Relevance of Knowledge of Second Language Acquisition:
FINDINGS
Peiling’s EFL teaching context
English had become an official subject in elementary school in Taiwan one semester before Peiling’s return. She had to teach 23 classes every week with only one period (40 minutes) per week allocated to EFL for_each class. The official number of students in each class was 35; therefore, she had approximately 805 students each week during the course of the semester. Peiling was required to teach using prescribed textbooks.
The first challenge Peiling faced was a wide range of English proficiencies in one class. Based on the results of a survey (Lo, 2003) administered to 210 of Peiling’s students, 8.8% of the 204 students who responded (18 out of 204) indicated that they had started learning English before kindergarten; more than half of the students (52.0%, 106 of 204) had started learning English in kindergarten; 22.1% (45 out of 204) started when they were in grades 1 and 2; and 12.3% (25 out of 204) started in grades 3 and 4. However, the remaining 2% (4 out of 204) started in the upper grades, 5 and 6. This means that in a sixth grade class, the widest range of experience with English could be ten years, from age 3 prior to kindergarten to age 13 in the sixth grade. This wide range of experience also indicates a wide range of English proficiencies in one class.
In addition, nearly half of the students responding to the survey (47.1%, 96 of 204) reported that they were currently learning English in cram schools1. More than a fifth (22.1%, 45 out of 204) indicated that they had attended cram schools in the past but had stopped attending extracurricular English classes. However, approximately thirty percent (29.5%, 60 out of 204) reported that they had never been to cram schools. For Peiling, therefore, sixteen of her average 35 students in one class would be receiving extra instruction in English, while another eight would have had experience with cram schools in the past. The remaining eleven would never have had the advantage of cram schools.
As a result, students who had had years of learning felt what Peiling taught was too easy for them but those who had just started to learn felt the content was too difficult for them. The remaining third could not concentrate on their learning because the bored or frustrated students played and talked to each other during her class. Peiling was confronted with discipline problems constantly. She was very frustrated with this situation and sometimes lost her temper when the students were out of control (Classroom observation from February to June, 2002).
4 Cram schools are privately-owned, after-school learning and enhancement institutes.
