教師信念的形成：非正式學制英文老師的個案研究 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文. 指導教授：招靜琪博士 Advisor: Dr. Chin-Chi Chao. 政治大教師信念的形成：非正式學制英文老師的個案研究立. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. The Formation of Teacher’s Belief: A Case Study on English. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Teachers outside the Formal Educational System. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：全美禎撰 Name: Mei-Chen Chuan 中華民國一百零四年七月 July, 2015.

(2) The Formation of Teacher’s Belief: A Case Study on English Teachers outside the Formal Educational System. Presented to. 學. Department of English, National Chengchi University. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大 A Master Thesis. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Mei-Chen Chuan July, 2015.

(3) To Chin-Chi Chao 獻給我的恩師招靜琪教授. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements I am very grateful to the following individuals that have contributed in direct or indirect ways to my thesis. First I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Chin-chi Chao, for her patience and encouragement. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my thesis study. My sincere thanks also go to the committee. 政治大. members, Dr. Dex C. K. Chen and Dr. Shu-Chen Huang, for their insightful comments and. 立. valuable suggestions on my study.. ‧ 國. 學. In addition, I am also grateful to my two best friends, Esther and Flora, for their kindness to participate in the study and provide their life stories as the important data of my. ‧. thesis study.. y. Nat. io. sit. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my parents and brothers. Their love and support. n. al. er. helped me in completion of my study. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(5) Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iv Chinese Abstract ........................................................................................................... ix English Abstract ............................................................................................................ xi Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................... 1 Background ............................................................................................................ 1 Purpose of the Study .............................................................................................. 3 Research Questions of the Study ........................................................................... 3. 政治大 Chapter Two: Literature Review ................................................................................ 5 立 Definition of Terminology ..................................................................................... 3. English Education outside the Formal Educational system ................................... 5. ‧ 國. 學. Teacher’s Belief and Language Teaching .............................................................. 9. ‧. Inconsistency between Teacher’s Belief and Teaching Practice .......................... 10. sit. y. Nat. Formation of Teacher’s Belief ............................................................................. 11. io. er. Prior Learning Experiences.......................................................................... 12 Teacher Training .......................................................................................... 14. al. n. v i n C h.................................................................................... Teaching Experience 15 engchi U. Chapter Three: Methodology.................................................................................... 17 Participants........................................................................................................... 17 Teaching Context ................................................................................................. 18 Data Collection Procedure ................................................................................... 19 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................... 22 Chapter Four: Results: Individual Cases ................................................................ 25 Case 1: Esther ...................................................................................................... 25 FL Learning Experiences and Belief as a FL learner ................................... 25 English Teaching Experience ....................................................................... 35 v.

(6) Teacher Training .......................................................................................... 37 Belief as an English Teacher ........................................................................ 38 Teaching Decision Inconsistent with Belief as a FL Learner ...................... 44 Case 2: Flora ........................................................................................................ 50 FL Learning Experiences and Belief as a FL Learner ................................. 50 English Teaching Experience ....................................................................... 60 Teacher Training .......................................................................................... 62 Belief as an English Teacher ........................................................................ 63. 政治大 Chapter Five: Cross-Case Analysis and Discussion ................................................ 79 立 Teaching Decision Inconsistent with Belief as a FL Learner ...................... 72. R. 1.1. What are the Two English Teachers’ Prior Language Learning. ‧ 國. 學. Experiences? ........................................................................................................ 79. ‧. R. 1.2. What are Their Beliefs as FL Learners? ................................................... 79. sit. y. Nat. R. 2.1. How are the Teachers’ Beliefs as FL Learners, Teacher Training, and. io. er. Teaching Experience Related to the Formation of Their Beliefs as English Teachers?.............................................................................................................. 81. al. n. v i n CDerived Beliefs as English Teachers from Beliefs as FL Learners .............. 81 U heng i h c Beliefs as English Teachers Derived from Teacher Training ....................... 82 Beliefs as English Teachers Derived from Teaching Experience ................ 83. R. 2.2. Why are Some of Their Beliefs as FL Learners not Realized in Their Teaching? ............................................................................................................. 84 Beliefs as English Teachers V.S. Beliefs as FL Learners ............................. 85 Perceived Problems in Teaching Contexts V.S. Beliefs as FL Learners ...... 86 R. 3. How do the Two Teachers’ Beliefs as English Teachers outside the Formal Educational System Develop? ............................................................................. 88 Chapter Six: Conclusion and Implications .............................................................. 91 vi.

(7) Summary of the Study ......................................................................................... 91 Pedagogical Implications ..................................................................................... 92 Limitations of the Study....................................................................................... 93 Suggestions for Further Research ........................................................................ 93 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 94 References .................................................................................................................... 95 Appendix 1 Questions for the First Interview............................................................ 105 Appendix 2 Questions for the Second Interview ....................................................... 107. 政治大 Appendix 4 Questions for the Fourth Interview ........................................................ 112 立 Appendix 3 Questions for the Third Interview .......................................................... 109. Appendix 5 Esther’s Beliefs an English Teacher Related to Her Beliefs as a FL. ‧ 國. 學. Learner ....................................................................................................................... 115. ‧. Appendix 6 Esther’s Beliefs as an English Teacher Related to Her Teacher Training. y. Nat. and Teaching Experience ........................................................................................... 116. er. io. sit. Appendix 7 Esther’s Teaching Decisions Inconsistent with Her Beliefs as a FL Learner ....................................................................................................................... 117. al. n. v i n Canh English Teacher Related Appendix 8 Flora’s Beliefs as to Her Beliefs as a FL engchi U. Learner ....................................................................................................................... 119 Appendix 9 Flora’s Beliefs as an English Teacher Related to Her Teacher Training and Her Teaching Experience .................................................................................... 120 Appendix 10 Flora’s Teaching Decisions Inconsistent with Her Beliefs as a FL Learner ....................................................................................................................... 121. vii.

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

(9) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：教師信念的形成：非正式學制英文老師的個案研究指導教授：招靜琪博士研究生：全美禎. 立. 論文提要內容：. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 讓孩子在正式學制外學習在台灣家長始終蔚為風潮。在台灣，雖然小學三年級才開始正式學習英文，許多孩子早在這個年紀之前就開始學習，或在這年. ‧. 紀之後，也會利用課後時間在非正式機構學習。本研究旨在了解台灣的兩位非. y. Nat. sit. 正式教育機構英文教師的教師信念的形成。. n. al. er. io. 本研究採用質性研究的個案研究方法，研究對象為二位擁有豐富非正式教. i n U. v. 育機構教學經驗的英文老師，其學生年齡介於 2 至 16 歲。資料透過與每一位研. Ch. engchi. 究對象的五次半結構式的深度訪談。收集到的研究資料包含研究對象的：(1) 外語學習經驗，(2)外語學習者信念，(3)英文教學經驗，(4)教師訓練及教育， (5)英文教師信念。研究結果顯示兩位教師的外語學習者信念、教師訓練、和教學經驗都會促成他們的教師信念的形成。然而，他們會做出與自己的身為外語學習者的信念不一致的教學決策。這樣的不一致性是因為他們在教學環境中所感受到的難題還有存在於他們學習者信念和英文教師信念當中的矛盾所產生的。在非正式教育機構裡，英文老師們所感受到會影響教學決策的難題是關於：(1)學生的學習環境，(2)課程規劃，(3)機構政策，(4)學生狀況，和(5)家長的期待。 ix.

