以敘事研究初探語言學習者自主動能與其學習環境之互動 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國⽴政治⼤學英國語⽂學系英語教學組碩⼠論⽂. 指導教授：招靜琪. 博⼠. Adviser: Dr. Chin-chi Chao. 政治大. 以敘事研究初探語⾔學習者⾃主動能與其學習環境之互動. 立. ‧ 國. 學. A Narrative Inquiry on the Interplay between Language Learner Agency and. ‧. Learning Contexts. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究⽣：陳瑋婕 Wei-Chieh Chen 中華民國⼀百零七年⼀⽉ January, 2018.

(2) A NARRATIVE INQUIRY ON THE INTERPLY BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNER AGENCY AND LEARNING CONTEXTS. A Thesis Submitted to Department of English,. 政治大. National Chengchi University. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. In Partial Fulfillment. i n CMaster h e ofn Philosophy gchi U. v. Of the Requirements for the Degree of. by Wei-Chieh Chen January 2018.

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

(4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my adviser, Dr. Chin-chi Chao, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement, and useful critiques of this research work from initial to the final level. I would also like to express my appreciation to Professor Yi-ping Huang at National Chenchi University and Professor Chieh-yue Yeh for their helpful suggestions when reading the thesis. My biggest thanks go to Erin, who spent so much time taking the interviews and wholeheartedly shared her life stories with me. Without Erin, the thesis would not have been possible.. 政治大. Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to my friend Iris Pang and my parents for their support throughout the whole research process.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(5) . 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chinese Abstract .......................................................................................................... 4 English Abstract ........................................................................................................... 5 Preface ........................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 Literature Review .................................................................................... 10 Context .................................................................................................................. 10 What is it like to learn English in Taiwan? ....................................................... 11 Formal English Education in Taiwanese Schools ........................................ 11. 政治大 Study Abroad for Further Education ............................................................ 15 立 To View English Learning Process through the Lens of Agency .................... 16 Out of the School Context: The Phenomenon of Cram Schooling ............... 13. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter 3 Methodology ............................................................................................. 20 The Research Design: A Narrative Inquiry ...................................................... 20. ‧. My Role in the Research Process ................................................................. 22. y. Nat. Erin, the Protagonist............................................................................................ 23. sit. Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 25. al. er. io. Storytelling and Interviews ........................................................................... 26. v i n Ch Data Analysis ........................................................................................................ 35 U i e h n g cGeneralizability ...................................... 38 The Issue of Trustworthiness and n. Written Records ............................................................................................ 34. Chapter 4 Findings .................................................................................................... 39 Part I: What is English? ...................................................................................... 40 Part II: Breaking Dawn ....................................................................................... 45 Part III: New World. New Life. .......................................................................... 51. Chapter 5 Discussion ................................................................................................. 62 Chapter 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 68 A Revisit to Erin’s Exercise of Learner Agency ............................................... 68 Pedagogical Implications ..................................................................................... 69 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research............................................ 69 Limitations .................................................................................................... 69.

(6) . 3. Suggestions for future research .................................................................... 70 Final Remark ........................................................................................................ 71. REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 79. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(7) . 4. 摘要. 本⽂以敘事研究的⽅式，透過深⼊訪談，探討⼀位台灣語⾔學習者的⾃主動能（learner agency）與其學習環境之互動。經由敘事訪談（narrative interview）、開放式訪談、半結構訪談以及分析受訪者社群網站發表之⽂章，本論⽂意圖呈現台灣語⾔學習者在不同學習環境中如何表現⾃主動能。本研究以受訪者 Erin 出國留學為分界，共三個階段：第⼀階段為受訪者出國前（2014/08/25），以敘事訪談（narrative interview）的⽅式，Erin. 政治大以後，藉由開放式與半結構訪談，描繪出 Erin 在國外求學的經驗，並更深立. 完整呈現⾃我對英語的認知與語⾔學習歷程之掙扎。第⼆階段為 Erin 出國. ‧ 國. 學. 刻探討過去的語⾔學習歷程。第三階段為 Erin 回國後(2015/09/17)，再次以敘事訪談的⽅式，Erin 反思英國求學的經驗以及英語在其⼈⽣中扮演的⾓. ‧. ⾊。. y. Nat. 本研究以 vam Lier 所提之⾃主動能的三個特⾊為分析框架，並推衍出. io. sit. 兩項申明：其⼀，台灣英語學習者在正式的語⾔學習環境中⾯臨許多挑戰，. n. al. er. 但學習者仍有表現⾃主動能的空間，表現⽅式包括逃避或拒絕學習；其⼆，. i n U. v. 學習者若能沈浸於語⾔習得的環境（foreign language acquisition. Ch. engchi. environments），極有可能脫離正式語⾔學習環境的框架⽽成為⼀個不同於以往的⾃⼰。本研究檢視學習者在不同的學習環境中如何展現⾃主動能，筆者期望研究結果可提供語⾔教師看待語⾔學習者⼀個新視⾓。. 關鍵字：學習者⾃主動能、學習環境、以英語為外語之學習者、英語學習歷程.

(8) . 5. Abstract Drawing on the concept of learner agency, a narrative inquiry was conducted in order to achieve an in-depth, qualitative understanding of the interplay between a Taiwanese learner’s exert of agency and various contexts. The study was developed in three phases, and multiple number of interviews were the main instrument for data collection. The first interview was conducted in August, 2014, before the participant, Erin, headed for England to pursue a Master’s degree. The following interviews documented her life experiences abroad and further explored her. 政治大. past language learning history. The final interview was conducted in September, 2015. 立. after she came back to Taiwan, in which she reflected on her overall study abroad. ‧ 國. 學. experiences and the role of English in her life. The findings delineated Erin’s English learning story and her agency domestically and internationally. van Lier’s proposal of. ‧. core features of learner agency was used as the analytic framework to discuss Erin’s. y. Nat. io. sit. story, and later two assertions were derived from the discussion: (1) Being an EFL. n. al. er. learner in the Taiwanese formal educational context may involve many challenges,. Ch. i n U. v. but the learner still has room to exercise his or her agency—even though this could. engchi. mean avoiding or rejecting learning, and (2) Fully engaged in a foreign language environment, the learner is likely to break away from the limitations of formal English learning system. The study delineates a close examination on how the language learner interacted with various contexts and demonstrates several considerations TESOL practitioners can take. Based on the findings and the discussion, pedagogical implications as well as suggestions for future research are also provided at the end of the thesis. Keywords: learner agency, learning contexts, EFL learner, English learning history.

