Chapter 4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Background information of participants
4.1.2 Participants’ socio-economic status
Besides parents’ levels of education and occupation, parents’ socio-economic status was brought into the discussion of parents’ background information. The classification of
social-economic status level was based on Lin’s (2005) two-factor weighting scale. In his measurement of socio-economic status, Lin (2005) categorized education and occupation into five levels. Education level was graduation from a graduate proⅠ gram, level was Ⅱ
graduation from college, level was graduation from high school, was graduation from Ⅲ Ⅳ elementary school and level was below graduation of elementary school. For occupation Ⅴ levels, level was advancedⅠ -professional, level was professⅡ ional, level was Ⅲ
semi-professional, level was technician and level was labor. Each level had one score, Ⅳ Ⅴ and the higher the level was, the higher the score was. Then, education level and occupation level were weighted individually (education multiplies seven and occupation multiplies four) and summed. The weighted sum was ranged in five levels representing the different levels of socio-economic status. Level represented the highest socioⅠ -economic status and level Ⅴ represented the lowest socio-economic status. Detailed information was listed in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4 details Lin’s calculation of socio-economic status.
Table 4.4
Lin’s Calculation of Socio-economic Status
Education EducationScore
Occupation Occupation Score
SES Score SES Range
SES Level
Ⅰ 5×7 Ⅰ 5×4 5×7＋5×4＝55 55~52 Ⅰ
Ⅱ 4×7 Ⅱ 4×4 4×7＋4×4＝44 51~41 Ⅱ
Ⅲ 3×7 Ⅲ 3×4 3×7＋3×4＝33 40~30 Ⅲ
Ⅳ 2×7 Ⅳ 2×4 2×7＋2×4＝22 29~19 Ⅳ
Ⅴ 1×7 Ⅴ 1×4 1×7＋1×4＝11 18~11 Ⅴ
Note. From Sociology of Education (p. 50), by S. C. Lin, 2005, Taipei: Wunan Press.
With respect to parents’ socio-economic status level in these two districts, parents in Da'an District had higher percentage in Level , and and lower percentage in Level Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ Ⅳ and than that in Wanhua District. On the contrary, nearly half (46.3%) the parents in Ⅴ Wanhua District were in Level . In general, parents’ socioⅣ -economic status level in Da'an District was higher than in that Wanhua District. Table 4.5 outlines the number and
percentage of participants’ socio-economic status in Wanhua District and Da'an District.
Table 4.5
Number and Percentage of Participants’ Socio-economic Status in Two Districts
SES Wanhua Da'an
Ⅰ 3 (2%) 6 (4 %)
Ⅱ 27 (18.4%) 44 (29.7%)
Ⅲ 41 (27.9%) 47 (31.8%)
Ⅳ 68 (46.3%) 47 (31.8%)
Ⅴ 8 (5.4%) 4 (2.7%)
Total 147 148
Note. 1 missing value in Wanhua District and 4 missing value in Da'an District
Parents’ education, occupation and socio-economic status level were higher in Da'an District than they were in Wanhua District; the results were consistent with the statistics data provided by Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in Taipei City Government in 2007.
4.2 Parental Attitudes towards English Learning
Parental attitudes towards English learning referred to parents’ feelings of ease about English learning and parents’ overall feelings about English learning in this study. Questions
1 to 9 in formal questionnaire were items about parents’ feelings of ease about English learning, and Questions 10 to 13 were statements about parents’ overall feelings about
English learning. In general, most parents disagreed that learning English is easy except for in the case of memorizing English vocabulary and learning reading skills. For speaking skills, parents held neutral attitude (M = 3.0), considering them neither easy nor difficult to learn.
Most parents had positive feelings about English learning (M ＞ 3) although parents did not think learning English is easy. The means of parents’ overall feelings about English were all higher than 3. Numbers in shade were the means which were greater than 3 or equal to 3.
Table 4.6 contains the descriptive statistics of parental attitudes towards English learning.
Table 4.6
Descriptive Statistics of Parental Attitudes towards English Learning
Parents’ feelings of ease about English learning N M SD 1. Memorizing English vocabulary is easy. 299 3.45 0.96 2. Learning English listening is easy. 298 2.96 0.99 3. Learning English reading is easy. 298 3.07 1.04 4. Learning English writing is easy. 297 2.54 1.00 5. Learning English speaking is easy. 297 3.00 1.02 6. Learning English grammar is easy. 297 2.81 1.05 7. Learning English culture is easy. 296 2.70 0.92 8. On the whole, learning English is easy. 298 2.80 1.02 9. I think my English ability is good. 297 2.82 1.06 Parents’ overall feelings about English learning N M SD
10. Learning English is fun. 299 3.48 0.94
11. Learning English brings me a sense of achievement. 298 3.48 0.92 12. On the whole, I like to learn English. 298 3.34 0.97 13.The experience of learning English is good. 273 3.16 1.00
Note. Numbers in shade are the means which are greater than 3 or equal to 3.
The open-ended question in the parental attitudes scale was that “According to your past or current English learning experience, what is the most difficult part in English learning for
you? Or what assistances or resources do you need most in the process of learning English?”
Out of 300 participants, 170 participants answered this question with an overall response rate of 56.7%. There were 74 responses from parents in Wanhua District and 96 responses were from parents in Daan District.
