Context & Needs Assessment
I teach at a private ESOL school in San Diego that is made up of 300 students, spanning 34 countries, who range in age from 16 to 55 years old. The minimum length of stay at the school is two weeks and the maximum is one year. The school values a communicative teaching approach with integrative lessons based on a culturally-sensitive pedagogy. I have been working at this school for almost a year, teaching a wide variety of levels and topics. However, for my action research project I conducted my needs assessment within two classes, Intermediate Speaking and Listening and Intermediate General English. The total number of students who participated in my needs assessment was 25. The first part of my needs assessment included gaining basic information about my students through a self-created Demographic Data Questionnaire. From this, I found that the differences between my students were vast as they came from 9 different countries, ranged in age from 18-25 years old, had been studying English from anywhere between 1 year and 10 years, had been in the United States for a varying amount of time, and had a wide range of learning goals. In addition to providing me with the students' demographic data, the purpose of this questionnaire was to allow me to try to identify patterns within the data that present a need. Examples of completed Demographic Data Questionnaire can be found below in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
Although my student body was diverse, they had one thing in common: each student wrote down that they wished to improve their speaking skills. Furthermore, 20 out of 25 students stated that one of their speaking goals was to sound like a native-speaker. A few examples of these answers can be seen above in Figure 1 and Figure 2. When I compared the students' speaking goals with the amount of time they had been studying English, I found a problem. Although 80% of the students had listed native-speaker pronunciation as one of their goals, only 20% of the students had started learning English before the age of six-years-old. This is an issue because it is widely accepted by researchers that past the age of six, one cannot attain native-like pronunciation (Derwing, 2003, Golombek & Jordan, 2005, Munro & Derwing, 1995, Scales, Wennerstrom, Richard & Wu, 2006).
The second part of my needs analysis used a self-designed Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire with the purpose of gaining detailed insight into the reasons of why these students had native-speaker goals. I created this questionnaire based on a preliminary needs assessment I did with a former class. In that class, I had found that there was a large number of students whose speaking goals centered around sounding like a native-speaker. Similar to the results of my most recent needs assessment, most of the students had begun learning English after the age of six. In that first needs assessment, I asked the students to write down a list of the top five most frequent situations where they used English and also why they used English in that context. Although the collective list was extensive, there were three dominant categories. The categories were: professional reasons, academic reasons, and social reasons. From this information, I created the Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire to include these three categories. I also added a fourth category, "other", so that the students were able to add additional information if needed. The first question on the Native Speaker Questionnaire asked whether or not the student had the goal of sounding like a native-speaker. This was to confirm that I had interpreted the data from the Demographic Data Questionnaires correctly. Upon analysis of the Native Speaker Questionnaires, I found that out of the 25 total participants 20 students answered "yes" and 5 answered "no" to the first question. That meant that my initial assumption was correct and that 80% of my students had the goal of sounding like a native-speaker. The 20 students who answered "yes" became the participants in my action research project. An example of the Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire can be seen below in Figure 3.
The second part of my needs analysis used a self-designed Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire with the purpose of gaining detailed insight into the reasons of why these students had native-speaker goals. I created this questionnaire based on a preliminary needs assessment I did with a former class. In that class, I had found that there was a large number of students whose speaking goals centered around sounding like a native-speaker. Similar to the results of my most recent needs assessment, most of the students had begun learning English after the age of six. In that first needs assessment, I asked the students to write down a list of the top five most frequent situations where they used English and also why they used English in that context. Although the collective list was extensive, there were three dominant categories. The categories were: professional reasons, academic reasons, and social reasons. From this information, I created the Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire to include these three categories. I also added a fourth category, "other", so that the students were able to add additional information if needed. The first question on the Native Speaker Questionnaire asked whether or not the student had the goal of sounding like a native-speaker. This was to confirm that I had interpreted the data from the Demographic Data Questionnaires correctly. Upon analysis of the Native Speaker Questionnaires, I found that out of the 25 total participants 20 students answered "yes" and 5 answered "no" to the first question. That meant that my initial assumption was correct and that 80% of my students had the goal of sounding like a native-speaker. The 20 students who answered "yes" became the participants in my action research project. An example of the Native Speaker Pronunciation Questionnaire can be seen below in Figure 3.
