輔仁大學英國語文學系

Queerness in a Gothic Neo-Western: The Power of the Dog

學年 / 112　學生 / Kuan, Yu-Chi　指導教授 / Su, Wen-Ling　

The Oscar-winning movie The Power of the Dog, adapted from Thomas Savage's novel and directed by Jane Campion, is filled with themes and motifs of the classic Hollywood Western, which is noted for being the quintessential American genre and a predominantly masculine one. Nevertheless, besides featuring queer identity like the novel, the film incorporates Gothic and Female Gothic elements to foreground patriarchal oppression. The thesis, therefore, argues for a broader sense of “queerness” in the film adaptation, which foregrounds blurred boundaries of gender, sexuality, and genre.
This thesis examines the intertextual relationships between the novel and the movie, demonstrating how Campion addresses racial, gender, and social injustice in American culture in the adaptation. Genre Study is adopted as the primary critical approach to explore how the director reveals and undermines misleading binary gender stereotypes in society. The original novel by Savage already challenges the gender ideology embedded in American pioneer literature by featuring Phil as a gay cowboy. Campion's film adaptation, though seemingly reinforcing the patriarchal power structure by turning Rose into a Gothic victim, further subverts the system with her effete teenage son Peter successfully avenging her, emerging as the unlikely hero of the Western story. Visually, Campion emphasizes the ambiguity of Peter's gender identity, which leads to homosocial bonding and even homoeroticism with Phil, which Peter uses to his advantage. The focus on Gothic elements also transforms the space of the Western: when the strife and violence outward are relocated to the interior domestic setting, the wilderness becomes a sanctuary for closeted desires. Aside from generic conventions, this thesis analyzes how the “queering” effect is accomplished through cinematography and sound effects in Campion's neo-Western film.

Empathy in Teaching Cross-Cultural Understanding through Films: A Case Study of I Not Stupid

學年 / 112　學生 / Lin, Chia-Yu　指導教授 / Liu, Chi-Wen; Tseng, Ming-I　

I Not Stupid gathered widespread attention in Singapore when it was released in 2002, becoming the first Singaporean film to win both box office success and critical acclaim. According to several critics, the film resonated with the Singaporean audience on both personal and national levels, depicting the pressures faced by three child protagonists from school work and family expectations, as well as the government’s paternalism. However, a question remains as to whether viewers unfamiliar with the film’s references to the streaming system at school and the status of People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore can still empathize with the characters, especially those who may have experienced similar social competitiveness. This thesis aims to investigate this question by observing if teenage audiences in Taiwan can empathize with the three protagonists in the movie. The study focuses on affective and cognitive empathy and adopts a mixed-method approach involving film analysis and a case study of two courses called World Cinema: Windows to Seven National Culture taught in senior high schools. The results indicate that students can feel affective empathy with the characters, particularly those with similar experiences and personalities, and demonstrate cognitive empathy after understanding the plot and acquiring more knowledge of Singaporean culture. Additionally, the study found that empathy for fictional characters may help bridge cross-cultural understanding. For example, the answers to open-ended questions also suggest that students’ learning about cultural differences improved after understanding of Singaporean culture in the course.

The Effects of Integration of a Social-Emotional Learning Program: An Action Research on a Cram School English Class for Young Learners in Taiwan

