1.1 Motivation and Background
English has become a very popular language to learn in many Asian countries.
English is now not only a communication tool for international business or
educational purposes, but also the language of communication for interconnection and cultural exchange for people from different countries (Pennycook, 2014). Due to the popularity and use of English nowadays, many Asian countries have been trying to find ways to improve their people‟s English proficiency (Nunan, 2003). These countries include Singapore, where English has become one of its official languages for over a decade now; Japan, where many changes have been made in the high school‟s English curriculum (Riley, 2008); Korea, where the government has started to introduce English classes in the third grade of elementary school, creating an English environment such as English Villages for learners, and training and bringing in many English teachers (Sook & Norton, 2002); and China, where English is a compulsory subject in elementary schools and the main language of instruction in technical courses in colleges and universities.
Taiwan has also made effort in fostering English education and learning. Apart from including English as a compulsory subject in elementary schools and creating English learning environments (such as English Villages), measures have been taken to replace the traditional teacher-centered methodology, the Grammar Translation Method, which focuses highly on grammar rules and translation. Even though the Grammar Translation Method is widely used in EFL classrooms (Chern, 2003), especially in the past, it has been considered to be ineffective for learners‟
communicative competence. According to Hymes (1972), in order for learners to achieve communicative competence, it is important to allow learners to learn a
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language in communicative situations so that they may be able to use the language appropriately in different situations. Past research have looked into the effectiveness of co-teaching and found that one measure that Taiwanese government has taken to improve the learning of English in Taiwan is the continuous recruitment of native English speakers to teach in public schools. More specifically, the policy of
introducing native-speaking English teachers in Taiwanese classrooms was put into practice in 2003 (Luo, 2007).
Furthermore, more and more foreigners are coming to Taiwan to teach English. From table 1, it can be seen that teachers come in third place, when only including the active foreigners. There is definitely an increase in the population of foreign residents in Taiwan and that increase in Taiwan foreign residents are mainly English teachers. Thus, employing native English speaking teachers has become a very common act in Taiwan.
Table 1
Foreign Residents in Taiwan
Source: National Immigration Agency, MOI. (As dated on 2015/11/25)
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Since then, there have been many other native-speaking English teacher programs in different parts of Taiwan. The rise of such type of programs has caused researchers to examine its effectiveness on English learning (e.g. Medgyes, 1992, 1994; Samimy & Brutt-Griffler, 1999; Tarnopolsky, 2000; Rao, 2010; Ma & Ping, 2012). Following the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Japan, the English Program in Korea (EPIK), and the Native-speaking English Teachers (NET) Scheme of recruiting native English speakers to co-teach with their local English teachers in public schools, a similar program to the ones mentioned above has been launched in Taiwan as well. The Fulbright ETA Program began in 2008 where young grantees of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETAs) from the United States are recruited to co-teach with local English teachers (LETs) in Taiwan, hoping to be able to not only promote learners‟ communicative competence, but to also improve Taiwanese learners‟ attitude and motivation towards English learning. The ETAs co-teach approximately 16-17 periods of classes a week with the LETs. They are expected to design the lesson and discuss with the LETs before class and to speak English during class. The LETs serve as assistants for the ETAs, helping the ETAs with classroom management, conducting the class, and to translate when necessary.
The ETAs are usually the main teacher in these English classrooms; thus, the ETAs play an important role in influencing learners.
1.2 Rationale and Scope of the Study
Fulbright English teaching assistant program is one such program that has placed English teaching assistants in different areas of Taiwan to help provide English instruction to Taiwanese elementary and junior high school learners. Informal
interviews with the program participants and annual reports and workshops of the program have shown this program to be beneficial to not just learners, but also
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Taiwanese English teachers and English teaching assistants from the United States.
Although the program seems to generate a positive feedback from the participants, limited research has investigated the actual impact of such a program on English learning. More specifically, questions such as the influence of the English teaching assistants on learners‟ motivation to learn English, on English listening ability, and on English speaking ability remains to be explored.
When introducing native-speaking English teachers into the classrooms, one area that researchers have explored is learners‟ belief about the benefits of native-speaking teachers (e.g. Moussu, 2006; Chun, 2014). One implication of these studies is that since learners felt native-speaking teachers‟ classrooms were more interactive;
and therefore the willingness and motivation to learn the target language seemed to be stronger. However, many of the studies did not actually examine learners‟
motivational change during the presence of native-speaking teachers. Thus, this study intends to explore the learners‟ attitude and motivation change towards English
learning with the presence of ETAs. More specifically, one question that will guide this study is how ETAs actually influence learners‟ attitude and motivation towards English.
1.3 Research Gap
This study intends to address gaps found in two areas of literature. The first one is the motivation of language learning, and the second one is the contribution of native-speaking teachers in the foreign language classrooms. Since motivation is an important predictor of language achievement for learners, it is important to examine how different variables such as the learning environment, the curriculum, the characteristics of a teacher, and the learners themselves can influence learners‟
motivation. Indeed, studies in the past have examined the relationship between
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motivation and various factors. However, very few have actually tracked the changes in motivation when a learning environment is changed by the addition of a native English-speaking teacher in a language classroom.
Furthermore, the addition of a native-speaking teacher has raised the debate of the best combination of teachers in the language classroom. As well, studies have examined the different combinations of teachers in the classroom to provide the most effective learning. Some have investigated a single teacher (native-speaking or non-native speaking) classroom, while others have examined classrooms with teachers co-working together (native with a non-native speaking teacher). Previous research on co-teaching, and its advantages and disadvantages have shown that learners are able to gain cultural knowledge and insights from this kind of co-teaching learning
environment (e.g., Medgyes, 1994; Barratt & Kontra, 2000). Although it has been found that different combination of teachers provides different benefits to learners, very few studies have cited the actual impact of a native-speaking teacher on learner‟s motivation in class. In addition, across the two areas of literature, questionnaires seemed to be the only instrument used (Hashwani, 2008; Sandoval-Pineda, 2011).
Thus, it is the intention of this study to utilize not just quantitative questionnaires to track the motivational change, but also qualitative methodology to help provide a more holistic picture of how a native-speaking teacher actually influences a learner‟s motivation in the classroom. Based on the research gap identified, two research questions were developed to guide this study.
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1.4 Research Questions
1. Regarding learners‟ motivational change towards English learning,
a) what are the learners‟ perception of their motivation in the beginning and the end of the school year?
b) what are the English Teaching Assistants‟ (ETAs‟) perception of their learners‟ motivation in the beginning and the end of the school year?
c) what are the Local English Teachers‟ (LETs‟) perception of their learners‟ motivation in the beginning and the end of the school year?
2. How do the ETAs influence their learners‟ motivation towards English learning in class?
1.5 Organization of the Study
This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one provides the background and motivation of this study on learners‟ motivation with the presence of ETAs.
Chapter two offers literature review on this research topic, including (a) learners‟
motivation and attitude in second/foreign language acquisition, (b) learners‟
motivation and attitude influence on achievement, and (c) factors that may influence learner‟s motivation and attitude. Chapter three offers information on the research design, data collection and analysis, and procedures of this study. Chapter four displays and discusses the results of both the quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Chapter five summarizes and concludes the main findings, followed by limitations and suggestions for future research at the end of the chapter.