透過文化融合英語教學轉變學習態度: 一位台灣小學生之個案研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文. 指導教授：余明忠博士 Advisor：Dr. Ming-chung Yu. 透過文化融合英語教學轉變學習態度: 一位台灣小學生之個案研究. 政治大 The Development of English Learning Attitude through an Integrated English 立 and Culture Teaching Instruction: A Case of a Young Learner in Taiwan. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. 研究生：吳浩瑜撰 Name：Hao-yu Wu 中華民國一零四年一月 January, 2015. v.

(2) The Development of English Learning Attitude through an Integrated English and Culture Teaching Instruction: A Case of a Young Learner in Taiwan. 立. 治 A Master Thesis 政大. Presented to Department of English,. ‧ 國. 學 National Chengchi University. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Hao-yu Wu January, 2015.

(3) To Dr. Ming-chung Yu 獻給我的恩師余明忠教授. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements This research paper is made possible largely because of Dr. Ming-chung Yu, professor of Department of English, National Chengchi University, for his inspiring tutelage and unwavering support throughout my research endeavor. Given the nature of the research undertaking being challenging, countless obstacles would have been. 政治大 gratitude to Dr. Yu for his complete and utter devotion to my research undertaking. 立. insurmountable through my own effort. I would therefore like to express my utmost. Due to those thought-provoking and dopamine-firing meetings, exchanges of thoughts,. ‧ 國. 學. and advice counseling sessions Dr. Yu provided, this research has now come to. ‧. fruition. I find myself indebted to his supports.. sit. y. Nat. In addition, I am grateful to two distinguished committee members, Dr.. io. er. Chen-kuan Chen and Dr. Chin-chi Chao for their reading of the manuscript and for their valuable feedbacks and useful advice. I also want to extend my gratitude to Dr.. al. n. v i n C h Dr. Chieh-yu Yeh. Yi-ping Huang and my homeroom teacher I am grateful to them engchi U. not only because of their useful feedback given in the oral defense of my master thesis proposal but also because of their inspirational tutelage during my study at National Chengchi University (NCCU). Thanks to Professor Huang’s conscientious and soul-searching instruction in her class “qualitative research,” I gained fundamental knowledge about the essence of qualitative research and became inspired to conduct a qualitative study for my thesis. Further, my discovered interest in the field of cultural teaching was largely built upon Professor Yeh’s course “Culture and TESOL” in which her introduction of a variety of engaging cultural teaching theories and iv.

(5) practical cultural teaching methods laid the path upon which I embarked. I cannot speak with accurate words as to how instrumental their instructions have always been; what I know is beyond the value and skills they have all tendered to me, their legacy will forever be with me, and my future pupils. I would also like to offer my sincerest gratitude to all the other professors have taught me during my study at NCCU, including Dr. Hsun-huei Chang, Dr. Hsueh-ying. 政治大. Yu, Dr. Chien-ching Mo, and Dr. Chiung-chih Huang. Their tutelage and guidance. 立. along the journey of my master program nourished me with the strength of knowledge. ‧ 國. 學. in TESOL and ultimately empowered me with the competence needed to conduct the research. I am indebted to them.. ‧. My special thanks further go to Patrick, the participant of this thesis, and his. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. fruition.. sit. family. Without their aid and cooperation, this study would not have come into. i n U. v. Finally, I want to give my heart-felt thanks to my beloved family and my. Ch. engchi. deceased grandfather, whom I believe is still watching me and protecting me from the heaven with his warm and amiable smile. It is their love, support, and blessing that have made this work possible.. v.

(6) Table of Contents. Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. iii Dedication Page ...........................................................................................................v Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... vi Chinese Abstract ........................................................................................................x English Abstract ...................................................................................................... xii. 政治大 1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1 立. Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................ 1. ‧ 國. 學. 1.2 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................ 5 1.3 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................... 5. ‧. Chapter 2 Literature review ....................................................................................... 7. sit. y. Nat. 2.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 7. io. er. 2.1 Attitude and Motivation in SLA .......................................................................... 7 2.2 Young L2 Learners’ Leaning Attitude and Motivation ....................................... 9. al. n. v i n 2.3 Theoretical Framework Culture Teaching and Learning ............................. 10 Cfor he ngchi U 2.3.1 The Importance of Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Learning ......... 11 2.3.2 Perspectives of Culture Teaching ................................................................ 12 2.3.3 General Objectives of Culture Teaching ..................................................... 14 2.3.4 Contents and Activities for Teaching Children Culture .............................. 18 2.3.5 Teaching Children Culture in the EFL Context........................................... 20 2.3.6 Summary...................................................................................................... 23 2.4 Summary of Chapter 2 ....................................................................................... 24 2.5 Research Question .............................................................................................. 24 Chapter 3 Methodology ............................................................................................. 25 vi.

(7) 3.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 25 3.1 Participant and Background to the Case Study .................................................. 25 3.2 IECT Instruction and Material Development ..................................................... 31 3.2.1 Designing Principles .................................................................................... 31 3.2.2 Contents and Activities ................................................................................ 32 3.2.3 Teaching Procedures.................................................................................... 35 3.3 Data Collection ................................................................................................... 36 3.3.1 Feedback Sheet ............................................................................................ 36 3.3.2 Teaching Journal.......................................................................................... 37. 政治大. 3.3.3 Parent Interviews ......................................................................................... 38. 立. 3.3.4 Student Interviews ....................................................................................... 38. ‧ 國. 學. 3.4 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 39 3.4.1 Data Coding and Analysis Source ............................................................... 39. ‧. 3.4.2 Procedures of Data Analysis ........................................................................ 40. sit. y. Nat. Chapter 4 Results ....................................................................................................... 43. io. er. 4.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 43. al. on his English Learning Attitude. ............................................................................ 44. n. v i n Cofhthe Instruction (from 4.1 The First Three Months e n g c h i U April 22 to July 22) .............. 44. 4.2 The Last Month of the Instruction (from July 25 to August 15) ........................ 49 Chapter 5 Discussion ................................................................................................. 57 5.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 57 5.1 “Useful” Cultural Contents Make Learning More Meaningful ......................... 57 5.2 Culture Learning Strengthens the Purpose to English Learning ........................ 61 5.3 Authentic Materials Make Learning More Interesting ....................................... 63 5.4 Diversified Sources of Materials Make Learning More Dynamic ..................... 66 5.5 The Influence of Other Possible Contextual Factors ......................................... 69 Chapter 6 Conclusions............................................................................................... 71 vii.

(8) 6.1 Summary of the Research Findings ................................................................... 71 6.3 Limitations and Suggestions for the Future Studies........................................... 77 References ................................................................................................................... 80 Appendices ................................................................................................................ 89 Appendix A Relevant Texts in the Chinese textbook .............................................. 89 Appendix B The Lesson Plan of the Firs Lesson: Greetings ................................... 91 Appendix C Students’ Learning Progress and Feedback Sheet ............................... 94 Appendix D Interview Questions Concerning the Participant’s Attitude ................ 97 Appendix E Interview Questions Concerning the Participant’s Feedback .............. 98. 政治大. Appendix F Peter’s work 1: Compare Animal Sounds in English and Chinese ...... 99. 立. Appendix G Peter’s work 2: Compare the Korean and Taiwanese Stories ........... 100. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Appendix H Peter’s work 3: Ask Others About World’s Favorite Food ............... 101. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. viii. i n U. v.

