04_task-based teaching of micro-skills in an eap situation_majid hayati, alireza jalilifar

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Task-based teaching of micro-skills in an EAP situation

Majid Hayati, Alireza Jalilifar Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

The present study investigated the reading comprehension of English language learners in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) situations via a task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach. Forty-two students on an MBA course were selected as participants, and randomly divided into two groups. The participants in the experimental group were taught four reading skills namely, scanning, skimming, contextual clues, and critical reading through task-based language teaching, but the control group received the same hours of instruction through translation. Having received the instruction, participants took a final examination, which was designed to test reading micro-skills. Then a comparison was made by an independent-samples t-test to find possible differences between the two groups. The results revealed that students who were taught reading skills via TBLT had a better academic performance, and reading comprehension was more effective.

Keywords: EAP, reading comprehension, task-based instruction, micro-skills

1. Introduction

English for Academic Purposes (EAP), as an offshoot of English Language Teaching (ELT), is an important teaching focus of recent decades. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) define EAP as “…any English teaching that refers to a study purpose and the concerns of EAP are needs analysis, text analysis, and preparing learners to communicate effectively in the tasks prescribed by their study situation” (p. 34). The notion of needs analysis provides room for instructors so that they can distinguish target situations in which they have to prepare their learners to communicate effectively in the study situations. Teachers have to be equipped with appropriate methods of teaching in

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order to determine how these contexts-based tasks can be performed. To demonstrate a way to achieve this goal, Swales (1990) suggested genre analysis as an approach to teaching of academic and research English (p.1). Swales (1990, p.69) argues that language-learning tasks are the outcome of methodology related to a specific discourse community; that is, pedagogical texts and pedagogical tasks must be interrelated. By means of the interrelation of text and task, a communication takes place through which learners get their desired meaning to interpret the task and carry it out accurately.

Jordan (1997, p.143) claims that although reading for academic purposes is a multifaceted skill, whenever students read, it is purpose-specific. Thus students are concerned with content comprehension through different kinds of reading skills and micro-skills. Moreover, Ataei (2000) considers reading as the most important skill with regard to the needs of Iranian EAP students and their future profession in academic contexts. He argues that the teaching of reading skills via tasks successfully integrates EAP readers’ needs for extensive and intensive reading.

In academic contexts, reading is considered the dominant means for learning new information and gaining access to alternative explanations and interpretations. Also, reading plays a primary role in independent learning whether the goal is performing better on academic tasks, learning more about a subject matter, or improving language abilities (Grabe & Stoller, 2001). Willis and Willis (2007, p.137) argue that reading plays a leading role in many academic contexts and task-based reading is of great importance. In one of the examples they offer, they state that "many scientific research journals begin with an introduction which sets out the aims and stages of the research. Often scientists read this introduction rapidly to decide whether or not it is worth their while to read the whole article."

Every macro-skill (including reading) builds on several micro-skills as mentioned by Richards and Schmidt (2002, p.444): discerning main ideas (skimming), noticing specific details (scanning), making inferences (noticing contextual clues), making predictions (reading critically).

Learners’ needs in academic contexts make a change in the EAP students’ intentions towards reading comprehension. This alternation paves the way towards

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manipulating reading skill as a vehicle to obtain the intended information in the process of reading. Learning and acquiring study skills (macro and micro) will help learners achieve established goals for tasks that are predominant features of genre as a defining issue in the perception of EAP.

After nearly two decades of history of EAP in Iran, many books have been published to satisfy the perceived need of the learners. As mentioned in the previous section, in the last two decades a host of studies have concentrated on the significance of task-based reading skills in academic contexts. Ataei (2000), Spector-Cohen, Kirschner and Wexler (2001) and Hokmi (2005) have focused on tasks and interactive reading in academic contexts. What previous research works have not shown is the significance of reading micro-skills and their effect on reading comprehension ability, and nor have they concentrated on the Iran situation.

