The trend and challenge for teaching EFL at Taiwanese Universities. RELC Journal (MLA)

The author first talks about the current situation of teaching EFL in higher education institutions in Taiwan, and indicates that the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach has been the most popular language teaching approach lately. Then he addresses the hybrid course approach which seems to be a trend as well as an appropriate way for teaching English. Despite the popularity of CLT, the situation regarding implementation of CLT in Taiwanese higher education institutions is complex. The author discusses the background of Taiwanese EFL instructors, the contradictory findings about EFL learners’ preferences and needs, and the existing English learning problem among college students in the effort to provide a solution. In addition, he emphasizes the implementation and application of the Internet in Taiwan for facilitating e-learning and English learning with the adaptation of instructor’s role and student’s role when using CLT at Taiwanese universities in the Internet age. The Current Situation of Teaching EFL in Taiwanese Higher Education Institutions Today the English language has become a major medium used in international communication for many purposes. English is also the world’s most widely studied, read, and spoken foreign language (Kachru and Nelson 1996), as it has been the dominant language of education, commerce, communication, science, technology, and entertainment in the at National Cheng Kung Univ. on March 2, 2011 rel.sagepub.com Downloaded from 212 Regional Language Centre Journal 36.2 (2005) global village (Richards and Rodgers 2001; Warschauer 2000). The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach has been common in many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programs at Taiwanese universities in recent years. Currently at most universities in Taiwan, EFL is usually taught by local instructors while at few universities (e.g. Tunghai University), native speakers of English play an important role in teaching Freshman English. All college freshmen in Taiwan are required to take ‘Freshman English’ or ‘University English’ focusing on reading and writing, as well as ‘Lab English’, focusing on listening and speaking. In Freshman English, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach has become well accepted among EFL instructors. In a CLT oriented classroom, students are given various opportunities to engage in communications in the target language—the instructor works as a class facilitator/ coordinator (Richards and Rodgers 2001) to prepare students for active learning—through interactive, communicative learning tasks (e.g. discussion, play). At the same time, traditional language-teaching methods are still being used by some instructors. In a traditional language classroom, the instructor stands in front of students in a classroom, using the Grammar-Translation Method to teach students directly from textbooks. The instructor uses Chinese (the official language) to explain the grammar and meaning of the EFL texts, and the students are asked to translate English sentences to Chinese, or vice versa. In Lab English, the instructor often uses the Audiolingual method to ask students to listen to audiotapes or watch videotapes to develop their listening and speaking skills. Students are also asked to practice dialogues from textbooks led by the instructor, and sometimes they are asked to practice speaking English in pairs or in small groups to develop their speaking fluency. According to a Taiwanese government-sponsored research report, ‘Are Freshman English Programs for Non-English Majors at Universities in Taiwan Meeting the Expectation of Students and Teachers?’ (Huang 1998), most non-English-major freshmen think English is important for them; however, they would prefer fewer class hours of ‘University English’ than they are required to take. In contrast, EFL instructors and university graduates prefer freshmen to take more class hours in order to help non-English-major freshmen improve their English ability for the sake of their overall academic performance. The result of this review suggests that ‘University English’ for non-English-major freshmen offered at most universities in Taiwan ‘might have not been successful enough to at National Cheng Kung Univ. on March 2, 2011 rel.sagepub.com Downloaded from LIU Teaching EFL at Taiwanese Universities 213 motivate students to want more of these courses’ (Huang 1998: 209). There appears to be a need for EFL instructors and course designers to figure out a way to improve current TEFL teaching approaches in higher education institutions in Taiwan. The findings in Huang’s (1998) report suggest that the alternative of more class hours of ‘Lab English’ can be offered to meet the needs of some students. The author suggested all college instructors should attend some workshops or study current language teaching methods to improve their English teaching. To draw a conclusion from this