In my essay I would like to focus on one of the productive skills, writing. During my first year of teaching at a secondary technical school I had to realise that my students have got difficulties in writing in English. ‘Well’, I said, ‘never mind, however long process it is, I will teach them how to write compositions properly.’ But after reading their writings, I discovered that I have got a more serious problem than my students. I have never been taught how to correct, evaluate and grade them. So I am going to deal with the correction and evaluation of students’ writings in details. I think this project will be a good opportunity for me to set up my own system of correcting and grading their written works.
First of all I would like to point out the differences between written and spoken English. Speakers have a great range of possibilities to express what they intend to say. They can vary the intonation and the pitch, indicate interest or lack of it, speak up or slow down. In a face to face interaction they can use a lot of facial expressions, like gestures or body language. And they are always provided with a feedback from their listeners. While speaking even native speakers tend to make mistakes. They hesitate and often change the subject of what they are talking about. They rather use simple structures than complex ones. On the other hand the writer sometimes does not get any feedback at all. Body language, intonation or stress cannot be used in a written text. Writers have to pay attention to grammar or stylistic techniques etc. In other words any piece of writing has to be planned beforehand and thought about carefully. (J. Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman 1993, p 52-53)
To demonstrate my ideas I will use the compositions of my first year students, aged 15, at Hunyadi Mátyás Secondary Technical School, in Székesfehérvár. They are pre-intermediate students. They had to introduce their hometowns for which they were given 35-40 minutes, and they were allowed to use dictionaries as well.
At first I am going to look at the correcting techniques by means of one of the compositions. ( I am not using the original version, but a typed one, for the sake of easier legibility. )
Hometown Gábriel Ágnes 1.a
My hometown is Székesfehérvár. This is a big town, where a lot of people live in. In the town there are a lot of shops, factorys, buildings, and cars. The cars are polluting the natural. Székesfehérvár is a famous town. There are a lot of schools in the town. These schools are very big. The students are learning a lot of subjects in the schools. In the Székesfehérvár more the secondary schools, than other towns. These secondary schools are very difficults, because the students are learning a lot of. In the town there are two college : Kandó Kálmán- and Kodolányi College. The most people don’t like for the city, because is very expensive. In the shops there are a lot of product. The most people haven’t got any money. The mans are very poor. But in the town there are exceptions.
I like this town because in the city are my friends, parents (although they divorced), my school....in a word: I like this town, because I’m here living.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
W 086 F
Being this essay the first one which I submit to the Janus Pannonius University I consider it a great challenge.
Certainly this is not my first assignment written in English but the ones I wrote before were rather ‘instinctive’ works. Nobody taught me the rules which were important and helpful to write an appropriate essay in English. Now as I had some lessons on formal writing methods, several of the most significant rules of essay writing had been mentioned. On the one hand it is a big help but can be a disadvantage on the other. It is a help because besides the rules my attention was drawn to the most common mistakes committed in essay writing. The knowledge of these makes it easier for me to avoid them. When I said it could be a disadvantage I meant the phenomenon when you start studying a topic of which you already had a certain knowledge and dealing with your studies you realize how little you know about the topic being examined. At this point it is easy to loose your sense of judgement whether to keep on writing ‘instinctively’ or try to find a rule to the questioned matter.
What makes the challenge even greater is that in this case, as my task is to write with a purpose on showing my writing abilities, the emphasis is not on the topic itself but the way how I can interpret my thoughts at a higher level.
Doing something for the first time without much experience is always an exciting task. Dealing with a new situation I might have unexpected reactions even for me and I may discover so far unknown features of my personality. Sometimes it is like a self-study with definite goals; first to see how I feel inside about the way I carry out the task, whether I am satisfied with my work or not. And secondly the positive opinion of the person to whom it is dedicated. In this case the second one is expected to be the more important one to achieve as I write this essay trying to make it as perfect as possible to get a good mark for it. But it is still essential to be content with my work when I hand it in.
Other important thing which makes the challenge even more complex is to express myself properly. I must be grammatically correct which is rather difficult considering that I have to do it in a foreign language at a university level which does not allow me to use simple and familiar structures. And being grammatically correct does not mean by all means that I made myself clear and left no chance of misunderstanding.
And if we consider it a competition among the students then it challenges me even more. It is an interesting thing to see how the other students can deal with the same task. I do not only find important the marks I get but to compare them with the average grades given to the others.
Writing about this topic confirms me more and more about that the challenge of writing essays is to make in every respect both you the reader and me the writer feel satisfied with my work.
Certainly this is not my first assignment written in English but the ones I wrote before were rather ‘instinctive’ works. Nobody taught me the rules which were important and helpful to write an appropriate essay in English. Now as I had some lessons on formal writing methods, several of the most significant rules of essay writing had been mentioned. On the one hand it is a big help but can be a disadvantage on the other. It is a help because besides the rules my attention was drawn to the most common mistakes committed in essay writing. The knowledge of these makes it easier for me to avoid them. When I said it could be a disadvantage I meant the phenomenon when you start studying a topic of which you already had a certain knowledge and dealing with your studies you realize how little you know about the topic being examined. At this point it is easy to loose your sense of judgement whether to keep on writing ‘instinctively’ or try to find a rule to the questioned matter.
What makes the challenge even greater is that in this case, as my task is to write with a purpose on showing my writing abilities, the emphasis is not on the topic itself but the way how I can interpret my thoughts at a higher level.
Doing something for the first time without much experience is always an exciting task. Dealing with a new situation I might have unexpected reactions even for me and I may discover so far unknown features of my personality. Sometimes it is like a self-study with definite goals; first to see how I feel inside about the way I carry out the task, whether I am satisfied with my work or not. And secondly the positive opinion of the person to whom it is dedicated. In this case the second one is expected to be the more important one to achieve as I write this essay trying to make it as perfect as possible to get a good mark for it. But it is still essential to be content with my work when I hand it in.
Other important thing which makes the challenge even more complex is to express myself properly. I must be grammatically correct which is rather difficult considering that I have to do it in a foreign language at a university level which does not allow me to use simple and familiar structures. And being grammatically correct does not mean by all means that I made myself clear and left no chance of misunderstanding.
And if we consider it a competition among the students then it challenges me even more. It is an interesting thing to see how the other students can deal with the same task. I do not only find important the marks I get but to compare them with the average grades given to the others.
Writing about this topic confirms me more and more about that the challenge of writing essays is to make in every respect both you the reader and me the writer feel satisfied with my work.
W 056 F
Introduction
"Essay writing courses were introduced at Janus Pannonius University in 1986" (Horváth, 1996 p.88) in order to develop English majors' writing skills. During these courses students become familiar with the stages of the writing process through several useful and interesting activities. These activities include both in-class and take-home assignments. Students are given splendid ideas and helpful pieces of advice about how to write an essay, and this way each of them can develop his or her individual methods and style.
