Job Discussion Forums

[martinphipps]

1. Rate the importance of each teaching method or practice listed below:

Very important Somewhat important Not important

Games

Conversation practice

Handwriting practice

Oral tests

TPR

Songs (singing)

Songs (listening)

Quizes and tests

Essay writing

Story writing

Teaching the alphabet

Teaching phonics

Teaching grammar

Listening exercises

Reading exercises

Listening and repeating

Spelling tests

Dictation

Daily vocabulary

Weekly sentences

2. State which method listed you believe to be the most important. Give a reason for your opinion (if possible).

Obviously a survey conducted over the internet is not scientific due to self-selecting. Nor do I know what kind of institution you work for because I haven't included that question.

At Chungtai Institute of Health Sciences and Technology in Taichung, we are thinking about having students give out a longer version of this survey (in other words, with more questions) to teachers in Taichung as part of their senior projects. I figured I had nothing to lose by posting these survey questions on this forum and seeing what answers I got.

By the way, is there anybody in Taichung who thinks they can help? I think we've got it covered: assuming we can get students from all over Taichung to volunteer to give out the survey questions then we'll have a good idea about what is being taught here in Taichung and how.

If anybody in Taichung wants a copy of the full questionaire then I can e-mail you a word file. You can then give out the survey to other people you know. If you give the survey to enough people who don't contribute to this forum then that should cover the issue of self-selection.

I realise that there are probably thousands of bushibans, public schools and kindergartens in Taichung each hiring several teachers. Just how many schools we'd be talking about would be an interesting question in itself.

Martin Phipps,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages,
Chungtai Institute pf Health Sciences and Technology,
Taichong, Taiwan

[markholmes]

I think you might be better putting this on www.forumosa.com where they have a forum poll facility.

[Aristotle]

Try running a poll.
Good luck,
A.

[lagerlout2006]

Phipps _ I answered your questions on the China forum but you are really pushing your luck now. Do you expect anyone to answer inane questions like this? And of what use would it be if they did?

Your "book?" Better to refer people to actual books that exist instead of wasting everyone's time-including your own.

After all we are "regulars" here and can jump around the boards like you----people figure out what you are up to.

[kait]

I think there are too many independent variables. You need to narrow down the age, and skill level and class objective first. I would think that the "Department of Applied Linguistics" would be familar with the basic research model.

If your class is a beginning class, then you won't be having them write stories. If they are 3 years old, you will play more songs and games. If the goal is for them to do well on a standardized test, then writing skills will be emphasized over conversation skills. And it should be pretty fluid in any class as well. If they are struggling with pronunciation, then, you concentrate on that. If they are making huge grammar errors, perhaps you concentrate on that.

Honestly, any data you get will only be reflective of a particular teacher in a particular situation. The only apparent connection between those interviewed is that they happen to be English teachers in Taiwan in a particular time frame who happen to post on the internet or cross your path in some way. I think you need to narrow your scope if you're hoping to draw any conclusions from the data at all.