مدى تبني التلاميذ لقيم كتاب اللغة الإنجليزية للسنة الثالثة متوسط

The Extent to Which Pupils Have Adopted the Values of Middle School English Book Year Three

صباح قدوري: أستاذة اللغة الإنجليزية بوزارة التربية الوطنية، باتنة، الجزائر، وعضوة بالمركز الوطني للوثائق التربوية، باتنة، الجزائر.

جوامع فايزة: أستاذة اللغة الإنجليزية بوزارة التربية الوطنية، باتنة، الجزائر.

الملخص:

تهدف الدراسة إلى تحديد مدى تبني القيم المستخرجة من مناهج الجيل الثاني والمقدمة في كتاب اللغة الإنجليزية للصف الثالث للطور المتوسط من قبل التلاميذ المراهقين لمساعدتهم على تجاوز أزمة هويتهم في الجزائر. ولتحقيق هذا الهدف تم تطبيق استبيانين على 70 تلميذ في السنة الثالثة متوسط. واحد قبل الدراسة بالكتاب المدرسي للغة الإنجليزية سنة ثالثة والآخر بعد الدراسة به. وقد تمت مقارنة نتائج الاستبيانين وتبين أن المتوسط ​​الكلي للقيم قد ارتفع من 16.06 في الاستبيان الأول إلى 21.33 في الاستبيان الثاني. كما لوحظت زيادة في متوسطات أبعاد القيم الأربعة: الهوية الوطنية (من 4.76 إلى 6.10) ، والوعي الوطني (من 3.63 إلى 5.36) ، والمواطنة (من 4.13 إلى 5.31) والانفتاح على العالم (من 3.50 إلى 4.50). تؤكد النتائج أن هناك تحسنا في قيم التلاميذ، لكن الالتزام بقيم "الانفتاح حول العالم" لا يزال ضعيفا مقارنة بالقيم الأخرى ويحتاج إلى مزيد من الأبحاث لتحسينه.

الكلمات المفتاحية: القيم، الهوية الوطنية، الوعي الوطني، المواطنة، الانفتاح على العالم.

Introduction:

In Algeria, middle school pupils are adolescents between the ages of approximately 11 to 14 (UNICEF, 2014). Adolescents are about to move from a known position of childhood to an unknown status for them; autonomy and maturity (Fatusi, 2010). To attain maturity, they experience the identity crisis (Erickson, 1959: 23,132). They feel confused if they fail to achieve ego identity and recognize who they really are. However, a successful resolution of the crisis helps them develop a personal identity that will be revised later according to the occurrence of changes in major roles in life (Erickson, 1968: 24, 211).

Observing the shortage in describing the various styles of identity resolution according to different individuals, James Marcia pointed out that the more adolescents question values, beliefs and goals and commit to a certain values and roles the more their ego identity is developed (Marcia, 1966: 551). Thus identity resolution depends on whether or not values explorations and commitments are achieved by adolescents.

Accordingly, some adolescents are enable to re-evaluate identity alternatives and choices. Others are incapable to make a commitment to a particular personal or social feature and need to be supported (Marcia, 1980: 160, 165).

To afford the required assistance a set of values has been taken from the second generation curriculum and integrated in the third year middle school English book, in Algeria. The extent to which pupils have adopted these values is tackled in this study. Results are discussed using James Marcia's theory of adolescents' identity.

The outcomes of the study are expected to reflect the contribution of this English book in solving the identity crisis and developing Algerian third year middle school pupils' self-identity.

1. Marcia's status of identity development

Marcia defines identity as an internal structure built by the person himself through examining alternatives and committing to the appropriate ones (Marcia, 1980). Identity consists of the sum of beliefs, needs, capacities and individual history (Marcia, 1980). These components are dynamic; other elements can be added to them or removed as a result of new explorations and engagements (Marcia, 1966).

Based on these explorations and engagements, Marcia has distinguished four status of identity (Marcia, 1966): identity moratorium, identity foreclosure, identity diffusion and identity achievement. In this latter status, commitments are made after a period of exploitation of alternatives. Identity moratorium: in this case the person is actively engaged in a process of exploration without reaching an engagement. Identity foreclosure: where commitments are acquired from the environment; for instance acquiring values from their parents or teachers without any exploration. Identity diffusion: in which the person has not experienced commitments or explorations and does not realize the need to discover options and alternatives. The table below summarizes the four status (Marcia, 1966).