This paper will examine what writing techniques English majors at JPU used in the academic year of 1996-1997, during in-class and take-home essays. First of all, I asked students whether they devoted time to planning the essay, and if yes, how. I also studied which component of the writing process they considered the most important. Then I made inquiries about their revising methods. Finally, I gathered information of the difficulties they faced during essay writing, and the advantages of attending a course of "Writing and Research Skills".
I made the survey on the basis of three hypotheses:
1. English majors at JPU do plan their essay, but they have different strategies for take-home and in-class essays.
2. Students do not pay attention to the same factors when writing at home as in class.
3. English majors do not revise their essays before turning them in.
Both English majors and teachers of writing skills at the English Department at JPU may benefit from this assessment. Students can compare their own methods with others', and implement some good ideas in their strategies. On the other hand, professors can gain information about students' attitudes towards essay writing, and about the difficulties they meet.
Methods
During the survey, I worked with questionnaires. First I designed the 17 questions, in April, 1997, and then I distributed the questionnaires among English majors at JPU. All of them attended the course of "Writing and Research Skills". At random, I selected representatives of all the five grades. I asked 22 students all together to answer my questions: 4 girls and 2 boys from the first, 4 girls and 1 boy from the second, 2 girls and 3 boys from the third, 3 girls from the fourth, and 1 girl and 2 boys from the fifth grade. After they had filled in the questionnaires on their own, I summarized their several replies.
Results
The evaluation of the answers in connection with planning shows that all students said they spent some time on thinking about the topic before writing the essay. The amount of this time depended on the length of the essay and the topic itself. At home, seven respondents devoted about thirty minutes to planning, another seven a few hours; and the rest spent more than a day brooding over the theme. In class they meditated for 5-10 minutes.
Fifteen of the students even wrote outlines; half of them used only words and expressions, the other half full sentences as well. They said their reasons were that they wished to remember useful ideas and to have a global view about the content. The rest did not deal with putting down any ideas, because it would take much time. As for an in-class essay, the results were very similar, but only four students constructed full sentences. There were 12 English majors who even designed the chain of the paragraphs in order to insert them logically into the context. Others wrote the essay spontaneously, letting the theme develop by itself. They should take this advice: "An outline will help you to see the relations among all your points before you start your first draft" (Heffernan & Lincoln, 1982-1986 p.29 ).
The research shows that except for three students who did not care about topic sentences at all, the majority (16) constructed them within the writing process. They did not write them into the outline, because it was enough to be aware of the content of paragraphs.
For the question, if they wrote the essay right away in English, or at first they composed it in Hungarian, 21 students answered yes. Only one out of 22 insisted on translating the Hungarian version, because gathering ideas in the mother tongue was less complicated. Another English major admitted that he was thinking in Hungarian, but then translated the ingenious thoughts in his mind. Those who drew up the essay in English said that it was more easier and quicker to compose in the foreign language than translating. They asserted that the essay would have a different meaning otherwise. As far as the in-class essay was concerned, everybody wrote it in English at once, because of lack of time.
In the second part of the questionnaire I examined which stage of the writing process English majors considered the most fundamental. First I asked them about the title. Most of the participants (15) decided on the title of the essay after having finished it. As for a take-home assignment, fewer respondents (5) invented its title before writing the text than in an in-class essay ( 9 students). Then I asked the participants to grade different elements: focus, paragraph organization, topic sentence, revision and planning, from 1 to 5, giving better marks to the most essential ones. Summing up the grades, the averages indicate that focus (4.77) was the most important when writing either a take-home or an in-class essay, because this is that holds the parts of the text together. As for the take-home essay, the next in the order of importance was revision (4.14) , then planning (4.00), paragraph organization (3.91) and at last topic sentence (3.45). As far as in-class essays were concerned, the second element was planning (4.14) which was followed by paragraph organization and revision (3.95) and the last one was topic sentence (3.54).
Then I asked students to decide which factor they laid the most emphasis upon. Eleven of them paid attention, first of all, to grammar, because this is what affects and influences the teachers. Furthermore, correctly used grammar is the most essential aspect of an academic work.
According to the survey, the style of a take-home essay was more considerable than of the in-class essay. Elegant style raises the standard of the writing. Nevertheless, in class, students are usually not allowed to consult any dictionaries, so they have less chance to express their thoughts in a well-polished manner. Under such circumstances, content is the second most important after grammar. Form was pointed out by only three students, while focus and paragraph were mentioned by merely one.
The next question was about what English majors did in the interest of a more elegant style. As it turned out, 18 of the students made a great effort to avoid using redundant expressions, repeating words or padding. During the exercise they consult a dictionary or thesaurus, if possible; furthermore, they read books, magazines, and seize every opportunity to talk to native people, so as to grow their vocabulary.
In spite of the fact that form was not mentioned among the most important factors, like grammar and style, many students endeavour to provide the essay a fine and exacting appearance. The opinions varied between handwriting and typing. The majority, 15 out of 22, preferred using word-processors, so that they could make the essay legible, re-order paragraphs easily, delete unnecessary parts. Computers even provide a spell-check module. However, three students admitted that they were averse to using PC-s; handwriting was faster and less complicated for them. Another three respondents said that they would willingly hand in a printed essay, but computers were not available for them.
Having assessed the methods of planning and writing processes, I asked participants about revising the essay. First of all I wanted to know whether they executed this final step, and if yes, why they revised, when, and how many times. Everybody except for one gave a positive answer. Each respondent claimed that revision was extremely useful to reveal mistakes and inaccuracies, to supplement the text with new ideas and to have an overall view. Nineteen participants scanned the text right after finishing it (and even during it), but 10 out of 22 checked the essay later as well. Students skimmed through their works usually once or twice, four of them more times. Almost half of the participants, 10 out of 22, asked another person - usually friends, groupmates, parents or teachers - as well, in order to check the essay, since they could notice mistakes omitted by the author. These acquaintances were generally sincere, so they could give frank advice. The other half did dot like bragging about their works, or did not want to disturb people who had their own duties. Although most students revised the essay, every second admitted that they could not always find the mistakes. The proportion was even bigger concerning the in-class essay. The participants often revealed grammatic, stylistic and spelling errors that can make the content unintelligible.
