Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices in Intensive English Courses at a Technical University in Taiwan

[[abstract]]台灣大學生為能通過教育部所設立的英語畢業門檻，考取英語能力證照已成為當務之急。因此，近年來越來越多的語言教育家及學者們開始重視以協助學生通過畢業門檻為宗旨的密集式英語課程。密集式英語課程早已在眾多以英語為母語的國家(例如：美國、加拿大和澳洲)被廣泛地應用。然而，此類課程在台灣高等教育機構的施行卻仍在實驗階段，故其相關文獻亦相當貧乏。有鑑於目前國內對於台灣高等教育機構開設密集式英語課程的研究落差，本研究之目的主要是在探討台灣南部某科技大學之語文教師對密集式英語課程的觀點與敎法。研究結果可做為推動和改善密集式英語課程的建議。 本研究共計有20名教師參與，含4名男性和16名女性。這些教師陸續在2006年秋季和2008年春季教授全民英檢課程(GEPT)或是多益課程(TOEIC)。此研究採質性方式來檢視教師對於這些密集式英語課程的觀點與教法，藉由訪談以及課程相關文件資料的蒐集，運用持續比較法(constant comparison method)分析資料內容。 研究結果顯示絕大多數教師對密集式英語課程持正面觀點。他們認為密集式英語課程的好處是提供學生額外英語學習的機會，並針對考試題型或英語基礎能力做加強教學。然而，老師們在教授密集式英語課程時遭遇了些許困難，文中探討的四項困境為：班級學生人數過多、授課週數及時數不足、學生程度差異過大、以及出席率驟降的問題。在課堂教法方面，老師們的授課方式具以下四項特色：講述式教學、操練式學習、中文授課、以及作業減量。綜觀上述教師們對密集式英語課程的看法與教法，形式注重教學 (form-focused instruction)儼然為本研究教師們的主要教學策略。 此研究結果支持眾多學者及語言教育家所推崇之形式注重教學，以藉由密集訓練達成提升語言學習者英語能力之目標。總結以上，本研究結果提供英語教師及相關決策者在規劃及設計密集式英語教學課程上的建議，以期能幫助台灣大學生考取畢業所須之英語能力證照。[[abstract]]Gaining English proficiency certificates has become imperative for college students seeking to pass the graduation thresholds recently set by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan Intensive English courses (IEC) for assisting students to pass such tests have thus attracted much attention from local researchers and practitioners Although IEC have been widely investigated in many English-speaking countries such as the United States Canada and Australia little research has been done on IEC affiliated with colleges and universities in Taiwan and the implementation of such courses remains experimental Given the present research gap the purpose of this study is to explore language teachers’ perceptions and practices in IEC at a public technical university in southern Taiwan in order to further our understanding and advance the practical use of such courses This research adopted qualitative methods to investigate the teaching experiences of the IEC teachers The participants were 20 teachers four males and 16 females who taught GEPT or TOEIC intensive courses during fall 2006 and spring 2008 at the site of the present study The data sources included participant interviews and documents of course-related materials The collected data were coded and then the content was analyzed through the constant comparison method to compare and contrast the similarities and differences within it The findings of the research indicated that the majority of participants perceived the implementation of IEC positively From the participants’ points of view the benefits of IEC include offering students additional opportunities to learn English and focused instruction on test items or fundamental skills However despite the perceived value of IEC the participants’ noted that there were some difficulties with their comments focusing on the large class size of more than 40 students the short six to eight week duration of the courses the different proficiency levels among students and the falling attendance rates related to the decreasing motivation of the students The analysis concerning the participants’ pedagogical practices in IEC revealed four major themes namely lecture-based teaching drill-based teaching use of Chinese as an instructional language and minimal assignment of homework By investigating the above perceptions and practices form-focused instruction appears to be the main approach utilized by language teachers in IEC as the teachers taught grammar explicitly in meaningful communicative activities The research results lend support for the kind of form-focused instruction which has been recommended by many researchers and language educators for its ability to achieve the specific aim of training learners’ English ability in a concentrated period of time To conclude the results of this study have several pedagogical implications for English teachers and policy makers to better design and conduct IEC in order to meet college students’ language learning needs with regard to obtaining the English proficiency certificates necessary for graduatio