The interview, including seven parts, is focused on exploring the activity’s effect on speaking and the subjects’ perceptions of this activity. It was conducted shortly after the three-month activity was over. All of the subjects were individually interviewed face to face by the researcher during their free time and the time of each interview lasted from forty minutes to one hour. All of the interviews were recorded and transcribed subsequently (see Appendix H, for example). According to the interview results, all of the subjects had a positive attitude toward keeping oral-written dialogue journals. Concerning the confidence in speaking English, nine subjects
stated that their confidence had increased, while another two subjects indicated that although their confidence was not really elevated, they became more comfortable in speaking English. Seven out of these nine subjects pointed out that this was because of frequent practice. Being accustomed to speaking English made them more comfortable in speaking English. For example, Ellen emphasized that frequent practice in speaking English made her more fluent in speaking and more tolerant of errors. Gradually she found out that errors were in fact not so many as she had imagined, so she became more comfortable in speaking English. Besides, two subjects emphasized the importance of the researcher’s feedback. Sherry and Sheree specifically stated that the feedback’s corrections contributed to the increase of confidence. Sherry mentioned that the one-on-one, private, and less stressful feedback resulted in her better performance in speaking, which further elevated her confidence. She underscored the importance of frequent practice and one-on-one feedback in building her confidence in speaking English. Furthermore, perceiving progress helped enhance her confidence. David, Jessie, Cathy, and Ellen also agreed that their confidence increased because they felt they could speak more fluently than before. Among the two subjects (Amal and Clare) who thought they did not gain much confidence in speaking English, Amal stated that she thought she did not gain much confidence partly because she did not know whether her speaking was good enough to successfully communicate with English native speakers, and partly because she saw little improvement in her oral performance.
With regard to the motivation, ten subjects reported that their motivation to speak or learn English became stronger. This activity triggered them to become aware of their deficiency in speaking English and to take action to improve their English.
They were motivated to make English a part of their lives. For example, Amal, Sherry, and Johnny stated that before joining this activity, they usually felt very
nervous when encountering native English speakers, but after participating in this activity, they became more natural and willing to talk to foreigners. Sheree and Johnny said that thinking in English and talking to themselves in English are their ways to strengthen English speaking. Johnny also said that this activity motivated him to pay attention to English vocabulary when reading, from which he not only learned words that might have the chance to be used in speaking but also deepened the impression of words he could speak out. Cathy mentioned that motivation to practice English prompted her to practice speaking English in the dormitory once a week. Ellen said that this activity stimulated her classmates and her to purposefully talk with each other in English in daily lives. David emphasized it was not until this activity that he realized that his English was intermitten, which motivated him to improve his speaking ability. Jessie reported that since she was practicing speaking English, if she had the chance to talk to foreigners, she would be eager to let them understand what she was trying to say and to see if she could make herself understood.
As for the participant who recognized no substantial change in stimulating motivation, Clare underscored the dullness of this activity, from which she could not obtain a sense of achievement; therefore, no particular motivation in speaking or learning English was generated. She also added that because every time she only had a few minutes to prepare what to say, she came to realize she could not express herself in English in such a short time. Gradually, she started to put in less effort in this activity.
When it comes to their perceptions of this activity, all of them had positive opinions, while some, though not many, also had negative opinions about the use of oral-written dialogue journals. They considered this activity worthwhile, great, meaningful, and they liked this activity. Cathy, Sheree, Jessie and Johnny remarked that recording the oral journals was a stimulator, pushing them to speak English.
Cathy said that this activity offered her an opportunity to practice speaking English, forcing her to learn English. She considered this activity worthwhile and she learned something from it. Jessie remarked that because of the pressure of recording, she could not but think of something to say in English. Sheree also agreed that the pressure of recording propelled her to speak English. Johnny emphasized that he liked this activity because it was a spur to force him to learn English and move ahead;
otherwise, in such environment, he was very passive. Kimily stated that although she spent little time on this activity every week, she noticed obvious progress in her speaking. So, this activity to her was worthwhile and great. Likewise, Ellen acknowledged that this activity was not difficult to her because all she had to do was recording but she could still gain a lot of things, so she liked this activity. Kimily further asserted that taking part in this activity with her friends was also another reason for her increased motivation. They shared and discussed what and how they recorded in their oral journals, from which they felt they were not lonely in learning English; instead, they viewed this activity as fun and interesting. David stated that this activity was very meaningful to him. It was very beneficial for English learning, prompting him to become more comfortable in speaking English and less worried about errors. Sherry said that this activity was fun. She only had to speak English once in a while and there was also someone giving her feedback. Sometimes when listening to her recordings, she felt very funny because she wondered why she recorded the oral journals like that. Amal also reported that there were few opportunities to speak English in daily life and her English was poor, so it was really valuable to have someone seriously listen to her speaking and give appropriate feedback such as encouragement and suggestion; the feeling was great. Grace stated that when finding she could speak more fluently, she gradually became more confident and fond of this activity. She felt that joining this activity was not bad.
