findings of cross-linguistic studies have revealed that syntactic
priming occurs cross-linguistically. Investigation in this field focuses on the facilitative effect that previous
exposure to a certain structure has on subsequent language production, with only a few studies explore whether
previous experience promotes the comprehension of target structures following the prime. The goal of the
present paper is to examine the research of cross-linguistic structural priming, with special attention being paid
to structural priming in L2 processing and learning.
Role of Syntactic Priming in L2 Processing and Learning

Subjects who participate in L2 studies are generally still in the process of learning their L2 via formal
classroom instruction. Their L2 proficiency, consequently, has not reached their ultimate achievement. Thus,
unlike L1 language production research which investigated alternation between two equivalently appropriate
and totally-acquired syntactic structures, studies in L2 processing and learning center on learners’ alternation
between such structures as grammatical and ungrammatical structures, developmentally simple and complex
syntactic structures, and appropriate versus inappropriate ones to investigate the relationship between L2
development and structural priming.
The question that is addressed in present L2 structural priming research is whether syntactic priming
facilitates L2 development. L2 development is of essential significance in L2 research. In L2 processing and
production studies, the materials, or the alternating structures employed in priming research may be equally
acceptable in a learner’s interlanguage but not equally in line with the target language norms. Thus, to judge
whether syntactic priming has occurred, researchers expose language users to both of the alternating structures
WANG Li, lecturer, master, English Department, Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

A REVIEW OF SECOND LANGUAGE STRUCTURAL PRIMING RESEARCH 857
in the priming phase, and calculate the frequency that L2 learners produce them through targets. Tasks usually
used in syntactic priming research include picture description, sentence recall, sentence completion, and
scripted interaction.
Within-Language Priming
Within-language priming research found that priming occurred in L2 speech production. Evidence of
structural priming in both datives (Gries & Wulff, 2005; McDonough, 2006; Schoonbaert, Hartsuiker, &
Pickering, 2007) and alternation in word order between adjective-noun phrases and relative clauses (Bernolet,
Hartsuiker, & Pickering, 2007) are found in previous research. McDonough and Machey (2008) elaborate that
structural priming can promote the production of the developmentally advanced language structure and
suppress the production of the alternative structure in their interlanguage, which is considered to be a potential
role of structural priming. Gries and Wulff (2005) studied the occurrence of syntactic priming in L2 speech
production. Participants in their research are 64 German university students who learn English as L2. Sentence
completion task results uncovered that priming occurred for both double-object and prepositional datives. Both
Schoonbaert, Hartsuiker, and Pickering (2007) and McDounough (2006) employed the scripted interlocutor
tasks to examine dative priming, finding that priming occurred in L2. In his study, McDounough (2006) chose
L2 learners of English with various L1 language background as his subjects and found that priming occurred
for prepositional datives only. A more interesting finding in this field of research comes from McDounough
and Mackey (2008). They explored the relationship between syntactic priming and ESL (English as a Second
Language) question development via scripted interlocutor task and found that priming was associated with
question development, thus proving that structural priming can facilitate L2 learners’ production and enhance
their L2 proficiency.
Between-Language Priming
Between-language priming can help to deepen our understanding of the organization of L1-L2 syntactic
information. Structural priming has been employed to test whether, for bilinguals, syntactic representations are
stored separately or shared. The shared-syntax account indicates that cross-language priming would occur, as
activation of the syntactic structure in one language would facilitate production of the related structure in the
second language.
The findings of between-language priming studies (Desmet & Declercq, 2006; Loebell & Bock, 2003;
Meijer & Fox Tree, 2003; Schoonbaert, Hartsuiker, & Pickering, 2007) have demonstrated that syntactic
priming occurs cross-linguistically, which supports the shared-syntax account. Research of dative priming
shows that cross-linguistic priming occurred in response to single-verb primes (Salamoura & Williams, 2006)
and it was dependent on an overlap between constituent order and thematic roles (Salamoura & Williams,
2007). Another line of research was carried out around the priming of passives. These studies revealed that
priming of passives occurred between languages (Hartsuiker, Pickering, & Veltkamp, 2004) and more passives
occurred when the learners’ prompts had the same verbs produced by the scripted interlocutor (Kim &
McDounough, 2008).
Another research conducted by Desmet and Declercq (2006) examines the occurrence of syntactic priming
related to hierarchical tree configuration. Eighty-four university students participated in the relative clause
attachment test via a sentence completion task. They concluded that priming occurred independent of

858 A REVIEW OF SECOND LANGUAGE STRUCTURAL PRIMING RESEARCH
subcategorization frames or individual syntactic rules.

Between-language priming is dependent on the theoretical basis that L1 and L2 syntax share the same
representation. If there is a complete sharing of syntactic representation of L1 and L2, there will be no
difference between the degree of within-language priming and between-language priming. Divergence of
findings, however, exists in present studies. Bernolet, Hartsuiker, and Pickering (2007) found that
cross-linguistic priming occurred only when the L1 and L2 had similar word order, that is, greater
within-language priming occurred than between-language priming. Thereby, we can conclude that there is no
complete sharing of syntactic representation between L1 and L2. However, the degree of priming may be
influenced by various factors, such as testing material and structure, which need further exploration. Besides,
the degree of priming may change with the development of learners’ L2 proficiency.
Implicitness of Syntactic Priming

Implicit learning refers to the incidental tuning or adjustment of the tendencies of a processing system as a
function of experience (Ferreira & Bock, 2006). The implicit learning account in structural priming
demonstrates that structural priming is a form of implicit, production-specific procedural learning. This
learning process makes language processing system adjusted to previous experience with the target language.
Evidence in favor of the implicit learning account center upon the points that structural priming is long-lasting
(Bock & Griffin, 2000), learning (Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1998), and implicit (Bock, Loebell, & Morey, 1992). In
other words, syntactic priming is independent of explicit memory. It is an unconscious process in which
language learners grasp the key of abstract information processing. Results of studies show the persistence of
structural priming effects, indicating its nature of implicit learning.
Interaction and Alignment in Priming Research

L2 development is facilitated by interactions which combine input, internal learner capacities, and
language production. Alignment in these interactions is a socio-cognitive process evolved from constant
coordination and adaptation in the process of interaction, whether it is interaction between learners or between
learners and the text read. L2 classroom researchers (Havranek, 2002; Panova & Lyster, 2002; Sheen, 2004)
have investigated L2 teachers’ interactional feedback in response to learners’ non-standard language
forms and whether various types of interactional feedback are more likely to result in learner uptake. This
line of research helps to further our understanding of the nature and effect of teachers’ feedback to students.
Their studies, however, focus only on those learner responses in the immediate wake of the teacher’s feedback
move.
WANG and WANG (2014) investigated how L2 writing is affected by alignment, showing that alignment
exists in writing when participants performed the English-version continuation task, as they used more lexical
items in the text provided and thus made significantly fewer errors. In contrast, their performance on the
Chinese-version continuation task which activated the learners’ L1 contextual knowledge elicited significantly
more L1 transfer errors. Their study makes structural priming research delve into the area further by combining
production with comprehension on syntax level and discourse level. It indicates ways to curb L1 transfer by
maximizing L2 involvement and providing exact positive input followed by production task. However, as they
have pointed out, there is still more to be examined at the syntactic level of this alignment effect.

A REVIEW OF SECOND LANGUAGE STRUCTURAL PRIMING RESEARCH 859
Conclusion
A brief review of structural priming research conducted in L2 language processing and learning reveals
that we are getting closer to the nature of bilingual syntactic representations. However, there are still issues
needing further exploration. Researchers may gain greater insight into the mechanisms involved in syntactic
priming as well as its role in language processing and learning providing we target other language structures
and other populations more frequently. With regard to experimental task, researchers can incorporate more
discourse-level elements into structural priming research, along with the study in sentence-level language
production.
For interaction research, we can probe the question whether individual differences, such as aptitudes and
working memory capacity, might possibly help L2 language learners benefit from the implicit learning
processes intertwined with structural priming. As for L2 classroom research, we can still further explore
whether certain types of interactional feedback facilitate primed production and explore teacher-learner as well
as learner-learner interaction.
References
Bernolet, S., Hartsuiker, R., & Pickering, M. (2007). Shared syntactic representations in bilinguials: Evidence for the role of
word-order repetition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 931-949.
Bock, K., Loebell, H., & Morey, R. (1992). From conceptual roles to structural relations: Bridging the syntactic cleft.
Psychological Review, 99, 150-171.
Bock, J. K., & Griffin, Z. M. (2000). The persistence of structural priming: Transient activation or implicit learning? Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 177-192.
Desmet, T., & Declercq, M. (2006). Cross-linguistic priming of syntactic hierarchical configuration information. Journal of
Memory and Language, 54, 610-632.
Ferreira, V., & Bock, J. K. (2006). The functions of structural priming. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21, 1011-1029.
Gries, S. T., & Wulff, S. (2005). Do foreign language learners also have constructions? Evidence from primig, sorting and corpora.
Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 3, 182-200.
Hartsuiker, R. J., Pickering, M. J., & Veltkamp, E. (2004). Is syntax separate or shared between languages? Psychological Science,
15, 409-414.
Hartsuiker, R. J., & Kolk, H. H. J. (1998). Syntactic persistence in Dutch. Language and Speech, 41, 143-184.
Havranek, G. (2002). When is corrective feedback most likely to succeed? International Journal of Educational Research, 37,
255-270.
Kim, Y., & McDounough, K. (2008). Learners’ production of passives during syntactic priming activities. Applied Linguistics, 29,
149-154.
Loebell, H., & Bock, K. (2003). Structural priming across languages. Linguistics, 41, 791-824.
Mc Donough, K. (2006). Interaction and syntactic priming: English L2 speakers’ production of dative constructions. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 28, 179-207.
McDonough, K., & Mackey, A. (2008). Syntactic priming and ESL question development. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 30, 31-47.
Meijer, P. J. A., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2003). Building syntactic structures in speaking: A bilingual exploration. Experimental
Psychology, 50, 184-195.
Panova, I., & Lyster, R. (2002). Patterns of corrective feedback and uptake in an adult ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 36,
573-595.
Salamoura, A., & Williams, J. N. (2006). Lexical activation of cross-language syntactic priming. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 9, 299-307.
Salamoura, A., & Williams, J. N. (2007). Processing verb argument structure across languages: Evidence for shared
representations in the bilingual lexicon. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 627-660.

