In this chapter, the results and discussion of the study are presented. The results come from students’ open-ended questionnaire and interview. The first part is about the first research question, the students’ perception and attitude toward Reciprocal Teaching. The second part is about the second research question on how Reciprocal Teaching helps students understand the text better. The third part discusses the change of students’ motivation toward English learning with the help of Reciprocal Teaching.
The discussion section includes positive transformation and students’ attitude toward Reciprocal Teaching.
Results
In this section, results from students’ questionnaire of their perception toward Reciprocal Teaching are presented, followed by how Reciprocal Teaching helps students’ comprehension, students’ motivational change toward English learning, and other findings.
Students’ perception toward Reciprocal Teaching
This section presents the result of students’ perception of Reciprocal Teaching based on their response to the questionnaire. The ten questions on the survey were answered following the sequence of three categories as described in previous chapter:
(1) overall perception and evaluation of Reciprocal Teaching (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and10), (2) perception of individual strategy use (Question 5), and (3) future employment of Reciprocal Teaching (Questions 6 and 7).
(1) Overall perception and evaluation of Reciprocal Teaching
In this category, students’ responses from the questionnaire were documented. The
questions explored the students’ overall perception and attitude toward Reciprocal Teaching. All the responses will be further elaborated and discussed in the following session.
When asked if they liked the whole package of Reciprocal Teaching (Question 1), five out of the seven participants expressed positive attitude while Simon, the exception, did not appreciate the value of Reciprocal Teaching and Jane held a neutral attitude toward this reading method. Though most of the students claimed that they liked Reciprocal Teaching, they gave different and diverse reasons. Eric mentioned he could discuss with the group members and he enjoyed reading in a group. Reading in a group was much more interesting and efficient than reading alone; this approach provides them a chance to ask questions and get help from the group members. He also mentioned that Reciprocal Teaching contained four main strategies that he can use throughout reading the text and the strategies helped him understand the stories.
Eric wrote that:
我喜歡互惠教學法因為有很多⽅方法可以去學習。︒可以幫助我更理解英⽂文。︒
I like Reciprocal Teaching because there are so many useful strategies
in the reading method to learn English. All of them help me understand the text.
(Eric, 5/25/2016)
For Elaine, she also favored Reciprocal Teaching but with a different reason. She particularly liked Reciprocal Teaching because it offered a chance for group discussion and brainstorming. Elaine was a less capable student in the class and she appreciated the help from others. As for Ruby, she thought that Reciprocal Teaching helps her learn English with better efficiency. John, of low proficiency, mentioned that he can only come up with the questions with the help from the group members and he enjoyed the atmosphere of reading together in a group. Joy, on the other hand, showed
different point of view; she wrote that the vocabulary and sentences comprehended through discussion and brainstorming retained better in memory and therefore she had the chance to know how to use the words and sentences in daily life.
Different from the positive cases, Simon did not appreciate the whole teaching process. He wrote that:
我不喜歡互惠教學法。︒因為我不懂英⽂文也看不懂英⽂文。︒我不會⽤用這些策略。︒
I did not favor Reciprocal Teaching because I don’t understand English and I can’t read English, either. I cannot use the strategies. (Simon, 5/25/2016)
Simon’s answer pointed out why he was not interested in the whole reading process. He could hardly employ the strategies as he found it difficult or unhelpful.
He felt challenged and at a loss and he could not discuss with others during the intervention.
Jane did not have particular feelings for Reciprocal Teaching because there was not much discussion in her group and she could hardly understand or read the story.
Thus, she didn’t know how to discuss with others or contribute to the group discussion when she did not understand the text.
When asked about the effect of Reciprocal Teaching on students’ reading comprehension (Question 2), all seven participants agreed its effect on reading comprehension and understanding. Though Jane did not have particular feelings for Reciprocal Teaching, she still claimed it was helpful to her understanding. Jane wrote that:
會。︒在⼩小組討論時我不了解單字或句⼦子意思，⼩小組討論時其他⼈人會幫助我理解故事內容。︒
Yes, Reciprocal Teaching could help me with my reading comprehension because others can offer help whenever I countered unknown words or reading difficulties. With their help, I can understand the story. (Jane, 5/25/2016)
When asked about the most interesting part in the learning process (Question 3),
three students thought that predicting is the most interesting part because they found it interesting to hear the predictions which others made were different from theirs.
Sometimes they would appreciate others’ imagination and felt impressed by their imagination. Four students chose group discussion as the most interesting learning process because they could learn from others and they would feel surprised at others’
questions and ideas. Eric was one of the four students who considered group discussion the most interesting. Eric wrote that:
⼩小組討論最有趣。︒因為有時會討論到別的地⽅方，或猜錯。︒
I think that having a discussion is the most interesting part of the whole reading process because sometimes we would detour the discussion and talk about other topics. Also, I found that having a wrong prediction is interesting too.
