Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.4 Synthesis
As more and more native speaker-oriented programs have been gradually
incorporated into Taiwanese’s educational settings, a new issue considering the
effectiveness of such authentic input has emerged. Many researchers (e.g., Riley &
Zoppis, 1985; Underwood, 1989) pointed out the advantage of having native
speaker-oriented programs in the language classroom for their genuineness and authenticity as
native speakers were mostly acknowledged as perfect linguistic models and authentic
cultural input (Benke & Medgyes, 2005). However, some researchers argued that the
authentic input does not lead to the genuineness purpose such as developing the ability
22
to deal with natural language outside the classroom for the learners, that is, learners
were not able to use English in real life situations (e.g., Candlin & Edelhoff, 1982).
Thus, the present study aims at investigating the differences found in the previous
studies (e.g., Barratt & Kontra, 2000; Chang, 2007; Herbert & Wu, 2009; Rubin, 1994;
Teng, 2001; Vandergrift, 2007) and hoped that the finding could reaveal the importance
and legitimacy of the introduction of the native speaking teachers or assistances for the
existing native speaker-oriented programs in Taiwan.
In addition, previous studies (e.g., Griffiths, 1991; Teng, 2001) have mixed
statements about whether to use authentic or modified input when examining learners’
listening comprehension in a listening test and how influential is NESTs’ authentic input
in terms of learner’s listening comprehension in a communicative testing, which
focuses on the use of the language for its communicative function rather than the usage
of the language. It seems that in Taiwan very few studies conducted a communicative
listening test when investigating young learners’ listening ability not to mention with
the input of NESTs. Most of the existing studies (e.g., Huang, 2011; Lin, 2017; Wu,
2015; Yen, 2016) assessed learners’ listening ability by applying listening tests without
examining the construct validity of the tests, such as defining the tests on theoretical
levels and operationalize that through the selected texts and task that the learners were
asked to perform. In contrast to the previous studies which might neglect the construct
23
validity when applying listening tests as measurements for the participants’ listening
ability, the present study applies a communicative listening test, which is adapted from
a number of standardized tests, that not only meets the construct validity of a test by
theorizing each of the listening test parts, but also fits the characteristics of a
communicative test in terms of its texts, communicative purpose and the authenticity
of the tasks. Thus, it is impetus for the present study to probe the effectiveness of NESTs’
input on young learners by applying a test based on the communicative approach.
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Chapter 3
Methodology
3.1 Research Design
As mentioned earlier, there are different co-teaching programs which include
NESTs throughout Taiwan, such as MOE’s FET (Foreign English Teachers) program,
Fulbright’s ETA program, and King Car’s Schweitzer Program. Some of these
programs have been implemented in Taiwan for almost 20 years and their annual reports
seem to be positive about the recruitment of native speakers of English to assist teaching.
Fulbright’s ETA program is one such an example. The foundation behind the program
has been investigating the relationship between NESTs and students’ learning
motivation, learning anxiety, and English listening achievements for more than four
years. The reports showed that NESTs motivated students, lessened their learning
anxiety and improved their listening and speaking abilities (e.g., Ho, 2013; Huang, 2011;
Yen, 2016). It seems that the impact NESTs make on the learning of English for
Taiwanese students cannot be neglected. However, the reports provided by these
programs or the previous studies (e.g. Herbert & Wu, 2009; Lin, 2017; Tsai, 2005; Wu,
2015) either included a small scale of participants investigating only limited area of
Taiwan or schools, which might not reflect the overall influence of the assistance of the
NESTs. Therefore, the present study intends to extend the scale of the previous studies
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and reports on a larger number of participants and a wider range of areas across Taiwan.
The present study adopted a communicative listening test to measure students’
listening performance as Vandergrift (2007, p. 192) asserted that test scores “can be
easily administered to large groups.” The test used in the present study was adapted
from a number of standardized tests such as TOEFL Junior tests and Cambridge
English: Young Learners. These tests are intended for younger learners. The tasks in
the tests were designed based on authentic situations which could reflect learners’
real-life communication skills. Furthermore, the topics and the tasks in the tests were
designed to reinforce what learners learned in the class, which will have a positive
washback effect on the learners.