(9) List of Tables Table 1. Cultural Lesson themes and Learning Objectives……..…………………. 33 Table 2. The Summary of the Development of the Learning Attitude Over the Course of the Instruction ……………………….……………….………………….55. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. ix. i n U. v.

(10) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：透過文化融合英語教學轉變學習態度: 一位台灣小學生之個案研究指導教授：余明忠博士研究生：吳浩瑜. 立. 論文提要內容：. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 語言與文化的關係密不可分。第二語言學者發現，融入文化元素在幼童英. ‧. 語學習中，不僅能幫助幼童發展跨文化能力，也助於提升學習態度和動機。然. y. Nat. 而現有文獻指出，在台灣針對幼童設計的文化語言課程研究不足，需要投入更. er. io. sit. 多的努力。因此，本質化個案研究旨在探討將文化納入英語教學對於一名國小三年級學童在英語學習態度上的影響。資料蒐集透過家長和學童面訪、研究者. al. n. v i n 的省思日誌、學童的學習回饋單來記錄並審視學童語言學習態度的轉變。 Ch engchi U. 本研究發現，相較於教學課程前負面且消極的學習態度，此學童在約四個. 月的文化英語教學課程中，經歷明顯且正面的轉變。例如，學童能開始主動做相關課後英語學習活動、對於英語學習給予正面的回饋、願意且更有耐心地做原本不喜歡的英語活動。此外，學童開始認為所學的英文對其有所幫助，並希望能夠學習更多的文化知識。研究結果顯示，新奇的文化知識，多元且真實的教材為提升此個案態度的關鍵。另外，研究者也發現，受到對於他國文化學習興趣提升的影響，受試者除了原本偏向工具型的學習動機，也逐漸發展出融合型的動機取向。最後，本 x.

(11) 研究根據此個案的討論結果，近一步提供相關建議，作為教育單位、英語老師及未來研究的參考。. 關鍵字: 文化學習、學習態度、學習英語為外語、質化個案研究. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. xi. i n U. v.

(12) Abstract Recognizing the symbiotic relationship that culture and language share with each other, researchers in the field of EFL and ESL have long advocated the importance of integrating cultural learning into English classroom. Numerous studies have shown benefits of integrating cultural learning in the language education curricula. For instance, it has been suggested that the teaching of culture. 政治大. for learners at an early age can not only cultivate intercultural competence but also. 立. help raise their learning motivation. While a great number of discussions have been. ‧ 國. 學. devoted to the integration of culture into language education for children, yet there exist only a paucity of relevant studies and practices in Taiwan.. ‧. Therefore, the present study aimed to address this gap by first designing an. y. Nat. io. sit. integrated English and culture teaching instruction (IECT) for an eight-year-old. n. al. er. learner in Taiwan, followed by putting into records the development of his English. i n U. v. learning attitude through qualitative research. Multiple data sources were collected. Ch. engchi. via face-to-face student and parents interviews, student feedback sheets, and teaching journals to shed lights on the influence of the instruction upon the burgeoning dynamic shift of the young learner’s attitude toward English as a second language. The findings revealed that the participant’s three primary aspects of learning attitude, including affective, behavioral, and cognitive attitudes underwent profound change throughout the fourth-month IECT instruction. Prior to the instruction, the learner exhibited negative attitude and showed a lack of learning interest toward English learning. Yet, during the first three months of the instruction, the learner’s xii.

(13) learning attitude showed a progressive and positive change. In the final month of the instruction, the learner demonstrated more discernible and positive signs of attitudinal change. Behaviorally, he became proactive in undertaking extracurricular English learning activities; the participant voluntarily initiated learning endeavors outside class settings. Affectively, he demonstrated higher level of willingness and more patience when engaging in activities he once disliked. Finally, his heightened. 政治大. awareness toward the usefulness of English learning also indicated the enhancement of cognitive learning attitude.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Based on this case, it was concluded that the IECT instruction and its accompanying cultural contents helped boost the participant’s once negative learning. ‧. attitude through useful world knowledge, diversified and authentic materials.. y. Nat. io. sit. Additionally, the growing interest in different cultural knowledge also made the. n. al. er. learner develop more integrative orientation toward learning English. The. i n U. v. enhancement of motivation therefore enhanced the participant’s attitude, and this. Ch. engchi. change in turn bestowed upon him the new purposes to learn English with more patience and willingness. Finally, the study suggested that more effort is required to broaden IECT related instructions and research to further examine other potential effects of such an instruction. The current study could be taken as a reference for the future design of similar cultural teaching programs to galvanize more young learners’ learning interest and develop their positive attitude toward English leaning.. xiii.

(14) Keywords: culture learning, learning attitude, EFL, qualitative case study. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. xiv. i n U. v.

(15) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Integrating cultural learning into foreign language classroom is not a new idea. A number of research has proposed copious analyses arguing that teaching culture is crucial. One of the most cogent arguments may be that language and culture are innately inseparable; that is, they are “acquired together, with each providing the development of the other” (Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p.235). This entwined. 政治大 one-to-one relationship between anyone’s language and his or her cultural identity, 立 relationship is well summarized in Kramsch’s words, “Although there is no. language is the most sensitive indicator of the relationship between an individual. ‧ 國. 學. and a given social group” (Kramsch, 1998, p.77). Based on this premise, to master. ‧. the language, one ought to acquaint oneself with the cultural knowledge concomitant. sit. y. Nat. with the language acquisition itself. In the context of L2 acquisition, without the. io. er. learning of culture that encompasses the issues of sociocultural and socio-historical context and background as the principle reference point, language itself becomes a. al. n. v i n Cwithout labyrinth of street map that is markingU of directions and thus is devoid of h e nthe i h gc. a sense of spatial orientation. Surely, this feeling of disorientation is exactly what a. great number of L2 learners in Taiwan have experienced. The rote memorization of vocabulary and grammar rules seem to be the key for one to be considered having a great command of English, yet the actual knowledge of how to function those words meaningfully and efficaciously remains the unknown territory to most. Judging from this angle, the learners ought to be provided with particular social and cultural knowledge that give rise to the birth of the language so as to reorient themselves to navigate through the map of language acquisition. Otherwise, a sense of loss in that 1.

