An Investigation of Taiwanese College Students' English Language Needs and Difficulties for School Purposes

台灣大學生課業上英語需求及困難之調查

朱秀瑜(Hsiu-yu Chu)

《通識教育學報》 4期 (2016/12) Pp. 45-60

https://doi.org/10.6517/MCUT2016.DEC-03

摘要

The present study aims to make clear what college students' English language needs are for school purposes and what difficulties they have encountered. With the results of the investigation, college teachers who are responsible for English curriculum planning and development might be able to get a clearer view on how to arrange their curriculum to best help their students to succeed in their studies. A total of 544 students from two technological universities in norther Taiwan were recruited to complete a questionnaire about their English language needs and difficulties in college. The results show that student participants relied the most on English reading for their studies in college. English writing, though considered to be the most difficult language skill for them, was not generally required in college. English listening and speaking, however, were regarded as the two most important skills to their success after graduation but did not seem to be sufficiently trained in college English classrooms in terms of students' specific difficulties. As a result, it is not surprising to see that students would like to improve their listening and speaking the most in college as well as their reading (especially general reading comprehension and knowledge of vocabulary). Further studies are suggested for the design and outcomes of college English curriculum based on the results of the present study.

關鍵字

English language needs ； difficulties ； college students

並列摘要

本研究目的在於釐清台灣大學生在課業上的英語需求以及所遭遇到的困難。希望此調查結果能夠讓大學裡負責英語課程規畫的老師有個概括的了解，如何安排課程才能最有效的幫助學生在英文相關課業上面的學習。本問卷調查總共有來自北台灣兩所科技大學544位學生參加，填答有關他們在大學裡英語需求及困難的問題。結果顯示，大學生課業上最需要的英文能力為英文閱讀。而英文寫作能力雖然是最困難的，但是在大學的課業上其實並不太會用到。至於英語聽講能力，學生們一致認為是畢業後進入社會最需要的英語能力，但是大學英文課程並沒有針對他們比較有困難的聽講技巧多做訓練。因此令人不意外的是，學生最想在大學裡好好的增進他們的英語聽說能力，當然還有英文閱讀能力(特別是一般的閱讀理解能力及字彙能力)。建議未來可以研究大學英文課程運用本次調查結果所做的修正設計，甚或執行後的結果。

並列關鍵字

英語需求 ； 困難 ； 大學生