(9) . 6. Preface I would like to use “playing a video game” as a metaphor to conceptualize English learning experiences that Taiwanese ELF learners might have. Imagine the game of Super Mario. In the game, Mario, the player, needs to go through obstacles, destroy enemies, and collect as many coins as he can in order to clear the stage, just as the language learner picking up as many new vocabulary words or grammar rules as possible to conquer various tests. In one sense, it is fun and interesting, for you keep challenging yourself to level up and win yourself a sense of achievement; however, it. 治政 might annoy you when being trapped in the same level大 for too long. 立 ‧ 國. 學. English learning is the game all Taiwanese students need to play. Some fail to. level up but still try their best to step forward; others might find the game too boring. ‧. and immediately quit the game without a second thought. Interestingly, under. sit. y. Nat. different circumstances and with the interaction of various contexts, people they. n. al. er. io. encounter, or different cultural experiences, some might have another chance to pick. i n U. v. up the language they once discarded; in other words, people’s relationship and. Ch. engchi. sense-making of the language is fluid and dynamic, depending on their interaction with the social contexts. Erin, the protagonist in the present research, has have an awkward relationship with English for a long period of time. She hated English as a young adult, and she refused to learn the language at that time since she could not see the value in it. Growing older and having different encountering, she started to conceptualize the language differently, and her English competence improved at the same time. She is never a hard-working type, as she stated herself; however, while dealing with various.

(10) . 7. challenges under different circumstances, Erin gradually changed her sense of English. I share some similar experiences with Erin. English was once a language I wanted to be friend with but it seemed far beyond my league. The vocabulary on the textbooks were just words. They were dead to me. However, when I started to watch American TV series, the language was not just a language anymore; it became alive. While watching the show, I realized how those words, phrases, or even sentences were used in contexts. This experience opened up a door for me, and I also started to. 治政 make sense of the language in a totally different way. 大立 ‧ 國. 學. From my own experiences and Erin’s, I begin to think what English means to us. as EFL learners. How do EFL learners exercise their agency to deal with various. ‧. challenges and scenarios? Particularly with learners like Erin, who once hated English. sit. y. Nat. so much but in the end, she made peace with the language and went study abroad with. n. al. er. io. English as the medium language. How did this kind of change happen? What was the. i n U. v. story behind? To further explore how Erin interacts with different sociocultural. Ch. engchi. contexts, I started an inquiry and walk a journey with her..

(11) . 8. Chapter 1 Introduction English has been widely acknowledged as the international language for global communication. In response to globalization and in order to promote competitive edge, English has been introduced as a compulsory subject for students to learn since first grade in elementary school in Taiwan. Even though all students receive official English language education at a young age, a great discrepancy exists in learners’ English proficiency levels, and such a discrepancy is embodied as the bipolar distribution shown in junior high graduates’ English scores on the Basic Competence. 治政 Test , the nationwide senior high school entrance exam大 (Chang, 2011). 立 1. ‧ 國. 學. Chang (2011) pointed out that the reasons for the bipolar distribution of students’. test scores and the great discrepancy of students’ English proficiency could be. ‧. discussed from several perspectives: Externally, there are such reasons as the. sit. y. Nat. differing availability of learning resources, teacher professionalism, and learners’. n. al. er. io. family backgrounds, while internally, learners also differ in terms of interests,. i n U. v. motivation, or learner autonomy. In addition, recent investigation on Basic. Ch. engchi. Competence Test shows declining scores indicating that more and more junior high school students were giving up on learning English. There is a need to understand how learner agency shifts based on the context that the learner finds themselves. Currently, however, research in this area is still not sufficient. For example, Taiwanese learner’s shifting agency in the process of English learning has not been sufficiently documented. 1. The Basic Competence Test is a nationwide high school entrance exam, in which five main subjects are included: Chinese, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and English. The Test is a standardized test that students’ performance is calculated with scaled scoring. The first Basic Competence Test was held in 2000, and in 2014 the Test was replaced with The Comprehensive Assessment Program..

(12) . 9. Language learner agency as defined by van Lier (2010) is “movement, a change of state or direction, or even a lack of movement where movement is expected” (p.4) It is known that English learning or any kind of foreign language learning often takes a long time and involves a wide variety of experiences. There will be ups and downs that the learner needs to deal with, and it is very likely that agency will play some critical roles in the process. By adopting narrative inquiry, this study aimed to investigate the English learning experiences of one Taiwanese EFL learner, Erin, who went through a dramatic change in her English learning process. In addition to her. 治政大 in her exert of agency. narratives on the changing events, the study was also interested 立 ‧ 國. 學. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective of language learning research, I specifically focused on how Erin exercised her agency as she interacted with different learning. ‧. contexts and the changing relationship she had with English, the language.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(13) . 10. Chapter 2 Literature Review Embarking the Exploration of the Reality and the Theory As mentioned above, learners in Taiwan are exposed to English education when very little, and nowadays there are a variety of access for learners to learn English. To explore Erin’s employment of agency while encountering different contexts, I shall first explain what I mean by context and sketch two main English learning contexts relevant to my participant’s story, i.e., English learning domestically and internationally. The former includes school and private language institutes, whereas. 政治大 framework that I use to interpret 立 the participant’s story.. the latter refers to study abroad experiences. The last part of the review is the agency. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Context. sit. y. Nat. Context itself is a difficult term to define. The present research considers the. io. al. er. term context within ecological perspective (van Lier, 2004) that context stretches. n. from more micro to more macro levels; the former refers to immediate family context. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. while the latter indicates the sociocultural beliefs and attitudes (Mercer, 2016). With the understanding of the term, context shall not be seen as “a bounded, monolithic, static system” but a “dynamic, multifaceted system interconnected simultaneously with many other contextual systems” (Mercer, 2016, p. 14). The individual is thus situated in multilayered contexts, experiencing change and development across time. To elaborate on the interaction between self and contexts, van Dijk (2004) contents that “contexts are not ‘objective,’ but subjective. (p. 5),” stressing that human agency is the key to how human beings “make meaning out of our.

(14) . 11. environments and behaviors and integrate these into our sense of self” (Mercer, 2016, p. 5). In other words, individuals not only form their understandings of the contexts but also make sense of the language and the meaning of language learning differently in the contexts. In the following, I briefly discuss what it is like to learning English in Taiwanese context and what have found on study abroad.. What is it like to learn English in Taiwan?. 政治大 In this section, I provide 立an overview of formal English education in Taiwan, the ‧. ‧ 國. 學. phenomenon of cram schooling, and research on study abroad.. Formal English Education in Taiwanese Schools. y. Nat. io. sit. Su (2006) gave a detailed review of the development of English instruction in. n. al. er. Taiwan. English instruction in Taiwan began early in 1949. At that time, students. Ch. i n U. v. started to study English in secondary school, spending six hours per week during. engchi. 20-week semesters in each school year. The school curricula mainly focused on students’ reading and writing skills, and the instruction centered on the grammar-translation method. In 1993 and 1994, a new English curriculum for junior and senior high schools was launched by the Ministry of Education. The focus of English learning shifted from the training of fours skills to communicative competence, and communication-oriented teaching became the primary principle for teachers’ teaching practice as well as the guideline for textbook developers. With Grade 1-9 Curriculum.