Although the learners’ needs for learning the international language in EAP contexts is recognized in Iran, what we lack is an appropriate method or set of activities to lead learners towards the required skills and sub-skills to satisfy their objectives. The present study plays a key role in promoting the academic learners’ awareness of the desired micro-skills and their effect on reading comprehension ability. Therefore, the study aims at investigating the effect of four reading micro-skills, namely scanning, skimming, contextual clues and critical reading in a paradigm of task-based language teaching, concentrating on Master’s students of Business of Administration (MSBA). More particularly, the study seeks an answer to the following question:

Does task-based teaching of reading micro-skills improve the reading comprehension of MBA students on EAP courses?

2. Literature review

Traditionally, EAP has been considered as a branch of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). EAP courses have concentrated on teaching appropriate linguistic forms, assuming that students have appropriate study skills and some prior

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knowledge of the discipline they are studying. But over the last decades, approaches towards EAP have changed as they merged findings from research into both Academic English usage and methods of teaching English as a Foreign Language.

The first use of EAP goes back to 1974 when two British council officers, Keith Jones and Peter Roe, had a meeting on the issue (Jones 1981 as cited in Jordan 2002). During the recent years, growth of English as a leading language especially in academic situations has shed light on the very existence of a clear definition of EAP.

Jordan (1997, p.2) and Dudley-Evans and St John (1998, p.34) define EAP as communicative English for study purposes (also, see Hyland and Hamp-Lyons 2002). Thinking through the given definition, we may consider that two dimensions of EAP are worth mentioning. The first one is specific study skills, and the second is language for academic disciplines. Although the learner knows the English textual forms and knowledge of the discourse which corresponds to his stage of learning, we wonder to what extent English is used as a medium of instruction.

As far as teaching is concerned, task-based instruction is an important concern in EAP. It illustrates what our learners will be going on to use the language for in the real world and studies how they will solve an immediate problem. Moreover, task-based teaching evaluates learners’ abilities to perform a task according to certain criteria, which reflect their immediate needs, rather than their ability to successfully complete a discrete-point test (Ellis 2003, p.58).

During the last decades, there have been a plethora of studies and reports on reading purposefully. In one study, Astika (2004) states that keeping engaged in the process of reading in an interactive fashion is effective in providing the students with the skill to tackle the reading problems encountered during their EAP courses. Development of ESP in Iran can best be considered in terms of various EAP programs for all academic fields at university. Ataei (2000) conducted a large-scale study considering the effectiveness of the programs as implemented in the target settings or even the theoretical issues concerning ESP instruction. In relation to reading ability and reading skills, he acknowledged the need for getting EAP readers involved in extensive reading as a highly recurrent criterion task in college-courses (Carrell and Carson 1997

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as cited in Ataei 2000, p.125). In the most relevant study conducted by Hokmi (2005), the effects of teaching reading comprehension in ESP courses within the paradigm of task-based language teaching (TBLT) were investigated. The results of this study suggest that reading for message influences the students reading ability positively.

Continuing the studies on the effectiveness of reading skills, Tahririan and Basiri (2005) worked on the effectiveness of reading abilities in Internet reading. The results of the study further indicated that reading skills, such as skimming and scanning, are fundamental to Internet reading. The Internet readers mainly favored quick glances from top to bottom of the page. Their eyes moved from one item to the other in search of relevant information. They did not read every word or every line of the page.

Hokmi (2005) conducted a study and concluded that “assigning students real-world tasks conveys the value of reading for message and influences the reading comprehension positively”. In other words, if students are involved in the process of learning, they will find something that will be advantageous for later use and, consequently, better comprehension takes place. Griva (2003) puts forward reasons in order to maintain that a majority of the proficient readers in an academic context “appreciate the need to orientate themselves to the specific requirements of a reading, and that they need to participate interactively in the process of reading.” Moreover, Spector et al (2001) mentioned that “the nature of the tasks should be directly related to reading materials selected, so that the classroom experience can be utilized by the learner as a springboard for further tasks.” Willis and Willis (2007) support the previous arguments, asserting that “one of the prominent features of the task is involvement in real language use, in which there is an immediate problem to solve” and that this kind of language use reflects the type of language that learners would need in their real-world situation.

