This chapter reports the findings of this study based on the analysis of the collected data,
including questionnaires, feedback sheets, interviews and teaching journals. The findings are
divided into three sections: first, the students’ perceptions of English-only instruction;
second, the obstacles encountered by the teacher and the ways she dealt with the obstacles
during the teaching process; and third, how the teacher perceived her use of English-only
while teaching a second-grade English class.
The Students’ Perception
The first research question was to explore how the participating students perceived the
English-only instruction they received in the class. The data collected from the questionnaire
on the students’ perception, the teaching feedback sheet, and the interview transcripts would
be displayed in this section. Based on the analysis of the data, both positive and negative
perceptions toward the English-only class were found, which will be discussed below.
Positive Attitude for the English-only Class
The positive feedback about the English-only class was found by means of the
questionnaire the students had filled out after the ten-week instruction. As shown in Table 2,
the students’ perceptions toward the English-only class can be discussed in two aspects: (1)
learning outcome and (2) affective domain. In the first part of learning outcome (item 4, 5, 6
and 8), more than 92% of the students thought that they could recognize the words taught in
the class (item 4, 24 out of the 26). And about 77% of the students thought the repetition of
words during the class helped them to remember the words (item 5, 20 out of the 26). More
than 80% of the students agreed that they could remember the teaching content after class
(item 8, 21 out of the 26).
In the second part, the affective domain, more than 90% of the students said they felt
happy and relaxed in the English-only instruction class (item 2, 25 out of the 26 and item 7,
23 out of the 26). And about 80% of the students hoped that the teacher could continue using
English-only instruction in the class (item 10, 21 out of the 26). Most of the students liked
the use of the English-only instruction (item 1, 21 out of the 26) and liked to learn new words
in the classroom. And about 85% of the students felt more confident after the English-only
instruction (item 9, 22 out of the 26).
Table 2
Results of the Questionnaire – Students’ Perceptions of the English-only Instruction
Item/Statements SA A D SD
Learning Outcome
4. I can recognize the words during the teaching. 17 7 1 1
5. The repetition of words during the teaching helped my memorization.
13 7 3 3
6. English-only instruction helps me read out the sentence out loud. 10. I hope that the teacher can continue using English-only
instruction.
18 3 2 3
Note. SA= strongly agree; A= agree; D= disagree; SD= strongly disagree
Furthermore, based on the results of the students’ feedback sheet and the interview data,
it is found that the majority of the students also have a positive attitude toward the
English-only class. For example, twenty-five out of the twenty-six students expressed that they liked
the English-only class, and twenty-four out of them agreed that English-only class helped
them to learn English. Four positive learning attitudes will be discussed in the following
sections. The first one is the students’ preference for English-only instruction, the second
one is feeling confident in English-only instruction, the third one is learning enjoyment, and
the fourth one is improvement in pronunciation and speaking.
Students’ preference for English-only instruction. In the following excerpts, four
students stated their positive feelings for the English-only class, as written in the feedback
sheet.
“I hope the teacher can use English in the class, because this can help me on thinking.
In addition, I can learn the new lesson and play some games.”
<我希望老師用英文上課，因為可以動腦想，又可以學到新課程和玩遊戲。>
(S1, High Level)
“I think that the teacher can continue to use this kind of instruction to teach us.”
<我覺得老師可以繼續用這種方式教導學生。>
(S20, Intermediate Level)
“I like the teacher to use only English in class. Since I was a transfer student, I didn’t have any English class like this before.”
<我喜歡老師用完全英語上課，因為我是轉學生，以前學校沒有英語課。>
(S26, Intermediate Level)
“I like the English class and I like the teacher using English to talk to us.”
<我喜歡英語課，而且我也喜歡老師用英語跟我們講話。>
(S25, Low Level)
The above excerpts clearly show that the students expressed strong satisfaction with the
English-only instruction. S26 was a transfer student and never had English class in her
former elementary school before. She seemed to accept the use of English all the time in the
English class. Even S25, a low-level student, felt happy with the English-only instruction.
As she explained, she liked it when the teacher taught them in English and used English all
the time. Both S26 and S25 seemed to enjoy learning in an English-only environment.
Huang (2019) also mentioned that the students in her study liked the way the curriculum was
instructed in English in the class. She mentioned that the overall score of the post-test on
attitudes in the area of motivation was significantly higher than the pre-test.
Feeling confident in English-only instruction. In the following excerpts, students
stated their confidence in what they had learned in the classroom and their confidence in their
future dream.
“I am very happy because I can read Aa to Zz in the English-only instruction class and this makes me feel more confident in English.”
<我很開心，因為在全英語課中我會唸 Aa-Zz 而且讓我對英語更有自信。>
(S10, Low Level)
“I think if I can learn in an English-only class, I could easily speak to foreigners.”