(16) nebulous territory might deter one from the further mastery of the language owing to the inability to fathom the precise meaning and the usage of the language. Thus said, to be called as a competent language learner who can use the language appropriately and achieve communicative purposes successfully in the real life context, one is expected to have not only the linguistic knowledge but also the understanding of the culture on which the particular language is developed, nurtured, and enriched. A number of studies have shown numerous benefits of integrating cultural learning in the language education curricula. For example, cultural learning can help. 政治大 attitude, and knowledge that allow students to raise awareness on both their native 立. enhance students’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC)—the ability, skill,. culture and the target culture and to know how to function well in this growing. ‧ 國. 學. complex world in which the frequent interaction among people from diverse. ‧. linguistic and cultural backgrounds has become the norm (Byram, 2001). Another. y. Nat. significant effect of incorporating culture into langue learning is that it helps. er. io. sit. improve students’ language learning attitude and therefore enhance their learning motivation. L2 learners’ attitude and motivation are interrelated and intimately. al. n. v i n influenced by each other. A numberC of researchers have confirmed that these hengchi U. affective factors play critical roles on the success of L2 learning (e.g., Skehan, 1991; Cook, 1996; Gardner, 1985). Motivation can be defined as “an inner drive, impulse, emotion or desire that moves one to a particular action” (Brown, 2000, p.152). The relationship between motivation and attitude can be precisely summarized in Gardener’s (1985) equation in which he proposed that motivation equals the addition of attitude, effort, and desire to achieve a goal. As one of the essential components, attitude relates strongly to one’s motivation, and more and more evidences have indicated that one with negative attitude towards the target language would not be a 2.

(17) motivated learner (Wilhelm, 1999). In other words, entertaining positive attitude may exert conspicuous impact on L2 learning by stimulating learners’ innate desire to start the engine of learning motivation. Research has shown that language classrooms involving the cultural components lead to more positive attitude and heightened motivation; a noteworthy feat accomplished via providing learners with a variety of culturally-based activities that allow students to have a joyful learning experience to know, to compare, and to acquire different world knowledge (Hammerly, 1982; Tsou, 2005). Also, Kramsch. 政治大 learn language with more enthusiasm, for their learning focus is shifted to attaining 立. (1991) pointed out, by integrating culture into the language learning, students get to. the cultural knowledge, rather than to linguistic forms.. ‧ 國. 學. Important as culture teaching is, researchers in SLA field have also advocated. ‧. that cultural teaching should henceforth become an essential element in young. sit. y. Nat. learners L2 education (Byram et al., 2002; Sollars, 2006; Tinsley, 2003). For instance,. io. er. Pesola (1999) suggested that teaching children culture in language education may create more learning effects through preparing them to be both bilingual as well as. al. n. v i n C may bicultural; that is, the children only develop proficiency in the second h enot ngchi U. language but also have the chance to develop the ability to act as a global citizen who is tolerant and respectful toward other cultures. In spite of the fact that a great number of studies and discussions have been initiated and devoted to the integration of culture into language education, yet there exist a scarcity of relevant studies in Taiwan. Some researchers have identified a number of reasons that hinder the practice of cultural teaching. For instance, Chu (2005), after reviewing culture teaching in Taiwan, found out that many foreign language teachers in public school system tend to either ignore culture teaching or 3.

(18) treat culture as a supplementary material because they normally do not have sufficient culture knowledge, or they simply confront the practical concern of having limited time to spare for culture teaching. In addition, Tsai’ s (2005) research also indicated the reasons that explain the dearth of culture teaching in Taiwan included inadequacy of cultural components in the English textbooks and the difficulty in obtaining cultural materials and resources. In addition to the lack of teaching practices in the language class, the research concerning cultural teaching and learning has also not been extensively conducted to. 政治大 restricted to the theoretical discussion of culture, such as the reasons to teach culture 立 date. According to Tseng (2002), the majority of cultural studies done in Taiwan are. or suggestions on the activities to teach culture. Besides, research as such mainly. ‧ 國. 學. concern teachers’ perspectives instead of those of the students. Furthermore, it. ‧. remains an even more underexplored area when it comes to the studies concerning. y. Nat. the integration of culture teaching in language class for young learners in Taiwan. To. er. io. sit. the best of the researcher’s knowledge, most of the cross-cultural projects in Taiwan are centered around the university student participants, and only an insufficient. al. n. v i n number of studies have dedicated toC the studies or the teaching h e n g c h i U practices on. integrating culture into English learning for children in Taiwan. The lack of such an academic attention should be alarming because, according to the research, children experience the process of socialization and enculturation at a very young age (Poole, 1994) and this most important formative stage in one’s life time forges one to become what he or she has learned and experienced. Therefore, without an effort to integrate sufficient culture knowledge into language teaching, we may fail to cultivate children with the cultural competence that allows them to function appropriately in the intercultural communication. 4.

(19) 1.2 Purpose of the Study In response to a lack of studies in examining the implementation of cultural teaching for young learners in Taiwan, this case study addressed this issue by documenting and analyzing the development of a young learners’ attitude toward English learning during the integrated English and culture teaching instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine how the instruction may influence his English learning attitude and also to gain insight from his individual feedbacks and preferences for the cultural contents on the instruction.. 政治大 English and culture teaching material based on the cultural themes derived from the 立. To achieve the objective of the study, the researcher first designed the integrated. grade 1 and grade 2 Mandarin textbooks used by the participant. The researcher then. ‧ 國. 學. instructed the participant in a private tutoring session for approximately four months. Nat. sit. y. ‧. while keeping track of his learning attitude and feedbacks.. io. er. 1.3 Significance of the Study. The present study has a twofold significance. First, it is hoped that the result of. al. n. v i n C has a reference for U the current study could be taken the future design of similar cultural engchi teaching programs for young learners and also, it would contribute to providing. in-depth insights into the influence of the cultural instruction that aims to enhance young learners’ English learning attitude and to foster their English learning in the EFL learning context. In sum, the study explored a cultural teaching instruction for a young Taiwanese learner, and hopefully the findings could serve as a reference for the educational institutes, EFL teachers, and future research on young EFL learners.. 5.

(20) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 6. i n U. v.

(21) CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction The present chapter contains two main sections. The first section discusses the attitude and motivation research in the field of SLA. Then, the second section lays emphasis on the theoretical framework for culture teaching and learning in language education, including the importance of cultural learning, perspectives on culture teaching, contents and activities for teaching children culture and teaching children. 政治大 research summary, which in turn brings forth the research question of this study. 立 culture in the EFL context. Lastly, the final section offers a deliberation of the. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1 Attitude and Motivation in SLA. ‧. Among all the conative factors in the field of SLA, motivation and attitude. sit. y. Nat. have been among the best researched areas (Ortega, 2009) and are regarded as. io. er. essential factors that influence the success or failure of L2 learning results (Gardener, 1985). On one hand, according to Dörnyei and Ottó (1998), motivation can be. al. n. v i n defined as “the dynamicallyC changing cumulative U h e n g c h i arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out ” (p. 65). Canadian researchers Gardener and Lambert (1972), two distinguished scholars in the research of motivation, have indicated that L2 learners’ motivation is influenced by their attitudes towards the L2 community as well as their life goals. They further identified two common types of orientations of motivation—integrative orientation and instrumental orientation. Integrative orientation refers to L2 learners’ positive 7.