(15) . 12. Guidelines (1999, MOE), the goal of teaching English stressed the importance of oral and written communication and cultural awareness. The specific objectives included (1) improving students’ basic communicative competence in reading, writing, speaking and listening and being able to apply the four skills in real contexts, (2) cultivating students’ interests in and approaches to English learning to develop learning autonomy, and (3) enhancing students’ knowledge of local and foreign cultures and customs so that they can compare and respect cultural variations (1999, MOE, p.1). In sum, the new curriculum guidelines emphasize more on developing. 治政大and rote memorization. fluency through meaningful contexts instead of accuracy 立 ‧ 國. 學. Although there have been tremendous changes in both curriculum guideline and. textbook development, test-oriented attitude still prevails even up to this day and has. ‧. great impact on teaching practice. Lectures and textbook reading are still the main. sit. y. Nat. classroom activities and a variety of in-class quizzes take place very frequently.. n. al. er. io. Students’ ultimate goal is the nationwide entrance examination, while one of the. i n U. v. teachers’ most important goals is to help students prepare for and pass the examination.. Ch. engchi. Not only did the curriculum guideline change, but the age of learners to start English education has been lowered. Since 1990, a growing number of parents and educators felt an urgent need to promote English learning at the elementary level, based on the belief that “the earlier children start to learn English, the higher the proficiency level they will achieve” (Su, 2006, p. 266). In 2001, students in the fifth grade were required to take English classes, and the age was further lowered to grade three in 2002..

(16) . 13. English is still a required course even during college. Most college students need to study English for one to two years. In some universities, students will be asked to pass at least one authorized English test, such as TOEIC or GEPT2, as a requirement for graduation.. Out of the School Context: The Phenomenon of Cram Schooling One of the most popular English learning contexts out of the school is cram schooling, which is prevalent in Asian countries, especially in Taiwan and Japan.. 治政大 private schools that Chung (2013) defined cram schools as “specialized fee-paying 立 ‧ 國. 學. provide intensive courses of specific subjects to train tutees to enhance their academic ability or professional competence” (p. 585). Liu (2009) reported that the percentage. ‧. of students who go to cram school from primary to senior high is respectively 70%,. sit. y. Nat. 72.9%, and 75.6%. Students go to cram schools with the aim to promote their. n. al. er. io. academic performances, mostly on subjects like science, English, and math, and to. i n U. v. prepare the entrance exams. Even for college students, nearly 30% of them will. Ch. engchi. choose cram schools in preparation for the entrance exams to graduate school. Lin and Huang (2006) stated that “cram schooling is a popular social costume;” it is part of the social culture. This phenomenon will remain despite of the high enrollment ratio or the multi-phased entrance program. According to Tsai and Kuo (2007), there are at least 5,000 cram schools that offer after-school classes in Taiwan. The researchers generally classified cram schools into three categories: skill-oriented cram schools providing classes of music, dancing 2 GEPT stands for The General English Proficiency Test, an English proficiency test developed and administrated by the language training and testing center (LTTC) in Taiwan. .

(17) . 14. or home economics that help students develop certain skills; private language schools which offer classes of different languages, and academically-oriented cram schools. For the third type of cram schools, the focus is mainly on improving students’ academic performance on mathematics, science, and English, the major school subjects for entrance examinations of high school and college. Besides, the class size in this kind of cram schools is usually very large, consisting more than 100 students per class, and one of the instructional features in the schools is that various tests and tutorial problem exercises are frequently administered (Tsai & Kou, 2007).. 治政 This classification of cram schools is useful, but it大 simply sketches some of the 立 ‧ 國. 學. main institutionalized accesses to English learning. There are actually also other. options for English learning. For example, more and more parents choose to hire an. ‧. English tutor for their children since they believe one-on-one tutoring sessions can be. sit. y. Nat. more effective to help with their children’s learning difficulties. More and more. al. n. one-on-one classes.. er. io. small-scaled language institutes have also popped up to offer smaller-sized or. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. To conclude, there are diverse after-school private language institutes in Taiwan that attend to different students’ needs or to meet parents’ requirements/expectations. Since attending private language institutes is such a wide spread phenomenon in Taiwan, any investigations on Taiwanese English learning would have to include a discussion on this aspect of the learner’s experience..

(18) . 15. Study Abroad for Further Education Study abroad (SA) was defined by Kinginger (2009) as “a temporary sojourn of pre-defined duration, undertaken for educational purposes (p. 11).” Research on studying abroad (SA) has many facets, including the impact on language skill improvements (Cubillos et. al., 2008; Kang, 2014), changes in degree of foreign accent (Munoz & Llanes, 2014), identity issue identity issue (Kinginger, 2004) or the change of learner beliefs (Amuzie & Winke, 2009; Kaypak & Ortactepe, 2014; Kim & Yang, 2010; Yang & Kim, 2011). This research mostly focuses on the outcomes of. 治政大(2010) argues that SA, or the effects SA have on the language learner. Wang 立 ‧ 國. 學. documenting and interpreting what happens before, during, and after studying abroad can be valuable for SA research.. ‧. In Taiwan, according to the statistics provided by the Minister of Education,. sit. y. Nat. from 2013-2017, approximately 0.2 % people choose to study abroad, and the United. n. al. er. io. States of America is the first priority; however, in the recent 5 years, the number of. i n U. v. people who go to Japan and Australia increases most. The statistics implies that. Ch. engchi. although America is still Taiwanese students’ top choice, more and more people choose other Asian countries such as Japan, or Australia for further education. Several studies have documented Taiwanese students’ SA experiences, and the research topics include the shift of learner identity (Huang, 2017), communicative experiences (Mullaney, 2017), the interface between naming and identity (Chen, 2012), and anxiety in English learning (Wang, 2009). The studies mainly discuss the issue of learner identity or learners’ willingness to communicate. In the present research, similar issues were addressed as well, but the researcher was particularly.

(19) . 16. interested in how the participant changed while encountering different scenarios in the SA context within the frame of sociocultural theory, especially through the lens of agency.. To View English Learning Process through the Lens of Agency The concept of agency has been discussed in many disciplines, and the most widely cited definition of agency comes from Ahearn (2001), who referred to agency. 政治大 (2015) noted, “has been theorized 立 and studied particularly within the Neo-Vygotskian, as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (p 112). Agency, as Dufva and Aro. ‧ 國. 學. or sociocultural, point of view” (p. 37). Sociocultural theory (SCT) is rooted in the works of L. S. Vygotsky, and the perspective argues that all human psychological. ‧. processes are considered social in nature; that is, human development, or learning, is. y. Nat. io. sit. not strictly cognitivist, or happening “in the head” (p. 2), but emerges through social. n. al. er. experience (Meskill, 2013). Under this framework, learners are no longer seen as. Ch. i n U. v. passive recipients of specific knowledge; rather, learners are actually “active agents”. engchi. (Meskill, 2013, p. 4), and the practice of learning is a “in the world” (p. 2) phenomena in which the larger historical and contextual elements are all associated with the learning activity and need to be taken into consideration. How learners exercise their agency to cope with different challenges in the learning contexts therefore become crucial issues to explore. van Lier (2010) defined agency as “movement, a change of state or direction, or even a lack of movement where movement is expected” (p. 4). That is, if a person wants to do something, he or she will take some real actions. However, it does not.