<我覺得只要用全英語教學，就可以輕鬆和外國人對話。>
(S9, High Level)
S9 thought that he could learn English well and talk with foreigners by learning in an
English-only environment. Chi (2018) indicated English-only instruction could help in the
learning motivation. The instruction could stimulate the motivation of learning the target
target language. This will then excite the students to know the world.
Learning enjoyment. Similar to the results from the students’ feedback sheet and the
questionnaire, most of the students responded positively toward the English-only instruction
in the interviews. Some students mentioned that they had paid more attention in the
English-only instruction class than in the English class before. For example, S4 mentioned that he
needed to pay more attention to listening to the teacher or he might miss what the teacher
said in the excerpt below. Huang (2019) indicated that the use of English-only instruction
makes it easier to attract the students’ attention. She noticed that even the low-proficiency
student became more engaged and was less distracted during the lesson in the study. In the
following excerpts, the students explained why they enjoyed the English-only instruction
class.
“I feel that the English-only instruction helped me in learning, because I can answer the teacher’s questions.”
<我覺得全英語教學對我有幫助，因為我還是有回答出老師的問題。>
(S5, Group interview)
“The English-only instruction helped me pay much attention in the class. Since the teacher used all English, I needed to pay more attention to listening or I might miss what she said.”
<全英語教學有幫助上課專心一些，因為老師用的是全英語，我必須更專心才不會 錯過老師說的話。>
(S4, Group interview)
“I feel I can learn quickly in the English-only class because the teacher taught us words by using her body [language] to explain the words.”
<我很快就學會了，因為老師會用身體做動作教單字。>
(S26, Group interview)
S26 transferred to this school at the end of February, 2019. She had no experience in
learning English at school before. The former school was in Hualien county. That school
only implemented English classes from the third grade. But she was not afraid of the use of
English in the class because, as she explained, she could understand me through my body
language. As Chi (2018) suggested, teachers could use pictures, posters or body language in
an all English learning environment. These could help students to understand what the
teacher was talking about. Besides using English in the classroom, teachers should also
utilize more body language or bring in other visual clues or auditory clues, such as pictures to
illustrate the words or songs related to the topic being taught. These methods would help
students understand the course content more easily.
Improvement in pronunciation and speaking. English-only instruction also helped the
students in their pronunciation and speaking. In the following excerpts, students explained
how they improved in pronunciation and speaking in the English-only class.
“I understood English better. The English-only instruction did not bother me at all. I learned many words and speaking. I told my mom about the English-only class after
school.”
<全英語教學讓我更加了解英語，且不會對我造成困擾。我在單字和說的方面學到 很多，我放學後會跟媽媽說課堂的事情。>
(S22, Group interview)
“I think English-only instruction helped me in my pronunciation and speaking. I could listen to the teacher and learned from her. I learned the words: “handle” and “light”
from the teaching process. I like the English-only instruction because it makes me learn more English.”
<全英語教學幫助我發音和說的方面，我可以聽老師講然後學她的發音。我學到把 手和光線的英語單字。全英語教學讓我學習更多英語。>
(S14, Interview)
S14 was a shy girl and did not talk much in the class. I asked her to recall the words she
had learned from the instruction. It did not take her much time at all to say the two words out
loud in English: handle and light. I was happy with the result because she could say the
words she had learned in English. Both Huang (2019) and Wu (2018) indicated that students’
speaking ability had increased in the English-only instruction class. Huang mentioned in her
study that the test results of seven low-proficiency students had progressed from 27% to 66%.
Another example of the finding in the improvement of the pronunciation was found in the
following excerpt.
“I learned quickly as well. I also learned the pronunciation and the alphabet from the English-only instruction.” <我也是很快就學會了，我還學到發音還有字母。>
(S15, Group interview)
In the beginning of the study, S15 complained several times about the use of
English-only in the class. She was afraid of not doing well in the class and thus, felt anxious. But
after the third class in this study, she did not say anything more about English being used all
the time. She seemed to adjust well afterwards and she even sometimes translated my words
into Chinese for her classmates. Chi (2018) indicated some students might get anxious just
like S15’s case. Sharaby (2018) also found that some elementary students felt anxious about
the increased use of English but eventually, and most of them adapted to the change. Take
S15 for example. She used her background knowledge or asked questions of the teacher to
confirm the meaning of the new words. Although the teacher did not answer in Chinese, she
was able to nod or shake her head to let S15 know if the guess was correct. It was
heartwarming to see the improvement of S15.