(22) attitudes toward the target language groups and their desire to interact with or blend in with those in the L2 community, or in Dörnyei’s (2003) interpretation, “the cultural and intellectual values associated with the language, as well as to the actual L2 itself” (p.6). Instrumental orientation, on the contrary, refers to L2 learners’ drive to obtain potential utilitarian benefits gaining from their proficiency of L2, such as getting a better job, receiving greater education, or having higher salary (Dörnyei, 1994; Ellis, 2008). Inspired by Gardener and Lambert’s research, the SLA research community has thus far produced voluminous studies with the hope of further deepening and. 政治大 research that has received wide attention was the distinction between intrinsic 立. complementing the L2 motivation theory. Among which, one particular motivation. motivation and extrinsic motivation (e.g., Brown, 2007; Dickinson, 1995; Dörnyei,. ‧ 國. 學. 1994). Intrinsic motivation refers to self-initiated desire of engaging in L2 learning. ‧. activities; learners exhibit high level of motivation purely because of their enjoyment. sit. y. Nat. or satisfaction derived from those activities (Dörnyei, 2001). Studies have also. io. er. indicated that L2 learners who are intrinsically motivated have relatively higher chance to develop learning autonomy and hence achieve higher L2 competence. On. al. n. v i n the other hand, extrinsic motivationC compels individuals to h e n g c h i Ucarry out behaviors driven by exogenous factors such as the desire to receive reward or better grades. This type of motivation with high level of externality is often deemed as less ideal, for L2 learners may have higher propensity of losing natural interest and turn out to become passive in L2 activities. Attitude, on the other hand, is another critical affective component that can be defined as “an organized and consistent manner of thinking, feeling and reacting to people, group, social issue or more generally, to any event in the environment” (Lambert & Lambert, 1973, p.72). In the context of L2 learning, L2 learning 8.

(23) attitude thus refers to learners’ reaction exuded, feelings, or response toward language learning based on the belief and opinions they hold. According to Wenden (1991), learners’ learning attitude can be distinguished into three dimensions: affective, behavioral and cognitive, which are supposed to be interconnected and influenced by each other. Affective attitude refers to the emotional aspect that one harbors toward an object, as English learning being the case, and whether he/ she likes or dislikes it. Behavioral attitude, on the other hand, involves one’s action, behavioral tendency, and interest toward English learning. Lastly, the cognitive attitude is related to the. 政治大 It is widely accepted that attitude is a critical conative element in L2 acquisition in 立. learner’s beliefs, viewpoints, ideas, and perceived usefulness about English learning.. that entertaining favorable attitude towards the target language and its speakers may. ‧ 國. 學. in turn stimulate an innate desire for learners to start the engine of learning motivation,. ‧. which could contribute to the success to the language learning.. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 2.2 Young L2 Learners’ Leaning Attitude and Motivation. L2 learners’ learning attitude and motivation are influenced by a variety of. al. n. v i n Cexperience, factors, including L2 learning setting, social supports, h e n g cinstructional hi U. self-confidence when using the language, and so on (Ortega, 2009). For young L2 learners who are yet mature in their cognitive and moral development, it is suggested that environmental or situational variables, for example, learning contexts, teaching materials, classroom activities, and teachers’ teaching strategies in maintaining and gaining students’ interest, play more crucial roles in shaping their attitude as well as motivation (Dörnyei,1998; Nikolov,1999). In other words, children’s L2 motivation and attitude are more prone to influences like “how lessons are taught, whether the activities in class are interesting and meaningful to them and whether the learners 9.

(24) are feeling comfortable and not under unbearable pressure in the class” (Huang, 2011, p.187). Therefore, in order to cultivate intriscincally motivated L2 learners, teachers ought to take into account aforementioned variables in the execution of their lessons, the choosing of suitable materials, and the designing of pertinent and interesting activities, for they all have influence on the learners’ motivation and attitude. Also, teachers have to be encouraging and supportive to create a learning environment that is comfortable, joyful and anxiety-free. In sum, it is beyond doubt that motivation and attitude play significant roles in. 政治大 students’ L2 learning drive, gives them greater oppurtunities to master L2, and 立 determining L2 achievement. An unabated and continuous motivation sustains. assists them to march toward autonomous learners in the lifelong L2 learning. sit. y. Nat. 2.3 Theoretical Framework for Culture Teaching and Learning. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. journey.. io. er. Any seasoned instructors and teachers would agree that cultural learning could serve as a great and effective channel to cultivate and motivate young L2 learners. al. n. v i n C h world knowledge.UJust as what Brooks via interesting, relevant, and meaningful engchi (1997) wrote, to involve students’ attention, interest, and active participation in. language class, the integration of a systematic cultural studies is a way to go. The following section is the analysis of the theoretical framework of cultural teaching and learning in language education, including (1) the importance of culture teaching in FLL, (2) perspectives of culture teaching, (3) general objectives of culture teaching, (4) contents and activities for teaching children culture and (5) teaching children culture in the EFL context.. 10.

(25) 2.3.1 The Importance of Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Learning (FLL) It is vital to treat the development of both intercultural as well as language competence in L2 learning with equal weight. It has been widely agreed upon by SLA researchers that communicative competence should be seen as the ultimate goal in second language learning. This advocacy by researchers and practitioners has added new strength and purpose to the fundamentals of language acquisition. According to Bachman (1990), communicative competence is composed of two main components: organizational competence and pragmatic competence. The former is related to. 政治大 language. Simply put, to communicate appropriately and successfully, language 立. grammatical and discourse elements while the latter includes sociocultural aspects of. learners ought to be proficient in these two distinct but intimately related components;. ‧ 國. 學. that is, they are expected to communicate in both linguistically and culturally correct. ‧. fashion to succeed in intercultural communication.. y. Nat. Moreover, myriads of literature have addressed the importance of incorporating. er. io. sit. the teaching of cultural dimension into the foreign language learning to foster students’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as one of the major goals in language. al. n. v i n C h& Uzun, 2011; Byram, classrooms (e.g., Deneme, Ada Gribkova & Starkey, 2002; Ho, engchi U. 2009; Kramsch, 1998, 2006; Valencia & Medina 2009). The concept of ICC in. language education refers to “the ability to ensure a shared understanding by people of different social identities, and the ability to interact with people as complex human beings with multiple identities and their own individuality” (Byram, et al., 2002 ). In other words, acquiring ICC means that students would deepen their understanding about themselves and others by constructing meaning via different language sources and consciously comparing their own culture with others’ (Harrop, 2012). Therefore,. 11.

(26) language curriculums should also offer opportunities to introduce cultural issues to help raise students’ awareness of others. Last but not least, teaching culture is quintessential because it could be highly effective to raise student’s interest and motivation in their quest toward FLL. It has been reported that culture learning leads to heightened motivation, and working through a variety of culturally-based activities allows students to know, to compare, and to acquire both target and native cultural information (Hammerly, 1982; Tsou, 2005)—a joyful learning experience that inadvertently facilitate FLL. According to. 政治大 as grammar and vocabulary study, culture learning provides a channel to make 立. Kramsch (1998), by transferring students’ attention away from language forms, such. students learn a foreign language more meaningfully and thus more interestingly.. ‧ 國. 學. After recognizing the importance of incorporating culture in the foreign. ‧. language classrooms, the researcher moves on to explore the cultural perspectives,. sit. y. Nat. goals of cultural teaching, contents and activities for teaching culture, and the. io. er. teaching of culture to children in the following section. All of which will contribute to the effective making of clear guidelines, principles and suggestion on the. n. al. C h curriculum. U n i integration of culture teaching into language engchi. v. 2.3.2 Perspectives of Culture Teaching A succession of theorists have made contributions to theorizing perspectives and models of culture teaching and learning, most of which provide useful components for teachers to make pedagogical decision on what perspectives they should take on their culture curriculum. The following section categorizes some common perspectives on culture teaching and learning. 1. Culture specific and culture general perspectives 12.