(20) . 17. mean that each person will always perform the action when he or she is expected to do so; in fact, refusing to do something is also a kind of agentive action. This concept indicates the inseparability of learning and agency. As van Lier (2010) further elaborated, “the employment of agency depends on a learning-conducive environment that allows and instigates a diversity of manifestations of agency at different levels” (p. 5). To gain a clearer picture of when and where agency emerges, van Lier (2008) drew on six extracts of classroom learning situations and suggested that “agency is. 治政 situated in a particular context and that it is something 大 that learners do, rather than 立 ‧ 國. 學. something that learners possess;” to put it differently, agency is presented as learners’ behavior in context rather than property (p 163). van Lier thus proposed three core. ‧. features of learner agency: “(1) Agency involves initiative or self-regulation by the. sit. y. Nat. learner; (2) Agency is interdependent, that is, it mediates and is mediated by the. n. al. er. io. sociocultural context; (3) Agency includes an awareness of the responsibility for. i n U. v. one’s own actions vis-à-vis the environment, including affected others” (p.172).. Ch. engchi. Several studies have investigated foreign language learner agency in different educational contexts (Xiao, 2014; Coffey, 2013; Chang, 2011; Gao, 2010; Stanfield, 2015). For example, focusing on agentive experiences with distance education, Xiao (2014) examined the role agency plays in the learning process of a distant language learner in China. Based on an in-depth analysis on interview data, the findings showed that learner agency is important in constructing one’s new identity, enhancing self-efficacy, maintaining motivation, and exercising metacognitive thinking and actions. On the other hand, in terms of agency in study abroad contexts, Chang (2011).

(21) . 18. studied how agency and imagined community influence nonnative English-speaking (NNES) doctoral students’ selection of learning investments when studying abroad. Four major aspects were presented in the findings, including funding versus academic progress, coping with diminished social network, overcoming language barriers, and strengthening disciplinary-specific competence. The results showed that choices of where and how they made investments were guided by individual learner agency and personal academic aspirations. As to how agency plays a role in multiple contexts, Gao’s study is particularly. 治政大 learning, Gao (2010) inspiring. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective of language 立 ‧ 國. 學. conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the roles of agency in the strategy use of Chinese EFL learners as they moved between Mainland China and Hong Kong. The. ‧. results suggested that the learners’ will and capacity to act or agency had a lot to do. y. sit. n. al. er. io. process.. Nat. with their strategy use, and their strategy use reveals their agency in the learning. i n U. v. The above-mentioned studies indicated that although learner agency interacts. Ch. engchi. with learner’s learning process in different aspects, there is one thing for sure that the exert of learner agency is profoundly associated with the actions they make, whether it is related to their learning investments or learning strategy use. Nevertheless, little research has investigated how learners exercise their agency as they move across multiple contexts, and how they make sense of the language through the frame of learner agency. Although Gao’s (2010) study investigated learners who crossed two learning contexts, Mainland China and Hong Kong, the researcher put more emphasis on the interplay between learner agency and the learning strategy use, not how the.

(22) . 19. learners exerted agency differently moving across multiple contexts. In the present study, the participant’s language learning history crossed three contexts, including formal educational English learning contexts and informal contexts in Taiwan as an EFL learning environment, and overseas context where English is used as the first language. I would like to examine the changing agency and the interaction between the participant and the contexts she was engaged in. The present study documented the learning experiences that a Taiwanese EFL learner, Erin, had in the past and in the sojourn in the U.K. as a Master’s student. I am. 治政 especially interested in how Erin employed her agency大 differently across various 立 ‧ 國. 學. contexts and what roles that learner agency plays in her learning process. Using. narrative inquiry, I attempted to elucidate what it is like for her to learn English in. ‧. Taiwan and the changes of her perceptions of English in her own English learning. n. al. er. io. The specific research questions were as follows:. sit. y. Nat. process, and how she makes sense of the language while studying abroad in England.. i n U. v. 1. What are the EFL learning experiences that Erin had in Taiwan before study abroad?. Ch. engchi. 2. What are the experiences Erin had while studying in the U.K. during her pursuit of a Master’s degree? 3. What is the role that agency plays in Erin’s learning process, and how does she exercise learner agency to cope with the challenges and various scenarios in the different learning contexts: Taiwan and the U.K.?.

(23) . 20. Chapter 3 Methodology The study was conducted as a narrative inquiry. The research process began in the spring of 2014, when the participant, Erin (pseudonym), was accepted as a student by the Master’s program of counselling in one of the universities in the U.K. The study ended when Erin finished her study abroad and came back to Taiwan in August of the same year. In the following sections, I would first justify the use of narrative inquiry as the methodology for the present research and then present the protagonist of the story, that is the participant in the study. Later, I would discuss methods for. 政治大. gathering data and approaches for data analysis.. 學. ‧ 國. 立. The Research Design: A Narrative Inquiry. ‧. The study investigated how Erin exercised her agency to cope with the. sit. y. Nat. challenges in different learning contexts she was engaged in, and the research was. n. al. er. io. conducted through a narrative inquiry. Narratives, as Riessman (2008) noted, are. i n U. v. “event-centered and experience-oriented” (p.22). Narratives have been used in many. Ch. engchi. fields of inquiry, such as psychology and sociology. However, only in recent years has narrative become a “legitimate mode of thinking and writing in research,” (Barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 1) and narrative inquiry is understood as an umbrella term referring to research involving stories, either using stories as research data or using storytelling as a tool for data analysis or presentation of findings (Barkhuizen et al., 2014). The use of narrative in language learning research is acknowledged and valued since, as Connelly and Clandinin (1990) noted, “…humans are storytelling organisms.

(24) . 21. who, individually and socially, lead storied lives,” and therefore, “the study of narrative is the study of ways humans experience the world (p. 2).” Barnjkze et al. (2014) also identified the strengths of applying narrative inquiry to the field of language teaching and learning. Complementing experimental or statistical studies in which researchers are more interested in common features of a groups of people and adopt standardized procedures to assess objective reality (Dorneyei, Z., 2007), narrative inquiry focused on lived experiences the individual participant has or had, which can probably best help us to understand the “inner mental worlds of language. 治政大and learning as social and teachers and learners and the nature of language teaching 立 ‧ 國. 學. educational activity” (Barnjkze et al., 2014, p.2).. Drawing the focus on learners, as previous research indicated, through. ‧. storytelling, the narrative forms, teachers or researchers can obtain insights of. sit. y. Nat. individual learner’s learning beliefs (Barcelos, 2008), language identities (Block,. n. al. er. io. 2008; Chik & Benson, 2008), learning investments (Chang, 2011), and agency. i n U. v. (Coffey, 2013; Xiao, 2014; Ajsic, 2015) from the perspectives of learners, “the central. Ch. engchi. actor in the drama of language learning” (Cotterall, 2008, p. 113). The nature of the present study was a longitudinal study which looked into the relationship and the interaction the participant, Erin, had with English in multiple contexts, spanning the time from her being a school girl to a mature adult studying abroad for her own expertise with English as the medium language. Under the circumstances, narrative inquiry is justified as the most appropriate method to use since, as Barkhuizen et al. (2014) pointed out, “the most distinctive quality of narrative inquiry is its capacity to provide access to long-term experiences through retrospective and imagination,” and.

