Vietnamese EFL Students' Rhetorical Patterns in Narrative Essays: World Englishes Study, Exercises of English

Download Vietnamese EFL Students' Rhetorical Patterns in Narrative Essays: World Englishes Study and more Exercises English in PDF only on Docsity! 88 Assessing Vietnamese EFL Students’ Writing in the Light of World Englishes Aprillette C. Devanadera Southern Luzon State University, Lucban, Philippines Abstract This study is anchored on Swale’s Theory of Genre Analysis and employed Labov and Waletzky’s Personal Experience Narrative (PEN) as a narrative framework in analyzing Vietnamese EFL students’ patterns of writing. The study reveals that Vietnamese student’s rhetorical structure follows a three-step-pattern which is introducing the character, introducing the situation and finally telling what happens. This pattern deviates from what is perceived standard or western’s style of writing which is preferred in most universities in the Philippines. The result may be a good basis for planning new prospectus and teaching materials suited for Vietnamese and other EFL students. This study also hopes to raise awareness among language teachers to the different rhetorical patterns of EFL students. Keywords: World Englishes, rhetorical patterns, narrative essays, Asian Englishes, Labovian narrative analysis, EFL students Introduction The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Integration provides great opportunities in meeting the influx of globalization through education, labor and economy among its members. ASEAN Integration aims to bridge the development apparent among its constituent members – Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Singapore, and Indonesia. Canagarajah (2007) posits that one of the global demands for the teaching of English is that English has become the lingua franca of most countries. English is also established as the official working language of ASEAN countries (Gonzalez, 1997; Kirkpatrick, 2012). Kachru (2005) argues that English is no longer just in Asia but of Asia and has become an Asian language. According to Bautista (1997), most countries in Asia accepted English as their own and used it to suit their needs. This is because people in Asia with varied norms and scopes of proficiency also use English language for practical purposes. Kachru (1997) also discusses the functional 89 dynamics of ‘Asian Englishes’ and how it has changed the construct of English in Asia which stimulated scholars to study Asian Englishes such as Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong English etc. in the field of World Englishes. Asian Englishes are expected to be spoken as more students coming from different countries are estimated to study English in the Philippines which is considered to have the most budget English teacher in the world. Thus Filipino English teachers, including the researcher, will eventually experience challenges in teaching students from other ASEAN countries. With the presence of ASEAN Integration, the Philippines can expect an increasing number of Asian students who consider studying in the Philippines not only because they want to learn how to speak English but more so to learn how to write in English. Among the ASEAN countries that recognize the implication of English language in meeting the global demand is Viet Nam that belongs to Kachru’s Expanding Circles. Prior to Kachru’s (1996) ‘Concentric Circles Model of World Englishes’, several studies in language learning focused on errors when it does not conform to the perceived standard English which belongs to the Inner Circles like USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The study of Heydari & Bagheri (2012) reveals that EFL/ESL learners’ most frequent errors are negative influence from the learners’ mother tongue which need to be corrected. Adopting appropriate teaching strategies were suggested to correct ESL/EFL errors. It was also posited by Heydari & Bagheri that re-conducting more research in error analysis is significant for scholars and researchers seeking for the best teaching strategies suitable for ESL/ EFL students to learn better. However, with the concept of World Englishes, errors from non-native speakers of English have become more of a deviation. Groves (2010) argues that deviations from the standard English are now becoming a central feature among varieties of English in non-native speakers. He further asserts that frequent use of deviant forms (from what is accepted as ‘standard’) from a broad range of people in that local community, is now more appropriately called feature of variety of English in that community rather than error. According to Groves (2010), it can be a manifestation of the creativity of the language in that particular community. Several studies were conducted to show features of Asian Englishes. Wee (2010) asserted that the Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) has a new particle ‘ya’ with a discourse pragmatic function that constitute a grammatical category to female Singaporeans who were observed as the main users of the new particle ‘ya’, a distinct feature of CSE. On the other hand, Wong (2007) explained that Hong Kong speakers of English use tag question ‘Is it?’ as deviations from British and American English usage. Wong in his study found out that deviation on the use of ‘Is it?’ account for more than 80 percent of tag questions found in the ICE-HK. In the Philippines, Gonzalez (1997) illustrated the features of Philippine English (henceforth PE) in describing its phonology, lexicon, syntax 92 students in the Philippines? 