(27) The first common perspective on culture teaching and learning is the distinction between two perspectives: culture specific and culture general. According to Moran (2011), culture specific perspective emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge related to a particular culture. When applying this perspective on the culture curriculum, the instructors provide relevant cultural information of the target culture and expect students to acquire the information and develop the ability to explain the cultural components, such as behavior and attitude of that specific culture. Culture-general perspective, on the other hand, refers to the understanding toward the nature of culture. 政治大 perspective lies not in the acquisition of specific cultural knowledge but in the general 立 itself in general. Moran (2011) explained that the focus of cultural learning under this. understanding of different cultural aspects, including perspectives, products, practices,. ‧ 國. 學. and communities.. ‧. 2. The foreign-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, or transcultural perspectives. sit. y. Nat. Risager (1998) proposed four types of approaches to teaching culture, including. io. er. the foreign-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, and transcultural perspectives. In her words, the foreign-cultural approach, similar to the mono-cultural approach aims at. al. n. v i n C h target culture without introducing the notion of a single giving any attention on the engchi U learners’ own native culture. The objective of adopting such an approach lies in developing learners’ native-like communicative and cultural competence. The intercultural approach, on the other hand, gives focus on both the target. culture and the learners’ own culture by virtue of offering opportunities for learners to compare different cultures. Therefore, while the target culture is still the main focus under this perspective, the learners’ own culture is also introduced to afford them a chance to reflect upon their own culture. The objective of this approach is to cultivate the students’ non-ethnocentric view and also to develop their ICC. 13.

(28) The third perspective on culture suggested by Risager (1998), the multicultural approach, also puts a dual focus on the target and the learners’ native culture. This type of approach does not view culture as a monolithic chunk; instead, it extends the view of culture by recognizing that a cultural entity, say a country, is composed of different sub-cultures within its territory. Under this perspective, Risager suggested that multifarious cultural views and pluralistic community values that coexist within that sphere of multiculturalism have the capacity of influencing one another and therefore should be discussed and presented. The aim of this approach is then to. 政治大 The last one is the trans-cultural approach. This approach is based on the idea 立. develop the learners’ reflective and anti-racist view to the culture.. that in a globalized world, our frequent and massive communication and interactions. ‧ 國. 學. among cultures have made humanity of different backgrounds closer to one another. ‧. and have also made the world cultures intertwine with each other. Hence, language. sit. y. Nat. teachers should correspond to this reality by treating foreign language as a lingua. io. er. franca. That is, in addition to the knowledge about the target culture and the learners’ native culture, the learners are also expected to able to use the language. n. al. C h (Risager, 1998).U n i appropriately in different cultural contexts engchi. v. 2.3.3 General Objectives of Culture Teaching Like designing any types of language learning curriculum, teachers and practitioners who aim to incorporate culture learning into foreign language classrooms will need clear objectives to organize systematic and coherent lessons. The following section will present general culture teaching objectives. First, in setting goals for culture teaching, most researchers devoted to culture learning have agreed unanimously that the goals of culture teaching should include not merely the 14.

(29) acquisition of cultural information but also the fostering of high level of sensitivity that allows students to become cultured minds who embrace the open-minded, reflective, and positive attitude toward other cultures. For instance, Louise (1990) pointed out that in designing culture learning, the objectives of culture learning should not be limited into introducing specific information. Instead, it should put more focus on providing an experience within which students get to practice different ways of culture learning. She provided six general goals which she believed to be suitable for any cross-cultural and intercultural learning. The six goals are as follows (Louise,. 政治大 To expand cultural awareness of both the student’s native culture and the 立. 1990, p.247): 1.. target culture.. ‧ 國. 學. 2.. To increase tolerance and acceptance of the existence of different values,. ‧. attitudes, and belief system as part of target culture.. To encourage a seeking to understand the new and different cultural patterns.. 4.. To develop intercultural communicative skills in areas in which cross-cultural. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 3.. similarities occur.. al. n. v i n C h of cross-cultural U To develop a perspective awareness that recognizes cultural engchi. 5.. differences and fosters understanding of strength found in diversity.. 6.. To develop an attitude of acceptance toward change personal adjustment to foster personal flexibility in order to open avenues for learning and growth throughout a lifetime; and to understand that culture shock is a natural.. Likewise, Seelye (1997) also shared the view of having the learners acquire more than cultural facts as the goal of culture learning, for he believed the ultimate objective of culture learning should also involve developing understanding, attitude, 15.

(30) and performance skills so that the students could act and communicate culturally appropriate when interacting with other cultures. The six main goals he proposed are as follows (Seelye, 1997, p.102): 1.. Interest: The students show curiosity about another culture and empathy toward its members.. 2.. Who: The students recognize how social variables, such as age, sex, social class, religion, ethnicity and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave.. 政治大 the minds when they think, act, and react the world around them. 立. 3.. What: The students know what culturally conditioned images are evoked in. 4.. Where and when: The students recognize that the situational variable and. ‧ 國. 學. convention shape behavior in important ways.. Why: The students realize that people generally act the way they do due to. ‧. 5.. y. sit. Exploration: The students can evaluate a statement about the target culture. io. er. 6.. Nat. some underlying reasons, and cultural behavior and patterns are interrelated.. reasonably and have the skills to locate and organize information about. n. al. culture.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Likewise, as mentioned previously, developing students’ ICC is crucial and has been recognized as one of the necessary learning goals in language education (e.g., Byram, et al., 2002; Zarate, Gohard-Radenkovic, Lussier & Penz, 2004). To illustrate what language learners need of acquiring ICC, Byram et al. (2002) distinguished ICC into five different savoirs (knowledge and skills) that also serve as useful criteria for setting culture teaching objectives. The five savoirs are summarized as follows (Byram et al., 2002, p. 7-9): 16.

(31) 1.. Intercultural attitudes (savoir être): one’s open-minded and tolerant attitude toward other cultures and the understanding that different cultures value different perspectives, beliefs and behaviors from their own.. 2.. Knowledge (savoir): the knowledge that one has about other social groups in learners’ own society or country, such as their cultural products, practices. This type of knowledge also includes the understanding of how society processes and how people interact in a society.. 3.. Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre): the ability that. 政治大. enables one to compare, relate and interpret the behaviors, perspectives of other cultures.. 立. Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire): the ability that. 學. ‧ 國. 4.. allows one to acquire new cultural knowledge during an intercultural. Critical cultural awareness (savior engager): the ability to critically examine. io. er. and evaluate one’s own native culture. sit. y. Nat. 5.. ‧. communication.. al. n. v i n C h it can be summarized From the goals listed above, that the principal goals of engchi U. culture teaching in language curriculum should include not just the acquisition of. cultural information but also the development of the competence; these objectives can therefore help students become global citizens who have multicultural understanding and who can act and communicate successfully in cross-cultural communication.. 17.