學年 / 112　學生 / Chen, Yi-Fang　指導教授 / Chou, Te-Lien　

This study examined the impact of integrating a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program, 'Strong Kids', into an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course for Young Learners (EYLs) aged 7-12 in a cram school. Over two action research (AR) cycles, following Richards and Lockhart’s procedure, 12 EYLs participated in this SEL-infused English course, taught alternately by Chinese and foreign instructors. The study employed pretests, posttests, student interviews, program fidelity checks, and teacher diary for comprehensive data analysis.
Quantitative results from the first cycle indicated a substantial improvement in SEL knowledge, with posttest scores significantly higher than pretest scores. Qualitatively, students reported enhanced anger management, clear thinking skills, interpersonal relationships, and cross-cultural communication abilities. The first cycle also revealed that the students perceive learning SEL in English as an opportunity to enhance their vocabulary, understand and manage emotions, improve English language proficiency, and effectively communicate with others. The participants recognized the significant challenges involved in integrating SEL learning into an English context such as students struggling with vocabulary and comprehension, and difficulties in grasping concepts such as emotional control, and understanding the dangers of anger. Despite these hurdles, students expressed enthusiasm, finding the process very special and rewarding,. However, while acknowledging the above difficulty, they also highlighted its potential rewards and future applications.
The second action research cycle reaffirmed earlier findings, demonstrating advancements in both English language proficiency and SEL application. However, attributing these improvements solely to SEL interventions proved challenging due to external factors like the specific cram school teaching approaches. In addition to that, the post-gap SEL Knowledge Test scores showed significant retention of knowledge learned in AR1 in areas such as anger management and avoiding thinking traps, with minimal errors recorded. Apart from this, the teaching diary analysis revealed instances of students demonstrating SEL skills, particularly in anger awareness, anger management, and clear thinking. This retention and application of SEL skills contributed to positive classroom behavior and effective learning. Students exhibited positive attitudes and responsibility, diligently completing worksheets and engaging actively despite initial difficulties. These observations suggest a lasting impact of SEL interventions, contributing to the emotional and cognitive well-being of students and aligning with findings from Durlak et al. (2022) regarding the positive outcomes of SEL interventions on learning and behavior.
Based on the findings from the two AR cycles, future research should explore ways to seamlessly integrate SEL learning with the EFL curriculum and expand the use of bilingual teaching strategies to enhance comprehension and reduce student anxiety. Establishing regular feedback mechanisms and adapting SEL materials to be culturally relevant will further support student learning. A more controlled experimental design is recommended to isolate the effects of SEL on language outcomes, minimizing external influences. Additionally, investigating other SEL skills beyond those covered in AR1 and AR2, and involving parents in the learning process, will provide a more comprehensive view of the long-term retention and application of SEL skills, offering a holistic learning experience.

An Investigation of EFL Learners' Acceptance and Effectiveness of Online English Tutoring Courses

學年 / 112　學生 / Tsai, Hsuan Ying　指導教授 / Hsiang-Ching Tseng　

The Covid-19 pandemic has created huge opportunities for English learners to access education online, which leads to the emergence of various online learning platforms. However, learners’ engagement and learning effectiveness on these platforms tend to be low. Unveiling the factors in the online learning environment driving learner engagement, satisfaction, and learning effectiveness is crucial. This research seeks to develop a comprehensive model for online English learning by integrating self-regulation theory, the information systems success model, and existing literature on online teaching platforms. To achieve this, the present study conducts an online survey related to platforms such as Amazing Talker, Tutor ABC, Cambly, Gjun, Engoo, and EF English, using structural equation modeling to assess the reliability and validity and examine construct relationships. Going beyond learners' self-regulation, the present study examines teacher and platform-related factors. Teachers' instructional support, learners' self-regulation, and the platform system are among the identified factors influencing learner satisfaction and online class engagement and overall learning effectiveness. This research provides strategies for enhancing the quality of online English learning, benefiting English learners in the evolving online education landscape shaped by the pandemic.

