Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine ..., Exercises of English Literature

Download Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine ... and more Exercises English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine University Students 55 Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine University Students1 Isabel Pefianco Martin Ateneo de Manila University ABSTRACT In the Philippines, there are few, if any, studies of student compositions that investigate the use of language as an effective, efficient, and creative means of expressing the self. This study is an attempt to contribute to knowledge about student writing in the Philippines. In particular, the study aims to describe the various ways freshman students from a private university in Manila represent themselves in their reflection essays, a writing task required in the core humanities courses of the university. Two sets of compositions, one written in the English language and another in the Filipino language, are analyzed for ways in which self-representation is realized by the student writers. As the study focuses on how the Filipino students represent themselves in their essays, both English and Filipino compositions were examined for grammatical/ lexical features and for the types of speech act verbs employed in the essays. More specifically, the study investigates the use of (1) first person referencing, (2) modals, and (3) types of illocutionary points. The results of the investigation reveal that for both English and Filipino compositions, student writers have a tendency to (1) limit their use of first person referencing, with fewer first person pronouns employed in the Filipino corpus; (2) limit the use of modals, with fewer modals observed in the Filipino corpus; and (3) employ more assertive illocutionary points than declarative points, and fewer commissive and expressive points in both English and Filipino compositions. From the results, one may conclude that (1) the student writers involved in the study do not seem to present themselves as active subjects or agents in the writing process, and (2) the reflection essay may be a useful tool for writing pedagogy and student formation. KEYWORDS: Composition studies; Speech acts; Teaching writing Writing is not simply the mechanical act of communicating a message. Writing constructs not only the object of writing, but the subject as well. When one writes, one ultimately presents or re-presents the self. Ivanič and Camps (2001) note that there is “no such thing as ‘impersonal’ writing” (p. 5). Each act of writing, regardless of the topic of the written piece, is an act of conveying messages about the self. When one writes, one draws from one’s own repertoire of experiences. Ivanič has argued that the “lexical, syntactic, semantic, and even Reflections on English Language Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 55–66 1 Research for this article was made possible by the Ateneo de Manila University through the Endowed Professorial Chair in ME in honor of Francisco C. Delgado. 56 Isabel Pefianco Martin the visual and material aspects of writing construct identity, just as much as do the phonetic and prosodic aspects of speech, and thus writing always conveys a representation of the self as a writer.” (Ivanič and Camps, 2001, p. 5) For those who teach writing to students in their formative years, an investigation of students’ composing behavior may reveal valuable insights into student writers’ voices and identities. Such a study may be utilized for applications to second language writing pedagogy in the Philippines, as well as to the formation of young learners. This is one such study that attempts to investigate the composing behavior of Filipino students. More specifically, this study addresses how freshman college students in a Philippine university represent themselves in reflection essays. Do the student writers express themselves as active and engaged participants in what they write about? Do they see themselves as passive and detached from issues they address in their writing? The study attempts to investigate the composing behavior of Filipino student writers in the two official languages of the Philippines—English and Filipino. Composition studies are not a popular area of research in the Philippines. There are only a few published studies of student compositions in the Philippines. Even fewer, if any, studies in the Philippines take a comparative view of English and Filipino compositions. Self-representation, Identity, or Voice in Writing The issue of self-representation, identity, or voice in student writing has been the subject of much discussion in second language teaching and learning. Atkinson (2001) describes the term voice as “an exceedingly complex concept—one which any single treatment can only scratch the surface of.” (p. 107). He observes that in English composition instruction, L1-oriented paradigms of voice tend to dominate, consequently excluding or marginalizing second language writers. Such paradigms, Atkinson observes, seem to be premised on the ideology of individualism or the assumption that “...individuality is the fundamental fact of our being, and that the (or at least a) fundamental purpose of sensitive, humanistic writing instruction should therefore be to allow for the full expression and further development of that individuality.” (p. 108) Matsuda (2001), in his analysis of the online diary of a Japanese writer, begins his discussion of voice by stating that L2 writing research has been biased towards describing the features and functions of a target language, English for example, with the view of teaching these features and functions to second language learners. Matsuda notes that such bias contributes to the neglect of the study of “...concepts that deal with divergent aspects of discourse practices, such as style, idiolect, and voice, have been largely disregarded.” (p. 36) His study of the linguistic features of Japanese electronic discourse demonstrates that an understanding of voice