Literature-based Character Education in Taiwanese EFL 8th Grade English Class: An Action Research on Beverly Cleary’s Dear Mr. Henshaw

• Main Authors: Yu-ting Wang, 王鈺婷
• Other Authors: Dr. Hsiao-chen Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30587978335157597543

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 100 === This thesis proposes to advocate the literature-based Character Education in English class in the EFL Taiwan setting. A young adult literature novel Dear Mr. Henshaw is used in an 8th grade English class in central Taiwan in order to investigate the impact of the teacher's questioning skills to arouse class discussions and students' written feedback on character issues; the impacts on students' cognitive development in character issues; and students' attitudes towards the program. To guide Literature-based Character Education, the novel, Dear Mr. Henshaw, is separated into 18 sections for weekly reading assignments and is analyzed in terms of different character traits conveyed in the book. Accordingly, a total of 25 worksheet pages (1 or 2 for a week) are designed chiefly in terms of character issues for students to ponder over and write down their views for the teacher's evaluation. These are clearly shown on the Table 4.2 The Project Curriculum Planning Design and a portfolio of Worksheets (Appendix A). This study is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the motivation and purpose of the study. Chapter 2 consists of three sections of literature review including, teacher's questioning skills, Character Education, and young adult literature. Chapter 3 exemplifies the character issues conveyed in Dear Mr. Henshaw to prove it a suitable material for the program. Chapter 4 is the methodology, including the preparation stage and the curriculum design for the whole novel for this action research project for 3 research questions. In Chapter 5, the research questions are answered and the results and findings in the whole teaching processes are discussed. At last, in Chapter 6, the summary of major findings, the significance and limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study are proposed.