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ACCOMMODATION BETWEEN A NATIVE SPEAKER AND NONNATIVE SPEAKERS DURING ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORKSHOPS IN SKDD1: A CASE STUDY
ABDUL BASITH MUHAMMAD BIN A. WAHID TGB110001 TXGX6102 - Research Methodology Dr. David Yoong Soon Chye

Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction 1.1. MBMMBI 1.2. Native Speaker / Non-native Speaker 1.3. Aims of the Study 1.4. Research Questions 1.5. Significance of the Study 1.6. Limitation of the Study Literature Review 2.1. Communication Accommodation Theory 2.2. Foreigner Talk Methodology 3.1. Collecting the Data 3.2. Analysing the Data 3.3. Reporting the Data 4. Conclusion 5. References

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Accommodation Between a Native Speaker And Non-native Speakers During English Language Workshops in SKDD1: A Case Study Abstract The current education policy, MBMMBI has brought in English-native speakers to selected schools and one of the selected schools is Sekolah Kebangsaan Damansara Damai 1 (SKDD1). To have a native speaker (NS) in the school has created an environment where the teachers have to communicate in English with the NS. The interactions change the way the NS speaks and the same goes to the teachers where both parties tend to accommodate each other. A qualitative study will look at the reasons the phenomena happens while a quantitative analysis of the speech production will show the changes made in the speeches produced. Keywords: MBMMBI, native speaker, non-native speaker, accommodation, convergence, divergence, foreigner talk. 1. Introduction 1.1. MBMMBI July 2009, Malaysian Cabinet has approved the bill by the Ministry of Education to uphold the Malay language and strengthen the teaching and learning of English at all levels of schooling (Muhyiddin, 2009). The policy, presently known as Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening the English Language (translated from Bahasa Malaysia Memartabatkan Bahasa Malaysia dan Memperkukuhkan Bahasa Inggeris - MBMMBI), has brought in 376 native Englishspeaking teachers to train the local teachers at specific Teacher Training Institutes and selected schools (Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 13). One of the selected schools, Sekolah Kebangsaan Damansara Damai 1 (SKDD1) has received a native speaker as a mentor to help the English teachers in the school. Referred as the Native Speaker Program, this program aims to help teachers to increase the proficiency in the English language for it is important because English is the international language of communication and by mastering the language, it will enable the exploration of knowledge which is vital for one to compete nationally and globally (Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 6). The program is one of the strategies proposed by the ministry to strengthen English, which comes under the second strategy - Quality English Language Teachers (Ministry of Education, 2010, p. 13). Having a native speaker in the school has created a new environment especially for the English language teachers, an environment where the teachers have to speak entirely in English to communicate with the native speaker. From my observations, I could identify that when communicating with the teachers, the native speaker would speak in a slower rate, tend to repeat his sentences and usually omit certain words when he rephrases. The same could be said about the teachers where the teachers would have a tendency to monitor their speech when talking with the native speaker. To monitor the speech means, the teachers usually concern (whether consciously or unconsciously) about the correctness of the utterances made and thus making them to speak in a slower rate with longer pauses, more fillers and normally involve repetition of the utterances. The phenomena that are happening shows that both interlocutors (the native speaker and the teachers) are trying to adjust their speech. When speakers adjust their speech in an interaction to accommodate the listeners, it is known as Communication Accommodation Theory (West and Turner, 2009, p. 466). This process of accommodating could either facilitate or interfere with the teachers proficiency in using English as proposed by Giles, Coupland and Coupland (1991, p. 3).