860 A REVIEW OF SECOND LANGUAGE STRUCTURAL PRIMING RESEARCH
Schoonbaert, S., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Pickering, M. J. (2007). The representation of lexical and syntactic information in bilinguals:
Evidence from syntactic priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 56, 153-171.
Sheen, Y. (2004). Corrective feedback and learner uptake in communicative classrooms across instructional settings. Language
Teaching Research, 8, 263-300.
WANG, C. M., & WANG, M. (2014). Effect of alignment on L2 written production. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-25.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.009
D DAVID PUBLISHING
When Prior Knowledge Helps: Self-Report of First-Year

University Undergraduates on Academic Writing
Uju C. Ukwuoma
Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), Palapye, Botswana
This qualitative-dominant mixed study used content analysis, interviews, and survey to examine if first-year
university undergraduates taking English language academic writing courses consider prior knowledge from high
school English language five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. Sample included 67 first year university
undergraduates. All the 67 students considered prior knowledge of the high school five-paragraph essay writing
style helpful. They believed that it facilitated a transfer of learning in the first-year university undergraduate
academic writing course. However, only 15 out of the respondents, who reported that prior knowledge of the high
school English language five-paragraph essay writing style was helpful, also reported that they are level-appropriate
competent in the first-year university undergraduate English language academic writing courses after one academic
year. As such, essay-writing in high school offers students some foundation-knowledge to succeed in academic
writing in universities. Further findings showed that students often delve into essay or academic writing without
proper planning. Thus, it is recommended that universities introduce a bridge course specifically to address
academic deficiency in reading and writing for all first year undergraduates upon admission into the university.
Keywords: academic writing, first-year university students, essay writing, five-paragraph style
Writing is perceived as a challenging field to measure (Munoz-Luna, 2013; Nelson & Calfee, 1998), yet
schools are using writing to measure the progress of their students in various fields due to the importance
attached to writing (Blaxter, Hughes, & Tight, 1998; Cramarenco, Moraru, Balazsi, & Aluas, 2015; Walker,
Golde, Jones, Conklin, Bueschelp, & Hutchings, 2008). Thus, several studies have established the need for
students to receive appropriate instruction on how to write (Chovance, 2012; Curry & Hewings, 2003; Jabulani,
2014; Kern & Schultz, 2005; Poel & Gasiorek, 2012). Accordingly, high school essay is expected to prepare
students for the academic writing they will encounter in university education. Nevertheless, researchers have
documented the existence of enormous evidence showing that majority of high school graduates lack adequate
preparation for academic writing during their first year of university education (Fitzhugh, 2006; Hotchkiss &
Hougen, 2012; Heller & Greenleaf, 2007). Indeed, some scholars attribute such unpreparedness to the
five-paragraph essay writing style that high school students learn because it is formulaic and does not expose
them to mental challenges (Foley, 1989; Tremmel, 2011; Wesley, 2000).
Conversely, other scholars applaud and describe the five-paragraph essay as appropriate in preparing high
school students for university because such writing style provides a starting point for students to learn how to
Dr. Ukwuoma, a literacy researcher, teaches advanced research courses for the Technical Writing and Academic Literacy
(TWAL), Unit of BIUST. He can be reached at ujucukwuoma@aol.com or ukwuomac@biust.ac.bw.

862 WHEN PRIOR KNOWLEDGE HELPS
write (Perin, 2000; Seo, 2007; Smith, 2006). Incidentally, the controversy in determining if the five-paragraph
essay writing style helps or hurts writing instruction has lingered unabated for years (Nunes, 2013). In spite of
this controversy, little or no study has examined if first-year university undergraduates taking English language
academic writing courses consider their prior knowledge of high school English language five-paragraph essay
writing style helpful. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine if first-year university undergraduates
taking English language academic writing courses consider prior knowledge of high school English language
five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. The following research questions guided the study: (1) Do first-year
university undergraduates report that prior knowledge of high school English language five-paragraph essay
writing style is helpful in university English language academic writing courses? (2) Do first-year university
undergraduates who reported that prior knowledge of high school English language five-paragraph essay
writing style is helpful, also report that they are level-appropriate competent in first-year university
undergraduate English language academic writing courses after one academic year?
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of this study is the process approach to writing (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, &
McKeachie, 1993; Nist & Simpson, 2000). The process paradigm is often evaluated and reevaluated by
theorists, researchers, and teachers who are creating innovative approaches to drive writing instruction. Thus,
advocates of process writing draw from various fields and multiple perspectives including the theories of
cognitive and meta-cognitive processes. As a result, reading and writing instruction has moved from sole focus
on one strategy to focusing on processes. Indeed, it is not only the actual writing that is important, prewriting
activities are also important in the writing process because they contribute to the production of a particular
piece of writing. At the university level, students should be taught to focus on prewriting, writing, and rewriting
strategies. Specifically, writing should be viewed as a recursive rather than linear process. In other words,
teachers should not reduce writing to rules and regulations because the process approach considers writing as
holistic and intuitive, which is rational and sometimes non-rational.
Literature Review
Many university students around the world struggle with academic writing in such areas as research
reports and discipline specific essays (Ketsitlile & Bulawa, 2012). University students are often asked to write
for the purpose of discovering what they have learned (Johnson, Smagorinsky, Thompson, & Fry, 2003;
Mutnick, 1996). As such, academic writing plays an important role for students in undergraduate programs
(Noll & Fox, 2003). First-year university undergraduates in African universities are not different from their
peers around the world in being frustrated with academic writing. As such, Ukwuoma (2014b) implored
teachers in universities in Africa to integrate writing and reading instruction into content areas. Ukwuoma
(2014b) noted that writing is a lifelong activity because as one writes in a particular way for a given subject,
one also learns about making sense of the subject. Although school subjects organize knowledge differently, it
is helpful for students because they learn about those subjects as they write about them (Crème & Lea, 2008).
Thus, university teachers and literacy professionals have important roles to play in this respect because the
way a teacher delivers his or her subject matter will promote or inhibit learning. Several researchers have found
that high school graduates lack the experience, skills, and knowledge of academic writing (Bizzell, 1982;
Caffarella & Barnet, 2000; Jalongo, 2002). Indeed, high school students enter universities as if they have not

WHEN PRIOR KNOWLEDGE HELPS 863
been exposed to any form of academic writing hence unable to tackle the rigors of academic writing (Fitzhugh,
2006; Hotchkiss & Hougen, 2012; Heller & Greenleaf, 2007). Majority of first-year university undergraduates
consider writing a difficult task and often grapple with how to get started with their writing. In their study,
Crème and Lea (2008) found that blank pages induce panic on students because they often do not know how to
write. According to Murray and Moore (2009), many first-year university undergraduates spend lots of time
reading but struggle when it comes to putting their ideas on paper. To encourage students in their writing
journey, university teachers and literacy professionals should inform students that academic writing does not
mean a finished written work because it includes the mistakes they make in the writing process. Accordingly,
Murray and Moor (2009) described writing as “a continuous process involving reflection, improvement,
development, progress and fulfillment of various types and in varying measures” (p. 5).
Lack of confidence is another reason why many university students struggle with academic writing
(Crème & Lea, 2008). To illustrate, students feel like they do not have anything to write about. Although
writing can be a daunting task, there are teachable skills that will help students improve their writing so they
can change their perspectives regarding academic writing. To facilitate a change in perspective, first-year
university undergraduates should accept writing and reading like any other lifelong activity, which requires
time to attain proficiency (Ukwuoma, 2014b). Conversely, high school teachers should vary their teaching to
lay the necessary foundation for students to learn how to write in specific disciplines when they become
university undergraduates. This is necessary because writing is a crucial skill used to evaluate the readiness of
high school students for academic writing in different fields in the universities (Conley, 2007). On the other
hand, students should accept the idea that learning how to write requires patience and dedication.
What is more worrisome, however, is that students entering university are unfamiliar with discourse
communities of their disciplines. When students are unaware of the discourse communities of their disciplines,
they find academic writing a challenge. Therefore, it is important for university teachers to help students learn
the discourse community in their various disciplines to avoid being “locked outside the community’s
discourse” (Noll & Fox, 2003, p. 332). Similarly, Bazerman (1985) emphasized that students should learn “the
conversations of the discipline” (p. 10) to improve their academic writing skills. Crème and Lea (2008)
identified lack of proficiency in English language as a major setback for learners of academic writing. As such,
students should go back to the basics and work to understand English tenses, parts of speech, how to use the
right word order and punctuation. In spite of the challenges students encounter in learning English, it is
important for students to do well in the language because proper use of English improves academic
performance and makes students employable in an austere world especially because English is a global
language (Casale & Posel, 2011; Chou, 1991; Crystal, 1997; Hanson, 1997; Sanmugam & Harun, 2013).
Students also struggle with understanding the purpose of the different stages of writing such as planning,
introduction, paragraph development and use of connectives, conclusion, proof-reading, and editing. It is
important for students to make out time for initial planning before they embark on the actual writing. They
should also consider planning, drafting, redrafting, editing, and the final write-up as part of an iterative and
recursive process in writing. Furthermore, students should enjoy academic writing so it can be meaningful to
them (Crème & Lea, 2008). This is particularly important because it has been noted that “your writing can be a
companion to your learning rather that an imposing enemy” (Murray & Moore, 2009, p. 5). Working as part of
a group or pair can also motivate students to see the fun in academic writing, which is rewarding and

worthwhile. Irrespective of how difficult academic writing is, students should understand that the journey to
becoming a writer is an important journey. Academic writing is a journey that leads us to “many new
discoveries about ourselves, about our ideas, about the world in which we live and about our professional
identities as academics, teachers, researchers and scholars” (Murray & Moore, 2009, p. 4).
Research Method
Design and Instruments
This study was a qualitative dominant mixed research (i.e., QUAL + quan), also known as
qualitatively-driven mixed research (Johnson, 2012). The inquiry applied a purposeful random sampling frame
comprising of well-informed sources to ascertain the opinion of two groups of first-year university
undergraduates who completed three different courses that lasted for two semesters (Kemper, Stringfield, &
Teddlie, 2003; Patton, 1987). The survey was conducted using a researcher developed Self-Report of Academic
Writing Questionnaire (SRAW-Q). The SRAW-Q was hand-delivered to allow respondents indicate their
preferences on closed questions and to respond to open ended questions (Bryman, 2006; Ukwuoma, 2015a).
Furthermore, the participants were interviewed and their writing samples obtained for analysis to facilitate data
triangulation (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2008).
Participants
A total of 67 students who recently completed the following courses (1) English language for academic
writing; (2) general education course in communication and academic literacy for social sciences; and (3)
research and academic writing for sciences, participated in the initial survey during the first semester of
2012–2013 academic session. They also participated in the follow-up writing sample analysis and interview,
which took place during the second semester of 2014–2015 school year. The participants were drawn from two
regionally accredited public universities in Botswana in the southern hemisphere of Africa. The writing
samples of 20 students were randomly chosen for analysis whereas the researcher engaged 15 students in
qualitative interviews (i.e., “interviews that sacrifice uniformity of questions to achieve fuller development of
information”, Weiss, 1994, p. 3). The analyzed writing samples were discipline specific covering topics in
research and the social sciences such as poverty, governance, research designs, and philosophical worldviews.
The participants chosen for qualitative interview were those who indicated that they have level-appropriate
competence in the first-year university undergraduate academic writing courses after one academic year.
Analysis
Responses to SRAW-Q were analyzed using simple frequency count and percentile distribution
(Ukwuoma, 2015a) whereas content analysis, which is a systematic and objective procedure for analyzing
written work (Elo & Kyngas, 2008), were carried out on the essay samples. Data from the qualitative interview
were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the framework of Yin (2011), which recommends compiling,
disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding. Specifically, regarding the interviews, themes
emerged through constant comparison analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998; Ukwuoma, 2015b). Although the
respondents were a convenience sample, they were purposively selected as students of English language
academic writing courses to increase credibility. As such, they constituted an “information-rich source” (Patton,
1987, p. 58; Ukwuoma, 2015b), capable of providing answers to the research questions of this study.

