Storytelling as an effective way of EFL oral language proficiency testing

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Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University

STORYTELLING AS AN EFFECTIVE WAY OF EFL ORAL LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTING

Knyshevytska Liliya Volodymyrivna

Senior instructor, Department

of Linguistics and Translation, School

of Romance and Germanic Philology

Kyiv

Abstract

english language learner oral

People engage in creating stories out of their personal experiences and experiences of other people from the early days to the last. It is unquestionable that one of the primary needs of mankind to understand, transform and share human experiences by means of telling stories is universal and transcends times we live in and languages we all speak. The ability of telling a story, a joke, or an unforgettable experience is universal; it is neither a prerogative of a certain culture or language, nor of an experienced writer, poet, musician or an artist.

Out of countless genres of oral narratives, stories of personal experience are perhaps the most universal, common and convenient way of relating past events and memories. It is also the most fruitful source for the study of a foreign language due to personal involvement of a storyteller. Therefore, language teachers can use universal nature to tell stories as an alternative way not only to teach their students, but also to test their oral language proficiency.

The present study investigates discourse organization of EFL interviewees' responses to one particular question in an English oral language proficiency test (Video Oral Communication Instrument or VOCI) that is constructed in a form of a semi-direct video conference with the English language learners. The participants of the study are twenty-five EFL university students enrolled into English language classes in Ukraine that are divided into two groups according to their levels of language proficiency. The hypothesis of the study is that there is a correlation between a level of proficiency and a preference for either a strategy of a narration (description) or a narrative (telling a story).

The results of the study showed non-linear correlation in both proficiency groups (intermediate and advanced/superior) between the language proficiency and a choice of a narrative or narration strategies. Both strategies were chosen by the candidates as the optimal strategies for their level of oral language proficiency. Apparently, it is easier to tell a story due to its universality than to describe in a foreign language. The lower level candidates use this knowledge as a compensation strategy, the higher ones as an efficiency strategy.

The study has important implications for the methodology of EFL teaching and testing. The second language instructors should directly teach their students speech act theory and a theory of a narrative structure (Abstract, Orientation, Complicating Action, Evaluation, Coda) in their classes that will be helpful for the students during their language learning, testing and practical application of a foreign language in their personal and professional life.

Keywords: Narrative, narration, speech act, storytelling, narratives of personal experience, discourse analysis, VOCI, oral language proficiency, oral language testing, interview, speech act theory, a theory of a narrative structure.

Анотація

Книшевицька Лілія Володимирівна старший викладач кафедри лінгвістики та перекладу Факультету романо-германської філології, Київський столичний університет імені Бориса Грінченка, м. Київ,

РОЗПОВІДЬ ІСТОРІЙ ЯК ЕФЕКТИВНИЙ СПОСІБ ТЕСТУВАННЯ МАЙСТЕРНОСТІ УСНОЇ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ

Анотація. Одна з основних потреб людства це розуміти, трансформувати та ділитися людським досвідом за допомогою історій. Люди розповідають історії зі свого особистого досвіду та досвіду інших людей від перших днів до останніх. Це уміння є універсальним і виходить за межі часів, в які ми живемо, і мов, якими ми всі говоримо. Уміння розповідати історію, жарт чи незабутні враження є універсальним; це не є прерогативою ані певної культури чи мови, ані досвідченого письменника, поета, музиканта чи художника.

З незліченних жанрів усних оповідань історії особистого досвіду є, мабуть, найбільш універсальним, поширеним і зручним способом згадування минулих подій і спогадів. Це також найбільш плідне джерело для вивчення іноземної мови завдяки особистому залученню оповідача. Тому вчителі мови можуть використовувати універсальну природу для розповіді історій як альтернативний спосіб не тільки навчити своїх учнів усному володінню іноземною мовою, але і перевірити її.

