全英語教學應用於國小二年級英語課之研究

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(1)國立屏東大學英語學系碩士班碩士論文指導教授：梁中行博士. 全英語教學應用於國小二年級英語課之研究 A STUDY ON ENGLISH-ONLY INSTRUCTION IN A SECOND-GRADE ENGLISH CLASS. 研究生：曹雅蕙撰. 中華民國一百零九年 7 月.

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(4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. It is hard work to complete a master thesis. I deeply realize that I could not have achieved the goal without the insightful advice of my advisor Dr. Jong-Shing Liang. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to his support and tolerance for guiding me throughout the process of my study, and for his trust in my ability to finish a thesis and get a master degree. I would also thank the committee members, Dr. Shu-Ying Chang and Dr. Tung-Tao Yu. Their constructive suggestions and comments helped me improve my thesis. Finally, I would like to share my achievement of this thesis with all of the friends who had helped me during the graduate school life: my classmates of the English Department, and my colleagues of Chien Feng Elementary School.. i.

(5) 摘要. 全英語教學已推廣到台灣各個學習階段，且受到相當重視。本研究旨在探討全英語教學使用在小學二年級的英語課堂中，參與此課程的學生的看法、教師在教學過程中遭遇的困難，以及任課教師對此教學過程的省思。本研究以高雄市某國小的二十六位學生和一位英語教師為研究對象。每週上課一次，每次四十分鐘，為期十週。研究資料包括學生的上課回饋單、問卷、學習後的訪談報告、以及教師上課手札。資料分析以質性分析法及部份問卷量化進行。主要研究發現如下: 第一，大部分學生對於全英語教學給予正面評價，但其中五位學生不希望教師繼續實施全英語教學。第二，教師若能在課堂中堅持使用全英語教學，學生會自我調整並接受此教學策略。第三，在班級管理和教授抽象概念單字時，教師可使用中文。最後，依據本研究發現，研究者對在台灣實施全英語教學提出建議，以供後續對全英語教學研究有興趣者參考。關鍵字: 全英語教學、二年級、以英語為外國語言. ii.

(6) Abstract. English-only instruction has been encouraged to be implemented in every stage of education in Taiwan. This study involved integrating English-only instruction into a secondgrade English class in an elementary school. English-only instruction here means that the instructor speaks no Chinese in the class. The purpose of this study was to understand how the participating students and the instructor perceived the English-only instruction, record what obstacles had occurred during the teaching process, and examine how the instructor perceived her use of English-only in teaching the second-grade students. Twenty six students and an English teacher participated in this study in a suburban district of Kaohsiung City. The English-only instruction was given once a week, 40 minutes every time for 10 weeks. The data were collected through questionnaire, learning feedback sheet, interviews and the teaching journal kept by the instructor. The major findings are as follows: First, most of the students held positive attitude toward the English-only instruction. Students’ satisfaction with their pleasant learning experience was found in the English-only instruction classroom. But five out of the 26 students did not want to continue the instruction. Second, if the instructor insisted on speaking English in the classroom, students would adjust themselves and accept the teaching model. Third, code-switching was recommended in class management and teaching some abstract words. This study concluded with the implications for English education, suggestions for future research and limitations for this study. Keywords: English-only instruction, second grade, EFL. iii.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. i CHINESE ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................... 7 English Education in Taiwan ............................................................................................7 Learning Motivation ....................................................................................................... 10 Teacher’s Language Use in L2 Classrooms .................................................................... 12 English-only Instruction ................................................................................................. 13 Advantages and Disadvantages of English-only Instruction .......................................... 15 Related Studies of English-only Instruction ................................................................... 19 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS ...................................................................................... 28 The Rationale .................................................................................................................. 28 Participants...................................................................................................................... 29 The Students ............................................................................................................... 29 The Teacher ................................................................................................................ 30 Teaching Materials and Teaching Procedure................................................................... 31 Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 33 A Consent Form with a Survey of the Students’ English Learning Background …...33 The Questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 33. iv.

(8) Video-Stimulated Recall ............................................................................................ 34 Learning Feedback Sheet ........................................................................................... 35 Interviews ................................................................................................................... 35 Teaching Journal ........................................................................................................ 37 Data Analysis..…………………………………………………………………………38 Trustworthiness .............................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION ........................................................... 43 The Students’ Perception ............................................................................................... 43 Positive Attitude for the English-only Class ................................................................... 44 Negative Attitude Towards the English-only Class ................................................... 52 Obstacles Encountered During the Teaching Process .................................................... 54 Students’ Nervous Feeling Toward English-only Instruction ................................... 55 Students Not Getting the Exact Meanings of the Words ........................................... 56 Not Knowing How to Follow the Teacher’s Instruction ........................................... 57 Classroom Management ............................................................................................ 59 The Teacher’s Perception About the English-only Instruction ...................................... 61 Teacher’s Being a Guiding Model ............................................................................ 61 Students’ Adaptability ............................................................................................... 62 Diverse Aids of Teaching .......................................................................................... 65 Difficulties in Following the Teaching Schedule ...................................................... 66 The Need of Code-switching .................................................................................... 68 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS ............................................................ 70 Summary of Major Findings ......................................................................................... 70 Implications for English Education ............................................................................... 72 Suggestions for Future Research ................................................................................... 74. v.

(9) REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 76 APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix A: Lesson Plan (A Sample) ........................................................................... 86 Appendix B: Parental Consent Form ............................................................................. 88 Appendix B-1: Parental Consent Form (English Version) ............................................. 89 Appendix C: English Learning Questionnaire ............................................................... 90 Appendix C-1: English Learning Questionnaire (English Version) ............................... 91 Appendix D: Student Feedback Sheet ............................................................................ 92 Appendix D-1: Student Feedback Sheet (English Version) ............................................93 Appendix E: Interview Guideline ...................................................................................94 Appendix E-1: Interview Guideline (English Version) ...................................................95 Appendix F: Teaching Journal for English-only Instruction (A Sample) .......................96. vi.

(10) LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Background Information of the Student Participants ...............................................29 Table 2 Results of the Questionnaire ....................................................................................45. vii.

(11) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION. With the current trend towards globalization, English has been used as a tool for. communication in many aspects around the world, such as new technology, politics,. economics, science, and international events (Crystal, 2012). Take international trade for. example: two different companies from two different countries, both use English as a means of. communication when doing business. Because of the importance of being able to communicate with foreigners in English, many Asian countries have regarded their students’. English ability as a source of competition with other countries. In South Korea, for example,. English has been taught as a part of the regular curriculum since 1997. Students in the third. and fourth grades take English classes one hour per week, whereas students in the fifth and. sixth grades take English class two hours per week (Choi & Chung, 2016). In Japan, a course. in Foreign Language Activities (FLA) was introduced as a compulsory course in elementary. school in 2011, requiring fifth and sixth graders to take 35-credit hours of English activity class per year to actively engage in communication in English, so as to develop the students’. intercultural understanding (Triana, 2017). Similarly, the teaching and learning English has. 1.