(32) 2.3.4 Contents and Activities for Teaching Children Culture A legion of activities have been proposed to achieve the aforementioned cultural teaching objectives. Some common activities are role plays, simulations, story-telling, dramas, and culture capsules to name but a few (Byram et al., 2001; Hadley & Reiken, 1993). When used appropriately, these activities can be motivating and interesting. For instance, for older learners, Seeyle (1993) suggested that teachers can design activities that aim to engage learners into simulated diverse cultural experience, such as simulations or culture mini-dramas to act out situations where miscommunication. 政治大 conflicts. Also, teachers can use culture capsules—short paragraphs with illustration 立. occurs and to come up with appropriate and cultural-sensitive strategies to resolve the. describing some differences among cultures—for students to explore and to discuss. ‧ 國. 學. the cultural events and issues. Since the current paper intends to integrate culture. ‧. learning in English classes for the young learner, the researcher will mainly discuss. y. sit. io. 1. Use of the computer. er. following section.. Nat. the culture learning activities that could be more suitable for young children in the. al. n. v i n C h teaching has been The use of the computer in language widely acknowledged as engchi U. an effective and motivating technique to enhance learners’ L2 learning. The computer can be a particularly valuable resource in the EFL contexts, for teachers can use it as a medium to provide authentic cultural materials of the target cultures which otherwise can be hardly obtained by virtue of other ways (Hadley, 2001). 2. Role play Role-play could be an effective technique to allow students to examine and practice cultural behavior in a simulated cross-cultural interaction (Tomalin & Stempleski, 1993). For young and beginning learners, it can be used to engage them 18.

(33) in some intercultural communications that require less complex linguistic use. For example, teachers can design role play as a small activity like asking pupils to act out how to greet in both the target culture and their own culture, or they can design it as a bigger activity that requires the pupils to memorize some lines and to act out a situation in which some cultural miscommunication occur because of cultural differences (Purba, 2011). Byram et al. (2001) suggested that after the role-play, teachers can design follow-up activities to make learners reflect on what they have learned, felt,or discovered while playing.. 政治大 In addition to the simulated activities, storytelling also lends itself to facilitating 立. 3. Storytelling. learners’ development of ICC in numerous ways. Curtain and Pesola (1994). ‧ 國. 學. advocated the inclusion of children’s literature, such as songs, chants, and fairy tales. ‧. as ways to introduce cultural information in primary foreign language classrooms.. sit. y. Nat. Byram et al. (2001) suggested that reading stories containing multifaceted cultural. io. er. ways of thinking, tradition, and customs enables learners to gain cultural knowledge. Also, those common themes, such as family, social values, and friendship that prevail. al. n. v i n C has a medium for learners in children literature may serve to understand some engchi U. fundamental values and wisdom universal to all peoples and cultures around the world. 4. Use of the quiz Cullen (2000) suggested that the quizzes can be used not only to evaluate what students have learned but also used as a pre-teaching activity to make students predict the cultural information they are about to learn. To stimulate students’ interest, teachers can give the answers to the quizzes later through the teaching materials.. 19.

(34) 5. Classroom decorations Hendon (1980) suggested that to enrich the students’ cultural learning experience in an EFL context, the teachers can start from adding the cultural element into the physical environment to which the students are exposed. For instance, he suggested the teachers can decorate the classroom by hanging colorful posters and pictures or world maps. Those posters and maps can later be developed into different cultural activities, for example, asking the students to identify or mark any knowledge they know about the countries on the world map.. 政治大 transform the classroom into a venue where language learners can experience how 立 All in all, to incorporate culture learning in the language classroom means to. multifarious aspects of a culture are reflected through its language, and how. ‧ 國. 學. different language uses render different cultural connotations and effects. By. ‧. allowing the learners to keep examining and comparing other cultures with their. sit. y. Nat. own culture at a conscious level, learners may decenter their own perspective. io. er. (Byram, 2008); that is, they can become more objective thinkers and have the ability to understand and accept other cultural entities with embracing and tolerating. n. al. perspectives.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.3.5 Teaching Children Culture in the EFL Context The idea of incorporating teaching of culture in children’s language education has been seconded by many scholars (e.g., Byram et al., 2002; Tinsley, 2003) due to several positive effects they can well bring to the young ones. Children experience the process of socialization and enculturation at a very young age (Poole, 1994). That is, during those processes, their awareness about culture, self-identity, worldview, interactional style, etc., are simultaneously developing. For instance, 20.

(35) Hirschfeld (1996) reported that children are able to distinguish people with different ethnicities at age between three and five. Additionally, Barrett (2013) indicated that after having acquired knowledge or information about different countries, children may subsequently develop stereotypes of different nationalities before the age of seven; once the stereotype is established, young children are less likely to change their stereotypical thinking (Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001). Therefore, culture teaching can help prevent children from developing possibly faulty, twisted, and wrongful stereotypical assumption toward others with different cultural backgrounds. 政治大 While the English teaching community recognizes the equal importance on the 立. at an early age.. development of culture and language ability even for young learners, yet it seems that. ‧ 國. 學. the teaching of culture is often ignored or has not received adequate attention in L2. ‧. classroom. It is observed that in most ESL/EFL classrooms, more focus has been. sit. y. Nat. placed on the faculty of skill which emphasizes grammar and vocabulary knowledge. io. er. (Bardovi-Harlig & Dörnyei, 1998). As for the case in Taiwan, Tsai (2002) pointed out four major problems that hinder the practice of cultural instruction in Taiwan, which. al. n. v i n include (a) the deficiency ofC teachers’ cultural knowledge, h e n g c h i U (b) the inadequacy of. cultural components in the English textbooks and teacher’s manuals, (c) the difficulty in obtaining cultural materials and resources, and (d) the constraint of instructional time. Moreover, according to Chang (2010), most cultural contents for elementary school students lack cultural diversity because most of them are exclusively about American culture and are presented in short and facts-only sentences. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, most of the cross-cultural projects in Taiwan are centered around the university student participants, and only a paucity of studies have dedicated to the studies on integrating culture into English learning for 21.

(36) children in Taiwan. Tsou’s (2005) and Chang’s (2010) studies are two of the rare examples. In Tsou’s study, she adopted a quantitative method and investigated 109 fifth graders (55 students in the experimental group and 54 students in the control group) for a duration of one semester to examine the effects of culture teaching. The researcher along with the language teacher designed the materials and activities for the culture-based contents. The procedure of the culture instruction is summarized as follows (Tsou, 2005, p. 44): 1. Asking students to ﬁrst think about what the topic meant in relation to. 政治大 2. Presenting and discussing pictures, real objects or authentic materials from 立 students’ own culture.. native or target cultures associated with the topics being studied.. ‧ 國. 學. 3. Doing activities, such as mini-drama, fantasy experience, and. ‧. comparing/contrasting processes.. sit. y. Nat. 4. Providing additional but relevant information about the topic being studied.. io. er. To ensure students fully comprehend the contents, Tsou also allowed students to use Chinese to discuss relevant cultural issues in class. The result showed that the. al. n. v i n C the cultural instruction not only enhances groups’ language proficiency h eexperimental ngchi U but also heightens their motivation toward English learning.. As for Chang’s (2010) study, she adopted a qualitative case study to investigate the development of three six graders’ intercultural communicative competence and their English learning attitude after they participated in a cross-cultural project that allowed them to use weblogs to communicate and interact with international partners. After five-month cross-cultural project, the result was quite appealing. On one hand, the participants’ attitudes toward English learning were enhanced through the authentic interaction and communication with their international partners. On the 22.

