The Effects of Using the Theme of Self-Consciousness: Implementing Task-Based Instruction on Taiwanese Middle Students’ Reading Comprehension－the Case of Princess Academy

• Main Authors: Kuo,Tai-Chen, 郭泰禎
• Other Authors: Perng, Hui-Zung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/h55jpc

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 兒童英語研究所 === 104 === Traditional English teaching emphasizes instruction of scattered language structures involving such features as vocabulary, phrases, and grammar. However, through learning from non-authentic materials and scattered contexts, students might encounter difficulty in understanding the meaning of what they read, which can hinder them from vocabulary learning. Unfortunately, due to the test-oriented education and the limited time of English classes at schools in Taiwan, most teachers incorporate textbooks rather than authentic texts as core teaching materials. If teachers would like to cultivate students’ reading ability to find information they need, then merely have them read textbooks, magazines or simplified graded readers is not enough. To successfully cultivate students’ reading ability, students not only need to read extensive amounts of authentic materials but also need teachers to assist them in understanding the gist of readings through processing a series of structural teaching activities. Many researchers in Taiwan have examined the effectiveness of extensive reading on middle school students’ English learning. The results show that middle school students can benefit from extensive reading in many aspects including vocabulary learning, reading comprehension, writing, reading attitudes and motivation. However, the major readings utilized in those studies are simplified graded readers rather than authentic materials. Applying young adult novels might be the best choice for middle school students. There aren’t obscure words or complex sentence structures in young adult novels. Besides, a variety of themes including self-consciousness, friendship, boy-and-girl relationships, family relationships, gender awareness and many others are offered as ready topics for discussions in the novels. The protagonists in young adult novels are usually equivalent in age to teen readers. Middle school students might increase interest in reading young adult novels when they find out that they are not the only ones undergoing frustrations, conflicts and paradoxes in adolescenthood, but also other teenagers are experiencing the similar situations, namely, the characters in young adult novels. The research focus of the present study is based on Chen’s (2012) master’s thesis, Effectiveness of the Integration of Story Grammar and Gender Awareness Instruction on Taiwanese Learners’ Reading Comprehension. The research sought to decrease middle-school students’ anxiety of first time reading of authentic materials by combining two picture books and one young adult novel as teaching materials. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the control and the experimental groups’ reading comprehension posttest scores regarding the two picture books while the mean score for the experimental group received from the young adult novel’s reading comprehension posttest was higher than the counter group’s (p < .05). Hence, the researcher of the present study assumed it would be practicable that teachers adopt only young adult novels to cultivate middle-school students’ reading comprehension. Compared with Chen’s (2012) study, the young adult novel and theme adopted in the present study were different. This study used the young adult novel, Princess Academy written by Shannon Hale to probe the theme, self-consciousness. Fifty one eighth graders participated in this study. They were randomly separated into two experimental groups. One of them underwent the traditional story reading instruction while the other underwent the thematic instruction centering on self-consciousness. One standardized test, Cambridge Young Learners English Tests (Cambrdige ESOL, 2007) was administered to test the students’ homogeneity in English proficiency before the experiment, and independent samples t-tests were used to examine whether there was significant difference between both groups, in terms of scores obtain for the vocabulary and grammar test, and reading comprehension test. Finally, the pre- and post-instructional questionnaires were utilized to examine their awareness of self-consciousness, as well as their interests in reading English young adult novels. Based on the independent samples t-tests analyses, the results show that there was no significant difference between the two experimental groups’ performance on the vocabulary and grammar test and reading comprehension test. However, results of the Pearson Correlation Coefficient analyses demonstrate that there was a strong correlation between the two groups’ performance in the vocabulary and grammar and the reading comprehension test, which meant that both the traditional story reading instruction and the thematic reading instruction might bring the students the positive influence on learning the vocabulary, grammar, and theme in the story to a certain degree. Furthermore, according to the findings of the questionnaires, students receiving the thematic reading instruction had better understanding of the theme in the story as well as higher interests toward reading English young adult novels. English teachers in junior high schools are suggested to adopt authentic texts, young adult novels as the core teaching materials as well as to incorporate the thematic reading instruction to help students increase their reading comprehension. It is suggested that future studies could adopt different novels, themes, or students’ grade levels to further explore the effects of thematic reading instruction. Keywords: graded reader, young adult novel, authentic material, task-based instruction, self-consciousness