In the last but one question, English majors were interviewed about what kind of difficulties they met during essay writing. According to the answers, the respondents can be divided into three groups (although there are overlaps). One of them include those 8 students who had problems with the composition itself. They usually found it hard either to invent a topic or to construct the first and last sentence. Very often words and expressions did not spring to their mind. One participant admitted that the way of giving reference was still not clear. The second group consists of 5 respondents for whom limit of time and length caused nervousness. They frequently ran out of time, or produced the essay hastily. This problem was emphasized especially in connection with in-class essays. In the third group there are 13 students who showed very negative attitude towards essay writing. Many times they found the topic unchallenging and boring, so it caused them trouble to buckle down to work.
Finally, participants were asked to give their honest opinion about the effectiveness of the course "Writing and Research Skills". Only two students considered it absolutely unnecessary. According to the others, it was useful, for the reason that they had plenty of opportunities for practising, learned many rules of academic writing, and became aware of punctuation rules.
Discussion
The results of the assessment partly refuted my hypotheses. Regarding the answers, there were much fewer differences between the technique of writing in-class and take-home essays than I expected. The divergence I could find was the consequence of different conditions. When writing an in-class essay, students had to produce a shorter composition in a shorter time than at home. Furthermore, the title and topic of in-class essays are usually given. Under such circumstances, it was obvious that students spent less time on planning and revising an in-class essay than a take-home essay; however, the way of planning, writing and revising them was almost the same. The third hypothesis was also proved wrong, since it turned out that the respondents did revise their texts before handing them in, although they did not always recognise their mistakes.
During the evaluation, I discovered some connections. There were three students who did not care about topic sentences at all. I recognized that each of them had a negative attitude towards essay writing itself. Moreover, they were among those who declared that the course "Formal Writing" contributed to their development only in very small measure. They did not spend time on planning the order of paragraphs; and as far as revision is concerned, it had been done once at the very most, right after students had finished the essay. These respondents had never asked anybody to check their work.
According to my supposition, those who omit the process of planning do not pay much attention to revising. Regarding three students, this assumption is proved. One of them did not check their essays at all; the other two scanned the work only once. Each of them showed negative attitude towards writing essays; their aim was to get rid of them as soon as possible. However; there were four students who, although, did not plan the essay, devoted more time to revising it. They checked the text more than twice, right after writing it, and later as well. If they had the opportunity, they even asked a friend or parent to correct the mistakes.
There were five students admitting that the process of composing (including, for example, gathering of ideas and using grammar correctly) caused them difficulty. In order to facilitate essay writing, all of them except for one made a sketch of the text first, and even planned paragraph organization. It is interesting that none of them showed the essay to another person; probably, they feel ashamed of their errors.
Conclusion
Considering the data of this survey, professors can select components of writing process they should emphasize in teaching. First of all, the attitudes of students should be changed. However, according to the answers, most students tend to do their best and solve the problems, even if they do not really like writing essays. This statement is proved by the efforts they made to plan and revise the work, to grow their vocabulary and to use correct grammar and elegant style; in a word, to acquire the skills of academic writing.
"Essay writing courses were introduced at Janus Pannonius University in 1986" (Horváth, 1996 p.88) in order to develop English majors' writing skills. During these courses students become familiar with the stages of the writing process through several useful and interesting activities. These activities include both in-class and take-home assignments. Students are given splendid ideas and helpful pieces of advice about how to write an essay, and this way each of them can develop his or her individual methods and style.
This paper will examine what writing techniques English majors at JPU used in the academic year of 1996-1997, during in-class and take-home essays. First of all, I asked students whether they devoted time to planning the essay, and if yes, how. I also studied which component of the writing process they considered the most important. Then I made inquiries about their revising methods. Finally, I gathered information of the difficulties they faced during essay writing, and the advantages of attending a course of "Writing and Research Skills".
I made the survey on the basis of three hypotheses:
1. English majors at JPU do plan their essay, but they have different strategies for take-home and in-class essays.
2. Students do not pay attention to the same factors when writing at home as in class.
3. English majors do not revise their essays before turning them in.
Both English majors and teachers of writing skills at the English Department at JPU may benefit from this assessment. Students can compare their own methods with others', and implement some good ideas in their strategies. On the other hand, professors can gain information about students' attitudes towards essay writing, and about the difficulties they meet.
Methods
During the survey, I worked with questionnaires. First I designed the 17 questions, in April, 1997, and then I distributed the questionnaires among English majors at JPU. All of them attended the course of "Writing and Research Skills". At random, I selected representatives of all the five grades. I asked 22 students all together to answer my questions: 4 girls and 2 boys from the first, 4 girls and 1 boy from the second, 2 girls and 3 boys from the third, 3 girls from the fourth, and 1 girl and 2 boys from the fifth grade. After they had filled in the questionnaires on their own, I summarized their several replies.
Results
The evaluation of the answers in connection with planning shows that all students said they spent some time on thinking about the topic before writing the essay. The amount of this time depended on the length of the essay and the topic itself. At home, seven respondents devoted about thirty minutes to planning, another seven a few hours; and the rest spent more than a day brooding over the theme. In class they meditated for 5-10 minutes.
Fifteen of the students even wrote outlines; half of them used only words and expressions, the other half full sentences as well. They said their reasons were that they wished to remember useful ideas and to have a global view about the content. The rest did not deal with putting down any ideas, because it would take much time. As for an in-class essay, the results were very similar, but only four students constructed full sentences. There were 12 English majors who even designed the chain of the paragraphs in order to insert them logically into the context. Others wrote the essay spontaneously, letting the theme develop by itself. They should take this advice: "An outline will help you to see the relations among all your points before you start your first draft" (Heffernan & Lincoln, 1982-1986 p.29 ).
The research shows that except for three students who did not care about topic sentences at all, the majority (16) constructed them within the writing process. They did not write them into the outline, because it was enough to be aware of the content of paragraphs.
For the question, if they wrote the essay right away in English, or at first they composed it in Hungarian, 21 students answered yes. Only one out of 22 insisted on translating the Hungarian version, because gathering ideas in the mother tongue was less complicated. Another English major admitted that he was thinking in Hungarian, but then translated the ingenious thoughts in his mind. Those who drew up the essay in English said that it was more easier and quicker to compose in the foreign language than translating. They asserted that the essay would have a different meaning otherwise. As far as the in-class essay was concerned, everybody wrote it in English at once, because of lack of time.
In the second part of the questionnaire I examined which stage of the writing process English majors considered the most fundamental. First I asked them about the title. Most of the participants (15) decided on the title of the essay after having finished it. As for a take-home assignment, fewer respondents (5) invented its title before writing the text than in an in-class essay ( 9 students). Then I asked the participants to grade different elements: focus, paragraph organization, topic sentence, revision and planning, from 1 to 5, giving better marks to the most essential ones. Summing up the grades, the averages indicate that focus (4.77) was the most important when writing either a take-home or an in-class essay, because this is that holds the parts of the text together. As for the take-home essay, the next in the order of importance was revision (4.14) , then planning (4.00), paragraph organization (3.91) and at last topic sentence (3.45). As far as in-class essays were concerned, the second element was planning (4.14) which was followed by paragraph organization and revision (3.95) and the last one was topic sentence (3.54).