(10) 最後，依據本研究結果，進一步提供相關的建議，作為教育立法者、非正式教育機構、以及學生家長們的參考。. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. x. i n U. v.

(11) Abstract Having children learning outside the formal educational system for academic purposes has been a trend among Taiwanese parents. In Taiwan, although formal English instruction is provided from the third grade in formal schools, many children start to learn English before the age and learn English outside the school time at and after the age at informal education institutes. The purpose of the study is. 政治大. to investigate the role of the formation of beliefs as teachers of two English teachers. 立. outside the formal educational system in Taiwan.. ‧ 國. 學. This study adopted a qualitative case study method. The participants were two English teachers with rich experience of teaching students aged from 2 to 16 at. ‧. various informal educational institutes. Data were collected through five. y. Nat. io. sit. semi-structure in-depth interviews with each of the participants. The collected. n. al. er. information included each of the participant’s: (1) FL learning experiences, (2). i n U. v. beliefs as a FL learner, (3) English teaching experience, (4) teacher training, and (5). Ch. beliefs as an English teacher.. engchi. The findings suggest that the two teachers’ beliefs as FL learners, teacher training, and teaching experience all contributed to the formation of their beliefs as English teachers. However, the teachers would make teaching decisions inconsistent with their beliefs as FL learners. The underlying reasons behind the inconsistencies were their perceived problems in teaching contexts and the contradiction between their beliefs as FL learners and as English teachers. In the informal educational institutes, the English teachers’ perceived problems which constrained the realization of their beliefs as FL learners were about: (1) students’ learning context, xi.

(12) (2) curriculum, (3) school policy, (4) students’ conditions, and (5) parents’ expectation. Finally, these pedagogical implications and suggestions are served as a reference for educational policy makers, informal educational institutes, and parents.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. xii. i n U. v.

(13) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background Before the education reform in 2002, junior and senior high school students were under the pressure of studying for the Joint High School Entrance Examination. 政治大 about half a century. Cram schools (Bu-xi-bans), the mainstream informal 立. (JHSEE) and the Joint College and University Entrance Examination (JCUEE) for. educational institutes of that time, rapidly emerged one after another in pursuance of. ‧ 國. 學. students’ needs for high scores on the exams. At that time, cram schools’ major goal. ‧. was to improve examinees’ test-taking skills, so they crammed students with. sit. y. Nat. knowledge considered necessary for the two strict entrance exams, and therefore. io. er. were blamed for increasing students’ pressure. In 2002, in view of students’ academic pressure, the Ministry of Education (MOE) replaced the two entrance. al. n. v i n C h for Entering Senior exams with the Multiple Schemes High Schools and the engchi U. Multiple University Entrance Exam, providing students with alternative methods for entering senior high schools and universities. However, far from disrupting cram schooling, the program brought more pressure to students and increased parents’ worries, pushing more children to learn at informal educational institutes at younger ages (Lin & Chen, 2006; Liu, 2012, Su, 2005). According to the MOE (Ministry of Education), children should start to receive formal English education at third grade in formal schools (K-12 Education Administration, 2004), so in this study, informal English education is defined as the English instruction children receive before the age and the English classes students attend outside school at and after the age. 1.

(14) Although more and more students are involved in the education outside the formal educational system, the informal learning contexts are poorly understood. For teachers are the dominating role in classrooms and their instructional decisions directly influence students’ learning, to understand teaching experience in the informal educational contexts has become an urgent issue. In recent decades, in order to investigate the unobservable dimensions of language teaching beyond teachers’ behaviors and instructional strategies, many researchers have focused on teacher thinking and relevant constructs. Language. 政治大 and instructional decisions (Borg, 2006; Freeman, 1992; Johnson, 1994; Kern, 1995; 立. teachers’ beliefs are revealed to be a key factor behind teachers’ pedagogical practice. Prawat, 1992), and teacher’s prior learning experiences are found to play an. ‧ 國. 學. important role in shaping teacher’s belief (Bailey et al., 1996; Ellis, 2008; Goodman,. ‧. 1988).. sit. y. Nat. Johnson (1992) discovered that language teachers’ pedagogical decisions were. io. er. based on their beliefs emerged from their prior learning experiences as learners. Numrich (1996) also found that language teachers attempted to integrate the. al. n. v i n enjoyable and positive part of their C own learning experience h e n g c h i U into their teaching, Borg (2006), on the other hand, proposed four key factors—prior learning. experiences, teacher training, teaching experience, and teaching contexts—that would emerge or modify language teacher’s belief. In particular, Prawat (1992) indicated that language teachers could be one of the major obstacles to education reform if they hold beliefs in inopportune pedagogical approaches. Thus, it is important to understand the relationship between language teachers’ beliefs and their prior learning experiences, as well as other influential factors. This effort may provide important insight of the educational experience outside the formal educational system. 2.

(15) Purpose of the Study The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the formation of two teachers’ beliefs as English teachers at informal educational institutes by investigating the relationship between their beliefs and the related aspects: their prior FL (foreign language) learning experiences, teacher training, teaching experience, and teaching contexts. This study is expected to provide an expanded view on English education outside the formal educational system, and the findings are expected to be useful for educational policymakers, informal educational. 政治大 teacher’s professional development and training. 立. institutes, and parents. The results may also generate useful ideas for English. ‧ 國. 學. Research Questions of the Study. ‧. 1.1. What are the two English teachers’ prior language learning experiences?. sit. y. Nat. 1.2. What are their beliefs as FL learners?. io. er. 2.1. How are the teachers’ beliefs as FL learners, teacher training, and teaching experience related to the formation of their beliefs as English teachers?. al. n. v i n C h as FL learners not 2.2. Why are some of their beliefs realized in their teaching? engchi U 3. How do the two teachers’ beliefs as English teachers outside the formal. educational system develop?. Definition of Terminology  Belief as a FL learner In the study, belief as a FL learner is defined as the English teachers’ reflections and evaluations of learning FLs according to their learning experience.  Belief as an English teacher In the study, belief as an English teacher is defined as the English teachers’ 3.

(16) reflections and evaluations of teaching English at informal educational institutes.  Teaching decision In the study, teaching decision is defined as the teachers’ choices in pedagogical approaches and their ways of dealing with problems encountered during teaching.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 4. i n U. v.

(17) CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this chapter is to review and discuss the following related issues: (1) English education outside the formal educational system, (2) Teacher’s belief and language teaching, (3) Inconsistency between teacher’s belief and teaching practice,. 政治大. and (4) Formation of teacher’s belief.. 立. English Education outside the Formal Educational system. ‧ 國. 學. For about half a century before the recent education reform, junior and senior. ‧. high school graduates had to attend the annual entrance exams, the JHSEE (Joint. sit. y. Nat. High School Entrance Examination) or the JCUEE (Joint College and University. io. er. Entrance Examination), as the only means to be admitted to a senior high school or a university. However, every year, due to the low admission rate, only a small number. al. n. v i n C h to attend the U of students could get the opportunity schools they preferred. A larger engchi number of examinees were not even admitted to any school while some of the. passed examinees would give up on the chances they already acquired but to retake the exam in order to enter a better school or a specific department that they liked. The needs of the examinees to prepare better for their first or more entrance exam gave rise to the emergence of the early cram schools (also known as Bu-xi-bans) (Lin & Huang, 2009; Liu, 2013). At that time, the major goal of cram schools was to prepare the students for the exams. Cram schools, as the name suggests, crammed students with knowledge considered necessary for the exams, and thus were blamed for leading to students’ mental and physical exhaustion. In 2002, in view of the 5.

