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Table 8 Stella‟ English Learning in the Club
Before Joining the Club
English in Everyday Life Access to the Club
Read magazines and listen to the programs occasionally
Took courses from the same professor who instructed in English
Conversed with her German roommate in English
Joined the club after being encouraged by her department mates
※ Having company in this club gave her stronger sense of safety.
After Joining the Club
At the beginning of the semester (the 1st~3rd meeting)
In the middle of the semester (the 4th~7th meeting)
At the end of the semester (the 8th~11th meeting)
Participation
&
Learning in the Club
Attended most of the meetings
Played the role of volunteer in the Table Topics Session
Took part in the first Club Gathering
Attended most of the meetings Attended most of the meetings
Played the role of a Vote Counter
Delivered her 1st speech
※ She showed greater passion and ambition after her C1 speech.
Took part in Family Gathering
Took part in the outing
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Received warm greetings from others in this stage
Took initiatives in chatting with fellows before the meetings and during the intermission of each meeting
Began to give encouragement and feedback to speakers through the notes
Continued to chat with fellows before the meeting and during the intermission
Continued to give encouragement and feedback to speakers through the notes
Had the feeling that she really liked people here and wanted to stay here in the coming semester
※ She received a harsh note after completing her 1st speech.
Facilitative Learning Resources
in TM
A public platform which trained her impromptu speech, prepared speech, and listening skills
LE who picked wrongly-pronounced words and grammar mistakes from members‟ speeches
IE who gave comments and insights to improve speakers‟ speeches
Fellows‟ speeches that served as listening materials
Fellows who gave a lot of encouragement to her making progress in the club
Conflicts / Challenges
Was not so self-regulated
Had difficulties in organizing her speech scripts
Was not so interested in attending extended learning activities like Study Group, Fall Conference, and Club Visiting
Longed to immerse herself in the club but still felt alienated because of her relatively short-tem membership
Was unwilling to take on the challenge of being an officer for the coming semester
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Voice of a Relatively Seasoned Member: Wayne
Background and English in Daily Life
Wayne started learning English in a chained children‟s English language school when he was in the second grade. The experience in the children‟s English language school was quite positive and joyful in general, and thus he held a positive attitude on learning English. However, a critical event happened when he was in the sixth grade.
Wayne was forced by his teacher to take part in a speech contest held by the language school. The experience was a nightmare, and from then on, Wayne had great fear of public speaking. The unpleasant experience was recalled.
When I was in the sixth grade, the cram school held a speech contest…My teacher asked me to participate in the contest, so I joined it. I remember that the contest was held in a small classroom, and my parents were also there cheering for me. But I didn‟t make enough preparation for this contest, so I forgot most of my speech scripts on the spot. I couldn‟t help crying on the stage…I really felt ashamed. (Wayne_Pre/27, Nov., 2009)
Later, Wayne entered a municipal senior high school in Taipei which he was not
satisfied with. The first year in that senior high school was not happy for Wayne, and he felt the learning environment there was not desirable. Therefore, he transferred to
another municipal senior high at the beginning of the second year. The new environment was more satisfying to Wayne because “…the climate of learning there was better, and the teachers were more earnest in general.” (Wayne_Pre/27, Nov., 2009) But he was still a little disappointed at his English teacher since he/she focused on the textbooks only;
however, in the previous high school, his teacher provided them with extended reading materials like English novels and articles, and students were asked to write English reports, which was more interesting to Wayne.
For Wayne, the importance of learning English lay in that it gave him access to people from other countries. He had planned to study abroad and get a master‟s degree after college. Mostly, mastering English would extend his career from local Taiwan to
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the international since he aimed to become an international lawyer in the future.
Although he had passed GEPT intermediate-high level, Wayne still felt his English proficiency was not that good if compared to people around. He said, “They [people around] have native-like pronunciation and good control on grammar,” (Wayne_Pre/27, Nov., 2009) and “my advantage is that my vocabulary size isn‟t bad, but I‟ve been weak at pronunciation since my childhood.” (Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009) Due to these considerations, Wayne wanted to make himself prepared as early as possible.
However, when asked about the resources for learning English in his department, Wayne pointed out that provided resources were not enough to meet his learning needs.
All textbooks were written in Chinese, and the courses that he had taken so far were instructed in Chinese as well. Of course, sometimes they were asked to read articles written in English and to write English reports, but these was not enough for him at all.
As a result, Wayne was quite autonomous in taking advantages from attainable
resources on campus in daily life as he said, “Our university releases some free MyET accounts, so I register one. When I‟m free, I turn on MyET program and practice oral skills” and “…sometimes I also go to the video room in the library. I watch the same movies for many times, and I take the subtitles away in order to train listening skills.”
(Wayne_Pre/27, Nov., 2009) In addition, Wayne also read some English news on the Net, listened to ICRT program as well as English songs sometimes. In short, Wayne intentionally worked on his language proficiency, and he was quite willing to learn from diverse resources.
