Effects of Mother Tongue Grammar Transformation on Taiwanese Junior High School Students' English Grammar Learning

• Main Authors: Pei-Shuan Huang, 黃珮璇
• Other Authors: Shih-Chung Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/80295112973316342437

碩士 === 國立屏東商業技術學院 === 應用英語系(所) === 102 === The experimental study aimed to probe the effect of mother tongue grammar transformation (MTGT) method in contrast to traditional English structure instruction (TESI) on the learning of sentence structures by ninth graders in Taiwan. Besides, it also conducted whether the convergent sentence types between L1 and L2 or whether the students’ proficiency would affect students’ grammar learning. The participants were 58 ninth graders in junior high school in Taiwan. They were randomly assigned to either MTGT group or TESI group. The experiment lasted for six weeks. The posttest (the school monthly exam) and the structure achievement tests were administered to the students after the instruction. Finally, a questionnaire was distributed to the MTGT group. The results showed: (a) MTGT group significantly outperformed TESI group on all of the three structure achievement tests and the posttest, (b) low-achievers benefited significantly more from MTGT method than high-achievers, (c) the students learned significantly better when the sentence patterns were more similar between L1 and L2; on the contrary, they performed the worst when the sentence pattern was the most different between L1 and L2, (d) most MTGT group students confirmed the positive effects of the assistance of L1. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were provided in the conclusion.