Introduction
In a society where contacts between people from different linguistic back grounds has become common, there is a great need for learning a second language .Bilingualism or multilingualism has become very important if a person wants to expand his or her cultural contacts and interaction. English is one of the widely used languages in international forums. Learning English as a second language has become very common. There is a big relationship between willingness to communicate and success in learning a second language.WTC (Willingness to communicate) in a second language largely depends on several factors. Curiosity affects a lot on the success of learning a second language. A curios learner of the second language will be eager and motivated to learn the language. The immediate persons near a learner also have impact on learning a second language. For example if a person is learning English as his or her second language, it would be expected that he or she would learn English easily if English speakers surround him or her. This study is going to focus on the process of learning English as a second language. The study will seek to determine the various factors, which affect acquisition of a second language and challenges facing acquisition of a second language. The study looks at English as a second language-foreign language (EFL). The learner’s willingness to communicate will be used as the predictor of students’ participation in class. The role of the teacher and interactions are going to be considered along side the influence they have on the students willingness to communicate (WTC).Willingness to communicate (WTC) can be estimated through giving learners a chance to speak in their second language. The reaction of various learners to the situation is used to predict their willingness to communicate .Some learners will be eager to try speaking in their second language while others may choose to remain silent.
Background of the student
In my case study; Jade is a thirteen-year old girl student, who is now placed in an English Immersion Program (EIP) at Jefferson Manuel Middle School (JMMS) in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). She is identified as a 2B level English Language Learner (ELL) and her first language is Spanish. She was born in El Salvador and spent most of her time with her Spanish-speaking mother and sister. She had her elementary education in her home country where she was offered an informal English instruction which only teaches simple words and phrases. About two years ago, her family moved to the United States. They first stayed in San Francisco for about eight months; she received the 1B level ESL classes there. She then transferred to her current school in Los Angeles. Her mother and sister can only speak very little English; however, her English-speaking uncle supported her in learning English by communicating with her in English all the time. According to Jade’s teacher, living in an area of the city where the majority people do not speak Spanish has helped her acquire more English.
Instructional Context
Jefferson Manuel Middle School is a public school with grade levels from six to nine. It has a total enrollment of 1365 in 295 schools across the country (California Department of Education [CDE] 2011). The total school population consist of 76% Hispanic and 20% Black, with 31% classified as English learners. The school scored 613 for the Academic Performance Index (API) which received No. 1 statewide rank in the last academic year. The average English class size is 17 students which is lower than the district data (Ed-data 2011). Jade’s ESL teacher is the coordinator of ESL program at JMMS with a teaching experience of 22 years.
Originally classified as a 2B level ELL, Jade has been in the EIP for over one year. She is taught English as a Second Language (ESL). A Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) is used in her other core classes. Jade has her ESL classes for 2 periods (about 2 hours each) every morning, and gets nutrition break in the middle of it. Her class consists of 12 boys and 6 girls. Most of the students are from El Salvador, two from Mexico, one from Guatemala and one from Russia. Students are required to take the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) before entering school in order to be enrolled eligibly in at a suitable level of the program. In Jade’s ESL classroom, at least five students out of 18 are at the Intermediate level of the California ELD Test and three of them are at the Beginning level, the rest of them are at the Early Intermediate level. The three students with beginning level were arranged in the wrong program due to the staff’s mistake.
Methodology
I met the host teacher on my first visit and discussed the case study. She recommended two students to me, according to their English speaking proficiency, because I could not communicate with the students in Spanish. To gather data and information for this case study, my observation took place twice a week for 3-4 hours in the morning, covering 2 periods of ESL lessons, with a range of 10 weeks. I observed the various parts of her school day including the whole-class and small group work, independent work and recess. During my observation in classroom, I listened to the teacher and took field notes by hand, I also participated as the teacher’s assistant to help out Jade and other students. In addition, I took brief interview of Jade and her teacher, and also gave the questionnaire to the teacher to fill out. With frequent conversations with the teacher and students, I expected to gain a wide perspective of Jade’s experience as a second language learner through her interactions with her teacher and peers.
Analysis
WTC in whole-class participation and interaction
First of all, Jade’s participation and interaction in the whole class reflects her willingness to communicate (WTC). According to Jade’s teacher, “she brings a higher level of English to the class and she sets a good verbal example to other students” (K.S, interview). She is one of the most active students in ESL classes in which she always raises her hand confidently and negotiates with her classmates when disagreement occurs. When she first entered this school, she was so nervous and scared because of her limited language proficiency. However, after a few weeks, she adapted and found out that everyone was trying to speak English. It was interesting for her to have a try as well. Then she gradually becomes a mainstream student in class, as she was progressing faster than the other students. She gained awards and praises from her teacher, which gave her a lot of motivation. Although her interactions at school were limited, she was willing to communicate with her teacher and classmates in English so that she can get more points on oral communication. For instance, the teacher often asks about their weekends in the beginning of classes, she always volunteers to share her experiences with other students. Sometimes she has conversations with her teacher unlike her classmates who are silent during this activity. Also, she likes to imitate teacher’s pronunciation and expressions after classes, and repeats a lot on her own.
