American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this ...American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this paper to investigate whether Taiwan Residents EFL learners have difficulties understanding British English after years of instruction in American English, and to identify differences between learners＇ attitudes towards these two varieties of English. EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to American and British English groups and required to listen to short texts recorded with either American or British accent. An independent simple t-test showed that no significant differences were found in listening comprehension scores, but responses on questionnaires revealed significant differences in attitudes towards American and British English. The influence of long-term instruction in American English was evidenced. Based on these findings, suggestions are provided for English language teaching in Taiwan and implications are drawn for the concept of English as an International Language （ELL）, that in order to pursue successful international communication with people of various native languages, EFL learners need to experience various accents of English.展开更多
This paper is prompted by a ＂strange phenomenon＂ in L2 teaching and learning as related to listening： it is regarded as ＂easy＂ by teachers, but ＂difficult＂ by students. The paper tries to analyze the difficulti...This paper is prompted by a ＂strange phenomenon＂ in L2 teaching and learning as related to listening： it is regarded as ＂easy＂ by teachers, but ＂difficult＂ by students. The paper tries to analyze the difficulties encountered by the L2 learners in the process of acquiring listening skills and competence in an attempt to find out how these problems are related to classroom teaching, and their implications for pedagogical classroom practice.展开更多
文摘American English is predominantly prescribed as the primary English learning model at every educational level in Taiwan and limited attention is paid to other accents of English. It is therefore the intention of this paper to investigate whether Taiwan Residents EFL learners have difficulties understanding British English after years of instruction in American English, and to identify differences between learners＇ attitudes towards these two varieties of English. EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to American and British English groups and required to listen to short texts recorded with either American or British accent. An independent simple t-test showed that no significant differences were found in listening comprehension scores, but responses on questionnaires revealed significant differences in attitudes towards American and British English. The influence of long-term instruction in American English was evidenced. Based on these findings, suggestions are provided for English language teaching in Taiwan and implications are drawn for the concept of English as an International Language （ELL）, that in order to pursue successful international communication with people of various native languages, EFL learners need to experience various accents of English.
文摘This paper is prompted by a ＂strange phenomenon＂ in L2 teaching and learning as related to listening： it is regarded as ＂easy＂ by teachers, but ＂difficult＂ by students. The paper tries to analyze the difficulties encountered by the L2 learners in the process of acquiring listening skills and competence in an attempt to find out how these problems are related to classroom teaching, and their implications for pedagogical classroom practice.
