performance items included in the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines for senior high school English. This study examined the teachers’ perceptions of the importance and feasibility of each learning performance items. A total of 207 senior high school English teachers completed a questionnaire comprised of four open-ended questions. This chapter begins with a discussion of the major findings, followed by their pedagogical implications. The study concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study and offers suggestions for future research.
The present study aims to answer the following two sets of research questions:
1. What are senior high school English teachers’ perceptions of the importance and feasibility of learning performance items?
1.1 What are teachers’ perceptions of the importance of learning performance items?
1.2 What are teachers’ perceptions of the feasibility of learning performance items?
1.3 How do these two perceptions differ?
1.4 How do teachers’ backgrounds influence their perceptions?
2. What opinions do senior high school teachers hold about learning performance items?
2.1 What are teachers’ general impressions of the learning performance items?
2.2 What problems or difficulties do teachers foresee arising during the realization of the learning goals which accompany the learning performance items?
2.3 What recommendations do teachers have concerning the learning
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performance items?
Discussion of Major Findings
Teachers’ Perceptions of the Importance and Feasibility of Learning Performance Items
The present study found that the majority of learning performance items received importance scores above 4 and feasibility scores above 3. The t-test results revealed that teachers’ perceptions of importance for all the learning performance items—
excluding listening 1-V-4 and listening 1-V-14—were significantly higher than their perceptions of feasibility. The above results suggest that teachers generally recognized the importance of learning performance items included in the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines for Senior High School English, yet had reservations
concerning their feasibility.
Regarding Listening, the teachers generally placed little emphasis on the rhythm and rhyme of songs and rhymes. The respondents indicated that the lack of relevant textbook material, limited instruction time, and the format of the college entrance examination accounted for the low importance and feasibility ranking of the listening items. As for Speaking, having students take part in short plays and guided
discussions using simple English was considered to be the least important and the least feasible. Some teachers stated that limited class instruction time and large class size prevented the inclusion of speaking practice, let alone putting on short plays. In addition, students’ low proficiency levels may result in a lack of motivation to speak English. Similarly, low proficiency also limits a student’s ability to give a coherent and logical short speech, brief report, or illustration. The majority of participants indicated that students with poor English proficiency often encounter difficulties in class, leading to a lack of motivation to learn English.
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Regarding Reading, the respondents considered students’ ability to “read and understand the content and plot of a short English-language play” to be the least important and the least feasible. As mentioned in the responses of the participants, textbooks seldom include short plays as teaching material. Thus, they considered this item to be less important and unfeasible. Regarding Writing, the respondents
considered the ability to “write a coherent and well-organized paragraph or expository essay on different topics according to instructions” to be the least feasible, as this task requires an advanced mastery of English. The main concern of the respondents was students’ poor proficiency levels. According to one participant, “Low achievers may possibly experience difficulty finishing the required tasks on time; especially if the classroom instruction time of English courses is reduced.” In addition, the
respondents considered the ability to “accurately translate a Chinese paragraph into English” to be the least important and a less feasible item. As one teacher stated in the open-ended question, “…some students do not possess good Chinese-language
abilities, let alone English.”
Regarding Integrated Skills, the respondents considered the ability to
“understand and appreciate articles across various genres and subjects, and then to express thoughts and opinions” to be the least important and the least feasible. The teachers reported difficulties in teaching subjects related to feelings and opinions in English, and recommended that additional materials and teacher training be provided in order to enhance teachers’ abilities to teach topics in the affective domain in English. The teachers ranked the ability to “understand and further summarize public announcements in English” the second least important and the third least feasible.
Two possible reasons for this are limited classroom instruction time and students’ low English proficiency levels.
For Interest and Attitude, the respondents evaluated the ability to “appreciate the
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features of English words and the beauty of various literary works” to have the lowest importance and feasibility value. This ability is related to the affective domain of learning, which some teachers themselves lack prior learning experience in, and are therefore unfamiliar with relevant teaching approaches. As such, these teachers require additional training and the opportunity to observe more experienced teachers.