research, it appears that the majority of non-English-major freshmen in Taiwan prefer more class hours and opportunities for listening and speaking, but fewer class hours for reading and writing in their EFL classrooms (Huang 1998). Taiwanese EFL instructors need to positively address the finding by providing balanced, sound instruction to include Web-based instruction (WBI) for college students to develop their English in the Internet age. Meanwhile, the Republic of China (ROC) Government in Taiwan states that it has been trying to accomplish the three major goals: ‘achieving excellence within higher education’, ‘promoting foreign language learning’, and ‘completing the subsidizing plan for a [computer-]networking environment for 100% of all schools’ (Ministry of Education of the ROC 1999). The ROC Government is trying to combine foreign language learning and networked computer-mediated instruction to establish learning contexts for EFL and other foreign languages on the Internet as aids to classroom instruction in higher education institutions. The Hybrid Course Approach as a Trend for Teaching EFL As language learning cannot take place without a context where learners interact with other more competent language users for a variety of purposes (Goodman 1990), the use of the hybrid course approach (Ko and Rossen 2001), which uses WBI as an aid to a classroom course, for teaching EFL may help universities and colleges in Taiwan achieve their instructional objectives. This is because a hybrid course provides a classroom learning context and a virtual learning context on the Internet. A virtual learning context on the Internet enables EFL learners to study English without the restraint of time and place, and they can communicate with the teacher and other learners synchronously and asynchronously. Thus, not only can students potentially develop their English skills, but they also can understand the textbooks or Web pages written in English in at National Cheng Kung Univ. on March 2, 2011 rel.sagepub.com Downloaded from 214 Regional Language Centre Journal 36.2 (2005) order to develop their academic performance as well as to compete with other people in this Internet age. In addition, the so-called ‘Internet revolution’ is changing the way that people learn and teach. For example, ‘e-learning’ is a popular term describing the way that people learn through the Internet. Rosenberg indicates that ‘with e-learning, we’re not just introducing new technology for learning—we are introducing a new way to think about learning’ (Rosenberg 2001: 31). Therefore, EFL instructors need to think about how to make advantage of the Internet to help learners’ development of English in conjunction with CLT in a hybrid context. Despite the popularity of CLT, the situation regarding implementation of CLT in Taiwanese higher education institutions is complex. At the same time, despite its claimed scientific applied linguistics theoretical basis, CLT is essentially a product of American culture (Shing 2001). EFL Instructors at Taiwanese Universities In terms of teaching EFL in Taiwan, most local and foreign EFL professors and instructors at Taiwanese universities are graduates from American universities, who have received or understood American culture and viewpoints in language education. For example, 77% of EFL professors and instructors at National Taiwan University have a graduate school degree from American universities. Following a similar trend, 85% of the EFL faculty at National Taiwan Normal University, 74% at National Chengchi University, 78% at Tunghai University, and 100% at National Chiao Tung University also have graduate school degrees from American universities (calculated from information respectively at their department Web sites). It is no wonder that CLT, which originated and prevails in North America, is now endorsed by Taiwanese language education scholars and practitioners as an effective approach to improve the communicative competence of students (Shing 2001). Contradictory Findings about Taiwanese EFL Learners and their Implication In terms of learning EFL, there are contradictory findings on students’ preferences and needs. On the one hand, Huang (1998) found that some non-English-major freshmen in Taiwan prefer more class hours and opportunities for listening and speaking. In fact, most Taiwanese students are at National Cheng Kung Univ. on March 2, 2011 rel.sagepub.com Downloaded from LIU Teaching EFL at Taiwanese Universities 215 aware of the importance of balanced development of their English ability (Huang 1998) in order to compete with other students in this American Englishand technology-dominated global village (Warschauer 2000). On the other hand, most Taiwanese students do not feel comfortable speaking English frequently in class. According to a study (Yao 1995), some students do not feel comfortable in frequent, interactive oral communication. Therefore, efforts to improve communicative competence are being met with limited success. Taiwanese students appear to b