(12) become an essential issue in Taiwan.. In Taiwan, English has been the major foreign language for students to learn for the. past few decades. Because English is learned as a foreign language (EFL hereafter), in Taiwan. there are almost no opportunities for the students to use English outside the classroom.. Therefore, in order to assist the students to learn English well, the Ministry of Education (MOE. hereafter) implemented the Grade One-Nine Curriculum Guidelines to require the schools to. offer English courses for fifth graders since 2001, and then for third graders since 2005. Local. governments, such as Kaohsiung City Government, also put considerable emphasis on English. education. Since the beginning of 2019, English education has become compulsory for the. first graders in many cities (MOE, 2018), such as those in Taichung County; where, at the start. of the 2002 school year, the schools implemented English education from the first grade to the. sixth grade (Chiang, 2013). According to the Kaohsiung Education Bureau (KEB), starting. from the 2018 school year, every elementary school has to offer English courses from the first. grade up (KEB, 2018). For Taiwanese students, learning English has become one of the most. essential keys to building their global vision. By learning English, they can relate. appropriately to the cultures of English countries and show respect to people of foreign. countries (Chang, 2000).. 2.

(13) To make Taiwan more competitive than other countries, the Taiwanese government has. put forth considerable effort at every stage of English education (Wu, 2011). Teachers. encourage students to use spoken English at first when the students are younger than third. grade. Students after the fourth grade, have to learn grammar and phrases. The policy-makers. aimed to help students improve their ability in using English as a means of communication. with others in daily life. Students try hard to get better grades to show their success in learning. English. The Twelve-Year Basic Education Curricula was implemented in August 2019 (MOE, 2018). In the stage of elementary school, the goal is to build students’ self-learning and. lifelong learning habits. Teachers should help students to explore the different cultures of. foreign countries and help students apply English to everyday communication. Furthermore,. cultivating logical thinking, learning attitudes and learning strategies when learning English is. also emphasized for elementary school students (MOE, 2018). In addition, Taiwan’s government is steadily implementing the policy to develop. Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030 and working on relaxing the rules pertaining to. bilingual education (National Development Council [NDC], 2018). In the Blueprint proposed by the NDC, the two major objectives are to “enhance Taiwan’s international competitiveness” and to “improve Taiwan citizens’ English proficiency.” The government plans to establish the. 3.

(14) teaching program for English Medium Instruction (EMI) and encourage the on-site teachers to. conduct the EMI program in class. This is not limited only to English language teachers, but. the government also intends that elementary school and junior high school teachers will be able. to use English to teach subjects by the year of 2030. So, the government has carried out a plan. of pre-service teacher programs and in-service training programs for on-site teachers by 2030. (NDC, 2018). It is an on-going plan to implement the TEIE (Teaching English in English). policy in primary and secondary education, as in the following data from the blueprint for. developing Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030 (NDC, 2018):. 1. The government is expanding the human resources required for English education. 2. The government is promoting the effectiveness of English teaching and learning resources centers sponsored by local governments. 3. The government is providing subsidies for teacher-training universities to establish TEIE research centers. 4. The government is offering TEIE credit courses for in-service teachers. 5. Some universities are hosting TEIE courses for in-service and pre-service teachers. 6. The government is expanding the manpower needed for the English education of international students coming to Taiwan.. The solutions to the problem of how to teach English and how to make students learn. English well must be held in highest regard. The Twelve-Year Basic Education Curricula. (MOE, 2018) indicates that teachers should use multiple ways and activities to help students. 4.

(15) learn English and to enhance their motivation to learn. In Taiwan, an English class lasts 40. minutes in elementary school. Students in elementary school generally have short attention. spans while learning (Wu, 2011). If teachers can teach students through the use of different. teaching materials and approaches, the students may learn a foreign language more easily (Ko, 2006; Wu, 2011). Furthermore, according to Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis, under a. more relaxed environment, the students can learn the language better (Krashen, 1982).. Therefore, teachers need to build a pleasant atmosphere to help students to learn English. (Chang, 2000). A positive and relaxing learning environment should be created in which students’ affective filter can be lowered in order to enhance the effectiveness of language. learning (Tsai, 2019).. To encourage students to learn English better, English teachers in Kaohsiung City are. encouraged to use more than 70% of English in class (KEB, 2018). Being an elementary. English teacher, I found this policy reasonable and feasible, because I always asked myself to. be a language model for my students to learn. But I also wondered if I could only use English. in the entire class. Hence, I decided to examine English-only instruction as the topic of this. study.. In the literature, there are various terms adopted for English-only instruction, such as. 5.

(16) Teach English in English (TEIE), English Medium Instruction (EMI), English taught programs,. and using English to teach English in the English class. In the current study, I chose to use. English-only instruction instead of the other terms, because the study took place at an English. class where the English language was the learning focus of my students, and also because the. term, English-only instruction seemed more straightforward and understandable than the other. terms. By conducting this study, I aimed to investigate how my students and I as the teacher,. perceived the use of English-only instruction in our English class. It was a good chance for me. to further examine if English-only instruction, that is, 100% English-usage in class, was a good. choice to help second graders to learn English.. Research Questions The research questions addressed in this study are as follows:. 1.. How do the participating students perceive the English-only instruction they received in. this class?. 2.. What obstacles does the teacher encounter during the teaching process?. 3.. How does the teacher perceive her use of English-only in teaching second-grade students?. 6.

(17) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW. This study aimed to explore the students’ perceptions of English-only instruction, the obstacles encountered by the teacher and the teacher’s concerns about the use of English-only. instruction. Hence, this chapter gives a general review of theories and related studies. It starts. with a brief introduction of English education in Taiwan, followed by an introduction of learning motivation and teachers’ language use in the second language (L2) classroom.. Finally, related studies on English-only instruction are introduced.. English Education in Taiwan In Taiwan, both people and the government value Taiwan students’ English. proficiency, due to the growing emphasis on the globalization of Taiwan and the need for. Taiwan to increase its international competitiveness. Taiwan is open to people using English. as a means of communication and therefore makes allowances for dissimilarities that may. occur due to the culture gaps encountered. Being able to speak English is seen as a functional. tool, with the main focus being on communication and knowledge acquisition. In 2001,. English became a compulsory school subject for Grade 5 students in the public-school system.. In 2005, the compulsory age for English as a required subject, was lowered from Grade 5 to. 7.