Music in Dante's Paradiso: Armonia, Trasumanar and the Silence of Saturn

學年 / 112　學生 / Autumn Yun-Ting Tsai　指導教授 / Brian Reynolds, Jeremy C. Thompson　

This thesis focuses on Paradiso, the third part of the Italian narrative poem the Commedia written by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri from c. 1308 to 1321. Divided into three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, the poem portrays a vision of the afterlife in which Dante is guided first by Virgil and then by Beatrice from hell into heaven. Dante enriches the poetry of this work with luxurious descriptions of music as he ascends, especially throughout Purgatorio and Paradiso. In particular, the celestial music of the Paradiso is presented with more abstract descriptions. After Dante observes an armonia (Par.1:78) in the opening canto, music resounds in all the heavens through which he ascends. Yet only in the heaven of Saturn does silence reign, perhaps evocative of the silence to which monks and ascetics are called. Here, Dante's question to Peter Damian, "e dì perché si tace in questa rota / la dolce sinfonia di paradiso, / che giù per l'altre suona sì divota" (Par.21:58-60), links the silence to specific questions concerning the theoretical role of music in the cosmological structure of the Commedia. This thesis argues that silence in the heaven of Saturn may be understood through Dante's notion of trasumanar (Par.1:70) as he ascends towards the empyrean. The analysis focuses on the role of celestial music and its relationship with the silence in the heaven of Saturn by examining Dante's transhumanization process. It presents the philosophical and theological significance of celestial music and silence in terms of the apophatic and cataphatic, through the idea of unity within diversity in the corpus mysticum, and as world harmony. Through this process of transhumanization, Dante acquires new vision and hearing as he ascends the ladder from the heaven of Saturn. Beatrice's smile is revealed again, and Dante is capable of seeing Christ in his glorified humanity, followed by Mary, who is celebrated as the queen of heaven with a circling crown of melody.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Thai and American Lipstick Advertisement

學年 / 111　學生 / Lee, Chia-Jung　指導教授 / Cheng, Ching-Yi　

Advertising agencies face a significant challenge in producing lipstick advertisements that could send an accurate message and communicate with people from distinct cultural backgrounds. Research has shown that American lipstick advertisements applied a standardized approach, but there is a difference in using linguistic strategies and aesthetics in divergent versions of American lipstick advertisements. In Thailand, for instance, local lipstick ads like Mistine's ads include both English and Thai languages while using both high and low context strategies in the ads. This study aims to examine the similarities and differences in aesthetic values, linguistic strategies of American lipstick ads and local lipstick ads published in fashion magazines and online platforms in Thailand, and the perception of Thai lipstick consumers. Content analysis and interviews were adopted to analyze the collected ads and investigate how culture affects the perspective of advertising by interviewing two groups of participants, one having lived in the USA and the other never having done so.
The result showed culture plays an important role in aesthetics, linguistics, and advertising. Therefore, the study concludes aesthetics, culture, and linguistic strategies are closely associated and they are the elements in cross-cultural advertising. Future research is needed to identify and analyze more advertisements and contextual factors that could strengthen the research on cross-cultural advertising.
Keywords: cross-cultural studies, advertising, aesthetic values, linguistic strategy, cosmetic

Adapting Shakespeare's Sonnets in Contemporary Popular Songs

學年 / 111　學生 / Liao, En-Ya　指導教授 / Paul Bellew　

This paper explores three sonnets by Shakespeare and their popular song adaptations. Through the examples of songs by Paul Kelly, Ane Brun, and David Gilmour, we explore how music can enhance poetic texts and how classical poetry can be transformed for different media. Additionally, the adapters not only showcase their interpretations through the songs, but also demonstrate their understanding of the existing criticism on the sonnets.
I argue that in these contemporary song adaptations, the iambic pentameter pattern of the sonnets is well-retained while the musical setting also highlights their metaphor and imagery. Moreover, the utilization of strophic musical form, which involves alternating repeated melodies, reflects the structure of the English sonnet with three quatrains and one couplet. The adapters also demonstrate their cognizance of the criticism of Shakespearean sonnets and employ specific strategies in adapting them. Additionally, the instrumentation of the songs contributes to the overall tone and distinguishes between different adaptations. Thus, the music and videos do not just accompany the poetic texts but also aid in updating interpretations or highlighting themes of the sonnets.
In the first chapter, I will discuss “Sonnet 73” along with a song adaptation by Kelly that focuses on the metaphors used in the sonnet. Strophic form is employed to emphasize the metaphors. Moving on to the second chapter, I will analyze two song adaptations of “Sonnet 138.” These adaptations present distinct interpretations of the sonnet as the gender of the speaker/singer changes. The musical setting, including the song structure and instrumentation, helps to pinpoint the theme and ambiguity of the poetic text. Finally, in the third chapter, I will analyze “Sonnet 18” with two adaptations that do not attach specific narratives or stories but highlight the imagery and function of the literary work.