Contrary to the above mentioned assumptions, Widdowson (2003) declares that real-world activities will not guarantee any effective contribution to the process of learning for “it is possible for learners to get their messages across” even if the language that is used is minimal (p.125). On the other hand, Ellis (2003, p.9) referred to some critical features of tasks such as a primary focus on meaning, cognitive

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engagement and clearly defined communicative outcomes are more significant. Reading purposefully is more interesting and text information is understood and

recalled better when reading is purpose driven. But how narrowly should the concept of purpose be defined? Evans and Green (2007) conducted a large-scale multifaceted investigation and showed that students find the processing of information at the micro-level (skimming, scanning…) more demanding than that carried out at the macro-level (listening, speaking…). They also mentioned that reading is a skill that comes from experience and needs to be continuously improved through different types of materials but that efficient reading involves many skills that need to be fostered in a classroom whether in an academic or non-academic context.

Hayati (2008), based on his observation of some EAP classes in Iran, believes that in Iranian EAP contexts, receptive skills need more attention and should be explicitly activated. The aforementioned studies are capable of providing enough information in relation to reading and reading abilities; however, they do not focus on the reading skills specifically. They provide no detailed information considering the effect of teaching reading micro-skills. In addition, there is no detailed information on whether these skills need teaching in EAP.

3. Rationales for the present research

Although the list of reading micro-skills brings in some other skills, in this study, we opted for four micro-skills of high frequency of use in academic contexts. Willis and Willis (2007) mention that “prediction tasks can play a large part in reading for academic purposes” (p.137). Many academic texts begin with an introduction, which sets out the aims. This will lead the reader to use the skimming skill to decide whether or not it is worthy to read the whole text. Ataie (2000) argues that “the students generally acknowledge the priority of receptive skills over productive skills” because they believe that reading discipline-specific textbooks should be given priority (p.199). Moreover, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998, p.96) state that “there must be a balance between skills and language development.” In relation to critical reading skill as one of

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the intended skills, Lotfi (2005) argues that similar to other kinds of English learning it is reasonable to incorporate critical thinking activities in the ESP/EAP courses. Critical thinking activities involve learners both cognitively and emotionally. Yang and Shi (2003, p.168), too, emphasize the role of critical reading and state that when students read, they may enter a kind of dialog with the subject area of the text. Taking into account the nature of the intended micro-skills, Widdowson (2003, p.124) asserts that activities in a language classroom have to satisfy two crucial pedagogical conditions: keeping learners engaged in meaningful activities and activating their learning effectively. The priority of engagement led us to choose task-based instruction which creates abundant opportunities for learners to interact and consequently to facilitate language acquisition.

4. Methodology

4.1 Participants

The participants were 42 male and female Iranian University students majoring in MSBA. They had already passed the nation-wide MA entrance examination, which emphasizes both subject specific courses and English language proficiency. Therefore, the participants were supposed to enjoy an appropriate level of language. They were then randomly divided into two groups: control and experimental.

4.2 Instruments

In this study, the following instruments were used:(1) Two sets of academic texts extracted from the Internet in order to achieve the instruction goals.

A. A set of four study materials designed to teach the intended reading skills (scanning, skimming, contextual clues, and critical reading) with instruction and highlighted key elements of the desired skills. These four educational texts were at

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intermediate and upper intermediate level as mentioned in the source.B. A set of four academic study materials in the field of Business Administration.

These texts were extracted from the Internet for the purpose of getting feedback from the previous study materials in the light of reading skills.(2) A teacher-made test including multiple choice and open-ended cloze-test was used in order to obtain instructional feedback, and probable differences between performance of the two control and experimental groups on a task-based reading comprehension focusing on intended reading skills. The reading text for the tests were extracted from Advanced Business Vocabulary in Use (Mascull 2004) which is introduced as a source “designed to help upper-intermediate and advanced students”. Prior to the main experiment, the test was given to ten students of management and its reliability was estimated as being 0.4472 by Kuder-Richardson (KR-21) indicating that the test was reliable.

