CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the detailed information of the research methodology is presented
in four sections. In the first section, the characteristics and distribution of the subjects
involved in this study are described. In the second section, the instruments used in this
study are introduced. Then, the third section presents the procedures taken through the
whole study. The last section is an explanation of the statistical methods adopted for
analyzing the collected data.
Subjects
The subjects of the present study were a class of thirty-six senior students in a
junior high school. In the researcher’s school, this semester, students were grouped
according to their last semester’s grades. These thirty-six students were from the top
two hundred students in the total of six hundred and fifty-three senior students. They
are not gifted students, but they are self-motivated in their school studies. They are
more open for new things, and inclined to be challenged. They do their best to prepare
for every test, and they care about their grades.
Besides textbooks, exercise books, they don’t have too much time for
extra-curricular books for reading in English. Some even go to cram school on
weekends. When it comes to extra-curricular English books, their first thinking is
Let’s Talk in English or Studio Classroom, magazines that can improve their English in
school studies. English to them is more like an academic subject, memorizing,
practicing and exams are the three steps to good grades in English. The reason that
makes them think that is how English is learned is probably because the “ big exam”
－Basic Competency Exam, is waiting for them to conquer after their three years studies. Writing the exercise books over and over is probably the only way and the
safe way for most students to get good grades. They may read Harry Potter or The
Lord of the Rings in Chinese and see the movies, but they wouldn’t buy themselves
English literature books. Maybe it’s because they’ve never been exposed to English
literature books before or they just don’t know where they are available. Reading
literature for pleasure is often not seen as a priority when students have leisure time.
Getting good grades is the only concern for most students.
All the students in this research had four periods of English class a week and
they all stayed at school to study until nine o’clock in the evening from Monday to
Friday. In daytime, there weren’t too much time for reading the poems because there
was a curriculum schedule to catch up. The researcher used the time in the evening to
read poems to them without giving them any test.
The teacher subject for this study was the researcher herself. She majored in
foreign literature and languages before and enjoyed reading very much in her free
time, in Chinese and in English. She hoped she could open a window for students by
sharing humorous children’s poetry with students and motivate them to enjoy reading
in English more, instead of reading for grades. And hopefully, the snow-ball effect of
reading more and learning more could help them be a lifetime reader and enhance
their English at the same time.
Instruments
Four primary instruments were used in this study, including (a) Shel Silverstein’s
poems, (b) read aloud the poems and activities that related to the poems(c) a
questionnaire on students’ responses to reading aloud the poems, (d) classroom
observation records. The instruments used in this experiment were described in details
in the following.
Shel Silverstein’s Children’s Poems
At the beginning of the semester, the researcher asked students if they wanted to
read extra curricular materials, most of them said yes, some even said they wanted to
read Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings in English. The researcher told her
students these were interesting books to read but the English versions were too
difficult for them to read now. The researcher suggested Shel Silverstein’s children’s
poems were more suitable for them to read because of the rhythm, fun, and humor in
his works. Besides, not only were the new words and grammar comprehensibly
challenging but the length of each poem was manageable for class time.
Before reading the poems in class, Shel Silversten, the author of Where the
Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic, the talented poet, cartoonist, and guitarist, was
introduced by the researcher. The researcher used PowerPoint slides to show the
picture and the life of the author. Many students found his look very unique and
stylish, and admired him for his versatility. The world-wide famous two books, The
Giving Tree and The Missing Piece were read in class in a PowerPoint form. These
steps were used to help students know the author and his writing style better in case
that they didn’t have any background knowledge of the author and his works.
The 17 poems were chosen based on the rationale that materials should be within
students’ life experiences and emotional levels in case they would have problems
relating to these poems. 16 out of the 17 selected poems could be categorized into two
groups: poems about children’s laziness, and poems about children’s crazy
imagination. Besides these two categories, “Deaf Donald” was chosen in order to
cultivate students’ sympathy and understanding for people who are different from
them.
In the category of children’s laziness, there were “Kidnapped”, “Sick”, “Sarah
Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”, “Lazy Susan”, and “Tired”.
These poems were new to them, so the researcher used the most popular poems as the
first three poems to interest students to read more poems of Shel Silverstein. The first
one was “Kidnapped”. It was about a kid made up an incredible excuse for his being
late for school. The researcher challenged their students if they were late for school or
class, they could recite this poem through to avoid the punishment. That made them
even more excited about reading the poem.
The second one was “Sick”. It was also about a kid finding lots of excuses of not
going to school. The third one was a poem with a long title “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia
Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”. It was about a little girl named Sarah
Cynthia Sylvia Stout, a tongue-twisted name, piled up uncountable garbage at home
and was too lazy to take out the garbage. Finally, when she thought of taking the
garbage out, the garbage was so much that led her to an awful fate.
“Lazy Jane” was a poem with an illustration of a thin and spiritless girl lying on
the ground waiting for the raindrops to quench her thirst. “Tired” was used to
introduce the grammatical pattern of present perfect progressive tense.