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1.2. Native Speaker / Non-native Speaker (NS/NNS) As the study focuses on communication between two different subjects, an individual native speaker and a group of non-native speakers, it is important to define both terms (native speaker and non-native speaker) to suit this study. Cook (2008, p. 2), defines native speaker as a person who speaks the language he or she learnt in childhood and often seen as monolingual. Lightbown and Spada (2006, p. 202) define it as a person who has learned a language from and early age and has fully mastered the language. For the purpose of this study, native speaker is defined as monolingual who can only speak one language which is English while non-native speaker (of English) refers to person whose first language is other than English (Malay language, Mandarin, Hokkien, Tamil, etc.). In this study, the native speaker would be referred as the mentor while non-native speakers are the English Language teachers in the school or simply the teachers. 1.3. Aims of the Study The aims of this study are; i) to identify the speech patterns of the mentor and the teachers when they communicate during the workshops, ii) to find out why the mentor speaks in a slower rate and tends to repeat or rephrase his utterances when talking with the teachers, ii) to find out the reasons why the teachers have tendency to check their speech. 1.4. Research Questions 1. How do the mentor and the teachers communicate during the workshops? 2. What are the strategies used by the mentor and the teachers to accommodate each other? 3. What are the mentors perceptions about the teachers? 4. What are the teachers perceptions about the mentor? 1.5. Significance of the Study The study will add to another literature in the field of communication and language study. The findings would also provide views on the advantages and disadvantages of having the opportunity to interact with NSs. In addition, the study would either support the relevance of the new policy or would provide new insights and opinions to make the policy better. 1.6. Limitations of the Study It is important to keep in mind that the native speaker in this study does not represent all the native speakers involve in the Native Speaker Program neither the general native speaker-non-native speaker communication. The native speaker (mentor) in this study only represents himself as an individual. The same applies to the non-native speakers (the teachers) in the study for they are not representing the whole population of teachers in Malaysia. The design of this study is inclining more towards qualitative, thus the intent is not to generalize a population but to explore the phenomena happening in the school (Creswell, 2011, p. 206). In addition, the mentor is tied up with his schedule and the researcher has to adapt his schedule with the mentors - recordings and observations can only be carried out depending on the mentors schedule for 2012 which is not available at the time this proposal is written.

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2. Literature Review 2.1. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) Originally named Speech Accommodation Theory and was first published in 1973, developed by Howard Giles. CAT centres on the argument that when people interact, they tend to modify their speech characteristics for various reasons. As the notion became wider and included other communicative behaviours, it was renamed Communication Accommodation Theory (Griffin, 2011, p. ... Our primary goal ... is ... to trace the growth of accommodation theory from ... sociopsychological model of speech-style modifications to its current status as an integrated, interdisciplinary statement relational processes in communicative interaction. 395). As mentioned in the introductory, Giles, Coupland and Coupland (1991, p. 2) stated; CAT examines how people adjust to accommodate one another when communicating. The adjustment or accommodation happens when people want to become more similar or by accentuating their differences. CAT is used to signal peoples attitudes toward each other. It is a barometer of the level of social distance between them (Giles, et al. 2005, p. 252). CAT stands upon the premise that when speakers interact, they adjust their speech, vocal patterns, and gestures to accommodate others for various reasons (West and Turner, 2009, p. 466467). Primarily, two strategies of accommodation were originally developed - convergence and divergence. Convergence Convergence is a strategy whereby individuals adapt to each others communicative behaviours (Giles, Coupland and Coupland, 1991, p. 7). In Griffins (2011, p. 395) convergence is described as a strategy where a person adapts his or her communication in a way as to become similar to another person. The adjustment may cause by the speakers perceptions of the listeners speech or behaviours and/or caused by attraction (West and Turner, 2009, p. 472). Perceptions could be for example when a younger speaker speaks with an elderly, he might assume that the elderly has hearing problem so he would speak louder and in a slower rate. The adjustment happens because the young speaker assumes that the elderly would listen to his word better if he adjusts his speech. Attraction on the other hand, happens when the speaker favours the listener, he might adjust towards the listener. Giles, Taylor and Bourhis (1973) in their study have confirmed that when a speaker give more effort converging to the listeners, the more favourably the listeners will converge back in return.

