4.1 Thematic Analysis
The data gathered from the interviews were analyzed, coded, and given themes as shown in the table below, which notes the number of times each one recurred and provides a related example. All recurring themes were relevant to the focus of the study and related to the research questions.
Table 2
Recurring Themes in Students’ Responses Regarding Learning English in the United States
Themes | Num. | Example |
---|
Higher qualities of learning | 36 | “They told me a lot how to improve my English” |
Prior learning experience | 32 | “I started learning English when I was 14 year” |
Methods of teaching | 32 | “You speak English everyday with anyone” |
Lower qualities of learning | 27 | “I never learned how to write” |
Characteristics of a good teacher | 22 | “He will give you good and correct information” |
Difficulties of learning English | 20 | “I have to memorize thousands of words” |
Speaking | 17 | “But here we are forced to speak” |
Practice of English | 14 | “I had never practiced reading or writing” |
Motivation | 8 | “One of my motivation is to complete my studies” |
Accent | 8 | “We need the accent like American accent” |
The most frequent themes in Table 2 were related to the quality of learning, followed by students’ prior experience and methods of teaching. The least frequent themes were motivation and accent.
4.2 Interview Analysis
Ten themes emerged from the interviews. In the following account, the recurring themes are used to group more examples taken from students’ responses, which give justifications for their perceptions.
4.2.1 Higher Versus Lower Qualities of Learning
Common threads were found through the various narratives of the participants. The first was their implicit and explicit reasons for seeking a “higher quality of learning.” The interview transcripts demonstrated respondents’ beliefs that studying English in the US enabled a higher quality of learning that simply could not be replicated by learning English in a foreign-language environment. Almost all the participants expressed the same view. One, Hue, said, “If a student learns the second language from a person who speaks English as his first language, that is, from my opinion, way better from learning it from someone who speaks English as second language.” Lob and Mike agreed. For example, Lob said, “Learning in my country does not help because we need a higher quality of learning and it is here where we can improve our language.” These participants implied that even if a person is fairly good at English, there is no better way to learn than going to America, where English is the primary language spoken. Using English on a regular basis can help a person to speak and understand the language better, and America is the place to do so.
4.2.2 Prior Learning Experience
All the participants brought to the interview the idea that they had had language learning experience before, but it had been limited for several reasons. For example, Hue, referring to his prior learning experience, said:
“Actually, education in my country, I mean in English, is not that strong, this not learning. So that was the biggest obstacle to me to learn English better and communicate”.
Lob was of the same mind. He said, “It is just like I have many vocabularies but I can’t make a full sentence or write a letter or like an academic literacy or something like that. But when I came here, I learned a lot of academic literacy, writing, reading, strategies and how to build a paragraph or essay”. It was clear that the new experience of learning added a lot for them compared to their previous experiences. When the participants came to the US, they brought with them not only different experiences that were not helpful but also their views about what best facilitated learning like proper practice of what had been learned and exposure to the target language.
4.2.3 Teaching Method
Participants also emphasized that teaching methods were of great importance when thinking about learning a second language. Several student quotes below are illustrative of the transition in academic practices in students’ home countries versus in US classrooms. For example, Lob and Hue strongly shared the same opinion. Lob noted, “The problem is with the methods. Because in my country, they don’t learn and teach in the right way.” In agreement, Hue said, “Yeah, exactly. The right way to teach.” Almost all the participants actively reflected on the idea of the “right methods” that existed in US classrooms, though two expressed or processed their experiences differently. For example, Mike explicitly reported, “I have views about studying English in the US, about reading, about writing, about speaking. And about writing, I think there is no difference between my country and here.” These quotes above demonstrate how the references made by the participants in the “method” theme varied. While five of the participants believed that teachers in the US used better methods than those in their home countries, two participants had a completely different viewpoint. Due to their learning experiences, they thought that methods were very much the same and even better in their countries than in the US. They explained that in their countries teachers could use their first languages to explain the second, while in the US, teachers only spoke one language, and that sometimes did not help students whose English skills were low.
4.2.4 Lower Quality of Learning
The fourth most frequent theme in the narratives we collected was a lower quality of learning in participants’ first learning experiences. Almost all participants were convinced that their first learning experience was marked by a lower quality of instruction that resulted in their inability to acquire the language the way it should be acquired. For example, Hue explicitly implied that his first learning experience was the result of him not being able to write even two academic sentences. He said:
For me, I think confidence is the biggest difficulty that I have. But as I said, days after days, I started to be able to understand and speak confidently. And I said writing was and is hard for me because I have never learned how to write two sentences (back home).
Mao added, “I think the most difficult thing [when he was back home] was vocabulary. I have to memorize thousands of words [without finding a way to put them into practice]. That is difficult for me.” The above implications made by the participants reflected their perceptions and understandings of the lower quality of instruction they had received in their home countries. Almost all the participants in the study seemed to suggest that their lack of command in their first learning experience was due to that instruction.