As for the most difficult English skills or components of English: for the parents, English listening, writing, speaking and English grammar were considered to be the hardest parts of the English learning process. A total of 23 parents considered that English listening to be the most difficult part for them when learning English and 22 parents thought that writing was the most difficult part of English learning. Meanwhile 16 parents regarded English grammar as the most difficult part of learning English; another 16 parents stated that speaking was the most difficult part for them. Still others thought that memorizing vocabulary (7 responses), reading (6 responses), pronunciation (6 responses) and culture customs (3
responses) were the most difficult parts involved in English learning. Table 4.7 provides some examples of participants’ responses. All parents’ responses to the question of what is the most difficult part in English learning are listed in Appendix F.
Table 4.7
Examples of Participants’ Responses to the Most Difficult Part in English Learning
No Response of participantsListening
103 聽力方面較困難 (Listening is more difficult)
157 聽各式腔調的英文很難 (It is hard to understand the different accents of English.)
Writing
236 寫作的文法比較困難 (Written grammar is more difficult.) 244 寫作精簡很困難 (It is hard to write concisely and precisely.) Speaking
81 遇見外國人不敢開口 (I do not dare speak to foreigners.)
261 不敢開口說害怕說錯 (I dare not speak English because I am afraid that I may make mistakes.)
Grammar
59 背文法 (Memorizing grammar rules is the most difficult part for me.) 136 文法較困難 (Grammar is more difficult)
Other skills or components of language
38 英文看不懂又沒有中文翻譯，英文很難學 (I cannot understand English and if no Chinese translation is provided; it is hard to learn English.) 46 發音不標準 (My pronunciation is not correct.)
75 文章內容所牽涉的文化背景 (The cultural context of the articles) 208 單字難背 (It is hard to memorize vocabulary. )
With regard to the problems or difficulties that parents have encountered during the process of learning English as a foreign language, (a) environment, (b) teaching and learning methods, (c) motivation, (d) persistence and patience were the top four problems and
difficulties that they faced. In this study, environment referred to the environment where learners can (a) improve their speaking ability (29 responses), (b) using English or apply
English in daily life (20 responses), (c) learn English (14 responses), (d) practice English and (e) others. For teaching and learning methods, 10 responses mention teachers’ teaching methods or teaching materials and the other 7 responses were about participants’ personal learning methods. Other difficulties and problems were the lack of motivation, lack of persistence and patience, or lack of time. Table 4.8 provided the examples of participants’
responses to their problems and difficulties in learning English. All and complete responses from parents are listed in Appendix G.
Table 4.8
Examples of Participants’ Responses to their Problems and Difficulties in Learning English
No Response of participantsEnvironment for speaking
2 無練習口語環境 (No environment for speaking practice) 79 沒有學習環境 (No environment for learning )
135 應用機會不多(No opportunities to use English) Teaching and learning methods
90 我覺得個人的學習不是很好 (I do not think that my learning methods are good.)
166 教材不好，老師只會照書講 (The teaching material is not good enough and the teacher only reads from the textbook.)
271 老師的教法很重要 (The teacher’s teaching methods are very important.) Motivation
152 沒有十足的動力促發學習，所以經常是不持續且片段 (I do not have any
motivation to learn, and I am not persistent in my learning.) Persistence and Patience
238 恆心是很重要 (Persistence in learning is important.) Others
192 沒有時間，工作 (I have to work and have no time to study.)
Discussion
When discussing the most difficult parts involved in English learning, parents’ responses to the open-ended question may explain parental attitudes towards English learning.
Memorizing vocabulary (M = 3.45) and reading skills (M = 3.07) were the only two parts that were easy for parents to learn. For parents, they may think that their poor memory was the factor that determines their ability to memorize vocabulary instead of the vocabulary itself.
For example, Participant 31 (See Appendix F) said that his memory is poor and he easily forgets the vocabulary that he had just memorized.
As for reading skills, parents may consider the problem to have stemmed from a combination of grammar and translation. They believed they could not understand the meaning of articles because of grammar and the lack of Chinese translation instead of other deficiencies in their reading skills. For example, Participant 305 (See Appendix F) said that “I have difficulty in reading because the teacher did not teach me grammar.” The result
coincides with Liang’s (2003) myths of English teaching in Taiwan. The myths were that (a) learning English entails learning English grammar only and (b) English should be learned through translating the original into Chinese. The traditional teaching methods in Taiwan put emphasis on translation and grammar teaching; thus, parents may misunderstand that their reading comprehension lies in the mastery of grammar and translation. Thus, Liang’s (2003) myths of English teaching in Taiwan reflected parents’ myths regarding English learning. For example, learning English meant learning and memorizing English grammar rules; reading text must be translated into Chinese in order to comprehend, and English was declarative knowledge which consists of facts, concepts, or ideas that can be stored as propositions. For parents, their English learning experience should be updated and renewed in order to dispel these myths of English learning.
Parents’ need for English speaking environment may explain parents’ neutral attitude towards speaking (M = 3.0). Parents may consider the environment for speaking practice to
be the key element when learning English speaking ability. As long as there was an environment for speaking, learning speaking ability was not difficult for them.
Parents’ responses to the open-ended question reflected parents’ problems and
difficulties in English learning as well as the assistance and resources they needed to learn English. Parents’ need for English learning or a good environment in which to practice coincides with the findings of previous studies (Chen, 2002; Cheng, 2000; Wu, 1999) about problems in Taiwan’ elementary school English education. While primary English education focuses on creating a good English environment for learners, parents emphasized more on the opportunities and environment for using and practicing English especially the environment for improving speaking ability. The results implied that the need for English learning environment was required not only for young learners but also for adult learners.
On the whole, parents held positive attitudes towards English learning but they may have no time, opportunities or access to the right resources needed to recommence the process of learning English. In addition, their past English learning experience may convey the myths of traditional teaching methods in Taiwan. Thus, the opportunities or access provided for parents to learn English again may be essential and necessary.