Perception Questionnaire for the Tutors
In the first section of the questionnaire for the tutors with seven Likert Scale items and one open-ended question, the results showed that the overall ratings of their tutees and the program were nearly positive (see Table 4).
Table 4. Student Survey for Tutors
*Likert Scale 1~5 in Perceptions of Their Tutees=strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree.
As indicated in Table 4, 71.42% of the tutors agreed on their tutees’ willingness to learn. 85.7% of them thought their tutees communicated with them well. However, only 28.57% of the tutors agreed on item three, which is about their tutees’
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understanding of the reading content. Similarly, as for whether the tutees could adjust their reading strategies according to the previous session, fewer than half of the tutors (42.85%) agreed on that. Whereas, 85.7% of them stated that their tutees were able to discuss their concepts with them. For item six, only 28.56% of the tutors thought that the tutees’ reading time was shortened. Lastly, 57.14% of the tutors agreed that the final reading material was easier for their tutees to understand.
Tutors’ Perceptions of Their Tutees
As revealed in Table 4, in general, most of the tutors were positive about the progress their tutees made, especially in sharing their thoughts. On account of the tutors’
feedback on the open-ended question in the first section of perceptions questionnaire, five out of seven tutors indicated the progress their tutees performed in the end of the peer tutoring program.
Excerpt 27: They got to know more and more vocabulary and were more clear about the essentials of the reading comprehension questions. Besides, they could predict the possible content of the target reading by judging from the title.
(tutor #2)
Excerpt 28: She gradually knew how to infer from the context as well as expressed the process of working out the questions more specifically. (tutor #7)
Excerpt 29: The articles were more comprehensible to them. Moreover, they asked me
the meaning of the other options in every question thoroughly. (tutor #1) Excerpt 30: Reading time spent by my tutees became shorter. In addition to that, they
were more capable of pointing out where the keywords or the key sentences were located. (tutor #5)
Excerpt 31: Ben seldom spoke out his thoughts, but he learned to express himself and presented some keywords he found in the last sessions of the program. As for the other tutee, she seldom raised questions. She often worked on the reading on her own because Ben needed more help. (tutor #4) Excerpt 32: Being more sensible of the article and some vocabulary within it, my tutees’
understanding of the content could be raised more or less although sometimes they were weak in pointing out keywords or key sentences to increase their correction rate. Furthermore, they became more courageous
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to guess. Actually, the answers they presented were usually correct.
Therefore, it increased their chances of responding correctly by making hypotheses confidently. (tutor #3)
Tutors’ Perceptions of the Peer Tutoring Program
In spite of some negative responses to some question items in the first part of the perception questionnaire (see Table 4), most of the tutors’ reactions to this program were generally positive. In response to the second part of the perceptions questionnaire, 71.42% of them approved of the peer tutoring program on account of their tutees’
improvement in dealing with reading comprehension questions. Many of the tutors expressed that their tutees became better in figuring out the word meaning from the context and understanding the reading comprehension questions in the second section of the perceptions questionnaire. Noticeably, a tutor emphasized on the significance of vocabulary size which had great influence on his tutees’ performance. Apart from that, another tutor mentioned that one of the factors leading to the positive effects was to tackle the comprehension questions from her tutee’s angle. Excerpts below were their remarks on their tutees’ performance.
Excerpt 33: Due to their insufficient vocabulary size, they were incapable of applying the three reading strategies effectively. They still lacked self-confidence while they made a guess even if they were right. (tutor #3) Excerpt 34: My tutee learned not to give up so easily when encountering long articles
and she also tried to think carefully about the meaning of the questions.
(tutor #7)
Excerpt 35: They got to know the meaning of the question, to figure out the word
meaning from the context, and to predict the reading content. (tutor #2) Excerpt 36: My tutees understood the article more and their correction rate was
promoted. (tutor #1)
Excerpt 37: In the process of discussion, I could understand my tutee’s difficulty.
