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Literacy Skills Education from the Perspective of English as a Lingua Franca: A Case Study on Taiwanese Students’ Secondary English Language Education Experience

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English Literacy Instruction for Chinese Speakers

Abstract

Under the English as a lingua franca (ELF) research paradigm, most studies have considered English language education as a route to develop literacy skills for international communication in higher, not secondary education. Against this backdrop, a questionnaire survey of 181 students and 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted to illuminate how adequately literacy skills are developed in Taiwanese high schools for international communication. The results indicated that secondary English language education is unbalanced, focusing more on developing students’ literacy skills than on listening and speaking skills, and more on reading than writing skills. Also, literacy skills education is examination oriented, not communication oriented. Thirdly, Taiwanese students conceptualized literacy skills for international communication in a narrow perspective. Consequently, secondary-level literacy skills education in Taiwan is currently not well connected to international communication.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

    Melissa H. Yu

Authors
  1. Melissa H. Yu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

    Barry Lee Reynolds

  2. Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Mark Feng Teng

Appendices

Appendix 1: Student Participants’ Professional Studies in Taiwanese Universities 1, 2, and 3 (U1, U2, and U3)

University

Faculty

Department/Program

U1

1. Art College

1. Department of Foreign Languages

U2

1. Faculty of Science

1. Department of Physics

2. Department of Chemistry

3. Department of Earth Sciences

4. Department of Mathematics

5. Department of Photonics

2. Faculty of Engineering

6. Department of Mechanical Engineering

7. Department of Chemical Engineering

8. Department of Resources Engineering

9. Department of Material Science and Engineering

10. Department of Civil Engineering

11. Department of Engineering Science

12. Department of System and Naval Mechatronic

13. Department of Environmental Engineering

3. Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science

14. Department of Electrical Engineering

15. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering

4. Faculty of Liberal Arts

16. Department of History

17. Department of Taiwanese Literature

18. Department of Chinese Literature

5. Faculty of Social Science

19. Department of Psychology

20. Department of Political Science

21. Department of Law

6. Faculty of Management

22. Department of Business Administration

23. Department of Accountancy

24. Department of Statistics

25. Department of Transportation and Communication Management Science

7. Faculty of Planning and Design

26. Department of Architecture

8. Faculty of Bioscience and Biochemistry

27. Department of Biology

28. Department of Life Sciences

9. Faculty of Medicine

29. Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology

30. Department of Nursing

31. Department of Occupational Therapy

U3

1. Faculty of Education

1. Department of Education

2. Department of Special Education

3. Department of Early Childhood Education

2. Faculty of Science

4. Department of Applied Physics

5. Department of Applied Mathematics

6. Department of Computer Science

7. Thin Film Science

8. Bachelor Program in Robotics

3. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

9. Department of Cultural and Creative Industries

10. Department of Social Development

Appendix 2: Student Questionnaire into Students’ Secondary Education Experience

Appendix 3: Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Can you describe how junior and senior high school English language education was about?

  2. 2.

    Through secondary English language education, what aspects of language were most and least taught and how?

  3. 3.

    How did you relate high school English language learning experience to international communication?

  4. 4.

    According to your English language learning experience, what aspects of English do you think you should prioritize or require more support in order to communicate?

Appendix 4: Transcription Convention Systems for Content Analysis of Interviews

  1. 1.

    Student participants are presented as follows: S1, S2, S3—the first student, the second student, and the third student to represent the order in which students speak in class. The letters G, V, S, I, L, and E are added to students’ pseudonyms, such as GS1, VS2, SS1, and IS3, to distinguish students from one learning group from those from another.

  2. 2.

    Content of interviews

Conventions

Used to indicate

(.)

short pause, less than 3 seconds

{text}

the commentary of any kind (e.g., to indicate in conversation about whom the interviewee referred to when interviewee used pronouns)

[overlapped words]

the words overlapped

…

the omission of student’s talk

“text”

text for emphasis

bold

the content of interviews to analyze and discuss in this chapter

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Yu, M.H. (2019). Literacy Skills Education from the Perspective of English as a Lingua Franca: A Case Study on Taiwanese Students’ Secondary English Language Education Experience. In: Reynolds, B.L., Teng, M.F. (eds) English Literacy Instruction for Chinese Speakers. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6653-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6653-6_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6652-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6653-6

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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