Results
The purpose of this study was to examine if first-year university undergraduates taking English language
academic writing courses consider prior knowledge from high school English language five-paragraph essay
writing style helpful. Quantitative data from survey results showed that in 2012, all of the 67 SRAW-Q
respondents reported that they are proficient in the high school five-paragraph essay writing style. After one
academic session, all of the respondents indicated agreement to the idea that prior knowledge of the high school
five-paragraph essay writing style facilitated a transfer of learning in the first-year university undergraduate
academic writing courses. However, only 15 out of the respondents, who reported that prior knowledge of the
high school English language five-paragraph essay writing style was helpful, also reported that they are
level-appropriate competent in the first-year university undergraduate English language academic writing
courses after one academic year. Data from the qualitative component of this study was similar to results from
the quantitative data but it offered examples from writing samples and interview transcripts to corroborate
findings from the quantitative data.
Some observations from the writing sample are noted as follows:
(1) Planning: In some of the writing samples, participants did not seem to have thought of planning their
writing or using outlines. Most of them did not engage in any pre-writing activity. Specifically, the students
appear unaware of pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming, clustering, free writing, and mind mapping.
They just plunged into the actual writing. Those who appeared to have planned their writing limited their works
to five-paragraphs even when their sentences indicated that they had more to write about; (2) Introduction:
Some of the participants did not give their readers a clear path or structure to follow in their essays. The length
of introductory sections of some of the reviewed writing samples were more than one and half pages in a three-
page long essay; (3) Paragraph development: Most of the writing samples did not show clear linkage from the
introductory paragraphs to other parts of the work. Some of the written work had too many ideas clustered in
one paragraph; (4) Reference: Some of the participants who presented definitions failed to acknowledge their
sources; and (5) Conclusions: Although most students did well in dedicating their last paragraphs to
conclusions, they did not link their conclusions to the introduction as a way of engaging the reader.
Discussion
During the interview, participants indicated that they are aware of the purpose of an introduction in discipline
specific essay as well as the need to link it to the conclusion yet did not do that. According to one student, “I did
not consider it important because I thought the essay only wanted me to define and explain”. It is important to
point out that an introduction is necessary to give the reader a window to the rest of the work. The absence of an
introduction breeds incoherence and makes readers wonder what will come next. Other students acknowledged
that they “try everything possible to limit their essays to five-paragraphs”. As a result of such misunderstanding,
easy flow of reading is disturbed including the understanding of ideas and concepts. Some of the participants
also forgot to make clear linkage from one paragraph to the other, which means that ideas did not flow in
logical sequence in most of the essays. Some students failed to conclude their essays. As with the introduction,
some students had no idea of the function or purpose of a conclusion in a text or how to draw a conclusion in an
academic essay. Even when some students concluded their essays properly, it was difficult to get the main ideas
because they often have unclear sequence and ideas that are not clearly supported and argued.

Most of the essays were not focused on the assigned topics. In other words, some students submitted
irrelevant materials. A handful of students wrote compelling essays yet they describe academic writing as
frustrating,
I find academic writing frustrating because writing in university is very different from the high school writing, in
secondary school we were allowed to be creative as much as we want, with academic writing, even if one tries his best to
write well, he will be told that he did not put enough effort in their writing.
Some of the students described academic writing as boring, “academic writing is boring because there is
no fun in it. We are told what to do. Maybe the lecturers need to make it more enjoyable for the students”. It is
important to point out that if teachers of writing allow students to own and sometimes, determine what they
write, the perception that writing is boring may be reduced among students (Flint & Cappello, 2003). Most of
the students also pointed out that academic writing is formulaic like the five-paragraph essay particularly when
it comes to referencing.
Implications and Conclusion

Only a few of the students who participated in this study can be said to have level-appropriate competence
or some proficiency in first-year university undergraduate academic writing courses. The knowledge of high
school five-paragraph essay writing style somehow facilitated a transfer of learning in university level
academic writing courses. Yet, freshmen acknowledge that they struggle more with English language academic
writing courses than they did during high school. Although universities have higher academic expectations
from their students than high schools, it is clear from this study that students lack experience, skill, and
knowledge of academic writing, which is essential to excel in university education. As such, there is need for a
bridge course for students entering university. This course will highlight the basics of academic writing and the
different discourse communities for different disciplines in universities. In addition, this course will be an ideal
way to engage students as writers and arouse their interest, curiosity, and love for academic writing.
Furthermore, policy makers should ensure that university campuses are equipped with functional Writing
Centers to scaffold students learning. Writing teachers in the university should work collaboratively with
language teachers. On the other hand, students should form and be part of writing groups to assist one another
with their writing. Most importantly, the controversy bordering on whether high school essay writing style
hurts or helps students in academic writing is unnecessary. On the whole, if high school academic writing is
properly articulated, it can prepare students with the necessary foundational knowledge to succeed in academic
writing in universities and professional communications outside of schools.
References
Aina, J. K., Alexander, G. O., & Shola, S. O. (2013). Students’ proficiency in English language: Relationship with academic
performance in science and technical education. American Journal of Educational Research, 1(9), 355-358.
Bazerman, C. (1985). Physicist reading physics: Schema-laden purposes and purpose-laden schema. Written Communication, 2,
3-23.
Bizzell, P. (1982). College composition: Initiation into the discourse community. Curriculum Inquiry, 12, 191-207.
Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (1998). Writing on academic careers. Studies in Higher Education, 23(3), 282-295.
Bryman, A. (2006). Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: How is it done? Qualitative Research, 6(1), 97-113.
Caffarella, R. S., & Barnet, B. G. (2000). Teaching doctoral students to become scholarly writers: The importance of giving and
receiving critiques. Studies in Higher Education, 25, 39-52.

Casale, D., & Posel, D. (2011). English language proficiency and earnings in a developing country: The case of South Africa.
Journal of Socioeconomics, 40, 385-393.
Chilisa, B., & Preece, J. (2005). Research methods for adult educators in Africa. Cape Town: Pearson Educational South Africa.
Chou, C. T. (1991). A study on the effect of early start in learning English as reflected in children’s later English competence.
English Teaching and Learning, 15, 45-54.
Chovance, J. (2012). Written academic discourse in English: From local traditions to global outreach. Brno Studies in English,
38(2), 5-16.
Conley, D. T. (2007). Redefining college readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Centre.
Cramarenco, R. E., Moraru, C., Balazsi, R., & Aluas, M. (2015). Meta-analysis versus systematic review in studies regarding
specific interventions in academic writing in English. Cognition, Brain, Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, XIX(1),
55-73.
Crème, P., & Lea, M. (2008). Writing at university. Berkshire: Open University Press.
Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Curry, M. J., & Hewings, A. (2003). Approaches to teaching writing. In C. Coffin, M. J. Curry, S. Goodman, A. Hewings, T. M.
Lillis, and J. Swann (Eds.), Teaching academic writing: A toolkit for higher education. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Elo, S., & Kyngas, H. (2008). The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62(1), 107-115.
Fitzhugh, W. (2006). Where’s the “content”? Educational Leadership, 64(2), 42-46.
Flint, A. S., & Capello, M. (2003). Negotiating voice and identity in classroom writing events. In C. M. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, B.
Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, and D. L. Schallert (Eds.), 52nd yearbook of the national reading conference (pp. 181-193). Oak
Creek: NRC.
Foley, M. (1989). Unteaching the five paragraph essay. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 16(4), 231-235.
Hanson, J. (1997). The mother of all tongues: Review of David Crystal’s English as a global language. Times Higher Education
Supplement, 12(88), 22.
Heller, R., & Greenleaf, C. L. (2007). Literacy instruction in the content areas: Getting to the core of middle and high school
improvement. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Hotchkiss, K., & Hougen, M. (2012). Writing like a historian: What teacher candidates should know and be able to teach. The
Social Studies, 103, 149-157.
Jalongo, M. R. (2002). Writing for publication: A practical guide for educators. Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon.
Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2012). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches (4th ed.). Los
Angeles, CA: Sage.
Johnson, T. S., Smagorinsky, P., Thompson, L., & Fry, P. G. (2003). Learning to teach the five-paragraph theme. Research in the
teaching of English, 38(2), 1399-1436.
Jabulani, S. (2014). An analysis of the language of attribution in university students’ academic essays. South African Journal of
Education, 34(3), 1-10.
Kemper, E. A., Stringfield, S., & Teddlie, C. (2003). Mixed methods sampling strategies in social science research. In A.
Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 273-296). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kern, R., & Schultz, J. M. (2005). Beyond orality: Investigating literacy and the literary in second and foreign language
instruction. The Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 381-392.
Ketsitlile, L. E., & Bulawa, P. (2012). A Summary test: Criterion for majoring in the English language and literature at the
University of Botswana. NAWA: Journal of Language and Communication, 6(2).
Leech, N. L., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2008). Qualitative data analysis: A compendium of techniques for school psychology
research and beyond. School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 587-604.
Moje, E. B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107.
Munoz-Luna, R. (2013). From drills to CLIL: The paradigmatic and methodological evolution towards the integration of content
and foreign language. Profile Journal, 16(1), 167-180.
Murray, R., & Moore, S. (2009). The handbook of academic writing: A fresh approach. Berkshire: Open University.
Mutnick, D. (1996). Writing in an alien world: Basic writing and the struggle for equality in higher education. Portsmouth:
Boynton/Cook.

Nelson, N., & Calfee, R. (1998). The reading-writing connection viewed historically. In N. Nelson and R. Calfee (Eds.), The
reading-writing connection (pp. 1-52). Chicago: NSSE.
Nist, S. L., & Simpson, M. L. (2000). College studying. In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, and R. Barr (Eds),
Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3). New Jersey: LEA.
Noll, E., & Fox, D. L. (2003). Supporting beginning writers of research: Mentoring graduate students entry into academic
discourse communities. In C. M. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, B. Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, and D. L. Schallert (Eds.), 52nd yearbook
of the national reading conference (pp. 332-344). Oak Creek: NRC.
Nunes, M. J. (2013). The five-paragraph essay: Its evolution and roots in theme-writing. Rhetoric Review, 32(3), 295-313.
Patton, M. Q. (1987). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Perin, R. (2000). 10:00 and 2:00: A ten-paragraph defense of the five-paragraph theme. Teaching English in the Two-Year College,
27(3), 312-314.
Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A., Garcia, T., & McKeachie, W. J. (1993). Reliability and predictive Validity of the Motivation
Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (VMSLQ). Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 801-813.
Poel, K., & Gasiorek, J. (2012). Effects of an efficacy focused approach to academic writing on students’ perceptions of
themselves as writers. Journal of English for English for Academic Purposes, 11(4), 294-303.
Sanmugam, S. T., & Harun, R. N. (2013). Technical instructions in English: Voices of technical lecturers. Journal of Technical
Education Training, 5(1), 1-3.
Seo, B. (2007). Defending the five paragraph essay. English Journal, 97(2), 15-16.
Smith, K. (2006). In defense of the five paragraph essay. English Journal, 95(4), 16-17.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Tremmel, M. (2011). What to make of the five paragraph theme: History of the genre and implications. Teaching English in the
Two-Year College, 39(1), 29-42.
Ukwuoma, C. U. (2014a). College lecturer’s perspectives on the role of Nigerian Creole in teacher education. Retrieved from
http://gradworks.umi.com/35/80/3580948.html
Ukwuoma, U. C. (2014b). Reflections on a reading clinic at one university: Roles and responsibilities. NAWA: Journal of
Language and Communication (NJLC), 8(2), 106-118.
Ukwuoma, U. C. (2015a). Mixed research: Exploring postgraduate students perspectives. International Journal of Novel Research
in Education and Learning, 2(4), 135-141.
Ukwuoma, U. C. (2015b). Nigerian Creole as language of instruction: Will Nigerian lecturers use Nigerian Creole? Reading &
Writing, 6(1), 75, 1-8.
Walker, G. E., Golde, C. M., Jones, L., Conklin Bueschel, A., & Hutchings, P. (2008). The formation of scholars: Rethinking
doctoral education for the twenty-first century. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Weiss, R. S. (1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. New York. NY: The Free
Press.
Wesley, K. (2000). The ill effects of the five paragraph theme. English Journal, 90(1), 57-60.
Yin, R. K. (2011). Qualitative research from start to finish. New York, NY: Guilford.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.010
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Application of Stylistics in British

and American Literature Teaching
XU Li-mei, QU Lin-lin
Stylistics applies modern linguistic theory to the description of and analysis into varieties of language and their
stylistic features. As such it may serve to investigate the styles of British and American literary works, thus
facilitating the teaching of British and American literature. This paper, after surveying the basic stylistic theory and
its relevance to research on and teaching of literature, illustrates how to effectively adopt the method of stylistic
analysis in the teaching of British and American literature.
Keywords: stylistics, style, teaching of British and American literature
Introduction
In current college English teaching, people often ask the students to read a lot of literary works. While how
to determine the selection criteria of literary works is of vital importance in the teaching process, which affects
the teaching quality and students’ knowledge for the depth and breadth of vision. In general, the criterion for the
selection of literary works is its position in English literature, such as Shakespeare’s works. For college students,
the British and American literature works are very difficult to understand, but it is required reading in college
English teaching. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the application of stylistics in British and American
literature teaching.
Stylistics
The Definition of Stylistics
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics, and is also a comprehensive interdisciplinary subject in the study of
characteristics, essence, and rules of text genre between linguistics, literary theory, aesthetics, psychology, and
other disciplines. Such as Lazar (2005) says in “Stylistics and Language Practice” that stylistics is the overall
performance of method and expression style purposefully selected in the specific communication field. It is
formed in history, and accepted by the complete society as a whole system. Stylistics is the science used to study
and discuss the system. Besides, it is also an independent branch of linguistics to express ideas more efficiently,
and to study the principle of language materials chosen and used.
XU Li-mei, lecturer, Ph.D. candidate, Foreign Languages College, Changchun University.