У цьому дослідженні аналізується дискурсна організація відповідей студентів EFL на одне конкретне питання в тесті на володіння англійською мовою про незабутне враження в іх житті в тесті Video Oral

Communication Instrument або VOCI, який побудований у формі напівпрямої відеоконференції з учнями англійської мови. Учасниками дослідження є двадцять п'ять студентів університету, які навчаються на заняттях англійської мови в Україні, які поділяються на дві групи за рівнем володіння мовою. Гіпотеза дослідження полягає в тому, що існує кореляція між рівнем майстерності та перевагою або стратегії опису, або розповіді історії.

Результати дослідження показали нелінійну кореляцію в обох групах знань (середньої та просунутої вищої) між володінням мовою та вибором стратегії оповідання чи опису. Обидві стратегії були обрані кандидатами як оптимальні стратегії для рівня володіння усною мовою. Мабуть, легше розповісти історію завдяки її універсальності, ніж описати іноземною мовою. Кандидати нижчого рівня використовують ці знання як стратегію компенсації, вищі - як стратегію ефективності.

Дослідження має важливі наслідки для методології викладання та тестування EFL. Викладачі другої мови повинні безпосередньо навчити своїх студентів теорії мовлення та теорії структури розповіді (Анотація, Орієнтація, Ускладнююча дія, Оцінка, Кода) на своїх заняттях, що буде корисним для студентів під час вивчення мови, тестування та практичного застосування іноземної мови в подальшому житті.

Ключові слова: наратив, оповідання, мовленнєвий акт, наративи особистого досвіду, аналіз дискурсу, VOCI, володіння усною іноземною мовою, тестування усної іноземної мови, інтерв'ю, теорія мовного акту, теорія наративної структури.

Introduction

Apart from the primary, hard-wired in our brain urgent need for food, water and shelter, there is another, not less powerful and quintessential need of mankind to understand, transform and share human experiences by means of telling stories. People engage in creating stories out of their personal experiences and experiences of other people from the early days to the last. In this sense, the ability of telling a story, a joke, or an unforgettable experience is universal; it is neither a prerogative of a certain culture or language, nor of an experienced writer, poet, musician or an artist. Out of countless genres of oral narratives, stories of personal experience are perhaps the most universal, common and convenient way of relating past events and memories. It is also the most fruitful source for the study of narrative discourse due to personal involvement of a storyteller. It is unquestionable that one of the primary needs of mankind to understand, transform and share human experiences by means of telling stories is universal and transcends times we live in and languages we all speak. Barthes [2], describing universality of a narrative wrote that “narrative is present in every age, in every place, in every society; it begins with the very history of mankind and there nowhere has been a people without narrative. Caring nothing for the division between good and bad literature, narrative is international, trans-historical, transcultural: it is simply there, like life itself” (p. 2, as cited by Abbott, [2]).

Review of Literature

The corpus of studies related to examination of narratives of personal experience of native speakers of English is extensive, it embodies more than forty years of work and a great variety of areas the researchers focused their attention on. The contribution of Labov and Waletsky [8], Labov [8], [9], [7], for example, to the field of discourse analysis of narratives of personal experience and methodology of data collection is difficult to underestimate.

Stories are fruitful source for the study of narrative discourse due to personal involvement of a storyteller who usually is relating a certain episode from his or her personal life that insures credibility of a story. Besides, as Labov and Waletzky [8] stated, “the structure of these speech events is usually clear and well defined. This definition rests upon a conception of a narrative. An oral narrative of personal experience employs temporal junctures in which the surface order of the narrative clauses matches the projected order of the events described” (p.1 as cited by Labov [9].

In general, the format of an interview is a very interesting area for the study of discourse of the subjects' responses. If asked correctly, questions about dramatic experiences in one's life elicit stories of a personal experience with the native speakers of English in the context of an interview. Considering the universality and international nature of story-telling, it might be possible that the same or a very similar question would elicit a story from a second language speaker in the context of an oral proficiency interview in English.

