| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 91 === ABSTRACT
The purpose of this present study is to investigate and compare the effects of the eastern stories and the western stories (EWS) in reading instruction for EFL junior high school students in southern Taiwan. The effects of the EWS on English reading comprehension of the EFL students are examined first. Then, the students’ cultural awareness and personal growth in the instruction are discussed. Finally, the student responses to the cooperative learning activities, the eastern and the western stories, and the reading program are investigated and analyzed.
The subjects for the present study were 72 students from Class 219, and Class 220 in the eighth grade of Lunghua Junior High School in Kaohsiung City. The subjects in each class were divided into the eastern group (EG) and the western group (WG), and then the EG and the WG were divided into three expert groups respectively. During a four-month reading program, the subjects were requested to read four sets of the eastern stories and the western stories on the basis of the similar themes respectively, to compare the eastern stories with the western stories, and to participate in cooperative learning activities. Furthermore, they were asked to take the pretest and post-test of English reading comprehension, and to finish the questionnaires before and after this program. The scores of the students’ English reading comprehension pretest and post-tests were also collected, calculated and analyzed quantitatively by a t-test or ANOVA. Furthermore, the data of student responses to the questionnaires were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by a test or a chi-square test.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative data analyses, the findings of the study are summarized as follows:
1. The application of the EWS in the reading program significantly helped improve the junior high school students’ English reading comprehension. However, there were no significant differences in reading comprehension scores among the six expert groups in the EG and the WG respectively in the post-test.
2. The application of EWS in the reading program effectively improved the EFL students’ cultural awareness.
3. The application of EWS in the reading program effectively fostered the EFL students’ personal growth.
4. The two groups of the students responded positively to cooperative learning activities in the reading program.
5. The two groups of the students responded positively to the EWS. They preferred the EWS as their reading materials more in the posttest than in the pretest. Specifically, the EG students preferred the Eastern stories, while the WG preferred the western stories.
6. The two groups of the students responded positively to the reading program.
Based on the findings of the study, it is suggested that the EFL English teachers in junior high schools incorporate the eastern stories and the western stories into their language classes to provide with varieties of reading materials for their students to enhance reading comprehension, reading interests, improve personal growth and inspire their cultural awareness. In addition, the EFL English teachers can utilize cooperative learning activities to help enhance students’ English reading comprehension, and improve their empathy and self-esteem.
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