(18) increasing amount of cram schools and the younger and younger children cram schools tried to recruit, the Ministry of Education abolished the JHSEE and the JCUEE and replaced them with the Multiple Schemes for Entering Senior High Schools and the Multiple University Entrance Exam, providing alternative methods for entering senior high schools and universities. However, far from being the solution, the new program actually worsened the situation (Lin & Chen, 2006; Liu, 2012; Su, 2005). According to the MOE (Ministry of Education), children should start to receive formal English education at third. 政治大 that children start to learn English much earlier than third grade by taking English 立 grade in formal schools (K-12 Education Administration, 2004), but it is common. courses outside the school. The phenomena have attracted many researchers to. ‧ 國. 學. investigate teaching and learning outside the formal educational system (e.g. Chiou,. ‧. et al., 2005; Chu & Yeh, 2003; Jai & Guo, 2012; Lai & Chen, 2008; Lee, 2006; Lin. sit. y. Nat. & Chen, 2006; Lin & Huang, 2006, 2009; Lin & Tsai, 2007; Liu, 2006; Liu, 2012;. io. er. Liu, 2013; Su, 2005; Wang, 2005).. For young children (aged 2 to 6), over ninety percent of private preschools. al. n. v i n provide English instruction (Chang,C et al., 2002; Gong, et U h e n g c h i al., 2000; Yang & Chang,. 2001). The English instructions provided can be divided into two types:. English-only instruction and bilingual instruction (English and Chinese). English-only instruction is adopted by both whole-day-English and half-day-English preschools (Gong, et al., 2000). In a whole-day-English preschool, pupils are required to speak English most of the time at the school. Foreign teachers typically conduct every course in English, while Taiwanese English teachers, also homeroom teachers, assist the foreign teachers and babysit the children. Some Mandarin Chinese may be used as the language for taking care of personal needs, but the homeroom teachers usually speak English with the children. In a half-day-English 6.

(19) preschool, pupils spend half a day about two to three hours learning English, either in the morning or in the afternoon. A foreign teacher or a Taiwanese English teacher instructs preschoolers in English and a Taiwanese homeroom teacher takes responsibility for classroom management. On the other hand, in bilingual preschools, English instruction is conducted several times a week, depending on the curriculum, by Taiwanese English teachers (Gong, et al., 2000). As you will see later, in the study, the two participants’ experience of teaching preschoolers is in bilingual preschools.. 政治大 organizations—to purchase their teaching materials and hired trainee English 立. While some preschools choose to cooperate with private English education. teachers, others may purchase their textbooks only, write their own textbooks, or use. ‧ 國. 學. imported materials (Gong, et al., 2000). However, researchers have revealed the. ‧. drawbacks to the preschools’ policies on teaching materials and curriculum. Chang,. sit. y. Nat. et al. (2002) reported that English teaching in preschools may be restricted by the. io. er. compiling of textbooks, so that the teachers may have pupils practice conversations by rote drilling. Gong, et al., (2000) also pointed out, due to the limited learning. al. n. v i n C h tend to haveUa short-term retention of what hours, children in bilingual preschools engchi. they have learned and thus do not develop a fully understanding of English. On top of that, Chiou, et al. (2005) found that the pupils’ use of spoken English in a bilingual preschool is much less frequent than a whole-day-English preschool due to the insufficient exposure to English. Yang and Chang, (2001) advocated that improving English speaking environment may benefit children’s English acquisition. As for older children (aged 7 to 12) and teenagers (aged 13 to 19), they may learn English at English supplementary schools, at after-school-care centers, or with English tutor who teaches at their places. English supplementary schools offer mainly English courses to elementary school, junior high school, and senior high 7.

(20) school students outside school time. To note that, because the institutes’ major objective is to improve students’ English abilities rather than their academic skills (Shih & Yi, 2014), the term English supplementary school is used to distinguish from the English cram school discussed earlier, which aims to enable students to achieve academic success. As to after-school-care centers, they look after elementary school and/or junior high school students after school; they teach and help students to do school assignments, prepare for school tests, as well as offer various optional courses (e.g. English, math, and art).. 政治大 system are still inconsistent. Some researchers revealed that informal education does 立 The results of recent studies about education outside the formal educational. not necessarily benefit students’ academic achievements because of the diverse. ‧ 國. 學. quality of teaching and learning (Lee, 2006; Lin & Chen, 2006) but may build up. ‧. academic pressure which is responsible for students’ mental and physical exhaustion. sit. y. Nat. (Chen & Lu, 2009; Lin & Chen, 2006). Some other researchers reported that. io. er. informal education helps in schoolchildren’s academic improvement (Liu, 2006; Liu, 2012) and is not necessarily responsible for students’ depressed feelings (Lin & Tsai,. n. al. 2007).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Most importantly, much research claimed that whatever the MOE does will help little with changing or reforming the informal educational context because the prevailing culture demands the service of cram schooling for academic purposes. This demand has been existing over many decades. Many parents believe that informal educational institutes can improve their children’s academic performance so that children may obtain the opportunities to attend prestigious schools in the future (Jai & Guo, 2012; Lin & Huang, 2006, 2009; Shih & Yi, 2014; Su, 2005). Even though entering a prestigious school may not be out of students’ own wills, their parents’ expectations have been rooted in their mind so they will not refuse to 8.

(21) receive informal education (Liu, 2013). Informal education has become a well-established practice which cannot be easily changed (Lin & Huang, 2006, 2009). Since learning outside the formal educational system has been a general practice which involves so many schoolchildren, more efforts investigating such learning and teaching contexts are urgent.. Teacher’s Belief and Language Teaching. 政治大 consciously or unconsciously, guides the individual’s thinking and behavior (Borg, 立 A belief, a notion believed as true and held in mind by an individual. 2001). Teacher’s belief, also termed teacher cognition by Borg (2003) and called the. ‧ 國. 學. “hidden side” of language teaching by Freeman (2002, p. 1), refers to a teacher’s. ‧. thinking, knowledge and choices of what to believe and what to do in teaching. sit. y. Nat. context (Borg, 2003). Teacher’s belief has increasingly attracted attention of. io. er. educational researchers with interests in the affective and evaluative aspects of teaching (e.g. Borg, 2003; Johnson, 1992; Kern, 1995; Pajares, 1992; Prawat, 1992).. al. n. v i n C h the importanceUof probing insight into teachers’ Many researchers emphasized engchi. beliefs (Borg, 1999; Pajares, 1992). Teachers’ belief was revealed to construct. teachers’ instructional decisions and teaching practice (Borg, 2003; Johnson, 1992; Kern, 1995; Prawat, 1992). Johnson (1992) found the close relationship between teachers’ beliefs in teaching and their pedagogical approaches. Borg (2003) also concluded that teachers’ teaching practice and instructional decisions are constantly influenced by teachers’ beliefs. Furthermore, Kern (1995) pointed out teacher’s belief is one of the factors that affect student’s belief about language learning. As to investigative instruments employed to explore teacher’s belief, Johnson (1992) designed a beliefs inventory to distinguish three types of teaching 9.