Access to and Perspective on the Club
After entering the college, Wayne had made up his mind joining a club which had something to do with English. He browsed the campus Bulletin Board System, and thus he noticed this TM club. He did not join it right away at that time as this club
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focused on public speaking, which staggered him. He chose the wind band instead because he had played clarinet for two semesters during his senior high life. Wayne was under great pressure in the wind band because of his relatively little expertise.
Also, the seniors in the band were quite demanding, and they might correct Wayne directly and harshly in public when he made mistakes. Besides, personal interactions were not emphasized in the wind band, and members seldom chatted with one another.
Owing to these, Wayne dropped the wind club after one semester.
At the beginning of his second semester in college, Wayne participated in the Demonstration Meeting of this club, and he was warmly greeted by the seasoned members after he stepped into the room. The meeting was a desirable one which was smoothly conducted by those seasoned members, and those excellent members left him a deep impression. He perceived that the club provided its members with a great
English environment to train public speaking. In addition, he really wanted to conquer his stage fright, wishing to become a confident and fluent English speaker on the stage in the near future. Therefore, Wayne decided to pay the new member fee at the coming first regular meeting.
Wayne‟s perspective on the club changed along with his prolonged membership.
He perceived that the atmosphere of the regular meetings became more and more delightful. The atmosphere in his first semester was a little bit serious, while that in his second semester was more joyful. For him, it was both psychological and physical changes that made these differences to him.
In the past, I wasn‟t acquainted with other fellows, and the sense of alienation was stronger. At the beginning of this semester, we changed the venue of our meeting room. The new meeting room is more suitable for our meetings than the old one. Besides, we also arranged the seats to a U-shape, so fellows can see one others‟ faces clearly… (Wayne_Follow/24, Nov., 2009)
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Nevertheless, Wayne‟s impression on the fellows here did not change a lot during the two semesters. In his view, fellows here were more passionate than his classmates in learning English. They were also more willing to devote themselves to the club and spare no effort to make the club better. For example, “…the speakers and TMEs would try their best to enliven the meeting atmosphere and seek interactions from the
audience.” (Wayne_Post/17, Jan., 2010) Wayne appreciated these efforts made by the fellows. Besides, those excellent members served as his role model, urging him to make progress in the club.
Participation in the Club Activities
Wayne never skipped any club regular meetings during the two semesters.
During the first semester (i.e., spring, 2009), Wayne as a new member played many roles at meetings. His first try was at the second meeting where he took on the role of the Timer and explained his duties to the audience. Because that was his debut in the community, he was so nervous that he had some slips of tongue (Video_972_TM2). At the fifth meeting, he delivered his first speech, sharing his painful experience of speech contest in the children‟s English language school, indulgence in computer games in junior high, and unhappy life in senior high. He was selected from the six speakers of prepared speech as the Best Prepared Speaker of that evening. At the following regular meetings, Wayne made contributions to the meetings by signing up for several roles.
He shared his experience of joining Spring Convention with fellows at the sixth meeting, playing the role of Vote Counter at the seventh meeting, taking on the role of Table Topics Session Master together with another member at the eighth meeting, and being the Vote Counter again at the ninth meeting. His second speech was given in Joint Meeting with another corporate TM club the next day after the ninth meeting. It was obvious that from the middle of the semester on, Wayne increased his participation
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in the meetings. Besides regular meetings, Wayne also experienced different club activities such as Spring Convention, Study Group, and Joint Meeting. In the end of the semester, he was recruited into the Officer Team and served as Sergeant at Arms (SaA) as well as the parent of family for the coming semester, which was the period of data collection.
Before the beginning of the second semester, Wayne delivered his third speech in the club‟s In-house speech contest. The theme of the speech contest was humorous speech, which was totally new and challenging to Wayne. In his retrospect, Wayne said,
Some people think I‟m a funny guy, so Olivia invited me to take part in the contest. She said, “Only four people showed the willing to join the contest.”
Because of this, I decided to give it a try…I didn‟t have much time to prepare for it. I just wanted to entertain everybody and took it as my third speech. I searched the campus BBS for ideas. Then I got the idea and decided to entitle my speech “Delicacy Desert.” Then, I collected some food pictures on the Net and put them on the PPT. But when I was writing my scripts, I had trouble making my speech interesting. I wanted to do a role-play activity during my speech, but I didn‟t know how to make it fun…
(Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009)
To Wayne‟s surprise, he got the champion in the In-house speech contest, and he delivered it again at the coming Demonstration Meeting. He said, “…That was my first try in humorous speech. Surprisingly, the result wasn‟t bad. I have more confidence in myself.” (Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009) Because Wayne was the champion of this club, he was qualified to join the coming area-level contest. Wayne revised his speech scripts and modified ways of delivering after receiving suggestions from many people.
In this area-level contest, he defeated other competitors as well, getting the champion again, and thus he was qualified to join the coming division-level contest. In order to make his speech better, Wayne made modifications again on his area-level speech scripts and added some gestures into the speech. This time, he competed with other
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seven area champions, and the result was that he won the third place in the contest.