(18) Grade 3 (Sharaby, 2018).. Some English learning problems were found in Taiwan, including: (a) a lack of. resources and few students with diverse English abilities; (b) limited teaching hours; and (c). parental expectations (White, 2013). Many of these are connected to socioeconomic issues.. For example, some parents are able to send their children to cram schools for extra lessons,. while the others do not have the economic ability to pay for their children to attend extra. English classes. These conditions cause the diversification of English abilities in the. classroom. Some students are very good at English, while some students are still working on. learning the alphabet. In addition, the extra practice that students receive, leads to higher expectations from the parents (Su, 2006). To meet these parents’ expectations, some cities in. Taiwan, such as Tainan City in 2015 and New Taipei City in 2014, have started to introduce. English taught plans (Chen, 2017). It is common practice for parents to provide English. learning to their children during their early childhood. Many private language schools also. promote the concept that children should take English classes as early as possible in order to gain the best learning advantage, which is in line with the belief of “the earlier the better” in. language learning (White, 2013).. The Taiwanese government has strived for educational reform to foster national. 8.

(19) competitiveness. For example, Executive Yuan (2002) proposed “Challenge 2008 -- National. Development Plan” to set the goals of developing an internationalized living environment and enhancing the citizen’s English proficiency. In addition, the “Plan for Enhancing National English Proficiency” was approved in 2009, emphasizing that English proficiency is not only a. key capability essential for globalization but also raises industrial international service. capabilities (Executive Yuan, 2009). In 2010, the government launched an international. education white paper, which included four main schemes of the program. They were international exchange, curriculum development, teachers’ teaching growth and. internationalization of schools (MOE, 2010). The Twelve-Year Basic Education Curricula was. implemented in August, 2019 (MOE, 2018). The curricula includes a stronger emphasis on the. skills of listening and speaking skills in primary education. The goal is to ensure that English. education in Taiwan can continue on a steady path of growth and development. In the stage of elementary school, the goal is to build students’ self-learning and lifelong learning habits.. Teachers should help students to explore the different cultures of foreign countries and help. students apply English to everyday communication. Furthermore, cultivating logical thinking,. learning attitudes and learning strategies when learning English is also emphasized for. elementary school students (MOE, 2018).. 9.

(20) In addition, Taiwan launched a policy concerning the development of Taiwan into a. bilingual nation by 2030 and the deregulation of bilingual education. The government is. encouraging teachers to use English only in the English class by 2030 (National Development. Council [NDC], 2018). However, it is inevitable that students may confront tension and stress. in an English-only class. The lack of English ability causes students not having a good. experience when English-only instruction is implemented. Therefore, how to motivate students’ learning in English is further discussed in the following sections.. Learning Motivation Motivation is a key factor for learning and has received more attention than any other. factors, such as: attitude, age, intelligence, aptitude, cognitive style, and personality (Ellis,. 2015). This follows that students that are motivated, will improve their language-learning. abilities. As Krashen (1982) pointed out, if students learn a language under a relaxed. environment, they can learn the language better. Hsieh (2018) found this idea to be true, that motivation does actually influence language proficiency. Her students’ literacy performance. was higher when their intrinsic motivation increased. Chang (2000) also suggested that. teachers create a classroom atmosphere that encourages English learning without fear. To this end, teachers can use various activities in the teaching process to enhance the students’ positive. 10.

(21) attitudes, thus increasing the motivation needed for optimal language-learning.. Motivation can be viewed in two ways. One is intrinsic motivation and the other is. extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Extrinsic motivation comes from outside factors,. such as grades and praise, that motivate learners to learn. It is also a tendency to do something. for the purpose of gaining a separate outcome, such as for instrumental reasons (Deci & Ryan,. 2000). Extrinsic motivation is related to the way others perceive self. When students learn a. foreign language, they see themselves becoming competent, speaking fluently with foreigners. while traveling, getting a promotion in the future, and reaping other benefits of L2 proficiency. (DÖ rnyei, 2005). On the other hand, intrinsic motivation is caused by the learner’s own needs. Learners. are willing to learn if they find enjoyment in the process. They are moved to act for the fun or. challenge of it, rather than as a result of the external pressures or rewards. In the L2 learning. context, students enjoy language-learning through intrinsically motivated elements, such as. engaging in activities that are challenging and interesting. The willingness to learn stems from. their internal interest and happiness, and not from the hope of external or instrumental gain. (Chen & Kraklow, 2015). If teachers can help students increase their self-motivation, students. would participate in the classroom more willingly. If a teacher pays attention to how the. 11.

(22) environment affects the students’ motivation during the class, the learning result can be. revealed (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). In this type of classroom, teachers encourage students to. learn and use the target language in the classroom, while providing them with a chance to use. the language in different real-life situations. It was found that students with either intrinsic or. integrated regulated motivation demonstrated more spontaneous engagement in their. education; while students who preferred extrinsic motivation showed superficial or low. engagement (Saeed & Zyngier, 2012). Teachers’ Language Use in L2 Classrooms The teachers’ language use in L2 classrooms has been widely examined. To get. sufficient amount of the target language, L1 should be used as little as possible in the foreign. language classroom (Zhong, 2015). In an English-only classroom, students have more chance. to use English (Lin, 2007). Huang (2009) also explained that English-only instruction could improve students’ listening proficiency and vocabulary. The students acquired more. confidence when they were required to express themselves in spoken English. However, it is a. common practice in EFL classrooms to use code-switching, the process of alternating between. languages. People often code-switch when communicating with one another in a bilingual or. multi-lingual society. Code-switching can promote the language learning process (Baker,. 12.

(23) 2001). In the EFL classroom, first language (L1) should be used as little as possible, and a L2. instruction could best help students to get sufficient amount of the target language input. (Krashen, 1982; Wong-Fillmore, 1985). Using code-switching in the classroom helps students. to develop a higher level of confidence (Chi, 2018).. In the English-only classroom, Chen (2016) recommended that teachers use. multivariate teaching strategies to aid students in achieving the goal of comprehension.. Teachers will be able to help students understand the content in English clearly and avoid. ambiguity in the interaction between the teacher and students. Larsen-Freeman (2001). mentioned that the direct method needs the demonstration of the teacher and the using of. teaching aids in the teaching process. Students do not depend on their own mother language.. This teaching method emerged as an alternative to the grammar-translation method for promoting the students’ oral fluency in the target language. An environment that minimizes. the use of the L1 is preferred (Neokleous, 2017). In the following sections, some research on. English-only instruction were reviewed.. English-only Instruction There are various terms adopted in Taiwan’s research, such as Teach English in English. (TEIE), English-only instruction, English-Medium instruction, English taught programs, and. 13.

