Foreign class

Statement 11: I pay more attention to class taught by the foreign teacher.

Following the attitude towards English after being taught, the students’ feelings about FTAs’ class were analyzed. In the first questionnaire, an average high score of 3 was seen on this statement, but in the second questionnaire, a slightly lower score of 2 was given by the learners. The results showed that, towards the end of the year, students had a lower perception of their attentiveness to their FTAs. Two possible underlying reasons came from classroom observations which could illustrate the results. For the first reason why the students have diverted attention away from FTAs’

classes was likely due to teacher turnover. In the beginning of March, 2017, a LET of one class resigned her job due to illness. The school was not able to find a local substitute teacher until the middle of April. During this period, the students were seen more unruly than usual. They frequently chatted with their friends and were distracted easily so that the FTA had to spend more extra time on classroom management.

Perhaps the students’ disruptive behavior could be explained by the “compositional”

effect of teacher turnover on students learning (Ronfeldt et al, 2013). With teacher turnover, students have to take time to adjust themselves to different teaching styles between teachers who leave and those who replace them. Previous research on teacher turnover, student engagement, and learning achievement has revealed negative

correlations (Kraft et al, 2016); that is, teacher turnover has a detrimental influence on student learning. As a result, the instance of teacher turnover probably contributed to the students’ perception of less attention in the FTA’s class.

The second reason was considered related to the classroom seating arrangements.

One FTA used the style of cluster seating in class which allowed the students to learn cooperatively. Because of the cluster seating, the students were able to interact and share knowledge in groups and the co-teacher could monitor their’ behaviors.

However, during the group work, the students could talk to each other easily instead of paying attention to the FTA. In addition, the students, especially those facing the back of the classroom, easily avert attention from the FTA’s instruction because if they wanted to look at the FTA or the blackboard, they had to turn their heads and bodies half way around. These students had to frequently adjust their sitting posture during the class. A LET once mentioned that because of the seating arrangement, these students appeared to be less attentive to the FTA in class. The LET also pointed out that she had to repeatedly remind them, “Eyes to the front,” to help the students stay focused. These situations suggested that students’ less attentiveness might be

influenced by this seating arrangement.

Classroom seating arrangements, according to McCorskey & McVetta (1978), have a profound impact on the overall classroom atmosphere and the stage for teacher-student relationship. Also, a certain seating arrangement could influence learners’ personal investment in the class and their general degree of participation (Burke, 2008). Simmons et al (2015) conducted an experiment in order to investigate students off-task behaviors in response to three seating arrangements (cluster,

horseshoe, and row) across four dimensions: inappropriate talking, students out of their seats without permission, students not following directions, and students not starting independent work promptly. They found that students displayed the fewest off-task behaviors in row seating, which suggests that row seating is appropriate for promoting learners’ attention. As for promoting teacher-students interaction or learners’ active engagement, the u-shaped and split-half or semicircular seating

arrangements help exhibit more teacher-to-student verbal interactions and students’

participations (i.e., asks questions, student-initiated talk, etc.) than in the typical row and column arrangement (Ridling, 1994; Marx et al, 1999). Minchen (2007) proposes that teachers can utilize various styles of seating arrangements according to their teaching styles and needs for instruction. Therefore, except for the unexpected teacher turnover event, it might be suggested that in the future, FTAs could be reminded of utilizing different types of classroom seating arrangement so that students would more likely reduce off-task behaviors and concentrate in FTAs’ classes.

Statement 12: I feel that classes with foreign teachers are more interesting and fun.

Following the result of a slightly reduced attention to FTAs’ classes at the end of the school year, students’ perception of the learning environment created by the FTAs was discussed. In the first and the second statements analysis, students gave a high score of over 3 though there was a minor decreased mean score in the second questionnaire. The minor decrease did not suggest that the students did not enjoy FTA’s classes since the average score was still considered on a high end on scale of 4.

