|
The Facilitative Effect of Graphic Organizers in TESL Martin Guardado Teaching English as a Second Language University of British Columbia Canada Abstract:
Esta investigación explora las posibilidades de usar los gráficos para
facilitar la enseñanza del idioma ingles en diferentes contextos. Luego de
analizar los diferentes usos de los organizadores visuales en el contexto
amplio de la educación, se procede a tratar como diversos investigadores
sugieren que estos se pueden aplicar en el contexto de la enseñanza del
Ingles como Segunda lengua o como una lengua adicional. Los resultados de
esta investigación no apoyan su beneficio, en el contexto y condiciones
descritas, pero invitan a re-evaluar su aplicación en circunstancias
diferentes a las planteadas en el estudio.
Introduction Is a picture really worth a thousand words? I do not have an answer to that question, but what I can say is that the use of graphics in education has experienced a considerable increase in recent years stemming from a growing awareness of their facilitative effects, which in turn are partly due to the results of research studies that support it. This notion has been largely supported by psychological theories and empirical studies (Schnotz & Kulhavy, 1994; Day & Bellezza, 1983), some of which claim that research findings on graphic organizers “complement the scientific investigation of cognitive processes in text comprehension, which has contributed much to our understanding of human cognition and learning” (Schnotz & Kulhavy, 1994). Although there is considerable evidence that creating graphical representations of texts into visual structures improves the ability of people to understand and to recall information (Day & Bellezza, 1983), this paper deals primarily with understanding texts through graphics and constructing texts from graphics. Graphics have been thought to perform effectively across cultures and across the curriculum (Mohan, 1986). One area that has been suggested to benefit considerably from their use is the integration of English as a second language and academic content. This paper reports the results of a mini study conducted in an adult ESL classroom to explore the facilitative effects of graphics in the ESL classroom. For the purposes of this paper, the expressions graphic organizers, key visuals, and graphics are going to be used interchangeably to mean the graphic representation of knowledge (Early & Tang, 1991). Literature
review
According to Tang (1994), the graphic organizer is a “teaching/learning device developed to facilitate student comprehension and organization of content area texts”. The development of graphic organizers or key visuals has been influenced by various theories and schools of thought, including Gestalt psychology, which considers the whole being more than the sum of its components. This definition fits graphic organizers, seeing that a well-thought out visual conveys a message that is broader than merely the sum of its parts, and it can be clearer and more economic than a densely packed original text. Although its origins mostly have to do with facilitating reading, they are now used as valuable instructional tools in different areas. Graphics and the Knowledge Framework Mohan (1986) maintains that there are certain knowledge structures that appear over and over in different disciplines. He claims that by making students aware of these patterns, they can identify and comprehend different types of discourse much more easily. Based on that notion, he suggests that graphic organizers have the potential of helping L2 learners in mainstream classes become familiar with those knowledge structures that are common across the curriculum and of assisting them better prepare themselves to effectively meet the challenges faced in academia. Such belief is also supported by Early (1990b) and other scholars. The use of graphics is an integral component of teaching the knowledge structures that make up the Knowledge Framework (Mohan, 1986). Mohan claims that by teaching the formal schemata, that is, the specific, practical structures of description, sequence and choice, and the general, theoretical structures of classification, principles and evaluation, we “equip” students with basic information that they can transfer to all types of expository oral and written discourse. He adds that we also enable students to develop thinking skills and the genre-specific language required for constructing discourse. One might contend that we cannot successfully achieve these objectives if we lack the necessary tools. Mohan affirms that graphic organizers meet the requirements needed in order to achieve those goals. Based on the work done by Mohan, 1986; Early, 1990b, 1990c; Tang, 1993; Hyerle, 1996; and computer applications like Inspiration software packages and the information contained at www.inspiration.com, it’s easy to see how graphic organizers can be designed to represent all six knowledge structures, as proposed by Mohan. Examples of graphic representation of knowledge structures are: trees and webs are used to represent classification information. Concept mapping and semantic mapping are used for description, classification, and for activating background knowledge and integrating it with new knowledge. Charts and Venn diagrams are useful for representing description and comparison. Cycles and causal chains are often used for cause and effect, especially for principles and sequence. The continuum is used for representing degrees, shades of meaning, and as rating scales in evaluation. The timeline, a type of continuum, is useful for sequence, as in the organizing of a series of events in chronological order. Grids can be used for evaluation and flow charts for choice. This is not an exhaustive list as the sources cited above offer a wider range of possibilities. At least one study (Early & Tang, 1991) has reported that in practice, teachers are usually very creative and develop unique graphic representations. All in all, the studies reviewed for this paper have reported that graphic organizers such as the ones mentioned above have wide-ranging applications