A Case Study of Student Perceptions toward Between-class Ability Grouping in Freshman Practical English Class

學生對實施大一實用英文跨班能力分級上課之態度個案研究

許春滿(Chuen-Maan Sheu) ； 王佩玲(Pei-Ling Wang)

《高應科大人文社會科學學報》 3卷 (2006/07) Pp. 111-140

https://doi.org/10.29888/KUASJHSS.200607.0006

摘要

本研究目的旨在探討本校94年實施「實用英文」能力分級上課後，學生對英語學習、教材教法、評量方式、以及學校政策等所持之態度。英文能力分級之測驗工具為本校實用英文課程採用的統一教科書（Active Skills for Reading），出版社專為大專生能力分級所設計的45題英文閱讀測驗。研究對象半隨機自本校94年度新生選出。透過學生問卷調查方式搜集資料，本研究先以描述統計來報導學生們所持之看法，並透過t檢定、單因子變異數分析與Duncan後測法，檢測學生之院別、性別、及程度三項變數是否與其態度之間存在顯著差異關係。研究發現顯示：1). 學生對分級上課，整體而言，對英語學習、教材教法、評量方式、以及學校政策等所持之態度，持贊成態度者多於持反對意意見者，對教材教法持贊成態度者比率最高。2). 52.5%學生表示對大一實用英文分級上課政策滿意與否持中間態度，贊成者（33.1%）多於反對者（14 .4%），但是44.7%的學生認為分級上課有助英語學習，持反對意見者僅占8.6%。 3). 贊成大二英語聽講練習分級上課者佔49.6%，明顯多於反對者（12.6%）。 4). 此外，47%的學生認為不同級別的學生應使用不同教科書，僅有17.3%的學生認為統一教材即可。5). 性別差異部分，男生較女生感受到分級上課的壓力，尤其工學院的男生最為明顯；女生則較男生明顯感覺上課氣氛好。6). 14.5%學生表達所屬級別不符合他們的英語程度，初級學生則對每學期依個人表現重新分級意願顧著高於中級和高級學生。此研究結果可供已實行及未來計畫推行該政策的學校作為改進分級教學之參考。

關鍵字

英語能力分級 ； 教材 ； 教法 ； 問卷調查

並列摘要

The purpose of this study is to investigate students' learning experiences and their perceptions towards teaching methods and evaluations, teaching materials and ability grouping policy in the course of Freshmen Practical English. The subjects were freshmen from three different colleges (i.e., College of Management; College of Engineering; College of Humanities and Social Sciences) at National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences in the 2005 academic year. Students were distributed into 3 levels based on the placement test provided by the publisher of the textbook for the Freshmen Practical English course. Data were collected through a questionnaire (α= 0.8477) on four categories of students' learning experiences, perceptions toward teaching methods, teaching materials and grouping policies. The questionnaire survey was conducted during the final two weeks of the first semester. Collected data were analyzed and decoded in the SPSS for Winodws 10.0 including the analyses of mean scores, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA and Duncan post hoc comparisons to examine gender difference, level difference and college difference. The results showed that 1) there was a higher percentage of approval than disapproval in all of the four categories, especially in the category of perceptions toward teaching methods and evaluations; 2) 52.5% of the respondents answered so-so to the question of whether they were satisfied with the grouping policy, while 33.1 % responded ”agree,” in contrast to 14.4 % who responded ”disagree.” Moreover, 44.7% of the respondents expressed that grouping was helpful to their English learning, and only 8.6% disagreed; 3) 49.6% preferred to be ability grouped in the Sophomore Listening and Speaking Class, and only 12.6% disagreed; 4) 47% of the respondents agreed that different teaching materials should be used for different level students, while 17.3 of the respondents disagreed; 5) in gender differences, male students demonstrated a significant higher level of stress in learning English, and this phenomenon was especially significant among students from College of Engineering. Besides, more female students felt the classroom atmosphere was nice; 6) 14.5% of the respondent revealed that they were misplaced, and a significant higher percentage of beginning-level respondents wanted to be regrouped per semester than intermediate and intermediate advanced level students.

並列關鍵字

English Ability Grouping ； Teaching Materials ； Teaching Methods ； Questionnaire