| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 92 === This study aims to investigate the current use of English teaching materials in Taiwan. Participants include 354 vocational high school teachers (ten of them were interviewed) and 1147 students. Two questionnaire surveys plus interviews were conducted to investigate vocational high school teachers’ and students’ perspectives and use of their English teaching/learning materials. Two Chi-square analyses were conducted to test the correlation between teachers’ use of teaching materials and the two variables (the amount of instructional time and the amount of teaching experience). Another was conducted to test the correlation between students’ use of learning materials and their self-reported English proficiency level.
In textbook selection, teacher participants share most of the considerations with student participants. They all emphasize contents and activities, accompanying materials, difficulty level, interest level, and the themes and text types of reading passages. When it comes to the selection of reading passages, they are all concerned with the practicability, interest level, informativeness, and educational function. Touching stories, humorous tales, and everyday English are their favorites. However, teachers’ adaptation of textbooks does not always correspond to students’ expectations. For example, students expected teachers to enhance the conversation and listening sections, but these two sections were often skipped by teachers. Over half of the students did not dislike CLT activities whereas half of the teachers seldom used CLT activities in class. The number one reason why teachers often skip specific sections in the textbook is instructional time constraints.
The amount of instructional time also correlates significantly with teachers’ evaluation of the textbook and use of supplementary materials. Teachers with less instructional time said that the difficulty level of the textbook being used was beyond their students’ proficiency level. On the other hand, teachers with more instructional time taught more lessons in a textbook and were more likely to use broadcast magazines. The second variable is the amount of teaching experience, which is found to correlate with teachers’ adaptation of the textbook. The less experienced teachers seem to put more emphasis on language use than language knowledge. They tended to enhance the conversation sections and use CLT activities. On the contrary, the more experienced teachers are more likely to emphasize students’ performance in EEFTC.
Students’ self-reported proficiency correlates with their perspectives of their textbooks. The more proficient students are more concerned with grammar learning. They expected their teachers to pay attention to the design of the grammar section when selecting a textbook. They urged that the sections on sentence patterns and grammar be enhanced. They asked for supplementary materials on grammar. They also demanded textbook writers to improve the design of grammar sections.
It is also found that most of the teacher participants adopted the traditional grammar-translation approach. Sixty-five percent of the teachers enhanced the grammar sections. They translated the text word by word, and asked students to memorize grammar rules. Overall, English language teaching in vocational high schools in Taiwan is largely examination-oriented. On the one hand, teachers often skip the sections of textbooks that are excluded from EEFTC. On the other hand, they use supplementary materials, EEFTC practice tests in particular, to raise students’ competitiveness in EEFTC.
Both teachers and students regard the workload and difficulty level of textbook being used as being a little beyond students'' proficiency. Most of the teachers could only teach six lessons in a semester. Moreover, teacher participants and students believed that the textbooks contributed in some degree to developing students’ basic language skills. It seems that not all of the teaching objectives listed in the Curriculum Standards are attainable for VHS teachers and students who use the textbooks investigated in the present study.
When asked for suggestions for improving English language teaching in vocational high schools and raising VHS students’ English proficiency, both teachers and student participants listed an increase of instructional time as the top priority. The teacher participants demanded five hours a week, while students demanded four. Other suggestions include tracking students according to their proficiency level and adopting appropriate materials, improving teaching materials, and changing teaching methods. Also, teachers and students maintained that an ideal textbook should contain practical and interesting contents.
At last, the limitations of the study are pointed out. The implications of the study for VHS teachers, material writers, teacher educators, the policy makers, and the researchers are suggested.
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