The result indicate that the students liked the classroom atmosphere (No. 12). The classroom observations, informal conversations with students as well as interviews also supported students’ positive perception of the FTAs’ class atmosphere.

During the classroom observations, FTAs were often seen to create a relaxing and lively classroom atmosphere through showing videos from the Internet and using more authentic materials (e.g., American movie series) to involve students in class. In one classroom observation at the beginning of the term, the FTA was teaching the daily sentence, “What does ______ mean?” and introducing the word,

“supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, by playing a movie clip on the Internet. The students had pleased facial expressions without uttering a word. Across the school year, the students were found making more verbal comments about the characters in

the video they watched. For example, when the FTA taught the packaging-related vocabulary with the help of the video clip, Mr. Bean, the students not only showed the thrill of watching it but also gave comments on the behaviors of the character.

(While watching “Mr. Bean”) S1: “他的動作好好笑!”

(“The character’s behaviors are funny.”) S2: “好蠢喔!”

(“The character acts dumb.”)

(Classroom observation, March 03, 2016)

The increased students’ responses suggest that integrating audio-visual materials into classroom instruction for pedagogical purposes engages the students’ interests in the FTA’s class. According to Richard E. Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (2009), various types of audio-visual materials serve as effective tools to support learning process, which makes language learning not only just word learning but also a diverse sensory experience. Compared to the print media of textbooks, the information presented in the form of audio and video multimedia teaching materials are more entertaining and could better arouse learners’ learning motivation (Gilakjani, 2012). Other examples of students’ active involvement in FTAs’ classes were when students intentionally responded to the FTA by providing opposite answers or jokes, as can be seen from the following classroom observation.

FTA: “Are you excited with learning English?”

Some students shout out: “No!No!”

Some students said: “Yes.”

FTA: “Yes, Maybe, No.”

(Classroom observation, December 30, 2015) FTA: “Can you guys make cookies?”

Many students smiled and shout out: “No!”

Some students said: “I can eat cookies.”

FTA laughed heartily: “Me too.”

(Classroom observation, March 22, 2016)

To understand these students’ special reactions in the class, the researcher had informal conversations with some students. Several students mentioned that they sometimes liked to intentionally say the opposite answers or made a joke when

responding to the FTA’s questions. However, they were not mean to the FTA but did it as a way to show that they had fun with him. In a sense, such examples showed that the students felt interested in the FTA’s class. At the same time, they seemed to be taken their interests further by interacting with the FTAs cleverly.

On the other hand, in students’ interviews, it was found that most of the interviewees mentioned that FTAs’ classes were more interesting and relaxing than the typical English classes. Below are two quotes from two interviewees, who are considered shy in class, from the quiet group.

“一般上課大家比較安靜，外師的課比較活潑，而且比較多遊戲可以找 同學練習。”

(“My classmates are more active and enthusiastic in the FTA’s class than the regular class. We can practice (English) with peers through a lot of games.) (Doris, June 21, 2016)

“外師課比較輕鬆有趣，有很多活動可以小組討論。”

(“The FTA’s class is more relaxing and interesting. Group discussion is often used in a lot of activities.”)(Colin, June 22, 2016)

These relatively shy and not involved students liked a wide array of group and classroom activities designed by FTAs, such as information gap activities, Telephone Pictionary, and board games. They did not get bored with learning English in class

and indicated that they could discuss with group members when getting a bit

confused. Sometimes the group members would teach the low-achieving students and even praised their efforts. These observations are in accordance with Dörnyei’s (1997) and Ghaith’s (2003) ideas that group activities for peer cooperation were the source of motivational orientation. Therefore, we could infer from this statement that the FTAs created group activities for students to not only express their ideas but work

cooperatively, which increased students’ learning motivation in a friendly and highly interactive classroom environment. In addition, one of the interviewees commented that the FTA’s class was fun because of the FTA’s projection of enthusiasm.