4.3 Procedure

The obtained mean of the control and experimental groups on the entrance examination revealed that they were relatively homogeneous. In the control group, the instructor used translation while for the experimental group the same texts were presented to fit a task-based instruction focusing on the intended micro-skills, i.e. scanning, skimming, contextual clues, and critical reading. A task, in this approach, is a forum in which meaningful interaction takes place and helps individuals acquire a foreign language through interacting, negotiating and conveying meanings in the language in purposeful situations.

For the practice of each micro-skill, teaching time was divided into two sessions and three phases: pre-task, task cycle, and post task. In the first session, the teacher followed the phases and in the second he elicited the feedback of the previous session by presenting an unseen text. In the pre-task phase the teacher introduced the task and priority was given to encourage the students to combine topic-related words and phrases they already knew. Taking the first intended micro-skill (scanning) into account, the teacher distributed handouts with the definition of the skill and an illustrative

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text example. In order to help students concentrate on the lesson, the pre-task phase guaranteed a condition for the students to display their ability in the language. In the task-cycle stage, students worked in pairs or small groups with time limitation to carry out the task and achieve the goals of the task. The teacher was involved as a facilitator, ensuring that students could understand the teacher’s instruction while the students were assigned to study the given text. Generally speaking, throughout the task cycle, the accent was on promoting student understanding and expression of meaning, in order to achieve task outcomes and report findings. In the post-task phase, two stages were set: report stage and task repetition stage. In the report stage, one spokesperson reported the completion of the given task by his/her group publicly. In the next stage, which was conducted in the second session of reading in the following week, the students repeated the task with authentic texts in their area. Two more sessions were set for reviewing the taught materials before the last session of the term. Finally, at the end of the term, both control and experimental groups were given the test in order to find out whether the instruction was effective or not.

5. Results

At the end of the study, a teacher-made test with a micro-skills orientation was administered to the groups with the aim of finding out probable differences between the performances of the two groups on a reading comprehension test. The results of an independent-samples t-test revealed that the observed value (3.27) exceeded the critical value (2.02) at 0.05 level of probability for df = 40; therefore, the researchers could safely claim that reading comprehension improves when learners are taught skills via tasks. This finding was consistent with the results of Hokmi (2005) in which he investigated the effect of TBLT on reading comprehension of Machine-tools students. He concluded that assigning students tasks (real and pedagogic) influences their reading comprehension positively. In terms of reading comprehension in academic contexts, the results support Ataei’s (2000) that a task based approach to reading comprehension successfully integrates EAP readers’ needs for extensive and intensive reading. Also,

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the obtained results are in line with those of Astika (2004) that finds task-based teaching helpful in providing students with the skill to overcome the difficulties they may face during their course. Consequently, the treatment that the experimental group received during the study had proved to be effective. The two groups were not significantly different at the outset of the study; however, they behaved differently in the final test.

Comparison of the means made it clear that the experimental group had a better performance. As shown in Table 1, the mean score of the experimental group (15.55) was far from what the results showed as the mean score of the control group (12.65). The results also showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group regarding all reading micro-skills (see Table 1).

Table 1 Group Statistics

GROUP N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

SCORE1 22 15.55 2.923 .623

2 20 12.65 2.796 .625

SCAN1 22 7.05 1.090 .232

2 20 6.35 .933 .209

SKIM1 22 5.50 1.406 .300

2 20 4.50 1.732 .387

CONTEXT CLUES

1 22 1.77 .612 .130

2 20 1.25 .910 .204

CRITICAL READING

1 22 1.23 .922 .197

2 20 .70 .733 .164

To develop a more transparent picture of the role that instruction might have on reading skills, the micro-skills were individually compared across groups. The first intended micro-skill was scanning. The results of the independent-samples t-test revealed that the observed value (2.21) was greater than the critical value (2.02) at 0.05 level of probability for df = 40, implying that the two groups differ significantly (Table 2).

