CMC Assignments - Abdullah Mohamed

Summary of CMC among Multilingual Students of English for Academic Purposes:

Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Communicative Factors in Online Written Responses

The article by Marsha Bensoussan, Eleanor Avinor, Bonnie Ben-Israel, Olga BogdanovDepartment of Foreign Languages, University of Haifa is about how asynchronous computer-mediated communication can boost the development of Second Language acquisition in relation to normal verbal speech to bilinguals and monolinguals.

The article states that by using the internet as a medium in teaching Second Language, every student get the chance to give their feedbacks on the topics given to them through writing which is at the same time created equality among the students with different native languages and backgrounds. CMC, through the Forum, produced not only equalization but an openness of participation both in quantity of participation and in quality. Both majority (bilingual) and minority (monolingual) groups participated more than has been experienced in face-to-face classroom discussion and in a variety of informal tones which previously had not been heard in the classroom. Responses indicated positive emotional involvement which motivated students to participate beyond the minimum requirement for class credit.

The research shows that linguistics and sociolinguistics is a factor for the students in giving their answers to the task given to them. By using the internet, students can have easy access to articles which consist of 5-10 pages for source of reference to assist them. In a CMC learning atmosphere, students have limitless boundaries and it is good to motivate the students to discuss with each other since they do not have to discuss face-to-face all the times since some students might have difficulties to verbally speak to students with different accents or level of English language. In this sense, CMC reduce language inferiority among the students which has proven to be a lot of help for the students in order to create a more active and critical class and at the same time, students have time to organize their ideas in words where CMC does not require a direct response such as answering questions verbally.

Web-based classroom give maximum benefit to students because it promotes communicative skills since all of the students get their information from authentic resources(on the internet) which can add depth to their English and their voice is heard where the students do not have to raise their hands or waiting for their turn to answer questions or give their opinions. Krauss & Chiu 1998:26, ‘similarity in language use between communicator and recipient reduces the perceived psychological distance between communicator and recipient, and this in turn can lead to greater receptivity to persuasive communication’.

The purposes of this study were:

1. to compare the written on-line English responses of bilinguals (with Hebrew as the L1 and English as the L2) and multilinguals (native speakers of Arabic, Russian, and Amharic, with English as the L3 or Ln) in terms of linguistic and sociolinguistic influences

2. to examine the extent to which text comprehension, language performance, and sociolinguistic communication differ among the groups.
The present study examines the extent to which the following linguistic and sociolinguistic differ among speakers of different native languages.
Linguistic factors:
• Text comprehension: understanding of texts, coherent answers, use of outside information, effect of text topic on responses
• Language performance: number of errors, cohesive devices (connectors and referents). Our evaluation of student errors took into account the speech-like quality of written discourse on the Internet (Gonzalez-Bueno 1998).
Sociolinguistic factors:
Length of response; tone, use of emphatic language, humor and irony; hedging; motivation; and responses to the teacher and students having the same or different native language.

Methodology

The research use sample population of 35 students with different native languages which is Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and Amharic. Native speakers of Hebrew are considered as bilingual and the rest is multilingual. The class is divided into two parts in a week. Students were given tasks which require them to use computer in order to respond. Students were given two tasks, comprehension and forum polls. Students were given marks and their responses were analyzed separately. As for the comprehension questions, only the teacher will see it and the rest is open for everyone. Comparison will be made between bilingual and multilingual and also comparison between male and female answers.

Findings

The research analyze that students give their responses and answers based on linguistics and sociolinguistics factors. In linguistic factors, students are mistake prone because they must write formally while fewer errors are made in the forum section because students use short and simple answers to avoid making mistakes. As for sociolinguistic factor, students give long response since their answers require them to get involve emotionally. Bilingual versus multilingual responses indicate that there are no big differences in their performance maybe due to the environment where the students felt the equality among them. The sociolinguistic communicative factor shows that even though multilingual students’ grades are lower than bilingual, however they tend to use more sociolinguistic communicative factor in their answers.
Conclusion
CMC really help the students to share their idea to the whole class and to boost their self-confidence. By using this format for a class, it will make the task of teachers easier and slow learners become more visible to the teacher.

Reaction to language learning in Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the fast developing countries in the world. Here in Malaysia, we have almost all kind of latest technology such as the monorails, high-tech government buildings, and much more. However, the education system and the methods of teaching used are sometimes seems to be out-dated. For example, in language learning, most Malaysian schools or universities still use the old methods of teaching which is by using the “old fashioned classrooms”.
It is well known that Malaysians have the tendency to be very shy during class hours and it is a rare occasion to see students to participate actively in class without being forced by their teachers or lecturers. The reason is due to the inferiority of using the English language verbally. Students do not want to be laugh at when they make errors in their speech in front of their classmates.
However, students never fail to give their response in writing essays or short answer questions in class no matter how low their vocabulary is or the grammatical mistake they make. Why? because, only the teachers or lecturers will see their flaw and weaknesses.
I recommend that the ministry of education should start to introduce CMC in primary schools. This way, children could be getting used to it and most probably, in their secondary school years, most of them will be fluent in their speech and will be excellent in their writings since they are being taught at an early age and their level of confidence in speaking and writing might be better.
I am not saying that it is useless to use CMC as teaching method in higher education institutes, but if the students are used to being “shy” or passive in class, then most of the students would not be able to change their attitudes towards learning language because being passive and shy has become part of them since they do not have the confidence in themselves to speak in English.
In conclusion, CMC should be introduced in our schools since English is the lingua franca of the world. Malaysia produce a lot of good quality students, however sometimes those students do not have the ability to communicate in English and it will eventually become a thick barrier for them to express their ideas to the whole world.