A Study on Hidden Curriculum of Ability Grouping Instruction in College English Classes

Abstract—A lot of colleges in Taiwan apply ability grouping on English instruction owing to the poor English of vocational college students, the huge differences of their English ability, and the large classes in English instruction. Previous studies on ability grouping instruction focus on the analysis of the motivation of students in different groups and the efficiency of ability grouping instruction. This paper aims to investigate ability grouping instruction in college English classes from the perspectives of hidden curriculum. Questionnaires and interviews are used to collect the date about students ’ opinions, experiences, and satisfaction about ability grouping instructions. The purposes of this study is to find out the positive and negative hidden curriculum of ability grouping, to offer the findings to teachers for a more successful practice of English teaching. Keywords- hidden curriculum, ability grouping, English teaching I