To sum it up, the results from the feedback sheet, questionnaire and the interview data
show that this English-only instruction was perceived positively by the students. Based on
the feedback sheet, they felt confident and liked the teacher teaching them in English. More
than 90% of the students expressed the belief that the English-only instruction helped them
learn English words. From the interview data, the students also mentioned that the
English-only instruction helped them improve in speaking and pronunciation. Taken together, the
English-only instruction seems to have worked well and it has provided benefits to the
students.
Negative Attitude Towards the English-Only Class
Though most of the students hold a positive attitude toward the English-only class, some
of them also pointed out problems they had met during the ten-week lessons. The first one is
they got nervous about not doing well in the English-only class. The second one is they were
not sure about what the teacher said in the class.
Feeling nervous about not doing well in the class. In the questionnaire, five students
indicated that they did not want the teacher to continue the English-only instruction (Item
10). They were S2, S4, S5, S10 and S15. In the following interview data, S4, S5 and S15
expressed their nervousness about the instruction:
S4: I don’t like the teacher to only use English because it makes me feel nervous.
<我不喜歡老師用全英語教學，因為我會緊張。>
S5: I felt nervous because I was afraid of being called on by the teacher and didn’t know what to say. <我感到緊張因為怕自己被老師叫到不會。>
S15: I felt nervous sometimes when I didn’t understand what the teacher said.
<有時聽不懂老師說什麼，我會緊張。>
(Interview Data)
They were afraid of not doing well or not knowing what had been said in the class. The
uncertainty caused the anxiety. For this reason, Tu (2012) advised the teacher to think of
ways for students to reduce their anxiety level during the class. For example, the teacher
could explain language-learning attitudes with students at the beginning of the class so that
students could set reasonable learning goals for themselves.
Not knowing what the teacher said. In an English-only class, students sometimes
could not follow teachers’ instruction or explanation. The uncertainty caused anxiety. In the
third class, when I asked students to fill out the worksheet, for example, I found that S2 and
S19 did not understand what to do with the worksheet. So, I asked S2 about the situation in
the interview.
S2: I did not know what to do at that time. <我當時不知道要怎麼做。>
T: Then, what did you do with the problem? <那麼，你做了什麼來解決問題?>
S2: S17 came to help me. <17 號過來幫我。>
(Interview Data)
Although before doing the worksheet, I asked one student to do the demonstration for
the whole class, I still found some students did not know what to do at first. While doing the
worksheet, I asked the high-proficiency students to help the students who could not
understand how to do with the worksheet. With the help of other classmates, they knew soon
what the teacher was talking about. They improved on the worksheet the second time. Wu
(2018) also found in her study that, with the help of peers, the students in the study could
adapt to the new style of learning. Huang (2019) also pointed out the need for teamwork or
pair-work in the English-only class. Her students claimed that they would ask friends or
team leaders to clarify the meaning of new words and the instructions from the teacher. I
also noticed that the help of peers is really important, so in the class used for this study, the
high proficiency students were asked to assist me in checking the understanding levels of
other classmates.
In the English-only instruction class, the students got easily nervous and were prone to
not know what the teacher had said during the class. Most of them were afraid of not doing
well in the class. Teachers could use games, videos and role-playing to motivate the
students’ learning, and allow the other classmates to help their classmates clarify the
teacher’s instruction.
Obstacles Encountered During the Teaching Process
The second research question was about what obstacles were encountered during the
ten-week instruction. The challenges included (1) the students’ nervous feeling toward the
instruction, (2) the students not getting the exact meanings of the words, (3) the students not
knowing how to follow the teacher’s instruction, and (4) classroom management.
Students’ Nervous Feeling Toward English-Only Instruction
Before the program started (February 27th, 2019), I usually used Chinese for about thirty
percent of the English class. In Kaohsiung, KEB encouraged English teachers to speak
English for at least 70% of the English class. However, for this study, I followed the rule of
100% when teaching English. In the first class of the study, when the students found that I
only spoke English in the class, some of them kept asking why English was used exclusively
by the teacher. Some of them seemed nervous about the instruction, as recorded in my
teaching journal:
Today was the first class I used the English-only instruction in the English class. First, I reviewed what I had taught the previous week and then introduced the song: Row Row Row Your Boat. At first, they were curious about the song, and then they opened their mouths to sing with the music. S5 and S15 kept asking why I only spoke English in the class during the lesson. S15 even asked me the same question again after class.
(Teaching Journal, February 27, 2019)
In the beginning of the class, S15 still kept asking why I spoke exclusively in English for the entire duration of the class. But this time, S5 did not ask the same question during the whole class. I felt that if I insisted on using English only, the students would remind each other to accept the change. For example, S25 told S15 that it was because this class was an English class, so the teacher used all English.
(Teaching Journal, March 6, 2019)
Although S15 seemed worried about the teacher speaking English, she actually
Although S15 seemed worried about the teacher speaking English, she actually