Developing Taiwanese EFL Student Teachers' Intercultural Communicative Competence Through an Intercultural Training Program

學年 / 111　學生 / Nguyen Thi Ha Uyen　指導教授 / Tseng, Ming-I　

Within the context of fast-paced globalization, the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has received much attention in English language teaching (ELT). The integration of ELF-mediated intercultural communication into ELT curriculum, however, remains under-investigated, especially intercultural communication training for English language teachers. To bridge this gap, this study investigated a group of Taiwanese EFL student teachers’ development of intercultural communicative competence after participating in a project-based training program on intercultural communication and instruction. 13 Taiwanese EFL student teachers were recruited as research participants as they enrolled in a one-semester course on intercultural and flipped teaching These participants participated in two projects: Project 1 World Cinema Sessions (WCS) for teaching culture through chosen foreign films and Project 2 Intercultural Tele-collaboration (IT) between Taiwanese and French university students. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, multiple data sources were collected, including pre and post-survey questionnaires, the records of the participants’ intercultural communication and intercultural teaching, their reflections and follow-up interviews. These data sources were triangulated for quantitative and qualitative analyses. Qualitative data sources were analyzed through content analysis by drawing upon two main frameworks: intercultural communicative competence and intercultural awareness. Quantitative data gathered from pre- and post-survey questionnaires were analyzed by paired sample t-test and descriptive statistics in terms of mean score and standard deviation.
Data analyses yielded two findings. First, overall, the participants’ intercultural communicative competence was enhanced in terms of five dimensions: intercultural knowledge, interpreting and relating skills, discovery and interaction skills, attitudes, and critical cultural awareness. They became more capable of conducting culture-integrated EFL instruction. Second, the majority of participants had a favorable perception of the project-based intercultural training program, considering that two projects in the training program provided them with opportunities to interact in authentic communication via ELF. They also desired to participate in ELF-mediated intercultural communication in the future. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications are drawn for future EFL teacher education with the emphasis on intercultural communication and instruction.

Taiwanese Students' Use and Perceptions of Oral Communication Strategies

學年 / 111　學生 / Yu, Fang-Yu　指導教授 / Wei, Yi-Chun　

Oral communication plays a vital role in contemporary society, where effective interpersonal interactions rely on proficient expression. Language learning aims to facilitate communication using the target language, but EFL learners often encounter challenges when their language proficiency does not meet their communication needs. This study focuses on investigating the oral communication strategies (OCS) employed by Taiwanese university students and exploring their underlying perceptions of using OCS to enhance oral tasks. Data was collected through a questionnaire, OCSI, cloud chat room observations, and follow-up semi-structure interviews. The quantitative analysis examined 32 participants' questionnaire responses using SPSS, while qualitative data from nine interviews supplemented the findings.
The study identified significant relationships between different OCS, highlighting their interrelated nature. Background factors, “average hours of using English every day” and “willingness to actively communicate in English” and learner’s language proficiency influenced their selection of OCS. Interview data revealed more prevalent OCS: social-affective strategies and message reduction and alternation strategies are the most mentioned ones, matching with the fact that message reduction and alternation strategies were the most self-reported OCS in questionnaire data.
The findings highlight the intricate relationship between language proficiency and strategic communication skills. High achievers prioritize accuracy-oriented strategies, while low-proficiency learners rely more on message abandonment strategies. In terms of personal factors, motivation and attitude play crucial roles in the utilization of OCS. Positive attitudes, influenced by learners' past experiences, lead to active strategy adoption, enhancing confidence and willingness to engage in effective oral communication. Understanding these relationships is crucial for effective teaching and learning in online contexts. Teachers should recognize and foster learners' development of OCS.
Future research could expand the sample size and observation duration, and explore the relationship between OCS and other background factors, such as attitude, motivation, and willingness to communicate. Triangulating data sources through interviews and observations can enhance understanding and contribute to more comprehensive research on OCS's impact on language learning outcomes.

