Perceptions of the Challenges

Questions aiming to indicate the difficulties, if any, faced by the students were asked during and after the reading program. The completion of worksheets turned out to present the major challenge to the learners. Among all the sections in the worksheets, questions for discussions were generally believed to be more difficult than those concerning reading

comprehension. The students mainly described a hard time producing responses that involved thinking. Also, as mentioned in the following excerpt, the students occasionally had trouble

understanding the questions in English and expressing themselves clearly in English as well.

S4: Usually the most difficult [reading activity] is the most helpful. The toughest was…working on the questions. There weren’t any choices or things like those. You had to think by yourself. For example, the questions probing into you opinions… Because you had to express yourself in English.

But we are Taiwanese.

(通常最困難的[閱讀活動]也是最有幫助的。最困難就是…寫題目啊，就是…它沒有給你選項或 什麼之類的，就是你要自己去想，就是你問…假如說…就是問你有什麼想法、什麼意見…因為 你要用英文表達，可是我們是台灣人嘛。)

T: So would it be better if you could use Chinese?

(那如果用中文表達會好一些？)

S4: It depends on the questions. Actually they were all very hard. Well…Sometimes you might not understand the questions in English, or if you could, you did not know what to write down. Or you just could not express your ideas. Too abstract! They were too abstract. (Student 4, second interview) (你要看題目啊，其實都很難啊。就是…你可能一開始看英文你不知道它在問什麼，不然就是就 算你看懂了，你也不知道寫什麼。或是你無法表達你的想法，太抽象了！你的想法太抽象了。)

Even though the teacher offered the opportunity to express thoughts in either Chinese or English, the students still found it challenging to answer the discussion questions in the worksheets. When the alternative language did not solve the problem, more time along with specific guidance, as suggested in the reflexive teaching journals, could be provided as possible solutions. According to the teacher researcher, the students were usually left little time to finish the worksheets and to have follow-up group discussions or presentations, for the presentation of one picture book often lasted for more than one hour. In this case, where the students already faced the challenge of the worksheets, insufficient time made the completion in class less likely, let alone the group discussions or presentations on their responses. Therefore, appropriate time allocation for each reading activity, probably more

time for worksheet completion and further discussions, might easily enhance the quality of the students’ worksheet performances. It would also be more probable that the students fully develop and express their ideas toward the right directions if clear explanations for the worksheet questions could be given by the teacher in advance.

In addition to the extensive questions, the section regarding vocabulary in contexts was commented by one student as the most difficult part. The definitions of certain words were sometimes too hard to understand; therefore, the participant responded to the questions in that particular section with great difficulty. To solve vocabulary-related questions, the student suggested the teacher occasionally provide Chinese translations of especially difficult words or sentences, for some of the students might have the concern for losing face. They were likely to remain silent without much comprehension of the storylines. The relevant excerpt is shown below.

T: So far, is there any part that still troubles you?

(有沒有哪一個部分是你覺得學到現在好像還是有一些困難的？)

S3: Oh...there is one suggestion for you. It’s…because you didn’t translate…you didn’t tell us the texts in Chinese, but sometimes I felt…For example, you could tell us [the translations] of the more difficult words or sentences on a certain page. For you know sometimes the students care about face-saving, they may have the idea that “I would rather not raise my hand.” They feel embarrassed.

Not everyone understands what the story is about…(Student 3, first interview)

(喔…我想到可以建議你一件事情。就是…因為你不會翻譯…你不會告訴我們故事的中文，但有 時候我覺得…例如說你覺得這一頁比較難的字，或者是這一頁比較難的句子你可能可以講一 下…對，因為你知道學生難免都會有面子問題，就是會想說「不要舉手好了」就會覺得很丟臉 嘛…不一定每個人都會知道裡面在講些什麼…)

Simply put, difficulties existed in the picture book reading program. The learners were

challenged to understand English and to ponder on their life experiences with the discussion questions in the worksheets. Despite facing challenges in the reading activities of the

program, the participants still believed they would develop the ability to achieve some good results. “Usually the most difficult activity is the most helpful,” as optimistically stated by Student 4 in the post-program interview. Additionally, based on the students’ advice or the teacher researcher’s own reflections, if minor adjustments to the program could be made, more positive effect of the program would be achieved in terms of the learners’ learning as well as the teacher’s instruction.