2. What are the implications of this study to EFL students? Methodology This paper is anchored on Swale’s Theory of Genre Analysis (1990) where Swales describes genre as a set of communicative events with different communicative purposes. He also posits that while there are varieties of writing tasks which are represented by different genres and communicative purposes. In this paper, the communicative purposes of the narrative essays of the participants may be unique to their discourse community. Swales espoused the ‘Move Step model’ in analyzing research paper abstracts which is now referred as Create a Research Space (CARS). Swales (1990 in Guinto 2012) also claims that most research papers adopted three obligatory moves and several optional steps in presenting their abstracts. On the other hand, to determine the rhetorical pattern used by 30 Vietnamese students in their personal narrative essays the framework developed by Labov and Waletzky (1967) and was again outlined in the book ‘Some further steps in narrative analysis’ by Labov in 1997 (henceforth Labov 1997) is used as an instrument in preparing a coding guide. Labovand Waletzky (1997) describe narrative as a way of reporting past events which according to him is a temporal juncture. This is important in understanding that the purpose of narrative is to tell about something. The framework shows the relationships of ordered clauses of events that form complicating action in a narrative. This framework is useful in following the path of narrative construction which according to Labov and Waletzky is a fully formed narrative if it follows the six-part structure: beginning with an abstract, orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution and coda. For Labov and Waletzky, a complex narrative is a result of the combination and evolution of simpler elements. Though the limitation of his analysis is geared towards the actual narratives of large numbers of unsophisticated speakers, Tolliver (1997) argues that the framework is still useful in examining sophisticated literary narratives. Boyno, Akil and Dolas used Labov and Waletzky’s framework in analysing how language works in a narrative story that aimed to help EFL students read with understanding language in a narrative. Boyno et al. further suggested assigning EFL learners with writing stories by following the framework. On the other hand, Guinto (2012) also used Labov and Waletzky’s framework in analysing the preferred writing patterns among 29 Filipino young writers in the Youngblood section of Philippine Daily Inquirer. He found out that the 29 young Filipino writers follow these patterns: introducing the temporal 93 setting; introducing the situation; recapitulation of series of events; releasing tension; giving comment on the story from outside; and connecting the world of the story to the present. He argued that these young Filipino writers’ narrative essays are leading towards the standard Western way of writing. In the present study, the researcher also used the same framework of Labov and Waletzky in determining the rhetorical structure that emerged in the narrative essays of Vietnamese students. Features of Labovian Narrative Analysis According to Tolliver (1997) the framework provided by Labov and Waletzky is pertinent for examining natural, oral and simple narratives. It also emphasized the concepts of reporting past events and temporal juncture to understand the importance of evaluating narratives. The six-part narrative analysis framework of Labov and Waletzky that begins with an abstract, orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution and coda is used as a guide in coding the rhetorical patterns that emerged in the narrative essays. The six-part analysis framework was then used in the coding to describe the moves and steps utilized by the Vietnamese students in writing. The following descriptions guide the researchers in coding where M stands for moves while S stands for steps. M1 - Abstract An abstract presents an initial clause that reports the entire sequence of events in the narrative. The steps in M1-Abstract are as follows: Step1 Announcing the beginning of the story Step 2 Stating the sequence in the story Step 3 Presenting the summary of the story M2 -Orientation Orientation or orientation section refers to the structure feature that serves to orient listeners in respect to person, place of the events, time, identities of the participants and their behavioural situation. In the narrative clauses, phrases or lexical items frequently appeared as an orientation function. The steps in M2 – Orientation are as follows: Step 1 introducing the characters Step 2 introducing temporal setting Step 3 introducing the situation M3 - Complication A simple narrative is a result of a sequential clause that ends the complicating action. The step in M3 – complication includes Step 1 recapitulating series of events 94 M4 - Evaluation Evaluation section is significant to establish personal interest in a narrative event. This section is concern with the information for human needs and desires. The steps in M4 – evaluation are as follows: Step 1 reporting what is un/interesting in the story Step 2 stating additional details about the characters Step 3 suspending action Step 4 comparing the sequence of events M5 - Result or Resolution The result or resolution is a structure of complicating and resolving actions that are considered as the ending of narratives. The steps in M3 – resolution are as follows: Step 1 releasing the tension of the events Step 2 finally telling what happens or