Similarly, the respondents gave the ability to “appreciate the beauty of
English-language songs and rhymes” a rather low scores in terms of perceived importance and feasibility. In addition to lack of professional development concerning teaching English in the affective domain, songs and rhymes are seldom included in textbooks for senior high school English. As the majority of already limited classroom
instruction time is spent covering the material of the textbook, it is not surprising that the ability to “appreciate the beauty of English-language songs and rhymes” received such a low score in terms of both perceived importance and feasibility. As for another item in this category, “Willing to participate in activities that help enhance English competency (e.g. English camps, speech contests, paragraph writing contests, short plays, international programs, etc.),” it also received a rather low score in its importance and feasibility value. Many respondents indicated in the open-ended question that students lacked motivation to learn English and that “it’s hard to inspire and maintain students’ motivation for learning English.”
For Methods and Strategies, the respondents considered the ability to “make study plans for English learning and build habits of autonomous learning” and the ability to “explore or read extensively on the same topic to reinforce the depth and breadth of English learning” to be two of the least important and the least feasible items. Despite the fact that these two abilities comprise the foundation needed for life-long learning, they were not perceived to be the most important nor the most feasible.
The respondents suggested that the government hold seminars, workshops, and
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training sessions in order to facilitate the professional development of teachers and provide teachers with additional teaching materials and resources.
For Cultural Understanding, the respondents assigned the lowest score for importance and feasibility to the ability to “introduce the main festivals, customs and cultures of our country as well as that of foreign countries in English.” In addition, the respondents gave the second lowest score for importance and feasibility to the ability to “compare and contrast domestic and foreign cultures and further understand the reasons.” Some participants expressed concerns about not knowing how to teach
“cultural understanding.” Two of the participants even suggested that schools should hire native speakers as teachers to teach this topic. What is interesting in this part of findings is that teachers considered it the least important yet the most feasible in teaching the ability to “to understand, respect and appreciate foreign customs.” In contrast, the participants recognized the importance of teaching the ability to
“integrate cultural knowledge and language abilities to solve real-life problems” but considered it infeasible in practice. The findings suggest that the authorities concerned should provide more seminars and teacher training programs in terms of how to
incorporate the learning performance items in “Cultural Understanding” into teaching.
Regarding Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity, the respondents
considered the ability to “integrate all relevant information, and then plan properly or think creatively to carry out a task” to be the least important and the least feasible.
Moreover, the respondents gave rather low scores for importance to the ability to
“synthesize current information and make reasonable predictions” and rather low scores for feasibility to the ability to “analyze and find the similarities from different pieces of information and/or generalize conclusions.” Some teachers believe these abilities to be too “advanced” for students with poor English proficiency. For feasibility, teachers considered the ability to “analogize learned principles to a new
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context and use this knowledge to solve problems” the second least feasible and the ability to “evaluate various sources of information and make reasonable judgements or suggestions” the third least feasible. Some teachers also believed these items to be too “advanced” for students with poor English proficiency.
Among the nine learning categories, the categories that scored the top three for importance were: “Reading,” “Methods and Strategies”, and “Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity.” The following learning categories ranked as the lowest three in importance: “Listening,” “Speaking,” and “Interest and Attitude.” For feasibility, the categories of “Reading,” “Cultural understanding,” and “Listening”
scored the highest three, whereas “Interest and Attitude,” “Methods and Strategies,”
and “Logical Thinking, Judgment, and Creativity” scored the lowest three.
It is noteworthy that “Reading” category received the highest importance value and feasible value. It indicates that “Reading” is the aspect that is highly valued and is considered practicable in teaching. Another category that shows consistence in
perceived importance and perceived feasibility is “Interest and Attitude.” Teachers assigned the lowest scores to the importance and feasibility values of “Interest and Attitude.” It suggests that teachers put the least focus on teaching “Interest and Attitude” and considered it too ideal to incorporate learning performance items in
“Interest and Attitude” in practice. On the other hand, inconsistences were found between the importance and feasibility of “Methods and Strategies,” “Listening” and
“Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity.” Though “Listening” received low importance value, it was considered to be the most feasible by the teachers. In contrast, though “Methods and Strategies” and “Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity” were highly valued by the teachers, it was considered rather infeasible in teaching. The findings of the present study were similar to Chuang’s study (2017).
