Challenges in teaching english to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province

Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of Languages and international studies Department of Post-graduate Studies DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN MA MINOR THESIS Challenges in teaching English To Ethnic minority students in a mountainous province (Những thách thức việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số tỉnh miền núi) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: Cohort: Supervisor: Phạm Minh Tâm, MA Hanoi, 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Headings Declaration …………………………………………………………………… Acknowledgment …………………………………………………………… Abstract …………………………………………………………………… Table of contents …………………………………………………… Abbreviations CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study ………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.3 Significance of the study ………………………………………………… 1.4 Scope of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.5 Methodology …………………………………………………………… 1.6 Organization of the study ……………………………………………… CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on English Language Teaching Methods …………… 2.1.1 The Grammar - Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction …………………………………………… 2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar -Translation Method ……… 2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar -Translation Method …… 2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method 2.1.2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………… 2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……………… 2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method …………… 2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching 2.1.3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………… 2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching …… 2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching … 2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative v Language Teaching 2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities ……………… ……… …… 2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice …… 2.2.3 Information-gap activities ………………………………… 2.2.4 Jig-saw activities …………………………………………… 2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT ………………………………… 2.3.Proficiency in the native language and the se acquisition of a third language 2.3.1 Definitions …………………………… 2.3.2 The influence of proficiency in the nati second language on the acquisition of a CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1.Research setting 3.1.1 An overview of the research site ……… 3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English … 3.1.3 The students …………………………… 3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning 3.2.Research questions 3.3.Participants 3.3.1 Population …………………………… 3.3.2 Sampling ……………………………… 3.3.3 Detailed description of participants …… 3.4.Data Collection Instruments 3.4.1 Interviews ……………………………… 3.4.2 Classroom observations ……………… 3.5.Data Collection Procedure …………………… 3.6.Data Analysis Procedure ……………………… CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1.Research question …………………………… vi 4.2 Research question …………………………… 4.3 Conclusive remarks …………………………………………… CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings ………………… 5.2 Recommendations 5.2.1 Adjusting teaching to learners’ needs … 5.2.2 Adapting the textbooks ………………… 5.2.3 Motivating students to learn …………… 5.2.4 Having ethnic minority teachers to teac students in their communities ………… 5.2.5 Improving teaching conditions ………… 5.3 Limitations of the study ……………………… 5.4 Suggestions for further study ………………… References …………………………………………………………… Appendices Appendix A Interview Protocols for Teachers …… Appendix B Observational protocol …………………… vii ABBREVIATIONS GTM: Grammar Translation Method ALM: Audio-Lingual Method CLT: Communicative Language Teaching L1: the first language L2: the second language L3: the third language CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world The result is that its status in education system and settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p 5) In correspondence to this trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of international communication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching and learning have been given more and more priority English is considered as a compulsory subject in the school curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal, linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167) Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching as well as to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English with the hope of providing learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization In Hoa Binh mountainous province, where the author has been working for over fifteen years, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to give students some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English to students, especially those from ethnic minorities It can be observed that ethnic minority students’ scores are very low in English Less than per cent earn good marks, even in the national graduation exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, 2008; 2009) Furthermore, according to one high school teacher of English, the majority of ethnic minority students can understand forty per cent of teachers’ lectures in Vietnamese In some remote areas, lower level students understand less than 20 per cent of what teachers say in Vietnamese (“Minority Students Need”, 2008) Ethnic minority students mainly use their mother tongues – Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, ethnic minority students have to struggle with Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007) Thus, studying English language in addition to Vietnamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students Furthermore, other problems are compounded by poor living conditions, poorlyfurnished classrooms, scarce access to supporting materials and facilities, limited access to the target language, etc As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress in learning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minority students remains unsatisfactory for