(25) . 22. “narrative inquiry is the only methodology that provides access to language teaching and learning as lived experiences that take place over a long period of time and in multiple settings and contexts,” (p. 12) which is consistent with what this study intended to do.. My Role in the Research Process I considered myself playing multiple roles in the research process. First of all, as a friend of Erin, I have her trust, friendship, and rapport as the support of this study. I. 治政大 throughout the process felt certain that she would be willing to serve as the informant 立 ‧ 國. 學. of this study. Second, as a Taiwanese EFL learner born in the same year as my. participant, I knew exactly how the sociocultural context was like when Erin attended. ‧. school in Taiwan during her formative years. As a researcher, I also needed to have a. sit. y. Nat. natural drive to understand what exactly happened to my participant. Although I knew. n. al. er. io. her well and we shared the same learning experience in Taiwan, I did not have the. i n U. v. opportunity to understand how she perceived her own experiences, particularly I have. Ch. engchi. no access to her experiences in the U.K. and thus have to depend on her narratives and the interviews to develop a deeper understanding of my participant. I did not stand in a neutral position, nor was I simply a distant researcher from the participant. Rather, in the interviews, I myself was also an active participant who explored, experienced and reflected on the stories together with Erin. As Mendieta (2013) stresses, the production of the narratives does not belong to an individual; instead, narratives are shaped by “larger social, cultural, and historical contexts as well as the relationship between the narrator and the interlocutor” (p. 139). With such.

(26) . 23. claim, narratives are both personal and collective (Moen, 2006), it is possible and acceptable that narrative researchers will bring their own worldviews to the inquiry process (Mendieta, 2013). In the writing process, I re-experienced and reconstructed the narratives not only based on Erin’s stories but might inevitabley interpret the stories with my own values. As a researcher, I would not and could not be entirely objective, and the narrative approach tradition does allow me to acknowledge my own personal biases and values.. 立. Erin, the Protagonist. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Erin was born in 1990. At the time when the thesis was written, she was a. ‧. twenty-six-year-old research assistant (RA) working in a university in northern. sit. y. Nat. Taiwan. She majored in psychology in college and graduated in 2012. In 2014, she. io. al. er. went to the U.K. for a Master’s degree in counseling. Finishing her one-year study. n. overseas, Erin came back to Taiwan in 2015, working both as a full-time RA in a. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. university and a part-time English tutor in a small-scaled private language institute. The first time I met Erin was in junior high school. We were in the same class for three years, and we became close friends in the ninth-grade. Graduating from junior high school, we went to different community high schools in the same district. We have been keeping in touch with each other ever since, and we even went to the same university but different departments. Erin never liked English in her school life, as I can recall. She held quite a resistant attitude toward English learning as a junior high school student, and her.

(27) . 24. relationship with English became even worse when she was in senior high. I remember her always complaining to me about the heavy study load of English. She could not see the value of spending so much time studying English at a time, and she was not satisfied with Taiwan’s educational system, either. In our first interview (August 25, 2014) when Erin gave me an overview of her English learning history from elementary school to the end of college, she stated in her own words: “I hated English through the whole period of senior high school.” Erin would even deliberately skip the English class every Tuesday for the whole spring semester of the eleventh. 治政 grade. With such a struggling relationship with English,大 Erin failed the subject for at 立 ‧ 國. college entrance exam as well, only getting 18 as her score.. 學. least four consecutive semesters, and no doubt she was defeated in the battle of. ‧. However, the chemistry between Erin and the language has subtly changed ever. sit. y. Nat. since the end of senior high school. Breaking away from the formal educational. n. al. er. io. system, Erin began to pick up the language in her own ways. Exposed to a variety of. i n U. v. learning sources, Erin’s English comprehension gradually improved. She even found. Ch. engchi. a part-time job as a teaching assistant in a private language institute, and later decided to go further her study in psychology in the U.K. The uniqueness of Erin’s case lies in the dramatic change as she interacted with English the language in multiple contexts. As a friend, I have witnessed her stumbling along the way in achieving English proficiency. I am amazed at the progress she made over the years and impressed by her determination and courage to study abroad. As a researcher, I find it worth noting that English for her seems more than just a language to learn, and she actually has a dynamic and subtle relationship with English. When it.

(28) . 25. comes to learning the language in formal schools, the more powerful social discourse she encountered as a young adult learner, Erin was determined to shut herself off from the language. Graduating from senior high, however, Erin appeared to make peace with the language: she was getting along with the language instead of just learning it. While studying abroad, Erin was using the language she once hated as the medium to develop her expertise, counseling. At that time, English was no longer just a subject to study, and Erin was gradually aware of the fact that language was actually a way of thinking.. 治政 In the multiple contexts with the variety of social 大 discourses that she encountered, 立 ‧ 國. 學. Erin seemed to act as an active agent who purposefully and consciously decided if she was going to accept, ignore, or resist what the context offered her instead of the other. ‧. way around.. sit. y. Nat. I, as a researcher, appreciated Erin for giving me the chance to walk beside her,. n. al. er. io. exchanging life stories with each other while she was in England. More importantly, I. i n U. v. appreciated the fact that Erin did not mind reflecting on, re-experiencing, and. Ch. engchi. reconstructing her past and present English learning journey with me. The next section discusses how we walk through the journey together.. Data Collection Two instruments were adopted for data collection: interviews and some written records, including Erin’s posts on Facebook, the chatting records between Erin and I via Facebook and LINE, a widely-used communication application (app) in Taiwan..

(29) . 26. Storytelling and Interviews The data on Erin’s past learning experiences and current perceptions was mainly collected from interviews with Erin. Interviews, as Barkhuizen et al. (2014) pointed out, are probably the most suitable instrument to access personal perspectives on language learning, and a life history approach was adopted in the study. The approach “concerns a person’s life story through his/her own retelling” (p.16) and is used in narrative inquiry to capture long-term language learning experiences. I conducted the first interview with Erin before she left for the U.K. in August,. 治政大in England so that I could 2014. The interviews continued via Skype while she was 立 ‧ 國. 學. gain process data, closely tracking her life experiences in the U.K. The last interview was conducted after she came back from her study in September, 2015. Altogether. ‧. there are 14 hours of formal interviews conducted over the period of 13 months,. sit. y. Nat. mounting up to 95 pages of transcript, not to mention many face-to-face and. n. al. er. io. skype-mediated informal conversations. Table 1 shows the interview timeline, with. i n U. v. all the dates, foci, and other details for each of the formal interviews.. Ch. engchi. Table 1 The interview timeline Year. Date. Interview Foci Narrating and reflecting on the past English learning experiences. August 25 2014. l. Initial prompt: Would you please tell me your story of English learning from the time when you knew the existence of English?. September 7. Open and Unstructured Interview on the First Week in the U.K..

(30) . 27. l. Initial Prompt: Would you tell me about your first-week life experience in the U.K.?. l. Her responses included: Ø. First impressions of the country and people there. Ø. Solving problems she encountered. Ø. Interaction with the English people. Ø. Meeting up with other Taiwanese and Chinese students. Open and Unstructured Interview on the Second Week in the U.K. l. September 14. to talk about? l. Her responses included:. 學. Ø. First pub experience. Ø. Participated in all kinds of activities held. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. Question: Are there anything 治政Opening interesting happening 大 this week you would like. by the dormitory or the Department and countries. The courses that she was taking. n. er. io. al. Ø. sit. y. Nat. interacted with people from different. v i n Ctheh U.K. and the Courses e n g c h i U that She was Taking. Semi-structured Interview on the Third Week in l. Interview Protocol Ø. Now that the semester has officially begun, and one of the four classes you took, the research methods class, just. September 21. started. Could you tell me how the class works and how do you feel about the class? Ø. How do you feel and what do you think of studying your profession with English as a medium?. Ø. Could you tell me how you prepare for the.