(22) orientations: (1) skill-based, (2) rule-based, and (3) function-based. Teachers who prefer applying skill-based methods may focus their teaching on students’ skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Other teachers who usually apply rule-based methods may pay more attention to students’ comprehension of grammatical rules or linguistic elements. Still others, who emphasize the importance of interactive communication and cooperative learning, may choose to apply function-based methods more often.. 政治大 While many studies identified the congruence between teacher’s belief and 立 Inconsistency between Teacher’s Belief and Teaching Practice. teaching practice as mentioned above, many others reported inconsistency between. ‧ 國. 學. the two (e.g. Farrell, 2003; Pennington & Richards, 1997; Nishino, 2012). Most of. ‧. the inconsistencies found between teacher’s belief and teaching practice were. sit. y. Nat. ascribed to contextual factors which hinder teachers’ ability to follow their beliefs. io. er. (Basturkmen, 2012; Borg, 2003; Fang, 1996). Moreover, contextual factors are also responsible for the inconsistency between language teacher’s belief emerged after. al. n. v i n teaching for a period of time and theCones emerged earlierU h e n g c h i (Farrell, 2003; Pennington & Richards, 1997). Previous studies indicated some contextual factors may impact. teacher’s belief and teaching practice: class size (e.g. Pennington & Richards, 1997; Schulz, 2001), set syllabus and heavy workload (e.g. Crookes, 1997; Farrell, 2003), schools’ expectation such as preparation for examinations (e.g. Farrell, 2003; Gorsuch, 2000; Kurihara & Samimy, 2007; Pennington & Richards, 1997), and restricting institutional policies (e.g. Gorsuch, 2000). Besides, students’ conditions may also influence teachers’ decisions (Nishino, 2012). Pennington and Richards (1997) indicated the absence of students’ motivation to learn, students’ limited proficiency in English, and students’ resistance to new ways of learning could be the 10.

(23) reasons why teachers abandon their beliefs about the principles of communicative method. Nierstheimer et al. (2000) also revealed that teacher’s belief may be changed because of teacher’s tendency to be responsible for students who have learning problems. Moreover, many researchers emphasized the importance for English teachers to respond to their students’ expectations (e.g. Gabillon, 2012; Peacock, 1998). Otherwise, the gap between teachers’ and students’ beliefs may reduce students’ confidence in learning and satisfaction with learning, causing them reluctant to take part in classroom activities and resulting in negative learning. 政治大 To sum up, the contextual factors which may lead to the inconsistencies 立. outcomes (Peacock, 1998).. between teacher’s belief and teaching practice are about: class size, syllabus,. ‧ 國. 學. student’s workload, institutional policy. Most importantly, language teachers may. ‧. not follow their beliefs because of their concerns about: students’ conditions such as. sit. y. Nat. their motivation for learning, language proficiency levels, willingness to engage in. io. er. classroom activities, awareness of their own learning styles, learning aptitudes, and learning goals. The present study investigated the contextual factors which caused. al. n. v i n the inconsistencies between C the teachers’ beliefs and h e n g c h i U the teaching decisions of. English teachers in the informal educational institutes and obtained an understanding. of the influence of the informal teaching contexts on English teachers’ teaching decisions.. Formation of Teacher’s Belief Except for the contextual factor which may modify teacher’s belief, three other factors contributing to the formation of teacher’s belief are discussed in this section: (1) prior learning experiences, (2) teacher training, and (3) teaching experience (e.g. Borg, 2003, 2006; Johnson, 2006). 11.

(24) Prior Learning Experiences The key influence that teachers’ early learning experience exerts on their teaching practices is what Lortie (1975) called “apprenticeship of observation” (p. 65), through which pedagogical approaches are committed to students’ memory and become references of their instructional decisions (Bailey et al., 1996; Freeman, 1992 ) The close relationship between language teacher’s prior learning experiences and teacher’s belief as a learner has been revealed by many researchers (e.g. Agudo, 2014; Borg, 2006; Ellis, 2006; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Peacock, 1999). Borg. 政治大 (second language) teaching were derived from prior language learning experiences. 立 (2006) indicated that language teachers’ early beliefs of conceptualizations of L2. Freeman and Johnson (1998) and Ellis (2006) also claimed that teachers’. ‧ 國. 學. experiential knowledge gained through learning will become a resource which. ‧. underpins their teachers’ beliefs.. sit. y. Nat. In fact, learner’s beliefs derived from learning experiences are not only in. io. er. cognitive aspect (e.g. beliefs about learning strategies) but also in affective aspect (e.g. beliefs about the feelings of learning) (Ellis, 2008). Cotterall (1999) discovered. al. n. v i n that students may hold beliefs aboutC their learning ability U h e n g c h i and self-efficacy. Tanaka and Ellis (2003) also found that students’ self-efficacy is related to their belief. changes. In particular, learners’ beliefs emerged from positive learning experience would facilitate their learning (Bailey et al., 1996; Cotterall, 1999; Tanaka & Ellis, 2003). However, on the contrary, learners may also hold detrimental beliefs, which would result in their dissatisfaction with and frustration with language learning (Peacock, 1999). Whether positive or negative, prior learning experience would be imprinted on teachers’ mind and become references for their teaching practices (Goodman, 1988). Shelley, et al. (2013) found that teachers’ experiences of emotions may put impact 12.

(25) on their teaching decisions. Numrich (1996) also discovered teachers attempt to integrate the enjoyable parts of their own learning experiences into their teaching and tried to avoid the negative ones. In addition, Peacock (2001) pointed out that teachers’ detrimental beliefs emerged from their learning experiences may negatively impact their teaching practices, so the beliefs should be eliminated before starting teaching In Taiwan, a few researchers have engaged in studying the relationship between English teacher’s belief and prior FL learning experiences. For quantitative research,. 政治大 school English teachers’ prior learning experiences and teaching styles. As for 立. Wang (2005) conducted a survey to reveal the close relationship between elementary. qualitative research, Shao (2012) adopted in-depth interviews to investigate four. ‧ 國. 學. TCSL (teaching Chinese as a second language) pre-service teachers’ FL learning. ‧. experiences, teachers’ beliefs, as well as the relationship between the two by. sit. y. Nat. qualitative case study approach.. io. er. Similar to what Shao (2012) did in her study, the present study will also conduct in-depth interviews to investigate teacher’s belief in learning, teaching, and. al. n. v i n the relationship between theC two. Shao (2012) revealed h e n g c h i U that the teachers’ past language learning experiences would change learners’ beliefs and that the. participants in her study constructed their theories toward teaching based on their prior language learning experiences and beliefs in learning and teaching. However, the two studies differ in the participants’ teaching contexts and target language to teach. The participants in the present study are two English teachers with rich experience of teaching at various places outside the formal educational system. Beliefs as FL learners can be accessed by Horwitz’s (1987) questionnaire of BALLI (Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory) which consists of the five categories: (1) foreign language aptitude, (2) the difficulty of language learning, (3) 13.