A Case Study of Taiwanese University Students' Learning to Write Artist's Statements in a Multimodal ESP Project

學年 / 110　學生 / Tseng, Yi-Hsin　指導教授 / Tseng, Ming-I　

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs have been implemented and investigated in different disciplinary areas. Nevertheless, prior scholarship has not investigated the integration of multimodality into ESP teaching and learning. To fill this gap in this research, the artist’s statement was chosen to be scrutinized in teaching and learning of ESP, specifically English for Art Purposes. This study aimed to explore how a group of Taiwanese university students learnt to compose artists’ statements in a multimodal ESP project conducted in a private university in Northern Taiwan. In this case study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including two main types: “text” data of the participants’ multimodal ESP artist’s statements and “ethnographic details” of the participants’ learning from a multimodal ESP project. Namely, multiple data sources collected from pre- and post- surveys, needs analysis, interviews, the participants’ multimodal artifacts of artist’s statements and their reflection journals—were analyzed and triangulated for analyses. Data analyses revealed that the EFL students’ composed artist’s statements shared similar verbal features as established writers’ artist’s statements but yielded new insights into visual features of artists’ statements. The students indicated that a multimodal ESP project enabled them to acquire the knowledge and skills of composing artist’s statements, which in turn facilitated their English language and literacy learning. Based on research findings, pedagogical implications were provided for multimodal ESP pedagogy, especially for the instruction on multimodal artist’s statements to L2 students.

Women's Liminal Spaces in A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance

學年 / 110　學生 / Hsieh, Li-Chin　指導教授 / Su, Wen-Ling　

In A. S. Byatt's 1990 Booker prize-winning novel Possession: A Romance, Byatt cleverly juxtaposes ancient myths and fairy tales, Victorian anecdotes, and contemporary scholars' investigations to reveal the development of women's space in history. Possession constructs a series of spatial images to depict the anxieties and frustrations of women in the Victorian and modern eras. Of prime importance among these images are those of women's bodies in enclosed spaces and liminal spaces: the former appearing to be inhibiting, while the latter perplexing and liberating.
Based on feminist geography, as well as Arnold Van Gennep's concept of a liminal, "in-between" state, this thesis studies liminality in women's spatial practices. In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis consists of two chapters, both focusing on women's transgression and transformation in rewritten myths, Victorian, and modern eras. Chapter One discusses the different ways in which female characters in Possession embody liminality in enclosed spaces despite social restrictions, while Chapter Two examines open, interstice spaces where liminality reigns. In Possession, the female characters all strive to break free from the invisible cage of their bodies somehow, and most significantly, via liminality. Oftentimes they seek to (re)define their identity through fulfilling their body as a site of self-development, and the transformation occurs via a liminal social experience, where the female characters develop autonomy by resisting being confined or trapped. I argue that, through creativity, mobility, and autonomy, the female characters in Possession confront spatial restrictions to achieve greater development. These women's liminality enables border crossing, hence serving more as a bridge than a barrier. During the process, women's embodied spatial practices may open up more mobilities and possibilities.

Discipline and Individuality in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed

學年 / 109　學生 / Jane Yu-Fang Chou　指導教授 / Liu, Kate Chiwen　

This thesis examines how different kinds of disciplinary tactics along with game of domination and game of truth make individuals cowed into certain subjugations, and how individuals maintain their individuality through their capabilities relative to self-care practices in Margaret Atwood’s two novels, The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed. Based on Michel Foucault’s views about power dynamics and disciplinary control, and his understanding of selfcare practices, this thesis argues that individualities in the prison-like structures presented in the two novels are possible, since the characters resort to self-care practices and critical thinking as part of limited individual capabilities to evade or resist control, mentally or in artistic creations such as story-telling and theatrical performances.
In the introduction chapter, this thesis situates both The Handmaid’s Tale and HagSeed in the corpus of Atwood pertaining to gender roles, power and control in these three decades. In terms of gender roles, while The Handmaid’s Tale centers on the feminist issues, Hag-Seed largely accentuates male characters. The prison-like structures are frequently addressed in Atwood’s novels; however, in these two novels the incarceration forms are contextualized differently—respectively in a dystopian future and in contemporary democratic Canada, while the individual characters demonstrate their personal reflections in various artistic ways.
Taking Foucault’s theoretical perspective on the social subjugations and individuals’
self-care practices, the first chapter explains what kind of subjugation molds are imposed on Offred as a handmaid and how this handmaid maintains her individuality. I argue that Offred’s individuality is paradoxical, since she not only tries to adjust herself into the Gileadean grid but also has an irresistible desire for maintaining her own critical thinking, insights and selfreflectivity. The second chapter draws on the same notion from Foucault to explain how wellarranged disciplinary control funnels inmates into certain subjugation modes and how Felix’s empowering tactics in The Fletcher Shakespeare Players propel inmates forward to have critical thinking, insights and self-reflectivity. Through imbuing inmate actors with the thoughts of and desire for self-expressions even during their incarceration, Felix finally ushers in the successive personal liberation, of not only some of the inmates, but also of himself from the obsession with the loss of his daughter and his position as the Artistic Director at the Makeshewig Festival.
The Conclusion, besides reiterating the main argument, extends the discussion on the meanings of characters’ liberation, since the matroshka structures even at the level of discursive control are inescapable. Emotional crutches of Offred, which she develops through her relations with those around her as well as her family members, both motivate her to maintain individuality and restrict her to claiming inner peace, which becomes a kind of selfimposed imprisonment. On the other hand, experiencing transformative stages, inmate actors manage to present personified version of The Tempest, which is more aligned with their alter ego or developing selves; however, since their creation of the musical about Caliban at intradiegetic level is controlled by Felix at an extradigetic level, their individuality has been paradoxical. This thesis then concludes that self-created discourse in subjective space can be enjoyed even for a character detained in the center of frame-after-frame discourses.

From Painting to Stage: Intertextuality in Sunday in the Park with George

學年 / 109　學生 / Tsan, Chu-Chun　指導教授 / Liu, Hsueh-Chen　

This thesis applies Julia Kristeva’s concept of “intertextuality” to discuss the intertextual relationship between Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s first performance of the musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984) and Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886). Through adaptation and embedding, a text can build an intertextual relationship with other texts. This thesis demonstrates how Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine adapted Seurat’s life story and his pointillist painting Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte to structure the plot of Act One, focusing on the artist George’s creating process of Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte and his relationship with his mistress Dot, and embedded the fictionalized Young George in Act Two to continue the story line from Act One and solved the problems of isolation and the affection of George and Dot and the plight of the artists on creating art.
The Introduction of this thesis explains Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality, “intertextual function read as ‘materialized’ at the different structural levels of each texts, and which stretches along the entire length of its trajectory, giving it its historical and social coordinates” (“The Bounded Text” 36) and foregrounds the historical Georges Seurat, pointillism, the importance of Seurat’s pointillist painting Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical, Sunday in the Park with George (1984), to reveal the intertextual relationship between them.
The first chapter demonstrates that Sondheim’s musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984) is an adaptation of the historical pointillist artist Georges Seurat and his three paintings: Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886), Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathers at Asnières, 1884) and Jeune femme se poudrant (Young Woman Powdering Herself, 1889) and the musical reveals the intertextuality between the historical Seurat and the musical George in Act One. The second chapter draws on the ekphrasis between Seurat’s art technique pointillism and the stage. I will emphasize how Sondheim transformed the pointillist dots into the music and how Lapine adapted the painting Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte into the musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984) in Act One. The final chapter emphasizes the function of embedding and the doubling of characters. This chapter will also resolve the problem of isolation of the character George in Act One and young George in Act Two, and focus on young George’s reconnection with the family tree and George and his mistress Dot’s reconciliation.
The conclusion reexamines the postmodernist techniques utilized in Sondheim and Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George (1984) and explicates how young George regains his artistic inspiration through his encounter with Dot, the Old Lady and the figures in Seurat’s painting in Act Two. As Jordan Fredericks states, from painting to music, Sondheim and Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George (1984) generates a “new perspective to the genre ..., and brings on a new generation of musicals” (12).