3.2 Participants
The present study included 584 students randomly recruited from different parts
of Taiwan including the North, the East, the Middle, the South, and the offshore islands
in order to reflect the overall picture in Taiwan (see Table 2). These participants were
of the same English listening proficiency level and were pulled from selected schools.
The schools were selected according to the guidelines set up by the researcher. That is,
two to four schools of similar scale, in terms of their geological allocations and the
number of students, were recruited from each part of Taiwan. The participants from one
school would either receive less than a year or no instruction from NESTs whereas the
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participants from the other school would receive the instruction from NESTs for more
than three years. In terms of the student gender, the numbers should be roughly equally
distributed since the Ministry of Education requested normal class grouping for both
elementary schools and junior high schools. Lastly, the age range of the participants
was between 12 to 14.
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Table 2. Information of the Participants.
Participants Numbers
Grouping
less than a year or no instruction of NESTs
279
more than three years instruction of NESTs
305
Gender
male 314
female 270
Area of Taiwan
North 192
Middle 95
South 109
East 88
offshore islands 100
*n=584
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3.3 Instruments
3.3.1 Classroom Observation Reports
Classroom observation reports were collected through various reports of the
co-teaching programs in Taiwan, such as MOE’s FET (Foreign English Teachers)
program, Fulbright’s ETA program, and King Car’s Schweitzer Program. These
classroom observations were done by the research groups, which consisted of
professors, scholars, and researchers, in order to see how the classes were conducted
with the assistance of NESTs. The classroom observation reports include classroom
observations, field notes, and photos, all of which were thoroughly and repeatedly
examined. Field notes include a more detailed and rich description of the participants’
learning situation and improvement, and the activities or the interactions that
happened during class or after the class between the participants and the NESTs.
These field notes would not only provide extra information on the participants’
English learning, but also give insight on NESTs’ role and teaching strategies of the
NESTs that might have had an impact on participants’ listening comprehension
proficiency and the communicative competence in English listening.
3.3.2 The Communicative Listening Test
The listening test was modified from standardized tests such as TOEFL Junior
tests and Cambridge English: Young Learners tests with the aim of evaluating students’
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listening comprehension for communication purpose. These tests are intended for
younger age learners. The tasks in the tests were designed based on authentic situations
which could reflect learners’ real-life communication skills. Furthermore, the topics and
the tasks in the tests were designed to reinforce what learners learned in class, which
would have a positive washback effect (Chang, 2007; Kitao & Kitao, 1996) on the
learners. There were six parts in the listening test. The content, test type, and the
objective of each part are described below in Table 3. Table 4 illustrates the required
communicative listening skill(s) for each part. Since whether the vocabulary covered
in the test was learned or not affects students’ listening anxiety (Kurita, 2012), most of
the vocabulary used in the listening test was tailored into the elementary level following
the elementary vocabulary list proposed by the MOE.
There were five questions in each part and 30 questions in total. The entire test
lasted approximately 30 minutes. Participants were given listening items and asked to
either select the correct answer or to draw or color specific items using color pens or
pencils. To eliminate the possible hindrance of other skills such as reading the questions
or writing the answers, the questions were not printed but spoken twice and the
participants were allowed to write in Chinese if they did not know how to spell the
English words. Example questions of each part are shown in Table 5.
30
Table 3. Description of the Content and the Objective of the Test.
Item Content Task Type Task Description
Part One Names,
Animals
matching Listening for names and
descriptions in a conversation
and match the correct answer
with the corresponding picture
gap-filling Listening for names, spellings
and detailed information in a
conversation and then fill in an
information grid
matching Listening for days of the week
and descriptions of actions in a
conversation and match the
correct answer with the
corresponding picture
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Part Five Foods,
Animals,
Symptoms
multiple choice
questions
Listening for descriptions in a
series of conversation and
choose the corresponding
picture
Part Six Animals,
Colors,
Locations
coloring and
drawing
Listening for words, colors and
specific information in a series
of conversation and draw or
color the corresponding items
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Table 4 Description of the Communicative Listening skill(s) Required in Each Part Part Communicative Listening Skill(s) Required
Part One Deduct the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items from context
Part Two Listen for specifics, including a recall of important details
Part Three Relate utterances to their social and situational contexts
Part Four Listen for the main idea(s) or important information; and
distinguishing that from supporting detail or examples
Part Five Determine a speaker’s attitude or intention towards a listener or a
topic
Part Six Listen for the main idea(s) or important information; and
distinguishing that from supporting detail or examples
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Table 5 Example Questions for Each Part Part Example Conversation and
Question
Corresponding Picture
One Example conversation
(Woman) Is this your art class, Peter?