Then I asked students to decide which factor they laid the most emphasis upon. Eleven of them paid attention, first of all, to grammar, because this is what affects and influences the teachers. Furthermore, correctly used grammar is the most essential aspect of an academic work.
According to the survey, the style of a take-home essay was more considerable than of the in-class essay. Elegant style raises the standard of the writing. Nevertheless, in class, students are usually not allowed to consult any dictionaries, so they have less chance to express their thoughts in a well-polished manner. Under such circumstances, content is the second most important after grammar. Form was pointed out by only three students, while focus and paragraph were mentioned by merely one.
The next question was about what English majors did in the interest of a more elegant style. As it turned out, 18 of the students made a great effort to avoid using redundant expressions, repeating words or padding. During the exercise they consult a dictionary or thesaurus, if possible; furthermore, they read books, magazines, and seize every opportunity to talk to native people, so as to grow their vocabulary.
In spite of the fact that form was not mentioned among the most important factors, like grammar and style, many students endeavour to provide the essay a fine and exacting appearance. The opinions varied between handwriting and typing. The majority, 15 out of 22, preferred using word-processors, so that they could make the essay legible, re-order paragraphs easily, delete unnecessary parts. Computers even provide a spell-check module. However, three students admitted that they were averse to using PC-s; handwriting was faster and less complicated for them. Another three respondents said that they would willingly hand in a printed essay, but computers were not available for them.
Having assessed the methods of planning and writing processes, I asked participants about revising the essay. First of all I wanted to know whether they executed this final step, and if yes, why they revised, when, and how many times. Everybody except for one gave a positive answer. Each respondent claimed that revision was extremely useful to reveal mistakes and inaccuracies, to supplement the text with new ideas and to have an overall view. Nineteen participants scanned the text right after finishing it (and even during it), but 10 out of 22 checked the essay later as well. Students skimmed through their works usually once or twice, four of them more times. Almost half of the participants, 10 out of 22, asked another person - usually friends, groupmates, parents or teachers - as well, in order to check the essay, since they could notice mistakes omitted by the author. These acquaintances were generally sincere, so they could give frank advice. The other half did dot like bragging about their works, or did not want to disturb people who had their own duties. Although most students revised the essay, every second admitted that they could not always find the mistakes. The proportion was even bigger concerning the in-class essay. The participants often revealed grammatic, stylistic and spelling errors that can make the content unintelligible.
In the last but one question, English majors were interviewed about what kind of difficulties they met during essay writing. According to the answers, the respondents can be divided into three groups (although there are overlaps). One of them include those 8 students who had problems with the composition itself. They usually found it hard either to invent a topic or to construct the first and last sentence. Very often words and expressions did not spring to their mind. One participant admitted that the way of giving reference was still not clear. The second group consists of 5 respondents for whom limit of time and length caused nervousness. They frequently ran out of time, or produced the essay hastily. This problem was emphasized especially in connection with in-class essays. In the third group there are 13 students who showed very negative attitude towards essay writing. Many times they found the topic unchallenging and boring, so it caused them trouble to buckle down to work.
Finally, participants were asked to give their honest opinion about the effectiveness of the course "Writing and Research Skills". Only two students considered it absolutely unnecessary. According to the others, it was useful, for the reason that they had plenty of opportunities for practising, learned many rules of academic writing, and became aware of punctuation rules.
Discussion
The results of the assessment partly refuted my hypotheses. Regarding the answers, there were much fewer differences between the technique of writing in-class and take-home essays than I expected. The divergence I could find was the consequence of different conditions. When writing an in-class essay, students had to produce a shorter composition in a shorter time than at home. Furthermore, the title and topic of in-class essays are usually given. Under such circumstances, it was obvious that students spent less time on planning and revising an in-class essay than a take-home essay; however, the way of planning, writing and revising them was almost the same. The third hypothesis was also proved wrong, since it turned out that the respondents did revise their texts before handing them in, although they did not always recognise their mistakes.
During the evaluation, I discovered some connections. There were three students who did not care about topic sentences at all. I recognized that each of them had a negative attitude towards essay writing itself. Moreover, they were among those who declared that the course "Formal Writing" contributed to their development only in very small measure. They did not spend time on planning the order of paragraphs; and as far as revision is concerned, it had been done once at the very most, right after students had finished the essay. These respondents had never asked anybody to check their work.
According to my supposition, those who omit the process of planning do not pay much attention to revising. Regarding three students, this assumption is proved. One of them did not check their essays at all; the other two scanned the work only once. Each of them showed negative attitude towards writing essays; their aim was to get rid of them as soon as possible. However; there were four students who, although, did not plan the essay, devoted more time to revising it. They checked the text more than twice, right after writing it, and later as well. If they had the opportunity, they even asked a friend or parent to correct the mistakes.
There were five students admitting that the process of composing (including, for example, gathering of ideas and using grammar correctly) caused them difficulty. In order to facilitate essay writing, all of them except for one made a sketch of the text first, and even planned paragraph organization. It is interesting that none of them showed the essay to another person; probably, they feel ashamed of their errors.
Conclusion
Considering the data of this survey, professors can select components of writing process they should emphasize in teaching. First of all, the attitudes of students should be changed. However, according to the answers, most students tend to do their best and solve the problems, even if they do not really like writing essays. This statement is proved by the efforts they made to plan and revise the work, to grow their vocabulary and to use correct grammar and elegant style; in a word, to acquire the skills of academic writing.
W 030 F
Introduction
Every university student might know the feeling of being overwhelmed with the task of essay writing. Students may consider it to be a real drag; an annoying task that after causes a restless night.
According to Horváth József, essay writing courses were first introduced at Janus Pannonius University (JPU), Pécs, in 1986 by Steve Starkey (Horváth 1996). As of that year, English majors at JPU have to take a formal writing course: a ‘Writing and Research Skills’ course as it is called at present. Being an obligatory assignment, essay writing has become unpopular among JPU students.
My aim, therefore, is to examine how English majors at JPU reflect on the task of essay writing; the present paper intends to give a survey of their essay writing attitudes. In this paper I look at some of the ways English majors at JPU respond to questions related to the task of essay writing.
The crucial question is whether antipathy against essay writing exists among every English major at JPU or is it unpopular only among first-year students.