in education in general. One of the applications of graphics is in integrating language and content for ESL students. Cummins (1981) and Collier (1987) found that it takes 5 to 7 years or more for ESL students to attain native-speaker language proficiency in the subject areas. However, in a study conducted by Gunderson (1985), he found that eighty-eight percent of content teachers at the elementary, secondary and adult levels did not modify their instruction for ESL students and did not think it was their job to help them overcome the language barrier. Furthermore, he found that the remaining twelve percent modified instruction in terms of rewording, further explanations, slower speech, simplified grammar, etc. It has been argued that that type of premodified input, although helpful, does not result in a great deal of increased comprehension, in comparison with other options (Pica, Young & Doughty, 1987) such as when the content is repeated and rephrased in interaction and when there are interfactional modifications in the form of comprehension and confirmation checks and clarification requests. Moreover, Gunderson reports that there was no indication that the remaining twelve percent of teachers resorted to any type of visual aids to highlight the structure of texts and to promote content learning. This suggests that those students may find themselves at a great disadvantage and may urgently need to find ways of understanding content in order not to fall 5 to 7 years behind and to be able to move on with the rest of the class. It has been claimed that not providing such students with the means for learning the subject matter content would deprive them of the full benefits of an adequate education (Tang, 1993; Mohan, 1986). Graphic organizers seem to help provide such means, since ESL students particularly benefit from their use in understanding content that is beyond their current language proficiency level (Early, 1990a, Early 1990b; Tang, 1993). It seems that through key visuals, they are able to see the whole picture of a text at once. It is like giving them an x-ray photograph showing the underlying structure of the text and the relationship among its components. In this way, students do not need to understand all the words in a text or be familiar with all the rhetorical devices used to construct the discourse (ref ) in order to assimilate its content schemata. XXX argues that since many graphic organizers use short words or phrases, they are ideal for LEP learners. They do not have to struggle with complex sentences and dense texts. Familiarity with the way texts are constructed across the curriculum greatly enhances their ability to learn content (Mohan, 1986; Early, 1990a; Early & Tang, 1991, Mohan & Van Naerssen, 1997). Visuals appear to be useful in the ESL classroom for teaching a wide array of topics aimed at providing opportunities for language development. One important use is in multilevel classes, where advanced students are able to understand topics and texts easily, but lower level students need a way of making communication simpler and clearer. Graphic organizers lower the language barrier for these students both in terms of understanding the topic and in completing tasks. A study conducted by Carrell (1985) found evidence that the explicit teaching of text structures has a positive effect on reading comprehension for ESL learners. Our literature review reveals that teaching text structures or genres is usually accompanied by the use of graphic organizers in order to represent the big picture of a text (Mohan, 1986; Early, 1990a; Early, 1990b; Early, 1990c; Early, 1990d; Early & Tang, 1991, Mohan & Van Naerssen, 1997; Tang, 1993; Tang, 1994). More recently, other researchers have also obtained positive results when studying reading comprehension and the use of metaphors for representing story details and other types of texts (Tang 1994; Early, 1991)). According to Tang (1994), graphics facilitate listening and reading comprehension. She explains that in both reading and listening, graphic organizers can be used as pre/post activities. Graphics also help students activate the background knowledge or schemata they posses in their native language and to link it to new information in English, resulting in enhanced reading and listening comprehension (Tang, 1993). When completing reading comprehension tasks, students can be provided with a chart to fill out with details from the text. According to Mohan (1986), it is much easier for learners to fill in a chart than it is to answer written questions. Although until recently there used to be more research on the use of graphics to improve reading (Carrell, 1985, 1988, Tang, 1993), research results indicate (Mohan, 1989; Early, 1990b; Early, 1990c) that the use of graphics dramatically improves the writing process of LEP students. They are able to construct clearer, more coherent, logical and highly well organized texts when the task information is presented in graphical form. Completed charts, for example, are very useful for organizing and writing paragraphs or reports. A classification tree can help LEP writers produce a very clear text of classification (Early, 1990b) But not only teachers can take advantage of the many possibilities of graphic organizers by implementing them in their teaching. Some researchers believe (Early, 1990c; Mohan & Van Naerssen, 1997; Early & Tang, 1991) teachers should also show students how to generate graphics themselves. By developing their own graphics, students have a powerful tool at their disposal for analyzing texts containing different knowledge structures and for summarizing and synthesizing information. Researchers also claim that teachers can teach knowledge structures explicitly to students and incorporate the use of a variety of graphic organizers to represent them (Tang, 1993; Early, 1990c; Mohan & Van Naerssen, 1997; Early & Tang, 1991). When students are familiar with the concepts and the visuals, they can experiment generating their own, as well as constructing oral and written discourse from graphics made by the teacher, peers, or ready-made graphics from other sources. THE STUDYPurpose of the studyThe