The Effect of Collaborative Writing via Google Docs on Taiwanese EFL University Students with Beginning Proficiency Level

學年 / 109　學生 / Jyun-Yi Hou　指導教授 / Yu, Li-Tang　

Collaborative writing, one of the second-language (L2) instructional activities, has been widely used by researchers and instructors with the hope to promote student participation in class. However, relatively little research has been conducted to explore the relationship among the collaborative writing process, the final writing performance, and the learning perceptions of students with beginning-level proficiency. To fill the research gap, this study used Google Docs as a writing platform to investigate (1) the effect of collaborative writings on beginning-level Taiwanese EFL university students’ writing process, (2) the impact of such tasks on their writing performance, and (3) the university students’ perspectives about the writing tasks. A mixed-method was adopted in the study to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data. The procedure was as follows: firstly, a total of 56 participants were recruited from two Freshman English classes at a university. Secondly, the two English classes were recruited randomly divided into an experimental group (collaborative writing) and a control group (non-collaborative writing). Thirdly, 56 participants of both groups were recruited to take a pre-test of English writing as well as a questionnaire about their learning background, English proficiency, and their experience of using Google Docs. Next, both groups completed two English writing tasks, respectively. Then, after the writing tasks, the participants in the experimental group took engagement surveys. After the two tasks, all participants took a post-test of writing. All the writing products (e.g. pre-and post-tests) were collected gathered and then analyzed by a writing rubric. Finally, at the end of the study, the participants in both classes took a questionnaire about their writing experience. At the end of the study, 10 participants in an experimental group with various engagement levels were invited to take an interview and to share their viewpoints about collaborative writing. The interview data were analyzed qualitatively. The quantitative finding showed that the pretest scores of the experimental group and the control group were significantly different; however, there was no significant difference found in both groups’ posttest scores. Results of the writing process revealed that the beginning-level learners tended to add and delete the content more than other types of language revisions. Moreover, the qualitative interview data demonstrated that the interviewees generally had positive attitudes towards the collaborative writing tasks. To conclude the study, pedagogical implications were discussed, and the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future studies were addressed in chapter five.

The Effects of Metacognitive Writing Instruction in Taiwanese University Students

學年 / 109　學生 / Liao Yen Chen　指導教授 / Wei, Yi-Chun　

Writing is a practical tool for EFL learners, for it enhances the learning process, creates a channel to link with readers, and caters to learners’ psychological condition. (Graham et al., 2013a). Due to its complex nature, writing is recognized as the highly-cognition and metacognition demanded skill, which is a crucial skill to be implemented in EFL tertiary education. Metacognition has been widely acknowledged to be correlated to language learners’ academic performance, motivation and self-regulation. However, compared to reading, listening, and speaking, the discussion of metacognitive writing instruction received relatively little attention in Taiwan. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of Metacognitive Writing Instruction (MWI), investigate the kinds of difficulties college EFL writers encountered, and further explore how they overcame such obstacles. Twenty-four Business majors as the participants were trained to learn six metacognitive writing strategies to complete a narrative essay in the four-week MWI. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed, including pre- and post- of Metacognitive Writing Questionnaire (MWQ), lesson feedback questionnaire, reflective journal, semi-structured interview, and teacher’s observation journal as data triangulation. The result indicates that MWI is beneficial to EFL college writers’ metacognition awareness especially in terms of person and task knowledge. Strategy knowledge, however, was not enhanced due to prior learning experience. Students also demonstrated their ability to monitor learning difficulties and problem-solving skills while completing the writing tasks. The difficulties they encountered included time, language, and strategy application. In the meantime, students also sought teacher’s help, looked for other resources, and used compensation strategies to overcome the difficulties. The results imply that a process-genre approach in writing instruction, peer interaction, and emotion should be taken into consideration when designing MWI. Additionally, for future study, it is suggested to further explore meta-affection and meta-SI as they both play a role in metacognition development.

MA Theses & Academic Papers