Methods
In order to find answer to my questions, I designed a questionnaire; it consisted of eight questions in English. I will present these together with responses one by one. In order to be able to report valid information, I handed twenty questionnaires out. Students were asked to tick the best possible answers for the questions. I chose this way of assessment because the questionnaire is fast to fill in, and the process gives numerical information that is easy to evaluate.
Aside from questions 1.a and 1.b that were related to sex and year each column of the possible answers contained a choice that was open. So that the persons asked they were able to write their own opinions and thoughts. I had to pay attention to such kind of liberty of the students in order to make the research more objective.
For the sake of varied information I aimed to gather answers from fifth-year English majors just as well as from first-, second-, third- and fourth-year ones. It was easy to contact other first-year students, but it was much harder to find upper-year English majors at the English Department of JPU. This might have happened because I handed the questionnaires out close to the end of the term; upper-year students, especially fifth-year ones, were hard to find because their complex exams took place around those days.
Therefore, the research is based on the information coming from first-year and upper-year English majors, and on the differences and similarities of their essay writing attitudes.
Results and Discussion
The questionnaire was answered by twenty students. The first question in the questionnaire was related to the sex of the students asked. According to the answers, six males and fourteen females filled the questionnaire in.
Question 1. b was affiliated with the year of the English majors asked. As Figure 1/b shows, the number of first-year students participating in the survey was nine, the number of second-year students was four, the number of third-year English majors was three and the number of fourth-year ones was four.
Figure 1/b
The most striking result derives from the answers to the second question: ‘What is your first impression or thought when you hear these two words: essay writing?’ Although there was a chance to write any other opinion or thought if one did not like the given choices, ten students ticked answer #4: ‘You say to yourself: ”Gee, I hate it”.’(see Figure 2). The ones who chose this answer, were -except for three upper-year students- all first-year English majors. From the point of view of comparing results, it is also considerable that these students were all but one female English majors. I interpret this as a general antipathy against essay writing first among female English majors, especially among first-year ones.
Three students considered essay writing to be challenging and only one English major thought it was exciting. The ones who decided not to choose any of the given choices mostly thought ‘emotions depend on the topic of the essay.’ It was also pointed out by a fourth-year English major that ‘it is difficult to choose because impressions and thoughts can hardly fit into the scheme required, there are things that cannot be said in such a rigid form.’ I interpret this as a reminder; as an evidence of the need of a liberty: a need of a choice that is open.
Figure 2
The third question was: ‘What do you usually think when your teacher says: ”your task is to write an essay on...”.’ According to the answers, eleven English majors -males as well as females, first-year students as well as upper-year ones- believed that ‘essay writing is still better than an oral exam’.(see Figure 3). I interpret this as a kind of general acceptance of essay writing, as opposed to oral exams.
Only two first-year English majors answered the same question with ‘Forget it...’. The comments of those three students who did not like any of the four given choices were: ‘My Gosh, another one again!’ or ‘No, not again!’. Other three students pointed out that it also depends on the topic of the essay. A second-year student relates the task of essay writing to ‘another restless night’. This indicates that these nine students kept their dislike of essay writing, as opposed to those who thought it was ‘still better than an oral exam’.
Figure 3
The fourth question in the questionnaire was: ‘How do you feel just before you start writing an essay?’ According to the answers, six first-year English majors felt ‘hopeless’ right before writing the essay. Seven students wanted to ‘get it over as soon as possible’.(see Figure 4). It was also notable that mostly females chose these answers. Another remarkable result is that males who considered essay writing to be challenging (see question #2) tended to tick the box of ‘You say to yourself: ”Go for it”.’
Three upper-year students who did not choose any of the given choices felt confused, anxious or even depressed before writing an essay. According to a fourth-year English majors’ comment, the answer ‘depends on the topic of the essay or rather on its subject’. There was one first-year girl who wrote: ‘Before I start writing an essay, I can come up with ideas that make me interested, then I enthuse and I can’t wait to do the actual writing bit’. This indicates that there were English majors - though only three out of twenty - who did not start writing an essay with dislike, confusion or without hope.
Figure 4
The answers to the fifth question ‘Is it true that if you have once started writing, you can’t stop it until finishing your essay?’ indicates that only five upper-year students who filled the questionnaire in could not stop writing if they had once started; as opposed to seven first-year and upper-year students who did not agree at all. (see Figure 5). As a first-year female writes: ‘It takes me more time to write than I can bear sitting on the same place’. Those seven students who chose to write ‘any other comment’ shared similar opinions such as ‘I can stop writing but if I do, I can’t start it again.’ It indicates that few writer can work productively for more than four hours without a break (Heffernan and Lincoln 1986) but others simply cannot. As the authors go on, ”If you try to exceed your limit, you may find yourself slowing down or running dry or going around in circles, stuck in the groove because you’re too weary to think straight.” (Heffernan and Lincoln 1986)
Figure 5
Seventeen students out of twenty - both first-year and upper-year English majors- answered the question ‘How do you usually feel or what do you think when you have finished the essay?’ with choices ‘You are glad to have it done’ or ‘You say: ”Thanks God”.’ (see Figure 6). Only one fourth-year female was never satisfied with her essay at all. A first-year student considered her work to be rubbish. Another first-year female wrote that she could feel satisfaction and she often liked what she wrote, but she was always uncertain about the evaluation. The answers indicate that the majority of the students asked was glad to have the essay done.
Figure 6
The answers to the seventh question ‘Do your opinion and the teachers’ comments often coincide?’ are unanimous. As Figure 7 shows, the teachers’ comments and the students’ opinions sometimes coincide ; there was no one who chose ‘Yes, always.’ or ‘Unfortunately, never.’
Figure 7
According to the answers to the eighth question: ”‘Practice makes perfect.’- do you agree?”, thirteen English majors agreed with the statement. Only two students believed that it was only generally true, but not in the case of essay writing. (see Figure 8) Five other students, especially upper-year ones, were more critical; one of them wrote: ‘It is an impossible title, it may only make your patience perfect - generally, of course it needs practice to make good essay writer -if it exists at all- as no one can write the same quality all the time, as well as in high or low sense.’ I interpret her comment as a protest against essay writing as an obligatory and a perpetual assignment.
A second-year English major thought that ‘Practice can improve essay writing, but not in all cases.’ She believed essay writing was an ability that can be developed at an early age. A fourth-year female wrote: ‘However, I believe that essay writing is a talent which can be practiced in order to reach a certain level; beyond this level it is just a waste of time.’ It indicates that she was not in favor with practicing essay writing beyond a reached level if one does not have talent for writing.
Figure 8
Conclusion
The results are valid only for those who filled the questionnaires in; they could not be representative of every English major at Janus Pannonius University.
