According to the analysis in Charter Four and interpretations in Chapter Five, teachers and students showed most of their discontent with “the insufficiency of speaking practice,” “the presentation of learning methods and resources” as well as
“vocabulary, phrases, and pronunciation.” Their discontent may result from the fact that most classes are composed of students with varying proficiency levels and needs.
Limited time (four to five periods of English classes a week) may also be a problem.
In addition, students’ difficulties may vary with the area of a school’s location.
Urban-rural disparity probably influences users’ perceptions of the textbook. Based on the previous studies, the disparity may be reduced through distribution of learning resources. In junior high schools in Taiwan, textbooks are available to teachers and students. In order to meet the needs and to cope with the difficulties explored in the present study, the following are some pedagogical implications for teachers, textbook writers, and students.
First of all, teachers are supposed to take students’ needs into consideration.
Since the present study indicates that students’ top learning need is “to communicate in English,” then teachers’ instruction should focus on the development of students’
communicative abilities instead of their abilities to get high grades in exams. In particular, according to the reform on JHS students’ admission to senior high school (MOE, 2012), a student’s grades of the BCT will not be the only criteria. This reduces pressure from exams. Now it is the time for teachers to conduct a reform on their instruction. Not only students but also teachers need to keep learning new things.
Second, for textbook writers, the design should be more learner-centered. As explored in the present study regarding teachers’ and students’ needs and difficulties,
materials in future textbooks should be more diverse, practical and interesting. In addition, more explanation of grammar, new words as well as learning methods and resources should be offered. This way, more benefits will appear. Take the design of four language skills for example. The development of four skills is students’ top learning needs. In addition, it is believed that students’ development of four skills relies on teachers’ guidance in class. Nevertheless, there are only four or five English classes in a week. Based on the interviewees’ perceptions, most teachers begin a lesson with instruction of new words and this usually takes a period of class. Thus, explanation and practice of words and grammar are suggested to be offered in textbooks and students can read them autonomously in their free time. This way, more time will be saved for teachers’ instruction of four skills and pronunciation.
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, materials of pronunciation and four skills should be diverse, practical, and interesting. Although practice of pronunciation and four skills have been presented in the textbook, yet they are criticized for the lack of diversity and practicality.
To advance the quality of practice activities, it is suggested that practice types should be diverse. In addition to common types in the current textbook, e.g., listen
and repeat, listen and fill-in, translation, reading and listening comprehension with close-ended questions, practice types in JHS Chinese textbooks and workbooks, e.g., open-ended post-reading comprehension questions, guided writing, short play, are
recommended as reference in the future English textbook compilation. Also, the design of English learning magazines (e.g., Studio Classroom, Let’s Talk in English,A
+English) and foreign materials (e.g., Touchstone, Visions, English for Literature)
are role models for textbook compilation. The design of magazines is superior in its diversity and freshness of topics as well as the convenience of interactive DVDs.Foreign materials are highly prized for its integrated skills, inclusive of thinking
skills.
In terms of practicality, real contexts should be offered in textbooks for students to apply four skills and integrated skills. Also, teachers are required to design and instruct activities to develop students’ language skills. Nevertheless, teachers may get used to traditional pedagogies and need demonstrations. Therefore, it is hoped that publishers offer DVDs or face-to-face demonstrations for teachers to adopt diverse activities in class. Furthermore, criteria of assessment of four skills are expected to be offered in teachers’ manuals as well as students’ textbooks so that they have purposes to follow and carry out.
Based on the results analyzed from questionnaires, their favorite topics are
“sports, traveling and recreation,” “cultures, customs, folk skills and festivals,” as well as “affections.” As for genres, “jokes,” “stories,” and “comics” were preferred.
Thus, the text in future textbooks can integrate these popular topics and genres.
Nevertheless, to suit students’ diverse proficiency levels, the presentation of these popular topics and genres should be diverse in terms of the difficulty levels. For example, for low-achievers, jokes and comics may interest them and the easy language helps them establish confidence in English. They can try to imitate the intonation of the CD. For intermediate-achievers, they can be encouraged to do oral presentation in class. For high achievers, they can try to create a short piece of work based on the materials in the textbook. This way, regardless of students’ varying proficiency levels, each of them can participate in activities and they may get motivated to learn.
Third, students are encouraged to express their needs and cultivate positive attitude toward English learning. Although the current textbooks are identical, yet they can be diversely used based on a student’s individual proficiency level and preferences. For example, high-achievers can do advanced practice, such as giving a
short speech and guided writing. Low-achievers can read comics to learn the easy language.
