Linking theory to practice: Implementation of CLT by Taiwanese university teachers of English.

摘要

For the past several decades, Asian teachers of English have been traveling to English L1 countries to do graduate work and return home ready to try new teaching approaches (Golombek & Jordan, 2005 Liu, 1999 Major & Yamashiro, 2004). Among these approaches, Communicative language Teaching (CLT) of English is a teaching innovation that has had sufficient time to be learned by Asian EFL teachers, endorsed by the government, and implemented with varying degrees of success and resistance in Taiwan (Kuo, 1995 Su, 2002 Wang, 2002). By closely examining the degree of implementation of this teaching approach in Taiwan as well as the challenges and forces at work influencing its implementation, it should be possible to learn more about how the best of Western teaching ideas might be adapted to Asian contexts and to develop a more effective model for teacher preparation.To address this issue, this study was framed with the theory of curriculum implementation and aimed to answer the following three questions: (1) How have Taiwanese EFL Teachers implemented CLT in Taiwan? (2) What factors facilitate or inhibit the implementation of CLT? What effects do these factors have on CLT implementation as enacted? (3) How do Taiwanese adapt CLT in EFL classrooms in Taiwan? What are the underlying constructs of the adaptation process?To answer these research questions, this study applied a systematic random sampling method to recruit 71 English teachers from 20 colleges. Also, mixed methods research was used by surveying these participants, examining course syllabi and course materials, and interviewing 20 of them. The findings reveal that nearly all teachers report in their syllabi using some CLT principles with the vast majority (about 80%) confirming use in the survey and interviews. Those who do not implement CLT or have stopped using it mainly teach low level students in very large classes. Even among these teachers, however, some have succeeded in adapting CLT. These teachers are the ones aware of educational policies, sensitive to students' traditional ways of learning, and willing to differentiate their teaching based upon students' proficiency levels.