communicative purposes All of these problems might make teachers feel frustrated in teaching English to ethnic minority students, and in developing students' communicative competence in English The point is that if we leave this problem unsolved, there will be a likelihood of loading teachers of English with teaching to ethnic minority students of limited proficiency in English language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English This fact has given the author an impetus to the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province with the hope to find out the solutions to these problems and to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching English to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are:  To investigate the areas of challenges that the teachers have encountered when teaching English to ethnic minority students  To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in Hoa Binh province overcome those difficulties, improve the quality of their teaching, which later helps improve ethnic minority students’ language learning quality 1.3 Significance of the study The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in mountainous high schools First, findings of the study could be shared among teachers of English to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the coming years Next, it might highlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers of English in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the findings could be used as a data base for further study 1.4 Scope of the study This study, as stated earlier, addresses challenges that teachers of English have faced when teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province In addition, the study is to find out the possible solutions which help teachers of English improve the quality of their teaching To keep the study in manageable size, the study has been delimited only to English language teachers of Hoa Binh Ethnic Minority Boarding High School and two high schools in the remote districts 1.5 Methodology The study employed qualitative approach Data were collected via interviews and classroom observations: - Interviewing teachers of English to clarify challenges raised in their teaching to ethnic minority students - Having classroom observations to get information about both teachers’ ways of teaching and students’ ways of learning in class as well as to ascertain the prevalent problems forwarded by the teachers during the interviews 1.6 Organization of the study This study consists of five parts: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results & Discussion, and Conclusion  Chapter one Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, methodology, and organization of the study  Chapter two.Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study  Chapter three Methodology - includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure  Chapter four Results and Discussion - reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects  Chapter five Conclusion – presents the conclusions of major findings, recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on Language Teaching Methods In the discussion of the history of language teaching methods, it can be understandable that a teaching method which may be effective at one point of time in history may still be ineffective at the other point This dynamic character of the language teaching goals makes the history of foreign language teaching ever-changing, ever- adapting Moreover, one method is replaced by another it does not mean that the former is worse than the latter and will be thrown into the wastebasket of history It only means that the replaced method fails to correspond to a certain need at a certain time in history As a result, the history of foreign language teaching methods is not the history of replacement of one method by another Rather, it would be the history of adding one new method to the treasury of existing methods A number of methods have been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent past; however, in Vietnam three methods which enjoy significant use and dominate the language teaching are the Grammar – Translation, the Audio-lingual method, and the Communicative Language Teaching These methods are now discussed in this thesis as follows 2.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction Grammar – Translation Method (GMT) was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method (A book by B.Sears, an American classics teacher, published in 1845 was entitled The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the Latin Language [Kelly 1969] The Grammar Translation method embraced a wide range of approaches but, broadly speaking, it viewed foreign language study as a “mental discipline” (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) The Grammar Translation Method focused on grammatical analysis and translation It theorized that students acquire a foreign language by learning and explaining grammar rules According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3), the key features of the Grammar Translation Method were that: Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language 31 The next challenge was that too many new words and structures were given in each lesson Teachers spent too much time in presenting new words, especially in reading and listening lessons Two of the lessons the researcher attended was reading lessons, after the lessons, the researcher even could not know what was going on, what objectives of the lessons were, because the teachers presented too many new words and structures, students had to write down and learn the words, whereas the reading passage was so long that both teachers and students had to “race” to finish the lessons on time As a result, “too many language inputs may lose students’ motivation in English and English learning” (Richard, 2005) Another challenge was that a large amount of teachers’ using Vietnamese language in teaching in English classes The classroom observations revealed that most of teachers little used the target language of English in teaching period of 45 minutes in language skills and language knowledge lessons They used Vietnamese when introducing the topic of the lesson, analyzing grammatical