4.2.5 Characteristics of a Good TeacherCharacteristics of good teachers or educators were repeated frequently. This theme ranked fifth in frequency. For example, Lob said, “Teachers in the U.S. do add extra things from life, not just academic things. About culture, more vocabulary from life. That’s added good vocabulary. That is the benefit for our language.” Hue was of the same view. He said, “Yeah, same as me. I prefer American teacher because American teacher, he will tell you [what is] correct, let’s say, he will give you good and correct information that you need.” Additionally, Mike expressed a similar perception when he said, “When someone teaches English, they must come from, they must be native speaker because the pronunciation is different. For example, Rose [is] from Indonesia and when she will teach me English, it is very easy to understand about the conversation.” Hue interrupted and said, “But it is the right way. It is very difficult but it is the correct way.” Mike elaborated, “Also, [it] is important for me if the American teacher, he or she, understood how to motivate all of the students. Student teacher relationship is different. For example, all of the teacher[s] keep friendly environment[s].” As these quotes suggest, the participants all seemed to agree that learning a language involves sharing outside experiences and a friendly environment enforced by the teacher.
4.2.6 Difficulties of Learning English
All the participants seemed to fall into consensus that learning a second language in a foreign setting comes with unique difficulties. They noted that memorizing words is very difficult in an environment where there is no practice. They added that what made their second learning experiences more rewarding was that they were able to practice what they learned in the classrooms outside of them, and the difficulties of memorization became minute in comparison to their first learning experiences. For example, Lob expressed his distress about the difficulties he was facing when he was learning English in his country. He said:
In my opinion, in my country, we learn about two hours in a week but we do not practice like speaking. Just in class, take some vocabulary, that’s it. We have lots of assignments at school.
Again, the majority of the participants felt as though their environment was one their major difficulties in learning English. Even the time allocated to learn was in fact not enough for learning a second language. All the participants seemed to agree that the setting or the environment in which the learning is taking place is a very crucial factor in learning a second language faster.
4.2.7 Speaking and practice of English
practicing speaking was only the seventh most frequent theme. During the interviews, all the participants emphasized that the privilege of having numerous opportunity to practice speaking in America made their second learning experiences even richer. For example, several participants noted that in a setting like America, the participants were forced to speak and practice the language, unlike in their first learning experiences, when they did not have the same opportunity of practicing. Mike was one of the participants who said:
Whenever I want to practice what I learned in the class, I can go to the mall or Walmart. Yeah, so I must challenge to improve my English right for my well here in the United States. So I must go to America and I must improve before I came here.
Hue was of the same opinion. He said, “In my point, if you study English in a country that everybody speaks English, you will speak faster than studying in your country. I mean, this is my opinion.” When talking about teaching methods, students expressed their concern about finding the best methods, strategies, or processes to learn a second language; this was especially the case with learning English in the US. Participants reflected on their learning experiences in a variety of different ways and were aware of what discouraged their learning.
Another example that showed the need to practice English was one student’s comment that “[g]iving higher quality because of the exposure to English much opportunities to practice it. Also, for me, I want to practice. I want to be forced to practice because in my country, there is no a lot of people speaking English. So I can’t practice with them.” Mike was of the same belief, noting, “I have similar opinion with my friend from Saudi Arabia. I have the experience. Before I came to America, I was just practicing two languages”
It is clear for the above that students connected having exposure to English with gaining higher quality of learning English.
4.2.8 Motivation and Accent
During the interviews, participants revealed numerous factors that motivated them to come to the US to learn English. One of the factors was the opportunity to pursue higher degrees after their successful completion of their English courses. Lob, for example, showed his eagerness to complete his higher education after the completion of his preliminary English courses. He said:
Yeah, one of my motivations is to complete my studies. I want to study [for a] master’s because I am [a] teacher. I want to study education technology to help me if I go back to home in that field—I mean, [the] education field.
Pursuing a higher degree was a theme for the majority of the participants in the focus group interview.
The final theme that emerged was acquiring American accent. In the interviews, two participants overemphasized the issue of developing a proper accent. They explained that their second learning experiences were more rewarding and appropriate because they were able to develop a proper accent, which, according to their self-evaluations, made their speech patterns more comprehensible. Mike repeatedly shed light on the importance of accents and pronunciation. He said, “When someone teaches English, they must come from the US or UK, they must be native speaker because the pronunciation is different, not like my teacher, I cannot understand.” The student raised concerns about his first learning experience and how it was challenging because of his former teachers who had bad accents. He explained that their pronunciation was not comprehensible because the way they uttered words was, to him, literally incorrect and he wanted to change that to be better.