學術報告: 八位EFL外語教學研究生的言談社會化經驗

Abstract

本研究探討八位台灣英語教學研究生，透過學術論文報告的課堂活動所發展的言談社會化經驗，在許多台灣的英語教學研究所課程中，學生的課堂學術論文報告是一個普遍的口語活動，然而，過去對於此口語活動的本質與其在教學上如何幫助學生的發展學科社會化探討有限，因此，本研究透過觀察學生的學術論文報告，旨在調查學生如何習得學術技能(即:吸收與傳播知識)，此外，更討論學生在參與學術論文報告的過程中，如何建構本身的身分(identity)與參與的形式，本文針對台灣當地文化的資訊，將延伸目前文獻的探討至非英語系國家卻同時需要以英文讀、寫、說、和做研究的學生，研究問題包含: (1)學術論文報告如何幫助學生發展學科中知識吸收與傳播的技能? (2)學生如何在學術論文報告活動中協商自身的身分與參與方式? 以「語言社會化觀點」為基礎，研究數據的收集為期一個學期 (總共18週)，包含課堂觀察、學生課堂學術論文錄影、訪談、學生作業與相關課堂文件，結果顯示學生在經由不斷地學術論文報告活動中，發展了對於學科言談與學術技能(吸收與傳播知識)的了解，但是，透過分析學生與授課教師的數據資料，發現雙方對於學生身分與參與方式議題上的差異，老師期待學生能在學術報告中保有反思與批判的表達並有研究者的思考，但是學生認為，身為研究生，要評估資料或者提出有力的評論還不夠成熟，根據結果，在教學上建議授課教師應該有效溝通並示範所期待的論文報告行為，並且清楚告知學術訓練的意涵，最後，我點出本研究的諸多限制，並且提出後續未來研究方向之建議。

The present study explores discourse socialization experiences of eight Taiwanese TESOL graduates through their participating in one routine coursework, oral academic presentations (OAPs). The student presentation is a pervasive oral event applied in TESOL courses across institutions in Taiwan. However, there is limited discussion concerning the nature of the event or reflections on how it’s pedagogically beneficial to students’ disciplinary socialization. Taking OAPs the major lens, the present study intends to investigate students’ academic literacy development (ie., knowledge consumption and dissemination) while they compose PowerPoint presentations. In addition, students’ identity construction and their participation pattern in doing OAPs are discussed. Information about the local culture will extend current understanding to include cases outside English-speaking environments where students yet must read, write, speak, and do research in English. Specific research questions to be addresses included: (1) How do oral academic presentations facilitate the focal students to develop disciplinary expertise in knowledge consumption and dissemination? (2) How do the focal students negotiate their identities and participation in giving oral academic presentations? Taking language socialization perspective, data were collected for a whole academic term (18 weeks in total), mainly from classroom observations, video recordings of OAPs, interviews, written reports and relevant documents. Findings suggest that students are socialized into disciplinary discourse and literacy skills (i.e., knowledge consumption and dissemination) through repeated participation in this activity. However, qualitative analysis of both student and teacher participants’ perspectives on the issue of identity and participation reveals a discrepancy. The instructor anticipated students to develop reflective and critical voice and think as researchers, while the focal students considered it immature for them – as graduate students – to evaluate the sources or have solid comments. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications suggest the need for the instructors (1) to communicate and model expected behaviors in doing OAPs, and (2) to address clearly the meaning of certain aspects of training. Finally, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are provided.