This chapter consists of five sections. Section one describes the participants of the
study. Section two talks about reading and writing course description and objectives. Section
three displays the instruments. Section four presents the teaching procedures of literature
circles operation in classroom. Finally, section five explains data collection and analysis.
Participants
The recruited students were 21 English majors enrolled at National Pingtung
University of Education. Of these participants, seventeen were females and four were males.
All students currently enrolled in the “Reading and Writing Course” where the study was
conducted. Because “Reading and Writing Course” was a two-credit required program, the
class met two hours per week and this class was set up to enhance students’ literacy skills by
conducting intensive training on reading and writing. In addition, these students had to pass
high-intermediate level of GEPT because of the school graduation requirement.
Reading and Writing Course Description and Objectives
To investigate the effects of literature circles to English majors, a reading program (see
Appendix B) was conducted during the eighteen-week experiment period. Through reading
stories and fiction, students could gain language awareness and upgrade English proficiency.
In addition, they could learn to express their opinions toward characters, plots, and themes in
the stories and enrich knowledge and information in other cultures. Besides, other visual aids
such as movies related to the issues in the stories were presented in class. The course
objectives were elaborated in the “Reading and Writing Course ” below:
Course Objectives: This course was designed to
1. help students have better ability to correctly use grammar
2. familiarize students with linguistic and rhetorical skills of appropriate word and phrases
uses for different writing styles such as description, comparison, classification,
argumentation, etc
3. enrich students’ language awareness and resources through reading stories and fiction
Selection of Reading Materials
There were four criteria for selecting reading materials in the present study. First, the
content and language use should be appropriate for readers’ linguistic and psychological
development. Second, these six award-winning books of adolescent fiction including Circle
of Gold（1984）, Number the Stars（1990）, Kira-Kira（2005）, A Long Way from Chicago
（1999）, On My Honor（1987）, and Missing May（1993）are Newbery Medal and Newbery
Honor winners. In the present study, students read Circle of Gold for the first book. After
reading the first book, students chose two books from the five remaining books including
Number the Stars, Kira-Kira, A Long Way from Chicago, On My Honor, and Missing May.
Third, the length of the story was moderate, and it would not put an additional load on
readers. Finally and most importantly, the real-life contents and the central themes of the
stories should be associated with readers’ experiences. The topics, such as friendship, courage,
facing death, and family, were related to readers’ encounters of life and personal growth.
Moreover, through reading these books, readers were expected to develop their language
ability, sense of responsibility, and mental maturity. The summary of these six stories are
briefly described here.
1. Circle of Gold written by Candy Dawson Boyd in 1984 is a story about how a
female teenager, Mattie, devises a plan to bring her family back together again by giving a
beautiful gold pin. After the death of Mattie's father, her mother seems to take out her
frustrations on Mattie. Mattie’s dream comes true as a result of her effort and persistence.
2. Number the Stars written by Lois Lowry in 1989 describes a ten-year-old Danish girl,
Annemarie, learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her best friend,
Ellen, from Nazis’ search.
3. Kira-Kira written by Cynthia Kadohata in 2004 is a story about a
Japanese-American family living in Georgia. The main character, Katie, is an optimistic girl
who always views the world on the bright side. But when Katie has to face the death of her
sister, and the family begins to face many difficulties, Katie still finds a way to remind her
family members all that there is always something glittering in the future.
4. A Long Way from Chicago written by Richard Peck is a story about Joey and his
sister, Mary Alice, visit their Grandma Dowdel every year during their summer vacation.
They live in the big city of Chicago, while Grandma lives in a small Illinois town. There are
seven short stories for the years 1929 through 1942. Grandma’s town has many interesting
characters. The story is told by Joey as an adult as he reminisces about those summer trips.
Grandma's life makes for fun adventures.