(26) the nature of language learning, (4) learning and communication strategies, and (5) motivation. The questionnaire has been used by many researchers to investigate learners’ beliefs (e.g. Bernat, 2006; Bernat & Lloyd, 2007; Busch, 2010; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Horwitz, 1999; Kern, 1995; Peacock, 1999). The present study modified the questions of the questionnaire to open-ended interview questions to probe into the two teachers’ beliefs as FL learners and obtained an adequate understanding of the relationship of the prior learning experiences and teachers’ beliefs of the two English teachers outside the formal educational system.. 政治大 Many researchers investigated the relationship between the teacher education 立 Teacher Training. and teacher’s beliefs, but the findings show inconsistency. Some researchers claimed. ‧ 國. 學. that teacher training exerted an influence on teacher’s belief (Chu & Yeh, 2003;. ‧. Freeman, 1993; Urmston, 2003). Freeman (1993) investigated the changes of the. sit. y. Nat. beliefs and classroom practices of four teachers taking TESOL (Teaching English to. io. er. Speakers of Other Languages) courses in a program of in-service masters’ degree and revealed that the professional education has a clear impact on the teachers’. al. n. v i n beliefs. Urmston (2003) also found C pre-service teachers’ beliefs h e n g c h i U were strongly. influenced after enrolling in the undergraduate degree’s course, BATESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). In Taiwan, Chu and Yeh (2003) studied the student teachers’ beliefs changes during their practicum in public high schools and revealed that their beliefs were influenced by the mentors’ beliefs. In spite of the studies which exemplified the close relationship between teacher education and teacher’s belief, there are still some other researchers argued that teacher education had no obvious impact on language teacher’s belief (Kanga, 1992; Peacock, 2001). Kanga (1992) reviewed forty learning-to-teach studies dealt with pre-service and novice teachers’ development through teacher education programs 14.

(27) and drew a general conclusion that teacher education programs failed to help the teachers to acquire knowledge to modify and reconstruct their teachers’ beliefs and develop procedural routines of teaching. Peacock (2001) also conducted a survey study to investigate the belief change of trainee ESL teachers during the three-year teaching education program in a university. He found that no changes in the trainee teachers’ beliefs, especially the detrimental ones. However, it was found that the influence of teacher education on teacher’s belief may vary in intensity, depending on the nature of the program (Borg, 2006;. 政治大 2006; Özmen, 2012). The present study probed into the relationship between the 立. Özmen, 2012) and the strength of the trainees’ prior beliefs (Almarza, 1996; Borg,. English teacher training programs held by informal educational institutes and. ‧ 國. 學. English teacher’s belief, which obtained a preliminary understanding of the intensity. io. er. Teaching Experience. sit. y. Nat. belief.. ‧. of the influence of the informal English training programs on English teacher’s. Many researchers discovered the differences between experienced and. al. n. v i n C h(e.g. Liao, 2007; Nunan, inexperienced teachers’ beliefs 1992; Tsui, 2003), which engchi U. suggests that teaching experience is a source of references for teachers’ instructional decisions. Nunan (1992) found that experienced teachers pay more attention to. language issues while novice teachers are more concerned with classroom management. Tsui (2003) also discovered that experienced teachers are more capable to integrate language teaching into communicative purposes. In Taiwan, Liao (2007) also probed into the differences between the beliefs of in-service elementary English teachers and pre-service teachers who were taking training courses at a teachers college. He revealed that pre-service and in-service teachers vary in their opinions about: (1) when children should start learning English, (2) 15.

(28) when teachers should correct students’ errors, and (3) how to evaluate students’ learning performance. Most of all, research also explored that experienced teachers show more concern about students’ affective factors and background knowledge (Breen, 1991), learning styles (Bailey et al., 1996), and motivation to engage in learning than novice teachers (Sanchez & Borg, 2014). In addition, teachers’ decision based on their beliefs derived from teaching experience may contradict their beliefs as learners. When the contradiction occurs, teachers will determine the priority of the contradictory beliefs, usually without. 政治大 are making decisions about the priority, some core beliefs tend to be conserved 立. being aware of that they are resolving a contradiction (Schutz, 1971).When teachers. while others may be abandoned (Peterman, 1991). Johnson (1992) proposed that. ‧ 國. 學. teachers’ considerations involve both cognitive and affective aspects of students’. ‧. learning, and Nespor (1987) indicated that teacher’s beliefs in affective aspect. sit. y. Nat. influence stronger than cognitive aspect.. io. er. As reviewed in this chapter, studies about teacher’s belief and related factors are plenty; however, little research has investigated the teachers’ beliefs of English. al. n. v i n C hsystem. Teachers atUinformal educational teachers outside the formal educational engchi institutes may not have the same academic backgrounds, receive formal teacher. training, or possess similar teaching experience as formal teachers. Furthermore, their teaching contexts are more complicated than formal educational contexts. The present study aimed to explore the formation of the teachers’ beliefs of two English teachers at informal educational institutes, which obtained an understanding of the teachers’ learning experiences, provided a view on informal teacher training, and revealed English teaching experience in the informal educational contexts. The findings generated useful ideas for educational policymakers, informal educational institutes, and parents. 16.

(29) CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY The research obtained an in-depth understanding of the FL learning experiences, teaching experience, beliefs as FL learners, and beliefs as English teachers of two English teachers outside the formal educational system, so that the formation of their. 政治大 adopted because it facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its real-life 立. beliefs as English teachers are discussed. A qualitative case study approach was. context (Yin, 2003).. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 Participants. sit. y. Nat. Two female pseudonymed English teachers teaching outside the formal. io. er. educational system, Esther and Flora, were invited to take part in this study. Both of them were friends of the researcher’s. The long-term positive relationships and. al. n. v i n C hand the researcherUcontributed to the participants’ rapport between the participants engchi. articulation of their thoughts and feelings without inhibition.. There were two important reasons why the two participants were chosen. First, both of them had rich experience in teaching English at diverse informal educational institutes. Esther had a total of fourteen years of experience; and Flora, ten years. Second, they differed from each other on their educational backgrounds, received teacher training, and the contexts they had taught in. These differences were expected to contribute to a broader understanding of informal English education.. 17.

(30) Teaching Context In the formal educational system, children start to learn English as their FL from third grade at formal schools (K-12 Education Administration, 2004). Therefore, in this study, English education outside the formal educational system is defined as the English instruction children receive before the age and the English classes students attend outside school at and after the age in informal educational institutes. Both Esther and Flora had experience of teaching English at bilingual preschools, English supplementary schools, after-school-care centers, and as tutors. 政治大 tutoring studio and Flora had experience of teaching at a storytelling class. 立. at tutees’ places. In addition, Esther had experience of teaching at her own English. Except for Flora’s one-year experience of a full-time teaching job in an English. ‧ 國. 學. supplementary school, all the other teaching jobs they took on were part-time. As. ‧. part-time English teachers, they only had to be at the institutes during the class time. sit. y. Nat. and when it was necessary, so it was usual for them to teach at several places during. io. er. the same period. Their wide-ranging experience of teaching at diverse contexts provided useful insights into the informal educational contexts. Their personal. al. n. v i n backgrounds and the details of theirC teaching experience are h e n g c h i U presented in Table 3.1. Table 3.1 The Personal Information of the Participants Participant. Esther. Flora. Age. 41. 32. Educational Background. A.A. in Early Childhood. B.A. in English, 2003. (pseudonym). Education, 2000 Total English Teaching. 14 years. 18. 10 years.

