Sensory Relativity and its Effect on Non-Persian Language Learners' Writing Skill

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
R. pishghadam
S. Ebrahimi
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Abstract
Speaking, listening, writing, and reading have a particular influence on the language learners’ improvement and paying attention to improving such skills is necessary for teaching a second language. Since speaking and listening are naturally acquired from the beginning of our lives (Brown, 2001), most of the language learners pay more attention to these two and the other two skills take the back seats, though comprehension mostly happens through writing (Bazerman et al., 2005). Writing can bring the words and the language to the conscious level (Olson, 1993) and can produce a more lasting representation of the meaning, create a higher level of knowledge structure and deeper and more consistent learning (Brossard, 2001). In this regard, knowing the fact that creativity of the written texts is directly related to classroom involvement can probably be used for improving the students’ skills. For this reason, the present study aims to highlight the role of senses in the writing skill to reduce the difficulties a learner might face. Hence, the writers have employed the sensory relativism framework (Pishghadam, Jajarami, & Shayesteh, 2016) to teach writing and hypothesized that people’s senses can affect their understandings of the world and should their senses change; their conceptualization may vary as well. In other words, individuals’ outlook may be different if their first encounter to a concept is visual than tactile. Given the importance of sensory relativity in molding foreign language learners' perception of the new language, the present study attempted to assess Persian language learners' writing skill using their five senses. For this purpose, 40 non-Persian language learners, classified into four groups of 10, from 16 different countries, and at the same level of Persian language (level 7), were selected to participate in 20 sessions of sensory-relativism-based Persian language teaching class for five weeks. Regarding CAF (complexity, accuracy, and fluency) measures, results of qualitative analysis of 200 written texts about four Iranian cultural themes showed the significant effect of sensory relativity hypothesis on the language learners' writing skill. In other words, more involvement of the sensory stimuli brings about the internalization of students' information in their long-term memory. Furthermore, changes or addition in the level of senses can hierarchically relativize the students' level of learning. Subsequently, with the involvement of more senses, the accuracy, fluency, and complexity of the writing in the stages of involvement (inner and arch) were more than the stages of exvolvement (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic).The achieved findings revealed the effectiveness of this hypothesis on teaching language skills.

Keywords

Subjects

References
• • Asher, R.E. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
• Baddeley, A.D. (1986). "Working memory", Science, 255, 566-569.
• Bazerman, C., et al. (2005). Reference guide to writing across the curriculum. Indiana: Parlor Press, LLC.
• Baines, L. (2008). A teachers’ guide to learning multisensory improving literacy by engaging the senses. Virginia USA: Association for supervision and curriculum development (ASCD).
• Brossard, M. (2001). "Construction of knowledge and writing practices". Constructivism and Education, 31, 197-208.
• Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Second Edition. New York: Pearson Education
• Bygate, M. (1999). "Quality of language and purpose of task: Patterns of learners' language on two oral communication tasks". Language Teaching Research, 3: 185-214.
• Crookes, G. (1989). "Planning and interlanguage variability". Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11: 367-383.
• Emig, J. (1977). Writing as a mode of learning. College Composition and Communication, 28, 122-128.
• Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed Language Learning. Oxford: Blackwell.
• …...….. (2008). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analysing Learner Language. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Foster, P. and Skehan, P. (1996). "The influence of planning and task type on second language performance". Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18: 299-323.
• Hedge, T. (1994). Second language pedagogy: writing. Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Pergamon/Elsevier Science: 3774-3778.
• Hooper, S.R., Swartz, C.W., Wakely, M.B., Dekruif, R.E. and Montgomery, J.W. (2002). "Executive Functioning in Elementary School Children with and without Problems in Written Expression". Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35, 57-68.
• Housen, A., & Kuiken, F. (2009). "Complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language acquisition". Applied Linguistics, 30 (4): 461-473.
• Hunt, K. (1965). Grammatical structure written at three grade levels. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
• Isen, A. M., & Shmidt, E. (2007). "Positive affect facilitates incidental learning and divided attention while not impairing performance on a focal task". Paper presented at the Emotions Pre-Conference at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Memphis, TN.
• Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J., & Whit, E. (2005). Student success in college: Creating condition that matter. San Francisco: CA.
• Lennon, P. (1991). "Error: Some problems of definition, identification and distinction". Applied Linguistics, 12: 180-196.
• Menhart, U. (1998). "The effects of different length of time for planning on second language performance". Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20: 52-83.
• Nunan, D. (1989). Second Language Teaching & Learning. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
• Pincas, A., (1982). Teaching English Writing. London: Macmillian.
• Pishghadam, R., Jajarmi, H., & Shayesteh, Sh. (2016). "Conceptualizing sensory relativism in light of emotioncy: A movement beyond linguistic relativism". International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 4 (2), 11-21.
• Olson, D. (1993). "How writing represents speech". Language and Communication, 13(1), 1-1.
• Robinson, P. (2001). "Task complexity, task difficulty, and task production: Exploring interactions in componential framework". Applied linguistics, 22: 27-57.
• Sapir, E. (1929). "The status of linguistics as a science". Language, 5, 207-214.
• Skehan, P. (1988). A comparison of first and foreign language learning ability: A follow-up to the Bristol Language Project (ESOL Working Document No.8). London: London University, Institute of Education.
• ------------ (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• ------------- (2009). "Modeling second language performance: Integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency, lexis". Applied Linguistics, 1-23.
• Skehan, P., and Foster, P. (1999). "Task type and task processing conditions as influences on narrative retellings". Language Learning, 49: 93-120.
• Thomson, D. M. H., Crocker, C. and Marketo, C. C. (2010). "Linking sensory characteristics to emotions: An example using dark chocolate". Food Quality and Preferences, 21:1117-1125.
• Walker, N. (2014). "Listening: The most difficult skill to teach". Encuentro, 23, 167-175.http://www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/Walker_LISTENING%20.pdf.
Whorf, B. (1956). Language thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Wolfe-Quintero, K., Inagaki, S., & Kim, H. Y. (1998). Second language development in writing: Measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity. University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.
• Wigglesworth, G. (1997). "An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse". Language Testing, 14:85-106.
• Yuan, F. and Ellis, R. (2003). "The effect of pre-task planning and on-line planning on fluency, complexity and accuracy in L2 monologic oral production". Applied linguistics, 24: 1-27.
Language Related Research
Volume 9, Issue 6 - Serial Number 48
January and February 2018
Pages 213-240