Teacher C - 以活動理論探討職前教師參與設計電腦輔助語言教學教材比賽的信念與實施

Aiming to win the contest and add credits to her resume for her future recruitment, Teacher C participated in Contest Two individually when she was an intern. Teacher C’s beliefs in general, her CALL materials and the components affecting her CALL material design are illustrated in the following section.

Teacher C’s Beliefs in General

Belief 1: Language teaching should contain a clear objective

Due to her belief that there should be a clear objective in language teaching, Teacher C contended that it was teachers’ duty to ensure every teaching procedure and activity contains a clear teaching purpose. As she maintained, “Rather than play flashy tricks, eventually you have to have a clear focus in doing the activity and then the students could learn. I think teachers should have a clear focus in mind.”(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013). Her belief was formed because of her instructor in secondary education program. In that course, to carry out the task assigned by the instructor, the class was required to create a video by acting out the teaching methods in the textbooks. Since it took plenty of time and effort to accomplish, the purpose of the task remained questionable and prompted Teacher C to ponder the meaning behind such teaching activity. As she further explained,

We begin to wonder why we have to create the video. A lot of us are complaining and it is in fact meaningless. First, it is time-wasting and effort-taking. Second, those teaching methods were not applicable in today’s [teaching environment]. It’s like we have to take the novel Dreams in the Red Building (紅樓夢) from the shelf and act out the plot. It seems to be impractical and nonsense (Interview I, July 28^th, 2009).

Such ambiguous and confusing task given by her instructor shaped her belief about having

a clear objective. Additionally, she became more agitated when the instructor asked the class to hand in those videos. As she emphasized, “It’s clear that the videos are made for her own sake. She can play those videos in the class without teaching those methods. Then, she can have an easy job, and I really do not appreciate that.” (Interview I, July 28^th, 2009).

Consequently, after this unpleasant experience, whenever Teacher C designed a teaching assignment or task, she contended to ensure whether it contained a clear objective or not.

Belief 2: Language teaching should include the teaching of the four language skills Under the belief that language teaching should include the teaching of the four language skills, Teacher C intended to design lessons involving all language skills. Such belief was shaped due to her perception that the education in Taiwan was restricted to test-taking and over-emphasis on reading and vocabulary memorization. Therefore, since each skill entailed its own significance, she maintained that the balance of four skills would be most beneficial to learners. As she emphasized, “From the training received in my institute, I know that if you want students to have output, you need to give them input beforehand…For example, before asking students to write, we should give them some reading on great example articles.”

(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013). Therefore, she contended that it would be a pity to merely focus on reading and writing without incorporation of speaking and listening skills. According to an example in Teacher C’s previous part-time teaching job, before proceeding with the reading of Jason Wu, she found one of her students mistakenly related the name to the

Taiwanese chef Wu Bao-chun (吳寶春). As she recalled, “In that case, if you proceed to teach reading without giving them [students] some warm-ups to help them to get involved, that would be a shame.”(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013). It was suggested that when students had little common knowledge of such person, the teaching of reading and grammar analysis would not be effective if input such as relevant video or discussion was not implemented beforehand.

Consequently, with the benefits of integrated four language skills were addressed, Teacher C

was determined to put her belief into practice.

Her belief about integrated four language skills was influenced by her previous learning experience in language learning and training in secondary teacher education program. First, in her previous learning experience, the language skills were all taught in isolation. As she recalled, “They [The lessons] were all monotonous. When taking a conversation class, he [the teacher] would give you a dialogue and ask you to practice in pairs. It was very traditional.”

(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013). In this regard, Teacher C would like to adopt a different approach by integrating the four skills.

Additionally, her training in a course in secondary education program was also found to be decisive in shaping her belief. As her instructor asked the class to carry out teaching

demonstrations in groups, each group had to design materials based on the assigned language skill. Since she was impressed by the teaching demonstrations and the materials designed on different language skills, she realized that the integration of four language skills could be an interesting attempt. As a consequence, due to this positive designing experience, her belief was formed accordingly.