(31) Experience Experience of Teaching in. 5 years, part-time. 7 years 6 months,. Preschools. part-time. Experience of Teaching in. 3 years, part-time. 6 years 6 months,. After-school-care Centers. part-time. Experience of Teaching in. 7 years, part-time. 1 year, full-time. English Supplementary. 2 years 4 months,. Schools. part-time. Experience of Tutoring. 立. 政7 years,治part-time大. 1 year and several months, part-time. Other Informal Education. own English tutoring. 2 years 4 months, at a storytelling class. ‧. Institutes. ‧ 國. 8 years, part-time, at her. 學. Experience of Teaching in. studio. Nat. n. al. Ch. engchi. sit er. io. (2) B.A. is the abbreviation of Bachelor of Arts.. y. (1) A.A. is the abbreviation of Associate of Arts.. i n U. v. Data Collection Procedure. This case study was conducted through in-depth interviews as its major instrument to understand what participants know about as well as what they have learned from particular issues (Lichtman, 2010). To achieve the purpose of this study, four main topics were included in the four interviews respectively: (1) FL learning experiences, (2) English teaching experience, (3) beliefs as FL learners, and (4) beliefs as English teachers. In such an order—investigating each participant’s life history before probing into her reflections on the meaning of particular events—researcher was able to place the participant’s beliefs in the context of her 19.

(32) life, so that her prior experiences become meaningful and comprehensible (Seidman, 2006). The open-ended questions and the semi-structured format of the four interviews also provided researcher sufficient flexibility to explore relevant issues during the interviews (Guion et al., 2011; Creswell et al., 2007). The first two interviews aimed not only to get an understanding of the participants’ FL learning experiences and English teaching experience, but also to construct the contexts for the following interviews about participants’ beliefs. The questions of the first two interviews can be seen in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. The. 政治大 BALLI (Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory) into open-ended questions to 立 third interview converted the questions from Horwitz’s (1987) questionnaire of. investigate the participants’ beliefs as FL learners (see Appendix 3). Based on. ‧ 國. 學. BALLI, the interview questions contain the following themes: (1) aptitude for. ‧. English learning, (2) difficulty of FL learning, (3) nature of FL learning, (4) learning. sit. y. Nat. strategies, and (5) motivations and expectations. Finally, the fourth interview probed. io. er. into the participants’ beliefs as English teachers outside the formal educational system. The interview questions, adapted from the Beliefs Inventory questionnaire. al. n. v i n C h in the three categories: (Johnson, 1992), include teacher’s beliefs (1) Language engchi U structure, (2) Language function, and (3) Language skills (see Appendix 4). In. addition, in order to reveal the role the teachers’ prior learning experiences plays in their beliefs as English teachers and in consideration of the diversity of their students’ ages and teaching contexts, three categories of questions are added to the fourth interview: (1) Reflections on prior learning experiences, (2) Teaching students of different ages, and (3) Teaching as an English teacher outside the formal educational system. To guard the trustworthiness of the qualitative research, several measures were taken. First, before data collection, all of the questions of the four interviews were 20.

(33) tested on another English teacher who also had experience of teaching English outside the formal educational system. This was to ensure that the content and structure of the interviews would meet the purpose of the study (Gillham, 2000; Jacob & Furgerson, 2012; Kvale, 2007). Second, all of the interviews were conducted in quiet places such as coffee shops with few other customers around to enhance the quality of the data collected. Third, all the conversations were recorded by digital voice recorders to keep track of all the details during the interviews. Finally, after the data of the four interviews were transcribed, an extra shorter. 政治大 confusions, and obtain details of particular events and issues (Jacob & Furgerson, 立 interview was given to each participant in order to check the transcripts, clarify. 2012). All together there were five interviews for each of the participants. Table 3.2. ‧ 國. 學. and 3.3 are the schedules of the interviews with the two participants.. Content. io. er. Duration. sit. y. ‧. Date. Nat. Table 3.2 The Schedule of the Interviews with Esther. n. a l1 hr. 10min. v experiences FL learning i n Ch engchi U. 1. February 6, 2013. 2. February 16, 2013. 1 hr. 37min.. English teaching experience. 3. February 28, 2013. 1 hr. 12min.. Beliefs as a FL learner. 4. March 9, 2013. 1 hr. 12min.. Beliefs as an English teacher. 5. May 7, 2013. 1 hr. 4min.. Confirmation of certain details. 21.

(34) Table 3.3 The Schedule of the Interviews with Flora Date 1. Duration. September 29,. Content. 1 hr. 30min.. FL learning experiences. 2013 2. October 5, 2013. 1 hr. 59min.. Teaching experience. 3. October 13, 2013. 1 hr. 39min.. Beliefs as a FL learner. 4. October 20, 2013. 1 hr. 28min.. Beliefs as an English teacher. 5. December 15,. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 2013. 政治大 Confirmation of certain details 立29min. Data Analysis. sit. y. Nat. The transcripts of all the five interviews with each participant were put into. n. al. er. io. analysis. Both of the holistic-content and categorical-content approaches proposed. i n U. v. by Lieblich et al. (1998) were adopted to analyze the interview data.. Ch. engchi. The holistic-content approach was applied to present the participants’ complete FL learning experiences. First, after transcribing the entire interview data, the researcher read the transcripts several times to establish an understanding of the participants’ stories. The researcher organized outlines of the participants’ stories chronologically in order for the later discussion of the plots. After that, the researcher put her global impression of the cases into writing with special attention being paid to critical events related to the research questions. Furthermore, the researcher accentuated the events repetitively mentioned or particularly emphasized by the participants to indicate the focal significance of the stories and highlighted 22.

(35) the transitions between the participants’ attitudes towards FL learning and the episodes related to their beliefs. The participants’ FL learning experiences were summarized in Table 3.4 and 3.5.. Table 3.4 Esther’s FL Learning Experiences The outlines of Esther’s learning. Year. Age. 1985-1990. 13-18. experiences Junior and senior high school. 1991-1997 政治大. A period between senior high school and 2-year. 立. college. 19-25. 1998-2000. 26-28. After graduation from the college. 2001-2013. 29-41. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 2-year college. Junior high school. al. n. experiences. y Year. Age. er. io. The outlines of Flora’s learning. sit. Nat. Table 3.5 Flora’s FL Learning Experiences. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 1994-1996. 13-15. Senior high school. 1997-1999. 16-18. University. 2000-2003. 19-22. After starting English teaching career. 2004-2013. 23-32. The categorical-content approach was employed to analyze the two participants’ beliefs as FL learners and English teachers. To sort out the participants’ beliefs as FL learners, the researcher highlighted and assembled their utterances related to their perceptions of FL learning into subtexts. Then, the researcher read the subtexts as 23.

(36) openly as possible in order for the themes cut across each subtext to emerge from the reading to present the participants’ beliefs. As to the participants’ beliefs as English teachers, they were classified according to the classification scheme. First, the researcher adopted three of the four relevant factors—learner beliefs, teacher training, teaching experience, which may define or influence teacher’s belief—to categorize the participants’ beliefs as English teachers. Then, the researcher used the other factor, contextual factor, to discuss the inconsistencies between the participants’ teaching decisions and their beliefs as FL learners. Because contextual factor was. 政治大 contradictions between their beliefs and teaching practice. 立. indicated by Borg (2006) that may modify teachers’ early beliefs or cause. It is noteworthy that, the researcher followed the categorical-content approach. ‧ 國. 學. to analyze the two teachers’ beliefs as FL learners and as English teachers. So their. ‧. beliefs were the emphasized or repeatedly mentioned propositions among their. sit. y. Nat. utterances. Related critical events in their life stories were also collected as evidence. io. n. al. er. to support their beliefs. The research findings are presented in the next chapter.. Ch. engchi. 24. i n U. v.