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Table 2 The learners’ performance on the first reading skill (scanning)

Value df Sig.

Independent-samples t-test 2.21 40 0.03P < 0.05 Critical value = 2.02

The second micro-skill was skimming. As seen in Table 3, the results of the independent-samples t-test indicated that the observed value of t (2.06) outran the critical value (2.02) at 0.05 level of probability for df = 40, marking statistically significant differences between the two groups.

Table 3 The learners’ performance on the first reading skill (skimming)

Value Df Sig.


The next two micro-skills in this study, contextual clues and skimming, similarly, demonstrated statistically significant differences between the groups as the observed values for the two micro-skills exceeded the critical value at 0.05 level of significance (see Tables 4 & 5).

Table 4 The learners’ performance on the third reading skill (contextual clues)

Value df Sig.


Table 5 The learners’ performance on the third reading skill (critical reading)

Value df Sig.


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6. Discussion

During the last two decades, more emphasis has been placed on the significance of reading skills. Generally, reading has been perceived as the most needed EAP skill in students’ higher academic pursuit (Jordan, 1997, p.145). Whenever EFL learners initiate reading for academic purposes, there would be a shift in the nature of their reading activity. The language carries the knowledge of their field, and it is not the object of study anymore. In this regard, Huang, Cheng and Chern (2006) state that, “in this alternation, the students should learn how to decode the text to derive the most information. Directing reader’s attention away from the language and instead towards the content may be one way to enhance a TAVI (text as a vehicle of information) mode of EAP reading.” In addition, Jackson, Meyer and Parkinson (2006) argue that for students who desire to follow post graduate study, lack of apprenticeship in the discourse of science through reading appropriate research articles may mean the difference between failure and success at the post graduate level. These debates shed more light on the significance of reading skills. Thus, it is hoped that the present study resolves some of the above-mentioned controversies related to reading skills.

In so far as the question of the study is concerned, the results of an independent samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of reading comprehension. More notably, the marked improvement regarding the reading comprehension ability of the participants in the experimental group must have originated from the type of instruction they had been exposed to during the time that the experiment was conducted.

Another factor that may affect learners’ performance is the nature of the task that may be stimulating. Richards and Rogers (2001, p.229) assert that task activity and task achievement, as a characteristic for task-based instruction, are motivational. Brown (2000, p.160) goes on to state “it is easy to assume that success in any task is due simply to the fact that someone is motivated.” From a cognitive standpoint, motivation puts much more weight on the individual’s judgment and might help a learner to achieve the given task more effectively.

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During the allocated time for the present study, the experimental group was taught explicitly the reading skills and later they learned the skills implicitly. Supporting this type of language learning and task achieving, Ellis (2003) proposes a model where explicit knowledge functions as a facilitator in two ways: first, it helps the process of noticing in which the learners with explicit knowledge seem to notice the occurrence of communicative input and thus learn it implicitly. Second, it assists noticing-the-gap in which learners are assisted to carry out cognitive comparisons more easily; that is “to compare their own norms with the target norms exemplified in the feedback” (p. 150). As a facilitator, “teaching of explicit knowledge needs to be viewed as supplementary to task-based language teaching, not as a step in an instructional sequence” (Ellis, 2003:150). Therefore, task instruction constitutes the means by which learners are provided with opportunities to achieve the given task and also to communicate.