Teacher C’s Original Plan in CALL Material Design

First, with reference to the overall design, drawing on the first interview, it could be revealed that Teacher C intended to design materials based on one lesson from a high school textbook. In this regard, it was worthwhile to invest the time and efforts since the materials could be further utilized in her future use. In addition, to practice what she believed, she attempted to incorporate four language skills in her lesson plans with a central theme on travelling. According to Teacher C, her choice of travelling was because it was not only appropriate in relating to students’ everyday life, but also be convenient for her to search relevant pictures and videos to facilitate her materials. Second, regarding technology

integration, she planned to include PowerPoint slides, relevant videos, audio files and the use

of blog for her WebQuest activity as well as Moviemaker. Finally, as for the teaching materials, as the contest only specified a must to include lesson plans in addition to

technology-integrated elements, she planned to contain lesson plans, worksheets and student projects in her materials.

Teacher C’s Practice in CALL Material Design

CALL Materials————PowerPoint slides, lesson plans, activities and worksheets

According to the contest regulation, the materials had to include at least lesson plans and technology-integrated elements. Therefore, the materials Teacher C designed contained PowerPoint slides, lesson plans, activities and worksheets.

PowerPoint slides

As the central theme was Chiufen, an old city in New Taipei City, the PowerPoint slides were used to facilitate the warm-up activity in which photos of Chiufen were used to motivate students and help them relate their travelling experience as presented in Figure 4.16. In

addition, they could help teacher users to proceed to the listening practice and the upcoming WebQuest activities.

Figure 4.16 The example PowerPoint Slides in Teacher C’s materials

Lesson plans

The lesson plans included the teaching instruction for three class periods. Without any limitation on the language used in the contest, Teacher C used Mandarin instead of English in her lesson plans. The lesson plans contained a warm-up activity, teaching procedure and wrap-up with four characteristics introduced in the following sections.

First, in line with her belief about having a clear objective, Teacher C specified the teaching purpose along with every teaching procedure and activity on the lesson plans as shown in Figure 4.17. According to Teacher C, although in the beginning of her design process, she attempted to cover everything and make her lesson full of diversity, she later realized that there should be a clear focus in her materials. Her belief was strengthened for her tendency to constantly examine her materials.

Figure 4.17 The sample of the lesson plans

Second, the lesson plans were designed based on Through the ages: The legend of Chiufen, a lesson from a Long-Teng, a publisher for high school textbooks. In addition to the shared topic of Chiufen, the reading of the lesson was also adopted into the listening practice in her materials. As a result, the lessons could serve as complementary materials for high

II. Lead in

1. The teacher shows the pictures of Chiufen for students to appreciate. The purpose of the activity is to trigger students’ interest toward Chiufen and relate to their own travelling experience.

2. The teacher asks three questions and let students proceed in group discussion. This is to train students’ ability in thinking and expressing themselves in English.

III. WebQuest learning activity: exploring the webpage www.wretch.cc/blog/eason5455 , explain the tasks

school teachers to follow in their teaching practice.

Third, in line with her belief about the need to integrate four language skills, the lessons involved listening practice in filling in the missing blanks, speaking activity in discussing their travelling experience, reading in comprehending the texts of Chiufen, and writing exercise in working out the itinerary of Chiufen.

Fourth, throughout the lesson plans, for any reference to PowerPoint slides or webpage from the WebQuest activity, screenshots were demonstrated along with the descriptions as presented in Figure 4.18.

Figure 4.18 Example lesson plans of Teacher C’s materials

Finally, since the tasks centered upon WebQuest formed the major skeleton of the lessons, the lesson plans served as step-by-step illustrations for teacher users to make use of WebQuest activity to assign students to carry out the tasks.