(24) using English to teach English in the English class. There are also differences in the research,. as to the percentage of English used in the classroom environment. Berger (2011) suggests that use of one’s L1 can be a teaching resource for L2 in an English-only class. Wei (2013). has suggested that in order to implement English-only instruction successfully, the tolerance of. L1 may also help. It is because with such proficiency, teachers will be able to help students. understand the content in English clearly and avoid ambiguity in the interaction between the. teacher and students in the class taught in English only.. English is one of the academic subjects in Taiwan, despite the fact that the majority of. people do not speak English, and therefore English is considered as a foreign language. Dearden (2014) defines EMI as, “The use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the L1 of the majority of the population is not English” (p.. 2). Dearden also reported that English literature and linguistics have been quoted as subjects. taught through EMI in tertiary education (Zhang, 2018). For non-English speakers, EMI is. considered a bilingual teaching method. EMI has encouraged international cooperation and. interaction in various education fields (Crystal, 2003). EMI is a recent issue and has been. widely implemented in many countries. The main purpose of introducing this teaching. technique is to provide students with a mixture of subjects, both in language-learning and other. 14.

(25) content-areas. Many educators believe that EMI is an excellent approach to enabling students. to learn English (Ibrahim, 2001).. English-taught courses are not new in Taiwan. In the recent years, some courses and. degree-granting programs have been delivered in English in many Taiwanese universities. (Chen, 2017; Dearden, 2015; Yeh, 2012). Chen and Kraklow (2015) indicated that Taiwanese college students in EMI programs have a stronger interest in learning English. Taiwan’s. successful accomplishment in education internationalization is closely related to EMI. As a result, English is a key component in Taiwan’s sustainable development (Lee, 2012). In. Taiwan, students participating in EMI programs generally show a positive attitude toward the. programs. Although the purpose of EMI is subject (or content) learning, it also affects. students’ attitudes and motivation concerning English learning (Chen & Kraklow, 2015).. Chen and Kraklow also suggest that institutions provide workshops and dialogue discussions. to help teachers to improve teaching strategies that support student autonomy and create fun. and meaningful activities for the EMI programs.. Advantages and Disadvantages of English-only Instruction Most EFL handbooks written in the last three decades mention a classroom with a teacher that makes minimum to no use of the students’ mother tongue (MT) as the ideal. 15.

(26) classroom (Neokleous, 2017). Some research has shown positive results by examining students’ and lecturers’ perspectives (Belhiah & Elhami, 2015). The rejection of the. Grammar-Translation Method can be viewed as the development of English-only instruction (Weschler, 1997). The Grammar-Translation Method “involves the extensive use of the students’ L1 and usually results in students who have a detailed knowledge of the language but a limited ability to put their knowledge to communicative effect” (Nunan & Lamb, 1996, p.98). Many teachers use English-only instruction to enhance students’. communicative competence to solve the problem that the Grammar-Translation Method. caused (Weschler, 1997). There are two positive results could be found in the following. research, one is the help on learning motivation and the other is the stimulation on learning. the target language.. Chi (2018) indicated English-only instruction could help with learning motivation.. The immersion model in an English-only class could stimulate the student’s motivation to. learn the target language. Besides increased motivation to learn, learners would show. greater interest in people who speak the target language and this would then stimulate. them to want to know more about the world. For example, they will see themselves. become competent, and speaking fluently with foreigners, while traveling (DÖ rnyei,. 16.

(27) 2005). Through the dual lens of a teacher and a researcher, I found the reasons for. stimulating students in learning, as well as the pros and cons of implementing English-. only instruction in my classroom.. Although using English-only in the classroom may have advantages in English teaching. and learning, some disadvantages should also be noted (Lee, 2014). Two negative results could be found in some research, one is the students’ abilities of understanding English words. and the other is the anxiety caused by the all English environment.. Wong-Fillmore (1985) found students with limited English proficiency could not learn. well enough for the required academic level in an all English class. Some EFL learners may not be able to understand the teacher’s English in the class, either. For example, some words. are difficult for teachers to explain the meaning in English. Furthermore, while doing the. activities during the teaching process, some instructions are also difficult for students to understand when explained only using English. Due to some students’ inadequate command of. English, research has also found that such students are less interested in classroom interaction. (Airey & Linder, 2006). Due to an inadequate command of English, it was difficult for. students to understand the lectures, and the students needed more time after class to complete. the assignments (Zhang, 2018). Chi (2018) also indicated that the insistence not to use Chinese. 17.

(28) in English class may cause the opposite effect of not being able to learn English well and further cause the anxiety of the students’ concerning the learning of English.. Teachers also play an important role in English-only instruction. They need to use the. words that can be understood by students during the teaching process. For example, teachers should understand students’ language abilities and handle questions from students. The. disproportionate language proficiency of teachers, inadequate teaching resources (Vu & Burns,. 2014), and lack of effective pedagogy (Zhang, 2018) all cause the teaching challenges in the. class. Chen (2017) mentioned that teachers must be supported through training. And if there. are native English-speaking teachers to help in the classroom, students are often more. motivated in English-learning. Chi (2018) also suggested that teachers attend the English-. teaching seminars and always seek ways to improve their English capabilities, so that they can. be a good language model for the students. If there is the help of native English-speaking teachers in the classroom, their presence would help in motivating students’ learning (Chen, 2017) and improving students’ pronunciation (Wu, 2018). But, as not all of the teachers can. get the help of native English-speaking teachers in the classroom, it is recommended that. teachers should use multivariate teaching strategies for students in order to achieve the goal of. comprehension.. 18.

(29) Related Studies of English-Only Instruction To date, the use of English-only instruction in foreign language classrooms has been. examined in several empirical studies. Some studies show that English-only instruction could enhance the students’ listening comprehension and learning attitudes. But teachers still need to. use multivariate teaching strategies for students to achieve the goal of comprehension.. Teachers are advised not to insist on speaking English all the time or it might cause a reduction in the students’ motivation to learn English.. In Taiwan, Huang (2019) implemented an action research study, involving 27 sixth-. graders, to investigate their listening ability, speaking ability and learning attitudes in an. English-only class for 12 weeks. The Cambridge Young Learner of English (YLE) Test was. adopted as the pre-test and post-test to evaluate their listening and speaking proficiency. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and the results showed that both students’. listening and speaking proficiency had increased significantly. The learning attitude scores had. also increased significantly in motivation and teaching style. Overall, the students held a. positive attitude towards the study. The same results were found in the studies of Kuo (2017). and Chen (2016). The listening comprehension ability of those students in the English-only. instruction group had a notable increase effect.. 19.