(37) other hand, it showed that young as the participants were, they already demonstrated their development of ICC as they manifested their willingness and abilities to solve misunderstanding on cross-cultural issues, to reflect on their own culture, and to transfer from an etic to an emic perspective on cultural issues. On a final note, Chang concluded that to have a successful Internet-based cross-cultural project, the students need to be more autonomous and active to participate; also, the instructor needs to facilitate the students by being encouraging and resourceful through the whole process.. 政治大 designing effective cultural curriculum aimed for young learners in Taiwan. Yet, just 立 Both Tsou’s and Chang’s studies have provided some insight into ways of. as both of them suggested, more studies are still in need to offer more empirical. ‧ 國. 學. evidence about the effects of cultural instruction on language learning so as to get. Nat. sit. y. ‧. more teachers to integrate culture teaching in their classes.. io. er. 2.3.6 Summary. In sum, based on the above-mentioned studies, the teaching of culture is crucial,. al. n. v i n C h culture teachingUin early language education. and it is never too early to integrate engchi. Scant attention on culture learning may deprive the learners of the ability to act as culturally and socially competent interlocutors. An inadequacy of cultural competence may make the learners inadvertently manifest the ineptitude and result in misunderstanding and miscommunication in cross-cultural communication. As Bennett, Bennett and Allen (1999) warned, “the person who learns language without learning culture risks becoming a fluent fool” (p.237). Hence, if the ultimate goal of education were to create the global citizens who can fucnction both linguistically and culturally appropriate and who embrace healthy attitude toward others and 23.

(38) respect others, the education that underscores the importance of both language and intercultural competence development can undeniably help realize the goal.. 2.4 Summary of Chapter 2 In this chapter, the researcher first reviewed relevant studies on L2 motivation and attitude, concerning the common types of motivation and components of attitude. Also, the researcher presented the importance of these affective variables to the effectiveness and influence on L2 learning results. Moreover, a larger scope of this. 政治大 cultural teaching and learning in language education, bringing forth the need for 立. section is contributed to reviewing relevant studies on the theoretical framework of. further studies to fill the gap of cultural learning studies on children’s English. sit. y. Nat. 2.5 Research Question. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. education.. io. er. The research question aimed to achieve the objectives of the study is stated as follows: What is the development of the learner’s attitude toward English learning. al. n. v i n C hto what extent doesUthe instruction influence his throughout the IECT instruction? And engchi English learning attitude?. 24.

(39) CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction This chapter consists of five sections describing the research methods employed in the study. The first section introduces the participant and the background of the case study, followed by Integrated English and Culture Teaching (IECT) instruction and materials development. The subsequent sections will describe in depth different sources of data collection, including teaching journals,. 政治大 Lastly, the chapter will end with the data analysis procedure. 立 3.1 Participant and Background to the Case Study. 學. ‧ 國. student feedback sheets, observation, student interviews and parent interviews.. ‧. The participant was Patrick, an 8-year-old third grader in a public elementary. y. Nat. school in Taipei city. While the researcher was looking for tutoring cases, she met. er. io. sit. Patrick’s mother, Jennifer. When the researcher came into contact with her, she was at the time concerned about her child’s English learning and was interested in the. al. n. v i n idea of having her son attendCanother English learning h e n g c h i U instruction to enhance his. English learning motivation and performance. Jennifer was worried about Patrick’s English learning condition because she observed that Patrick seemed to show a growing resistance toward English learning. For example, she found Patrick sometimes complained that the school material was easy and boring. Therefore, he seldom cared for spending extra time reviewing the school materials except for doing homework or preparing for the tests. Regarding the English class at the private English school, Patrick’s mother claimed that even though the content was comparatively more difficult, it did not really motivate Patrick to learn English with 25.

(40) more enthusiasm. For example, she sometimes heard Patrick and his younger sister complaining to her that they got bored with learning English at school and cram school because they said they always recited the same sentence patterns and words. As a consequence of the unsatisfactory learning situations mentioned above, she found out that Patrick started to say that he liked the English class only when he joined the competitive games which were not usually related to English learning; otherwise, he seldom expressed any further interest in English learning. She was therefore worried that her son may lose interest in English learning, eventually. 政治大 Intrigued by Jennifer’s concern, the researcher obtained Jennifer’s approval and 立. causing his performance to decline.. had an interview with Patrick to have a deeper understanding on his English learning. ‧ 國. 學. situation. During the interview, Patrick expressed his opinion on English learning. ‧. rather clearly. To the researcher’s surprise, although Patrick was recognized as a good. sit. y. Nat. English learner who was cooperative in class, had good grades on English tests, and. io. er. understood the importance of learning English, he however had rather negative attitude toward English learning. The following description presents in detail Patrick’s. al. n. v i n C hon the first interviews three aspects of learning attitude based with him and with engchi U Jennifer respectively.. Affective aspect of English learning attitude The researcher found that Patrick had strong negative attitude and had low opinion on English as a school subject. He reported that he did not consider English classes interesting at both the school and cram school and that he did not feel enthusiastic toward learning English at school or cram school. In fact, among all the school subjects, his favorite ones were always science and math, and he ranked 26.

(41) Chinese and English as the least favorites. He explained that although he liked doing those “light-hearted” activities, such as playing games and drawing in the English class, he felt the school English content for him was too easy. He even used the word “childish” to describe the learning materials used at school. He further explained to the researcher: “In school, we sing all the time, but the songs are very childish and not good to listen to.” As for the content in cram school, he thought it was more difficult and he could learn more words, but he still did not find it more interesting. He explained:. 政治大 The teacher tests us 立all the time, and we need to write annoying worksheets . . .. ‧ 國. 學. the worksheets that we have to write many sentences by ourselves and we have a lot of homework. (The first interview with Patrick, April 18, 2014). ‧ y. Nat. io. sit. Additionally, another reason that caused his negative attitude to the English. n. al. er. classes was the regular, if not too much, spelling test, which was the activity he. i n U. v. disliked most. He thought the spelling test required the effort to memorize, and he. Ch. engchi. sometimes found it hard to spell words correctly and because of that, he simply hated it. Jennifer also revealed that if she and her husband asked Patrick to review for the spelling test, he usually just showed unwillingness and resistance. The process of accompanying Patrick to prepare for the test was sometimes, in Jennifer’s words, exhausting and annoying. She said:. Patrick needs more time to memorize the words. And usually when we helped him to review or ask him to keep trying whenever he misspelled the words 27.