She could have the opportunity to practice speaking English.
Although they held positive attitude toward this activity, they still had some negative reactions such as tiredness, pressure, rejection, frustration and fear. Except Jessie, who expressed only positive experience, all of rest somewhat had negative opinions. Among them, eight subjects complained that after school started, they became very busy, so sometimes they felt tired and annoyed in recording oral journals.
Besides, Sheree and Grace both mentioned that at the beginning of this activity, they kind of had a feeling of rejection because they felt their speaking was really terrible.
Grace commented that in the beginning, she felt very frustrated, stressed, upset and fearful, but gradually as she perceived her progress in speaking, she became more confident. Sheree said that initially she didn’t speak well, so she felt that recording the five-to-ten-minute oral journals was stressful, but gradually she was accustomed to this, and realized that she needed to work hard and thus became more positive.
Likewise, Johnny and Amal stated that in the initial stage, they felt quite frustrated due to their poor performance, but constant support and encouragement from the researcher turned their attitudes into more positive and they gradually became used to speaking English. Especially in Amal’s case, during this activity, she happened to encounter a foreigner who asked her to do him a favor to translate the content of his mobile phone voice mail into English. This was a frustrating experience to her because failing to think of the word “bill,” she tried very hard to explain it. Finally, that foreigner got the message and asked her if the word she was trying to say is
“bill.” Then, he shook his head and told her that her English was really not good and needed to be improved. After the event, she became passive, losing the initial passion and motivation toward this activity.
In terms of the benefits of keeping oral-written dialogue journals for speaking, the followings are the thoughts of these subjects. All subjects considered this
activity helpful in speaking English. They maintained that this activity provided them with an opportunity to practice speaking English. Sheree emphasized in daily life seldom having the chance to speak English, she just read something in English.
She felt that it was not enough to learn English simply by reading. Only by speaking English out could she ensure that she had learned it. So, keeping oral journals offered her an opportunity to speak English. Besides, due to the training of thinking and organizing ideas in a short time, Johnny could gradually organize his ideas more quickly as well as speak English easily and spontaneously.
All of the subjects found a gap between what they wanted to say and what they could say. They acknowledged that oftentimes when recording the oral journals, they encountered a situation in which they didn’t know how to express themselves in appropriate English words. Ellen, Cathy, David, and Johnny stated that they would look up in the dictionary for the words they did not know how to say or were unsure of the meaning after they finished recording. Jessie and David reported that they usually used simple words with similar meanings to express themselves. David and Amal said that they would try to recall what they had learned. Sherry stated that the desire to express something pushed her to look for the words and search in her memory what she had learned. Kimily stated that she could not think of certain words she had learned in high school when she was expressing similar ideas, but she could recognize those words when reading. After constant practice in this activity, she had more concrete feeling toward those words and could use them in her speaking.
She admitted that usually she did not look up the words in the dictionary after she finished recording, but when she happened to see the words that she failed to say before, she tried to memorize them and use them in the oral journals as much as possible. Grace acknowledged that when she could not come up with the right words to express herself, she usually abandoned the message and switched to another
topic. Most of them did experience the gap between recognition and production level.
Another benefit that all the subjects pointed out is that they recognized their weaknesses in speaking English such as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Ellen, Grace, David and Sherry stated that reading the feedback was a way to know whether their ideas were clearly conveyed and understood. Grace stated that she became aware of her problems such as pronunciation and tense and then would correct those errors because of the one-on-one individualized feedback. Amal also held that she could realize her grammatical errors and pronunciation problems.
Johnny admitted that he used to be unaware of his emphasis on [s] and [∫] when speaking, but now he realized he had this problem from the feedback. Besides, he didn’t know that there were so many pauses in his speaking, but the feedback served as a reminder. Cathy said that from the feedback, she could know what errors she made and made corrections accordingly. Kimily and David stated that whenever they went back to listen to the tape, they would identify their problems in speaking.
Furthermore, seven of the subjects stated that they tried out the words they were not sure when speaking. Kimily, Clare and Cathy agreed that they would use those words because they could not think of other words they were sure of. Sherry said that although sometimes she knew the words she used were incorrect or dubious, she still spoke them out; otherwise, she might think of nothing to say. Sheree also admitted that she would go ahead even if she knew what she said was wrong, because she thought the researcher would provide her with corrections.
