Papers by Marie-Jose Guilloteaux
영미어문학연구, May 1, 2007
This article reports on an action research study carried out by a foreign teacher educator during... more This article reports on an action research study carried out by a foreign teacher educator during a program that aimed to induce a...
The purpose of this chapter is to offer a glimpse of the range of classroom management–related ef... more The purpose of this chapter is to offer a glimpse of the range of classroom management–related efforts made by three South Korean middle school teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). I present the descriptions of the teachers’ classroom management practices in the form of individual teacher profiles, which were built from qualitative data gathered from students and from classroom observations. Two interesting findings emerge from the profiles. First, each teacher’s set of practices tends to be consistent with a metaphorical role that she appears keen to play (probably subconsciously) when managing the classroom. Second, effective classroom management seems to happen in tandem with consistently sound and stimulating teaching. I discuss the teachers’ practices in terms of their general effectiveness in their own and other contexts. Finally, I offer some practical suggestions for developing more efficient management skills.
Foreign Languages Education, 2016
This study adopts a flow theory perspective to investigate the learning engagement levels of 224 ... more This study adopts a flow theory perspective to investigate the learning engagement levels of 224 Korean high school students during EFL classes and the factors that may relate to differences in their engagement. Engagement was defined as the simultaneous experience of concentration, interest, and enjoyment. The experience sampling method was employed to measure 10th and 11th graders’ appraisals of instructional activities. Each participant was sampled twice randomly during each of three observed lessons. Momentary levels of engagement were examined in relation to students’ appraisals of activity qualities (importance for future goals, difficulty, possessed skills/competence in the area of the activity), and contextual factors (gender, grade, teacher, ability-track). Descriptive analyses, ANOVAs, and t-tests revealed that only 13% of the students were optimally engaged in lessons that were predominantly teacher-centered; increased engagement was associated with students’ appraisals of activity importance for future goals and with feelings of competence; and learner group engagement differed according to who taught them. Some teachers seemed to use an approach more conducive to engagement.
This study provides systematic empirical data on the pedagogical practices of eleven Korean EFL h... more This study provides systematic empirical data on the pedagogical practices of eleven Korean EFL high school teachers in ten learner groups belonging to two provincial high schools in Korea. Thirty non-manipulated classes were observed and video-recorded. The 19 hours and 48 minutes of video data were analyzed using a specially developed instrument, the Traditional Language Classroom (TLC) observation scheme. The TLC uses categories of observable teaching features derived from the English language teaching literature and follows a minute-by-minute coding principle. Content analysis of the video data revealed that, on average, students spent about 80% of class time listening to Korean translations of English texts, learning about English through the medium of Korean, and listening to test-taking demonstrations given in Korean. In comparison, they spent about 18% of class-time engaging with English, and were required to produce only minimal amounts of controlled output, which is known to hamper instructed second language acquisition. An analysis of each teacher's practice uncovered slightly different grammar-translation approaches. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 2012
This paper outlines a procedure for language textbook analysis from the perspective of second lan... more This paper outlines a procedure for language textbook analysis from the perspective of second language acquisition (SLA) principles as a preliminary procedure to evaluation for selection. The aim is to provide a tool that allows comparison of the potential of textbooks for supporting students’ language learning. To this end, ten general principles representing a spectrum of SLA theories were drawn from the literature. Then five EFL textbooks produced in South Korea were analyzed using a minimally modified version of Littlejohn’s (Materials development in language tea, 1998, 2011) task analysis schedule. The low-to-medium inference instrument enabled the analysis of all the activities contained in the sampled units, yielding frequency tallies. Final rankings indicated that the procedure did discriminate between the sampled textbooks, revealing a clear cluster of three books that reflected SLA principles more closely. Although only in-use evaluation can determine the extent to which these textbooks actually support language acquisition, the evidence suggests that they are potentially more supportive than the lower scoring books. The procedure outlined in this paper could be of use to language educators, those involved in language materials publishing, and government officials involved in the approval of language materials.