in writing may shed light on some writing difficulties experienced by L2 writers. Matsuda concludes that individual voice is constructed by putting together (in an Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine University Students 59 Results and Discussion The study generated 4,059 words in the English corpus and 5,045 words in the Filipino corpus. For the English corpus, this represents an average of 270 words per composition, and for the Filipino corpus, an average of 336 words. Clearly, the student writers in this study tended to write longer essays in the Filipino language. This result is consistent to expectations, as sentences in Filipino tend to be longer than in English.4 First person references A study of personal referencing, particularly, of the use of the first person pronouns in the compositions, may lead to insights about how the student writers represent themselves. The occurrence of first person pronouns in written texts may signify many things, such as, the student writer’s ownership of the ideas in the composition, an assertion of the student writer’s presence in the text as both the subject and the object of reflection, and his or her claim to authority over certain issues. For the English corpus, investigating personal reference simply requires identifying “I” and “we” in the texts. In contrast, for the Filipino corpus, the task of isolating the first person pronoun as subject or doer of the action is not as simple. Unlike English, which is a nominative-accusative language, Tagalog-based Filipino is described as an ergative-absolutive language5. Thus, the first person pronouns (those that indicate the student writer as subject or doer of an action) for the Filipino compositions were identified as in Table 1. 4 In an interview, Filipino linguist Ricardo Nolasco, former Chair of the Commission for the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino), argues that the Filipino languages do not provide for mono-syllabic content words, thus the tendency for sentences to be longer. Another Filipino language scholar and university professor Michael Coroza notes that Filipino students tend to write in a wordy, roundabout manner, and do not usually edit their essays for conciseness. 5 This category of the Filipino language being an ergative-absolutive language is highly contentious. Some Philippine linguists argue that the Tagalog language, which is the basis for Filipino, is nominative- ergative. Table 1 Personal Pronouns in the Filipino Language Pronouns Absolutive Ergative First person Ako: Ako ang bumili ng pagkain. Ko: Binili ko ang pagkain. singular I bought the food. First person Tayo: Tayo ang magbabayad ng utang. Natin: Babayaran natin ang utang. plural inclusive We are paying the debt. First person Kami: Kami ang nagdala ng mga Namin: Dinala namin ang mga plural exclusive bulaklak. bulaklak. We brought the flowers. 60 Isabel Pefianco Martin It should also be stressed that for this investigation, no distinctions are made between the singular and plural pronouns. The reason for this is that the writing prompt, which the students were asked to reflect on, made references to both the individual experience (Write an essay that demonstrates how this quotation is true or not to you.) and the collective experiences (“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit.”). In noting personal referencing, the English and Filipino corpora generated the following results from the reflection essays: ● For the English compositions, a total number of 542 personal pronouns in the corpus was recorded; 245 were first person pronouns and 297 were second or third person pronouns (see Figure 1). ● For the Filipino compositions, a total number of 440 personal pronouns in the corpus was recorded; 108 were first person pronouns and 332 were second or third person pronouns (see Figure 2). When the two sets of compositions are compared in terms of first person referencing, we find that there is a tendency for student writers of Filipino to use Figure 1 Personal Pronouns in the English Compositions 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Total no of personal pronouns First person pronouns Second and third person pronouns Figure 2 Personal Pronouns in the Filipino Compositions 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Total no of personal pronouns First person pronouns Second and third person pronouns Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine University Students 61 fewer first person pronouns compared to second and third person pronouns. However, if we look at the bigger picture and consider the total number of words in the corpora, we find that in both English and Filipino, the student writers make less frequent use of first person pronouns compared to second and third person pronouns. In the English compositions, out of a word count of 4,059, only 6% were first person pronouns. For Filipino, out of a word count of 5,049, only 2% were first person pronouns. Use of modals Other than first person references, another linguistic feature that might provide some insights into representations of self in student compositions is the use of modals. In both the English and Filipino languages, modals assign a particular mood to a proposition. These words present conditions of possibility or necessity in a statement. In this study, the modals that are analyzed are those that are meaningful to the subject “I” or “we” in the compositions, in particular, those that appear where first person referencing also appears. In the English compositions, out of 245 phrases with first person reference, 16% made use of modals. In the Filipino compositions, out of 108 phrases with first person reference, 11% made use of modals; see Table 2. For the English compositions, the modals can, could, have to, may, must, should, will, and would were recorded with the following occurrences; see Table 3. Table 2 Occurrence of Filipino and English Modals in the Corpora Percentage of total phrases with Corpora Occurrence of modals first person pronouns English compositions 