Using English Jazz Chants to Enhance English Vocabulary Learning Achievement and Learning Attitude of Fourth Grade Low Achievers- A Case Study

• Main Authors: Wang, Hsingju, 王馨如
• Other Authors: Chen, Shuhui
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/36883822615113425609

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 兒童英語教育學系碩士班 === 100 === The case study aimed to investigate the influence of English Jazz Chants instruction on the fourth grade low achievers’ English vocabulary learning achievement and learning attitude. Five fourth graders from an elementary school in Taipei City were recruited. The English achievement of each subject was ranked in the bracket of the late 25% of the whole grade and these subjects were from single-parent family or with mental factors, such as autism or emotional unbalance, which qualified them in the remedial plan of the education bureau. Meanwhile, the subjects did not take any English lessons outside school during the experimental period, which lasted for ten weeks. The experimental subjects received two forty-minute remedial instruction on every Tuesday and Thursday after school. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted in this study. The quantified instruments used in the study included the pre- and the post-test of English vocabulary ability tests and learning attitude questionnaire. The English vocabulary ability test, measuring word recognition ability, was divided into three dimensions: sound recognition, word reading and meaning identification. The learning attitude questionnaire was also divided into three dimensions: learning interest, learning confidence and learning behavior to English. After the experimental period, data collected from the test and the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively through the use of descriptive statistics. The qualitative instruments included subject interview, teaching reflection and classroom observation, which aimed to discuss the subjects’ experience and growth in the experimental instruction. The results showed that all the five subjects progressed more than 50% averagely in every dimension of word recognition test：59% in sound recognition, 53% in word reading and 60% in meaning identification. Data collected from English learning attitude questionnaire also showed that the five subjects progressed averagely in every dimension: 19% in learning behavior to English, 17% in learning interest and 13% in learning confidence. The qualitative data indicated that the five subjects developed a very positive and supportive attitude toward the adoption of Jazz Chants instruction in English remedial teaching. Finally, based on the findings of the study, suggestions for future research and for those who are interested in the implementation of Jazz Chants in elementary English remedial instruction were offered.