(Boy) Yes. It’s my favorite class.
(Woman) Which one are you?
(Boy) I’m standing near the window, drawing a shark.
(Woman) Oh yes, I can see you.
Two Example conversation
(Man) Hello class. Jane is going to tell us about her new pet. So, Jane, is your new pet a cat, or a dog?
(Girl) It’s not either of those. We went to a pet shop and got a lizard. My brother and I have always wanted one.
(Man) Well, that’s an interesting pet.
Example Question What is the new pet?
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Three Example Question
How’s the weather today?
Four Example Conversation
(Man) Hello, Daisy. Have you had a good week? Did you do anything interesting?
(Girl) I was really busy all week,
because the holidays are coming soon.
(Man) Did you have to go shopping for some things for the holiday?
(Girl) Yes, on Wednesday I went to buy a swimsuit with my mum.
(Man) Did you go the sports shop for that?
(Girl) Yes, we went to the one next to the cinema.
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Five Example Conversation
(Girl) The weather was really nice on Sunday, so we decided to go out to party.
(Man) Did you go to the beach?
(Girl) The beach was closed, so we went for a picnic in the countryside.
(Man) That must have been fun.
Example Question
What did they do on Sunday?
Six Example Conversation
(Woman) What a lovely picture of the countryside. Would you like to color it?
(Boy) What should I color first?
(Woman) Can you see the two rocks near the lake?
(Boy) Yes, I can see them.
(Woman) Color the small one black.
(Boy) Right. The small rock is black.
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3.4 Quantitative Data Collection Procedures
Before the listening test began, each participant would have a test book and would
be asked to prepare the color pens or pencils for answering the test. The researcher
guided them through the listening tests, including telling them what each part would be
and that the instruction would be spoken in both Chinese and English with an example
given. During the listening test, the participants would have to either write down or
draw their answers on the test books.
After the listening test, the researcher checked the answers on the test books. The
scores were calculated and processed afterward. In other words, quantitative data were
collected through the listening tests. Each question was worth three points. Therefore,
the entire listening test is 90 points in total.
3.5 Qualitative Analysis and Scoring and Data Analysis
The qualitative analysis in this study included the classroom observation reports
collected from different co-teaching programs throughout Taiwan, which would help to
provide a more in-depth understanding of interactions between the participants and the
NESTs which might help explain the relationship between the listening ability of the
participants and the NESTs. Data were read and re-read so as to get a better
understanding of the content, to discover or label variables and to find the relationship
among variables (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
37
As for the quantitative analysis of the result of the communicative listening test,
statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences
(SPSS) software, in which descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way analyses of variance
(ANOVA) were used.
(a) Descriptive statistics: This study adopted mean scores and
standard deviation analysis to investigate participants’ English
listening test performances with NEST instruction of one-year
and three-years.
(b) T-test: T-test was used to compare the standard deviation of
two different groups. In this study, it was used to compare (1)
participants’ listening performance with NEST instruction of
one-year and three-years; (2) listening performances in each
part of the listening test with NEST instruction of one-year and
three-years. With T-test, standard deviation and test statistics
would be taken into consideration so that we could see whether
the difference reaches the significance level.
(c) One-way ANOVA: It was used to compare the standard
deviation of more than two groups of participants. In this study,
one-way ANOVA was adopted to compare participants’
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English listening performances across different parts of
Taiwan with NEST instruction of one-year and three-years.
39
Chapter 4
Results and Discussion
As mentioned earlier, the present study aims at investigating younger learners’
(age 12-14) listening proficiency with the authentic input of NESTs in a co-teaching
model in a listening test developed based on the communicative testing approach. The
findings and the analysis of the quantitative results and the supports from the qualitative
reports regarding the influence of the NESTs are presented in the following sections.