Extensive research has been done in the field of examination of an interviewer and interviewee language discourse in various direct oral language interviews. These studies include a wide range of different methods of analysis and approaches to the language discourse in oral language testing, using Oral Proficiency Interviews and a variety of participants. These studies focused on various aspects of interplay of oral language testing and discourse analysis such as examination of socio-linguistic, pragmatic and discourse organization of language proficiency interviews (Davies [3]); a study of discourse domains and their effects on performance (Douglas and Selinker, [4]), examination of the nature of a discourse genre of the oral proficiency interview and its relation to the natural conversation (Johnson and Tyler, [7]), topic framing and various types of accommodation by interviewers (Ross, [11];

Ross and Berwick, [12]), interpretation of L1 pragmatic system in L2 frame (Ross, [13]), framing the oral proficiency interview as a speech event and examination of interviewer and interviewee's questions (Moder and Halleck, [10]), negotiation of meaning in oral proficiency interviews, elaboration of responses by interviewees (He, [6]), management of communication problems (Egbert, [5] ) and many others.

Research question

Very few studies have been done with such a semidirect video oral proficiency test as the VOCI (Video Oral Communication Instrument) [14]. Moreover, no studies of the interviewees' responses to the interviewer's questions in the context of VOCI test examined in terms of discourse analysis of the subject's responses had ever been done with students of EFL in Ukraine.

The current study focused on the discourse organization of interviewees' responses to one particular question in a VOCI test, namely: an unforgettable experience in an interviewee's life which according to ACTFL Guidelines [1] is an advanced level question which is supposed to elicit narration in the past tense. Though the genre of the oral language interview itself indeed could not be classified as a natural conversation, some of the questions in this particular instrument (VOCI) [14] are framed as speech acts and obey some of the basic principles of a conversation: structural organization, involvement, mutual contribution and turn taking. These questions might contextually orient the candidates to contribute in their answers not simply by providing certain information as a part of an answer to a test question, but by producing a piece of a coherent conversational discourse that could be viewed as a speech act, in our case, a story of personal experience. I hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between a level of proficiency and a preference for either a strategy of narration or a narrative.

Results

Discourse analysis of stories in both proficiency groups (intermediate and advanced/ superior) showed that the connection between the language proficiency and a choice of a narrative or narration strategies has a reverse correlation not a linear one as I had expected. Considering the universality of storytelling, I expected that the more proficient candidates would tell their stories, since their level of proficiency allowed them to do so. I anticipated also that the less proficient interviewees would not choose to tell their stories due to the obvious problems with language proficiency. However, the study showed the unexpected results that go counter to my expectations. The lower levels of proficiency candidates in both groups chose a strategy to tell a story, to frame their response to the unforgettable experience question as a speech act of relating a story of a personal experience. The candidates with higher levels of proficiency chose to frame their responses as addressing the tested language functions of description. Both strategies are chosen by the candidates as the optimal ones for their level of oral language proficiency. Apparently, it is easier to tell a story due to its universality than to describe in L2. The lower level candidates use this knowledge as a compensation strategy, the higher ones as an efficiency strategy.

The study has important implications for the methodology of L2 teaching and testing. The second language instructors should directly teach their students speech act theory and a theory of a narrative structure (Abstract, Orientation, Complicating Action, Evaluation, Coda) in L2 classes that will be helpful for the students during their language learning and testing.

References

1. ACTFL Proficiency GuidelinesSpeaking: Revised 1999. (1999). Hastings - on - Hudson, NY: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

2. Abbott, H. P. (2002). The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3. Davies, C.E. (1998). Maintaining American face in the Korean Oral Exam: Reflections on the power of crosscultural context. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp. 271-297). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin's Publishing Co.

4. Douglas, D. and Selinker, L. (1993). Performance on a General Versus a FieldSpecific Test of Speaking Proficiency by International Teaching Assistants. In Douglas, D. and Selinker, L.(ed.). A New Decade of Language Testing Research (pp. 235-256). Alexandria, VA: TESOL, Inc.