(30) Kuo (2017) employed the quasi-experimental method of nonequivalent pre-test-post-. tests with a control group design. The participants were second-grade students in Tainan. City. They were divided into the experimental group and the control group. It was a two-. month instructional experiment with three periods of class per week. The experimental group. received English-only instruction, while the control group received traditional English. teaching, with Chinese explanations. The experimental group had 26 students and the control. group had 24 students. Before the study, both groups took the English listening and. comprehension pre-test. The qualitative data was supplemented by interviews with students. from the experimental group. The study indicated that the experimental group that had English-. only instruction performed better than the control group that had Chinese explanations in the. listening comprehension test. Students from the English-only instruction group favored the. English-only instruction and responded positively to the study. But the post-test showed that. the low-proficiency level students improved little after the study. During the interview, the. low-proficiency level students showed less confidence and they did not express themselves in. words. The researcher indicated that the reason might be caused by the insufficient. improvement. The improvement was not big enough for them to show confidence.. In the study done by Chen (2016), he analyzed the effects of English-only. 20.

(31) instruction on sixth graders’ English listening comprehension and their learning attitudes. The. study consisted of 27 sixth graders in the experimental group (EG) and another 27 sixth. graders in the control group (CG). The EG received the nine-week English-only instruction,. while the CG received the nine-week traditional bilingual instruction. The Young Learners English (YLE) listening tests – Starters Level and the listening tests of the mid-term exams. were used as the measuring instruments of the study. The qualitative data included. questionnaires, class observation records, a teaching diary and student interview transcripts.. The study showed the EG had a significant effect on the listening comprehension ability,. particularly among the low-achievers. Most of the students could accept English-only. instruction and thought the instruction improved their listening ability. However, they. still hoped that the teacher could speak Chinese when explaining the vocabulary and. translating the text and sentence patterns. Chen recommended teachers to use various teaching strategies for students to achieve the goal of comprehension. He also indicated that students’. attitudes influenced the effect of English-only instruction. Some students showed their. reluctance to accept the use of English-only in the class and did not want to participate in the. study.. Sharaby (2018) conducted a survey study about Taiwanese teachers implementing the. 21.

(32) English-only courses in the primary and secondary English classes. The survey was done by. using questionnaires, data analysis, and open-ended survey questions. There were 18. Taiwanese primary and secondary English teachers participating in the project. In the end, the. researcher obtained 16 responses. In the classrooms, teachers used many kinds of teaching. skills, such as body language, and scaffolding techniques, such as model demonstration and. simplified language. These techniques helped students adjust to the English-only classroom.. Through the use of meaningful activities and authentic materials, the students became more. engaged in the classrooms. For example, the activity of talking to foreigners on the cloud brought about a positive impact on their students’ English use. American culture and daily life,. such as the currency and holidays, were introduced to students by means of the English classes.. The result of the study showed an improvement in the students’ listening and speaking skills, resulting in greater confidence and motivation. Progress in the students’ pronunciation and. writing skills was also reported in the study. Although the students were nervous at first about. the situation that required the use of English-only, by the end of the trial period, they had. mostly adjusted to it. But teachers mentioned that, when employing the English-only. instruction method in English classrooms, there were still challenges, such as: classroom. management, giving instructions, and explaining complex grammar. To assist students in. 22.

(33) better understanding the vocabulary words and abstract concepts, teachers sometimes used. Chinese in the classrooms. One teacher mentioned that while introducing a new concept in. English grammar, she explained the grammar first in English and then in Chinese for the. second time. That was to make sure that students understood the concept in the grammar rule.. Chi (2018) also suggested in the study, that if teachers could use English for more than. 70% of the class, that would still meet the goal of English-only instruction. Chi indicated that. it was still necessary at times for teachers to use Chinese to help students understand the. correct meaning or do class management. Teachers always encounter unexpected incidents in. class, so speaking some Chinese could allow the teachers to be more flexible in dealing with. the class problems. Teachers do not have to insist on speaking English all the time or it might. cause the effect of demotivating learning. For some situations in the class, such as dealing. with a quarrel among students, teachers must take action in advance or the situation might get. worse and worse. Being able to speak in Chinese can aid the teacher in dealing with the. situation in a quick and efficient manner. Wu (2018) conducted an action research study on the students’ speaking proficiency.. There were 19 students from the fourth grade participating in the study for 8 weeks. The result showed that the students’ speaking proficiency was enhanced through the study. The same. 23.

(34) result was found in the study by Huang (2019), who found that the post-test result in the area of. speaking proficiency was higher than the pre-test result. Huang (2019) and Wu (2018) both. mentioned that in the English-only instruction class, students would also learn English with the. help of friends or team leaders. Their students tried to find a way to adapt English-learning. during the class, so as to help clarify the meaning and instructions. Wu indicated that students. had their own way of communicating. With the help of the team leaders, the low-proficiency. students were able to improve in the English-only instruction class. Chen (2017) collected an online survey of English teachers’ perspectives concerning. the English-taught programs in Tainan city. There were 261 primary school and 209 junior. high school English teachers who took part in the survey. Primary school teachers expressed. stronger support for English-taught programs than junior high school teachers because primary. school teachers expressed more confidence in their own abilities to use at least 50% English in. the class. Both primary and junior high teachers agreed that most students do not have. adequate listening skills to understand instructions in English. They agreed on the following. aspects to be delivered in English: greetings, review of previous lessons and additional practice. of the current lesson. But the following activities were not suitable for the use of English-only:. discussion, giving instruction on activities and classroom management of non-teaching-related. 24.

(35) situations, such as a quarrel between students and attention recall. Both groups of teachers. indicated the need for seminar training in activity design, English-speaking, English-. pronunciation and assessment design for the class. The challenges they encountered are the negative impact on the teaching progress and schedule, mixed class levels and the students’. limited listening skills. They found the twin-peak distribution of English ability among. students to be common in most classrooms. Teachers were asked to prepare students to. participate in city or school English contests. They needed extra time to practice for the contests. In a few of the teachers’ comments and suggestions, they hoped to have the right to adjust their language use according to the students’ needs, so that the students could benefit. more. This notwithstanding, help from native English-speaking teachers was still. recommended. Teachers think that the presence of native English-speaking teachers would help motivate English learning. The results of this study have yielded insights into teachers’. views and the need for training in activity design.. Lee (2014) conducted a study to examine the effects of English-only teaching on the. learning motivation and learning achievement of fourth graders. The control group used the. traditional way of teaching, which meant that the teacher used both Chinese and English in the. English class. In the motivation part, the experimental group performed better but in the. 25.