(31) . 28. class? Ø. This is your third week living in the U.K. Is the life there similar to what you imagined when you were still in Taiwan, or is it actually quite different from what you thought?. Ø. Are there any other special experiences you would like to share with me?. Semi-structured Interview on the Fourth Week and the Courses that She was Taking l. Interview Protocol far you have experienced both of the 政Ø Sotwo治 required大 courses, the research. 立. methods course and the certificate course.. ‧ 國. 學. How do you feel and what do you think of these two courses?. September 27. Have you had difficulties regarding the. ‧. Ø. English language when you prepare for Ø. y. Have you had difficulties regarding the English language when you are in the. n. er. io. al. sit. Nat. the courses?. v i n C h Ø Are there any e n g c h i U other special experiences class?. you would like to share with me?. September 29 October 2. Erin’s oral narrative (an audio-recorded narrative) on course experiences Erin’s oral narrative (an audio-recorded narrative) Narrating course experiences Open Interview on Courses l. October 12. Opening question: How are your courses going? Would you like to share anything interesting or the difficulties you encountered this week?.

(32) . 29. Semi-structured Interview on Past Learning Experiences: l. Interview Protocol Ø. In one of our previous interviews, you mentioned that you had thought about dropping school in high school. Why did you have this thought at that time?. Ø. Previously, you also mentioned that you did not like your high school English teachers’ attitudes and ways of teaching. Could you talk more about it?. have said you “hated” English when 治政Ø You you were in大 high school. What made you. 立. think so, and what did you think of. ‧ 國. Ø. 學. English then?. I am also curious about why you liked the. ‧. subject of History and that of Geography so much in high school. What made you Part I: Narrating course experience (continued). n. al. Part II: Semi-structured Interview on. er. io. sit. y. Nat. like these two subject so much?. i n U. v. Comparison and Contrast between the UK and. CTW: hengchi l. Interview Protocol Ø. What are the differences in how courses are conducted here and in Taiwan?. October 18. Ø. How do you feel about speaking English in class and during group discussion? Are you already used to it?. Ø. Do you like the way how courses are conducted in the U.K.?. Ø. We have talked about the content learning experiences. How about language learning? In such an English-only.

(33) . 30. learning environment, do you find it helpful for you to learn the language? Ø. If you got a chance to go back to junior high and senior high school, what kind of changes could have made you learn the language better, or made you like English more?. Open Interview on Courses Taken l. Opening question: How are your courses going? How is everything going this week? Would you like to share anything interesting or. 立. 治 you encounter? 政the difficulties 大 Semi-structured Interview on Interaction and. ‧ 國. 學. Relationships with Others as well as Views on Different Learning Contexts Interview Protocol Ø. ‧. l. Last time you mentioned that you classmates to take an additional listening. October 26. n. al. class, and the class already finished.. er. io. sit. y. Nat. accompanied one of your Taiwanese. v i n Ch i Ulistening class? e n gtaking c hthat. Could you talk about the experiences of. Ø. Last time you discussed the period of time when you were learning English with a professor. You also talked about the. differences of the learning environment at my home and at his place. Could you talk more about how differently you perceive the professor as your English teacher and the English teachers you had in high school? Ø. In our first interview, you mentioned that you had started to watch.

(34) . 31. American/English TV series in the summer before you went to college. Could you talk more about this experience? Open and Unstructured Interview l. Opening Question: Are there anything interesting happening this week you would like to talk about?. l. Her responses included: Ø. First experience of participating in a parade. 治perception on her own English 政Ø Selfcompetency大 while in England. November 1. Semi-structured Interview on the TA Working. 學. Experiences in the Private Language Institute l. Interview Protocol Ø. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. Last time you talked about your job language institute. Can you talk about. n. al. your first day at work?. er. io. sit. y. Nat. interview experience in the private. v i n Ch e n ginternational c h i U teachers/colleges? How is Ø. How would you feel when you see the. your interaction with the international teachers/colleges at and off work?. Narrating on the academic aspects and life for the past half year 2015. January 9. Interview prompt: Would you please summarize your experiences while studying abroad for the past six months?.

(35) . 32. Narrating and reflecting on the study abroad September 17. experiences/stories Interview prompt: Would you please summarize your experiences while studying abroad?. The first meeting was a face-to-face interview scheduled on 25 of August, 2015, before Erin went to the U.K. for the pursuit of her master’s degree. The interview was conducted in her home, an environment she felt most comfortable with. As Connelly and Clandinin (1990) noted, it is important to give the voice to the participant: “In narrative inquiry, it is important that the researcher listen first to the practitioner’s. 治政 story, and that it is the practitioner who first tells his or大 her story” (p. 4). Reissman 立. (2008) also indicated the special quality of narrative interview: “the interviewer and. ‧ 國. 學. the interviewee are two active participants who jointly construct narrative and. ‧. meaning,” (p.23) and the interviews aimed to generate detailed accounts rather than. sit. y. Nat. brief answers or general statements. In our first interview, I only gave Erin a prompt. n. al. er. io. to start her story: Would you please tell me your stories of English learning from the. i n U. v. time when you know the existence of English the language? While Erin was telling the. Ch. engchi. story, I acted as an active listener and jotted down notes, allowing Erin enough time and space to speak without being interrupted so that “it [the interview process] too gains the authority and validity that the research story has long had” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 4). A few days after the first interview, Erin headed for England, and the subsequent interviews were conducted through video calls using Skype. I had thought that Erin would encounter great changes in her life since this was the first time she stayed abroad, so we talked to each other almost every week in the first two months. By.

(36) . 33. doing so, I could not only give her emotional support but closely follow her life and changing perceptions while she was trying to adjust to the new environment as well as living and studying abroad. On September 29th and October 2nd, Erin sent me two recorded audio files in which she orally narrated her course experiences. In her own words, she explained the contents of the two recorded audio files were the “dark side” of her, which I assumed she wanted to tell me but did not intent to discuss in detail in our interviews. From November, 2014 to the time she returned to Taiwan in August, 2015, we. 治政大to the life there and became only held interview three times since Erin got more used 立 ‧ 國. 學. busier with her schoolwork. The last interview was conducted on 17 September, 2015, one month after her return with an M.A. degree. We had our last meeting in the. ‧. McDonald’s near Erin’s home when we had dinner together, and Erin summarized her. y. sit. Nat. living and studying experience in England in retrospection.. n. al. er. io. As to the form of interviews, narrative interviews, open or unstructured. i n U. v. interviews, and semi-structured interviews were adopted, and each interview lasted. Ch. engchi. 90-120 minutes. The nature of narrative interviews, as mentioned above, allows the informant to narrate her experiences as a whole without being interrupted, and the researcher only gives a prompt as a starter when the interview begins. The use of narrative interview in the very beginning gave me a full story of Erin’s past English learning history, and the use of the narrative interview in the last also helped me to have a complete account of Erin’s study abroad experiences in the U.K. An open interview, as Barkhuizen et al. (2014) cited Richards (2003, p.65), is “a journey within a journey.” The informants are given ample freedom to direct the.