will happen M6 - Coda A coda is a structure of events in the narratives that describe the time of speaking with a functional device in examining verbal perspective for returning to the present moment. The steps in M6 – coda are as follows: Step 1 announcing the ending of the story Step 2 providing summary of the story Step 3 stating the connections of the events Instrumentation According to Labov and Waletzky, a fully formed narrative follows the six-part structure: (1) abstract – Announces the beginning of the story; (2) orientation – introduces characters, temporal setting, and situation; (3) complicating action – recapitulates series of events leading to the climax; (4) evaluation – reports what is un/interesting in the story; (5) result or resolution – releases the tension and finally tells what happens; and (6) coda – announces the ending of the story. This framework was used as a coding guide to determine the rhetorical pattern in the narrative essays of Vietnamese. Following the six-part structure of the framework, the emerging rhetorical moves from the narrative essays are determined through the aid of simple statistical techniques such as frequency and percentage. The researcher also identified whether the ‘moves’ and ‘steps’ are preferred or optional. The Slovin’s formula was used in considering 97 The Rhetorical Patterns from the Narrative Essays In reference to the six moves and 19 steps from the framework, two moves and three steps were found to be the preferred moves by Vietnamese students when writing a narrative essay. While three moves and 16 steps were found to be optional, there are four steps which are not present in the 30 essays and got 0 or 0%. These are M1S3 – presenting the summary of the story; M4S4 - comparing the sequence of event; M6S2- providing the summary of the story and M6S3 stating the connections of the events. There are also some optional moves/steps that appear in most of the narrative essays but fall short of count to be considered preferred for the 30 essays. It was mentioned in the methodology that moves/steps should be present in at least 27 or 90% from a total of 30 essays to be considered as the ‘preferred move’ or the emerging rhetorical pattern. For instance, in Move 6 Step 1(M6S1) - announcing the ending of the story only appears in 16 essays or 53.6%. Therefore, this move is not considered as a preferred move but worth to be given emphasized in the study. The researcher observed that from the 16 essays, the Vietnamese students have similarities in announcing the ending of the story. This is apparent from the following extracts: Essay (2) THANKS for letting me share my story. Essay (4) THANK YOU for reading my essay. Essay (21) This is my story. THANK YOU. Essay (24) It is not long but I think it is enough. THANK for reading! The researcher would like to argue that this move although not considered as a preferred move is worth to be given emphasis for reasons that this phenomenon as observed by the researcher is never present in the narrative essays of her Filipino students. This is consistent with the study of Huong, (2012) that politeness for Vietnamese people is a crucial factor for effective communication valued in Viet Nam’s social context. However Huong stressed that politeness of Vietnamese people heavily rely on the social status of the hearer or the speaker. The study of Huong elucidates why some Vietnamese students end their narrative essays with ‘thank you’. In the light of World Englishes, the manner for which some Vietnamese students end their essay can be attributed to cultural differences. Furthermore, Table 1 explains that from the six moves adopted from the framework in Labovian Narrative Analysis, only two moves were found to be preferred in the narrative essays which are Move 2 – Orientation and Move 5 – Result or Resolution. It is clear that from 19 possible steps from the Labovian Narrative Analysis, only three steps emerged from the essays of Vietnamese 98 students which are Step 1 from M2 - Introducing the characters; Step 3 from M2 – Introducing the situation and Step 2 from M5 - Telling what happens or will happen. Again, the data from Table 1 reveals that in Move 2- Orientation, two steps were preferred, i. e. – Step 1- Introducing the characters with frequency of 30 or 100 % and Step 3- Introducing the situation with frequency of 27 or 90% respectively. While from Move 5- Result or Resolution, only one step was preferred, i. e. - Step 2 finally telling what happens or will happen with 27 or 90 %. In the conduct of the study, 30 Vietnamese students when asked to write their life experiences as a college student in the Philippines through their personal narrative essays prefer to first introduce themselves. It is shown in table 1 wherein M2S1 – Orientation-introducing the characters got 30 or 100%. While M1S1 – Abstract - announcing the beginning of the story only got 4 or 13.3%. Vietnamese students do not announce the subject or topic of their composition but prefer to directly introduce the characters in their essays. The preferred move/step of Vietnamese students can be observed from the following extracts: Essay (13) M2S1 – Introducing the characters Hello, my name is Thao. My english name is June. My family include four people: my father, my father, my old brother and me. I don’t have sister so that’s a bit boring sometimes. Essay (4) M2S1 – Introducing the characters I’m Trang, English name is Hailie, Im from Viet Nam, I’m 22 years old We have 4 people in my family. My parents, my older brother and me. My parents working in the farm. My brother