Activities: Listening practice and WebQuest

Two types of activities were encompassed in the materials. In addition to the listening practice designed based on the lesson from the textbook, WebQuest, a type of inquiry-based learning, was designed to encourage students to seek answers and perform tasks by exploring the webpages. Constructing her webpage based on Wretch (無名小站), one of the major

blogging system in Taiwan, Teacher C used WebQuest as a platform to offer specific guidance and information for students to carry out tasks such as writing an itinerary and making a leaflet in presenting the scenery and features of Chiufen, as demonstrated in Figure 4.19.

Figure 4.19 WebQuest activity in Teacher C’s materials

As one of the rationales in WebQuest was to offer a clear source of information for students to explore and save time on wandering on the Internet, cyber links of the associated information were listed for students to click in and tap into the resource. Corresponding to her belief about having a clear objective behind every teaching procedure, every activity in WebQuest was designed with a clear goal listed alongside. Additionally, to make the WebQuest activity more meaningful and reflective, Teacher C even provided evaluation criterion for students to evaluate their peers’ works. Figure 4.20 demonstrates her web pages’

discussion of web resources and evaluation.

Figure 4.20 WebQuest activities in Teacher C’s materials

Worksheets

According to the past awarded materials Teacher C referred to, it seemed that the materials had to contain worksheets. Therefore, Teacher C designed one worksheet for learners to fill in the blanks in the listening practice. The listening passage was adopted from the lesson Through the ages: The legend of Chiufen in Long-Teng high school textbook.

Figure 4.21 presents the worksheet that Teacher C designed.

The Gap between Teacher C’s Beliefs and Practices

Two major differences were captured between Teacher C’s beliefs and practices. First, despite holding the belief that language teaching should include the teaching of the four language skills, Teacher C abandoned the use of several online videos due to the consideration of copyright. In order to act prudently, she adopted only one listening practice adapted from a textbook, making her materials lack of training in listening skill. Second, compared with her original plan, her materials were more simplified due to a lack of time. As she contended, “If there were more time, I could have put more pictures and made it[the material] cuter.”

(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013).

Figure 4.21 The worksheet in Teacher C’s material

Components Interplaying within Teacher C’s Activity System Agency, meditated artifacts, objects and outcome

In Teacher C’s activity system, her attempt to achieve the practice and win the

contest (object) was to attain a full-time teaching job (outcome). As she recalled, “At that stage, I did not think much. I was confused about my future. My goal was to add values to my future teacher recruitment. It was as simple as that.”(Interview V, July 13^th, 2013).

Her agency not only included her beliefs but also her learning experience in graduate school, her technical knowledge in technology integration, and her experience in CALL material design. First, her training and learning experience in graduate school played a crucial role in developing her skills and knowledge in technology integration. According to Teacher C, her training in graduate school enabled her to create PowerPoint and operate software such as Moviemaker. Furthermore, her belief about having a clear objective was influenced by the philosophy of her instructor that teachers should use technology only when it irreplaceable by human efforts. According to Teacher C, her instructors’ beliefs in CALL had transformed into her own beliefs that she wished to practice in her material design. As she explained, “For example, videos are something human efforts could not achieve. Then it’s the same as pictures.

Besides, the questions for class discussions could be listed on [PowerPoint] to save time for writing on the blackboard.” (Interview III, August 25^th, 2009). Additionally, she even reviewed the handouts distributed by the instructor in the CALL-related course taken in graduate school and gained the inspiration of using WebQuest from the handouts.

Second, her technical knowledge and experience in CALL material design were also found to form her agency. In addition to knowing how to operate Moviemaker and create

PowerPoint slides, she also had the experience of participating in a CALL material design contest. In a course she took in secondary teacher education, she created materials

incorporated with videos, self-made audio files and the software Winoke. After submitting her materials in a campus-wide contest, she was surprised to know she won the prize. As a

consequence, such positive experience helped motivate her in further attempt in CALL material design and participation of contest.