Students participating in the survey seemed to welcome the idea of such a research, however they represented rather negative attitudes towards essay writing; as the result of the research, I consider first-year English majors to be more likely to have antipathy against essay writing, as opposed to upper-year students who might have got used to it.
All first-year English majors at JPU has to take the Proficiency Test as part of their Language Practice courses in the Spring Semester (Horváth 1996). The test is made up by four individual components; one of them is the Essay Writing Test. Such an essay test might be a torture for those students who dislike essay writing, but it ”continues to serve as a challenge for a number of students who have shown excellence in writing.”- reports Horváth József (Horváth 1996).
Every university student might know the feeling of being overwhelmed with the task of essay writing. Students may consider it to be a real drag; an annoying task that after causes a restless night.
According to Horváth József, essay writing courses were first introduced at Janus Pannonius University (JPU), Pécs, in 1986 by Steve Starkey (Horváth 1996). As of that year, English majors at JPU have to take a formal writing course: a ‘Writing and Research Skills’ course as it is called at present. Being an obligatory assignment, essay writing has become unpopular among JPU students.
My aim, therefore, is to examine how English majors at JPU reflect on the task of essay writing; the present paper intends to give a survey of their essay writing attitudes. In this paper I look at some of the ways English majors at JPU respond to questions related to the task of essay writing.
The crucial question is whether antipathy against essay writing exists among every English major at JPU or is it unpopular only among first-year students.
Methods
In order to find answer to my questions, I designed a questionnaire; it consisted of eight questions in English. I will present these together with responses one by one. In order to be able to report valid information, I handed twenty questionnaires out. Students were asked to tick the best possible answers for the questions. I chose this way of assessment because the questionnaire is fast to fill in, and the process gives numerical information that is easy to evaluate.
Aside from questions 1.a and 1.b that were related to sex and year each column of the possible answers contained a choice that was open. So that the persons asked they were able to write their own opinions and thoughts. I had to pay attention to such kind of liberty of the students in order to make the research more objective.
For the sake of varied information I aimed to gather answers from fifth-year English majors just as well as from first-, second-, third- and fourth-year ones. It was easy to contact other first-year students, but it was much harder to find upper-year English majors at the English Department of JPU. This might have happened because I handed the questionnaires out close to the end of the term; upper-year students, especially fifth-year ones, were hard to find because their complex exams took place around those days.
Therefore, the research is based on the information coming from first-year and upper-year English majors, and on the differences and similarities of their essay writing attitudes.
Results and Discussion
The questionnaire was answered by twenty students. The first question in the questionnaire was related to the sex of the students asked. According to the answers, six males and fourteen females filled the questionnaire in.
Question 1. b was affiliated with the year of the English majors asked. As Figure 1/b shows, the number of first-year students participating in the survey was nine, the number of second-year students was four, the number of third-year English majors was three and the number of fourth-year ones was four.
Figure 1/b
The most striking result derives from the answers to the second question: ‘What is your first impression or thought when you hear these two words: essay writing?’ Although there was a chance to write any other opinion or thought if one did not like the given choices, ten students ticked answer #4: ‘You say to yourself: ”Gee, I hate it”.’(see Figure 2). The ones who chose this answer, were -except for three upper-year students- all first-year English majors. From the point of view of comparing results, it is also considerable that these students were all but one female English majors. I interpret this as a general antipathy against essay writing first among female English majors, especially among first-year ones.
Three students considered essay writing to be challenging and only one English major thought it was exciting. The ones who decided not to choose any of the given choices mostly thought ‘emotions depend on the topic of the essay.’ It was also pointed out by a fourth-year English major that ‘it is difficult to choose because impressions and thoughts can hardly fit into the scheme required, there are things that cannot be said in such a rigid form.’ I interpret this as a reminder; as an evidence of the need of a liberty: a need of a choice that is open.
Figure 2
The third question was: ‘What do you usually think when your teacher says: ”your task is to write an essay on...”.’ According to the answers, eleven English majors -males as well as females, first-year students as well as upper-year ones- believed that ‘essay writing is still better than an oral exam’.(see Figure 3). I interpret this as a kind of general acceptance of essay writing, as opposed to oral exams.
Only two first-year English majors answered the same question with ‘Forget it...’. The comments of those three students who did not like any of the four given choices were: ‘My Gosh, another one again!’ or ‘No, not again!’. Other three students pointed out that it also depends on the topic of the essay. A second-year student relates the task of essay writing to ‘another restless night’. This indicates that these nine students kept their dislike of essay writing, as opposed to those who thought it was ‘still better than an oral exam’.
Figure 3
The fourth question in the questionnaire was: ‘How do you feel just before you start writing an essay?’ According to the answers, six first-year English majors felt ‘hopeless’ right before writing the essay. Seven students wanted to ‘get it over as soon as possible’.(see Figure 4). It was also notable that mostly females chose these answers. Another remarkable result is that males who considered essay writing to be challenging (see question #2) tended to tick the box of ‘You say to yourself: ”Go for it”.’
Three upper-year students who did not choose any of the given choices felt confused, anxious or even depressed before writing an essay. According to a fourth-year English majors’ comment, the answer ‘depends on the topic of the essay or rather on its subject’. There was one first-year girl who wrote: ‘Before I start writing an essay, I can come up with ideas that make me interested, then I enthuse and I can’t wait to do the actual writing bit’. This indicates that there were English majors - though only three out of twenty - who did not start writing an essay with dislike, confusion or without hope.
Figure 4
The answers to the fifth question ‘Is it true that if you have once started writing, you can’t stop it until finishing your essay?’ indicates that only five upper-year students who filled the questionnaire in could not stop writing if they had once started; as opposed to seven first-year and upper-year students who did not agree at all. (see Figure 5). As a first-year female writes: ‘It takes me more time to write than I can bear sitting on the same place’. Those seven students who chose to write ‘any other comment’ shared similar opinions such as ‘I can stop writing but if I do, I can’t start it again.’ It indicates that few writer can work productively for more than four hours without a break (Heffernan and Lincoln 1986) but others simply cannot. As the authors go on, ”If you try to exceed your limit, you may find yourself slowing down or running dry or going around in circles, stuck in the groove because you’re too weary to think straight.” (Heffernan and Lincoln 1986)
Figure 5
Seventeen students out of twenty - both first-year and upper-year English majors- answered the question ‘How do you usually feel or what do you think when you have finished the essay?’ with choices ‘You are glad to have it done’ or ‘You say: ”Thanks God”.’ (see Figure 6). Only one fourth-year female was never satisfied with her essay at all. A first-year student considered her work to be rubbish. Another first-year female wrote that she could feel satisfaction and she often liked what she wrote, but she was always uncertain about the evaluation. The answers indicate that the majority of the students asked was glad to have the essay done.