In the category of children’s crazy imagination, there were “Hat”, “OH Have You
Heard”, “The Crocodile’s Toothache”, “Whatif”, “If the World Was Crazy”, “ Rock
‘N’ Roll Band”, “Anchored”, One Inch Tall”, “ They’ve Put a Brassiere on the Camel”,
“ Bagpipe and the Turtle”, and “ The Meehoo and with an Exactlywatt”.
The two poems, “Hat” and “OH Have You Heard”, were rather short and were
used for jigsaw. They were cute little naughty poems about kids’ making fun of others.
As for “The Crocodile’s Toothache”, the illustration of this poem was very
eye-catching. A big crocodile sat in a small patient’s chair crying because the dentist
was pulling out its teeth. Students could read not only the humorous content but also
enjoy the funny illustration. “Whatif” was about a child’s worries about everyday little
things, like being late to school. And in “If the World Was Crazy”, the speaker in the
poem used his/her wild imagination to do lots of crazy things if the world was crazy.
“Whatif” and “If the World Was Crazy” were also used to teach the grammatical
usage of unreal situations.
“Rock ‘N’ Roll Band” was about a bunch of kids who imagined themselves as a
rock and roll band by using potato chip cans for drums. “Anchored” was about a big
anchor which caused trouble to a sailor. In “One Inch Tall”, the speaker would like the
readers to imagine what they could do if they were only one inch tall. “They’ve Put a
Brassiere on the Camel” was about why people put the brassiere on the camel, and it
was used to review the grammatical pattern of perfect present tense.
And the poem “Bagpipe and the Turtle” was about the unrequited love of a turtle
and was used to review the grammatical usage of relative clause. In order to increase
students’ knowledge of English culture, “The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt” was used
to introduce the particular western “knock knock joke” to students, hoping they could
enjoy the fun of reading the poem and know more about the cultural aspects of
English.
“Deaf Donald” was a special poem which could not be categorized to either of
the groups. The reason why this poem was selected was because the researcher would
like her students to respect the people that are different from them and care about the
world more, instead of living in their own world.
In short, the 17 poems were selected based on the criteria if they could sustain
students’ interests of reading them aloud and hopefully they could motivate students
to read more English. As for the accompanied activities and assignments, they were
designed to enhance their English ability without giving students too much pressure
and trouble.
Using Read-Aloud to teach Shel Silverstein’s Poems
Because the limitation of students’ English ability, most of the time, it was a
teacher-centered classroom. When it came to a long poem, the researcher would tell
the students the main idea of the poem, so the students would have a clue to follow.
And the researcher would read the poem in a normal speed at first for students to
listen to the poems first. In the second time, it was still the researcher did the reading,
but the poem was read and explained in Chinese if necessary. If there were big new
words that students could probably have problem with, the researcher would ask her
students to listen and repeat the words with her for a few times. In order to make sure
they knew every word’s pronunciation, the researcher would ask the students to read
line by line with her to make sure they had no problem reading the whole poem.
Once they were ready to read aloud the whole poem, the researcher would ask
them to read aloud in unison in a normal speed, and the researcher read aloud with
them. At last, the researcher would challenge them if they could read like a rapper,
quickly but clearly. The researcher asked the students to add up the reading speed and
challenged students if they could catch up the researcher’s reading speed.
The read-aloud steps that were mentioned above were done in class for the
seventeen poems. In order to interest the students and enhance students’ English
abilities, there were five activities that covered the four skills of learning English.
First, it was a worksheet to examine their comprehension of “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia
Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”. (See Appendix A) Students were encouraged
to write down their thoughts in English on the three poems that had been read in class,
and the researcher encouraged them not to worry if they couldn’t write in good
English because the researcher would correct them.
The second activity was listening to the author’s reading his works himself after
students read the first three poems. Shel Silverstein read his works with
exaggeratingly dramatic tones and background music, and that made students paid
even more attention to listening to the poems. Students could imitate the way Shel
Silverstein read to energize and enliven their reading.
The third activity was to record the first three poems on a tape as an assignment
for winter vacation. They could practice reading the poems over and over before they
handed the best ones.
The fourth activity was jigsaw. Before reading aloud the poems, the poem was
cut into pieces line by line. The opening line was given to students, so they wouldn’t
get lost in this activity. Students were grouped to discuss the correct order of the poem,
and when they made their decisions, they could call for the researcher to check if they
were right.
The fifth activity, with the coming of the BCE, students needed to review the
grammar. After being explained and practicing the grammatical points with handouts
(See Appendix C), students were given the poems related to the grammar to see if
they understood what they learned. Table 1 was a simple teaching schedule of the 17
selected poems.
