Classroom Instructions

In Ron‟s opinion, “associating known knowledge to unknown knowledge was the best teaching strategy to help students acquire language efficiently.” (Formal Interview 3, July 1^st, 2010). In practical situations, he reviewed relevant grammatical rules and vocabulary which students learned before when introducing new grammar and vocabulary. He spent much time reviewing students‟ prior knowledge so that the slow progress of teaching did not meet the schools‟ progress. He thought that students with the solid foundation could learn much better than those with a weak base. As he said,

In this remedial program, teachers aimed to help students understand how to gain knowledge by themselves rather than achieve high scores on exams. I believed that once students mastered some learning skills and accumulated enough basic knowledge, their academic performances would also become better.

(Formal Interview 3, July 1^st, 2010)

Holding this belief, Ron always reviewed grammatical patterns repeatedly. For

example, he taught auxiliary interrogative sentences and negative sentences five times throughout the semester. When finding that students in his class did not acquire the basic grammatical rules, he reviewed the concepts again. By using these teaching

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strategies, Ron found that they were successful in conveying the basic sentence structures and guiding students to learn the target sentences according to test performances.

Instruction 2: Vocabulary teaching

One of the focuses in Ron‟s class was vocabulary instruction. He thought that,

“the most important aspect of learning English was vocabulary, which was one of the building blocks of language” (Formal Interview 2, June 7^th, 2010). Without

vocabulary, students could not understand sentences, not to mention organizing their speech. For each unit, he would choose a number of words that he thought important, based on both his teaching and learning experiences. In addition to some keywords, he picked polysemy to explain further. When explaining polysemy, he also gave Chinese meanings and translations for students to learn from the context (see Appendix G). He asserted that, “it was of importance for students to learn the polysemy. Although there was only one meaning in their textbooks, they needed to understand that there was not only one in daily use. (After-classroom Observation, May 3^rd, 2010). Not only did Ron provide the surface meanings of a word, he introduced semantic, pragmatic, and sociocultural parts as well in order to reinforce students‟ memorization and foster their interests in English learning. As he claimed,

Although I was not a Chinese, I learnt English before and also majored in English as my master degree. Compared to other English teachers, I felt that I knew something more than they did. Because of different backgrounds, I thought that I could provide different language perspectives for students.

(Formal Interview 2, June 7^th, 2010)

Once, he taught months, which were difficult for students to memorize owning to the

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multiple syllabi. He separated those words into two parts and told students the origins of those words. For example, sept-, oct-, nov-, and dec- were from the Latin, which meant nine, ten, eleven, and twelve. (Classroom Observation, May 31^st, 2010). He thought that memorizing a word with its historical backgrounds was much more efficient than cramming. Another example was that when teaching the word, beef, he introduced its historical background to students. When Ron introduced the historical parts, students all paid great attention to him. The other event was the subtle

difference of words‟ meanings between British English and American English. He explained the difference between “a lot of” and “lots of”. He said that those two phrases had the similar Chinese meanings; however, “a lot of” meant many and “lots of” meant much more. There was a slight distinction. (Classroom Observation, April 26^th, 2010). He stated that despite the fact that students might not know what he introduced comprehensively, and exams might not cover those parts, he still had the responsibility to teach them those valuable lessons.

Instruction 3: Grammar teaching

The other emphasis in Ron‟s class was grammatical rules. For him, using

grammatical structures correctly in the appropriate context was essential. The concept was formed from his personal experiences being a foreigner who saw many English mistakes occurring in Taiwan. He hoped that students did not make the same mistakes and learned how to utilize English accurately. The deductive approach he used aimed to provide students a clear formulaic rule to follow. He taught grammatical patterns briefly and then provided many Chinese-English translations. With extensive practice, he believed that students would pick up rules directly and immediately. He said that,

“I hope that students could answer those basic questions spontaneously. They needed to subconsciously and naturally use the target language to express their ideas rather

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than deliberately think how to answer questions in English correctly. ” (Formal Interview 2, June 7^th, 2010). From his language learning experiences, he thought that learning should happen in a natural context.