Table 1: The four status of identity development

Adolescents are more concerned by these identity status. However, those categorized in the last three status (moratorium, foreclosure and diffusion) have some difficulties in experiencing exploration or commitment, they can be supported by their teachers to examine identity implications of the activities, ideas and values introduced at schools (Coll and Falsafi 2010). These values, in Algeria, are taken from the second generation curriculum that will be explained next.

2. Second generation curriculum

In education, a curriculum is the focus of the learning and teaching process since it includes educational objectives, the process of assessing the achievement of the objectives, resources, materials and learners' interaction with the content (Adams, Kathy L, Adams, Dole E., 2003). It is devoted to meet the needs of people and cope up with modernity which makes it object to continuous revisions and reviews (Johnson, 2001).

Recent revision of the curriculum is called second generation curriculum. It derived its missions from the Orientation Law on National Education N° 4 08 January, 2008 and involves new reforms, mainly the cross curricular competencies and the core values. Core values are a set of beliefs and principles that are incorporated in the middle school English books. They help shape pupils' identity through their varied dimensions: citizenship, national identity, national awareness and openness to the world (Tamrabet Lounis, 2016).

2.1 Citizenship

Citizenship is the status of belonging, under the custom or law, to a sovereign state or nation in which its members are connected by social, political and cultural commonalities (Britannica, 2020). Roh argued that citizenship is made up of five components: responsibility, critical thinking, skills, a sense of community and tolerance (Roh, 2004). Teaching citizenship allows pupils acquire all these values and more. Citizenship education deals with varied topics such as government, human rights and equal opportunities (Marshall, 1950). Pupils of middle school are taught citizenship to be informed of their duties and rights. This will make them more self-confident, responsible and reflective.

2.2 National identity

National identity represents all the qualities, characteristics and traits that characterize the nation and reflect the spirit of belonging of its members (He & Yan, 2008). National identity has elements that differ from one nation to another, such as geographic location, history, economy, science and language (Lazlo, 2013). All these values are taught to pupils through teaching national identity and enhancing its components among learners.

2.3 National awareness

It refers to the individual and collective perception of common attitudes and beliefs towards the family, customs and societal roles. This perception helps the individual believe that the place where he lives and people around him are very important (Leonard A. Stone, 1998). Teaching middle school pupils' national awareness helps them recognize what is happening around them and stick to their cultural heritage. Commitment to this value will also encourage pupils to be confident and responsible in a cohesive family while being aware of the dangers that threaten it as well as their homeland.

2.4 Openness to the world

This issue has raised two fundamental opposite views. One emphasizes the priority of openness and involvement in the global realm since it brings to its supporters modern and cultural concepts, even if it is at the expense of their principles and beliefs (Mortada, 2008). The other opinion states that the society should be closed to itself in order to preserve its culture from being influenced by the culture of the others (Mortada, 2008). However, this trend prevents the society from pursuing modernity and technology (Mortada, 2008). In education, pupils have to make a commitment to sharing information and ideas. This is intrinsic to their scientific discoveries and creativity. Therefore, pupils should learn the value of openness to the world, yet without affecting the basic fundamentals of their society such as language or customs.

3. Third year English book

This book is destined to help teachers have an idea about the syllabus contents along the third year middle school. It provides them with diverse language points, themes and structures to ease their task (Tamrabet Lounis, Chenni Abdelefetah, and others, Teacher's Guide Middle School Year Three, 2017).

The texts, activities and tasks included in this textbook are chosen to afford pupils opportunities to examine a set of values implicitly all along the four sequences of the book and review them explicitly, with support of the teachers, in « I learn to integrate » section in each sequence.

These values are presented in table 2 and 3 according to their corresponding sequences.

Table2: The representation of the core values in the course book, sequence 1 and2

Table3: The representation of the core values in the book, sequence 3 and 4

Methodology:

This research is intended mainly to investigate: To what extent have pupils adopted the values afford to them in third year book of English? Other issues are to be inquired: To what extent have pupils adopted the four value dimensions presented in the book: citizenship, national identity, national awareness and openness to the world? To answer these questions, two questionnaires are used one prior to the study with the book and the second one after the study in order to compare their data and get accurate results.