work for my government…. The two samples from the gathered data explain that Vietnamese students tend to disregard the first move suggested in Labov and Waletzky’s framework which is announcing the beginning of the story or introducing the topic or subject of the text. Instead, they directly proceed in introducing the characters in the story which can be attributed to their desire to establish to the readers that they are Vietnamese students. It also prepares the audience that the character and the writer is the same person being described in the essay. The data from Table 1 also reveals that M2S3 – Orientation - introducing the situation got the second highest frequency with 27 or 90%. Therefore after introducing the characters in the essay, Vietnamese students then directly introduce the situation. This can be observed in the following extract: Essay (2) M2S3 – Introducing the situation 99 In 2013, my parents decided to send me to the Philippines for studying as an overseas student. It changed my life much….. Essay (4) M2S3 – Introducing the situation I’m went to the Philippine when I was so young At the time I was 19 years old. I felt miss my hometown and my parent so much. I met some new friend and after so many thing I know the life it not always beautiful…….. The introduction on the situation of the characters prepares the readers of what is bound to unfold in the succeeding sentences. It also introduces the difficult situation of a Vietnamese student studying in a country different from theirs. Consequently, it was also found out that M5S2 – Result or Resolution – telling what happens and what will happen is the third and last preferred move by Vietnamese students in writing their personal narrative essays with 27 or 90% occurrence in the data on Table 1. The following excerpt is from the gathered data: Essay (13) M5S2 – Telling what happen or will happen NOW, my ambition is be a rich business at the same time, so I need to study and be mature. I hope that my life will be better and better. The excerpt from essay (13) follows the discussion of Dalisay (2006) that a resolution or results are events of realizations being retold by the writer with signals like now, so, in other words, anyway, in the future and many other signals. These events of realization can also be an anticipation of what they would like to happen in the future which can be observed in this excerpt: Essay ( 9) M5S2 – Telling what happen or will happen NOW It’s been three year I stayed here. I will try study hard and save my experiences more. My dream is I can manage a small company in the future. At this point, Table 2 reveals the distinct rhetorical patterns of Vietnamese students that may be deemed less acceptable to the perceived ‘standard’ in writing. It is observed that only three steps emerged from the rhetorical pattern which exhibits shorter and simpler way of writing a narrative essay. According to 102 students that will help them adjust their writing styles. The writing activities should encourage students to celebrate their culture and individuality but should also equip them to engage their compositions to the target audience. EFL students, specifically Vietnamese students should also be made aware on the result of the study for them to better understand their pattern in writing. Although it is still commendable that English teachers guide their students to write compositions more acceptable and comprehensible by the target readers, encouraging them to elaborate and explain their ideas without hesitation is important to EFL students. The researcher also strongly suggests in this paper the importance of constructing effective evaluation that will fairly asses the compositions of EFL students. Conclusion In this paper, it was established that there is a rhetorical pattern preferred in writing narrative essays distinct among 30 Vietnamese students enrolled in the Philippines. This pattern deviates from what is perceived standard leading towards western’s style of writing –introduction, body, conclusion which is preferred in most of the universities in the Philippines. Instead, these students prefer to write their essay following these structures: (1) introducing the character; (2) introducing the situation and lastly; (3) telling what happens or what will happen. It is apparent that Vietnamese students produced only short narrative essays by following three steps that emerged from the study. This pattern may not have the qualities of a good composition nevertheless it shows the identity of Vietnamese essays as a unique discourse community. It is equally important to raise consciousness among language teachers to a different rhetorical pattern coming from the Outer Circle for which English is considered a foreign language. Therefore the pattern that emerged from the study should encourage teachers of English to assess and evaluate student writing with understanding. It is strongly suggested that other scholars interested in writing structure may examine rhetorical patterns of other Asian Englishes. The result may be a good basis for curriculum development and revision of teaching materials in EFL programs. Likewise, future studies should continue to examine other rhetorical patterns of Asian Englishes from students’ composition to teachers’ journal articles. Thus Asian students should not only be made aware of different writing styles but more so language teachers should foster celebration of the ASEAN’s cultural differences in the practice of Asian Englishes References: Anh, K. H. 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