Figure 6
The answers to the seventh question ‘Do your opinion and the teachers’ comments often coincide?’ are unanimous. As Figure 7 shows, the teachers’ comments and the students’ opinions sometimes coincide ; there was no one who chose ‘Yes, always.’ or ‘Unfortunately, never.’
Figure 7
According to the answers to the eighth question: ”‘Practice makes perfect.’- do you agree?”, thirteen English majors agreed with the statement. Only two students believed that it was only generally true, but not in the case of essay writing. (see Figure 8) Five other students, especially upper-year ones, were more critical; one of them wrote: ‘It is an impossible title, it may only make your patience perfect - generally, of course it needs practice to make good essay writer -if it exists at all- as no one can write the same quality all the time, as well as in high or low sense.’ I interpret her comment as a protest against essay writing as an obligatory and a perpetual assignment.
A second-year English major thought that ‘Practice can improve essay writing, but not in all cases.’ She believed essay writing was an ability that can be developed at an early age. A fourth-year female wrote: ‘However, I believe that essay writing is a talent which can be practiced in order to reach a certain level; beyond this level it is just a waste of time.’ It indicates that she was not in favor with practicing essay writing beyond a reached level if one does not have talent for writing.
Figure 8
Conclusion
The results are valid only for those who filled the questionnaires in; they could not be representative of every English major at Janus Pannonius University.
Students participating in the survey seemed to welcome the idea of such a research, however they represented rather negative attitudes towards essay writing; as the result of the research, I consider first-year English majors to be more likely to have antipathy against essay writing, as opposed to upper-year students who might have got used to it.
All first-year English majors at JPU has to take the Proficiency Test as part of their Language Practice courses in the Spring Semester (Horváth 1996). The test is made up by four individual components; one of them is the Essay Writing Test. Such an essay test might be a torture for those students who dislike essay writing, but it ”continues to serve as a challenge for a number of students who have shown excellence in writing.”- reports Horváth József (Horváth 1996).
W 019 F
Introduction
In this research my aim is to get a picture on what do students use more often, dictionaries (D) or thesauruses (Th), for essay writing at the English Department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU). The idea came from an essay I needed to write about my dictionary. In it I needed to explain what type of dictionary do I have and how do I use it. Thinking about these question I found it worth making a research about how my peers apply their dictionaries and in addition their thesauruses. First I wanted to find out whether they use both (B) or just either of them; if either: which one do they prefer. Another aim was to get information on how and for what grammatical problems do they use dictionaries and thesauruses.
Method
I put a questionnaire together, containing eight questions (see Appendix A), based on a material I got at first semester’s language practice course and asked ten girls and ten boys to fill it in. I did not select the students; I chose them randomly from my course and lecture mates. I analysed the boys’ and girls’ answers separatly, then I compared their replies. I expected that they would differ greatly, but apart from some questions the answers showed that their habit of using dictionaries and thesauruses are similar.
Results and Discussion
Age, semester
BOYS GIRLS
Age : numb./ yrs 1/18; 2/19; 4/20;
1/21; 1/22; 1/25; 2/19; 3/20; 2/21;
1/22; 2/24;
Semester: numb./sem. 6/2; 3 /4; 1/6 9/2; 1/6
The differences in the semester numbers are due to the credit system at JPU. With the credit system the majority of the courses and lectures are not semester bound. This is why I could be at the same course with sixth – semester students, yet the majority were in the second semester.
First question
Which one do you have? Dictionary /Thesaurus /Both
BOYS GIRLS
Only dictionary 4 5
Only thesaurus 0 0
Both of them 6 5
From the chart we can see that none of the students had only a thesaurus, and half of them had both. They probably only had them but didn’t really used them which appears in the answers of the next question.
Second question
Do you know what Thesaurus means? Explain:
This question was simply on general knowledge. I have heard that people tend to think that ’’thesaurus’’ is a kind of saurus. So I asked my peers whether they knew the meaning of it or not.
The precise answer [kincstár (treasury)] came only from one person, from a girl. The other answers showed that most of the students – 3 boys and 6 girls – thought that thesauruses contained synonyms and antonyms; 1 boy and 2 girls thought that thesauruses are special dictionaries with explanations and synonyms of words; 4 boys and 1 girl answered that thesauruses are monolingual dictionaries with synonyms, and 2 boys wrote that thesauruses explained meanings of words.
The result shows that students generally don’t know what do they use. From the replies of the third question we can find the answer why.
Third question
Which one do you use more often? Dictionary / Thesaurus
BOYS GIRLS
Dictionary 9 10
Thesaurus 1 0
We can understand why they did not know the answer to the second question from these data. These indicate a clear preference to dictionaries. Almost all of the students use dictionaries more often than thesauruses. Surprisingly to me the only thesaurus preference came from a second – semester boy. Before I checked the headding I thought that it came from the only sixth – semester boy but it did not.
Fourth question
How long have you been using your Thesaurus?
The answers here varied from 0 through four months to 5 years. Two Bs gave proximate dates: ’’since intermediate level’’, ’’since I’ve been using [W]ord for [W]indows’’.
YEARS BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)
We can acknowledge the common short time uses as the counterparts of the answers to the third question. Those who use thesauruses, use it since they are at the University. Sometimes I myself find the thesaurus more useful than the dictionary though there are grammatical problems that I can solve more easily with a dictionary. With the next question I intended to find out what did others use for solving their problems with grammar.
Fifth question
For the subquestions of the fifth question see Appendix A
BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)
As for the preferences for different problems the chart shows that the use of the thesaurus is rather specific among students. Almost all of them thought that the solutions for grammar problems came either from the dictionary or from the thesaurus. Among these tasks was looking up meanings. This I contributed to the results of the third question. Yet another thought – provoking finding was that only one girl thought that both sources can be used for looking up spelling. I myself think that both are equally good for this task and don’t understand why my peers do not.
Sixth question
How do you choose the right word? Explain:
Not everyone answered this question. Those who answered gave many different ones. Their point of view varied from the meaning to the sound and look alike. Some gave replies that did not answer the question. The general criterion was that the word needed to fit into the context. I have three favourite explanations that I think worth presenting: ’’ by guessing or which one I like more by the sound or look’’, ’’after the sound of it’’, ’’I look at the context [and] the word which fits in it is the winner’’
Seventh question
What sort of Dictionary do you prefer? Bilingual / Monolingual
BOYS GIRLS
Monolingual 5 5
Bilingual 5 5
As for the random selection of my peers we can acknowledge the 50% division as a general proportion among students.
Eighth question
Do you know who published and when your Dictionary/ Thesaurus?