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Table 1 shows convergent features as in Giles, Coupland and Coupland (1991) Features converged Utterance length Speech rate Information density Vocal intensity Pausing frequency and lengths Response latency Self-disclosure Jokes, expressing solidarity-opinions-orientations Gesture Head nodding and facial affect Posture Table 1: Convergent features (Giles, Coupland and Coupland 1991, p. 7) Divergence Divergence is a way the speakers accentuate speech and nonverbal differences between themselves and others (Giles, Coupland and Coupland, 1991, p. 8). It is usually perceive as negative where the speaker tries to make distinction between himself and the listener trough his speech. Oppose to convergence, divergence is a dissociation process where instead of shoving similarities, the speakers has no concern about accommodating to each other (West and Turner, 2009, p. 475). For the purpose of this study, the focus will be on how the mentor accommodation to adjust to the teachers and will try to identify why the mentor converge when interacting with the teachers. The study will also look at the adjustment make by the teachers to accommodate the mentor and the reason the teachers converge. The way the mentor adjust to accommodate the teachers will be looked at the framework of Foreigner Talk (FT) - a linguistic adjustments that NSs make when interacting with L2 speakers (Zuengler, 1991, p. 234). 2.2. Foreigner Talk In one of his presentations, Ferguson (1968, p. 5) mentioned about a simplified speech, which is used by speakers of a language to outsiders whom are thought to have limited mastery of the language or completely have no command of the language. The simplified speech is named foreigner talk (FT) (Ferguson, 1968; Brulhart, 1986). FT is without a doubt a language, but in a simpler form. It is a language modified by a speaker with a notion to help the listeners to understand what he meant to say. Cook (2008, p. 161) defines FT as a form of language designed for listeners that has no competence in a language. It also defines as a modified or simplified language that some NSs use to talk to second language learners (Lightbown and Spada, 2006, p. 199). Brulhart (1986, p. 29) added It has been observed that NS adjust their speech in conversation with NNSs in various ways. The characteristics of FT, relative to speech between NS, as proposed by Brulhart (1986, p. 29-30) and Zuengler (1991, p. 234) can be seen in the table below. The characteristics that are marked with [*] show the similarity between the two characteristics proposed by the two researchers.

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Fergusons Slower rate of delivery* Increased loudness Clearer articulation* Exaggerated pronunciation* More pauses More emphatic stress Shorter utterances Lower syntactic complexity* More avoidance of low frequency items and idiomatic expressions*

Zuenglers Lower speech rate* Shorter and simpler sentences* More questions and question tags Greater pronunciation articulation* Less use of contractions Fewer pronouns Vocabulary that is restricted to high-frequency words* Syntactic alteration*

Table 2. Characteristics of foreigner talk in comparison to speech between NSs. For the study, I have chosen five characteristics, which I will use to analyse the mentors speech production. The characteristics are 1.1. Speech rate 1.2. Syntactic complexity (simple, compound or complex sentence) 1.3. Syntactic alteration (occurrence of repetition) 1.4. Idiomatic expressions 1.5. Use of contraction These selected characteristics are chosen with a notion that these five characteristics could be easily measured as compared to others such as articulation, stress and exaggerated pronunciation. These five characteristics are not the final decisions, as the list possibly would change. Further explanation on how these characteristics are going to be measured is in the methodology section. Zuengler (1991, p. 235-241) further explained the dynamics fundamental to NS interaction with NNS 1. NSs interactional goals Speakers may consciously or unconsciously wish to communicate effectively. Making sure the listeners understand the message might be a strong goal of interactions thus resulting to FT. Another goal might be when the speaker wishes to maintain distinctiveness from the listeners resulting in no FT used in the interactions. 2. NSs perceptions of the NNS Perceptions can strengthen the interactional goals of the NS in two ways. First, perceptions about ethnic and cultural differences where the NS converge (use FT) to be accepted or diverge to maintain distinctiveness. Second, perceptions about NNS linguistic or communicative competence. 3. NS encoded strategies How the NS encode certain language strategies depend on the interactional goals and perceptions stated earlier. The NS as a speaker will either converge, diverge, maintain or compliment his speech. Convergence occurs when the speaker adjust to an almost exact match of the NNS speech. The most FT adjustments occur with lower proficiency NNS that may include ungrammatical features. 4. NNS decoding of NS strategies It looks at how the NNS will respond back to the NS. The concern here is whether the NNS intention is to focus on the language and attitudes for example to practice the correct language use or to communicate effectively by not focusing on the language production.