(Eric, 5/25/2016)
Though four students, two males and two females, chose group discussion as the most interesting part, their reasons were quite different. The boys seemed to like the atmosphere of talking in a group, but the girls, Joy and Jane, found that when hearing others’ predictions or questions, they felt enlightened by others and those responses might help them come up with better ideas.
While asked about the most challenging part of the learning process (Question 4), all four mid proficient students thought that summarizing is the most challenging in the whole learning process. They claimed that they had to understand the whole text so they could write down the summary. Some said that it’s not easy to write a summary with their own words and they found that it’s hard to find suitable words to express what they thought. Ruby wrote, “I need to understand the whole passage thoroughly so that I can grasp the main ideas to put into the summary.”
However, all the low proficient students gave different responses. John mentioned that he didn’t know how to pose a question when he could not read or
understand the story. Simon, the least capable student in this study, found that he had difficulty clarifying his ideas because he could hardly understand the story. Jane found that she spent a lot of time working on the worksheet; therefore, she found working on the worksheet was the most challenging part in the learning process. Most of the time she relied on Ruby, one of her group members, to answer the questions on the worksheet.
When the effects of Reciprocal Teaching on reading and English learning were probed (Questions 8 and 9), all seven participants held positive attitude toward the effects of Reciprocal Teaching on their love for reading. John thought that Reciprocal Teaching made him like reading stories and he further added that he could use the strategies to read storybooks. He also said that Reciprocal Teaching enabled him to read stories and learn English at the same time. Eric thought that he liked reading more than before because of Reciprocal Teaching and the group discussion in class.
Elaine, a mid proficient reader in the class, wrote “Yes, I have always liked reading a lot and I like reading better now. ”
Five out of the seven students thought Reciprocal Teaching made them like English better. Elaine, who put English reading class as her first ranking, always likes English learning and reading. She wrote that with Reciprocal Teaching, learning English became easier for her. John, a low proficient student, thought Reciprocal Teaching offered an opportunity for him to read stories and learn English at the same time; he thought that English became more interesting and easier for him. Eric thought that with the help of Reciprocal Teaching, learning English took him less time and English became easier for him. This way of learning was much more interesting than regular English classes, in which he had to memorize a lot of English words.
Simon, a low proficient student who hardly read English, wrote that, “I like English because of Reciprocal Teaching.” Simon was an interesting case because he did not favor Reciprocal Teaching for there are many strategies that he found difficult to employ. However, he learned to like English better because of Reciprocal Teaching.
The reason might be that he could understand the texts through the assistance and help from his peers.
Jane did not have particular feelings for the effects of Reciprocal Teaching on her love for English learning. Her attitude and perception toward English learning stayed the same despite the learning process of Reciprocal Teaching. Though Reciprocal Teaching helped her understand the text, her love for English or motivation to learn English did not change at all. Jane was a low proficient student in this class. She said that she would try her best to learn English but Reciprocal Teaching did not make a difference to her motivation toward English. Joy thought Reciprocal Teaching does nothing to do with her love for English. Though Reciprocal teaching helped her understand stories better, she still thought that English is quite a difficult subject for her because there are still difficult grammar points she didn’t understand in regular classes.
This shows majority of the participants agreed on the positive effects of Reciprocal Teaching on their perception toward reading and English learning.
Reciprocal Teaching made all the students like reading more whereas two of them did not change their love or motivation for English learning with Reciprocal Teaching.
In students’ responses, most of them appreciated and favored Reciprocal Teaching as a good reading method. When asked if they had other suggestions for Reciprocal Teaching (Question 10), they gave different opinions. Elaine mentioned
“Reciprocal Teaching helps me think differently and offers a chance for us to discuss with others. I think Reciprocal Teaching is a good way to learn English.” Ruby mentioned something different: “Reciprocal Teaching helps me learn efficiently; it should be introduced to more students and I would recommend people to learn English with it. People should give it a try!” Eric shared similar opinions with Elaine;
he thought that Reciprocal Teaching helped him understand texts faster and more efficiently. John also mentioned the merits of Reciprocal Teaching for comprehending the texts; however, he suggested that there should be more people in the discussion group. He further added “If there are more people in a group, the discussion will be more heated and thus we can have different or multiple results of discussion so that it may achieve the goal of being reciprocal.” John raised a new point of view that never occurred to me, i.e., the number of members in the discussion group might be an issue of learning effects.
(2) Perception of individual strategy use
After students’ reports on their general perception of the whole teaching process, the focus of this section is students’ perception of individual strategy use. The purpose is to further probe into their views toward the four strategies (Question 5), allowing the researcher to know each learner’s thought in details.
Six out of the seven learners chose predicting as the most interesting strategy among the four, but they differed in their reasons.
預測最有趣。︒因為猜來猜去很好玩。︒猜錯了也很好玩。︒
Predicting is the most interesting because we can try different possibilities.