Out of the 20 students, 6 circled "professional reasons" as to why native-speaker pronunciation was one of their goals. Based this data, 30% of the students saw a positive correlation between native-speaker pronunciation and professional success. Many students mentioned that this is a context where they had used English in the past and other students stated that this is a context where they are expecting to use English in the future. Within the professional reasons category, students identified two specific circumstances: 1) they have used, or will use, English to communicate with speakers from native-speaker countries and 2) they have used or will use English to communicate with speakers internationally. As McKay (2002) mentioned, “English is used as the default language since no other alternative exists” (p. 37). This is a critical detail because the data showed that students were acknowledging that they have used, or will use, English for international purposes. Within the professional reasons category, the students seemed to favor intelligibility as many reference "being able to speak well" and "being understood" although they listed these explanations as their reasons for native-like speech. It is important to note that the use of English for professional reasons was not limited to one country, or a single continent, but spanned five countries and three continents. Examples of questionnaires that cited professional reasons for wanting to sound like a native speaker can be seen below in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Out of the 20 students, 8 referenced academic reasons as to why they had native-speaker pronunciation goals. This meant that 40% of the students connected current or future academic contexts with the necessity of a native-speaker accent. Students stated that they have either used English in an academic setting or they predict they will have to in the future. For example, many students wrote that English is mandatory in courses at local universities. Other students stated that their future plan is to study at an American university. A distinct difference between the students who were planning on studying in their home countries and the students who planned on studying in America was the type of English instruction they expected. A few students who were not going to study in the U.S. stated that they predicted their classes were going to be conducted in “British English". Students who had had similar experiences confirmed this theory. These students did not seem concerned with the specific form of English being used, instead they worried that English was going to be used at all. However, the students who were planning on studying at universities in the U.S. mentioned that they wanted to speak like a “normal American student”. Within the academic context, the needs of the students seemed to vary between instruction for intelligibility and instruction for nativeness despite all of them claiming nativeness as their goal. Additionally, the use of English within academic contexts was not particular to students from a specific country. Rather, it ranged over three continents and seven countries. Examples of questionnaires that cited academic reasons for wanting to sound like a native speaker can be seen below in Figure 6 and Figure 7.
Another notable overlap that came from the collective list of contexts and reasons was the use of English for social reasons. It was within this category that we saw the largest amount of students, 9 out of the 20 referenced social reasons for why they wanted to sound like a native-speaker. That meant that almost half of the students (45%) thought that sounding like a native-speaker would improve the social situations they were in. While reviewing this list with the class, many students expressed frustration at being frequently misunderstood in situations that required what they referred to as “basic skills”. They listed examples such as ordering a drink at Starbucks, engaging in small talk with peers, asking for directions, and developing strong friendships with people from other countries. Derwing (2003) stated, “How one represents oneself to others is in part voluntary, but there are some things that are either very difficult or nearly impossible to control” (p. 548). Taking control of their speech in social contexts was a prevalent goal throughout almost half of the class. Upon review of the questionnaires, it was interesting to note that although many students cited social reasons for why they want to sound like a native-speaker, most expressed sentiments based on the fact that "they just want to be understood". Examples of questionnaires that cited social reasons for wanting to sound like a native speaker can be seen below in Figure 8 and Figure 9.
The final category to recognize is what the students wrote in response to "other". Only 3 students identified this category as a reason for their native-like pronunciation (15%). One of the students wrote, "I have the American nationality so it would be cool". This was significant for two reasons; first, this reason was connected to the student's identity. She was making the connection between an accent and a nationality. Therefore, if she sounded like an American then it would be cool because she had the nationality already. The second reason why this answer was significant was because of the word "cool". Seeing a native-speaker accent as cool, or cooler than your own accent, is notable. This coolness factor had most likely been perpetuated by the media through movies, music, and TV. As McKay (2002) mentions, "In the mid-1990's, the United States controlled about 85% of the world film market and of the pop groups listed in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 99% of the groups work entirely or predominantly in English" (p. 17). Another student wrote an answer similar to the first student, "I really like the accent". The appealing nature of a native-speaker accent may also be contributed to international media. Finally, the third student stated, "I don't want to sound like a tourist". This showed a glimpse of the divide between the inner-circle, the native-speaking countries, and the outer-circle or expanding-circles (McKay, 2002). This student recognized that there was something negative about being seen as a tourist and not a member of the native-speaking countries. These three questionnaires can be seen below in Figure 10, Figure, 11, and Figure 12.
After analyzing the context, participants, and results of the needs analysis I came to the conclusion that there was a need within my classroom to alter students' pronunciation goals with the purpose of raising their confidence levels in speaking and their feelings of membership within the global English speaking community. With 20 participants, and only 2 having had been exposed to English before the age of 6, it appeared that 90% of the students had pronunciation goals that were most likely unattainable.
I also believed it was clear from the needs analysis that although many of the students cited native-speaker pronunciation goals, they instead wished to be understood more than anything else. Thus, intelligibility was their overarching goal although they did not recognize it as such. I believed that by implementing an English as an international language (EIL) framework within the classroom would provide students with the ability to see that intelligibility was the more attainable, and appropriate, pronunciation goal. It was my hypothesis that once students recognized intelligibility over native-like pronunciation, their confidence levels would increase and their feelings of membership within the English speaking community would strengthen as they began meeting a speaking goal that they could actually reach.
I also believed it was clear from the needs analysis that although many of the students cited native-speaker pronunciation goals, they instead wished to be understood more than anything else. Thus, intelligibility was their overarching goal although they did not recognize it as such. I believed that by implementing an English as an international language (EIL) framework within the classroom would provide students with the ability to see that intelligibility was the more attainable, and appropriate, pronunciation goal. It was my hypothesis that once students recognized intelligibility over native-like pronunciation, their confidence levels would increase and their feelings of membership within the English speaking community would strengthen as they began meeting a speaking goal that they could actually reach.