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Methodology 3.1. Collecting the Data The data will be collected trough i) video recordings, ii) observations, iii) interviews, and iv) questionnaire. The focus of this study is to describe, analyse and interpret the language patterns during English language workshops in SKDD1. Creswell (2011, p. 462) describes these processes as ethnographic design where the researcher has to spend a fair amount of time interviewing, observing and collecting data from the group to be studied and it is a qualitative design. For this study, I am using Creswells five process steps to collect the data. (2011, p. 205). i) Identify participants and sites to be studied The participants for this study have been identified. The same goes with the site where the study will take place. The participants are one NS (the mentor) and the English language teachers in SKDD1 who are participating in the English workshops. The workshops will take place in the meeting room in SKDD1. The number of teacher participating in the study could only be determined when the school reopens early 2012. It is due to redeployment of teachers, the school will get new teachers, teachers are reshuffled, teachers who have participated in the workshops in 2011 wish to withdraw and teachers who have not participated want to get involved in the workshop. ii) To gain access to the individuals and site I have discussed my plan to carry out this study with the mentor and he agrees to participate. For the other participants, the teachers, I have informed those who were participating in the workshop and they all have agreed to take part. I need to inform the new participants coming in for the next years workshops. I have also gained approval from the Headmaster of SKDD1, En. Mohd Mohradi bin Mohd Mohlas to conduct the study in the school. One key factor that needs to be raised here is the role of the researcher in the study. I am one of the participants in the workshops and this would help to reduce if not to cancel the effect of observers paradox. The participants have been informed about the purpose of the study in general. They have been told that this study focuses on examining the communicative behaviour they make during the workshops. They have never been told that their adjustment to accommodate each other is the main objective of this study. To answer the question whether the data would be contaminated as the participants have been informed, my answer would be no. It is because, the participants do not know exactly what the researcher intended to study. If a question about ethic (the researcher deceive the participants by not telling the true purpose of the study) occurs, the answer would also be no. iii) Consider information will best answer the research questions To answer questions no.1 and no.2 - the interactions during the workshops will be recorded. If possible, all the workshops conducted in 2012 will be video recorded. If it is not possible to get all the workshops recorded, I will try to record as many interactions as possible. The interactions will be transcribed and coded according to the five characteristics of FT proposed. For questions no.3 - the study will focus on the mentor. The information would be about 1) his background, 2) his perceptions towards the policy, the program and the teachers, 2) his role, obligatory and/or voluntary. Questions no.4 - information from the teachers are needed. About their background, level of education, experience in learning, using and teaching English, and their perceptions towards the policy, the program and the mentor.

iv) Design protocols or instruments for collecting the information 7

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As mentioned, the data will be gathered trough video recordings, observations, interviews, and questionnaire. The protocols and instruments have not been confirmed yet, they are still under development. In general, the intended recording sessions will be the English workshops. The whole workshop session, about 2-3 hours for every session will be recorded. The purpose is to gather the speech patterns made in the workshops. For the interviews, the questions are going to be structured but with different formality. Interview with the mentor will be less formal compared to interview with the policy maker (the Minister of Education). The interview with the Minister of Education is important because the data will supports the purpose and reason why the mentor is in the school. Observation would also be done during the workshops. Mainly to observe other communicative behaviours that could assist interactions such as gestures, sign language, and facial expressions. The teachers will be asked to answer the questionnaire in their own comfortable time within a period that will be set later. Might be for a couple of days or even stretched to a week. v) Administer the data collection with ethic Though being a researcher and the participant at the same time could benefit me in gaining access to the people and place, it would still have other negative impacts. One that troubled me is there might be an issue of reliability regarding the data that will be collected in the transcription of the interactions during the workshops. For example, one might question the interaction between the mentor and me and see it as an act to modify the data. To avoid this issue from occurring, I have decided to discard any interaction that will involve me in the transcription of the video recording. 3.2. Analysing the Data Interview The answers collected from the interview with the mentor will be grouped according to general views about the policy, the program and the teachers and specific information regarding mentors perceptions towards individual teacher. Questionnaire Data from the questionnaire will be broken down to overall views of the teachers about the program, teachers background and teachers perceptions. Observations Observations are intended to identify other communicative behaviours that are not verbal. For examples, gestures, sign language, facial expressions. Video recording (interactions) The interactions recorded will be transcribed. The data will be broken down into two groups interaction between mentor and teachers as a group and interaction between mentor and individual teacher. The data will be further analysed to look at 1. Speech rate of the mentor when speaking with individual teacher and teachers as a group and the speech rate of the teachers when talking to the mentor - analysing the speed of the speech using software to analyse speech such as Praat or Anvil 2. Number of occurrences of simple, compound and complex sentence when the mentor speaks with individual teacher and teachers as a group 3. Syntactic alteration used by the interlocutors to accommodate each other 4. Idiomatic expressions used by the speakers. 5. Contractions used by both parties during the interactions are counted.