The questionnaire:

The questionnaire includes a « YES » or « No » questions. These questions have been structured about the values presented in the four sequences of book three of English. The values are divided into four dimensions. Each dimension includes seven related questions as shown in the table below.

Table 4: The questions related to each dimension of values

The key to correct the questionnaire:

The degrees of the questionnaire are divided into three intervals:

• weak

• average

good

The range of each interval = highest degree - lowest degree

the number of intervals

Table 5: The interpretations of the questionnaire degrees

Exploratory research

The questionnaire was field tested to improve its design and detect the difficulties that may obstruct the research process. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were also assessed during this step.

Table 6: The English version of the questionnaire

As a starting point, the questionnaire was handed to thirty middle school pupils year three. Pupils have easily responded to the items contents since they are provided with the Arabic translation of the questionnaire statements. The data collected from this research was analysed to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

Reliability:

The degree to which the questionnaire is trustworthy is calculated using the SPSS program. It yields the results below.

Table 7: Calculating the validity and stability of the questionnaire

Based on these results, the questionnaire has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in the Algerian environment.

Procedure

The questionnaire and the translation of its statements into Arabic were held to seventy middle school pupils, at the beginning of the year 2018 just before studying with book three. Pupils were asked to tick the right answers according to their beliefs. After studying with book three, same pupils were given a questionnaire containing identic series of questions. The data gathered with the two questionnaires was collected, the results were compared and revealed the following analysis.

Results and analysis

Data collected from pre and post studying with book three are processed using the SPSS program to calculate the average, correlation and standard deviations as illustrated in table 9, 10 and 11.

Table 8: Statistics for paired samples

Table 9: Correlation for paired samples

Table 10: Paired samples test

The tables above yield that there is an increase in the average and the standard deviation. Besides, t=-9.194 which indicates that there are statically significant differences between first and second results. On the basis of these findings, it is possible to assume that there is an increase in the amount of values adopted by pupils. The average of values was, at first, 16.06. This represents a medium amount of values committed by pupils. It could be with or without exploration, according to James Marcia. After examining these values in the classroom, the average of the committed ones becomes good and equal to 21.33. These results can be improved by adding a rubric at the end of each sequence. The values of the sequence are to be presented in this rubric and pupils should declare if they commit to them or not. Values are to be re-discussed with the pupils who have stated non-engagement to them. An increase has also been noticed in the averages of the four dimensions: citizenship, national identity, national awareness and openness to the world.

Graphic 1: Average of the four dimensions

1. Citizenship

Research results showed little improvement in the average of citizenship values, from 4.13 to 5.31. « t » was equal to -4.991, to mean a statically significant differences between the pre and post test results as it is stated below.

Table 11: Statistics for paired samples

Table 12: Correlation for paired samples

Table 13: Paired samples test

The results indicate that the pupils are more aware of their rights and duties towards their homeland yet this increase in awareness remains insufficient. Pupils need further exploration of the citizenship values in the classroom through providing them with activities or written expressions about these values.

2. National identity

There has been a remarkable improvement in pupils adoption of national identity values since the values average has moved from 4.76 to 6.10 and t=-9,343 which is statically significant.

Table 14: Statistics for paired samples

Table 15: Correlation for paired samples

Table 16: Paired samples test

The improvement in these values average is due to the adoption of pupils of the national identity values which reflects the success of the English book three in presenting interesting contents. These contents were able to arouse the curiosity of pupils to discuss and commit to the identity values such as language and customs.

3. National awareness

Table 17: Statistics for paired samples

Table 18: Correlation for paired samples

Table 19: Paired sample tests

According to the above tables, the values average before studying with the English book three was rather weak and equal to 3,63 because the pupils may have been ignorant or indifferent to the beliefs of the surrounding environment such as: family, customs, cultural heritage and social roles. However, in the post measurement the values average rose to 5, 36. This is because in the textbook year three, models of Algerian scientists were presented to pupils, in addition to the presentation of cultural heritage and social relations through interesting dialogues between a girl and her grandmother and interviews between a journalist and an Algerian inventor.

