English Education in an Examination-driven Environment: The Teaching and Learning of Prepositions in Taiwan

Chun-Ying Wang

《應用英語期刊》 9期 (2016/06) Pp. 89-138

並列摘要

This research aims to investigate the way in which English are taught and learnt in Taiwan by conducting a two-phase study on prepositions. The data was collected from interviews with 15 English teachers and a questionnaire survey of 92 students. As a result, English teachers commonly employ seven methods to teach prepositions. The students not only agreed that they had learnt English prepositions by utilizing most of the 7 methods but they also deemed them to be an efficient way of learning. However, I argue that the imperial examination culture in Taiwan strongly influences English education because the ultimate goal is for students to obtain high scores; therefore, both teaching and learning involve stimulus-response behaviour (Barker, 2003; Pavlov, 2003). This kind of teaching and learning is questionable because it fails to meet the goals listed in the English course outlines designed by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan (2010).

並列關鍵字

English teaching ； Prepositions ； Teach-to-test ； Behaviourism ； Taiwan