Concerning the mediated artifacts, they were adopted as tools for Teacher C (subject) to achieve her practice (object) and carry out her beliefs (agency). To accomplish her material design, Teacher C utilized various tools such as PowerPoint Slides, and most importantly, the WebQuest activity.

Due to her reluctance to learn new technology, instead of referring to books and exploring other options, Teacher C merely intended to utilize the available resources and technical skills at hand. Therefore, a blog was used out of convenience as her major meditated artifacts for the WebQuest activity. In addition, in accord with her belief that teaching should contain a clear teaching purpose, instead of creating fancy PowerPoint slides and complicated

animation, Teacher C created slides that were basic but that easy to utilize for future use. To conclude, such tendency determined her simplified use of meditated artifacts (blog and PowerPoint slides), making her practice of material design basic in technology integration yet clear in purpose and teaching objective.

Contextual components affecting Teacher C’s CALL material design Rules

The rules existing in Teacher C’s activity system involved the conventions in CALL materials and the deadline for submitting the works. First, in terms of the conventions in CALL materials, since submitting works in a contest was different from creating her own materials in daily practice, the consideration of copyright somehow restricted the variety of her use of online videos and audio files. As she further explained, “The host institute said you need to write a letter to those who created the audio files…I feel like it is a lot of trouble…I feel kind of scared because I do not know what we could do not to violate the law.” (Interview IV, September 12^th, 2009).

Second, meeting the deadline was another obstacle for Teacher C to conquer as a busy intern teacher during the time of data collection. Even though she set up a schedule to design her materials in school, she was on call and constantly sent to do trivial jobs. Therefore, she stated, “The greatest obstacle to overcome is time limit, because we [I] are student teachers.

For in-service teachers, it’s a lot easier because they have summer and winter vacation.”

(Interview I, July 28^th, 2009). After meeting the deadline, she attributed the reason why her materials had not attained the anticipated effects to a lack of time. As she stated, “The clock is ticking and uploading takes time…If there were more time, I could add on more pictures and make them more attractive.” (Interview IV, September 12^th, 2009). In brief, the rules

consisting of the conventions in CALL materials and the pressure of meeting the deadline were concluded to result in restrictions to Teacher B’s material design.

Community and division of labor

The community was found to affect Teacher C’s CALL material design, including the award-winning classmate as well as the designers of the past awarded materials she referred to, her future teacher recruiters, and the instructor and students from the school she served her internship.

First, the award-winning classmate and the designers of the past awarded materials she referred to were found to affect her decision in contest participation and direction in her practice of material design. According to Teacher C, motivated by her classmate who won the first prize in a material design contest, she gained confidence in herself and considered winning to be realistic and mission possible. Furthermore, the designers of the past awarded materials she referred to aided her in organizing the basic skeleton for her materials, inspired her in coming up with new ideas and guided her to embark on her design with all the detailed considered. As she maintained, “I would like to see how others make those successful

materials. I am less experienced and have no experience in participating in this contest. Then

if I have successful samples to refer to, you [I] would probably know what extent of work you [I] can attain.” (Interview I, July 28^th, 2009).

Second, since the major motive of participating in a contest was to make her resume impressive, Teacher C aimed to impress the judges in her future teacher recruitment by winning the award. As she mentioned, “Other teachers suggested that we put some creative lesson plans and materials into their reference in teacher recruitment. It would be a lot better if there is record in award-winning.” (Interview I, July 28^th, 2009). As a result, the consideration of the judges in her future teacher recruitment was viewed as a positive influence for her in creating CALL materials in a contest.

Lastly, as Teacher C worked as an intern at the time of data collection, the community constructed by her instructor and students from the school she served her internship might also influence her material design.

Regarding division of labor, no evident power relationship was explored in Teacher C’s activity system. As the contest she participated in contained rather loose contest regulations, the results did not reveal her significant disadvantage to the host institute. In addition, as she completed the material design on her own, the power relationships were not evident in her

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