TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE USE OF CURRENT ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS IN TAOYUAN COUNTY

• Main Authors: Tang Yu-ping, 湯玉萍
• Other Authors: Chen Ching-chi
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/41039003420709512907

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 93 === ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the current English textbooks used in junior high schools in Taoyuan County. The questionnaires were filled by the subjects, 325 English teachers from 34 junior high schools in Taoyuan County and the researcher selected subjects who were willing to be interviewed to have interviews with. The main findings are concluded as follows: The two mostly adopted English textbooks in junior high schools in Taoyuan County are Kanghsuan (50.8%) and Nanyi (25.5%). The major decision-maker of the current English textbooks is the English Teaching Committee (99.1%). The top five supporting materials provided by publishers are cassettes or CDs, flashcards, wall charts, pictures or charts, and sentence cards. 14.8% of the subjects are now using the current English textbook, which is different from the textbook in the former school year, and the most major reason for changing into another set of textbook is that the previous English textbook didn’t fit in with the level of students (61.0%). The top two reasons to choose the textbook are that “the content is appropriate” (32.6%) and “the current English textbook fits in with the level of students” (25.4%). Generally speaking, most teachers are satisfied with students’ books, students’ workbooks, teacher’s manuals, and supporting materials of current English textbooks in junior high schools. Most teachers think that current English textbooks in junior high schools are helpful to facilitate students’ listening and reading abilities (32.0% and 41.2%), but current English textbooks can’t actually improve students’ speaking and writing abilities (44.0% and 38.0%). Most of the subjects (80.0%) agree that the current English textbook they adopt is correspondent with the main idea of Communicative Language Teaching. As for the students’ performance in the Basic Competence Test, 41.8% of the subjects predict that the grades will be lower. If there is a textbook compiled by Ministry of Education, 48.6% of the subjects will regard it as their first choice. In addition, some teachers offer their suggestions to improve current English textbooks in this study.