Investigating Speaking Methods Use and Difficulties:

A Qualitative Study of Two Foreign Students Learning Chines

e in Taiwan

Presenter: Jack & Ken

Content

Introduction Literature review

Methodology Result

Conclusion

Introduction

Background

Purpose of the Study

Research Question

Background

In the past few years, more and

more students want to study abroad

in order to learn Chinese. However,

sometimes it has been the case that

studying abroad does not improve

their Chinese proficiency.

Purpose of the Study

1. To explore methods of foreign students

succeeded in learning Chinese especially in

speaking skills.

2. To investigate the difficulties of the learning

process in learning Chinese.

Research questions

1. What kinds of methods are employed by

the

foreign students who study Chinese in

Taiwan?

2. What are difficulties encountered of

foreign

students who study Chinese in Taiwan?

Literature ReviewThe Importance of Language Learning Strategies

Types of Language Learning Strategies

Learning Strategies and Speaking Proficiency

The Importance of Learning Strategies

One of the major factors

influencing the successful

language learning was the

language learning strategies

(Graham, 1997).

The Importance of Learning Strategies

The investigation into effective and

ineffective learners found that more

successful students used learning

strategies more often. (Chamot &

Kupper, 1989, Graham, 1997)

Types of Learning Strategies

Cognitive Strategies

Metacognitive Strategies

Social/ Affective Learning Strategies

(Brown,1982; Chamot,1900;

Malley,1990)

Cognitive Strategies

O’Malley & Chamot (1990)

pointed out that “cognitive

strategies operate directly on

incoming information,

manipulating it in way that

enhances learning”.

Metacognitive Strategies

O’Malley & Chamot (1990)

emphasized that “Metacognitive

strategies refer to higher order

executive skills that may entail

planning for monitoring or evaluating

the success of a learning activity”

Social/ Affective Strategies

Oxford (1990) indicated that affective

strategies helped cultivate learners’

self-confidence and perseverance and

those social strategies encouraged

enhanced interaction and more

empathetic understanding.

Learning Strategies and Speaking Proficiency

Oxford (1990) asserted that

leaning strategies could help

learners “participate actively in

such authentic communication”

Learning Strategies and Speaking Proficiency

Traone (1981) noted that learning strategies were to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language.

Learning Strategies and Speaking Proficiency

Leaning

strategies

How to cultivate speaking ability

Cognitive Strengthening grammatical accuracy.

Metacognitive Regulating the cognition to move

toward speaking ability.

Social /Affective Developing self-confidence. and

providing increased interaction and

more empathetic understanding.

Methodology

Setting and Participants

1. Research design

2. The selection of participants

3. Procedure of the interview

Design of Interview Question

Setting and Participants

Research Design

1. The study was conducted by using

qualitative research method.

2. The instruments used were two semi-

structured interviews with two

participants.

The Selection of Participants

Participants are randomly selected

from low-intermediate Chinese class

and high intermediate Chinese class

in Chinese Program, Language

Center National Chung Hsing

University.

Participant’s Personal Background

Code X YNationalit

yIndonesia Russia

Age 24 21

Learning length 1.5 years 1.5 years

Occupation

student/Interpreter

Full-time student

Class rank

high-intermediate

low-intermediate

The Selection of Participants

The criterion for the researcher to

include these students was that the

high-intermediate student would be

more motivated to improve their

speaking comprehension than the

low-intermediate student.

Procedure of the Interview

Each interview lasted for 10 to 15

minutes.

The interview was speaking in

Chinese, but the participants were

allowed to respond to the questions

in English.

Procedure of the Interview

Each participant was asked to answer

their personal background, including

age, learning length, occupation.

The participant responded 12 open-

ended questions concerning their

speaking learning in and outside the

class.

Design of Interview Question

The researcher designed 12 interview

questions according to language learning

strategies.

Each strategy was designed for 4

questions and each question was asked

one method of language learning applied

from strategies.

The Interview Question and Strategy Use

Interview Question Strategy use

1 Do you learn Chinese by repetition? Cognitive 2 Do you imitate the way that native speaker speaks

Chinese?3 Do you read out that dialogue?4 Out of class, do you actively join the activity in which I can

practice speak Chinese?

Method applied from strategy Strategy 1 Practicing-repeating Cognitive 2 Practicing-formally practicing with sound and speaking

system3 Practicing4 Practicing-practicing naturalistically

The Interview Question and Strategy Use

Interview Question Strategy5 Do you memorize some useful sentences to use

them in conversation?Metacognitive

6 Do you use media to listen to Chinese? 7 Do you preview related date for the coming

class?8 Do you pay attention to the mistakes you made

and try your best not to make the same mistakes again?

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Method applied from strategy Strategy

5 Arranging and planning your learning-finding out about language learning

Metacognitive

6 Arranging and planning your learning-seeking practice opportunities

7 Arranging and planning your learning-planning for a language task

8 Evaluating your learning-self-monitoring

The Interview Question and Strategy Use

Interview Question Strategy 9 When you fail to recall some words in

conversation, will you ask classmates or the teacher for help?

Social / Affective

10

In a dialogue, do you ask the speaker to slow down or repeat when you fail to follow it?

11

Are you nervous of speaking Chinese?

12

Do you ask other to correct you if you make mistakes in speaking?

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Method applied from strategy Strategy 9 Cooperating with others-cooperating with peers

and cooperating with proficient user of the new language

Social/ Affective

10 Asking questions-asking for clarification or verification

11 Encourage yourself-making positive statement12 Asking questions-asking for correction

Results

The Results of the Interview

Observation during the Interview

The Results of the Interview

Research question 1: What kinds of methods are employed by foreign students who study Chinese in Taiwan?

•Repeat •Imitate

•Read out •Go to work after the class

•Memorize •listen to the radio.

•Preview •Pay attention to the mistakes

•Do ask friends and check dictionary.

•Will ask to repeat or slow down

•Friends will correct him when he make mistake

•Not being afraid to speak Chinese

The Results of the Interview

Research question 2: What are difficulties encountered of foreign students who study Chinese in Taiwan?

According to item 1 to item 4, Y participant doesn’t

1. imitate native speaker speaks2. read out the dialogue

3. often talk with Chinese friends

The researcher thought Y participant seldom use cognitive strategies; therefore, he may has grammatical accuracy problems.

The Results of the Interview

According to item 5 to item 8, Y participant doesn’t

1. memorizes some useful sentences 2. often use media to practice, 3. do the preview before the class 4. pay attention to the mistakes.

The researcher thought Y participant seldom use metacognitive strategies; therefore, He may not speak a complete sentence because of he can not deal with input information very well. 31

The Results of the Interview

According to item 9 to item 12, Y participant doesn’t

1. check the dictionary, 2. feel comfortable to speak Chinese 3. ask other people to repeat or slow down

The researcher thought Y participant seldom use affective/ social strategies; therefore he may lack of self-confidence to interact with others.

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Comparison between Two Participants

X participant uses more methods

than Y participant. The research

thought that it may be the reason

why X participant is superior to Y

participant.

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Observation during the Interview

In the beginning of the

interview, both participants

were more used to replying with

short answers.

Observation during the Interview

Listening comprehension was

also important and

indispensable for speaking

proficiency.

Observation during the Interview

Y participant have poor Chinese

speaking proficiency for the

interview.

Conclusion

Summary of the Major Findings

Other Findings in the Study

Summary of the Major Findings

The researcher found that the

student who uses methods

more can be better in Chinese

speaking proficiency than the

other.

Other Findings in the Study

Based on the researcher’s

observation, the other possible

reason that one participant has

better speaking proficiency is

his occupation.

Thank you

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