Table 3 shows how the data from the interactions going to be broken down to be analysed. 8

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Data transcri bed

Intera ctions betwe en ment or and indivi dual teach er

Interactions between mentor and teachers Characteristics to be analyzed Interactions between mentor and individual teacher

1. 2. 3.

Speech rate Syntactic complexity High/low frequency vocabulary 4. Syntactic alteration in repetition 5. Idiomatic expression 6. Use of contractions

Table 3. Grouping of data to be transcribed for analysis. 3.3. Reporting the Data How the data are going to be reported have not been decided yet. 4. Conclusion The study intended to provide views on the recent policy by the government. The purpose is to look at the advantages and disadvantages of having the opportunity to interact with NSs. In addition, the study would either support the relevance of the new policy or would provide new insights and opinions to make the policy better. As mentioned earlier, this study will also provide another literature regarding accommodation theory and foreigner talk. In the future, another study should look at correlation between Communication Accommodation Theory, Foreigner Talk and L2 learning.

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Reference Brulhart, M. (1986). Foreigner talk in the ESL classroom: interactional adjustments to adult students at two language proficiency levels. TESL Canada Journal, 3, Special Issue, 29-42. Cook, V. (2008). Second language learning and language teaching (4th ed.). London: Hodder Education. Creswell, J. (2011). Educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research: international edition (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. Ferguson, C. A. (1968, Apr). Absence of copula and the notion of simplicity: a study of normal speech, baby talk, foreigner and pidgins. Paper presented at the Conference on Pidginization and Creolization of a Language, Kingston, Jamaica. Giles, H., Coupland, J., & Coupland, N. (1991). Accommodation theory: Communication, contexts, and consequence. In Giles, H., Coupland, J., & Coupland, N. (Eds.), Contexts of accommodation: developments in applied sociolinguistics (pp. 1-68). New York: Cambridge University Press. Giles, H., Taylor, D. M., & Bourhis, R. (1973). Towards a theory of interpersonal accommodation through language: some Canadian data. Language in Society, 2, 177-192 Giles, H., Fortman, J., Dailey, R. M., Barker, V., Hajek, C., Anderson, M. C., et al. (2005). Communication accommodation: law enforcement and the public. In Dailey R. M. & Le Poire B. A. (Eds.), Applied research in interpersonal communication: family communication, health communication and communicating across social boundaries (pp. 241-269). New York: Peter Lang. Griffin, E. (2011). A first look at communication theory (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned (Oxford handbooks for language teachers) (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2010). To uphold Bahasa Malaysia & to strengthen the English Language. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.my/mbmmbi/moe_mbmmbi_03.htm Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin. (2009). Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu, memantapkan Bahasa Inggeris: tawaran baru sistem pendidikan Malaysia, [Press Release]. Retrieved from http:// www.moe.gov.my/?id=169&aid=566 West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2009). Introducing communication theory: analysis and application (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Zuengler, J. (1991). Accommodation in native-non-native interactions: Going beyond the what to the why in second-language research. In Giles, H., Coupland, J., & Coupland, N. (Eds.), Contexts of accommodation: developments in applied sociolinguistics (pp. 223-244). New York: Cambridge University Press.

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