The New Korean Journal of English Lnaguage & Literature
The teachers' use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivat... more The teachers' use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivation, yet there is scant empirical evidence to support this claim. This classroom-oriented investigation focused on how the motivational practices of EFL teachers in South Korea related to students' L2 motivation and motivated classroom behavior. In a first phase, the motivation of over 1,300 students was measured by a self-report questionnaire, and the use of motivational strategies by 27 teachers in 20 different schools was examined with a classroom observation instrument specifically developed for this investigation, the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT). The MOLT scheme, along with a post hoc rating scale completed by the observer, was used to assess the teachers' use of motivational strategies. The MOLT follows the real-time coding principle of Spada and Frohlich's (1995) Communication Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT) scheme but uses categories of ...
This survey study investigated differences in the goal orientations of EFL learners in Grades 7 a... more This survey study investigated differences in the goal orientations of EFL learners in Grades 7 and 8. Their schools were situated in a variety of locations in a southern province of South Korea. The six learner groups (N=213) under study were identified as extreme in terms of behavioral engagement in L2 classes and L2 course-related motivational state. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a salient performance-approach but no clear mastery or performance-avoidance goal orientations. Following a multivariate analysis of variance, it was found that high-motivation 7th graders scored higher on the performance-approach goal orientation measure than their low-motivation counterparts, but the pattern was reversed with 8th graders. A possible explanation is that students do not perceive the subtle difference made by researchers between performance-approach goals (predominantly associated with adaptive outcomes) and performance-avoidance goals (often associated with negative motivational outcomes). Contrary to expectations, there were no differences between high-and low-motivation learner groups in milieu goal orientation, work avoidance orientation, or perceptions of mastery or performance goals stressed in their L2 classrooms. Taken together, the results suggest that the current fuzziness of the constructs used in goal orientation theory makes the framework of limited use for future explorations of L2 motivation.
This study adopts a flow theory perspective to investigate the learning engagement levels of 224 ... more This study adopts a flow theory perspective to investigate the learning engagement levels of 224 Korean high school students during EFL classes and the factors that may relate to differences in their engagement. Engagement was defined as the simultaneous experience of concentration, interest, and enjoyment. The experience sampling method was employed to measure 10 th and 11 th graders' appraisals of instructional activities. Each participant was sampled twice randomly during each of three observed lessons. Momentary levels of engagement were examined in relation to students' appraisals of activity qualities (importance for future goals, difficulty, possessed skills/competence in the area of the activity), and contextual factors (gender, grade, teacher, ability-track). Descriptive analyses, ANOVAs, and t-tests revealed that only 13% of the students were optimally engaged in lessons that were predominantly teacher-centered; increased engagement was associated with students' appraisals of activity importance for future goals and with feelings of competence; and learner group engagement differed according to who taught them. Some teachers seemed to use an approach more conducive to engagement.
This study provides systematic empirical data on the pedagogical practices of eleven Korean EFL h... more This study provides systematic empirical data on the pedagogical practices of eleven Korean EFL high school teachers in ten learner groups belonging to two provincial high schools in Korea. Thirty non-manipulated classes were observed and video-recorded. The 19 hours and 48 minutes of video data were analyzed using a specially developed instrument, the Traditional Language Classroom (TLC) observation scheme. The TLC uses categories of observable teaching features derived from the English language teaching literature and follows a minute-by-minute coding principle. Content analysis of the video data revealed that, on average, students spent about 80% of class time listening to Korean translations of English texts, learning about English through the medium of Korean, and listening to test-taking demonstrations given in Korean. In comparison, they spent about 18% of class-time engaging with English, and were required to produce only minimal amounts of controlled output, which is known to hamper instructed second language acquisition. An analysis of each teacher's practice uncovered slightly different grammar-translation approaches. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Personality Systems Interaction (PSI) theory, which postulates that engaging (and staying engaged... more Personality Systems Interaction (PSI) theory, which postulates that engaging (and staying engaged) in challenging learning activities requires the ability to tolerate periods of mildly negative affect and recover positive affect easily. The current work thus investigates the affect regulation of over 200 South Korean middle school EFL students in three high-and three low-motivation Ieamer groups. Students reported various positive or negative affective states in a series of six brief picture-based questionnaires that were administered at random points over two regular EFL classes. Each series of results yielded a specific affect profile for each student. Affect profiles were classified into types that PSI theory considers adaptive or less helpful. The results are in line with PSI predictions. Constantly negative affect profiles across the duration of a lesson were more frequent in the low-motivation than in the high-motivation groups. More students experienced transitions between negative and positive affect in the high-motivation groups, suggesting that the teachers in these groups may have been better at creating opportmrities for students to move between affective states or that motivated students are better at regulating their own motivational states. Implications for classroom practice are discussed. (Gyeongsang National University)
The teacher's use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivation,... more The teacher's use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivation, yet the literature has little empirical evidence to support this claim. Based on a large-scale investigation of 40 ESOL classrooms in South Korea involving 27 teachers and more than 1,300 learners, this study examined the link between the teachers' mo-tivational teaching practice and their students' language learning motivation. The students' motivation was measured by a self-report questionnaire and a classroom observation instrument specifically developed for this investigation, the motivation orientation of language teaching (MOLT). The MOLT observation scheme was also used to assess the teachers' use of motivational strategies, along with a posthoc rating scale filled in by the observer. The MOLT follows the real-time coding principle of Spada and Fröhlich's (1995) communication orientation of language teaching (COLT) scheme but uses categories of observable teacher behaviors derived from Dörnyei's (2001) motiva-tional strategies framework for foreign language classrooms. The results indicate that the language teachers' motivational practice is linked to increased levels of the learners' motivated learning behavior as well as their motivational state. M otivation is one of the most important concepts in psychology. Theories concerning motivation attempt to explain nothing less than why humans behave and think as they do. The notion is also of great importance in language education. Teachers and students commonly use the term to explain what causes success or failure in learning. Indeed , motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate second or foreign language (L2) learning and later the driving force to sustain the
System, Jan 29, 2013
Since Dörnyei and Csizér's (1998) landmark study of the importance that Hungarian English as a Fo... more Since Dörnyei and Csizér's (1998) landmark study of the importance that Hungarian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers attached to a selection of motivational strategies and the frequency they reported using them in their classrooms, there have been few published attempts to examine the cross-cultural validity of their findings. The study reported in this paper builds on the work of Dörnyei and colleagues (Dörnyei and Csizér, 1998; Cheng and Dörnyei, 2007). It uses Cheng and Dörnyei's (2007) methods while changing the context to evaluate the relevance of a similar list of motivational strategies to 268 South Korean secondary school EFL teachers. The results provide further evidence that some strategies can transfer across contexts. However, unlike previous studies, it was found that Korean teachers attach very little importance and hardly ever use strategies related to generating a positive classroom climate and adaptive group dynamics. Furthermore, and unique to this study, virtually all the examined strategies were underused relative to their perceived importance, suggesting that motivating students is very low on Korean teachers' list of priorities.
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, Nov 2012
This paper outlines a procedure for language textbook analysis from the perspective of second lan... more This paper outlines a procedure for language textbook analysis from the perspective of second language acquisition (SLA) principles as a preliminary procedure to evaluation for selection. The aim is to provide a tool that allows comparison of the potential of textbooks for supporting students’ language learning. To this end, ten general principles representing a spectrum of SLA theories were drawn from the literature. Then five EFL textbooks produced in South Korea were analyzed using a minimally modified version of Littlejohn’s (Materials development in language tea, 1998, 2011) task analysis schedule. The low-to-medium inference instrument enabled the analysis of all the activities contained in the sampled units, yielding frequency tallies. Final rankings indicated that the procedure did discriminate between the sampled textbooks, revealing a clear cluster of three books that reflected SLA principles more closely. Although only in-use evaluation can determine the extent to which these textbooks actually support language acquisition, the evidence suggests that they are potentially more supportive than the lower scoring books. The procedure outlined in this paper could be of use to language educators, those involved in language materials publishing, and government officials involved in the approval of language materials.
