| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 92 === The purpose of this present study is to investigate the effects of an interview project on English learning and cultural awareness of students in junior high school in Taiwan. The student responses to the communication with the foreign interviewees are investigated first. Then, the student responses to cooperative learning in the interview project are discussed. Moreover, the students’ cultural awareness in the interview project is explored. Finally, the student responses to their higher-level thinking abilities are analyzed.
The subjects for the present study were 80 eighth-grade students in two classes in Youth Junior High School in Kaohsiung County. The subjects in each class were assigned to heterogeneous groups of six or seven. During a ten-week interview project, the subjects were requested to work cooperatively with teammates to accomplish assigned tasks, including formulating interview questions, practicing interviewing, conducting interviews, and finishing oral presentations as well as written reports. Furthermore, a questionnaire was designed to collect all the 80 subject responses to the interview project. Besides, the subjects’ comments and suggestions for this study were translated from Chinese into English and then discussed qualitatively.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative data analyses, the findings of the present study are summarized as follows:
1.The students responded positively to communication with native English speakers. Most of the students felt comfortable in communicating with native speakers and regarded it as a pleasant experience.
2.The students showed a strong liking for the cooperative learning activities in the interview project. Most of the students learned to be individually accountable for the assigned task. Through cooperative learning activities, positive interdependent relationships among teammates were established.
3.The application of the interview project had positive effects on the development of students’ cultural awareness. The interview project significantly helped the students identify and list cultural similarities and differences between their own culture and the interviewees’.
4.The application of the interview project effectively fostered the students’ development in higher-level thinking abilities.
Based on the study findings, it is suggested that the English teachers in junior high schools make use of an interview project to provide meaningful environments for students to use the target language. In addition, English teachers can apply an interview project to promote students’ cultural awareness and higher-level thinking abilities. What’s more, English teachers can utilize cooperative learning activities to help establish positive interdependent relationships among students.
|
|---|