This question is originally not mine. It came only as a piquancy but after realising that even I don’t know these details I grew curious whether the others knew.
BOYS GIRLS
Knew publisher of either 5 7
Knew publisher of both 4 1
Knew none 1 2
Among the names given were Országh, Oxford and Webster. One Cambridge and one Collins also appeared.
Conclusion
The findings show that thesauruses are rarely used by JPU students. Those who answered as they have and use thesaurus didn’t know what it means and what it contains. I didn’t ask about the students background but, I know that primary – and secondary – school teachers don’t offer thesaurus as alternative to dictionary. Though a thesaurus doesn’t offer just synonyms and antonyms, as many of the my peers answered, it is very handy for building vocabulary and for checking spelling and in some cases pronunciation too.
I consider the 50% preference for bilingual dictionaries to monolingual may characterize students’ vocabulary building habits at JPU. Personally I prefer monolingual dictionaries because they can urge students to use their brain more and harder.
I hope that my findings will motivate teachers to encourage students to use thesauruses more often.
In this research my aim is to get a picture on what do students use more often, dictionaries (D) or thesauruses (Th), for essay writing at the English Department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU). The idea came from an essay I needed to write about my dictionary. In it I needed to explain what type of dictionary do I have and how do I use it. Thinking about these question I found it worth making a research about how my peers apply their dictionaries and in addition their thesauruses. First I wanted to find out whether they use both (B) or just either of them; if either: which one do they prefer. Another aim was to get information on how and for what grammatical problems do they use dictionaries and thesauruses.
Method
I put a questionnaire together, containing eight questions (see Appendix A), based on a material I got at first semester’s language practice course and asked ten girls and ten boys to fill it in. I did not select the students; I chose them randomly from my course and lecture mates. I analysed the boys’ and girls’ answers separatly, then I compared their replies. I expected that they would differ greatly, but apart from some questions the answers showed that their habit of using dictionaries and thesauruses are similar.
Results and Discussion
Age, semester
BOYS GIRLS
Age : numb./ yrs 1/18; 2/19; 4/20;
1/21; 1/22; 1/25; 2/19; 3/20; 2/21;
1/22; 2/24;
Semester: numb./sem. 6/2; 3 /4; 1/6 9/2; 1/6
The differences in the semester numbers are due to the credit system at JPU. With the credit system the majority of the courses and lectures are not semester bound. This is why I could be at the same course with sixth – semester students, yet the majority were in the second semester.
First question
Which one do you have? Dictionary /Thesaurus /Both
BOYS GIRLS
Only dictionary 4 5
Only thesaurus 0 0
Both of them 6 5
From the chart we can see that none of the students had only a thesaurus, and half of them had both. They probably only had them but didn’t really used them which appears in the answers of the next question.
Second question
Do you know what Thesaurus means? Explain:
This question was simply on general knowledge. I have heard that people tend to think that ’’thesaurus’’ is a kind of saurus. So I asked my peers whether they knew the meaning of it or not.
The precise answer [kincstár (treasury)] came only from one person, from a girl. The other answers showed that most of the students – 3 boys and 6 girls – thought that thesauruses contained synonyms and antonyms; 1 boy and 2 girls thought that thesauruses are special dictionaries with explanations and synonyms of words; 4 boys and 1 girl answered that thesauruses are monolingual dictionaries with synonyms, and 2 boys wrote that thesauruses explained meanings of words.
The result shows that students generally don’t know what do they use. From the replies of the third question we can find the answer why.
Third question
Which one do you use more often? Dictionary / Thesaurus
BOYS GIRLS
Dictionary 9 10
Thesaurus 1 0
We can understand why they did not know the answer to the second question from these data. These indicate a clear preference to dictionaries. Almost all of the students use dictionaries more often than thesauruses. Surprisingly to me the only thesaurus preference came from a second – semester boy. Before I checked the headding I thought that it came from the only sixth – semester boy but it did not.
Fourth question
How long have you been using your Thesaurus?
The answers here varied from 0 through four months to 5 years. Two Bs gave proximate dates: ’’since intermediate level’’, ’’since I’ve been using [W]ord for [W]indows’’.
YEARS BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)
We can acknowledge the common short time uses as the counterparts of the answers to the third question. Those who use thesauruses, use it since they are at the University. Sometimes I myself find the thesaurus more useful than the dictionary though there are grammatical problems that I can solve more easily with a dictionary. With the next question I intended to find out what did others use for solving their problems with grammar.
Fifth question
For the subquestions of the fifth question see Appendix A
BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)
As for the preferences for different problems the chart shows that the use of the thesaurus is rather specific among students. Almost all of them thought that the solutions for grammar problems came either from the dictionary or from the thesaurus. Among these tasks was looking up meanings. This I contributed to the results of the third question. Yet another thought – provoking finding was that only one girl thought that both sources can be used for looking up spelling. I myself think that both are equally good for this task and don’t understand why my peers do not.
Sixth question
How do you choose the right word? Explain:
Not everyone answered this question. Those who answered gave many different ones. Their point of view varied from the meaning to the sound and look alike. Some gave replies that did not answer the question. The general criterion was that the word needed to fit into the context. I have three favourite explanations that I think worth presenting: ’’ by guessing or which one I like more by the sound or look’’, ’’after the sound of it’’, ’’I look at the context [and] the word which fits in it is the winner’’
Seventh question
What sort of Dictionary do you prefer? Bilingual / Monolingual
BOYS GIRLS
Monolingual 5 5
Bilingual 5 5
As for the random selection of my peers we can acknowledge the 50% division as a general proportion among students.
Eighth question
Do you know who published and when your Dictionary/ Thesaurus?
This question is originally not mine. It came only as a piquancy but after realising that even I don’t know these details I grew curious whether the others knew.
BOYS GIRLS
Knew publisher of either 5 7
Knew publisher of both 4 1
Knew none 1 2
Among the names given were Országh, Oxford and Webster. One Cambridge and one Collins also appeared.
Conclusion
The findings show that thesauruses are rarely used by JPU students. Those who answered as they have and use thesaurus didn’t know what it means and what it contains. I didn’t ask about the students background but, I know that primary – and secondary – school teachers don’t offer thesaurus as alternative to dictionary. Though a thesaurus doesn’t offer just synonyms and antonyms, as many of the my peers answered, it is very handy for building vocabulary and for checking spelling and in some cases pronunciation too.
I consider the 50% preference for bilingual dictionaries to monolingual may characterize students’ vocabulary building habits at JPU. Personally I prefer monolingual dictionaries because they can urge students to use their brain more and harder.
I hope that my findings will motivate teachers to encourage students to use thesauruses more often.
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