(37) . 34. interview, exploring the events or themes they believe worth sharing (p.21). This interview form was adopted in the first few weeks when Erin just arrived at the U.K. since I had no idea what her life was like. We just had casual conversations in the first place so that I could piece up her life there little by little. Not only talking about her life there, I would also share things happening in my life; we basically exchanged information about our recent lives with each other. While conducting each interview, I would jot down notes, and I would review my notes at the end of the interview to see if there emerged some issues that could be. 治政大closely following her life further discussed in our next interview. While continued 立 ‧ 國. 學. abroad, I started to further discuss her past language learning experiences in retrospect as well in the following interview sessions, which were conducted in the form of. ‧. semi-structured interviews. By doing so, I gathered both the process and retrospective. sit. y. Nat. data at the same time, giving the participant a chance to discuss and cross-exam both. n. al. er. io. her past and current language learning experiences (Barkhuizen et al., 2014).. i n U. v. All the interviews were tape-recorded, and the contents of the interviews were. Ch. engchi. transcribed verbatim for further analysis. As for the language used in the interviews, Erin could choose to communicate with me in Mandarin Chinese, English, or Taiwanese as long as she felt most comfortable expressing herself, but she most often used our shared language, Mandarin.. Written Records The written records gathered during the research process include Erin’s postings on Facebook and the chatting records Erin and I had through Facebook and LINE..

(38) . 35. Nowadays, Facebook has become one of the most popular social networking sites which seems to be the most direct and quickest path for people to share their feelings, thoughts and everything in life with one another around the world. LINE, on the other hand, is one of the communication applications with high frequency of utilization in Taiwan. Erin used Facebook from time to time to share her life in England, and sometimes I would use her postings on Facebook as an opener for our interview. Erin’s postings sometimes would go with some pictures so that I could better. 治政 understand the events she described in the interview. In大 addition to the scheduled 立 ‧ 國. 學. interviews, we would also use Facebook or LINE to contact each other randomly and frequently. Our text-based chatting records as well as Erin’s Facebook postings were. ‧. kept automatically by the website, generating additional data regarding Erin’s. y. sit. n. al. er. io. narrative data.. Nat. perceptions of English learning useful for triangulating the collected interview and. Data Analysis. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) suggested by Smith and Osborn (2007) was adopted for data analysis in this study. IPA is a form of in-depth qualitative analysis which aims to explore how participants interpret and experience their personal and social world. The approach allows the researcher to examine the participant’s personal experience and life world in detail, focusing on the individual’s subjective perception toward an event without trying to generate an objective statement of the event itself. The analyzing process would be a double interpretation.

(39) . 36. process since it involves the “participants trying to make sense of their world” on the one hand and the researcher “trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world” on the other hand (p. 53). The IPA approach consists of several phases which will be discussed here. First, as I mentioned earlier, all the interview data were transcribed verbatim, and the transcripts were read for several times to help me familiarize the contents. While reading the transcripts, I kept the following questions in mind, suggested by Smith and Osborn (2007): “What is the person trying to achieve here?” “Is something. 治政大 of something going on leaking out here that wasn’t intended?” “Do I have a sense 立 ‧ 國. 學. here that maybe the participants themselves are less aware of?” (p. 53) These. questions assisted me to be more critical while reading the transcripts. At the same. ‧. time, I jotted down notes on the margin of the transcripts to record my initial. sit. y. Nat. impressions of, responses to or any insights I had of the participants’ words.. n. al. er. io. During the second phase of the analysis, I returned to the beginning of the. i n U. v. transcripts and used different colors to identify similar themes emerging from the data.. Ch. engchi. I still treated the transcript as a single entity without an attempt to omit or select certain passages for special attention, yet I tried to convert the initial notes to concise phrases or higher level expressions to better grasp “the essential quality of what was found in the text (p. 68)”. After giving titles to the emergent themes, I went through the transcript again and typed a list of all the themes I found in the sequence as they came up in the transcript on a Word file. The next phase was to figure out the connections between the themes. I rearranged the sequence of the themes, clustered the similar or related ones together,.

(40) . 37. and made a hierarchical order of the cluster of the themes; that is, to see if there were some themes superordinating others. Later, I will go back to the transcript, the original source material, to see if the connections do make sense. Finally, I arranged the themes in a coherent order. Each cluster of themes went with a superordinate concept, and each theme was accompanied by an instance or instances from the transcript with the line number and page number so that it was easier for me to check where the instances came from the transcript back and forth. With the IPA procedure, I was able to engage myself in the text deeper in the. 治政大 story and experiences. process of interpreting and making sense of the participant’s 立 ‧ 國. 學. However, I was careful not to cut the participant’s story into small fragments, for one of the characteristics of narrative inquiry is to view the informant’s story and. ‧. experience as a whole. While reflecting and reconstructing Erin’s narratives, I wrote. sit. y. Nat. her story in a chronological order but centered on critical events. The interpretation. n. al. er. io. and analysis of Erin’s story were discussed later after the presentation of Erin’s story.. i n U. v. In addition to the interview transcripts, Erin’s Facebook postings and our. Ch. engchi. chatting records via Facebook and LINE were documented, particularly when she expressed her views on English the language and the context that she was situated in. Since I could not observe Erin’s actions in the U.K., her Facebook postings helped me to picture the events she participates in and understand her feelings at the moment. All these online data spontaneously emerged from life were basically used to triangulate the interview data..

(41) . 38. The Issue of Trustworthiness and Generalizability For the issue of trustworthiness, one thing worth noting is that the findings of narrative inquiry studies are recognized as “subjective” and “interpretive” (Barkhuizen et al., 2007, p. 88). To guard the trustworthiness of the study, first I had Erin read her stories after I reconstructed into written narratives as a way of member checking. In the process, I also had her check if there were any parts that I might have miswritten or misinterpreted her experiences. Second, with the prolonged engagement, that is, 13 months of data collection, and multiple in-depth interviews, similar topics. 治政大 me to be certain that the and experiences were discussed more than one time, allowing 立 ‧ 國. 學. data was trustworthy. Each time Erin herself, and I would reflect, re-experience,. compare and contrast or even cross-examine her experiences in Taiwan and abroad. ‧. together, and thus I would have a deeper understanding of her experiences and sketch. y. sit. n. al. er. io. into one issue.. Nat. a more complete picture of what the experiences were like, or even gain more insights. i n U. v. For the issue of generalizability, the study focused on a particular individual and. Ch. engchi. made no attempt to generalize the results. As Polkinghorne (1995) argues, “the cumulative effect of narrative reasoning is a collection of individual cases in which thought moves from case to case instead of from case to generalization” (p.11). Thus, with rich and detailed description and analysis of a particular case, the study hoped to arouse a resonance with the readers, in addition to reaching the goal of the study: That is, achieving theoretical generalization through delineating and shedding lights on how language learner agency functions and changes across multiple contexts..

