| This study describes an effort to introduce an alternative to traditional teacher-centered pedagogy in teaching English as a foreign language in Taiwan. Based on reader response theory, it documents Chinese 11 th grade students' speaking and writing in English in response to a new method for teaching literature in an English summer program. The teacher was a teacher-researcher in this English classroom. Twenty students volunteered to participate; five focal students were chosen for detailed study. Classroom activities included worksheet group discussions, report group discussions, and reading response discussions. Three research questions, which guided the analysis, are (1) what was the content of the students' discussions in response to the stories and to the teaching method? (2) what were the changes in their English speaking and writing in response to the stories during this intervention? (3) what was the nature of the teaching and learning that took place during this innovation, and what were students' perceptions? Data sources consisted of audiotapes, videotapes, open form questionnaires, informal interviews, logs, fieldnotes, and students' written artifacts. The result of this six-week study demonstrates that the students were able to read aesthetically, which included constructing simple meaning, involving themselves personally, inquiring, and critiquing. They made considerable progress in both speaking and writing in English in terms of language competence. In addition, students' perspectives on learning English also changed dramatically. The study has implications for an alternative pedagogy for English teachers in contemporary high school English classrooms in Taiwan. |