QU Lin-lin, lecturer, Ph.D. candidate, Foreign Languages College, Changchun University.
870 THE APPLICATION OF STYLISTICS IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE TEACHING
The Characteristics of Stylistics

As a cross sectional much edge discipline, the characteristics of stylistics are to study a science of object
with the application of another science method, thus making different scientific methods and objects organically.
Stylistics is born in the border of several disciplines, and constantly penetrating to expand their areas.
Stylistics broke the traditional boundaries between disciplines which seem to be independent of each other,
which makes some new face on disciplines such as linguistics and literary criticism. The character of stylistics
making different field boundary promotes the interaction and penetration of different disciplines, and gradually
tends to integrate. Besides, the character of borderline is also a reflection of modern science and technology
development tendency for stylistics, which is namely the highly differentiated of science and technology and the
highly integrated of mutual penetration of natural science and social science.
The Application Analysis of Stylistics in British and American Literature Teaching

In the teaching of English and American literature, how to guide students to master the language features of
a literary text? How to use linguistic concepts and techniques to discuss these characteristics and sublimate it into
a style? How to analyze the aesthetic feeling of this kind of style and the causal relationship between the whole
works of art achievement? In general, people can take the following steps to finish the program.
Analyze the Diction
The meaning of words in a literary text is not limited to the definition in the dictionary. In the context of the
constructed these words affect each other, so does their semantics. To describe the stylistic features of a writer
words people have to research this mutual relationship between words and the resulting stylistic meaning. When
reading a poem, a novel, people should firstly try to know who is the narrator, the author, or his (her) characters.
Then, the reader should analyze the level of language used, standard, or nonstandard English. Besides, people
should also understand the word, whether simple or not. Is it general or specific? Is an abstract noun or concrete
noun? Is static verb or dynamic? Answers to these questions will help readers to grasp the writer language style.
The first paragraph of the following two paragraphs comes from Hemingway’s A Farewell to Amts, and the
second paragraph comes from the United States novelist Theodore The Titan quoted from Edgar v. Rogerts.
Contrasting the two different language characteristics can make us further realize the tendency of wording of the
writers is a part of their individual style feature.
[Hemingway]:
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the
mountains.
In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly
moving and blue in the channels.
Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised pondered the leaves of the tress. (Hemingway,
1929, p. 76)
[Dreiser]:
From New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine had come a strange company, earnest, patient, determined,
unschooled in even the primer of refinement, hungry far something the significance of which, when they had it, they
could not even guess, anxious to be called great, determined so to be without ever knowing how. (Dreiser, 1957, p. 248)
Hemingway’s paragraph describes the scene of that summer, “our” inhabitation environment and forces
THE APPLICATION OF STYLISTICS IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE TEACHING 871
going through there. The paragraph of Dreiser depicts the inner world of a group of strangers from the
northeastern state of United States such as New York. Although the words the two excerpts used are suitable for
their own themes, but their stylistics is obviously different. When making the material structure, Hemingway
chose simple, clear, and specific words, such as: house, river, mountains, clear, swiftly moving, blue, and
powdered. He made the scenery and process appear in front of the readers, making the person clear at a glance.
This is a clear and plain style. While Dreiser chooses evaluative and abstract written language, such as, patient,
determined, hungry, refinement, significance, etc. Those written languages show the psychological activity of the
group of outsiders, and lead the reader go into the characters’ hearts to visit their mood step by step.
Analyze the Syntax
Usually, the vocabulary of a work describes the character’s thoughts and feelings through sentences and the
phrases and there are many different ways of composition of the whole sentences and phrases. The grammar
analysis with the purpose of stylistic study focuses on exploring the relationship between the type of sentences,
phrases, and writer individuals. English sentences can be divided into a variety of English sentences according to
its function, such as declarative sentence, interrogative sentences, imperative, and exclamatory sentences; and
can be also divided into simple sentence, paratactic sentence, complex sentences, compound sentences, complete
sentences, and elliptical sentence according to its structure; besides, English sentences can be divided into
periodic-sentences, loose sentence, and parallel sentences according to the way of emphasizing sentence content.
In addition, the word each other can match into different phrases, such as: noun groups, verbal phrases,
prepositions, etc. These different sentences and phrases contain different stylistic effects. When analyzing the
grammar structure, the author should read the text carefully, observe and record the dominated phrases, and
explore the causes of writers’ preference for them.
Now make the previous article quoted as an example to illustrate how to carry out the syntax analysis. Two
thirds in the Hemingway’s A Farewell to Amts are compound sentences. And one of the features of compound
sentence is to use “and” to connect the components in the sentence. Hemingway fully grasp the characteristics
and extensively use the “and”. For example, there are five “and” in the short second sentence; they suggest the
importance of the various parts of the sentence. This sentence pattern is usually used to state events and describe
the scene. It is by this sentence pattern that Hemingway reappears faithfully the original characters in the novel.
This narrative of Hemingway is objective, calm, and step by step, like a rippling stream, slow but continuous,
plain but very clear, which is a gentle, simple, and realistic sketch style.
Analyze Rhetorical
Rhetoric is generally defined as the art of persuasive writing. Correct grammar can help the writer to express
clearly, and appropriate rhetoric can make works more vivid and touching. The writer often obtains this effect
with the help of figures of speech in his work. The commonly used English figures of speech include: simile,
metaphor, analog, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, allusions, irony, and so on. These figures of speech
mostly play a role based on the connotation and extension of the meaning, the aesthetic feelings of man, and
other psychological forms. When making a rhetorical analysis, the reader should be sure the pattern of
rhetorical and discourse preference for writer, and then discuss the stylistic effect the color brings to the work.
They are associated with each other, and complement each other. Below is a script fragments Denmark’s inner
872 THE APPLICATION OF STYLISTICS IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE TEACHING
soliloquy selected from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

[Hamlet]
To be, or not to be-that is the question:
Whether this nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrow of outrageous fortune
Or to take am s against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 145)
[Shylock]
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?… If you prick us, do
we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? (Shakespeare, 1600, p. 29)
In those a few lines of inner monologue extracted, choosing questions is the dominant pattern. Such sentence
pattern ingeniously shows the swing state of mind of the hero. The dialogue at the start of the choice question
consists of two verb infinitives, which seem to be simple, but actually to be Shakespeare’s quality pen. The verb
infinitive has the function of indicating the immediate action will happen from the perspective of grammar. Here,
the author both use the affirmation and negation form of verb infinitive, suggesting that there is the possibility of
survival and perish at the same time. Therefore, the urgency of answering this problem shows on the page. Then,
two infinitive phrases with “whether” and “or” make up of the second choice alternative interrogation. The first
one specifically puts forward a major and serious proposition, while the second shows the characters inner
conflicts. Before and after the two sentences, closely linked, more let a person feel the imminent problem of hero.
From the rhetorical perspective, the first one is concise and clear, giving a person the sense with straightforward;
The second uses extensive metaphor whose meaning is deep, and shows the complex and heavy heart of the by
his pen.
Conclusion
With the aid of image literature reflecting the colorful world, and expressing the writer’s aesthetic feeling.
Literary language is concise and beautiful with the effect of making people think deep and increasing the sense.
Stylistics has a very strong explanatory power based on the analysis of the characteristics of language arts.
Therefore, as a kind of methodology, stylistics can broaden the students whose major is English and American
literature academic vision, and enrich the current British and American literature teaching. In view of the
literature which is the art of language, and stylistics research across the two fields of linguistics and literature,
there is reason to believe that stylistics in British and American literature teaching will have broad application
prospects in the future.
References
Brumfit, C. J., & Carter, R. A. (2000). Literature and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, & Shanghai: Shanghai
Foreign Languages Education Press.
Dreiser, T. (1957). The titan (p. 248). Moscow: Foreign Language Press.
Hemingway, E. M. (1929). A farewell to amts (p. 76). Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
Lazar, G. (2005). Literature and language teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McRae, J. (1997). Literature with a small “l”. London: Macmillan/Prentice Hall.
Shakespeare, W. (1600). The merchant of Venice (p. 29). Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
THE APPLICATION OF STYLISTICS IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE TEACHING 873
Shakespeare, W. (1602). Hamlet (p. 145). Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
Short, M. H., & Candlin, C. N. (1986). Teaching study skills for English literature (pp. 160-166). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Widdowson, H. G. (1999). Practical stylistics (pp. 58-59). Oxford: Oxford University Press, & Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign
Languages Education Press.
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.011
D DAVID PUBLISHING
On the Confrontation Between Masculinism and Feminism

in The Great Gatsby∗
LI Bao-feng JIA Xue-ying

Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China Neosoft Group, Shenyang, China
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the conflicts and contradictions between men and women about society,
family, love, and money, literally mirroring the patriarchal society constantly challenged by feminism in the
1920s of America. This paper intends to compare the features of masculinism and feminism in three aspects:
gender, society, and morality. Different identifications of gender role between men and women lead to female
protests against male superiority and pursuits of individual liberation. Meanwhile, male unshaken egotism and
gradually expanded individualism of women enable them both in lack of sound moral standards. But compared
with the female, male moral pride drives them with much more proper moral judge, which reflects Fitzgerald’s
support of the masculine society. Probing into the confrontation between masculinism and feminism, it is
beneficial for further study on how to achieve equal coexistence and harmony between men and women.
Keywords: The Great Gatsby, confrontation, masculinism, feminism
Introduction
Francis Scott Fitzgerald is widely acknowledged as the spokesperson of the Lost Generation and Jazz Age in
the 20th century of America. As a novelist, he paid great attention to his spiritual world and the inherent rule of
society. He created a new realism storm in Lost Generation literature. His masterpiece The Great Gatsby earned
him most reputation, which, as most of his works, was the epitome of the real American life and recorded the real
jumbled situations of Americans during the post-war period. Fitzgerald criticized illusory American Dream of the
young and their apolaustic attitude towards life. That was why most protagonists in his novel were always trapped
into confusion and disappointment. At the same time, his painful and luxurious marriage had a large impact on his
emotions and creations, paving a solid foundation for his understanding of women. He often mixed his own love
experiences as materials to fulfil his novel. In The Great Gatsby, on one hand, Fitzgerald (2009) directly
penetrates the emptiness and monotonousness of the upper class and their wrong views on money and love (pp.
168-174); on the other hand, he stresses more on the conflicts between men and women. Although the strong
*
Acknowledgements: The paper is sponsored by the Planning Project on Humanity and Social Sciences of Education
Department of China (12YJA752026), the project “The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” (No.
HEUCF151216), 2014 Educational and Scientific Research Project of Higher Learning Association of Heilongjiang Province
(14G018), Planning Research Project of Education Department of Heilongjiang Province (GBC1214029), Higher Education and
Teaching Reform Project of Harbin Engineering University (JG2014BZD08).
LI Bao-feng, associate professor, master, Foreign Languages Department, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China.
JIA Xue-ying, interpreter, bachelor, Neosoft Group, Shenyang, China.
ON THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MASCULINISM AND FEMINISM 875
pressure of masculinism still occupies the mainstream of the society, female awareness inevitably germinates.
Masculinism and Feminism