4.1 Influence of the Assistance from NESTs on Students’ Listening
Comprehension Skills
Question 1: Do students who are assisted by NESTs show a better improvement in
their listening comprehension skills than those who are not assisted by NESTs?
The descriptive statistic of less-than-a-year NESTs’ assisting group and
more-than-three-year NESTs’ assisting group is shown in Table 6. Generally speaking,
participants who received NESTs’ assistance for a longer period of time performed
better than those who received shorter ETA instruction throughout the six areas. The
mean score of the participants who received less than a year of NESTs assistance
(mean=61.13) was strikingly lower than those who received more than three of NESTs
assistance (mean=70.23). Table 7 shows how participants performed remarkably
different in terms of the listening comprehension tests between the less-than-a-year
40
NESTs-assisting group and more-than-three-year-NESTs-assisting group. There are
statistically significant differences in participants’ listening performance between the
groups (t=-5.61, p<.000). Such result is in line with the previously reviewed studies in
that having NESTs and NNESTs to co-teach can make a better learning environment
thus improve students’ English learning (e.g., Barratt & Kontra, 2000; Benke &
Medgyes, 2005; Poon & Higginbottom, 2000).
Table 6. Descriptive Statistic of Less-than-a-year NESTs Assistance Group and More-than-three-year NESTs Assistant Group
Table 7. Difference of Less-than-a-year NESTs Assistance Group and More-than-three-year NESTs Assistant Group in scores
Mean Difference
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Prior studies have reported that NESTs and NNESTs have their own strengths and
weaknesses and they seemingly make up for each other’s disadvantages (Medgyes,
1992). In this study, we compared groups of participants with less than a year of NESTs’
assistance and with more than three years of NESTs assistance and found that students
outperformed greatly with more years of NESTs’ assistance. The result of the present
study could suggest that NESTs might have actually created a more relaxing and livelier
classroom atmosphere which enhanced students’ learning motivation and thus
influenced their willingness to engage in class (Ryan & Patrick, 2001). The quantitative
analysis of the reports also provides insight to such a finding that classrooms went from
being quiet and teacher-fronted to being interactive and participative in nature. For
example, in the beginning of the school semester, even when the NEST proposed games
or competitions, no obvious excitement was observed on learners. However, at the end
of the term, learners began showing much excitement through clapping and counting
down with the NEST. Furthermore, one of the learners stated that:
“聽不懂就用猜的啊！反正會有人聽得懂，他就會跟我們說老師說什麼。
老師教的課都很有趣，我喜歡上老師的課。我覺得我英文進步了！”
“I’ll guess when I don’t understand! Someone will understand so we just wait for her to tell us what the teacher says. I like attending the teacher’s class, because it is
always very interesting. I think my English improves!”
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It seems that with better involvement of the students in the English class and the
presence of the NESTs with their friendliness and perfect linguistic models, students
were more likely to achieve higher learning satisfaction and thus have a better learning
outcome (Zandvilet & Fraser, 2005).
Some other previous studies found that students performed better with the use of
modified listening passages when taking the exam, these studies either tended to have
a smaller number of participants or have grown-up participants, who might have better
test-taking skills. In this study, we explored the listening comprehension ability of
younger age students and extended the number of the participants to a larger scale,
including students around Taiwan. We found that students with more years of NESTs’
assistance did perform better in terms of listening comprehension tests. It seems that
exposure to authentic input, namely the NESTs’ oral instructions and teaching, is
beneficial for listening comprehension and preferred by L2 learners as previous studies
have stated (Vandergrift, 2007; Yen, 2016). The findings of the present study also
extended those of Wu (2015) and Lin’s (2017) studies, confirming that NESTs do
influence learners’ listening comprehension. In fact, the longer the exposure to NESTs,
the more students show improvement (Wu, 2015; Lin, 2017). In addition, the
improvements of the students’ listening comprehension noted in the present study were
unrelated to any of the specific co-teaching models, because the participants included
43
in the present study were randomly selected from different programs implemented in
Taiwan which applied a variety of co-teaching models.
Taiwan which applied a variety of co-teaching models.