(37) CHAPTER 4 RESULTS: INDIVIDUAL CASES In this chapter, the researcher presents the results of the in-depth interviews and analysis of each of the two English teachers, Esther and Flora. The stories are presented in the following order. First, the researcher embodies the critical events in. 政治大 FL learner right after related events. So the learning contexts are constructed for her 立 the participant’s FL learning experiences chronologically along with her beliefs as a. beliefs to be easily understood. Second, the researcher introduces the experience of. ‧ 國. 學. the participant’s English teaching. Third, the researcher shows the teacher training. ‧. the participant received. By presenting the participant’s teaching experience and. sit. y. Nat. teacher training, the context for her beliefs as an English teacher is constructed.. io. er. Then, the researcher presents the participant’s beliefs as an English teacher. Finally, the researcher discusses the participant’s teaching decisions which are inconsistent. n. al. Ch. with her beliefs as a FL learner.. engchi. i n U. v. Case 1: Esther FL Learning Experiences and Belief as a FL learner Esther is an extrovert and persistent woman in her early forties. When she was an elementary school student, she practiced the piano and joined the school choir. Since the first time she heard an English song, her strong interest in beautiful melodies aroused her enthusiasm about learning English and consequently nurtured her dream of being an English teacher despite difficulties and frustrations. “From the very beginning, I think English is a beautiful language,” she asserted (2/6/2013). 25.

(38) Esther’s FL learning experiences include four major stages: junior and senior high school, a period between senior high school and 2-year college, 2-year college, and after graduating from college. Her story is presented below. Junior and Senior High School Esther started to learn English in the seventh grade in junior high school. In Taiwan, a few decades ago, elementary school graduates had to take a placement exam in the beginning of the first semester in junior high schools. Then, according to the percentile ranks of their scores, the students would be divided up into three. 政治大 assigned to classes labeled as “A”; medium, “B”; and low, “C”. In the seventh grade, 立 groups. The group of students whose scores ranked high in the exam would be. Esther’s high ranking score allowed her to study in an A class, in which she learned. ‧ 國. 學. the KK Phonetic Symbols, which enabled her to pronounce English words and. ‧. memorize new words effectively. “The KK Phonetic Symbols helped me get a sense. sit. y. Nat. of English, so I could memorize English words easily,” she said (2/28/2013).. io. er. However, in the beginning of the third semester, Esther was transferred to a B class because of her unsatisfying grades in math and biology. There, unexpectedly,. al. n. v i n C hproblem pronouncing she found many of her classmates had and memorizing engchi U. English words and finally became depressed about learning English. She attributed their depression to their lack of the knowledge of the KK Phonetic Symbols. The students in the B class didn’t learn the KK Phonetic Symbols… I [had learned the KK Phonetic Symbols and thus] established the foundation of English learning in the seventh grade. The vocabulary, articles, and grammar we learned were getting harder… Because they [her students] couldn’t read out loud and memorize [English vocabulary], they felt frustrated. (2/6/2013) Thus, Esther’s belief that “Learning to pronounce words of the target 26.

(39) language is important,” was emerged from this experience at the very start of her FL learning. Esther’s comparatively outstanding English performance in the B class had her chosen as the helper of her English teachers in the eighth and ninth grade. She collected English homework, gave her classmates vocabulary quizzes, as well as read textbooks for her classmates to repeat in the morning-self-study session. She also represented her class to participate in reading contests and speech contests. In senior high school, Esther was also chosen to be the helper of her English. 政治大 teachers and attending contests, close relationships were established between Esther 立. teacher and attended a speech contest in the tenth grade. By assisting her English. and her English teachers. In appreciation of her help, the teachers gave her English. ‧ 國. 學. readers, a kind of simplified literary works for English learners to practice reading.. ‧. Esther not only felt proud, but also gained more chances to learn English than other. sit. y. Nat. students. She mentioned,. io. er. In the morning-self-study session, I would give my classmates [vocabulary] quizzes or had them repeatedly read out loud the texts. al. n. v i n Copportunities after me… I got extra what I had learned. h e n g ctohpractice i U (2/6/2013). During this period, through reading the English readers given by her teachers and watching English movies in her free time, she started to be aware of the importance of FL speaking context. She stated, “While watching English movies, I would feel that I was at the scene. I learned how to use the language by watching movies” (2/6/2013). She also mentioned, I learned not merely sentence structures from English readers. Stories had me understand how to use the sentences according to different situations. In the settings of the stories, I could get the intended 27.

(40) meanings of the sentences. (5/7/2013) As we can see, Esther’s belief in “Learning FLs in context benefits FL learning” also sprouted at the early stage of her FL learning. Esther’s favorite subject was English. She had pleasant experiences of learning English during the six years in junior and senior high school. She said with a smile on her face, “In my impression [of learning English in secondary school], everything went without a hitch, I did enjoy it” (2/6/2013). Therefore, Esther determined to enter an English department in. 政治大 English. I have aimed to be an English teacher since long time ago,” she 立. university and become an English teacher in the future. She asserted “I like. A Period between Senior High School and 2-Year College. 學. ‧ 國. asserted” (2/16/2013).. ‧. After graduating from senior high school, Esther became an examinee of the. sit. y. Nat. JCUEE. At that time, the entrance exam was held once a year. Every year, only. io. er. about sixty percent of the examinees could pass the exam and be admitted to a university. Some examinees would give up on the chances they got and choose to. al. n. v i n C h department or U retake the exam in order to enter a specific a better university. It was engchi thus not unusual for an examinee to take the exam more than once.. With Esther’s strong determination to enter an English Department, she took the exam five times in six years. From the age nineteen to twenty-five, alternating between studying and work, Esther tried her best in order to become an English major in a university. For every upcoming exam, she needed to study all the subjects included in the exam in cram schools. In addition to taking numerous mock tests in cram schools, she also had to study hard by herself. Her methods of learning for exams were writing English vocabulary, phrases, and sentences on small flash cards to memorize at any time. She also studied the grammar patterns taught in English 28.

(41) magazines and recorded the magazines’ radio programs to listen to everywhere she went. During the third of the six years, when she was twenty-one, she tried another way to learn English at a FL learning institute (Institute A), in which she learned English from native English speaking teachers (NESTs) for thirty-six hours in a few months. She felt very confused when she spoke English with a NEST for the first time. She said, “It was strange. I had memorized so many English words. Why did I have difficulty speaking English?” (2/6/2013). She finally realized that what she had. 政治大 She also discovered the differences between learning a FL for academic purpose and 立 learned at school was written English, which was seldom used in daily conversation.. for communicative purpose. She mentioned,. ‧ 國. 學. Since junior high school, I had to take tests and exams constantly.. ‧. Most exams were about reading and writing. Every time I tried to. io. er. too big, not common at all. (2/6/2013). sit. y. Nat. speak English with the NESTs, they told me the words I used were. Thus, she determined to enhance her listening and speaking abilities. After a. al. n. v i n few months, she decided to C take an English courseU h e n g c h i in another FL learning institute. (Institute B). The course happened to be around the Christmas time. To celebrate the holiday, the NEST invited the class to go skating together at a skating rink. It was Esther’s first time to go out with a native speaker and speak English in real life. She communicated with the NEST and learned from the NEST’s feedback For example, I talked with the NEST while [we were] putting on skating shoes. I used my body language when I didn’t know how to express an idea in English. Then I learned how to say it [from the teacher’s response]. (2/6/2013) In the six years of being an examinee of the JCUEE, although Esther once 29.