Chuang (2017) also found that “Reading” was the most valued aspect by teachers and
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that “the inclusion of thinking skills and emphasis on learning method and strategies”
was considered too ideal to put into practice. Due to demanding course schedules, students’ lack of motivation, and pressure exerted by an examination-oriented atmosphere, teachers were required to spend the majority of class time on textbooks.
In order to facilitate the incorporation of these items into classroom teaching, the government should provide teachers with more examples demonstrating how to include critical thinking skills and learning methods and strategies in regular English classes regardless of time constraints.
This study also found that the importance and feasibility rankings of some learning performance items for each learning category were extremely divergent, including Cultural Understanding 8-V-5 and Cultural Understanding *8-V-8. For Cultural Understanding 8-V-5 (Can understand and apply the basic international social etiquettes), it ranked among the bottom three for its importance value but was among the top three for its feasibility value. One the contrary, for Cultural
Understanding *8-V-8 (Can integrate cultural knowledge and language abilities to solve real-life problems), it ranked among the top three for its importance value but was among the bottom three for its feasibility value. However, in Chuang’s study (2017), the rankings of the top three and the bottom three learning performance items in this domain were identical. In particular, different from the importance and
feasibility rankings of Cultural Understanding 8-V-5 (Can understand and apply the basic international social etiquettes) in the present study, junior high school teachers in Chuang’s study (2017) ranked the ability to “understand and follow the basic international social etiquettes” the third most important and the second most feasible.
It suggests that though the senior high school teachers in the current study considered the ability to “understand and apply the international social etiquettes” quite feasible in teaching, as the junior high school teachers in Chuang’s study, they valued this
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ability less.
On the other hand, certain items were consistently ranked among the top three in terms of importance and feasibility, including Listening 1-V-1, Listening ◎1-V-2, Speaking ◎2-V-1, Speaking 2-V-2, Speaking 2-V-3, Reading ◎3-V-1, Reading 3-V-2, Reading 3-V-4, Writing 4-V-1, Writing 4- V-2, Integrated Skills 5-V6, Integrated Skills 5-V-7, Interest and Attitude ◎6-V-1, Methods and Strategies 7-V-2, Methods and Strategies 7-V-5, Logical Thinking, Judgement and Creativity 9-V-1, Logical Thinking, Judgement and Creativity 9-V-2, and Logical Thinking, Judgement and Creativity 9-V-3. It is interesting to find that the items that were considered the most important and the most feasible in teaching are mostly of basic-level abilities among the learning performance items. In contrast, certain items were consistently ranked among the bottom three in terms of importance and feasibility,, including Listening
◎1-V-14, Speaking 2-V-7, Speaking 2-V-8, Reading 3-V-11, Writing 4-V-6, Writing
*4-V-7, Integrated Skills 5-V-9, Integrated Skills *5-V-13, Interest and Attitude 6-V-5, Interest and Attitude *6-V-9, Methods and Strategies 7-V-6, Methods and Strategies 7-V-9, Cultural Understanding 8-V-1, Cultural Understanding 8-V-2, and Logical Thinking Judgement and Creativity 9-V-8. It is not surprising to find that the items that were considered the least important and the least feasible in teaching are mostly of higher-level abilities among the learning performance items. Some of the items consistent in the ranking of its importance and feasibility are similar to Chuang’s study (2017) and Chen’s study (2012) as mentioned in Chapter 4. As suggested in Chuang’s study and according to the teachers’ responses to the open-ended questions in the present study, “limited class hours” and “students’ low proficiency level” are the most important factors that appear to affect the importance and feasibility ranking of the learning performance items.