5. On My Honor written by Marion Dane Bauer is about two boys, Joel and Tony, who
are friends despite their very different characters. Tony, who is adventurous, challenges Joel,
who is more responsible and cautious; to climb a large and dangerous cliff called Starved
Rock. Joel knows this is unsafe and does not want anyone to get hurt, yet does not want to
seem like a coward in front of Tony. Tony suggests going swimming in a forbidden river,
knowing that he cannot swim. The boys race each other to a sand bar, but the story ends in
tragedy. Tony cannot swim and drowns. Joel tries to find Tony in the river, but gets sucked
into a current himself. However, he grabs a log, and lives. He tries to catch a car to ask for
help, but it was useless, Joel was too late to save Tony. Joel lives with the horrible secret until
Tony's and Joel's families find it out.
6. Missing May written by Cynthia Rylant is a story about an orphaned child, Summer,
who has been passed from one apathetic relative to another. At age six, she meets her Aunt
May and Uncle Ob, and they decide to take Summer home to their rickety trailer home.
Summer thrives under their care, feeling that she finally has a home. After the death of the
beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West
Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living.
Research Instruments
To achieve the purposes of the present study, the researcher adopted instruments
including (1) questionnaires, (2) general English proficiency tests, (3) students’ role sheets, (4)
interviews of the students, and (5) classroom observations.
Questionnaires of English Reading Motivation and Practice
The questionnaires of English reading motivation and practice adopted in this study
were regenerated from Chih (2010). The questionnaires were distributed to the students at the
beginning and the end of the research period respectively. The questionnaire for the pre-test
was divided into two parts: The 3 items in Part Ⅰ was designed to elicit participants’
background information; Part Ⅱ was about investigations of previous reading experiences
(Question 1-3), English reading motivation, attitudes, and habits (Question 4-8), English
reading problems (Question 9-10), and expectations toward the class (Question 11-20), which
included 20 items in total (see Appendix C-1). With regard to the questionnaire for the
post-test (see Appendix C-2), it included almost the same items in the pre-test one. There
were 6 open-ended questions added for the post-test, which aimed to get a better
understanding of participants’ responses and comments toward this program.
Questionnaire for Implementation of Literature Circles
The questionnaire for implementation of literature circles adopted in the study was
regenerated from Huang (2008). It was adopted in this study because it provided the
information about students’ perceptions to this program and revealed how literature circles
were beneficial to EFL learners. The questionnaire aimed to explore students’ reactions to the
implementation of literature circles in this EFL teaching program, their attitudes toward
English learning, and their interests in reading materials. Students had to fill in the
questionnaire at the end of the experiment (eighteen weeks later).
Table 1 shows how the question items in “post-literature circles questionnaire” are
grouped. The questionnaire (see Appendix D) consisted of five parts including first, students’
responses to English teaching guideline; second, students’ responses to literature circles; third,
students’ reactions to reading materials; fourth, students’ reactions to role sheets; and finally,
students’ reactions to the program. The questionnaire is a five-point Likert scale, ranging
from “strongly agree,” “agree,” “no comment,” “disagree,” to “strongly disagree.”
Table 1
The Question Items of the Post-literature Circles Questionnaire
Question type Question items Number of questions
Fourth part Attitude toward role sheets (5-point scale and open-ended questions)
No. 52-67 16
Fifth part Reaction to the program (5-point scale and open-ended questions)
No. 68-74 7
Total 74
General English Proficiency Pre-test and Post-test
Due to the school graduation requirement, English majors have to pass the
high-intermediate level of GEPT. Thus, in the present study, students had to take English
proficiency tests twice. One was the pre-test given at the beginning of the program. The other
one was the post-test done at the end of the program to measure the progress of the
participants’ performance in English reading. By using GEPT tests before and after the
program, the researcher would measure the differences of the students’ English reading
proficiency.
The reading comprehension tests were GEPT high-intermediate level test from The
Language Training and Testing Center (2010, 2011). Table 2 shows how the question items
on the reading comprehension tests are designed. This was a three-part test with fifty
multiple-choice questions composed of “sentence completion,” “cloze ”and“ reading
comprehension” for participants to complete. Also, each question was for 2 points of total
scores. Thus, the scores of the pre-test and the post-test offered the teacher and the researcher
to compare the differences of students’ performance in English reading before and after this
experimental program.