As the SaA, Wayne needed to prepare drinks and snacks, rearranged the seats, and served as a receptionist before each regular meeting started. Being an officer, Wayne was given more responsibilities, but the identity of being an officer did not influence his participation in club activities. He stated that “ My attitude [towards learning] becomes more active as well after being an officer [SaA]…I participate in as many activities as possible, no matter I am an officer or not.” (Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009) At the regular meetings, Wayne still played several roles. He took on the role of the Joke Session Master at the second meeting and a Table Topics Session speaker at the sixth meeting. At the end of this semester (i.e., the fall semester of 2009), he made his first attempt to be an individual evaluator and evaluated a new member‟s ice breaker speech.
At the tenth meeting, the club held Speech Marathon where eight speakers of prepared speech gave their speech one by one. Wayne was one of the four judges who made judgments on these speakers‟ speeches. As for extended club activities, there were four Study Groups in this semester, and Wayne participated in the last three. He also took on the role of Issue Discussion Session Master in the fourth Study Group, guiding
participants to discuss the issue that he had prepared in advance. He also joined the Fall Conference, gatherings, and the outing. It seemed that the roles Wayne took on in the second semester were totally different from those he played in the first semester. He had progressed from taking peripheral roles to leadership roles at regular meetings in the second semester. Also, he was willing to devote his time and efforts to the club. Wayne viewed things related to the club as the second priority, with his academic works as the top priority. He would decline other personal affairs in order to take part in the club activities.
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English Learning in the Club
This club emphasizes practice. We have to write speech scripts on our own and practice delivering speeches in front of many people. In junior and senior high English classes, the teacher always talked mostly in class, and what we did was to listen to the teacher and take notes. I think the degree of autonomy is different. (Wayne_Post/17, Jan., 2010)
From the excerpt above, learning English in this club was totally different from learning it in classroom, to Wayne. In his opinion, both types of learning were beneficial to him, but he would be much more appreciate if he was given chances to practice what he had learned.
In Wayne‟s view, this club provided a public platform with abundant authentic audience, which served as a ready-made resource helping him conquer stage fright when he stood on the stage. He made good use of regular meetings to develop English proficiency. To be specific, he was active in taking on positions like helpers, speaker of prepared speech, and session masters at the meetings. By doing so, he forced himself to make good preparation for these positions in advance. He also practiced listening comprehension by paying attention to each speaker at each meeting, and he wrote down the good usages or sentences that he had heard for later memorization. He also practiced English writing by writing feedback to fellow speakers. When he was chosen to do impromptu speeches, he used the opportunities to cultivate his stage manners and train impromptu speech skills. Compared to being an audience, Wayne preferred being a speaker of prepared speech. He said, “…Although it takes more time to prepare for a speech, I think that I can learn more in the process of preparing for a speech than just listening to others‟ speeches.” (Wayne_Pre/27, Nov., 2009)
Apart from the regular meetings, Wayne also made use of other resources in the club. For example, Wayne took advantage of the club‟s Mentor-Mentee System to rehearse his first speech with his mentor beforehand and to seek suggestions from his mentor when he was a new comer in his first semester. He also asked his mentor of some
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grammatical usages that he was not quite sure at that time. For him, mentors were resource providers whom he could consult with whenever necessary. In his second semester, he challenged himself by taking on role of individual evaluator. He thought that being an individual evaluator was worthwhile and advantageous. He recalled the experience and said,
I think everybody should play the role of individual Evaluator for at least once. I was very attentive to the speaker who I was going to evaluate at that time, writing down almost all key points on the paper. After the evaluation, I was still thinking about how to improve my performance and become a better evaluator. I think being an individual evaluator can train us to summarize key points in a short time. Individual evaluation is semi-impromptu in nature, so it‟s effective to train our impromptu speech.
(Wayne_Post/17, Jan., 2010)
In addition, Wayne also took good advantages of the resources provided outside the club.
Of all the outside resources, speech contests and Club Visiting were especially influential to Wayne‟s English learning. After experiencing several contests and becoming a more experienced speaker, Wayne had higher standards toward his performance. He stated,
In fact, I didn‟t perform well in the area- and division-level contests. During the division-level contest, Jeffery [the president] helped record my whole speech. I felt very ashamed after watching the video. My pronunciation was terrible, the content wasn‟t good enough, and gestures weren‟t natural.
There was still room for improvement.” (Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009) The other source for Wayne‟s higher self-expectation toward himself came from Club Visiting. Those excellent members of other clubs that Wayne met inspired him to a certain extent, and he took them as the goals that he wanted to achieve in the future. He
There was still room for improvement.” (Wayne_Follow/18, Dec., 2009) The other source for Wayne‟s higher self-expectation toward himself came from Club Visiting. Those excellent members of other clubs that Wayne met inspired him to a certain extent, and he took them as the goals that he wanted to achieve in the future. He