Table 1 Simple Teaching Schedule of the 17 Selected Poems Title of
the poem
The Theme of the Poem
Activities in the classroom Assignment
Kidnapped Kids’ excuses for being late
Read-aloud:
1. Teacher modeling
2. Everyone reads the poem in unison
Tape the poem (assignment for summer vacation)
Sick Kids’ excuses for not going to school
Read-aloud:
1. Teacher modeling
2. Everyone reads the poem in unison
3. Listen to the author’s reading
Tape the poem (assignment for summer vacation)
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out
Kids’ laziness Read-aloud:
1. Teacher modeling
2. Everyone reads the poem in unison
3. Listen to the author’s reading
1. Worksheet 2. Tape the poem (assignment for summer vacation)
Hat Kid’s making fun of others
1. Jigsaw 2. Read-aloud:
a)Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
OH Have You Heard
Kid’s making fun of others
1. Jigsaw 2. Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Lazy Susan Kids’ laziness 1. Guessing the content by
2. Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
The
Crocodile’s Toothache
The fear of going to the dentist
1. Guessing the content by watching the illustration 2. Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
3. Listen to the author’s reading
Whatif Kids’ worries 1. Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
2. Solo line for each student
If the World Was Crazy
Kid’s wild imagination
Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical usage of unreal situation (for students to practice in class)
Rock ‘N’
Roll Band
Kid’s fancy imagination
Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical usage of unreal situation (for students to practice in class)
Anchored Kid’s imagination Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical usage of unreal situation (for students to practice in class) One Inch
Tall
Kid’s wild imagination Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical usage of unreal situation (for students to practice in class) They’ve Put
a Brassiere on the Camel
Kids’ funny imagination Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical pattern of present perfect tense (for students to practice in class) Tired Kids’ whining about too
tired to enjoy interesting things
Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Handouts of the grammatical pattern of present perfect progressive tense (for students to practice in class) Bagpipe and
the Turtle
A turtle’s unrequited love for a bagpipe
Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt
The ridiculous funny conversation among three funny creatures
Read-aloud:
a) Give examples of “ Knock Knock Jokes”
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Deaf Donald
Unspoken love Read-aloud:
a) Teacher modeling
b) Everyone reads the poem in unison
Questionnaire on Students’ Responses to
Reading Aloud English Children’s Poetry in Class
A questionnaire on students’ responses to reading aloud English children’s poetry
(see Appendix D) was designed by the researcher to gain valuable information about
students’ attitudes toward and responses to the study. The questionnaire was divided
into two parts. The first part consisted of 32 items and all the answers were conducted
in a five-point scale ranging from “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neutral,” to “disagree”
and “strongly disagree.” The first part was to know how the students responded to
their listening, writing, speaking, and reading abilities in the project, how the students
thought of reading aloud and the activities in class, what were the students’ attitudes
toward the selected poems, and the students’ attitudes toward reading for enjoying
reading.
The second part included four open-ended questions, in which the students were
requested to choose their favorite poems, and to write down the reasons why they
liked the poems. The second and third questions were to know what difficulties they
had in the study and what the solutions were to the problems. The last question was
about what they gained from reading aloud the children’s poetry. The students could
write in Chinese so that they could express themselves clearly.
Classroom Observation Records
The observation records were used to examine the ways how reading aloud
English children’s poetry was preceded in the subject class. The observation focused
on students’ attitudes toward reading aloud the poems in class, interaction with the
teacher and students, and attitudes toward the teacher’s instruction in this study. All of
the observation was recorded by the researcher’s writing teaching log after each class.
Procedure
The research was implemented in a junior high school in Taipei County. The
researcher herself was an English teacher and a homeroom teacher of the evening
study hall at the same time. The researcher had English classes in the evening once in
a week, whenever there was time available, the poems of Shel Silverstein would be
read to the students. The research procedure can be explained as follows:
In the beginning of the research, the teacher informed the students of the purpose
of reading poems of Shel Silverstein. The researcher observed how did the students’
responses to the poems in class and check their comprehension ability by doing
activities along with the poems. After 17 poems selected by the teacher were read
aloud in class, students answered the Questionnaire on Students’ Responses to
Reading Aloud the Poems of Shel Silverstein. Finally, the researcher collected,
analyzed and discussed all data in this research.
Data Analysis
After all the research data collected, they were reviewed, calculated, and
analyzed. The data collected in this research were analyzed in two types. One was
quantitative analysis. The other was qualitative analysis. By using the two types of
data analyses, the researcher got a deeper understanding of the effects of read-aloud
approach in motivating junior high school students to read in English in their free
time.
The Quantitative Analysis
Data from the first part of the Questionnaire on Students’ Responses to the
Reading Aloud the Poems of Shel Silverstein were analyzed and displayed in
frequency and percentage counts in order to find out how the subjects answered the
items on the questionnaire.
The Qualitative Analysis
The students’ responses to the four open-ended questions of the Part Two of the
questionnaire and the researcher’s classroom observation records were analyzed.
From the qualitative analysis, the researcher evaluates the feasibility and effectiveness
of reading aloud children’s poetry in order to give EFL teachers in junior high schools
in Taiwan an alternative way to teach English.
