Cross-cultural Encounter in English-speaking Classes – A Case of Taiwanese Students and Their Native English-speaking Teachers in Six Colleges of Technology

Chin-Ying Lin, Ya-Fen Lin

Abstract


Academic culture in distance occurs in the academic setting where nonnative English-speaking students and native English-speaking teachers might have different expectations/attitudes toward what good learning/teaching is. Many researchers have argued for the need of exploring the mismatching belief/ expectation about learning and teaching between ESL/EFL students and their native English-speaking teachers. This study aimed to investigate if there are mismatches between EFL Taiwanese students’ learning expectation/preference and their native English-speaking teachers’ teaching objective/approach in the English conversation class. It further explored what are the Taiwanese college students’ learning strategies and adjustment in their native English-speaking teacher’s class. Six hundred seventeen Taiwanese English major students from six target colleges of technology in central Taiwan were the participants. The researcher-developed questionnaire was filled out by the six hundred seventeen students.

The results of this research yielded positive evidence that academic culture in distance between Taiwanese students and their native English-speaking teachers existed in the classroom. In addition, certain learning strategies related to the student’s adjustments to the culture differences were identified. Based on the findings, this research provides not only a framework for understanding Taiwanese students’ culture of learning, but also useful suggestions for education in the field of TESL as well as in cross-cultural studies.

 


Keywords


academic culture, culture of learning, cross-culture, EFL, TESL, native English-speaking teacher, learning preference, learning expectation, teaching style, adjustment

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References

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