What’s more, I could see the difference between my tutee’s thought and mine. (tutor #6)
Benefits of the Peer Tutoring Program Received by the Tutors
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All seven tutors claimed that they also gained some advantages while helping their tutees. Most of them thought that the process of preparing themselves for the reading program in advance and adjusting their tutoring approach to meet their tutees’ need was a good training.
Excerpt 38: Through the preparation and instruction, my ability of oral expression and logic were sharpened. (tutor #6)
Another tutor appraised not only the effects that tutoring process brought about but also the advantages of prior training he perceived.
Excerpt 39: In order to teach my tutees well, it’s compulsory for me to comprehend the reading content, its comprehension questions, and every option as
well. During the instructional process, I re-examined my grammar knowledge and some vocabulary once again. Apart from that, in the training process, some strategies or perspectives provided by other tutors to work out the reading comprehension questions inspired me to look at these questions from another angle. (tutor #4)
Three tutors reported that they could gradually make sense of the weakness of their tutees when dealing with reading comprehension questions.
Excerpt 40: I got to know more about how to teach my peers. Interestingly, many other thoughts about reading comprehension questions and their options proposed by my tutees struck me. Maybe sometimes I was ignorant of some possible reasons for choosing the distractors. (tutor #7) Excerpt 41: After the six sessions of peer tutoring program, now I felt more empathetic
towards my tutees because I understood what problems they exactly encountered. (tutor #3)
To assure how tutor #6 perceived her logic improvement, the researcher conducted an interview.
Excerpt 42 (interview):
Researcher: What do you mean by stating that your logic was sharpened?
Tutor #6: I have to reorganize the concepts in the readings to better understand the content. Besides, trying my best to make myself understood by my tutee also reinforces myself to think logically.
Part of the peer interaction audiotaped in the final session of the program revealed some tutees’ misunderstanding of the reading content. Such process of interpreting a
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reading was usually beyond the tutors’ experience.
Excerpt 43 (interaction):
Tutor #7: Please describe why you choose option (c).
Tutee #9: When I read the third line, I see the word “busy.” Then, in option (c), there is the word “working” which is usually related to the status of being busy in my opinion. Therefore, I thought it was the best answer.
With regard to how the peer tutoring program could be improved, four out of seven tutors referred to the importance of shortening answering time for their tutees concerning the limited answering time in CAP. Regarding how the tutees’ reading comprehension could be elevated, two tutors underlined the importance of vocabulary size. On the other hand, a tutor commented on the necessity of estimating the proficiency of the tutees before grouping.
Excerpt 44: They should accelerate their answering speed because they often spent too much time on reading without answering any question. (tutor #1) Excerpt 45: The vocabulary size of my tutee was too limited and he spent too much
time answering some questions. Sometimes if he really didn’t know what to do, he just guessed without any basis. (tutor #2)
Excerpt 46: Improving reading comprehension could be initiated from increasing vocabulary. (tutor #3)
Excerpt 47: In case of the huge deviation of my tutees’ English proficiency, it was likely to neglect one of them. For me, Ben needed more help and it seemed that I had to focus less on the other tutee. Comparing to Ben, she was more likely to work out the questions by herself. It would be plausible to teach them more effectively if they were equally capable. (tutor #4)
Summary
In general, both tutors and tutees felt positive about the peer tutoring program. The tutees highly valued the efforts their tutors made for them and the tutors also endorsed their tutees’ improvements during the six sessions. Most of the tutees thought their ability of figuring out word meanings and inference making was promoted which was consistent with the viewpoints of the tutors. Moreover, the tutors quite appreciated the increasing discussion between both sides in particular. It revealed that the tutees became
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more proactive about expressing their ideas or concepts. Whereas, some tutees mentioned the effects of the program on their reading comprehension were limited if the article was too long. Some tutors also believed that the limited vocabulary size of the tutees inhibited their reading comprehension.
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