Masculinism refers to a social system which is based on that men occupy the main social sources including
economics, politics, family, and so on. Male culture and identities are treated as the only social rules and public
acquiescent principles. In the sexual essence, female value is an appendix of man. Therefore, man also denies the
social gender of a woman. Men have the utter power in every aspect of social activities, while women should be
restricted in family. All activities cannot be determined without men no matter what kind of affair it is. Man
represents the superior ruler of the family and society, even nations (WANG, 2008, p. 145). All in all,
masculinism has three features: gender polarization, authoritarianism, and male egotism.
In the early period, American feminism was generated as a way of female movement. The first wave of
American feminism began in the 1840s to 1920s, which stressed on female awareness. Until the 1960s, the
second wave of feminism was coming, during which the female was more radical and they considered themselves
as the center of the world, appealing to sexual revolution thoroughly. The third wave appeared from the1980s to
1990s and racial feminism became the main point. More black women stood up to protect their own rights. After
the 1990s, the female movements paid more attention to psychology (Madsen, 2004, pp. 1-10). In narrow sense,
feminism means that women know their potential abilities as a human. Female consciousness was aroused and
they needed to fulfil their spiritual destinies of humanity. Gender equality vividly rooted in their minds and they
considered it was men that lay obstacles in their way of feminism. For another thing, in broad sense, feminists are
endeavoured to realize liberalism from family and the oppression of men. In addition, feminism intends to present
individualism. More and more women resorted to social activities, open sex, and so on to get liberation. To be
brief, feminism in the 1920s shows three features: gender equality, liberalism, and individualism.
Gender Polarization Versus Gender Equality

It is the basic social faith, acknowledged as the foundation of social order, that man has inherent dominance
in gender, or the society will be in chaos. By contrast, feminists extremely deny the unfair perceptions and value
their own gender. They strongly support gender equality. Self-identification is an outstanding breakthrough of
feminism. It induces women’s potential masculine qualities to be external. In combination with the feminine
qualities, female androgyny becomes a fashionable gender norm (SUN, 2010, p. 8).
Androcentrism Versus Female Self-identification in Gender Role Identity
Gender role identity refers to the developmental process of the human preference and identification, which
is an important element of the gender role. Men and women recognize their own roles and abilities to meet the
needs of their desire (Doyle & Paludi, 1991, p. 97). Androcentrism is a basic gender role of men and applied to all
male characters in The Great Gatsby. It embodies patriarchal ideology, enforcing the feminine strength and male
prejudice on women. However, female self-identification arouses their dignity. Women partly recognize that
only if more women accurately understand their gender potential, it is possible for them to rectify male prejudice.
In The Great Gatsby, most conflicts between men and women can get full explanations of patriarchal
ideology. Nick, as the only narrator, seems to be the most subjective and righteous person in the novel, and truly
has contempt for women. He feels disgusted of the immoral relationship between Daisy and Gatsby, while he
876 ON THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MASCULINISM AND FEMINISM
never blames Tom’s extramarital affair. Although both Tom and Daisy have betrayed their marriage in the same
way, Nick gives different standards to judge their morals. Moreover, deep traditional patriarchal ideology lays
barriers to the female awareness. Women have been accustomed to the inferiority and trained the way of
subsidiary thinking so as to neglect female potential (LUO, 2006, p. 17). However, unlike the past women
suffering the patriarchal ideology blindly, the female in the 1920s thought more about what they can do. They
were more independent and had jobs. Jordan Baker, a golf athlete, never uses male money and suffers the control
of man (LI, 2013, p. 107). On feminist perspective, Jordan recognizes her necessary position in the society and
understands her own strength.
In the patriarchal society, Nick thinks that women are not matched to participate in the public social life,
such as developing career. Nick looks down upon Daisy, because of her betrayal of family. He finally breaks up
with Jordan, because of her dishonesty. “It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never
blame deeply―I was casually sorry, and then I forget” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p. 57). Because they are women, it is
reasonable and acceptable to do these disgusting things. With respect to female dignity, the female began to
refuse to meet male expectation. Catering to men had no longer been the only foremost task for women. Standing
on Jordan’s feet, she is really straightforward and open-minded. She can love Nick and suddenly date with
another man without shame and sadness, when she finds Nick’s prejudice against women. Her dignity does not
allow her to give in to any man.
Men’s Natural Hatred of Femininity Versus Female Androgyny in Gender Norms
Due to the profound influence of gender polarization, gender norms are gradually cultivated. “Men are
admonished never to act in any way that may be interpreted as feminine” (Doyle & Paludi, 1991, p. 127). Men
should be intellectual, cool, and rational. A man should oppose feminine quality, such as being sensitive and
emotional, to ensure their male qualities in the ideal sense. That is why, in the patriarchal society, men with
feminine qualities will be questioned and laughed. In The Great Gatsby, Mr. Wilson is a feminine man. As a
husband, he bears Myrtle Wilson’s betrayal and her discourteous contempt. As a business man, he never gets
wealth and success. As a man, he is slighted by others. Tom comments him “Wilson? He thinks she goes to see
her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p. 23).
Compared with male firm recognition of masculinity, female qualities develop into a strange direction,
called female androgyny which refers to the female with masculine qualities. Unlike men’s comprehensive denial
of femininity, female androgyny admits the strength of femininity and appreciates masculinity. “It is not a real
masculinity with full masculine power. It is only a display of mannish mode, and still has some femininity” (SUN,
2010, p. 11). Due to the excessive force of male androcentrism, women generate a wrong inclination that being
masculine can get enough respect. The most typical new woman, Jordan Baker is “a slender, small-breasted girl,
with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulder like a young cadet”
(Fitzgerald, 2009, p. 10). She has masculinity in her figure. Most women in The Great Gatsby, they drink, wear
fashionable clothes and have frequent socialization, which ever exclusively belong to male quality (SUN, 2010, p.
8).
Social Authoritarianism Versus Female Liberalism

Besides the influence of gender role, society also exerts immense impact on the development of
masculinism and feminism. As the male are superior in gender roles, it is granted for them to have superiority in
social status. Furthermore, due to male spiritual emptiness, seeking for physical or spiritual pleasure and
happiness to a large extent takes up male life. On the contrary, to get liberation, the outbreak of female
movements occupies female life.
Male Hedonism Versus Female Materialism in Social Values
The Great Gatsby was written in 1925, heading for the most severe American Great Depression in its history.
The conflicts between money and love became unavoidable issues in it (D. Gross & M. J. Gross, 2007, pp.
149-150). Seemingly, hedonism here is supposed to mean the pleasure of wealth and love. Female social values,
at that time, were distorted and materialism had been rooted in their minds. Compared with the female, men
demanded more satisfaction from love.
Traditional American Dream, in essence, can be ascribed into two aspects: Everyone has rights to be rich,
and individuals can rely on themselves to get wealth. In the novel, the meaning of American Dream is changed
and every man has his own American Dream. For Gatsby, his dream is Daisy, also the core of American Dream in
The Great Gatsby. To get Daisy, he illegally gets rich, and spends an extravagant life. Living in the house with
lawn, garden, and a marble swimming pool opposite to Daisy’s house, holding parties every week, and
expressing generosity to Daisy’s friend are all endeavoured. His pleasures, both physically and psychologically,
are only from Daisy (XIA & WANG, 2013, pp. 56-57). For Tom, American Dream means Daisy as well, but not
the same as Gatsby’s sound love. However, the reason why Tom stays with Daisy is not so much out of love as
out of need. He needs Daisy’s protection to keep his family steady. Daisy’s love with Gatsby is a shame on him,
because of Gatsby’s squalor in his past.
In contrast, Myrtle Wilson and Daisy’s dream is simpler. That is only money. For Myrtle Wilson, she is only
willing to marry a rich man. Thus, she betrays Mr. Wilson and chooses to be a mistress, building her own golden
life. For Daisy, after Gatsby leaving for the war, she accepts the arrangement of family to get married with Tom.
Daisy has a great family background and pretty face. She cannot bear Tom’s betrayal and moves out. Her
loneliness makes her mistake Gatsby as her redemption. It is hard to be certain that she did not love Gatsby. But
compared with love, wealth is more essential reason for her to accept his love (LIU, 2008, p. 83).
Men intend to marry the woman whom they love to get satisfaction, while wealth can be viewed as the first
necessary principle to be a husband for a pretty woman. It seems that a wealthy man will get much more love and
more girls want to marry him. So the poor man, George B. Wilson cheats his wife that he is rich. After knowing
the truth, Myrtle Wilson never considers him as her husband. Mr. Wilson has to bear all her impertinence because
of his poverty and deep love. Unlike him, Mrs Wilson stirs up more people to hatred. Casual sex is common to her.
Ignoring her family and reputation, being mistress of Tom satisfies her own material needs and vanity. Wealth
plays the only indispensible role in her marriage, rather than love. Besides, the most masculine man Tom marries
Daisy, to a certain extent, owing to love. On the contrary, Daisy is married to his money. Because at the time they
got married, Daisy still loved Gatsby.
Male Superiority Versus Female Protestations in Social Status
Male superiority in social status is the most obvious feature of social authoritarianism. The male should
monopolize the social resources and ensure female inferiority. In feminist perceptions, after achieving “legal and
civil equality, in theory if not always in practice” (Walters, 2013, p. 86), it is urged to dig up more effective
methods to realize feminism. In the novel, Tom has the dominance in family and always controls Daisy’s choices.
His superiority is also reflected in his pride and arrogance to the poor. Unlikely, women are inclined to be more
sympathetic and emotional; they treat other people with more tolerance. Other than that, feminists devoted
themselves to improving female social status. They enlarged their activities in the public affairs, such as their
rights to vote.
Tom has extramarital affair with Myrtle Wilson, which is seen as his pride to show off. He hates Daisy’s
socialization, but he always stays with his lover in public. Tom interrupts Daisy’s words without permission and
consideration. In his mind, Daisy has no rights to challenge him, but submits to him. Even though afterwards he
does his best to retrieve Daisy, his purpose is only to maintain his reputation and dignity (Li, 2013, p. 106).
On the female part, feminists claim “There is no reason why woman should be limited to domesticity”
(Walters, 2013, p. 42). In the novel, most women are free from family. Even Jordan ever abolishes and refuses to
marry any man. Women enlarge their socialization a lot and sometimes accumulate together to talk. It somehow
implies that women prefer to talk as an independent woman, instead of as a mother or a wife (Doyle & Paludi,
1991, p. 127).
On account of female materialism, most of female characters are far from tolerance to the poor men, but
Jordan is an exception. She is impartial to the white from all classes. As a female athlete, she is not beautiful, but
charming and many rich men chase her. Nevertheless, she refuses all of them and dates with Nick, a not rich
white man. In her mind, Nick’s honesty and purity move her (LI, 2013, p. 107). It can be inferred that a part of
new women at that time were radical enough to be impartial to the people, whereas those white men who are the
same as Tom, reflect male inequality exists and is directed at women and the poor.
Male Egotism Versus Female Individualism