“外師有時候會有發瘋的感覺、很活潑。”

(“The FTA is energetic and sometimes even crazy.”)(Bonnie, June 21, 2016)

The field notes of classroom observations further showed that FTAs usually expressed their interests in the content and activities they prepared and projected enthusiasm. They also made good use of body language (i.e., thumb up, frequent body movements, rich and vivid facial expressions) and vocal delivery (i.e., up-lifting intonations, excited speech, great changes in tone and pitch) as well as created their own fun attention-getting signal (i.e., ah-oh, clapping) to present their own excitement about learning. These observations indicated that teacher enthusiasm and behaviors are likely to influence learners’ learning interests and motivation. According to Czikszentmihalyi (1982), enthusiastic teachers are “the nutcases whose involvement in the subject matter are so excessive that it is bordering on being crazy” (as cited in Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2013, p. 187). Moreover, several scholars have pointed out the importance of teachers’ enthusiasm for actively promoting students’ intrinsic motivation to learn (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2013; Stipek, 2002). Compared an

enthusiastic teacher with an unenthusiastic teacher, the results from Patrick et al (2000) showed that an enthusiastic teacher enables students to feel instrinsically motivated and experience greater enjoyment and interests in the lesson and materials.

Another study of 20 teachers by Collins (1978) identified a set of verbal and

nonverbal behaviors that manifest teacher enthusiasm, including varied vocal delivery, demonstrative gesture, diversified word selection, emotive facial expressions, and appropriate manner of accepting ideas etc. Thus, the observation and students’ report of FTAs’ behaviors in class appeared to successfully create enthusiastic class

atmosphere, and the students in this study thus had a good perception of the FTAs’

enthusiasm, which facilitated their enjoyment and interests in the lesson and further fired their learning motivation.

Overall the students felt positive about the FTAs’ classes while the second questionnaire showed a slightly reduced perception of English classes. Two possible reasons came from classroom observations and interviews which could illustrate the results. One possible explanation for this finding could be students might have gotten used to the teacher’s teaching method so that although the FTAs’ classes still seemed interesting, they had become a bit bored with the similar kind of classroom activities after one year. The decreased levels of students’ perceptions could be viewed as a sign for FTAs to consider whether they need to adjust their teaching or prepare different classroom activities so that students would stay motivated with different class routine and activities. For instance, both FTAs in this study used jeopardy in the class and the students showed enthusiasm about the activity at the beginning of the term;

nevertheless, students gradually showed less passion for it even though they were still involved in the game. One of the FTAs was aware of this phenomenon and changed more stimulating elements in the same game (e.g., If a team hits a bomb, they go bankrupt!). In that situation, the students showed renewed interest about the activity

again, and their learning motivation was thus rekindled.

The other reason was considered related to the inappropriate difficulty of activities. In students’ interviews, some of the interviewees mentioned that FTAs’

activities occasionally were too challenging or too easy for them so that they felt less participated and a little bored. The following are two quotes from two interviewees.

“某個活動比較難所以比較沒有參與感，是附近同學教我才懂。”

(“One activity was too difficult for me so that I was not involved in the class. I didn’t understand it until my peers taught me.”) (Doris, June 21, 2016)

“有一次的桌遊遊戲有點太簡單，骰骰子，走到第 5 格，唸唸句子。”

(“A board game was too easy for us. We just only rolled the dice, moving some steps forward, and read a few English sentences aloud.”)(Alex, June 22, 2016)

When triangulating the field notes of classroom observations, in that class of playing the board game, some students did not actively participate in the activity until the FTA checked their learning condition; otherwise, most of the time they merely rolled the dice and chatted with the peers (March 03, 2016). In addition, one of the FTAs pointed out that sometimes students said that the game was boring and were not willing to try because the game was very simple they thought that it was too easy. In that case, the FTA perceived that she has to adjust the activities in order for them to more challenging for the students. These situations suggested that students’ less interested in FTAs’ class might be influenced by not appropriate level of challenge for students to feel successful, which is a part of motivation towards SL learning

(Gardner, 2007).