This helped the pupils to overcome the problem of intergenerational conflict in one hand. In another hand it aroused the desire to learn from people around them, elderly, relatives or contemporary scientists.

4. Openness to the world

The average values in the openness to the world dimension is weak in the pre and post measurements, with significant differences in the two measurement since « t » is equal to -4.199.

Table 20: Statistics for paired samples

Table 21: Correlation for paired samples

Table 22: Paired samples test

The reason for the low adherence to the openness to the world values before the experiment may be the closure of the society on itself and its refusal to deal with all that is foreign in order not to pose a threat to the basic fundamentals of the homeland. In the post measurement, the amount of values of this dimension remained weak compared to the other dimensions (see Graphic 2) because the English book year three presents very few information regarding technological discoveries, scientists and culture of foreign countries.

Graphic 2: Comparison between the averages of the four dimensions

Conclusion:

This research deals with the extent to which pupils have adopted the values presented in the English book year three. As it was noticed that these teenage pupils need to untie the crisis of adolescence and build their personal identities. Marcia explained that the right way to do so is to examine values then commit to them.

To calculate the amount of values that pupils committed to before and after studying with English book three, a questionnaire was designed and applied in a middle School.

Results yields that there is an increase in the amount of values dimensions, except the values of « openness to the world » that remained weak since the textbook lacks content that strengthens the values of this dimension.

To improve the previous results, teachers are advised not to provide pupils with values as information but rather to consider the two factors: Encouraging pupils to discuss values then helping them to engage to these values.

Teachers can do that at the end of each lesson where learners deduce and negotiate the values from the information they encountered during the lesson.

Another way is to add a rubric at the end of each sequence where pupils declare if they committed or not to the values of the sequence. Additional explorations of values are to be devoted to pupils who show weaknesses in acquiring these values.

References:

• Adams, K. L., & Adams, D. E. (2003). Urban education: A reference handbook. ABC-CLIO. pp 31-32.

• Bouazid, T., Smara, A., & Boukri, N. (2017). My book of English (Middle school, year three. Algiers: Casbah edition.

• Coll, C., & Falsafi, L. (2010). Learner identity. An educational and analytical tool La identidad de aprendiz. Una herramienta educativa y analítica. Revista de Educación, 353, 211-233.

• Erikson, E. H. (1959). Psychological issues: Identity and the life cycle. International Universities Press. 1,1-171.

• Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis (No. 7). WW Norton & company.

• Fatusi, A. O., & Hindin, M. J. (2010). Adolescents and youth in developing countries: Health and development issues in context. Journal of adolescence, 33(4), 499-508.

• He, J. R., & Yan, J. R. (2008). Discussions from Ethnic Identity to National Identity. Journal of the Central University for Nationalities: Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition, 1(3), 5.

• Johnson, J. A. (2001). Principles of effective change: Curriculum revision that works. Journal of Research for educational Leaders, 1(1), 5-18.

• László, J. (2013). Historical tales and national identity: An introduction to narrative social psychology. Routledge P. 191.

• Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of personality and social psychology, 3(5), 551.

• Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. Handbook of adolescent psychology, 9(11), 159-187.

• Marshall, T. H. (1950). Citizenship and social class (Vol. 11, pp. 28-29). New York, NY: Cambridge.

• Mortada, M. (2008). Openness Communication and Curves of Reform and Renewal. Annaba Magazine. https://www.annabaa.org/nba56/inftah.htm

• Roh, Y. R. (2004). Democratic citizenship education in the information age: a comparative study of South Korea and Australia. Asia Pacific Education Review, 5(2), 167-177.

• Stone, L. A. (1998). Nationalist consciousness. Peace review, 10(2), 203-207.

• Tamrabet, L (2016). Teacher 's Guide Middle School Year One. Enag Editions.

• unicef. (2014). Middle East and North Africa Out-of-School Children Initiative.
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Sabah Kaddouri & Faiza Djouama || The Extent to Which Pupils Have Adopted the Values of Middle School English Book Year Three ||Ibn Khaldoun Journal for Studies and Researches || Volume 2 || Issue 6|| Pages 924 - 946.

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