High School Students' Topic Preferences and Oral Development in an English-Only Short-Term Intensive Language Program

Autor/in	Hsieh, Hui-Chen
Titel	High School Students' Topic Preferences and Oral Development in an English-Only Short-Term Intensive Language Program
Quelle	In: English Language Teaching, 9 (2016) 9, S.116-133 (18 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1916-4742
Schlagwörter	English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Learning Motivation; High School Students; Speech Communication; Foreign Countries; Educational Policy; Pretests Posttests; Questionnaires; Student Attitudes; Intensive Language Courses; Grade 10; Oral Language; Preferences; Statistical Analysis; Taiwan + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Motivation for studies; Lernmotivation; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Ausland; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Fragebogen; Schülerverhalten; Intensivkurs; Sprachkurs; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Statistische Analyse
Abstract	Developing the ability to speak English is a daunting task that has long been omitted in a test-driven pedagogy context (Chang, 2011; Li, 2012a, 2012b; Chen & Tsai, 2012; Katchen, 1989, 1995). Since speaking is not tested for school admissions, most students are not motivated to learn it (Chang, 2011; Chen & Tsai, 2012). Now, globalization makes English Lingua Franca; speaking English is definitely bound to be one key capability to connect oneself with the world (Graddol, 2007). Thus, teachers strive to help learners learn English by selecting appropriate and interesting topics to motivate them to learn more effectively (Dörnyei & Csizér, 1998; Spratt, Pulverness & Williams, 2011), especially in speaking. However, with only one internationally published research on Taiwanese college students' topics preference (Chen, 2012) and none on high school students, selecting appropriate topics seems challenging. Consequently, this study intended to investigate the potential topics that motivated learners to practice speaking and their oral performance. The results show that learners preferred topics related to their daily life and their speaking improved in terms of speech unit, clause unit, and words uttered. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01