The evidence of Jade’s actions reflects that some ELLs have a “silent period” and they would like to begin to speak naturally on their own (Peregoy 2013). “Motivation refers to the extent to which a person holds positive attitude and desire to learn communication skills of a different culture” (MacIntyre 1998). Evidences show that motivation can positively affect WTC in second language, which would result in more fluency in second language (Lu 2008).
WTC in peer interaction relating to transfer of L1 and L2
As Jade’s teacher says, “this student is a people pleaser, she wants approval from other people” (K.S. interview). During my observation in classroom, I find that she likes to act as a teacher or expert to her classmates, like teaching her peers the words they don't know, pointing out the errors in their utterance, and helping to check peer’s work in class. For example, in a writing exercising I observed, she finished her work early, and turns to assist her desk mate who had difficulties in writing. She asked carefully about the topic, provided help in organizing the sentences and looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary, she even sacrificed her recess time staying with her peers figuring out the problems.
As Genesee et al. (2007) argues, Jade’s capacity to transfer her previous learning skills to the next level allowed the transfer of her language skills from L1 to L2. Cummins (2005) also stated in his Interdependence Principle that acquisition of L1 and L2 is developmentally interdependent and development in L1 facilitates development in L2.
WTC in individual work
There are some common factors that not only affect Jade’s participation and interaction in the whole-class activity or group and pair work, but also play a part in her individual work. She shows her speed, accuracy, focus, adequate capacity and confidence in terms of completing her work and sharing with the class. She also displays no hesitation in taking risks to do some new things and create innovative ideas in her learning process.
MacIntyre et al. (1998) defines L2 WTC as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using L2” (Cao 2006). Besides, “a safe, welcoming classroom environment with minimal anxiety about performing in a second language is essential for ELLs to learn” (Lucas 2008). From this perspective, then it seems like the classroom with less affective filter that the teacher creates offers more opportunities for Jade to present her WTC.
Recommendations
Several strategies can be utilized to attain more success in Jade’s future learning.
First of all, it is necessary to maintaining and developing her L1, Spanish. Since the teacher is a Spanish speaker as well, there can be a lot of exposure to their L1. In Cummins (2005)’s article, he emphasizes the “additive bilingualism” provides opportunities for teachers to enhance the ability in cognitive, linguistic and academic areas. In other words, it is necessary to provide adequate instructional support both in L1 and L2 in terms of immersion programs (Peregoy 2013). The behavior of prohibiting any of their languages will block the way to achieving language proficiency.
Second, as the teacher indicates that “people who speak most of the time now surrounded her”, there are not enough fluent English speakers as language models, I would recommend that the collaborative work with learners with higher language proficiency such as ELLs at higher levels. There could be a one-on-one communication formed to have activities between the higher grade fellow students and students in Jade’s class. It is important to have mixture in ELD levels so that students with higher proficiency in English may act as student models for students with lower English proficiency. Additionally, “being assisted by an expert when the learner receives guidance, advice, and modeling; collaborating with other learners where leaning is constructed together, assisting a lower-level learner, when both have opportunities to learn, and working alone” (Walqui 2006).
The last recommendation is the increase interactions with family and community. The school can organize activities which invite parents and people in the community to come to school having gathering in holidays or weekends. The activities could be story-telling competition or role-play drama, etc. which aims to engage students promoting language skills in family and community. As Hoover-Dempsey et al. (2005) states that, “parents” attitudes, behaviors, and activities related to children’s education influences students’ learning and educational success.
References
Demographics from LAUSD website, prepared by Office of Data and Accountability, retrieved from http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=school.profile.content&which=8255
California Department of Education, School Profile, In Ed-Data, Retrieved from http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us
Cummins, J. (2005). Teaching the language of academic success: A framework for school based language policies, In: Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework (3rd edition). pp. 3-32.
Clement, R., Baker, S.C., MacIntyre, P.D., 2003. Willingness to communicate in a second language: the effect of context, norms and vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 22 (2), 190–209.
Cao, Y. & Philp, J. (2006). Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behavior in whole class, group and dyadic interaction. System, 34, pp. 480-493
Lu, Y. & Hsu. C. (2008). Willingness to Communicate in Intercultural Interactions between Chinese and Americans, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research Vol. 37, No. 2, July 2008, pp. 75–88
Statistics Canada, (1996).Home language and mother tongue, Ottawa: Industry, Science and Technology Canada, 1996 Census of Canada.