Table 2
The Question Items of Two Reading Comprehension Tests
Question type Question items Number of questions
First part Sentence completion No. 1-15 15
Second part Cloze No. 16-30 15
Third part Reading comprehension No. 31-50 20
Total 50
Students’ Role Sheets
In this study, students were required to write down their reactions, reflections, and
feelings to the reading materials in their role sheets. The role sheet was regarded as a tool to
provide a place for students to make personal responses and thoughts and create unique
meanings of what they had read. The teacher collected, read, made comments, and gave
feedback to these role sheets weekly.
Interviews of the Students
At the end of the semester, the researcher interviewed the students about their
experiences toward literature circles. Six students were interviewed individually by using the
semi-structured technique. During the interview, the students were allowed to answer
questions either in English or Chinese; besides, the interviews were recorded and transcribed.
The six interview questions (see Appendix E) were designed to elicit students’ perceptions for
literature circles in this study. They were basically about students’ viewpoints toward
literature circles and English learning, how literature circles benefit students’ English reading
and writing fluency, and suggestions for the implementation of literature circles in the study.
Teaching Procedures of Literature Circles Operation in Classroom
During the eighteen-week experimental period, the class met two hours per week. The
teaching procedures could be conducted in six phases. At the beginning of the experiment,
students were asked to fill out the questionnaires containing background information, English
reading motivation and practice. After that, they took the English reading proficiency pre-test.
In the second phase, the researcher introduced literature circles to students. Then, students
were placed in four groups of 4 to 6. The whole class read two assigned short articles together.
During class time, the researcher demonstrated discussion roles to students until students had
experiences about each role in literature circles. In this phase, students finished assigned
articles and discussion with their group members. After students finished group discussions,
group or they were encouraged to share their readings individually or as a group.
In the third phase, after two mini-rounds of literature circles, students read one
assigned novel and continued to repeat the procedures of literature circles. It took about four
weeks for students to finish discussions with one assigned novel with their group members.
In the following week, fourth and fifth phase, each group was allowed to select their own
novels based on same interests in literature circles.
At the end of the program, they took the English reading proficiency post-test. What’s
more, the questionnaire of English reading motivation and post-literature circles
questionnaire were included. Students did two surveys. Additionally, six participants were
interviewed on the same day. Table 3 displays the six phases of teaching procedures.
Table 3
Questionnaire of English Reading Motivation and Practice Phase ⅡⅡⅡ Ⅱ
（Week 2〜4）
Introduction and Grouping Mini-literature Circles ＃1
The first assigned short article: They’re Made out of Meat Mini-literature Circles ＃2
The second assigned short article: Return to Paradise Phase ⅢⅢⅢ Ⅲ
（Week 5〜8）
Literature Circles ＃3
The first assigned reading novel: Circle of Gold Phase ⅣⅣⅣ Ⅳ
described in a quantitative and qualitative way.
Quantitative Analysis
As to the analysis of the quantitative data, these data included the questionnaire for
English reading motivation, the pre-test and the post-test of English proficiency test, and the
implementation of literature circles questionnaire. The students’ tests scores were analyzed
and computed in a statistical program, SPSS, using Paired-Samples t-test, to test any
teaching program. In addition, students’ responses of the five-point Likert scale
questionnaires were calculated and compared in frequency, percentage, and means to
examine participants’ attitudes and opinions toward English reading motivation and the use of
literature circles in this reading program.
Qualitative Analysis
With regard to the qualitative data, these data collected in this study containing
students’ role sheets, semi-structured interviews from the participants, and classroom
observations. Furthermore, the important passages were marked and labeled. From these
instruments, the researcher analyzed these data to have an in-depth understanding of the
implementation of literature circles in an EFL reading program from the students’ points of
view.