Concerning the issue of urban-rural disparity, the results from the questionnaire point out that rural students seem to experience greater difficulties in some aspects, such as “too much and too difficult grammar,” “insufficient reading and listening skills,” as well as “inconvenient appendixes to look up words and grammar.” All of them are related to the focuses of the current English exams: vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. Listening will also become one of the parts in the national exam in 2014. In order to reduce urban-rural disparity, it relies on not only the textbook but also teachers, schools, and students.
The textbook publisher can give rural students a booklet with organized comparison of words, phrases and grammar, so that students can clarify their confusion by checking information in the booklet at hand. Interesting and suitable reading materials which can diagnose students’ reading difficulties should also be given. Based on the researcher’s six-year teaching experiences, students’ common problems with reading comprehension are “looking for details,” “inferring the meaning of a new word from the context,” “deciding a suitable topic for the reading,”
and “looking for the referent of a pronoun.” According to the results from questionnaires and interviews, “cloze” is also a difficult part in the exam for the majority of the students, especially questions about tenses and coherence. Participants thus suggested that more cloze practices be given in the textbook and workbook.
Answer keys and explanation should be accompanied as well. For instance, each lesson has a cloze practice and reading comprehension in the textbook/workbook. It is hoped that what each of the questions tests and how to decide the correct answer will be put in the appendix of the book for teachers’ and students’ reference. The appendix should be detachable so that students can be asked to do the practice independently
without depending too much on the appendix. Students should understand the appendix is a useful tool for them to develop reading skills instead of just saving time.
The practice of the other language skills can also be revised this way.
In terms of how to establish rural students’ confidence in and motivation for learning English, “getting high grades on exams” may not be the top concern in their mind. Even so, they can become confident and interested in English through the use of multiple assessments in the follow-up tasks (H.S. Newsletter, 2009). Textbook Her-sheng argues that appreciation comes before comprehension while instructing English reading. It further proposed that compared with getting high grades on exams, it is more important that students appreciate the readings in the textbook, participate in the discussion, and reduce their reading anxiety. Thus, the textbook suggests easy and practicable tasks after the reading of each lesson in the textbook, such as
“describing a picture,” “sharing your own story,” “role play,” “searching for grammar focus,” and “painting.” The philosophy of Textbook Her-sheng is in line with the opinions of the participants in the study: to learn English with diversity and fun. The textbook writers of other versions may adopt the philosophy to compile interesting materials and activities in future textbooks and workbooks.
As for teachers, they can try to identify students’ difficulties with reading comprehension (e.g., impatience of reading, wrong analysis of long sentences) and find out possible solutions (e.g., to cultivate students’ reading habits, to analyze long sentences, to look up new words in a dictionary). This may be realized through cooperation with other English teachers. In order to let teachers frequently share their experiences, a platform (e.g., blog, Facebook) should be offered and advertised.
Teachers have to be encouraged to utilize the platform as well as adopt helpful pedagogies and materials (e.g., comics, magazines, novels). If students enhance reading proficiency, then they may boost confidence in reading English and become
more motivated to learn English.
In terms of schools, sufficient equipment should be provided for teachers to make the best of multimedia learning resources. In reality, the current textbook publishers give each teacher multimedia learning resources which offer students abundant visual aids, even motivating animation. Some rural students may not have any equipment at home to play any of the multimedia CDs or DVDs. Therefore, schools are supposed to have equipment, at least a CD player or a computer in each classroom, to support students’ English learning.
Finally, with regard to students, even though textbooks, teachers and schools provide as many resources as possible, “students’ efforts” is the key to successful learning (Pan, 2010). Therefore, students are supposed to cooperate with teachers, utilize accessible resources, and cultivate positive study habits. Teachers should cultivate students’ positive attitude toward English learning from the beginning of the first semester through making the most use of the textbook and other resources. To utilize the textbook and other resources to the greatest extent, teachers are encouraged to understand the textbook writer’s compiling principles through the following ways:
(1) Read the introduction on the first page of the textbook.
(2) Go through the table of contents where the syllabus design is shown.
(3) Analyze the suitability of the teaching resources.
(4) Participate in the seminars held by the publishers to learn more about how to diversely use the textbook.
(Chen, 2006: 121)
For example, there is a table in the beginning page of the workbook to record a learner’s performance and weakness as well as a teacher’s encouragement and suggestions to the student. Besides, each lesson in the textbook is composed of several parts which aim to develop learners’ different language abilities. These
abilities are listed in the introduction and the table of contents in the textbook. A variety of resources are also given to teachers every semester. Teachers are supposed to understand the purposes and practicality of the textbook and resources. Then, select the most suitable materials and pedagogies to cultivate students correct study habits and arouse their interests in English learning.