Making wrong predictions is a lot of fun, too. (Elaine, 5/25/2016)
我覺得預測最有趣。︒因為猜對了會很⾼高興。︒
I think predicting is the most interesting because when I get it right, it makes me feel happy. (Ruby, 5/25/2016)
預測最有趣，因為我可以從圖⽚片來猜測。︒不需要多想。︒
Predicting is the most interesting because I can find clues from the
illustrations. I don’t have to spend a lot time on predicting. (John, 5/25/2016) Jane gave a different opinion about the most interesting strategy. She thought questioning is the most interesting because it’s easy for her to pose questions from the stories in Chinese. She would feel surprised and enlightened by others’ questions and ideas.
As for the most difficult strategy, there are much more diverse answers from the students. Eric, Elaine, Ruby, and Joy, all the mid proficient students in this study, agreed that summarizing was the most challenging strategy.
概述最困難，因為要把故事濃縮成⼀一個段落不容易。︒
Summarizing is the most difficult because to condense a story into a paragraph is not easy. (Joy, 5/25/2016)
有些話不容易表達。︒
It’s not easy to find the right words to express the whole ideas. (Eric, 5/25/2016)
概述很難，因為要把故事內容簡單描述有困難。︒
Summarizing is the most difficult because to describe a story with limited words is quite difficult. (Elaine, 5/25/2016)
概述很難，因為需要瞭解⽂文章內容才能準確抓出重點。︒
Summarizing is the most difficult. Only when you understand the whole passage, can you grasp the main ideas precisely. (Ruby, 5/25/2016)
While all the mid proficient learners agreed that summarizing was the most difficult, the three low proficient students had different point of view. John thought questioning was the most challenging part because he could hardly understand the stories and he did not know how to pose a question. Jane mentioned that clarifying was the most challenging because she didn’t know how to clarify her ideas and further to explain to others even if she understood something. Simon was the most struggling student in this study, and he had difficulty clarifying his ideas because he could hardly read the story.
Four out of the students chose predicting as the easiest one because they had the sense how stories might develop and they found that sometimes the illustrations might tell them what would happen next. Also, they were willing to make predictions and brainstorm for possibilities during the whole procedure. That’s why most of the learners thought they could employ the predicting strategy best.
However, there are still strategies the other three found they could employ quite well. Joy, a mid-proficiency student, thought she could use questioning the best without difficulty. Ruby, a mid-proficiency student, who has a better understanding and better reading ability than others, could grasp the ideas of the stories faster than others and thus found clarifying easier for her to use. Jane, a low proficient learner in the group, was quite a different case. She hardly understood the text if she read alone.
However, when she got help from the group members and understood the meanings of the story, she could made a summary on her own because in this study the students were requested to write a summary in their mother tongue. Jane found the other three strategies difficult for her to employ because she was a less skilled and less motivated leaner in this group. She seemed to be uninterested in the class discussion and unwilling to employ the target strategies during the intervention.
Four of the seven students chose predicting as the most practical strategy in the reading process. Most readers predicted what would happen next and anticipated how they thought the stories might develop; therefore, they found predicting the most practical and useful. Elaine and Joy chose the clarifying as the most practical in the reading process. They thought that they needed group discussion with the peers and explanations from others so that they could understand the texts. Sometimes, the two learners would resort to the dictionary automatically when they wanted to resolve
their unclear ideas from reading the text. That’s why they find clarifying most practical during the reading process. Ruby, different from others, felt that questioning was the most practical and useful. Ruby was a good reader in this study, so she seldom needed to discuss with others when she read. When she asked questions, she seemed to understand the text better.
(3) Future employment of Reciprocal Teaching
When asked if they wanted their English teacher to employ Reciprocal Teaching in regular classes (Question 6), six of the students gave the positive answer. The following are some responses from their questionnaire. Reciprocal Teaching benefited them a lot in terms of English learning. They suggested keeping group discussion in regular class because they could understand the text better with the discussion and explanations from the peers. With the help of group discussion, they felt that learning English was much easier, more interesting, and more efficient than before. However, one student did not hold the same perception and attitude as the majority. Jane, the only exception, held neutral attitude toward Reciprocal Teaching on future employment because the members in her group seldom discussed with one another and she rarely interacted with other students. Thus, she stood no chance to benefit from the scaffolding and interactive essence of Reciprocal Teaching. She was also the one who remained demotivated and passive throughout the intervention. Therefore, she found Reciprocal Teaching unattractive and had no particular feelings for Reciprocal Teaching.
In spite of this, all the learners reported that they would continue using these learning strategies in their future learning (Question 7). They thought that they would use the strategies because they could understand the text better if they employ the
strategies learned in this study. Also, they claimed that they would use the strategies when they have the chances to. John, a low proficient student, mentioned that, “If I don’t use the strategies, I will not understand what the story means. Predicting and questioning helps me learn English.”
strategies learned in this study. Also, they claimed that they would use the strategies when they have the chances to. John, a low proficient student, mentioned that, “If I don’t use the strategies, I will not understand what the story means. Predicting and questioning helps me learn English.”