(42) obtained a chance to be a Chinese major, she was never admitted to be an English major. Taking a friend’s suggestion, she finally took the 2-year College Entrance Exam and was admitted to the Early Childhood Education Department of a college. 2-Year College Esther became an Early Childhood Education major at a college at the age of twenty-six, but she was still working on learning English and trying to figure out ways to be an English teacher. She asserted, I like English. I have aimed to be an English teacher since long time. 政治大 want to share my joy of learning English with children. (2/16/2013) 立 ago. I like the language and enjoy being in the environment of it. I. In the second year of the college, Esther went to FL Learning Institute C. ‧ 國. 學. (Institute C) to learn English. There, she made friends with a NEST, Angela. ‧. (pseudonym), a Canadian who came to Taiwan alone and liked to ask her students. y. Nat. out on weekends. By going out with Angela, Esther gained ample chances to use. er. io. sit. English in context. She stated, “When Angela was in Taiwan, I could practice speaking English with her often… Sometimes she asked us [my classmates and I] to. n. al. have tea together” (2/6/2013).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Esther’s first time abroad was to attend Angela’s wedding in the U.S.A. Talking with many native English speakers there, again, Esther felt her spoken English was insufficient to carry on daily conversations with native speakers. She said, “When I was abroad, foreign friends said what I said was too formal and proper. Their conversations were full of slangs” (2/6/2013). Esther’s experience of communicating in English in daily life reinforced her early belief that “Learning FLs in context benefit FL learning” and further broadened her scope of FL learning. She asserted, “I am impressed by the slangs and vocabulary that I have used to speak to others” (2/6/2013). 30.

(43) Comparing the communicative learning methods (e.g., learning in context) with the learning methods Esther adopted to learn for academic purpose (e.g., memorizing vocabulary, phrases, and sentences, and studying grammar patterns), the former were connected to her positive experience of achieving communicative purpose and social interaction, while the latter were connected to her negative experience of learning under academic pressure and failing to communicate in daily life. In addition, because her spoken English improved much by speaking. 政治大 “Learning FLs through speaking benefits FL learning” was also emerged. 立 with native speakers and learning from their feedback, her belief that. She stated, “I learned how to apply slangs, vocabulary, and sentences [in. ‧ 國. 學. daily conversations] by communicating with the NESTs” (2/28/2013) and. ‧. When I didn’t know how to say something in English, I asked them. io. er. the same situation next time. (2/6/2013). sit. y. Nat. [the NESTs] how to say it. Then I knew what to say when I encounter. She wanted to dispense with the old learning methods for academic. al. n. v i n purpose. She said, “If I learnCa sentence by rote instead h e n g c h i U of using it in context, I will forget it after a few days” (2/6/2013).. Furthermore, she also started to believe that “The goal of FL learning is to communicate”. She asserted, “I don’t want to learn English for exams anymore. I want to learn to communicate in daily life” (2/6/2013). After Graduating from College At twenty-nine, with the satisfying experience of learning English at the first three FL learning institutes, Esther went to FL Learning Institute D (Institute D) to further develop her English. However, unexpectedly, she felt discouraged because she could only practice speaking fixed sentences with her classmates. She described, 31.

(44) In the eighteen hours [of learning English] in Institute D, most of the time, the teacher had us [my classmates and I] practice speaking fixed English sentences with each other. Unless I had questions, I didn’t have a chance to talk with the NEST. (2/6/2013) This experience reinforced the importance of Esther’s belief that “Learning FLs through speaking benefits FL learning.” She recognized that learning FLs through speaking rather than practicing fixed sentence structures would benefit long-term retention. She uttered,. 政治大 conversation, without chances to speak them out, I tended to forget 立 Although I memorized many [English] words that can be used in. them (2/6/2013).. ‧ 國. 學. When Esther was thirty-three, she took on an interpreting job for some. ‧. missionary group as a short-term project in India. While the missionary was. sit. y. Nat. preaching, Esther translated his Chinese into English, and then an Indian interpreter. io. er. translated her English into the Indian language. Although Esther was very nervous while interpreting, she thinks this experience was interesting. She stated, “It was a. al. n. v i n very special experience. I was like aCnewborn calf which fears h e n g c h i U no tigers” (2/16/2013).. The interpreting job triggered her motivation to learn interpretation in a Bible College after a few months. In the twelve months of learning at the Bible College, she took the course of interpretation for one semester; writing, one semester; and Bible English, two semesters. In particular, she also regarded the experience as the compensation for her dream of being an English major that could not be realized. She asserted, “I just wanted to fulfill my dream of studying in an English department” (2/6/2013). Now, in the fourteenth year of her English teaching career, Esther still learns 32.

(45) English on Thursdays. She attends a free course offered by Let’s Talk in English. The NEST is a missionary who has been in Taiwan for over ten years. She asserted, “I will go wherever I can learn English” (2/6/2013). Throughout Esther’s FL learning experiences, Esther’s attitude toward FL learning has always been positive. She always built good relationships with her teachers and classmates since she started learning English. At the very start, she obtained a sense of superiority and got positive feedback from being an English teachers’ helper. After learning English from NESTs, using English to communicate. 政治大. and make friends with them further reinforced her positive attitude towards English learning. She said,. 立. I went to FL learning institutes and accumulated sentences that can be. ‧ 國. 學. used in daily conversations. I gradually became able to express. ‧. myself. I could also help my classmates with learning in class. I think. sit. y. Nat. I built up confidence at that time. (2/28/2013). io. er. Her positive learning attitude and motivation enabled her to overcome problems and difficulties and consequently made her dream of being an English. al. n. v i n Cthat teacher come true. It is found the belief that “Positive learning U h eshenholds i h gc. attitudes benefit FL learning.” She provided an example,. If learners don’t open their hearts to learn a FL, they can’t learn it well. If they open their hearts to learn it and are willing to get in touch with everything about it, they can learn it well… It depends on whether they want to learn it or not. (2/28/2013) In summary, at the very start of Esther’s FL learning, she learned to recognize the KK Phonetic Symbols. The ability enabled her to read out loud and memorize English words easily, and she thus performed better in English than her classmates. Her belief that “Learning to pronounce words of the target language is important” 33.

(46) was emerged from the experience. Receiving English readers as presents from her teachers, she gained opportunities to learn English in context by reading the English readers. Her belief “Learning FLs in context benefits FL learning” also sprouted at the early stage. Her fondness for English and the fulfillment gained from being the teachers’ helper encouraged her to pursue the goals of entering an English Department and being an English teacher eventually. Although Esther could not make her dream of being an English major come true, she still tried to learn English by other means. Her experience of speaking English to communicate with NESTs. 政治大 also started to be aware of language functions and hold the belief that “The goal of 立. reinforced her early belief that “Learning FLs in context benefit FL learning.” She. FL learning is to communicate. Her belief that “Learning FLs through speaking. ‧ 國. 學. benefits FL learning” also derived from her experience of communicating with. ‧. native speakers because her spoken English improved much by learning from the. y. sit. io. er. listed in Table 4.1.. Nat. native speakers’ feedback. Her beliefs as a FL learner and related critical events are. al. n. v i n C h and Related Critical Table 4.1 Esther’s Beliefs as a FL Learner Events engchi U Related Critical Events. Beliefs as a FL learner. Her ability to pronounce English words by. “Learning to pronounce words of the target. recognizing the KK Phonetic Symbols enabled. language is important.”. her to memorize English words effectively. “Learning FLs in context benefits FL learning.”. At the early stage, she learned how to use words and sentence patterns in context by learning from English readers and English movies. At the later stage, she learned English by communicating with. 34.