For Ron, association with the known knowledge and unknown knowledge was useful for students to learn previous grammatical rules and new patterns

systematically (See Appendix H). Especially in the remedial course, students with low achievements required teachers to connect knowledge together, which could enhance their learning outcomes. With well-organized instructions, great deals of exercises were followed. In such a way, it would help students to be aware of grammatical items and be able to use the target structures accurately and fluently. In addition to a deductive grammatical teaching approach, Ron compared Chinese grammar and English grammar. He explained that, “I learned both English and Chinese before, so I consciously picked up syntactic rules in both language systems. I knew the

differences between the two languages. Being aware of those distinctions between two languages could help students clarify their confusion and avoid making linguistic mistakes. ” (Formal Interview 2, June 7^th, 2010). Example 4.4 showed how Ron taught the Be-verb rule to students by language comparison. When teaching the simple sentence, Ron made comparisons to reinforce students‟ understanding.

Example 4.5

T: 當你說天氣很熱和我的朋友很聰明，中文裡面有沒有動詞？

(Is there a verb in Chinese when you say the sentence, the weather is hot, or the sentence, my friend is very smart?”)

S: 好像沒有 (No!)

T: 對了! 天氣很熱，中文沒有動詞，但是英文有。我的朋友很聰明一樣，

中文也沒有動詞，但是英文有。

(You are right! When you say the weather is hot, there is no verb in Chinese but in English. This sentence “My friend is very smart” has the same grammar.

There is no verb in Chinese, too. But in English, it contains verb.)

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(Classroom observation, April 26^th, 2010)

Instruction 4: Various types of drills

Ron perceived that tedious exercises could reinforce students‟ prior knowledge and they were indispensable in language learning. After he taught a new grammar rule and new words, he provided students with drills, including dictations, fill-in,

Chinese-English translations, True-or-False, vocabulary, short-answer questions, reading comprehensions, and other types of exercises. When reviewing translations, Ron gave several possible answers for each question. He also pointed out that since grammatical rules were abstract and unknown words were also meaningless for students, constant practice of the target language in meaningful contexts was of importance. To achieve meaningful learning, Ron often wrote short paragraphs containing unfamiliar words and grammar by him. For example, when teaching weather adjectives, he used his personal story to write a text as below.

I like to live in Taiwan. It is very different from my country but the people there are very nice with foreigners. It is different from Hong Kong or Mainland China.

Besides, the weather is much warmer than in Europe. [……] In winter, it is very cold. You must wear warm sweaters and jackets. The season I prefer is autumn.

Then the weather is usually good, not too hot and not too humid. [……] in May and June, it can rain a lot. This is the rainy season and the Taiwanese call this the

“plum rain”. Usually, the rain comes with thunderstorms.

(Classroom observation, June 7^th, 2010)

He read the story twice. The first time, he read the story loudly and asked the students to listen to it carefully. Then he asked some comprehensive questions from contexts.

Most of time, there was no response from students. Then, he read it again with nonverbal aids, such as gestures and drawings. Students could look at their text at the second time. In the text, Ron not only provided the unknown words, the weather

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adjectives, but also reviewed the known words, months and clothing from previous lessons. Then, short-answer questions were followed. Finally, students also were asked to repeat after him. As shown above, Ron tried to integrate listening, reading, speaking, and grammar together. By using multiple input and output, he hoped that students could be familiarized with the sentence patterns and target words under a meaningful context.

Instruction 5: Assessment

After teaching a unit, Ron used to give tests at the beginning of the class once every two weeks. The purpose of tests was to examine to what extent students learned the previous grammatical patterns, which had been taught. Then, he could modify his teaching pace and instruct what students had learnt before again by reviewing

questions. There were diverse question items, including text dictations, 20 words dictations, questions, True-or-False, and sentence corrections. Among those drills, text dictations were very essential for Ron. As he said,

I knew in Taiwan, teachers seldom did so. But in my country, this kind of test was very common. When I learnt English before, my teachers gave test dictations every time. It developed several language skills but also integrated high-level comprehensive capabilities.

(After Classroom Interview, April 26^th, 2010)

Because of his prior learning experiences, Ron thought that English teaching should not focus on the discrete skills such as grammar and reading. It should integrate four skills. During the period of exam, Ron would give students some individual

instructions if they had problems. For him, test scores were important and indicated whether students studied hard or not at home. If students did not get a good grade, he would blame and harshly scold the students. As he said,

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Because no one would force them to study hard and their parents did not care about their academic performances, I thought it was important for me to discipline them to work hard. They needed to know the purpose of studying.

Playing computer games, hanging out with friends, and fooling around were useless.

(Formal Interview 3, July 1^st, 2010)

For Ron, the main assessment in class was tests which could indicate students‟

learning outcomes and helped him adjust his teaching pace. Moreover, the philosophy behind tests was to urge students to study hard.