(36) achievement test, no significant difference was observed between the two groups. The study. found that students in the experimental group had many difficulties in connecting speech. sounds and literal meanings. Students easily understood the concrete words, but they had. difficulties catching up with the abstract ones. The study also found that it was not easy for the. teacher to control the teaching time and the class order. For example, the teacher needed to. spend more time explaining words or asked more students to do the demonstration for other. students. Most of the students accepted English-only instruction, but some of them thought. that Chinese translation at some of the time was necessary for English class.. Lin (2007) explored what problems an elementary school English teacher might face. when using English-only instruction in the English class, and what strategies the teacher had. adopted to deal with the observed problems. She found that it was not difficult for the teacher. to use English-only instruction. As long as the teacher could use body language and games in. class, most of the students could understand what the teacher taught. She indicated that if. students learned under a cheerful atmosphere, the learning anxiety could be reduced. She also. encouraged teachers to use English as much as they can in the English class. Sitting in an. English-speaking and learning environment, students can use English more often and are more. able to set up learning goals for themselves.. 26.

(37) There are various terms adopted in Taiwan’s research, such as Teach English in English. (TEIE), English-only instruction, English-Medium instruction, English taught programs, and. using English to teach English in the English class. There are also differences in the research,. as to the percentage of English used in the classroom environment. In the current study, by. definition, the aim is for 100% usage of English instruction. The premise of this study agrees. with Sharaby (2018) that students will adapt to the English-only class. In addition, the study of. Sharaby encourages students to speak more English in class. Furthermore, it proposes that. having a good language model for students is also very important. There are few studies that. investigate English-only instruction in English class for second graders. In the school year of. 2019, English language instruction was lowered to Grade 1 in Kaohsiung City. Since most of. the English teaching at this stage is still new and going through some adjustments, it is a good. chance for me to carry out the research to see the learning outcomes and to see if English-only. instruction, that is, 100% English, is a good way for second graders to learn English. Hence,. this study was conducted to explore the use of English-only instruction in the second-grade. English class.. 27.

(38) CHAPTER THREE METHODS. In this chapter, a rationale of adopting a mixed methods of qualitative research design. and quantitative data is introduced first. Second, the characteristics of the participants and the. details of the research procedure, including the teaching materials and the teaching procedure,. are explained. Next, the data collection and the data analysis are provided. Finally, the. strategies used to establish the trustworthiness of this study are presented.. The Rationale This study aimed to explore the students’ perceptions of English-only instruction, the obstacles encountered by the teacher and the teacher’s concerning the use of English-only instruction. As Merriam and Tisdell (2016) mentioned, qualitative researchers are “interested. in understanding how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their experiences” (P. 6). Since both the students and the. teacher would be affected by their experiences in the program, in order to gain an in-depth and. holistic understanding of the people involved in the study, such as their perceptions toward the. instruction and the difficulties they had faced throughout the study, a qualitative case study. approach was adopted. Besides, the quantitative data were obtained from the questionnaire. 28.

(39) about the students’ perception of the English-only instruction. The use of adopting a mixed. methods of qualitative research design and quantitative data was appropriate to answer my. research questions.. Participants The Students The participants were 26 second graders (11 boys and 15 girls) from the same class at a. middle-scale public elementary school. The school had 30 classes, from grade one to grade. six, with a total of 716 students. The participants had been learning English for one and a half. years at school when the study was conducted.. Based on the scores they got on the English final exam taken the previous semester, the. participants were divided into three levels. Eleven participants were assigned into the High. Level. Eleven participants belonged to the Intermediate Level and four participants belonged. to the Low Level. The background information of the participants was shown in Table 1.. Table 1 Background Information of the Student Participants Participants. Gender. 11 15. English Level High. Intermediate. Low. M. 2. 7. 2. F. 9. 4. 2. Note. For gender: M=male, F=female. For English level: High=grades above 90, Intermediate=grades between 80 to 90, Low=grades below 80. 29.

(40) The Teacher. This study began in the end of February of 2019. In this study, I was both the. homeroom teacher and English teacher of the class. I had been teaching English for more than. thirteen years and a full-time elementary teacher for about five years as the study was. underway. Over the thirteen years of teaching English, I got the chance to teach every grade in. the elementary school. To investigate an English teacher’s use of English in the classroom, I fulfilled the dual. role of the teacher and the researcher in this study. For this reason, there was a need to further. discuss issues of research done by the teacher as the researcher in this section. Research by the. teacher as the researcher can be advantageous to both teaching and doing research. Teachers. often carry out educational action research and examine their own practice in the classroom, so. as to improve teaching effectiveness (Huang, 2010). Babkie and Provost (2004) highlight the. advantages of research involving the teacher as the researcher in the following ways:. Studies involving the teacher as researcher have demonstrated a variety of positive outcomes: improving student performance, revising practice based on new teaching and learning knowledge, dialoging more about instructional issues and student learning, increasing their own critical learning skills, developing innovative approaches to instruction, and analyzing results more objectively. (p. 261) Keeping the above notes in mind, I explained the situation in Chinese to my students. 30.

(41) before the study took place. They were told as clearly as possible, that their teacher (meaning. this researcher) would only speak in English during the following ten weeks of English class.. All their questions, doubts and concerns were answered and the purpose of this study and the. method in which it would be conducted, was explained. I had attended many seminars and. workshops to strengthen my teaching skills, both in English teaching and class management as. a homeroom teacher. I also had obtained certificates for GEPT, TOEFL CBT and the IELTS at. the high–intermediate level, as well as the qualification of English teaching. Before doing this. study, I usually used both English and Chinese in the English classroom, but had never used. English-only instruction in one class, yet I did my best to use English in more than 70% of. every English class. This study was a good chance for me to see if the English-only. instruction, that is, 100% English, was an appropriate method for second graders to learn. English.. Teaching Materials and Teaching Procedure A textbook, Go! Go! Starter 2, was used throughout the semester. Besides the textbook,. this study introduced the students to three songs to provide the students with more authentic. materials, so that the students could have more practice using English (Sharaby, 2018). The names of the three songs are row, row, row your boat, I’m a little teapot and twinkle, twinkle,. 31.

(42) little star. Using songs as part of English teaching in the elementary school could motivate the students’ interest in learning (Chiang, 2013). The lesson plan was performed in three. stages: warm-up stage, practice stage, and wrap-up stage (see Appendix A). In the beginning of each class, some brain-storming activities were used to arouse the students’ attention in the. class, making sure that they were ready for next part of the class. For example, first, the class. was given an object, which would be taught later. Next, the students were given a couple of. minutes to think of all of the different uses for that item. And then they were asked to share. what they had come up with for the discussion. During the first stage, the students listened to the teacher’s words only, as they were. being taught the target words written on the board. After they had familiarized themselves with the new words, they listened to the teacher’s pronunciation and worked on the. pronunciation and meanings of the new words several times. Next, the students listened as the. words were pronounced again, and at the same time they tracked the words on the board.. Third, games or worksheets were used to check their learning condition. The main teach-and-. learn process continued this way for ten weeks. Each single class period had forty minutes,. and one class period in each week.. 32.