(42) again, he would get very impatient and would even get upset and said he didn’t want to. In the end, this made us very upset and annoyed, too. (The first interview with Jennifer, April 18, 2014). Jennifer went on to explain that she thought Patrick would react so negatively toward English learning at school and cram school might be because he felt frustrated whenever he misspelled the words or because the school and cram school materials simply did not interest him at all.. 政治大 Behavioral aspect of English learning attitude 立. According to Patrick’s homeroom teacher’s account on the student’s report. ‧ 國. 學. card, Patrick was described as a well-behaving student in class and a quick learner. ‧. with mild-tempered personality and was popular among classmates. With regards to. sit. y. Nat. Patrick’s own opinions, when asked about his learning behavior in English classes at. io. er. school and cram school, he also said that he thought he was a good learner because he was attentive in the class most of the time. He also added that he thought so because. al. n. v i n he seldom put off his homework andCwould follow the teacher’s h e n g c h i U instructions like. repeating after them, doing the worksheet, and asking questions. Yet, cooperative as he was at school, he did not show further desire or interest in learning English after school. In other words, he did not care for engaging in any types of English learning activities whatsoever after the class. For example, he acted quite passively when doing English learning activities at home. Just as mentioned before, Jennifer reported that Patrick only did the homework that was assigned by the school teachers and would only spend little time preparing for the school tests. Asides from the passive reaction toward the schoolwork, he also had little interest in doing additional English 28.

(43) activities. For example, Jennifer said that unlike his sister, who had a habit of reading the English story books at home, Patrick seldom took initiative in reading the books himself. Patrick also responded that he liked to read but he preferred to read Chinese books because, in his opinions, the contents of the English story books were sometimes too difficult for him to comprehend. Thus, he would usually choose to look at the illustrations only and skip or ignore the words when reading the books.. Cognitive aspect of English learning attitude. 政治大 learners’ beliefs, viewpoints, ideas, and perceived usefulness of the knowledge they 立 As reviewed in Chapter Two, the cognitive aspect of attitude refers to the. receive. In light of Patrick’s case, the researcher found his attitude toward English. ‧ 國. 學. learning could be considered an appreciation based on practical purposes; he accepted. ‧. learning English being important, yet his attitude did not translate into passion for the. sit. y. Nat. learning. He said he did not encounter much difficulty understanding what he learned. io. er. in English classes, and although he did not like the spelling test, he could still manage to get good grades. What is more, young as he was, Patrick could already understand. al. n. v i n Ccould the usefulness of English and clear account on why he thought learning h e give ngchi U English was important and useful. For instance, Patrick reported in the interview:. English is important because if I learn English, I can talk to foreigners when I go abroad. And English can be spoken in every country. Also I can use English to search for different information online. (The first interview with Patrick, April 18, 2014). 29.

(44) He further added:. If I learn English, I can read English books because many books are written in English. And my mom said in junior high school, students need to memorize many words at once, so if I memorize more words now, I won’t feel English is too hard. (The first interview with Patrick, April 18, 2014). Based on Patrick’s responses, it showed that he knew it was vital to learn English. 政治大 usefulness of English in the future did not result in a more positive attitude toward his 立 and by doing so he could gain many advantages. Nevertheless, the awareness of the. current English learning. As noted earlier, Patrick was not very interested in the. ‧ 國. 學. school content because he thought it was easy; as a consequence, he did not think. ‧. what he learned was of much use. For instance, when the researcher asked him about. y. Nat. the content of the textbooks, he commented, “the contents . . . they are just easy and. er. io. sit. you don’t need to think too much to get the answers, and I know the words when I was in kindergarten.” It was also worth noticing that what Patrick considered to be. al. n. v i n Cinhhis current and past “useful knowledge” was very limited school curriculum engchi U. contents. It seemed that he considered “learning new words,” specifically the quantity of new words, as the sole criterion that defines whether the English lessons were useful or not. For example, Patrick thought he could learn more at cram school because he could learn new words, such as different actions, color, and animal names. In sum, the foregoing description revealed that Patrick did harbor negative attitude toward English learning, and this situation conformed to what Jennifer claimed. Thus, in the hope of improving his negative if not aggravating learning attitude, the researcher then suggested to Jennifer a method, as an experiment, that she 30.

(45) could help facilitate and stimulate Patrick’s English learning interest and attitude by integrating the cultural components into English learning. Jennifer expressed keen interest in the suggestion and after further discussion and more information from her about Patrick’s English proficiency, the researcher obtained her approval and she was in agreement with having Patrick participate in a four-month private tutorial session (dated from April 22, 2014 to August 15, 2014). Additionally, Patrick’s younger sister, Patricia, a seven-year-old first grader, also joined the entire tutorial session and engaged in the learning with Patrick together.. 政治大 3.2 IECT Instruction and Material Development 立. The following section will introduce the designing principles, contents and. ‧ 國. 學. activities, and teaching procedures employed in the IECT instruction.. ‧ sit. y. Nat. 3.2.1 Designing Principles. io. er. The researcher mainly adopted intercultural and cultural-specific perspectives as the guiding principles in the design of the cultural contents. As mentioned before,. al. n. v i n Ch an intercultural perspective emphasizes “the encounter or interplay of cultures, engchi U. including attempts to deal with, understand and recognize each other” (Risager, 1998, p.244), and therefore, the contents of the curriculum adopted different countries as the cultural information sources and included divergent cultural themes to allow the two young learners to compare the cultures with each other. In doing so, the researcher hoped this cross-cultural understanding strategy would not only raise their cross-cultural awareness, but also enhance their English learning motivation and attitude.. 31.

(46) 3.2.2 Contents and Activities Regarding the contents of the material, the researcher adopted the contents and themes derived from grade 1 and grade 2 L1 Han Lin Mandarin textbooks (a textbook that is approved by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and is widely used in public elementary schools). Two main reasons are behind the researcher’s decision to derive the cultural learning contents from the L1 Mandarin textbook. First, as suggested by several researchers, culture instruction should include the content relevant and familiar to the learners (see Arries, 1994; Tsai, 2002). They also argue that it is vital to. 政治大 target cultures. Hence, by teaching students the cultural issues that they have already 立 ensure the students to have the parallel understanding between the native and the. learned in L1, the researcher can ensure that students would already have the prior. ‧ 國. 學. knowledge of the cultural content to be taught in English, and the extended cultural. ‧. learning through English may further strengthen the students’ culture awareness on. sit. y. Nat. both the native and target culture. Second, as mentioned previously, the relationship. io. er. between language and culture is analogous to two sides of the same coin; they are inseparable and deeply embedded with each other. Therefore, an English curriculum. al. n. v i n C hfrom the learners’ mother that is developed based on the content tongue engchi U. curriculum—a system that generally involves the exploration of varying levels of native culture, such as its values, beliefs, and behaviors—could help raise learners’ intercultural awareness on both the native and target cultures at a more conscious level. Table 1 summarizes the cultural themes and general objectives of each lesson. As for the activities used to realize the teaching objectives, the researcher designed various activities suitable for young learners, such as role plays, games, songs, stories, coloring, and other relevant activities commonly seen in the TPR (Total physical Response) methodology. They were used in different units to motivate the 32.