THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ROLE-PLAYING ON TAIWAN EFL LEARNER’S MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY FRESHMEN

• Main Authors: Chia-Wen Yu, 余佳紋
• Other Authors: Rueih-Liring Fahn
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97128590678954359916

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 94 === The language drill course was incorporated into the college curriculum at the end of World WarⅡ (Eichholz, 1953) and has not undergone substantive modifications ever since. To explore whether the current Language Drill Course still served as an effective course to conform to learners’ needs, Yao (1996) conducted a survey. The results showed that students anticipated more communicative tasks and interaction in the classroom. Based on Yao’s study, the current study tried to investigate whether adopting Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) with a focus on role-playing in the Drill Course can enhance learner’s motivation. Sixty freshmen in Tamkang University were recruited as subjects and were divided into the high-proficiency and low-proficiency groups. All of the subjects received CLT instruction with weekly role-playing activities. The questionnaires and follow-up interviews were administered to investigate students’ motivational change and attitudes and perceptions toward role-playing. Although the quantitative data did not yield significant differences mostly, the qualitative results were more encouraging. The findings indicated that students held positive attitude toward role-playing, and reported that they were more willing to speak the target language and benefited in oral proficiency after one-semester instruction. Therefore, it is hoped that through this study, the curriculum of the Freshman Language Drill Course can receive more attention, to be designed based on learners’ needs.