structures, checking multiple answers in students’ book, explaining students’ assignments, and translating some difficult sentences, etc Although English was encouraged to be maximally exposed to language learners (MOET, 2006), the English language environment in classes was limited in the observed lessons Thus, in such a poor learning environment like that, it was difficult for students to acquire a foreign language effectively Besides, students’ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language during group work or pair work caused challenges for teachers in their teaching When students were asked to have a discussion or joined in communicative activities, some students often discussed in Vietnamese or their native languages instead of English, they only shifted to English when the teachers approached them Limited English vocabulary and sentence structures, even limited Vietnamese language skills prevented ethnic minority students from communicating with each other efficiently They felt too hard express themselves in English However, in some English classes, the teachers did not offer any solutions to the case of students’ using native or Vietnamese languages during group or pair works, others even did not realize this existing problem One more problem which was also concerned with the students was that the habit of 32 studying of students in remote mountainous areas, especially those from ethnic minorities About half of the students in the class were passive They depended on the teachers and their partners in learning and practicing the language they were learning Some students even did not know how to the work given by teachers or looked to partners for help Some completed the tasks quickly; however, when teachers checked their understanding, they kept silence; the possible reason for this problem which has been mentioned above in the interview part This wasted the time of the English lessons and that was one of the reasons why the lessons often lacked time 4.3 Conclusive remarks The data obtained from the interviews revealed that there were a number of challenges that impeded teachers of English in teaching to ethnic minority students namely students' limited triangular language environment, low level of background knowledge, low level of English proficiency, limited Vietnamese language skills, the textbook, teachers’ failure in applying communicative approach, and lack of teaching and learning facilities, etc Almost all the interviewees agreed that these problems exerted powerful influence on their classroom behaviors Together with the data collection from the interviews, the analysis of the observations indicated that most of the challenges forwarded by teachers did exist in the actual classrooms, however, some other challenges emerged which the teachers had not fully perceived such as lack of various types of classroom activities associated with CLT, too many new words and structures were given in each lesson, students’ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language, a large amount of teachers’ using Vietnamese language in class, and students’ passiveness in learning Overall, based on the findings above, the research realized that the challenges that confronted teachers of English in teaching to ethnic minority students seemed to stem not only from ethnic minority students, but also from the teachers of English Thus, in order to improve the quality of teaching English, it is crucial to find out solutions for both students and teachers to overcome those challenges Thus, the researcher would like to draw some recommendations in the next chapter - Conclusion 33 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings Springing from the urgent practical reason that the English teaching to ethnic minority students in mountainous areas is of low quality, the researcher would like to ferret out what major challenges arose in teachers’ teaching to ethnic minority students, thereby proposing practical solutions of improving English teaching and learning quality in a mountainous area Based on the aims of the study, two research questions were addressed: 1.What are the challenges as perceived by the teachers in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province? What are the common classroom activities being used by the teachers in English classes at Hoa Binh high schools? The study employed qualitative approach and used a combination of convenience and snowball sampling The study was carried out with the participants of a group of eight teachers of English working at three high schools in Hoa Binh mountainous province Data were collected via interviews and classroom observations The data obtained from the interviews and the observations revealed that there were a range of challenges that hindered teachers of English in teaching to ethnic minority students The most common impediments documented by teachers were students' limited triangular language environment, students’ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language, the textbook, teachers’ failure in applying communicative approach, lack of various types of classroom activities associated with CLT, and lack of teaching and learning facilities, etc Within the scope of this study, the researcher does not have the ambition to find out the solutions to all the challenges mentioned above, only to provide recommendations on some aspects that offer solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers overcome some of these challenges and improve the quality of their teaching, which later helps improve ethnic minority students’ language learning quality 5.2 Recommendations Based on the findings discussed above, in order to improve the quality of English teaching to ethnic minority students, the researcher would like to draw some points of recommendations such as adjusting teaching to learners’ needs, adapting the textbook, 34 motivating students to learn, having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for their students in their communities, as well as improving teaching conditions to reduce the challenges the teachers of English have faced 5.2.1 Adjusting teaching to learners’ needs Once teaching methods are adjusted toward acceptance of student autonomy, students are certain to become more active in the learning