39 16% Filipino compositions 12 11% Table 3 English Modals and Meanings Modals in English Occurrence Meanings Would 12 Repetition of past action; associated with politeness Can 10 Possibility or ability Could 5 Possibility Will 4 Certainty or intent Have to 3 Obligation Must 3 Obligation May 1 Option Should 1 Recommendation Total 39 64 Isabel Pefianco Martin In sum, the student writers tend to exhibit similar behavior in composing a reflection essay in English and Filipino. In both corpora, the student writers make use of more assertive illocutionary points, compared to declaratives, which are illocutionary acts associated with the descriptive and the declaratory discursive goals. In both corpora, no writer makes use of directives, which is expected, because the writers were composing an essay, and not a letter, which usually has a clearly defined reader. In addition, for both corpora, the student writers do not make full use of commissive and expressive points, which are illocutionary acts associated with the deliberative and expressive discursive goals. Discussion and Conclusion This study of representations of self in English and Filipino reflection essays reveals that for both English and Filipino compositions, student writers have a tendency to use fewer first person referencing. Comparing the English and Filipino compositions, less frequent first person referencing is employed for the Filipino corpus. A similar composing behavior is observed in the use of modals. There is a tendency to use few modals in both sets of compositions. In addition, less use is observed for the Filipino corpus. For illocutionary points, there is a tendency for the student writers to employ more assertive illocutionary points than declarative points, and fewer commissive and expressive points. There also seems to be a similar composing behavior for English and Filipino writing. From the results above, one may conclude that the student writers involved in the study do not seem to present themselves as active subjects or agents in the writing process. These student writers tend to limit their use of expressions of ability, obligation, intent, and certainty, which are expressions that reflect agency. The student writers in the study also tend to focus on the present state of affairs Figure 4 Illocutionary Points in the Filipino Compositions 52% Assertive 40% Declarative 6% Commissive 2% Expressive 0% Directive Representations of Self in Reflection Essays of Philippine University Students 65 more, rather than on creating change or committing to change the present state of affairs. They are inclined to exhibit attitudes of passive recipients of actions rather than potentially active agents of change. This phenomenon may be attributed to the relatively young age (16 to 19 years) of the university students who participated in the project. Compared to most education systems throughout the world, basic education in the Philippines requires fewer years (only 10 years in the public schools and two additional years, Prep and Grade Seven, in the private schools). Thus, university students in the Philippines are relatively young compared to students from universities in other parts of the world. Given the limitation of this study, it would be interesting to find out if university students in the higher levels, such as the juniors and seniors, would demonstrate similar composing behavior. One wonders if expressions that indicate agency would actually increase for more mature students. There is another possible explanation for the relatively low occurrence of expressions of agency among the student writers involved in this study, and this has to do with the student writers’ social class. The students involved in this study belong to the relatively affluent population of Philippine society, as may be suggested by the fact that they study in a relatively expensive private, Catholic university in Manila. Thus, these students may be manifesting the typically conservative attitude of the members of the middle and upper-income classes. In addition, this conservative attitude is one that is associated with the student writers’ generation. Student radicalism in the Philippines climaxed in the mid- 1980s with the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos. The EDSA People Power Revolution may have been an event that the students’ parents and teachers had participated in, but it was certainly a period before these student writers were born. Another finding of this study lies in the usefulness of the reflection essay as a tool not only for writing pedagogy, but for student formation as well. With the knowledge that students tend to present themselves as passive objects in their reflection essays (regardless of the language of the essay), teachers may consequently need to direct their teaching towards the development of a more critical and creative stance in writing. One specific strategy is to encourage student writers to use more first person pronouns in their writing so that there is greater ownership of ideas. In fact, the frequent use of the first person pronoun should be the norm for reflection essays as the reflective act requires the application of theoretical concepts and abstract ideas to personal lives. 66 Isabel Pefianco Martin THE AUTHOR Isabel Pefianco Martin is associate professor at the Department of English, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is also executive director of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC). Prior to her PSSC post, she served as president of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, chair of the English Department, and research coordinator of the Ateneo School of Humanities. Her research interests include descriptions of English, world Englishes, and Philippine English. Correspondence concerning this article should be directed to Dr. Isabel Pefianco Martin, Department of English, School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108 Philippines; email mmartin@ateneo.edu. 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