In terms of practicing different language functions such as description, narration, and expression of opinions and feelings, eight subjects remarked that they could practice using various language functions. Cathy reported that she understood how to talk about things from certain angles or learned to express ideas in a more
organized way. Sheree commented that at the beginning of this activity, she only described things that happened in daily life, but from the researcher’s feedback, she tried to think about the questions provided and then responded in English accordingly.
Grace acknowledged that she usually talked about things happening in daily life full of sweets and sorrows, so she felt she could practice different language functions.
Amal stated that talking about different topics every time pushed her to not only employ various vocabulary but also figure out ways to express new ideas more completely. Johnny agreed that this activity increased his ability in describing things.
Last, ten subjects mentioned that this activity allowed them to discuss many different topics, which is beneficial to speaking. Five subjects (Sherry, Cathy, Amal, Grace, Sheree) said that they could practice speaking by using different approaches to address different topics. Another two subjects (Johnny and David) stated that in order to talk about different topics, they had to practice using different English words.
Jessie also mentioned that she could practice using different ways to talk about similar or different topics.
More specifically, based on the interview results, practice is one of the most important reasons that led to the improvement in fluency. All of the subjects thought that frequent practice made them spend less time organizing and thinking what to say and how to say it. They became used to thinking in English, which made them more relaxed and less cared about their errors. Second, three subjects (Jessie, Johnny and Clare) mentioned that the desire to express the ideas quickly and clearly in a short time pushed them to speak fluently and not to pause too much. Third, two subjects also (Sherry and Johnny) considered the researcher’s written feedback another factor that contributed to their progress in fluency. It played a crucial role in reminding the subjects. Because of the reminder, they would remember not to repeat too often or
pause too much when speaking. Johnny said that the feedback reminded him not to repeat too often. Fourth, Sherry stated that the variety and diversity of topics stimulated her to think from different perspectives, which further strengthened thinking ability, so the fluency was improved. In terms of extent of improvement in fluency, five subjects reported that they had improved to a great extent. Finally, all of the subjects emphasized that among fluency, grammar and vocabulary, fluency is the aspect in which they had improved most.
For grammar, nine subjects except Johnny and Grace thought that their grammatical accuracy had made some improvement. In their opinion, the researcher’s feedback is the most important factor. They asserted that the feedback played a crucial role in reminding them not to make the same mistakes repeatedly.
Seven subjects considered the range of progress in this aspect moderate.
As for vocabulary, first of all, four subjects including Amal, Grace, David, and Sherry considered the researcher’s feedback a factor that contributed to the expansion of vocabulary. They acknowledged that they could learn some new words from reading. Second, Ellen, Cathy, and Grace emphasized that stimulated by this activity, they tended to become more conscious of English. Ellen said that when reading in daily life, she would consider how these words could be used in speaking, but she had never thought of doing so before. For Cathy, after participating in this activity, she tried to think in English as much as possible. Besides, when seeing common words, she would even think of memorizing those words. Grace said that in daily life, she became keen on observing how others speak in English. Third, Amal and David mentioned that at the beginning, they were always stuck when failing to find the appropriate words to express their ideas, but gradually, they realized that they could use the words simpler and more familiar to substitute for those exact words. Fourth, Kimily and Sheree said that this activity triggered the awareness that they seemed to
have forgotten many things they had learned in school. So, they went back to refresh their memory of English. Fifth, Johnny and David stated that they usually consulted the dictionary for the appropriate words or those they were unsure of whenever they finished recording. Last, Johnny said that through speaking things out, he could reinforce the impression of the usage of the words he had learned. As for the extent of improvement, nine subjects regarded their improvement as moderate, but they still perceived they were making progress.
As far as the influence of feedback is concerned, the subjects’ opinions will be presented in the following five aspects. In “adding information” category, opinions were divided. Nine subjects (Johnny, Sheree, Cathy, Amal, Grace, Sherry, David, Jessie, Clare) noted that they learned the expressions and words used in the feedback.
Three subjects (Johnny, Sheree, Cathy) mentioned that their thinking had become diversified and quick as a result of reading the feedback. Johnny thought he could see how the researcher approached issues, which accelerated his thinking. Trying to think from other perspectives was what Sheree considered effective, while Cathy agreed that she could understand the researcher’s point of view and then viewed from different angles when describing things. Three subjects (Ellen, Kimily, & Cathy) became more motivated and willing to keep oral journals, as well as more interested in the activity after reading the “adding information” part.
As for “suggestion” part, all of the subjects considered it a reminder. Kimily,
As for “suggestion” part, all of the subjects considered it a reminder. Kimily,