Diversified Sources of Materials Make Learning More Dynamic

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立 政 治 大 學

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l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

5.4 Diversified Sources of Materials Make Learning More Dynamic

In addition to the exposure to the authentic materials that attracted Patrick’s learning interest, the provision of various sources used to present these materials may also play a critical role influencing Patrick’s change of attitude. For instance, the other two cultural topics that Patrick reported to enjoy the most including, lesson two “Animal Sounds and Languages” and lesson seven “The Sun and the Moon,” were introduced in the class with the use of diversified sources of materials.

Lesson two “Animal Sounds and Languages” aimed to introduce the English animal sound words with the purpose of raising the learner’s awareness of the facts that animal sounds can be described differently in different languages. A variety of activities and media resources were adopted to realize the goal as such. First, to show the differences among different animal sounds, the researcher played a video that contained different people pronouncing different animals’ sounds in their own native languages. Second, the researcher taught the kids different animals by using colorful PowerPoint slides. Then, to familiarize the learners with the English animal sounds, the researcher used the video clip and taught them how to sing the song “What Does the Fox Say” in which the first part of the lyrics contained the sentences of different animal sounds like “Dog goes woof. Cat goes meow. Bird goes tweet.” Finally, the learners then compared animal sounds in both English and Chinese in a Venn diagram (see Appendix D for Patrick’s work). In the interview, Patrick explained

enthusiastically why he liked this lesson: “because I could sing the song and know what the fish say!” and “I like to watch the video… Many people make the animal sounds and that’s fun!” Likewise, in lesson seven “the Sun and the Moon” many sources of materials were also adopted to introduce the Korean’s myth about the origin of the sun and the moon.

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There were three main activities in the lesson. First, the researcher asked the learners different questions regarding the Korean cultural facts, such as “What is the most popular sport in South Korea?” or “Which one is the traditional Korean dish?” and the learners then needed to answer them by choosing the pictures presented on the

PowerPoint slides. Second, the story of “the Sun and the Moon” was presented in a story video with sounds and animation. After watching the video, the learners then did a series of post-reading activities, including read-aloud, cloze, and text reconstruction.

After the learners were familiar with the story, the researcher then asked them to compare the similarities and the differences between the Korean and the Taiwanese versions of the story in a Venn diagram (see Appendix E for Patrick’s work). In the feedback sheet, Patrick reported that he thought the story “the Sun and the Moon”

was interesting because he could not only know the features and special things about different cultures through playing the guessing game but also watch the animated story.

Patrick’s enthusiastic response to these two lessons corresponds to the previous research that suggested the utilization of divergent sources of materials—especially those presented through the computer-assisted technology—can be highly beneficial and effective in facilitating children’s learning. As a matter of fact, in the field of SLA, a plethora of studies have pointed out that given young learners’ learning

characteristics, such as short attention span and curious nature, language teachers need to create a more dynamic and interesting learning environment to stimulate their curiosity and interest. For example, Brown (2007) suggested that children need to receive various sources of input that stimulates all their five senses to maximize the learning result. And to do so, it is therefore necessary to provide different sources of materials. Nevertheless, the researcher discovered that in both Patrick’s learning

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contexts—his formal school and the after school settings— the textbook was the single learning material, and no other forms of supplementary learning materials were used in the class. That is to say, the major input that Patrick received was from the paper copy textbooks and the CDs that came with them. It was therefore not unreasonable to say that learning from the single source of material which was not very engaging in the first place failed to arouse his learning interest and deepened his unpleasant feelings towards learning English in both settings. Against this backdrop, it came as no surprise that Patrick’s learning attitude would undergo a more positive change when he participated in the IECT instruction, for the exposure to a variety of sources, such as storybooks, music videos, comics, story films, and on-line websites in each unit set a sharp contrast to his other English learning experiences. These diversified sources of materials presented mainly through the computer provided him with different sensory stimuli and, as a result, enriched the learning experience by transforming the learning from a static and inflexible way to a more interactive and dynamic setting.

To sum up, the findings of the present study led us to infer that the fruit of Patrick’s change of learning attitude over the course of the instruction hinges on four main deciding factors. The first factor reveals that the integration of cultural

knowledge into language learning redirected the class focus from pure language symbols to useful contents. This change could make learning more meaningful and therefore motivated Patrick to learn English with more positive attitude. Secondly, culture learning, to certain degrees, helped develop Patrick’s integrative oriented motivation that gave him the desire to interact and communicate with children with varied cultural backgrounds. The prospect of making friends with others further reinforced his learning motivation and improved his learning attitude. Last but not

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least, the utilization of authentic materials and diverse sources of materials made the learning more dynamic as well as interesting; as a result, it enriched Patrick’s overall learning experience and changed his attitude toward English learning.