(42) . 39. Chapter 4 Findings The Narrative Accounts of Erin’s English Learning Journey This chapter is the reconstruction of Erin’s English learning journey from the interview data, and her story was presented chronologically. The story begins from the day she knew the existence of the language, and is divided into three parts. Each part is given a main title, under which several subtitles are provided, documenting the critical events happening during the period. Each subtitle is accompanied by a quotation from the participant as which is the most descriptive to that period of time.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. The first part is entitled “What is English?”, documenting Erin’s first impression of English and how she struggled with English learning in middle schools. The. ‧. second part is entitled “Breaking Dawn”, describing how she reconnected to English,. sit. y. Nat. her changed perceptions of the language, and the reason why she decided to go abroad. n. al. er. io. for further study. The third part is entitled “New World. New Life.”, delineating how. i n U. v. English naturally became a part of her life and the difficulties she encountered in. Ch. engchi. academic life. The chapter finally ends up with Erin’s reflection on her relationship with English and how she made sense of English. Although the story is divided into three parts, it should be viewed as a whole since everything happened in one’s life is actually intertwined..

(43) . 40. Part I: What is English? First Impression of English: “I was happy in the English class, and there were lots of stories in the textbook.”. In the beginning of Erin’s experience, she needed to first of all make sense of what English is. Erin was born in 1990. When she attained elementary school, the new curriculum guideline, Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guideline, was just implemented. Students began to take English class in 3rd grade, twice a week. Her impression of. 政治大 English classes then was mostly about storytelling, and she considered the classes 立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. playful and interesting.. I did not go to cram schools for English learning. I started to take English class. Nat. sit. y. in 3rd or 4th grade. […] I was happy then. I remember [one lesson] in the. n. al. er. io. textbook is a story about an alien, an alien coming to the earth and wants to be. Ch. i n U. v. friends with people, something like that, and everything was in English. […] I. engchi. liked English and thought it fun at that time.. Erin did not remember much about English learning then in elementary school, but she clearly found learning English less enjoyable after going to junior high school. In junior high, English learning equals memorization for Erin. To deal with lots of vocabulary quizzes and unit tests, she needed to memorize vocabulary. She did not understand why she needed to spend so much time studying a language she would not.

(44) . 41. use in daily life; she also found it meaningless to memorize English words just to pass exams:. I am not a person who likes memorizing things. If the subjects are taught in Chinese, such as Chinese, History, or Geography, it would not take much time to study after school since I am familiar with the language, and I can memorize the contents very quickly. English, however, you have to memorize [the vocabulary]. After you go home you have to spend time memorizing [it], and I am the kind of. 治政 person who is lazy about memorizing [things]. 大立 ‧ 國. 學. The more Erin felt it wasting of time memorizing vocabulary, the more unwilling. ‧. she became to study, and hence the poorer performance she had. Hardly. sit. y. Nat. understanding the teacher’s lecture and not being able to catch up with her class mates,. n. al. er. io. Erin gradually developed a resistant attitude toward English learning, and a vicious. i n U. v. circle therefore formed. The situation became worse when she went to senior high school.. Ch. engchi. Falling in the gap: “Is my life all about learning English? I am DONE3 with it.” Attending high school, Erin’s perception of English changed sharply from dislike to hate. “It was in high school that I started to hate English. I hated to study English. 3. Capitalized letters are used from time to time in chapter 4. This is to mark the participant’s manner of speaking, such as emphasizing an event, or to capture the participant’s emotion, like being anxious, nervous, passionate, extremely unsatisfied, or overjoyed..

(45) . 42. very, very much,” said she with contempt. She sensed a great gap between junior high and senior high school, in terms of the difficulty level of vocabulary and grammar. What was worse, the loading of schoolwork increased. Not just English, she basically had trouble with all the subjects, and her academic performance usually ranked second or third from the last. High school was a high-stressed learning environment for Erin, and she did not have better performance after a year of attempting to adjust. She even thought about dropping out of school. Among all the subjects, Erin hated English most. She took an extreme action to avoid English studying by deliberately. 治政 skipping the first period of English class every Tuesday大 morning for the whole spring 立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. semester in 11th grade:. I lied to the teacher that I needed to go to the hospital for the check-up for my. sit. y. Nat. wrist pain every Tuesday morning so that I could skip the class. I could not let. n. al. er. io. my parents know about this, so I would leave home on time, take a bus and. i n U. v. wonder around, and enter the school around 8:30. Then, I would hide in the. Ch. engchi. bathroom, wait until 9:00 when the English class finished, and entered the classroom. Crazy, right?. Further discussing why she hated English so much, Erin mentioned two factors: the heavy workload and her English teacher’s teaching attitude. In high school, Erin needed to not only study the vocabulary, grammar and the reading texts in the textbook, but also the teacher-assigned self-learning English magazines as supplementary out-of-class reading materials. In addition, there was a 4000-word.

(46) . 43. vocabulary book waiting for her to memorize. Erin asked herself, “Is my life all about learning English? Don’t I need to study other subjects? Why on earth do you think you have the right to ask me to study so much English?” She actually shouted out loud her negative emotions as she recounted the experience during our interview at her home. Since she almost gave up on English in the tenth grade, it was more difficult for her trying to catch up with other classmates later on:. We needed to study one to two pages of the self-learning English magazine. 治政大[…] It might be enough for every day, but the materials were quite hard for me. 立 ‧ 國. 學. others to spend five to ten minutes on studying the magazine, but it would take. me at least thirty minutes or even an hour to finish an article. How would I want. ‧. to do that?. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Erin felt swamped with English vocabulary, grammatical points, and reading. i n U. v. materials that she could hardly breathe, not to mention that there were other subjects. Ch. engchi. waiting in line to be studied. She became more and more reluctant to invest time on English, and the result was that she failed English for four consecutive semesters during tenth and eleventh grade. In addition to the heavy study load, her English teachers’ attitudes also brought her negative experiences with English. She indicated a paradox that high school English teachers would not teach many grammatical points since they believed most of the grammatical knowledge had already been taught in junior high school, and students must have mastered it. They often chose to skip grammar completely. “I did.

(47) . 44. know those grammar points, but the problem is that I had not mastered them,” said Erin with laughters. Another English teacher Erin had happened to be the homeroom teacher of the English-talented class in school. Erin thought that the teacher could never put herself in low-achievers’ shoes and did not understand how they felt about English learning since the teacher had always been successful in her own language learning. Erin even felt that she was already given up by the teacher because she showed pejorative attitude toward her, thinking that she was helpless, and there was no chance for her to learn English well.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Not only English, she was basically struggling in all the subjects in her first year in high school. Later, it was her interests in History and Geography that made her take. ‧. her academic performance seriously, but still, she put English aside, completely out of. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. her mind.. i n U. v. During the time I was preparing for the college entrance exam, I could do a. Ch. engchi. sample test on History answering three hundred practice questions a day, but I never studied English. I didn’t want to memorize a word. I didn’t even want to open the book.. The consequence is that she was defeated in the battle of college entrance exam, scoring only 18 out of the total 100 points on the subject of English. “I was incapable of and unwilling to read the questions, so I just guessed. I think the grade is pretty much acceptable,” said Erin, laughing out loud..