A Study of Remote Area English Teachers’ Beliefs in Listening Instruction at Junior High Schools in Changhua County

• Main Authors: Ke, Ya-Chun, 柯雅純
• Other Authors: Chao, Yu-Gi
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ag9sc5

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 106 === ABSTRACT The study aimed to explore the junior high school English teachers’ beliefs in English listening instruction and students’ listening difficulty in the remote areas of Changhua County. The participants were six English teachers from six different junior high schools in remote areas of Changhua County. The study’s instrumentation was a semi-structured interview guide, including teachers’ background information and ten interview questions. The interview data were transcribed verbatim. There were three main findings in the present study. Firstly, teachers perceived themselves as confronting four major difficulties while teaching English listening in the study’s remote area, including a) large discrepancy of students’ English listening ability, b) few opportunities for students to practice English, c) insufficient listening equipment, and d) students’ lack of exposure to English language and culture. Secondly, the teachers’ beliefs in effective teaching techniques in listening instruction were mostly shaped during their pre-service programs. In addition, in-class teaching experiences, and high school entrance examinations influenced teachers’ beliefs in teaching listening. Furthermore, most teachers believed that some techniques, such as activating students’ background knowledge, asking students to preview before listening, listening to keywords and guessing from the context, providing listening transcript, and employing multimedia input could improve students’ listening comprehension. Thirdly, most teachers indicated that insufficient vocabulary size, insufficient background knowledge, lack of familiarity with sentence structure, and inability to match sounds to words accurately were the main obstacles hindering the English listening comprehension of remote area junior high school students. According to the findings, pedagogical implications of the study were pointed out, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study are also provided at the end of this study. Keywords: teachers’ beliefs, English listening instruction, effective teaching techniques, English listening difficulty