(43) Data Collection In order to get a holistic understanding of this study, the instruments for collecting the data included the following: a survey of students’ English learning background, a. questionnaire, video-stimulated recall, learning-feedback sheet, interviews, and a teaching. journal. By the tenth week of the study, the students were asked to fill in the questionnaire,. which was about their experience and perception of the study. These instruments for collecting. data are explained in detail as follows: A Consent Form with a Survey of the Students’ English Learning Background Before the study, I asked the parents of my students to fill out the consent form (see. Appendix B). The form helped me to get the permission from the parents to conduct the study. In the consent form, the parents were asked to fill in the students’ learning background. It helped build an understanding of each student’s English learning experience and how much. time they spent in English learning each week.. The Questionnaire A questionnaire about the students’ perception of the English-only instruction (see. Appendix C) was devised for the study. The questionnaire mainly adopted from Lin (2018),. and consisted of 10 items. Her study was about using English songs on fifth graders, so I made. some adjustments for the purpose of this study. For instance, on Item 4, the original statement. 33.

(44) “I think learning English through songs can help me on knowing and remembering the words”. was deleted, because second graders do not have to remember the words at the stage (MOE,. 2018). Item 8 was about the repetition of sentence patterns in the songs and item 6 was about. the repetition of words in the songs. For second graders, they may not understand the meaning. of what sentence patterns are, so I deleted item 8 and kept item 6. Item 6 was more easy for. them to understand.. I asked two qualified English teachers to review the ten items of the questionnaire; one of. them was the director of academic affairs of my school and the other was the teacher and. section chief of curriculum at one elementary school in Kaohsiung City. A Likert-type. response format with four choices was designed for students to check the option that best. represented their feelings about each statement in the scale. In order to assist the participating. students in better understanding the statements of the questionnaire, I, as the teacher, was also. able to give an immediate response to students who had questions about the statements of the. questionnaire while they were filling in the questionnaire. A total of twenty-six students filled in the questionnaire on May 15th, 2019 right after the ten-week study.. Video-Stimulated Recall In order to facilitate a better understanding of the process of teaching and learning, each. 34.

(45) class was videotaped. The video camera was positioned at the back-left of the classroom to ensure a clear view of the teaching class. Recording a teacher’s verbal and nonverbal behavior,. by means of videotaping, is beneficial for researchers (Bottorff, 1994). Researchers can review. the data when necessary because the data recorded via the video camera can be preserved. permanently. In this study, the data from the video could be reviewed for the teaching process. and method, as well as the reaction of the participants during the teaching process, and the data. could be reviewed whenever necessary. However, as Johnson (1992) pointed out, people who. are being videotaped may feel threatened, so the camera was set up before the study to allow. the students time to get used to the camera. At first, the students asked many questions about. the camera, but after several days, they got along well with the camera and were accustomed to the video camera’s presence.. Learning Feedback Sheet The student feedback sheet (see Appendix D) was designed to be filled in by the student. participants in order to further understand their opinions and thinking about the English-only instruction. They filled in the feedback sheet on May 15th, 2019 after the ten weeks of the. study.. Interviews Both group and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in Week 5 and 35.

(46) in Week 10 to further the understanding of the students’ perceptions of the teacher’s. language use in class. In order to understand the perspectives of each level, students with. different English ability levels were interviewed: low achievers, intermediate-level. students, and higher-level ones. The individual interviews were compared and contrasted. with the data collected from the questionnaires, in order to observe the similarities and. differences of both types of data. By doing so, the reliability of the data collected could be. ensured, particularly when the data from the student questionnaire and the interview were. found to be identical with each other, which would lead to a smoother analysis of the said. data.. Chinese interview guideline (see Appendix E) was prepared in advance. The. guideline was mainly based on Su (2016), and consisted of two major items, about students’ English learning experience, and their reflections of the instruction. As Seidman (2006) noted, interviewing is “a powerful way to gain insight into educational and other. important social issues through understanding the experience of the individuals whose lives reflect those issues” (p. 14). The students and I spent 30 minutes on each group. interview. There were three groups and each group had two students. One was high level,. another intermediate, and the other intermediate and low mix. Since their only free time. 36.

(47) was during art class, the only option was to call out the students as they finished their arts. and crafts. Each individual interview lasted at least 5 minutes and no more than 20 minutes. The interviews were audio-recorded by using a digital app with students’. agreement. The interview was conducted entirely in Chinese to avoid any. misunderstandings or lack of comprehension.. Since the content of the interviews would be transcribed for analysis, I also took notes. during the interviewing process, clarifying the data after each interview. At the end of each interview, the participants’ answers were confirmed once again. This would aid the. accuracy of the information collected. This interview data supplied what the students. thought about English-only instruction.. Teaching Journal A teaching journal would help researchers gather first-hand information during the. research process. As Hopkins (1993) suggested, journals should be written right after the. class. So, after the English class, I used the reflective journal log to record my perceptions. and reflections on what had happened in class. The teaching journal was recorded right after each class. According to Merriam and Tisdell, “observations are also to triangulate. emerging findings; they are used in conjunction with interviewing and document analysis. 37.

(48) to substantiate the findings” (2016, p. 139). In this study, I recorded my personal feelings,. insights, findings, and interpretations about some special events or experiences which. happened in class in the reflective journal log right after each class (see Appendix F for a. sample).. Data Analysis This study followed a qualitative research design. Multiple resources were used to. collect data, such as the questionnaire and the learning feedback sheet from the students, the. teaching journals from the researcher, and the interview with the students. The content. analysis method was used to analyze the collected data and to find the answers to the three. research questions. The data obtained from the interviews was transcribed, coded, analyzed,. and triangulated.. To answer the first research question, the following data were compared and analyzed: the questionnaire of students’ perception toward English-only instruction, the teaching feedback sheet, and the interviews. For example, the questionnaire of the student’s perception. of English-only instruction applied a 4-point Likert scale design with four choices for students. to circle the number that best represents their feeling about the statements on a scale of 1-4.. The scale ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). A higher score indicated a. 38.

