A Case Study of Taiwanese EFL Elementary School Students’ Perceptions towards their Teachers’ Instructional Language

• Main Authors: Li, Mei-Chiang Yvonne, 李美江
• Other Authors: Chang, Hsiu-Sui
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/95103687704033088340

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 兒童英語教育學系碩士班 === 98 === This case study was conducted within a Taiwanese EFL context, involving four EFL teachers and their one hundred and ninety-two fifth grade students in a public elementary school in Taipei County. In this study, quantitative data from questionnaires were combined with qualitative evidence from class recordings. Data collected sought to answer the following three questions: how young learners perceived the use of Chinese (L1)/English (L2) by their teachers in the classroom, how much Chinese the teachers used during a session of class time, and finally, when and why the teachers tended to resort to Chinese. The major findings are as follows: In terms of the learners’ perception concerning their teachers’ instructional language, the majority of the students found their teachers’ TL amount acceptable and they understood their teachers’ L2 input most of the time. Most of the students felt interested when their teachers spoke English, and they believed that the TL input helped them progress a lot. When they had problems understanding their teachers, they would either ask their teachers or classmates. However, the majority of them did not wish for their teachers to use TL exclusively in the future. They felt that they would concentrate more if the teachers spoke English and Chinese equally, and their preference for future instructional language was either equal amount of Chinese and English, or 50%-75% of English. With regard to teachers’ L1 amount, it varied from teacher to teacher and ranged from 0.8% to 94.2%. L1 was used for explaining rules for a task, phonology instruction, vocabulary instruction, discipline or telling jokes or stories. In addition to the major findings mentioned above, a disparity was found between students’ perception and teachers’ actual teaching practice regarding the amount of TL use. Furthermore, teachers’ language use did not always fit students’ expectations. One class desired their teacher to speak 50% English, but the teacher’s TL input was below 10%. Moreover, students’ expectations also differed from teachers’ actual practice in terms of when to use L1/L2. Based on the findings and limitations of the present study, some suggestions are offered for future research directions.