Ways of teaching and difficulties of activity, according to Hammer (1991), are the two factors that can motivate or demotivate language learners involved in English

learning. Therefore, it might be suggested that in the future FTAs could be reminded of multiple changes in their teaching procedure and appropriate levels of classroom activities so that students would not be used to usual practices in the class and not feel the challenge of activities are too high or too low, which students’ learning motivation could be maintained.

Statement 17: I hoped that every English class in the future would be taught by a native teacher and a foreign teacher.

After students reported that FTAs’ classes are interesting, whether they wanted the future class be taught by a LET together with a FTA or not was analyzed. When it comes to the perception of co-teaching, an average high score of 3 was given on this item in the first and the second questionnaire. Even though a slight decreased score in the second questionnaire, the results indicated that the students still looked forward to being taught by co-teachers. The result of this statement implies that the students held a positive learning motivation after a year, which is congruent with the work of Chiang (2014) which suggests that co-teaching between FTAs and LETs raises EFL learners’ learning motivation,

In addition, the classroom observation, interview, and informal conversation data correspond to the statistical data. As listed in Table 6, there were two advantageous Table 6

Classroom observations and Participants’ Reported Features of the Combination of a FTA and a LET

Features Classroom observations Participants’ Reports Clear the

confusion immediately

When students struggled with words, they seek LETs for help to translate. Then they were able to communicate with FTAs easily.

“如果我講錯時，外師聽不懂 時我可以請中師翻譯。”

(“The LET can help me translate when the FTA does not understand what I am saying.”)(taken from Dave,

June, 22, 2016) Elaborate

instructions

The LETs help FTAs restate FTAs’ points either in English or Chinese again and give some example so that students can more comprehend FTAs’ FTA’s instruction, we need the LET help explain the unclear content.”)(Informal

conversation, March, 17, 2016)

features of the combination of an FTA and a LET, including clearing the confusion immediately and elaborating instructions. Only one negative remark was made by an interviewee, “the interaction between the FTA and the LET can be more; otherwise, it is weird to see that LET just stand there and watch.” Such findings are in line with both Baniabdelrahman (2013) and Carless (2006), which indicated that students benefited from the combination of NESTs and NNESTs than either instructing alone in the classroom. Both teachers are equipped with different strengths and weaknesses and can create a supportive learning environment for their learners.

However, the little dropped scores in the second questionnaire showed the co-teaching experience did not seem to be good for students. One speculated reason for not understanding FTAs’ instruction could explain the gap. Students’ comprehension of what FTAs said was not always good enough especially when the FTAs sometimes spoke too fast while giving instructions for an activity. When this situation happened, the students felt less participated in class. Below are two quotes that the students have reported this situation in their interviews.

“當我不了解活動時，我不太會問外師，因為外師有時候講話比較快，

有些地方會聽不太懂。”

(“When I don’t understand the activity, I seldom inquire the FTA. Sometimes

the FTA speaks too fast which is why I have difficulties in understanding the FTA’s instruction.”) (Doris, June 21, 2016)

“有一次活動, 我被點上台當示範者，但外師講太快所以那時我沒聽 懂，不知道要幹麻，而且台下同學都在看，我當下很緊張。”

(“Once, I was called on to be a demonstrator of an activity. But I did not know what I should do because I did not comprehend the FTA’s instruction.

The FTA spoke at a too fast speech rate. Besides, every classmate was looking at me. I felt so nervous at that moment.”)(Bonnie, June 11, 2016)

Previous research has found that foreign teachers’ speed of speech could be difficult for L2 learners to comprehend and sometimes inhibited L2 learners’ learning (Benke

& Medgyes, 2005). Perhaps in the future, FTAs could be reminded of their speech rate in order to give students exact guidance on the classroom activity to be done. At the same time, LETs should help elaborate the purpose of the task and activity so that the students could better understand the instructions given by FTAs and be more willing to participate in FTAs’ classes.