This study examined the differences in the caring behaviors of three highly motivating and three ... more This study examined the differences in the caring behaviors of three highly motivating and three less motivating Korean middle school EFL teachers, as perceived by 7th and 8th graders. A Korean sentence-completion item, “I believe my English teacher cares about me because…,” generated 214 student responses in Korean. The caring attributes of teachers that emerged from students’ qualitative reports of their perceptions of teacher caring fell along the dimensions of Dörnyei’s (2001) model of a motivational practice. While caring behaviors of both types of teachers showed similarities, some behaviors that were reported for highly motivating teachers were clearly more helpful for learners than other behaviors that were cited for less motivating teachers. Student perceptions of caring in the highly motivating teachers' classes were found to be substantially associated with the students' positive evaluation of learning tasks as being varied, fun, interesting, and relevant. The results also underscored the importance of teachers’ caring for students as learners before caring for them as persons. Finally, students of highly motivating teachers made as many reports of teachers being uncaring as students of less motivating teachers.
This survey study investigated differences in the goal orientations of Grades 7 and 8 EFL learner... more This survey study investigated differences in the goal orientations of Grades 7 and 8 EFL learners in middle schools situated in a variety of locations in a southern province of South Korea. The six learner groups (N=213) under study were identified as extreme in terms of behavioral engagement in L2 classes and L2 course-related motivational state. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a salient performance-approach but no clear mastery or performance-avoidance goal orientations. Following a multivariate analysis of variance, it was found that high-motivation 7th graders scored higher on the performance-approach goal orientation measure than their low-motivation counterparts, but the pattern was reversed with 8th graders. A possible explanation is that students do not perceive the subtle difference made by researchers between performance-approach goals (predominantly associated with adaptive outcomes) and performance-avoidance goals (often associated with negative motivational outcomes). Contrary to expectations, there were no differences between high- and low-motivation learner groups in milieu goal orientation, work avoidance orientation, or perceptions of mastery or performance goals stressed in their L2 classrooms. Taken together, the results suggest that the current fuzziness of the constructs used in goal orientation theory makes the framework of limited use for future explorations of L2 motivation.
The purpose of this chapter is to offer a glimpse of the range of classroom management–related ef... more The purpose of this chapter is to offer a glimpse of the range of classroom management–related efforts made by three South Korean middle school teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). I present the descriptions of the teachers’ classroom management practices in the form of individual teacher profiles, which were built from qualitative data gathered from students and from classroom observations. Two interesting findings emerge from the profiles. First, each teacher’s set of practices tends to be consistent with a metaphorical role that she appears keen to play (probably subconsciously) when managing the classroom. Second, effective classroom management seems to happen in tandem with consistently sound and stimulating teaching. I discuss the teachers’ practices in terms of their general effectiveness in their own and other contexts. Finally, I offer some practical suggestions for developing more efficient management skills.
We appreciate Rod Ellis's thoughtful comments and hope that this exchange will help to shed furth... more We appreciate Rod Ellis's thoughtful comments and hope that this exchange will help to shed further light on the nature of motivated classroom behavior as a criterion measure in classroom-oriented motivation studies. As Ellis correctly summarizes, the three student variables selected for investigation in our study were attention, participation, and volunteering for teacher-fronted activity. These three components were then summed up in a composite measure that we labeled learners' motivated behavior. It seems to us that the issue concerning this measure is twofold: (a) Were the constituent variables appropriate to refl ect motivated learner engagement in the observed language classrooms, and (b) was the labeling of the variables accurate and appropriate? With regard to the fi rst question-that is, the specifi c behavioral aspects measured-our selection was restricted by the observational methodology we applied. For the purpose of designing a structured classroom observation scheme (MOLT) we needed to identify salient and relatively low-inference aspects of the students' classroom activity. Because our study did not include any microanalysis of classroom discourse, we opted for using some obvious, almost unmistakable signs of student engagement. Ellis is right that a more fi nely tuned analysis could have targeted a number of other, more subtle aspects of the students' verbal behavior, which would have also made the three components of our appraisal more distinct. However, ours was a pioneering, exploratory study, and our main objective at this stage was to achieve a robust and commonsense criterion measure of the students' level of behavioral engagement in instructional events. This is why, although we measured three different aspects of student behavior, we decided not to report any subscores for the constituent components but only focus on their composite score. Although defi nitions and operationalizations of engagement show some variation (see, e.g., , it is fair to say that its core concept involves attending behavior. In this respect, a useful distinction exists in the literature between active and passive academic responding. In Goodman's words (1990):
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Papers by Marie-Jose Guilloteaux