Egotism in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2008) is explained as “the belief that you are
much better or more important than other people” (p. 504). In moral perceptions, the male are proud enough so as
to neglect the female spiritual needs. They literally define their moral thoughts as a standard to order women. On
the contrary, the Declaration’s assertion left out the real equality of women. To get more evident equality, women
demanded more individual rights which were “mere rhetoric rather than reality” (ZHENG, 2010, p. 27). The
female tends to call for more personal needs, especially the psychological satisfaction. Women are prone to
neglect the social influence and perpetrate some immoral affairs.
Unshakeness of Egotism Versus Expansion of Individualism in Moral Status
Egotism, as a male self-identification for a long time, has a latent influence on male life. Men from various
classes tend to own this, whether they are rich or not. The poor white, Mr. Wilson can pretend to be rich and
marry his wife. Even though he knows what his wife really wants, his egotism can never let her go. It can be
concluded that wealth, the most significant element of socialization, though, has no effect on male egotism. The
rich white, Gatsby can oppress Daisy to love him and compete with Tom in wealth. Love in his mind is
uppermost, so his egotism unilaterally defines his love with Daisy as true love no matter what the real emotion of
Daisy is. Male egotism is unconsciously triggered off his ambition to regain Daisy. Most men have the same
features―masculine egotism, regardless of their classes or wealth, which is hard to shake in patriarchal society.
Unlike egotism’s firm status, individualism has not been accepted by the female. But, with the continuous
expansion of feminism, individualism expanded rapidly in female group. Myrtle Wilson and Jordan are two
women from different classes and family background, but they are both open sexually and firmly pursue their
needs. On the contrary, Daisy has been bearing Tom’s snub for five years until Gatsby’s appearance. Myrtle
Wilson’s smugness and Tom’s self-pleasure from the betrayal of family rouse her anger and disappointment.
Jordan’s love with Nick enables her to admire, which enables her to consider more personal interests as a woman.
Different individualism of Myrtle Wilson and Jordan expands to Daisy and to some degree, leads her to fall in
love with Gatsby.
Male Moral Pride Versus Female Degenerated Morality in Moral Norms
Concerned with morality, both men and women can hardly be appreciated. Open sexuality brings many
challenges to the traditional moral norms, but compared with the female, male moral pride deserves to praise.
Moral pride restrains some men to avoid being involved in immoral things, such as Gatsby’s loyal love and
Nick’s righteousness. While, in terms of female morality, it degenerates a lot. Overlooking the cultivation of
inner-beauty and being exceedingly liable to mislead the real pleasure with the physical pleasure are common to
the female. Even the most representative new woman, Jordan, has ever abolished as well and lacks the right
recognition of feminism.
Male intrinsic pride is worth to be discussed. It can be divided into two aspects. First, male intrinsic pride
directs men to comply with their consciousness, which has a vigorous effect on the morality. In The Great Gatsby,
most men spend an immoral life at that time, while Gatsby differs from them. He is pure and positive. His inner
beauty touches Nick’s heart and he becomes the only man Nick remembered. His intrinsic pride cannot suffer the
failure of love. No matter how terrible the process and experiences of his becoming rich are, his loyalty and
single-minded thought to love should be glorified. The other is that men may resort to violence to preserve their
intrinsic pride. Tom, who misleads Mr. Wilson to shoot Gatsby, indirectly murders Gatsby. His intrinsic pride
pushes forward him using this extreme method to revenge and eternally destroy his enemy―Gatsby, who is the
only successful man in achieving his wife’s love.
Concerning female inner world, most women are apt to mediocrity and lacking of right assertion. Daisy’s
hesitation and cowardice indirectly murder Gatsby. No doubt Gatsby’s death is related to his own blindness,
whereas, if Daisy can be firmly loyal to her family as before, Gatsby may not have to die. Furthermore, Daisy
symbolizes as money and her mind is full of money. She is attractive for her beautiful appearance, not her inner
morality (LIU, 2008, p. 83). Her inside world is like a waste land and has rare precious qualities to be advocated.
It is also a trend that women excessively run after the superficial and gorgeous beauty and have no consciousness
of inner beauty. Nick Carraway is the moral spokesman in the novel. He is the cousin of Daisy, the neighbour of
Gatsby and the lover of Jordan. He has more or less relations with the main characters so that he becomes the only
witness of the story and his comments push forward the development of story. It reflected male arrogance in the
moral norms. Men have prejudice on female not only in the social affairs, also in the morality. That is to say,
existence of Nick is equal to forming a moral standard and according to him, characters’ morality can be
evaluated.
Female selfishness is treated as common ground for all female characters. Daisy’s immoral hesitation
between Gatsby and Tom, Jordan’s dishonesty to Nick and Wyrtle Wilson’s immoral sexuality with Tom are all
basics of female individual pursuit, which is a reflection of feminism. In this case, their moral selfishness
becomes reasonable and is backed by the female awareness. It is still in the early period of feminism, the female
fail to catch the right moral standard.
With the confrontation between male arrogance and female selfishness, it suggests that the females are always
hard to reach the proper moral standards provided by the male. Moreover, Fitzgerald establishes a man as the
moral judge to reveal female immorality, which inferred that he is misogynist and supports the patriarchal system.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it reveals that all men and women in The Great Gatsby are the victims of
masculinism and feminism. Fitzgerald precisely portrays men and women’s jumbled choices in the society and
morality. To protect men’s superior social status and authority, they have to oppress more on women.
Accordingly, feminists protest more intensively, blindly, and immorally. Men’s pursuits of love are all dreams
and can never be realized, because of women’s improvident greed. Women are enthusiastic for love, but they
much more prefer wealth. At last, people are all living in a complex and immoral society with their spiritual
emptiness.
More important, on one hand, Fitzgerald vividly expresses his sympathy and concerns to the men. In this
case, he criticizes women’s greed and exaggeration. On the other hand, it can also enlighten people to
contemplate on the harmonious coexistence between men and women. It is more effective to instruct people with
the right identifications of social roles. It should ensure the real equality between two genders and women have
the same opportunities to participate in the social affairs as men, instead of repressing the potentials of women
and restraining them in the family. Moreover, men and women should set up a certain moral standard. Loyalty to
their marriage and respect to others are the basis of morality. Getting rid of selfishness and exploring more
intrinsic value are helpful to build a more harmonious society.
References
Doyle, J. A., & Paludi, M. A. (1991). Sex and gender: The human experience. United States: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.
Fitzgerald, F. S. (2009). The Great Gatsby. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Gross, D., & Gross, M. J. (2007). Understanding The Great Gatsby. Beijing: China Renmin University Press.
LI, S. W. (2013). 《了不起的盖茨》比女性形象解读 (Interpretation of the female images in The Great Gatsby). 环球纵横, 11,
106-107.
LIU, J. (2008). 《了不起的盖茨比》的人物结构分析 (A structural analysis of the characters in The Great Gatsby). 作家杂志, 8,
83-84.
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. (2008). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
LUO, X. Y. (2006). 从女性主义视角解读《了不起的盖茨比》 (Interpretation of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of
women). 武汉: 武汉理工大学.
Madsen, D. L. (2004). Feminist theory and literary practice. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
SUN, L. (2010). 二十世纪二十年代美国新女性的男子气概 (On Masculinity of the New Women in the 1920s of America). 四
川: 四川外语学院.
Walters, M. (2013). Feminism. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
WANG, R. Q. (2005). FEMINISM的释义追问 (Pursuit of the Interpretation of FEMINISM). 中华女子学院学报, 17(3), 62-64.
WU, J. G. (2002). 菲茨杰拉德研究 (Study of F. S. Fitzgerald) (pp. 48-50, 335). 上海: 上海外语教育出版社.
ZHENG, Y. T. (2010). On the individualism in American society. Kehai Story Expo, 3, 27.
doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.012
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Alienation in Carol Plum-Ucci’s

The Body of Christopher Creed∗
YANG Chun
China Youth University of Political Studies, Beijing, China
In Carol Plum-Ucci’s young adult novel The Body of Christopher Creed (2000), the indeterminacy and mystery of
the theme of missing people renders Carol Plum-Ucci a huge space of imagination to depict people’s different
reactions to the sudden disappearance of Christopher Creed and the consequences brought by their reactions.
Through the twists, turns, and suspense provided by Carol Plum-Ucci in the story, readers can get a better look at
teenagers’ alienation permeated in the novel. Based on theories of alienation and close reading of the text, the
present paper aims at exploring the complex implications of the alienation demonstrated in the novel.
Keywords: The Body of Christopher Creed, Carol Plum-Ucci, theme, alienation
Introduction
Carol Plum-Ucci’s is an American young adult novelist. The Body of Christopher Creed (2000) is her
most famous work, for which she won a Michael L. Printz Award in 2002 and was named a Finalist to the
Edgar Allan Poe Award. It tells the story of Torey Adams, a high school junior, whose life is totally altered
when he tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of Christopher Creed, one of his classmates.
During an interview, facing the question that “[m]any of your books feature characters who are missing,
possibly dead. What do you hope readers will take away from your exploration of these ambiguous situations?”
(Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 255), Carol Plum-Ucci once answered:
I don’t really know why I keep revisiting the theme of missing people. I have Chris Creed, of course, and Lani Garver,
and Casey Carmody in The Night My Sister Went Missing. It could be something as simple as that I have a peaceful nature
and just don’t have what it would take to create a serial killer for intrigue. It could also have something to do with my
fixation on spirituality. Missing people tend o take on a divine status. They become mythical and may personify my
journey through the mysteries of life and death. (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 255)
In The Body of Christopher Creed, the indeterminacy and mystery of the theme of missing people renders
Carol Plum-Ucci a huge space of imagination to depict people’s different reactions to the sudden disappearance
of Christopher Creed and the consequences brought by their reactions. Through the twists, turns, and suspense
provided by Carol Plum-Ucci in the story, readers can get a better look at teenagers’ alienation permeated in the
novel.
The term “alienation” has been used over the ages with varied meanings. The older meaning in which
“alienation” was used was to denote an insane person. In the last century, the word “alienation” was used by
∗
Acknowledgements: This paper is supported by China Youth University of Political Studies.
YANG Chun, associate professor, master, Foreign Language Department, China Youth University of Political Studies.

882 ALIENATION IN CAROL PLUM-UCCI’S THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED
Hegel and Marx, referring to a state of self-estrangement. Based on his observation that in emerging industrial
production under capitalism, workers inevitably lose control of their lives and selves by not having any control
of their work, Marx developed his theory of alienation. In Marx’s system, “alienation” is called that condition
of man where his “own act becomes to him an alien power, standing over and against him, instead of being
ruled by him” (Fromm, 2002, p. 117).
Many other contemporary theorists contributed a lot to the development of the theories of alienation. In
The Sane Society, when discussing the effects of Capitalism on personality, German sociologist and humanistic
philosopher Fromm Erich gives a classic definition of alienation and states that:
By alienation is meant a mode of experience in which the person experiences himself as an alien. He has become, one
might say, estranged from himself. He does not experience himself as the center of his world, as the creator of his own acts
—but his acts and their consequences have become his masters, whom he obeys, or whom he may even worship. The
alienated person is out of touch with himself as he is out of touch with any other person. He, like the others, are
experienced as things are experienced; with the senses and with common sense, but at the same time without being related
to oneself and to the world outside productively. (Fromm , 2002, p. 117)
As a sociological concept, alienation is,

A condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high degree of
distance or isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of people in a community or work
environment. (Ankony, 1999, p. 128)
Melvin Seeman in his pioneering article “On the Meaning of Alienation” distinguished five dimensions of
alienation:
(1) powerlessness: the expectancy or probability held by individual that his own behavior cannot
determine the occurrence of the outcomes, or reinforcement, he seeks;
(2) meaninglessness: a low expectancy that satisfactory predictions about future outcomes of behavior can
be made;
(3) normlessness: a high expectancy that socially unapproved behaviors are required to achieve given goal;
(4) social isolation: assigning low reward value to goals or beliefs that are typically highly valued in the
given society;
(5) self-estrangement: the degree of dependence of the given behavior upon anticipated future rewards, i.e.
upon rewards that lie outside the activity itself (Seeman, 1959, p. 784).
Theories of the alienation are still under the evolution. Despite the debate over a wide range of intellectual
and political issues during its evolution, a constant focus is placed on its critical applications in the social
sciences, in empirical research as well as in literary criticism. Based on theories of alienation and close reading
of the text, the present paper aims at exploring the complex implications of alienation demonstrated in the
novel.
Christopher Creed’s Alienation

Christopher Creed is the missing boy in the novel who disappears without any trace except a goodbye
e-mail to the principal, Glen Ames. His sudden disappearance triggers a chain of reactions in the town
Steepleton where on the surface people live quite a content and peaceful life. At first, people are confused.
They do not know what leads to Chris Creed’s disappearance since there is no reason for such behavior in
Steepleton:

ALIENATION IN CAROL PLUM-UCCI’S THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED 883
In Steepleton you could ride your bike to the Wawa—our only convenient store—and leave it out front without a
padlock. You could always meet your girlfriend after dark because there wasn’t any reason for a mom or dad to say that a
girl couldn’t walk around outside after dark. Even the boons, the really bad kids, went back to the boondocks after school
and kind of stopped existing to us until school the next day. Kids from Steepleton played sports, joined clubs, applied to
out-of-state colleges, got cars for graduation. There wasn’t much to commit suicide over… If you were looking at surface
stuff like that. (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 18)
Throughout the whole novel, Chris Creed’s parents believe her son had “a very good life” (Plum-Ucci,
2008, p. 228) and could not have wanted to kill himself or run away. Mrs. Creed even accuses Bo Richardson,
one of the boons, of murdering her son even though she could not find any evidence. The mystery around
Creed’s disappearance arouses Torrey Adams’ curiosity and makes him more concerned about Creed’s
disappearance and try to find out what is behind his disappearance. With his search develops, from Torrey’s
point of view, readers will gradually realize that it is Chris Creed’s alienation that finally results in his
disappearance.
First, Chris Creed’s alienation is from school. His peers treat him as a weirdo. They bully him and are
repulsive to him. Torrey, even a good boy, has prejudice against Chris Creed and sometimes treats him
“heartlessly”:
But even in Steepleton had its weird kids, and Chris had been one of them. I think the worst thing about him was his
undying combo of big mouth and huge grin. He seemed to forget from one day to the next who he had pissed off. He’d
come bounding up to the same kids who had told him yesterday to get lost like he was their best friend. Like his entire
track record as an annoying person didn’t exist. In my whole life I had never met another person like Creed. …Bo
Richardson—had pushed Chris off the top bleacher in the gym the year before and set him on crutches for a few weeks.
Those boons could be scary, but we still blamed Chris as much as we blamed them. He was weird as they were charged up.
(Plum-Ucci, 2008, pp. 18-19)
At the end of the novel, Torrey is rather sad and sorrowful about his previous attitude towards Chris Creed.
He even thanks to Chris Creed in helping him to realize how mean he was. At last, Torrey knows that Chris
Creed “was an innocent kid, a victim” (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 242) and he shares some part of himself with Chris.
Second, Chris Creed’s alienation is from his family. His parents strictly control him. He has no freedom of
his own. As Ali McDermott tells Torrey about Chris Creed’s mother since Ali’s window has a clear view into
Chris’s bedroom:
She was all over Chris, all the time. He had no privacy, no choices of clothes, no CDs… He had an eight o’clock
curfew in the summers. How is a kid supposed to make friends when he’s got an eight o’clock curfew? (Plum-Ucci, 2008,
p. 111)
There is no communication, no trust between Chris and his parents. Chris has to hide his diary in a picture
frame on the wall, the only place safe from his mother’s prying eyes. Chris’s loneliness and awareness of
alienation can be read from his e-mail to the principle, Mr. Ames before his disappearance:
I have a problem getting along with people. I know that people wish I were dead, and at this moment in time I see no
alternative but to accommodate them in this wish. I have a wish. Not that anybody cares, but if anybody cared over the
years, it was you. Here is my wish. I wish that I had been born somebody else. (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 27)
Chris Creed’s alienation represents the estrangement among young generation and estrangement between
young generation and old generation because of bias, prejudice, and lack of communication.

884 ALIENATION IN CAROL PLUM-UCCI’S THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED
Torrey Adams’ Alienation

Torrey Adams is the narrator of the novel. Before the sudden disappearance of Chris Creed, he thinks he
lives a perfect life with a wealthy family and a lot of friends. But when he starts to solve the mystery of Chris’s
disappearance, his life is totally altered. Awareness of alienation begins to appear in his life.
At school, Torrey begins to feel alienated from his friends Alex, Ryan, Renee, and his girlfriend Leandra
when they joke about Chris’s disappearance and seem to take it lightly. He even feels the hostility and
antagonism from his friends when he comes close with Ali McDermott, a girl with the bad reputation of slut
and Bo Richardson, a “boon”. “Boon” is a somewhat derogatory term in town Steepleton that refers to a group
of students who come from poorer homes and are usually treated as bad kids. The cool kids at high school look
down on them and treat them as lower class.
Torrey becomes further distanced from his friends when the wide spread of rumors and gossips say that
Torrey is also involved in the murder of Chris with Bo Richardson. While the truth is that Bo Richardson has
nothing to do with Chris’s disappearance. He has a mean exterior but cares deeply for his girlfriend Ali
McDermott, her brother Greg, and his own siblings. He is also loyal to Torey. In order to protect Torrey from
being charged, he confesses to the blackmail phone call to Mrs. Creed despite his innocence.
But Mrs. Creed and some people in the town would not believe in Bo Richardson because of their moral
hypocrisy, their cowardliness in taking the responsibility, and their unfair judgment to others who are different
from them, just as Torey’s mother says: “Nobody wants to take responsibility. Nobody wants to admit they had
a part in it. So, they spend a lot of time pointing the finger, and things just get worse and worse” (Carol
Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 114).
The same tragedy happed in Steepleton several years ago. A teenager boy called Digger Haines ran away
from home. He was a high school footballer player. He lost his leg in a motorbike accident. His football days
were over, as were his dream of having a military career like his father’s. “But it’s there, part of the little-town
mentality, that thing that makes people want to sniff out neighbors who are weird or less fortune, and talk about
those people’s bad luck to establish their own goodness” (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 11). Some kids started calling
Digger “gimp” and “pirate” and other names behind his back. One day, Digger left a note to his father and
disappeared saying to “find himself”. Before the accident, Digger’s father, Bob Haines was very proud of him
and had always wanted Digger to go into the Marine Corps, play hero in Vietnam. The accident and Digger’s
disappearance were so difficult for him to accept that he started to blame the kids in Steepleton for calling
Digger names and driving him away. The town responded by blaming Bob Haines for being unable to cope
with his son who could no longer to meet his expectations and said it was the father who drove Digger away.
Grief, humiliation, and self-accusation finally destroyed Bob Haines. One dark night, with his old World War II
pistol in his belt, he crawled in one of the Indian burial caves and pulled the trigger. But Steepleton seemed to
learn nothing from the tragedy since “nobody stopped believing that other people were more guilt than they
were” (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 177). People are blind in seeing their own faults. They are easy to find someone at
the disadvantage to be a scapegoat.
At the end of the story, since Torrey can no longer stand the rumors and gossips in Steepleton, he moves
to a new town to begin his life. Through the course of finding the truth of Chris’s disappearance, Torrey grows
up and becomes mature. Finally, he realizes that “Chris was leaving to survive, not leaving to die” (Plum-Ucci,
2008, p. 216). Chris’s disappearance was only meant to save himself from a life that seemed unfair and did not

ALIENATION IN CAROL PLUM-UCCI’S THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED 885
make sense. He also realized that engendered by prejudice, hypocrisy, indifference, and lack of responsibility,
alienation affects trust and friendship in social contact and hinders the development of social fair and justice.
Conclusion
When talking about the purpose of her writing, Carol Plum-Ucci once said:
Life is a journey, and I may not have always lived up to my ability, but I have always lived purposefully, and I guess
readers get caught up with me, raising the questions, looking for the answers, looking to be a little more understanding, a
little less judgmental, a little more merciful. I hope so. (Plum-Ucci, 2008, p. 259)
In The Body of Christopher Creed, through depicting the tragedy of Chris and Digger, Carol Plum-Ucci
artistically presents teenager readers a horrible world where there is no trust, no compassion, and no awareness
of responsibility among people. Alienation permeates not only in inter-family relation but also in social contact
and alienated people search desperately for some way out, at the cost of their reputation as well as their lives.
Childhood is viewed as “the crucial formative period in the life of human being, the time for basic
education about the nature of the world, how to live in it (…) what to believe, what and how to think” (James,
2009, p. 15). Exposing the dark side of humanity will instruct young people about the true meaning of life.
From this perspective, Carol Plum-Ucci has successfully fulfilled her purpose of writing.
References
Ankony, R. C. (1999). The impact of perceived alienation on police officers’ sense of mastery and subsequent motivation for
proactive enforcement. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 22(2), 35.
Braune, J. (2014). Erich Fromm’s revolutionary hope: Prophetic messianism as a critical theory of the future. Rotterdam, The
Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Fromm, E. (2002). The sane society. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge Classics.
Geyer, R. F., & Schweitzer, D. R. (Eds.). (1976). Theories of alienation: Critical perspectives in philosophy and the social
sciences. Leiden: H. E. Stenfert Kroese.
James, K. (2009). Death, gender and sexuality in contemporary adolescent literature. New York: Routledge.
Ollman, B. (1977). Alienation: Marx’s conception of man in a capitalist society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plum-Ucci, C. (2008). The body of Christopher Creed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Rehmann, J. (2013). Theories of ideology: The powers of alienation and subjection. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill
NV.
Seeman, M. (1959). On the meaning of alienation. American Sociological Review, 24(6), 18.

doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2015.11.013
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Humbert’s Self-defence for His Relation With Lolita
PANG Ren-shan
Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China
In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, we can find that Humbert tries to defend himself for his relation with Lolita.
Humbert says Lolita has a precursor that is Annabel. That is pure love between children. Pure love is innocent, so
Humbert wants to say he is not to blame. His relation with Lolita is pure love. In addition, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a
poem about Annabel Lee. And Humbert wants to say that it is the poem that makes him love Lolita.
Keywords: precursor, Humbert, self-defence, relation, Lolita, Edgar Allan Poe, Dante
Introduction
On page nine, in paragraph two and three of chapter one, the novel has the following words:
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at
school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. (Nabokov, 2000, p. 9)
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not
loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita
was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. (Nabokov, 2000, p. 9)
From the above words, we can know that Humbert is trying to defend himself by saying that there is a
precursor. Because there is a precursor, Humbert substitutes Lolita for the precursor. His love of the precursor is
innocent love, therefore, his love of Lolita is also innocent pure love.
The Precursor
In defending himself, Hunbert mentions the precursor. In chapter three, the novel Lolita has the following
words in narating the precursor:
Annabel was, like the writer, of mixed parentage: half-English, half-Dutch, in her case. I remember her features far
less distinctly today than I did a few years ago, before I knew Lolita. There are two kinds of visual memory: one when
you skillfully recreate an image in the laboratory of your mind, with your eyes open (and then I see Annabel in such
general terms as: “honey-colored skin”, “think arms”, “brown bobbed hair”, “long lashes”, “big bright mouth”); and the
other when you instantly evoke, with shut eyes, on the dark inner side of your eyelids, the objective, absolutely optical
replica of a beloved face, a little ghost in natural colors (and this is how I see Lolita). Let me therefore primly limit myself,
in describing Annabel, to saying she was a lovely child a few months my junior. Her parents were old friends of my
aunt’s, and as stuffy as she. They had rented a villa not far from Hotel Mirana. Bald brown Mr. Leigh and fat, powdered
Mrs. Leigh (born Vanessa van Ness). How I loathed them. At first, Annabel and I talked of peripheral affairs. She kept
lifting handfuls of fine sand and letting it pour through her fingers. Our brains were turned the way those of intelligent
European preadolescents were in our day and set, and I doubt if much individual genius should be assigned to our interest
PANG Ren-shan, associate professor, master, College of Foreign Languages, Shandong University of Science and Technology.
HUMBERT’S SELF-DEFENCE FOR HIS RELATION WITH LOLITA 887
in the plurality of inhabited worlds, competitive tennis, infinity, solipsism, and so on. The softness and fragility of baby
animals caused us the same intense pain. She wanted to be a nurse in some famished Asiatic country; I wanted to be a
famous spy. All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should
add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating
every particle of each other’s soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so
easily found an opportunity to do. After one wild attempt we made to meet at night in her garden (of which more later),
the only privacy we were allowed was to be out of earshot but not out of sight on the populous part of the plage. There, on
the soft sand, a few feet away from our elders, we would sprawl all morning, in a petrified paroxysm of desire, and take
advantage of every blessed quirk in space and time to touch each other: her hand, half-hidden in the sand, would creep
toward me, its slender brown fingers sleepwalking nearer and nearer; the n, her opalescent knee would start on a long
cautious journey; sometimes a chance rampart built by younger children granted us sufficient concealment to graze each
other’s salty lips; these incomplete contacts drove our healthy and inexperienced young bodies to such a state of
exasperation that not even the cold blue water, under which we still clawed at each other, could bring relief. Among some
treasures I lost during the wanderings of my adult years, there was a snapshot taken by my aunt which showed Annabel,
her parents and the staid, elderly, lame gentleman, a Dr. Cooper, who that same summer courted my aunt, grouped around
a table in a sidewalk cafe. Annabel did not come out well, caught as she was in the act of bending over her chocolat glace,
and her thin bare shoulders and the parting in her hair were about all that could be identified (as I remember that picture)
amid the sunny blur into which her lost loveliness graded; but I, sitting somewhat apart from the rest, came out with a
kind of dramatic conspicuousness: a moody, beetle-browed boy in a dark sport shirt and well-tailored white shorts, his
legs crossed, sitting in profile, looking away. That photograph was taken on the last day of our fatal summer and just a
few minutes before we made our second and final attempt to thwart fate. Under the flimsiest of pretexts (this was our very
last chance, and nothing really mattered) we escaped from the cafe to the beach, and found a desolate stretch of sand, and
there, in the violet shadow of some red rocks forming a kind of cave, had a brief session of avid caresses, with
somebody’s lost pair of sunglasses for only witness. I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing my darling, when
two bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother, came out of the sea with exclamations of ribald
encouragement, and four months later she died of typhus in Corfu. (Nabokov, 2000, pp. 11-13)
The above words in the novel tell the readers that the precursor is Annabel, and Humbert enjoys a pure
innocent love with his girlfriend Annabel. That love should not be blamed at all, because the love is pure,
innocent, and natural.
In chapter four, the novel continues to tell the readers Humbert’s cherish of Annabel. The novel has the
following words:
I leaf again and again through these miserable memories, and keep asking myself, was it then, in the glitter of that
remote summer, that the rift in my life began; or was my excessive desire for that child only the first evidence of an
inherent singularity? When I try to analyze my own cravings, motives, actions and so forth, I surrender to a sort of
retrospective imagination which feeds the analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualized
route to fork and re-fork without end in the maddeningly complex prospect of my past. I am convinced, however, that in a
certain magic and fateful way Lolita began with Annabel.
I also know that the shock of Annabel’s death consolidated the frustration of that nightmare summer, made of it a
permanent obstacle to any further romance throughout the cold years of my youth. The spiritual and the physical had been
blended in us with a perfection that must remain incomprehensible to the matter-of-fact, crude, standard-brained
youngsters of today. Long after her death I felt her thoughts floating through mine. Long before we met we had had the
same dreams. We compared notes. We found strange affinities. The same June of the same year (1919) a stray canary had
fluttered into her house and mine, in two widely separated countries. Oh, Lolita, had you loved me thus I have reserved
for the conclusion of my “Annabel” phase the account of our unsuccessful first tryst. One night, she managed to deceive
the vicious vigilance of her family. In a nervous and slender-leaved mimosa grove at the back of their villa we found a
perch on the ruins of a low stone wall. Through the darkness and the tender trees we could see the arabesques of lighted
windows which, touched up by the colored inks of sensitive memory, appear to me now like playing cards presumably
888 HUMBERT’S SELF-DEFENCE FOR HIS RELATION WITH LOLITA
because a bridge game was keeping the enemy busy. She trembled and twitched as I kissed the corner of her parted lips
and the hot lobe of her ear. A cluster of stars palely glowed above us, between the silhouettes of long thin leaves; that
vibrant sky seemed as naked as she was under her light frock. I saw her face in the sky, strangely distinct, as if it emitted a
faint radiance of its own. Her legs, her lovely live legs, were not too close together, and when my hand located what it
sought, a dreamy and eerie expression, half-pleasure, half-pain, came over those childish features. She sat a little higher
than I, and whenever in her solitary ecstasy she was led to kiss me, her head would bend with a sleepy, soft, drooping
movement that was almost woeful, and her bare knees caught and compressed my wrist, and slackened again; and her
quivering mouth, distorted by the acridity of some mysterious potion, with a sibilant intake of breath came near to my
face. She would try to relieve the pain of love by first roughly rubbing her dry lips against mine; then my darling would
draw away with a nervous toss of her hair, and then again come darkly near and let me feed on her open mouth, while
with a generosity that was ready to offer her everything, my heart, my throat, my entrails, I have her to hold in her
awkward fist the scepter of my passion. I recall the scent of some kind of toilet powder I believe she stole it from her
mother’s Spanish maid a sweetish, lowly, musky perfume. It mingled with her own biscuity odor, and my senses were
suddenly filled to the brim; a sudden commotion in a nearby bush prevented them from overflowing and as we drew away
from each other, and with aching veins attended to what was probably a prowling cat, there came from the house her
mother’s voice calling her, with a rising frantic note and Dr. Cooper ponderously limped out into the garden. But that
mimosa grove—the haze of stars, the tingle, the flame, the honey-dew, and the ache remained with me, and that little girl
with her seaside limbs and ardent tongue haunted me ever since until at last, twenty-four years later, I broke her spell by
incarnating her in another. (Nabokov, 2000, pp.13-15)
From the above words from the novel, the readers can know that Humbert cannot forget Annabel, and it is a
spell that can not be broken untill Lolita appears. Before Lolita, Humbert only cherishes Annabel, and he has no
interest in other girls. Lolita is the incarnation of Annabel, a substitute for Annabel. In this way, Humbert tries to
defend his relation with Lolita: Because Humbert’s love of Annabel is pure and innocent, and Lolita is the
incarnation of Annabel, Humbert’s relation with Lolita is also pure and innocent. That is Humbert’s self-defence.
Adgar Allen Poe’s Poem

In chapter one and chapter ten, Humbert mentions “princedom by the sea” two times. And Humbert
mentions “Annabel” many times. Here both “annabel” and “princedom by the sea” allude to “Annabel Lee” by
Adgar Allen Poe. The annotated Lolita has this poem:
It was many a year ago, In a kindom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of
Annabel Lee;—And this maiden she lived with no other thought That to love and be loved by me. She was a child and I
was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love—I and my Annabel Lee—With
a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by
the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud by night Chilling my Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsmen came And bore her
away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Went
envying her and me:—Yes! that was reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the
cloud, chilling And killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older
than we—Of many far wiser than we—And neither the angels in Heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea Can
ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:—For the moon never beams without bringing me
dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And
so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride In her sepulchre there by the
sea—In her tomb by the sounding sea. (Nabokov, 2000, pp. 329-330)
From the above poem, the readers can know that Humbert wants to say the poem makes him have the
relation with Lolita. Because the precursor is Annabel, and Humbert enjoys the love with Annabel in a princedom
by the sea. Lolita is the incarnation of Annabel.
HUMBERT’S SELF-DEFENCE FOR HIS RELATION WITH LOLITA 889
Conclusion
Hunbert mentions the precursor Annabel he associated with in a princedom by the sea. That love is pure and
innocent, so Humbert wants to say he should not be blamed. In addition, Humbert says that Lolita is the
incarnation of Annabel. Because Humbert says he loves no other girls than Annabel, he loves Lolita who is the
incarnation of Annabel. His love of Lolita is also pure anf innocent. Both “Annabel” and “princedom by the sea”
allude to Adgar Allen Poe’s poem Annabel Lee. This poem narrates the pure and innocent love between “I” and
“Annabel Lee”, so Hunbert wants to say that it is the poem that makes him do so, and he should not be blamed.
That is the self-defence of Humbert for his relation with Lolita.
References
Hawthorne, N. (1986). The scarlet letter. New York: Bantam Books.
LIU, J. L. (2004). On Nabokov’s concept of literature. Journal of Yangzhou University (Humanities & Social Sciences), 6, 33-38.
LUO, G. B. (2005). Language art of Lolita. Journal of Liaocheng University (Social Sciences), 2, 106-109.
Melville, H. (1981). Moby-Dick. New York: Bantam Books.
Nabokov, V. (2000). Lolita. London: Penguin Books.
PAN, L. F. (2004). Pursuing the enigma of humanity: An interpretation of two mysteries in Nabokov and Lolita. Journal of Social
Science of Hunan Normal University, 4, 115-118.
WANG, Q. S. (2003). Returning to realism: A type of decoding Lolita. Journal of Shanghai Teacher’s University (Phylosophy &
Social Sciences), 3, 88-93.
YANG, Z. Y. (2002). God is in the detail: An expat iation on the novel Lolita. Foregn Literature, 2, 82-86.
View publication stats

Issue 11 of Sino US English Teaching

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Issue 11 of Sino US English Teaching

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

A Study of EFL Learners’ Receptive and Productive Knowledge of Semantic

Article · May 2011

Moussa Ahmadian Ali Darabi Bazvand

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Sociocultural Theory and SLA View project

A joint research with my doctoral student mr. Ghasemi View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

David Publishing Company

David Publishing Company

Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom by Mediational Artefacts:

Morvarid Lavasani, Parviz Birjandi

Keywords: anxiety, verbalization, materialization

Materializing Listening Concepts

Verbalizing Listening Concepts

Flipping the College English Classroom

Keywords: the flipped classroom, college English, activities design

The General Concept of the Flipped Classroom

The Differences Between Traditional Classrooms and the Flipped Classrooms

The Design of the Flipped College English Classroom

The Influence of English Movies on English

SHI Xi-chun, CHEN Meng-jie

Keywords: English movies, English learning, listening

English Movies Help Stimulate Students’ Thirst for Knowledge

English Movies Help Adjust the Classroom Atmosphere

English Movies Provides a Real Learning Environment

English Movies Help Dig Cultural Connotation and Improve

Application Measures of English Movies in College English Listening Teaching

Considerations on Speaking Skills: Essence of

Betul Ayse Sayin

Essence of Acquiring Speaking Skills (From the Students’ Point of View)

Meaning 66 73.3 22 24.4 1.2500

Essence of Teaching Speaking Skills

Results and Discussion

How to Improve Spoken English Teaching

Keywords: spoken English, teaching, college English

The Importance of Learning Spoken English

Problems Existing in the Spoken English Teaching

ZHENG Ling, lecturer, master, Foreign Languages College, Changchun University.

External Environment Factors

Measures to Improve the Quality of Classroom Teaching

Foreign Language Teacher Recruitment: Theoretical

Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, Seyyedeh Mobina Hosseini

Implications for Practice

Extensive Reading and Writing Reader’s Response Journal:

XU Xiao-qin, professor, Ph.D., School of Foreign Languages, Leshan Normal University.

Problems With Reading and Writing

Performances With Reading

A Review of Second Language Structural Priming Research

Keywords: structural priming, within-language, between-language, interaction

Role of Syntactic Priming in L2 Processing and Learning

subcategorization frames or individual syntactic rules.

Implicitness of Syntactic Priming

Interaction and Alignment in Priming Research

When Prior Knowledge Helps: Self-Report of First-Year

Implications and Conclusion

The Application of Stylistics in British

Keywords: stylistics, style, teaching of British and American literature

XU Li-mei, lecturer, Ph.D. candidate, Foreign Languages College, Changchun University.

The Characteristics of Stylistics

The Application Analysis of Stylistics in British and American Literature Teaching

soliloquy selected from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

On the Confrontation Between Masculinism and Feminism

LI Bao-feng JIA Xue-ying