5. Egberg, M. M. (1998). Miscommunication in Language Proficiency Interviews of First - Year German Students: A Comparison with Natural Conversation. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp.147-173). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

6. He, A.W. (1998). Answering Questions in LPIs: A Case Study. In Young, R. and Jonstone, B. (1993). Community and context: Midwestern men and women creating their worlds in conversational storytelling. In Tannen (ed.). Gender and Conversational Interaction (pp. 62-79). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

7. Koike, D.A. (1998). What Happens When There's No One to Talk to? Spanish Foreign Language Discourse in Simulated Oral Proficiency Interviews. In Young, Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis. In J. Helm (ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle: U. of Washington Press (pp. 12-44). Reprinted in the Journal of Narrative and Life History 7: 3-38.

8. Labov, W. (1997). Some further steps in narrative analysis. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7: 395-415.

9. Labov, W. (2001). Uncovering the event structure of a narrative. Georgetown University Round Table (pp. 2-23): Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.

10. Moder, C. L. and Halleck, G. (1998). Framing the Language Proficiency Interview as a Speech Event: Native and NonNative Speakers' Questions.

11. Ross, S. (1992). Accommodative Questions in Oral Proficiency Interview Discourse. Language Testing, 9,173-186.

12. Ross, S. and Berwick, R. (1992). The Discourse of Accommodation in Oral Proficiency Interviews. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,14, 159-176.

13. Ross, S. (1998). Divergent Frame Interpretations in Oral Proficiency Interview Interaction. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp. 333-355). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin's Publishing Co.

14. VOCI (Video Oral Communication Instrument). ESL Test (1995). Developed by Gene Halleck, Oklahoma State University & Ronald Young, San Diego State University. Language Acquisition Resource Center: San Diego State University.

Література

1. ACTFL Proficiency GuidelinesSpeaking: Revised 1999. (1999). Hastings - on - Hudson, NY: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

2. Abbott, H. P. (2002). The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3. Davies, C.E. (1998). Maintaining American face in the Korean Oral Exam: Reflections on the power of crosscultural context. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp. 271-297). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin's Publishing Co.

4. Douglas, D. and Selinker, L. (1993). Performance on a General Versus a FieldSpecific Test of Speaking Proficiency by International Teaching Assistants. In Douglas, D. and Selinker, L.(ed.). A New Decade of Language Testing Research (pp. 235-256). Alexandria, VA: TESOL, Inc.

5. Egberg, M. M. (1998). Miscommunication in Language Proficiency Interviews of First - Year German Students: A Comparison with Natural Conversation. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp.147-173). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

6. He, A.W. (1998). Answering Questions in LPIs: A Case Study. In Young, R. and Jonstone, B. (1993). Community and context: Midwestern men and women creating their worlds in conversational storytelling. In Tannen (ed.). Gender and Conversational Interaction (pp. 62-79). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

7. Koike, D.A. (1998). What Happens When There's No One to Talk to? Spanish Foreign Language Discourse in Simulated Oral Proficiency Interviews. In Young, Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis. In J. Helm (ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle: U. of Washington Press (pp. 12-44). Reprinted in the Journal of Narrative and Life History 7: 3-38.

8. Labov, W. (1997). Some further steps in narrative analysis. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7: 395-415.

9. Labov, W. (2001). Uncovering the event structure of a narrative. Georgetown University Round Table (pp. 2-23): Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.

10. Moder, C. L. and Halleck, G. (1998). Framing the Language Proficiency Interview as a Speech Event: Native and NonNative Speakers' Questions.

11. Ross, S. (1992). Accommodative Questions in Oral Proficiency Interview Discourse. Language Testing, 9,173-186.

12. Ross, S. and Berwick, R. (1992). The Discourse of Accommodation in Oral Proficiency Interviews. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,14, 159-176.

13. Ross, S. (1998). Divergent Frame Interpretations in Oral Proficiency Interview Interaction. In Young, R. and He, A. W. (Eds.). Talking and testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp. 333-355). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin's Publishing Co.

14. VOCI (Video Oral Communication Instrument). ESL Test (1995). Developed by Gene Halleck, Oklahoma State University & Ronald Young, San Diego State University. Language Acquisition Resource Center: San Diego State University.

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