Regarding the effect of teacher s’ backgrounds on their perceptions of learning
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performance items, significant differences in perceived importance as well as in feasibility were observed among teachers with different years of teaching experience and different school locations. This contrast was particularly pronounced between teachers with over 20 years of teaching experience and teachers with less than 10 years of teaching experience. Significant inconsistent in perceived importance and feasibility also exists between teachers from cities and teachers from towns and remote areas. Teachers with less than 10 years of teaching experience generally assigned higher importance and feasibility values to learning performance items in comparison to teachers with over 20 years of teaching experience. For example, in the case of “Cultural Understanding” and “Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity,”
significant differences in the values assigned to perceived importance and feasibility were found in almost every item between teachers with less than 10 years of teaching experience and teachers with over 20 years of teaching experience. These results indicate that teachers with less than 10 years of teaching experience more commonly recognized the importance of the learning performance items in the new Curriculum Guidelines and showed a more positive attitude towards incorporation of these learning goals into the curriculum In contrast, it is not easy for teachers with over 20 years of teaching experience to recognize the new curriculum guidelines.
Likewise, teachers from cities generally assigned higher importance and
feasibility values to certain learning performance items than teachers from towns and remote areas. Teachers from cities put more focus on teaching the ability to
“understand on hearing daily English conversations” and the ability to “raises questions in English given different topics or scenarios” as well as to “speak in sentences composed of common English structure with correct pronunciation as well as appropriate intonation” than teachers from towns and remote areas. Also, teachers from cities held a more positive attitude toward the feasibility of teaching the ability
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to “understand on hearing a story spoken in English” and to “understand the key points of a passage spoken in English,” the ability to “use pictures, graphics or context to infer the meaning of words or passages of text,” the ability to “write grammatical and descriptive sentences given different topics and scenarios”, and the ability to
“write stories or personal experiences with plot development and details given prompts.” These results also echo teachers’ concerns over the urban-rural gap in their responses to the open-ended questions. Probably due to fewer resources as well as their students’ limited exposure to English and low English proficiency, teachers from towns and remote areas held a more conservative attitude toward teaching English abilities, even the very basic listening, speaking, and writing abilities.
In summary, teachers generally held positive perceptions of the learning performance items. However, due to factors such as limited classroom instruction time, students’ poor English proficiency, lack of teacher development, students’ lack of motivation, and the pressure exerted by an examination-oriented atmosphere, teachers faced considerable difficulty concerning the implementation of the new English curriculum guidelines. Despite differences in teaching experience, job position, educational background, and school location, teachers generally recognized the importance of the learning performance items outlined in the guidelines. However, some teachers held doubts concerning the feasibility of implementing certain
guidelines; these doubts were particularly prevalent among teachers with over 20 years of teaching experience.
Teachers’ Opinions of the Learning Performance Items
The second set of the research questions is concerned with teachers’ opinions of the learning performance items. According to the responses of the open-ended questions, the majority of teachers recognized the importance of the learning
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performance items and agreed that the new curriculum guidelines are
well-intentioned. However, teachers expressed concerns regarding the implementation of certain learning performance items, particularly those belonging to the category of
“Interest in and Attitude Toward Learning English,” “Cultural Understanding,” and
“Logical Thinking, Judgement, and Creativity.” As mentioned in Chapter 4, teachers’
major concerns included (a) insufficient classroom instruction time and unreasonable workloads; (b) the practicality of certain learning performance items given students’
low proficiency, lack of motivation, and the urban-rural gap; and (c) the impact of an examination-oriented atmosphere on teaching and learning. They saw a need for the authorities concerned to (a) support teachers’ professional development in
implementing the new Curriculum Guidelines by offering workshops or training programs on teaching methods, course design, and assessments in consistent with the Guidelines; (b) offer teaching materials incorporating all the learning performance items; and (c) encourage teachers to prepare lessons collaboratively. The majority of factors for the impediment of implementing the new guidelines identified from the data collected through open-ended questions have also been identified in previous studies investigating the implementation of Curriculum Guidelines for English in Taiwan (for example, Chen, 2012; Cheng, Yeh, & Su, 2011; Cheng, 2015; Chuang,
implementing the new Curriculum Guidelines by offering workshops or training programs on teaching methods, course design, and assessments in consistent with the Guidelines; (b) offer teaching materials incorporating all the learning performance items; and (c) encourage teachers to prepare lessons collaboratively. The majority of factors for the impediment of implementing the new guidelines identified from the data collected through open-ended questions have also been identified in previous studies investigating the implementation of Curriculum Guidelines for English in Taiwan (for example, Chen, 2012; Cheng, Yeh, & Su, 2011; Cheng, 2015; Chuang,