Phase 3: Reflections
The third phase in my action research project was designed with three objectives in mind: define, expose, and reconsider. Throughout my first and second phases, the firmly held belief that native-accents (in particular, American accents) are "cool" continued to appear in my qualitative data. What I had dismissed as a minor contributing factor during the initial needs assessment proved to be more influential than I had originally speculated. I assumed that this social nuance would decrease in importance as the students were provided with explicit information on EIL in the first phase and given the opportunity to apply the information in a practical way during the second phase. However, the data showed that despite the marginal success of the first phase, and the advancements seen in second phase, students continued to view American accents as cool, attractive, and desirable. I mindset was important to consider for two reasons. First, while my students' attitude toward the American accent was positive, it created an explicit distinction between an accent that is desirable and an accent that is undesirable. Thus, perpetuating negative sentiments toward accented English speakers. Second, the continued persistence for the American accent was obstructing students' abilities to make the transformation away from native-speaking pronunciation toward intelligibility. Thus, I designed my third phase with the intention of diminishing the glorification of the American accent to promote diversity and the acceptance of individuality within pronunciation.
Challenging - Productive Challenging
A key component of my third phase was the students' ability to define and then redefine the American accent. I had hypothesized that the initial defining of the American accent would prove to be difficult, as articulating the pronunciation characteristics specific to a group of people is not easy to do. My hypothesis was accurate, as many students visibly struggled with this task as they tried to construct their own definitions of the American accent. The feelings of frustration my students had were at first encouraging as I had previously considered the possibility that if they could not define a goal of theirs, it might be easier to alter. However, due to the fact that many students felt frustrated toward this exercise it took longer than expected, thus taking time away from other activities. The students voiced their dissent and started distracting others to gain insight into what their peers were writing. While I knew this task was going to be challenging, I did not expect it to be challenging in a negative way. As an educator, I recognize that there is a fine line between a challenge and a productive challenge. Due to this being the beginning of phase three, it set the tone for the rest of the intervention. Many students showed visibly less effort after I asked them to complete this task, and some lost interest completely. If I create a fourth phase, I will make a better effort of designing tasks that suit my students' learning abilities and challenge them productively, instead of presenting them with tasks that result in a negative consequence. I believe I can design tasks better suited to students' needs through the collaboration with other teachers who have taught students with similar abilities.
Informal Assessment - Formal Assessment
During the group presentation portion of phase three, I enjoyed watching all the students present and also watching the class reactions to the presenters. The energy was high, the students were engaged, and everyone was taking the project seriously. However, I had not planned on doing any form of assessment besides informally assessing the students through observation, although that was quickly changed as a few students asked me how I was going to grade them on the presentations. I realized that because I had framed this as a research project, and the students were presenting this project in front of the class, they viewed this as a more formal activity than I did. I believe it took away from the presentations that I was not assessing the students formally. Once I told the students that their presentations were not going to be included in their overall grade the energy in the room went down, not substantially, but definitely noticeably. Although I try to use teaching methods that promote performance goals instead of mastery goals, I realized the value in assessing students during this portion of the phase (Inoue, 2012). Perhaps by creating a rubric and explaining to the students what I was going to be assessing them on, they would internalize the information in a deeper way because their investment in the project would be higher. However, I am not sure of that and would like to ask my peers for advice on this subject. If phase four comes to fruition, I would incorporate an appropriate form of formal assessment to see how the students react and what effect formal assessment has on the implementation of an EIL framework.
Independent Reflections - Group Reflections
At the end of my third phase I asked my students to reflect on the information they had been provided and fill out the American Accent Definition Worksheet one more time. The data gathered from these worksheets proved the the students overall changed their definitions over the course of this phase. It was encouraging to see that through exposure to the different accents the students were able to genuinely reflect on their own perspectives and reassess their thoughts. However, I realized upon reflection of this phase that I had not allowed time for group reflections on the changing of definitions. The groups participated in their own group reflections of their assigned American accent, however the students were not able to collaborate on their perspectives on the American accent in general. This would have been an interesting reflection to observe considering most of the students changed their definitions. I think it would have been powerful to voice this change as a class and reflect on it collectively. This would have held students accountable for their change in thoughts a bit more since they would have to vocalize and defend them. Although there was a lot of group activities and reflection throughout this action research project, I believe that I would employ more collective reflections, especially at the end of phases, to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the students are feeling as a class.
Challenging - Productive Challenging
A key component of my third phase was the students' ability to define and then redefine the American accent. I had hypothesized that the initial defining of the American accent would prove to be difficult, as articulating the pronunciation characteristics specific to a group of people is not easy to do. My hypothesis was accurate, as many students visibly struggled with this task as they tried to construct their own definitions of the American accent. The feelings of frustration my students had were at first encouraging as I had previously considered the possibility that if they could not define a goal of theirs, it might be easier to alter. However, due to the fact that many students felt frustrated toward this exercise it took longer than expected, thus taking time away from other activities. The students voiced their dissent and started distracting others to gain insight into what their peers were writing. While I knew this task was going to be challenging, I did not expect it to be challenging in a negative way. As an educator, I recognize that there is a fine line between a challenge and a productive challenge. Due to this being the beginning of phase three, it set the tone for the rest of the intervention. Many students showed visibly less effort after I asked them to complete this task, and some lost interest completely. If I create a fourth phase, I will make a better effort of designing tasks that suit my students' learning abilities and challenge them productively, instead of presenting them with tasks that result in a negative consequence. I believe I can design tasks better suited to students' needs through the collaboration with other teachers who have taught students with similar abilities.
Informal Assessment - Formal Assessment
During the group presentation portion of phase three, I enjoyed watching all the students present and also watching the class reactions to the presenters. The energy was high, the students were engaged, and everyone was taking the project seriously. However, I had not planned on doing any form of assessment besides informally assessing the students through observation, although that was quickly changed as a few students asked me how I was going to grade them on the presentations. I realized that because I had framed this as a research project, and the students were presenting this project in front of the class, they viewed this as a more formal activity than I did. I believe it took away from the presentations that I was not assessing the students formally. Once I told the students that their presentations were not going to be included in their overall grade the energy in the room went down, not substantially, but definitely noticeably. Although I try to use teaching methods that promote performance goals instead of mastery goals, I realized the value in assessing students during this portion of the phase (Inoue, 2012). Perhaps by creating a rubric and explaining to the students what I was going to be assessing them on, they would internalize the information in a deeper way because their investment in the project would be higher. However, I am not sure of that and would like to ask my peers for advice on this subject. If phase four comes to fruition, I would incorporate an appropriate form of formal assessment to see how the students react and what effect formal assessment has on the implementation of an EIL framework.
Independent Reflections - Group Reflections
At the end of my third phase I asked my students to reflect on the information they had been provided and fill out the American Accent Definition Worksheet one more time. The data gathered from these worksheets proved the the students overall changed their definitions over the course of this phase. It was encouraging to see that through exposure to the different accents the students were able to genuinely reflect on their own perspectives and reassess their thoughts. However, I realized upon reflection of this phase that I had not allowed time for group reflections on the changing of definitions. The groups participated in their own group reflections of their assigned American accent, however the students were not able to collaborate on their perspectives on the American accent in general. This would have been an interesting reflection to observe considering most of the students changed their definitions. I think it would have been powerful to voice this change as a class and reflect on it collectively. This would have held students accountable for their change in thoughts a bit more since they would have to vocalize and defend them. Although there was a lot of group activities and reflection throughout this action research project, I believe that I would employ more collective reflections, especially at the end of phases, to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the students are feeling as a class.