process (Canh, 2001) In addition, Weimer (2002) defines “learner-centered approach” as focusing on students’ need, what and how they are learning and the conditions that contribute to their learning Thus, teachers should accommodate their teaching to the ethnic minority students’ needs and styles They should analyze their teaching situations; prioritize the needs of the students, focus upon their academic success, and make modifications depending on their particular condition Furthermore, as Canh (1999) pointed out that the traditional approach could be either improved in the direction of the principles of CLT (p.78) Thus, teachers should be flexible enough to decide what the suitable balance is between traditional methods and modern ones according to students’ needs and learning environment and to facilitate learning and teaching process With regard to classroom activities, it is advisable to vary classroom activities so as to involve more students in the lessons as well as to drill skills and to promote social interaction Nevertheless, creating classroom activities must be very careful, as Jacobs and Ball (1996) have pointed out that “not all group activities promote learning” (p.99), and as in Hiep’s view (2005), “effective classroom practice are not necessarily pair and group work or information gap activities, but activities that fit the students’ styles” For example, whole class rhythmically tuned responses to teacher’s elicitations, playful narratives, and oral symphonic performance might be particularly appropriate in Vietnam (Sullivan, 2000, cited by Hiep, 2005) Furthermore, when monitoring the pairs and groups, teachers need to help and encourage the less able students in participation, and at the same time, give more difficult tasks to the more able students in order to develop their ability This could also prevent them from dominating activities (Ur, 1996) In the case of teaching to ethnic minority students, 35 classroom activities should be taken into detailed consideration with estimated outputs in each step of the lesson, which may create meaningful classroom activities and arouse ethnic minority students’ enjoyment in learning English 5.2.2 Adapting the textbooks When discussing the issues related to the difficulties of the current textbooks and irrelevant topics to ethnic minority students’ background and daily lives, it is strongly advisable for the teachers of English working in remote mountainous areas to adapt the textbooks, particularly the irrelevant topics to students’ background The topics of English lessons should be chosen on the basis of students’ needs and interests It is better to start teaching the ethnic minority students in simple and locally based issues By doing that, it is likely to increase ethnic minority students’ exposure to English and to make them stress-free in learning English and to empower students at school and in society 5.2.3 Motivating students to learn First, set the true goal of learning English for ethnic minority students Teachers should delicately tell ethnic minority students about the story of advantages of knowing English language Because learning English is not only for getting marks, for passing the exams, but also for learning a means of communication to widen students’ knowledge of different countries, to discover and access to many other subject-matters Second, motivate students in English lessons It is crucial to employ various activities and techniques to help students become attracted to the lessons from the opening to the last stages Teachers should think of such activities as a vocabulary game or short funny story, some useful information about an interesting topic, etc, which link the learnt language items with the new ones as well as interesting remarks about forthcoming activities These are considered to lead to higher level of enjoyment of learning on the part of the students Next, teachers should help students build up their self-confidence Ethnic minority students are encouraged to take part in classroom activities, to ask questions, share ideas, and give suggestions in class The open and friendly interactions among teachers and students and among students themselves are highly appreciated Because, as Canh (2004) pointed out that “most of students wanted to learn together with their fellow students in an atmosphere which 36 is friendly and supportive” (p.172) Besides, teachers are also advisable to be gentle and sensitive to students’ errors Students, especially those from ethnic minorities, are always afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at in public If they are hurt once, they will gradually get reserved and quiet Thus, positive praise from teachers should be given at the right time instead of negative ones Another important thing is that teachers should establish caring relationships with ethnic minority students, should show honest sympathies with their disadvantages to maximize their enjoyment of learning, enhance their achievement and enable their integration into the school community In addition, teachers should guide students how to learn English effectively As some teachers revealed that some students could not memorize the words or use of the right structures although they enjoyed English and tried their best to learn It means that their failures in learning are not resulted from lack of motivation or effort but from lack of appropriate learning strategies The role of the teacher, therefore, is not only to teach students What, but also to tell them How to learn effectively 5.2.4 Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for their students in their communities As the interviewed teachers commented ethnic minority students mainly used their native languages to communicate in their families and communities At school, students faced difficulties in both learning Vietnamese and English; hence, it is crucial to have minority students who are good at English at school trained as teachers of English for their own communities These teachers can teach minority people more effectively as they can understand their people’s strengths and weaknesses in learning a foreign language This would be far more efficient since they not have to use another language, Vietnamese, to explain if it is necessary and it may be easier for both