Socially, task is a meaningful communication and interpretation of an activity through social interaction. How we interpret the activity and consequently communicate with each other emerges partly through our perception of the world during our interaction. These perceptions are always passing through our beliefs and these beliefs are the foundation of a social community. Hyland (2006) claims that “academics cannot step outside the beliefs of their social groups to tell us ‘what the world is really like’ but have to draw on conventional ways of producing agreement” (p.39). Thus, the agreement of community members is at the heart of knowledge construction and the language used to reach that agreement is central to the success of both students and academics. In this process, genre as a key element of EAP is seen as an abstract, socially recognized way of using language (p.46). Swales (1990, p.76) suggests that, in order to teach genre as a key element of EAP, the best vehicle is task. While he adds authentic communication is necessary to consider a task as genre-based, Ellis (2003, p.213) states that this notion will lead us to sociocultural situation of task by recognizing the discourse to which it belongs. On the other hand, Williams and Burden (1997) mention that the “tasks’ rationale lies within a social and educational framework rather than a purely psycholinguistic one; so, they are carried out by learners who employ a range of cognitive and social processes to interpret and

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attempt to complete them.” (p.169). This communicative nature of language may lead teachers towards group participation and learner input rather than rigid transmission of knowledge (Harmer, 2003). On the other hand, a belief in the micro-skills that go to make up a variety of reading experiences may well suggest ideal reading practices for the classroom (Wilson, 2008). The teacher comes into the class with these cultural and personality beliefs.

The above mentioned arguments support the effect of task-based teaching of reading skills in academic contexts from different dimensions. In short, as the goal of reading a text is to do something with the information, the results of the present study revealed that task-based teaching of reading skills has a significant and positive impact on promoting EFL learners reading comprehension ability in EAP contexts. For a sample activity to encourage the students to get involved in the reading task, one may refer to Grabe and Stoller (2001) who mention that extensive reading should be a central component of any course with the goal of building academic reading abilities. And the sustained silent reading of level-appropriate texts is the single best overall activity that students can engage in to improve their reading abilities, though it is not sufficient by itself for an effective reading program (p.198).

7. Conclusion

Based on the results of this study, it could be cogently concluded that assigning students reading-based tasks conveys the value of reading for meaning and influences their reading comprehension positively. Consequently, as Harmer (2003) recommends, availability of various reading experiences dependent on micro-skills may cause ideal reading practice for the classroom. Moreover, as Basturkmen (2006, p.125) states, task-based instruction will provide room for the teacher to predict the learners’ potentiality of their future performance in their professional, academic or work place where better performance is considered respected. In addition, findings of the present study are in line with Hokmi (2005) who mentions that whilst task-based materials are not available on the market for Iranian academic students, ESP and EAP teachers may adapt present

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materials to use a task-based approach to create a situation which helps meaningful engagement of the learners, and, as a result, successful completion of the task.

The results of the present study, we hope, will stimulate teachers to alter their reading classes from traditional atmosphere to more dynamic and communicative situations. Task-based instruction can be a facilitator in improving reading comprehension, an aspect of EFL that is given priority in Iran and elsewhere. In addition, the obtained results will be of value to syllabus designers. Syllabus designers can design goal-oriented communicative tasks in order to make them meaningful. Finally, researchers can take advantage of the insights acquired in this study to realize the logical roots that provide the evidence for such results as well as take vision for future manipulation and findings in order to develop language learning curricula.

In spite of the hopeful and encouraging results, this study, however, suffers from a few limitations. It was limited in sample size; results would be more reliable given a larger number of participants. In addition, judgment on students’ language proficiency was made according to the students’ performance on the nation-wide MA entrance examination. Though a homogeneity test was administered, still we believe a pre-test could be more illuminating and revealing. Finally, this study was assigned to students without taking their age and gender into consideration. Males and females in different ages have distinctive language ability and language performance; these phenomena were not taken into account in the research.

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* Corresponding author. Address: Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

Email: [email protected] (Majid Hayati)

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2010TIESPJ.indd 70 2011/3/4 下午 04:48:43

04_task-based teaching of micro-skills in an eap situation_majid hayati, alireza jalilifar

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teaching of reading

teaching of academic

taught reading skills

english teaching

intensive reading

critical reading

taskbased teaching of

eap english