國小英語協同教學課堂中教師故事朗讀之字彙教學與學生字彙學習成效

Abstract

台灣的新竹市於2001年開啟了國小英語外師教學計畫；從那時開始，中師和外師之間跨文化的英語協同教學愈漸普遍。先前研究中師和外師英語協同教學的相關研究多著重於教師間如何合作，以及協同教學模式中產生的衝突和挑戰。 然而，很少學術研究著重探討中師和外師實際在教室中的教學方法、雙方之間教學方法的異同，或是字彙教學方法對學生字彙學習產生的影響。因此，本研究旨在探討協同教學中，國小英文中師和外師如何在故事朗讀中進行字彙教學以及教師的字彙教學對學生字彙學習的影響和成效。參與本研究的兩位中師和外師會各別讀與教一篇相同的英文故事給他們所教的兩班學生，相同的故事會在隔周後再讀和教一次給學生。兩班學生會完成普通單字測驗以及故事單字測驗的前測和後測，以評量學生從教師朗讀故事教學中字彙的學習情形。除此之外，研究者還會進行課堂觀察，以便記錄教師故事朗讀過程中的字彙教學方法。為了要分析和比較中師和外師的字彙教學方法，課堂觀察記錄中的字彙教學事例會被分類和編碼。描述性統計和重複測量三因子變異數分析在本研究當中將會被應用，以便了解教師字彙教學對學生字彙學習的影響。 研究結果指出中、外師皆使用多種字彙教學方法。然而，他們關注的字彙教學面向不盡相同；外師著重於呈現視覺圖像以解釋字彙意義，而中師傾向於使用中文翻譯和著重字彙的正確形式。研究同時發現，字彙的詞性也會影響教師們的字彙教學方法。另外，中、外師的字彙教學對學生字彙學習有著正向的影響，他們教學著重不同的面向也影響著學生字彙學習的結果；兩位老師的學生在單字後測都有顯著的進步，且圖片辨識的成績皆高於中文翻譯的成績。除此之外，外師的班級在圖片辨識上分數高於中師的班級，而中師的班級在中文翻譯上分數高於外師的班級。 本研究的結果和教學啟示能夠讓協同教學的教師知曉有效的字彙教學方法。透過研究中師和外師間的字彙教學，研究者將更能提出建議，使協同教學之教師彼此學習對方教學上的長處，以及彌補自身不足之處，進而提供學生更豐富多元的語言學習環境和文化經驗來提升英語學習。

In 2001, Hsinchu city in the northern Taiwan launched the first Native English-Speaking teacher (NEST) program in elementary schools. Since then, intercultural team teaching between native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and local English teachers (LETs) has become increasingly common. Previous studies associated with team teaching in elementary school English classrooms centered on how NESTs and LETs collaborated, and conflicts as well as challenges in particular, involved in the collaborative teaching. However, little attention has been paid to the actual instructional practices employed by the two groups of teachers, differences in instructional practices between them, and potential association of certain vocabulary instructional practices with students’ vocabulary learning. Thus, the aims of the present study was (1) to explore vocabulary instructional practices between the NEST and the LET, and (2) to investigate the effects of different instructional practices on vocabulary learning outcomes for EFL students in the elementary grades. One dyad of elementary school English teachers, one NEST and one LET, participated in the present study. The NEST and the LET were told to read an informational story book, and teach the story to the two classes they taught. The story was read twice on two different days with one week interval. A general vocabulary test and a story vocabulary test were administered as the pretest and posttest to the two classes the NEST and the LET taught to measure participants' vocabulary gain from teachers' story reading-aloud. Classroom observation for the NEST and the LET was employed to keep track of the vocabulary instructional practices during each session. To analyze and compare the teachers' vocabulary instructional practices, instances for vocabulary instructional practices noted in the field notes were identified and coded. To explore the effects of different instructional practices on students' vocabulary learning outcomes, gain scores of the pretests and posttests were calculated and then analyzed through a three-way repeated measure ANOVA, with two within-subjects factors (i.e., pre- vs. post test and picture identification vs. L1 translation test), and one between-subjects factor (i.e., teacher status). The results demonstrated that the NEST and the LET both used multiple vocabulary instructional practices with focuses on different aspects of vocabulary teaching. The NEST put more emphasis on the visual needs of the learners, whereas the LET used more L1 translation and accuracy-based instruction than the NEST. Different parts of speech of the target words also determined how the two participating teachers implemented vocabulary instructional practices. The findings also suggested that the two teachers’ vocabulary instructional practices had positive effects on students’ learning of novel words. Both of the NEST’s and the LET’s students produced higher scores in the vocabulary posttest, with scores of the picture identification higher than the L1 translation test. When compared the two classes, the NEST’s students showed higher gains on picture identification test than the LET’s students, and the LET’s students exhibited higher gains on L1 translation test than the NEST’s students. The results and implications of the present study may inform teachers about effective vocabulary instructional practices in team-teaching situation. By investigating how the NEST and the LET taught vocabulary during story reading-aloud, we will be in a better position to propose ways in which the team can learn from and complement each other in team-teaching environment and thus provide EFL students with a rich language environment and cultural experience so as to facilitate their English learning.