(49) higher level of agreement or positive attitude. The participants’ responses in the questionnaire. were categorized into two themes, including learning outcomes and affective domain. In. addition, transcripts of the interviews were read several times. The results from the interview. data were compared with the results of the questionnaire and other related sources to support. the findings. The data analysis would help me take notice of my language use in class and. gather some important points.. To answer the second and third research questions, the following data were compared. and analyzed: the teaching journals and the videotapes of each class. After each class, the. teaching process and the video-recorded lessons were reviewed. The data collected from. each class aided in the examination and integration of the patterns found or the teaching. obstacles. Again, content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. Then the. similarities and differences of the data collected from the questionnaires filled out by every. participant, and the interviews were compared and contrasted. Data from the interviews. was then also integrated to support the findings. The data analysis of this study was an on-. going process. Throughout this process, the research purpose was always kept in mind and. adjustments were made, if needed, by following the procedures pointed out by Ely, et al.. (1991, pp. 150-151):. 39.

(50) 1. Study and re-study of the raw data to develop detailed, intimate knowledge. 2. Note initial impressions. 3. List tentative categories. 4. Refine categories by examining the results of step 2 and 3 and returning to the entire database in step 1. 5. Group data under the still-tentative categories and revise categories, if needed. 6. Select verbatim narrative to link the raw data to the categories. 7. Study results of step 6 and revise, if needed. 8. Compare findings for commonalities or patterns, differences, and unique happenings. Trustworthiness It is crucial to ensure the reliability and validity of a research project in conducting qualitative research. As Merriam and Tisdell (2016) mentioned, “being able to trust research. results is especially important to professionals in applied fields because practitioners intervene in people’s lives” (p. 237). To ensure the trustworthiness of this study, the. following techniques were employed: triangulation, persistent observation, and member. check.. First, to ensure proper understanding of the data, I applied triangulation by using multiple sources of data. Triangulation is “a principal strategy to ensure validity and reliability”. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 245). To achieve the criterion for triangulation, the data were. collected through group and individual interviews, questionnaires, my teaching journals, and the students’ feedback sheets. By means of diverse aspects, the data were triangulated to. assist in the clarification of the findings. The feedback sheets and questionnaires were 40.

(51) analyzed to examine the students’ perceptions toward English-only instruction, to help check. the interpretations and to increase the trustworthiness of the results. Second, persistent observation can assist researchers in being more able “to identify those characteristics and elements in the situation that are most relevant to the problem or issue”. (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 304). In this study, I was the homeroom teacher and English class. teacher, which allowed me to get a full understanding of the teaching process. By doing so,. the specific incidents happening in the classroom could be dealt with in time. The study was a. ten-week teaching process and each class lasted 40 minutes per week. Reflection on each. class was done directly after the class and notes were taken on each class. Thus, I was able to. be involved in the research site, both as a teacher and a researcher, for ten weeks, as well as being the class’ homeroom teacher. It was easy for me to get familiar with my students,. which greatly helped in obtaining supporting and relevant data.. Third, in this study, member checking helped me establish credibility. According to Maxwell, member checking could reduce “the possibility of misinterpreting the meaning of what participants say and do, and the perspective they have on what is going on” (cited in. Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 246). To minimize the chances of misinterpreting the data, the students’ answers were checked with the students themselves at the end of each interview.. 41.

(52) The key points were summarized, and then read aloud to the students, who were then asked to. check if the information was correct. I then checked whether the data from the interview and. the observations were consistent. This helped me greatly in the collection of proper data, and. valuable feedback and comments from the interviewees was received as well.. 42.

(53) CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. This chapter reports the findings of this study based on the analysis of the collected data,. including questionnaires, feedback sheets, interviews and teaching journals. The findings are divided into three sections: first, the students’ perceptions of English-only instruction;. second, the obstacles encountered by the teacher and the ways she dealt with the obstacles. during the teaching process; and third, how the teacher perceived her use of English-only. while teaching a second-grade English class. The Students’ Perception The first research question was to explore how the participating students perceived the. English-only instruction they received in the class. The data collected from the questionnaire on the students’ perception, the teaching feedback sheet, and the interview transcripts would. be displayed in this section. Based on the analysis of the data, both positive and negative. perceptions toward the English-only class were found, which will be discussed below.. Positive Attitude for the English-only Class The positive feedback about the English-only class was found by means of the. questionnaire the students had filled out after the ten-week instruction. As shown in Table 2,. 43.

(54) the students’ perceptions toward the English-only class can be discussed in two aspects: (1). learning outcome and (2) affective domain. In the first part of learning outcome (item 4, 5, 6. and 8), more than 92% of the students thought that they could recognize the words taught in. the class (item 4, 24 out of the 26). And about 77% of the students thought the repetition of. words during the class helped them to remember the words (item 5, 20 out of the 26). More. than 80% of the students agreed that they could remember the teaching content after class. (item 8, 21 out of the 26).. In the second part, the affective domain, more than 90% of the students said they felt. happy and relaxed in the English-only instruction class (item 2, 25 out of the 26 and item 7,. 23 out of the 26). And about 80% of the students hoped that the teacher could continue using. English-only instruction in the class (item 10, 21 out of the 26). Most of the students liked. the use of the English-only instruction (item 1, 21 out of the 26) and liked to learn new words. in the classroom. And about 85% of the students felt more confident after the English-only. instruction (item 9, 22 out of the 26).. 44.

(55) Table 2 Results of the Questionnaire – Students’ Perceptions of the English-only Instruction Item/Statements. SA. A. D. SD. Learning Outcome 4.. I can recognize the words during the teaching.. 17. 7. 1. 1. 5.. The repetition of words during the teaching helped my. 13. 7. 3. 3. 19. 4. 3. 0. 13. 8. 0. 5. memorization. 6.. English-only instruction helps me read out the sentence out loud.. 8.. I can remember the teaching content after the class.. Affective domain 1.. I like it when the teacher uses English-only instruction.. 15. 6. 4. 1. 2.. I feel happy in the English-only class.. 19. 6. 0. 1. 3.. I like to learn new words in the English-only class.. 17. 2. 3. 4. 7.. I feel relaxed in the English-only class.. 14. 9. 3. 0. 9.. I feel more confident after the English-only instruction class.. 13. 9. 3. 1. 10.. I hope that the teacher can continue using English-only. 18. 3. 2. 3. instruction. Note. SA= strongly agree; A= agree; D= disagree; SD= strongly disagree. Furthermore, based on the results of the students’ feedback sheet and the interview data,. it is found that the majority of the students also have a positive attitude toward the English-. only class. For example, twenty-five out of the twenty-six students expressed that they liked. the English-only class, and twenty-four out of them agreed that English-only class helped. them to learn English. Four positive learning attitudes will be discussed in the following 45.