goal of this study was to obtain information about the usefulness of using
graphics in facilitating student writing in an adult ESL classroom. In order
to accomplish that goal, the following research question was formulated: “What is the effect of using a graphic organizer as an aid for writing a summary
in an advanced adult ESL classroom?” MethodParticipantsThis study was conducted in an advanced class at Vancouver Community College. The class was composed of 19 students, 14 of which were present the day of the study. There were 2 male students and 12 females in the group. The ethnic composition of the group was: one from Mexico, one from Peru, one from Yugoslavia, participants were from mainland China; 3 from Taiwan; and 1 each from Kosovo, Czechoslovakia, and the Philippines. Most were recent immigrants to Canada who had studied English for many years in their countries. Most were also university educated in various fields such as engineering, At the time of the study, they had been attending that class Monday to Thursday, from 9:15 to 12:00 for about 10 weeks. As their final exam was approaching, the focus of the class had been on practicing their writing skills, especially description, narration, and cause and effect. Additionally, they had been explicitly taught the general structure of a paragraph, like topic sentences, concluding sentences, supporting details and special features of paragraphs. According to their instructor, they had had extensive practice in those areas. Materials Comparison group:
Experimental group:
Procedures The participants were randomly assigned to a treatment and a control group in the same room. The participants in each group then formed two pairs and a group of three. The pairs and triad in the control group received two handouts containing the paragraph and the instructions. They were told to read the paragraph and to make an outline and that the paragraph would be collected after five minutes. The pairs and triad in the treatment group received three handouts. They were told to read the paragraph for five minutes and then to return it to me. However, they were told to keep the graphic and to use it as an aid when writing their summary. Next, the participants were given 15 minutes to write their summaries, after which time, both the treatment group and the control group had completed their task. Data tabulation and analysisOnce the data were gathered, they were marked and tabulated (see Appendix E). The criteria and marks out of 25 were the following: topic sentence: 2; concluding sentence: 2; supporting details: 4; unity: 2; coherence: 1; grammar: 10; cause/effect language: 4. The criteria reflect a strong emphasis on language because the objective was not to study the integration of language and content, but rather, to explore writing in a general English as a Second Language class. ResultsTwo of the pairs in the treatment group scored considerably higher than those in the comparison group. However, one of the pairs in the treatment group scored well below everyone else in both groups. Their paragraph contained incoherent information relating to obesity and dieting, but not necessarily focusing on what the task required. In general, no major differences were found in terms of composition quality between the two groups. To further substantiate the findings, a chi-square test was performed on the distribution of the marks, which failed to indicate a statistically significant relationship between the use of graphics and the quality of the student writing as marked (chi-square=5.12, well below the needed 12.59, p<.05) Discussion Because of the nature of the results, I cannot state for certain that the differences in the comparison group and the treatment group are due to the use of graphics or to chance factors. However, upon reflection on the study, I came up with some possible intervening variables that may have affected the results:
Of those possible explanations, I am very inclined to attribute the results to a combination of # 1, 2, and 3. I feel that although the graphic may represent the cause-effect relationship well, it was too simplistic to be of any use to the students. Second, as the instructions were given when they had already received the materials, I felt that I did not have their full attention when I explained what to do. After spending an hour interacting with them and answering questions after the task I realized that the paragraph was probably below their level in relationship to the task they were required to perform. Those interacting variables likely had a strong influence on the results. CONCLUSIONThis paper has presented the case for using graphic organizers not only to help students develop thinking skills and to help them identify, learn and use the specific language required to talk about and write different types of expository texts, but also to assist them in the development and acquisition of their general language skills. Thus, the benefits are three-fold for ESL students: they develop their language, improve their thinking skills, and prepare for academic writing. The findings of this study are not striking in terms of differences between both groups. The answer to the research question: what is the effect of using a graphic organizer as an aid for writing a summary in an advanced adult ESL classroom? is no effect in this context and under these conditions. Therefore, based on these results, it can be argued that in that context and under those conditions, graphic organizers are not effective tools for helping students in writing. Additionally, more research in different contexts and using different types of graphics is needed to further explore ways in which the use of graphics can provide a teaching paradigm in ESL writing. References
Learning in
Canada: A Reassessment. Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2,
132-149.
Second Language Acquisition? TESOL Quarterly. Vol. 20-2.
|
Año V, No 001, Enero - Junio, 2001
| Home | Editorial | Artículos Científicos
| Artículos de Opinión | Artículos de Análisis
| Ponencias |