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立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Among the six strategies, “Make sure grades reflect students’ effort and hard work” was stated to be the frequently-used one by both teachers and students. Teachers put in on the eighth place and students also experienced these strategies often and ranked it on the eleventh place. However, most of the others were stated by both teachers and students to be strategies that were not commonly used.
For example, both teachers and students claimed that “Invite senior students to share their English learning experiences” and “Invite English-speaking foreigners to class” were not frequently used in class as they were positioned in the last two rank-orders. Also “Display the class goal in a wall chart and review it regularly” was stated to be one of the least used strategies from teachers and students perspectives. Teachers admitted that they seldom involved students in designing and running the English course; this was the fourth to last strategy which teachers use in class as teachers reflected.
The Results from Classroom Observation
Based on MOLT records, the 40 activities observed on the schedule were divided into 9 categories: supportive climate, teacher behavior, promoting group dynamic, promoting L2-related values, making the tasks stimulating, presentation of tasks, promoting learner autonomy,
goal-orientedness, and providing feedback. The activities under every category were added up and then divided by the total number of the activities happened in the whole class. The figure
transformed into the percentage to represent the rate of each category happened every class. The percentages of each category from the ten classes are listed here in Table 17:
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Make the tasks stimulating5%
The classroom observation was conducted in ten classes. The result of each class was listed in Table 17, and the percentage of the 9 categories was listed in the table horizontally from top down.
During the first classroom observation, there were 20 activities marked on the observation scheme so the researcher made a total of 20 marks. Within the 20 marks, there was 1 mark in supportive climate which made 5%, 3 marks in teacher behavior that made 15%, and the most ones were five marks in presentation of tasks which made 25%. The other statistics were calculated in the same way. The figures all added up vertically to 100%. In addition, in order to find out which cluster accounts for the maximum proportion, the sum of every cluster needed to be found out. By adding the ten figures represented the percentage of every cluster in the ten classes, the final result was found.
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立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
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The result of the classroom observation can be compared with the result from the questionnaire as mentioned before; as is shown in Table 18. The order listed by the frequency of the ten
categories from questionnaire and the nine clusters from classroom observation is compared in Table19.
Table 18. The comparison between the two schemes
Table 19. The order listed by the frequency between the two schemes
10 clusters from questionnaire 9 categories from observation scheme
1 Proper teacher behavior Teacher behavior 3
2 Recognize students’ effort
4 Promote learners’ self-confidence Provide feedback 2
5 Creating a pleasant classroom climate Supportive climate 9
3 Present tasks properly Presentation of tasks 1
7 Increase learners’ goal-orientedness Goal-orientedness 7 8 Make the learning tasks stimulating Make the tasks stimulating 6 10 Familiarize learners with L2-related
values Promote L2-related values 5
6 Promote group cohesiveness and group
norms Promote group dynamic 8
9 Promote learner autonomy Promote learner autonomy 4
10 clusters from questionnaire 9 categories from observation scheme
Proper teacher behavior Presentation of tasks
Recognize students’ effort Provide feedback
Present tasks properly Teacher behavior
Promote learners’ self-confidence Promote learner autonomy Creating a pleasant classroom climate Promote L2-related values Promote group cohesiveness and group norms Make the tasks stimulating
Increase learners’ goal-orientedness Goal-orientedness
Make the learning tasks stimulating Promote group dynamic
Promote learner autonomy Supportive climate
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立 政 治 大 學
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The finding from the questionnaire and observation were a little different. From classroom observations, I found out that teachers care the most on presenting tasks, and then teachers do provide feedback to their students in classes. Teachers usually encourage students to try harder, affirm students’ efforts and hard work. Based on my observation and my own experience as a
teacher, I also discovered that students also prefer teachers who are emphatic and inspiring to them.
In the result from the questionnaire, promoting learner autonomy was rated the least frequently used macro-strategy, but in the observations I did noticed that teachers did do some things to
promote students’ autonomy. Teachers do encourage students’ presentation, and teachers give students opportunities to accomplish some tasks, some teachers also promote peer teaching; in every classroom observation about 10% of the activities related to promoting learner autonomy.
The rest five clusters are less observed during the observations. They are “promote L2-related values”, “make the tasks stimulating”, “goal-orientedness”, “promote group dynamic”, and
“supportive climate”. There may be some reasons why these five clusters were less observed.
As to making the tasks stimulating, from the findings from both reported by teachers and students, showed that teachers do enough on this. In the ten observations, only three of the teachers used teaching aids. Dörnyei (2001b:77) suggested to that “make learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by increasing the attractiveness of the tasks.” It is a pity that most of the teachers still conduct classes by illustration. They believe that it is the safest way to cover the most within the limit class period. However, sometimes students feel bored because of having too little to be involved in. A teacher could promote scaffolding feedback through students’ responses and then enhance students’ English proficiency and mental growth.
As mentioned to the rest three domains, because the items inside those domains were not easily observed in only one period, the percentage was lower and the rank order was also bigger. For
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example, in “promote group dynamic”, the item “prevent the rigid seating” couldn’t be seen in a class. Also, in most of the classes in Taiwan, the learning style concerned more about personal performance than group dynamic. Goal-orientedness, as we can see, this macro-strategy was not used so often in class, which means that Taiwanese English teachers in language education setting have not yet consider this important domain. The possible reasons can be summarized as follows: a) it is impossible for teacher to assist each learner to design his or her own course plan; b) teachers might think that there is no need to individual or class goals because the school and government have already made up the institutional goals that are readily servable and c) it is hard for everyone in the classroom define and agree goals. Hadfield (1992) states, it is fundamental to the successful working of a group to have a sense of direction and a common purpose. Defining and agreeing aims is one of the hardest tasks that the group has to undertake together. Lastly, talking about supportive climate, although the researcher didn’t get much data on this domain, the finding can still show that teachers do have good relationship with students. Students were all comfortable taking intellectual risks in class because they knew that they would not be embarrassed or criticized even if they made a mistake. All of the teachers are patient, willing to help students, hard-working, and it is believed to be the basic element of creating a motivating learning environment.