teachers and students to exchange ideas in their own language The teaching and learning process would be more successful when the teachers and students can make themselves fully understood 5.2.5 Improving teaching conditions From what have been discussed regarding poor reference resource and teaching equipments in the previous part, in order to solve this problem, great efforts should be made 37 on the part of teachers, educational authorities and the whole society Investment should be given more to education and its innovation to upgrade physical school conditions, and teaching facilities Administrators at both schools and in the province should facilitate English teaching and learning such as sending teachers to training course on English language teaching, encouraging teachers to share experience in teaching to ethnic minority students with teachers in other schools, supporting teachers with necessary materials, teaching aids, and free access to materials Limitations of the study It should be acknowledged that there are some limitations of this research First, the study was carried out with eight teachers of English at only three high schools among 38 high schools in the province, due to the time constraint and small – scale of the study, the researcher has not showed out the similarities as well as the differences in terms of challenges in teaching to ethnic minority students at high schools, secondary schools and primary schools in the province; thus, the conclusions from the findings could hardly be generalized to the challenges of all teachers of English in teaching to ethnic minority students in a mountainous area Second, only interviews and classroom observations were employed in this research, while there should have been a combination of different types of triangulation to provide enhanced reliability for the study 5.4 Suggestions for further studies Followings are some directions that should be taken into consideration in the further researches Firstly, further longitudinal studies are recommended to carry out at secondary and primary schools in the province It would be interesting to investigate more challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students and to find out the possible solutions Secondly, a combination of different types of triangulation should be used to provide reliability for further studies It is hoped that from the findings and limitations of the study, further studies would be conducted in helping to improve the quality of English teaching to ethnic minority students in mountainous areas 38 references Andrews, S (1983) Communicative Language Teaching - Some Implications for Teacher Education in Johnson, 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Thầy (cô) dạy học sinh dân tộc thiểu số từ nào? Thầy (cơ) có gặp thách thức dạy học sinh dân tộc khơng? Đó thách thức nào? Theo thầy (cô) kĩ ngơn ngữ khó khăn học sinh thầy (cô)? Thầy (cô) thường sử dụng phương pháp giảng dạy dạy học? - The Grammar Translation Method - The Audio – Lingual Method - Communicative Language Teaching, ect Thầy (cô) thường tổ chức hoạt động lớp học? - information-gap activities - jig-saw activities - task-completion activities - role-plays - information gathering activities - group work - pair work, etc Theo thầy (cô), tiếp thu tiếng Anh học sinh dân tộc thiểu số có bị ảnh hưởng khả tiếng Việt ngôn ngữ địa không? Nếu có ảnh hưởng nào? Thầy (cô) nghĩ sách giáo khoa hành? Thầy (cơ) có thấy sách giáo khoa phù hợp với học sinh thầy (cô) không? Theo thầy (cô) thái độ động học tập học sinh lớp học nào? Thầy có gợi ý để giải thách thức, khó khăn dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số? II Appendix A Interview Protocols for Teachers How long have you been teaching English? Since when have you been teaching English to ethnic minority students? Do you have any challenges when teaching English to ethnic minority students? What are they? What language skills you think to be the most problematic to your students? What teaching methods you most commonly apply to your teaching? - The Grammar Translation Method - The Audio – Lingual Method - Communicative Language Teaching, ect What common classroom activities you often organize in your classroom teaching? - information-gap activities - jig-saw activities - task-completion activities - role-plays - information gathering activities - group work - pair work, ect In your opinion, is the English language acquisition affected by native languages and Vietnamese language skills of your minority students? If yes, how is it affected? What you think of the current textbook? Do you find it suitable to ethnic minority students? What is your students’ attitude and motivation in your lessons? What are your suggestions to deal with challenges in teaching to ethnic minority students? III Appendix B Observational protocol  General information  Focus of the observation * What are the common classroom activities being used by the teachers of English in classes? Activities information-gap activities jig-saw activities task-completion activities role-plays information gathering activities group work pair work accuracy activities fluency activities mechanical practice meaningful practice communicative practice opinion-sharing activities information-transfer activities reasoning-gap activities  Other comments: How are groups and pairs arranged by the teacher of English? IV Does the teacher control ethnic minority students’ use of their native language or Vietnamese language when students take part in classroom activities? If yes, what are his (her) solutions? How does the teacher actually conduct his (her) teaching? What teaching methods are applied? Do the problems documented by the teachers of English in the interviews exist in their teaching? If yes, what are the teachers’ solutions? ... students in a mountainous province Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province. .. Next, all the interviewees shared the same opinions that another hindrance in teaching English was a triangular language environment In the disadvantaged mountainous areas, minority students mainly... of English to clarify challenges raised in their teaching to ethnic minority students - Having classroom observations to get information about both teachers’ ways of teaching and students? ?? ways