ENGLISH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES OF TAIWANESE VOCATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY FRESHMEN

Alvin Chang

Teaching English as Second Language ； Leaning Difficulty ； Language Learning

嶺東學報

45期（2019 / 12 / 01）

11 - 25

英文

This research has two main objectives: discover the obstacles that discourage vocational university students' English abilities and support them to overcome those obstacles. The scholars believe that a student's successful English learning relies on three factors - motivation, environment, and teacher's method. Therefore, the research is focusing on these three factors. The main subjects in this research will be 3 vocational university freshmen who are currently taking general English courses in Taichung, Taiwan. The research method is semi-structured interviews with 11 questions. According the the interviews, all three participants agree that the main problem in Taiwanese vocational university student's English learning is the teaching materials. Since the materials are for exams, teachers usually require the students to memorize instead of practice. As a result of cramming, students believe that learning English is challenging. In addition, although foreign teachers are hired for English classes, many of them, according to the experiences of the interview participants, failed to understand students' needs. Without understanding, the teachers could not effectively motivate their students. Among the three factors which the scholars stated - motivation, environment, and instruction - the research find that instruction is the most influential factor in student's English learning, since teaching style can create classroom environment and affects student's motivation. From this research, the main problem of English learning difficulties among Taiwanese vocational university freshmen is from ineffective instructions.

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   連結：
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