Five-year College Students' Voices Heard from English Conversation Course Activities

By:
Dr. Ching-Huang Wang
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An instructor based his English Conversation course activities on critical thinking and writing
theories. The goals of these teaching methods were to promote students’ English conversation proficiency and booster their critical thinking and writing skills in an unthreatening learning environment. The class consisted of 26 five-year college students whose major was all Engineering. There were 23 males and 3 males. Two main research questions sought to determine 1) How did the students respond to the English Conversation course activities in terms of English conversation practices? 2) How did the students relate the
English Conversation course activities to critical thinking and writing? Data collection included an evaluation questionnaire, the instructor’s journal entries, weekly responses the instructor and his students posted in a class weblog, and the students’ final reflection papers. The positive results of the analyzed related evaluation items indicate that the course goals were reached, and so did the reflections and the responses from the instructor and his students. Further, these course activities may urge other interested instructors to help their students acquire a higher level of language acquisition and cultivate their unique voices by adapting or modifying these course activities in their own instructional contexts to make their classes enjoyable, meaningful, significant, and even critical.


Keywords: English Conversation, critical thinking and writing, course activities, blog
Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity, Literacy, Language, Multiliteracies, Languages Education and Second Language Learning
Presentation Type: Virtual Presentation in English
Paper:

Dr. Ching-Huang Wang

1. Assistant Professor   2.Director, 1. Applied Foreign Languages Department
2. The Language Teaching Center, National Formosa University
Taiwan

With the help of my co-chairs, Dr Harste and Dr Pugh, I got my Ph D degree after defending my dissertation in the winter of 2002, entitled “Self-Guided bibliotherapeutic experiences related to identity issues : Case studies of Taiwanese graduate students in American university settings.” I have been enjoying my teaching and pleased with my students since I was an Assistant Professor in Applied Foreign Languages Department at National Formosa University in February of 2003, and I have been learning administration since I was Director of the Language Teaching Center at the University in February of 2005. The research I have been engaged in includes bibliotherapy, identity, critical literacies, course activities, and syllabus design. In addition to teaching, I like to play sports like table tennis, present in conferences on education and humanities, and write articles for publication.

Ref: L06P0004