Reading Deficiency and Writing Proficiency As Reflected in College Entrance Examinations

1. ETA Nov. 12, 2010 Reading Deficiency and Writing Proficiency As Reflected in College Entrance Examinations 李振清 世新大學英語系客座教授 (前教育部國際文教處處長、APEC EDNET 國際協調人) ccli@cc.shu.edu.tw http://cc.shu.edu.tw/~cte/gallery/ccli/

2. Fundamental reasons why most Taiwanese students fail to perform well in the English writing component of their annual college entrance examinations: • Reading deficiency • Teachers’ pedagogy of EFL reading/writing instruction • Failure to develop voluntary reading and writing skills One of the efficient ways to enhance high school and college students’ EFL writing proficiency is to develop reading literacy through extensive and intensive reading.

3. 張武昌 教授/院長 English Is Everywhere! 學習英語文切勿「見樹不見林」 張武昌 國立台灣師大教發中心講座傳授英文學習訣竅 2008-12-02 （聯合報） 「西元2030年，英語不僅是國家的競爭力指標，更是所有人應具備的基本能力！」師大前文學院院長、英語系教授張武昌引用英國著名語言學家David Graddol的預言，強調提升英語能力的迫切性，並提醒學習英文時候，聽說讀寫不可偏廢。 在閱讀方面，張教授指出，現在國中小英文教育常有「見樹不見林」的弊病，老師過於注重文法與單字，反而忽略文章意義的傳授。他建議，閱讀文章時應善用五個W原則(What, Why, Who, When, How)，準確掌握大要，進一步領略文章之美。張教授並鼓勵同學能勤寫英文日記，培養寫作能力。 David Graddol 2008 即便是兒童，也應該在老師的有效指導下，施予英語「聽、說、讀、寫」核心能力的漸進歷練與有效學習。高中生可更有效施予此種整合能力的培養；大學生則可據此邁向21世紀，藉以因應國際化的多元挑戰。 Patricia Duff 2008

4. Merrill Sheil • (Newsweek, December, 1975) • The colleges and universities complain that many of the most intelligent freshmen, in some ways more articulate and sophisticated than ever before, are seriously deficient when it comes to writing, and organizing their thoughts on paper. By the time they reach college, the professors complain, it is almost too late to help them. Most of the experts, in fact, applauded the modern notion that grammar and syntax are most successfully taught through a child’s own writing, not by handling him a set of abstract rules and expecting him to conform once he has learned them by rote.” Why Johnny Can’t Write?

5. 1969 1993 2000 • Language Use: The process concerned with the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing (L. G. Kelly, 1969). • Motivation and Empowerment: From extrinsic to intrinsic – Task/Product-based teaching (State of the Art TESOL, 1993). • Learning a language requires commitment; a total physical, intellectual, and emotional response are necessary to successfully send and receive messages in a second language (H. D. Brown 2000). Extensive and intensive reading are indeed instrumental to the development of productive skills (R. Day & J. Bamford, 1998; .C.C. Li 2010a). • Teaching writing is a challenge: content/product-based approaches (M. Celce-Murcia 2001; C.C. Li 2010b). • Products or outcome of learning is the starting point in course design (Jack C. Richards, 2005). • EFL instructors’ thorough mastery of the target language and extrinsic motivation are essential for ensuring learning outcomes or product (CELC-NUS, 2008) 2008 2005 2001

6. “In Palmer’s (Kelly 1969: 131) conception of extensive reading, texts were clearly being read for the purpose of language study, but because attention was on the content and not on the language, it could only be that the texts were also being read for ordinary real-world purposes of pleasure and information.” Similar ideas have been proposed by Stephen Krashen and others (2000 – 2010), capped with the notion of “voluntary reading” (悅讀). “Intensive Reading: Getting Your Students To See the Forest as Well as the Trees.” (Zhenyu Zhang, ERIC: Jan - Mar 1997) ~ 見樹又見林

7. High-school Students’ Performance in College Entrance Exams Average Scores 47.69% (2010) 44.42% (2009) 42.62% (2008) 31.12% (2007) 33.95% (2006) 31.23 (2004) 36.94 (2003) 2002–2010 Score of English writing in college entrance examinations

8. 高中學生大學指考英文寫作凸顯的基本教/學問題高中學生大學指考英文寫作凸顯的基本教/學問題 Percentage of accurate use of verb tenses in college entrance examinations, 2006 Simple past Past Passive Why? Simple present 製圖：游慧雯 Present Passive 從高中生英文寫作能力，可看出學習問題與教學的策略。

9. 考生在翻譯題與英文作文的表現，由於零分人數比例偏高，大部分的報導都指出考生寫作能力低落，應該要檢討並提出因應對策 。（林秀慧 2010） 内容贫乏、资讯不足、文法错误、拼字错乱 Reading good books is my favorite hobby. Whenever I read books, all my sorrow is gone. Though I like to read good books very much, I have little time to do it. Being a high school student, I must spare most of my time on preparing examinations. Therefore, although I take delight in reading good books, I can’t read books to my content. As soon as I go to college, I will buy many good books and read them. Besides, I will make use of my library to increase my knowledge, Also, I will take a good book with my at any time and at any place. To sum up, when I become a freshman, I will read many good books. (19, 17) 1989 It goes without saying that a taxi ride should not ask what his country can do for him. He should what he should do for his country.

10. Key constructs in 1980s “classroom-oriented” interactionresearch (esp. in CLT) Computational metaphor • Input:comprehensible & comprehended, ample, salient, frequent • “Input Hypothesis” • Interaction(NS-NNS or NNS-NNS), modifications, negotiation of meaning  SLA • “Interaction Hypothesis” • Intake: integration, restructuring (Li 1994, 2008) • Output: practice, automaticity, noticing of differences/gaps between speech forms • “Output Hypothesis” • Tasks: conducive to SLA, so studycomponents, variables maximize SLA: (Li 1994, 2008) • accuracy, fluency, complexity Mike Long Susan Gass Merrill Swain Stephen Krashen Peter Skehan Rod Ellis

11. On EFL Communication Skills Interaction 2009-2010 “The four skills approach to communicative language teaching has been with us for a long time. It is not perfect, but in many ways it is seen as the best and most effective way of teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.” (John McRae 2009). • “The Benefits and Challenges of Holistic Language Learning” (Roger Nunn 2010): • Involving students’ whole selves in the learning process • Project/Product/Task-based learning • Motivation

12. Follow Andrew Carnegie's Legacy: • rags-to-riches • The Scottish immigrant fashions himself into a captain of US industry, the king of steel, the richest man in the 19th century America. He devoted his life to helping people through education. • Carnegie-Mellon University Diverse knowledge background matters.

13. 第 46 至 49 題為題組 (96年指考） Andrew Carnegie, once the world’s richest person, was born in 1835 to a weaver’s family in Scotland. As a child, he was expected to follow his father’s profession. But the industrial revolution destroyed the weavers’ craft, and the family had to leave for new possibilities in America. In 1848 the Carnegies arrived in Pittsburgh, then the iron-manufacturing center of the country. Young Carnegie took odd jobs at a cotton factory and later worked as a messenger boy in the telegraph office. He was often asked to deliver messages to the city theater, where he would stay to watch plays by great playwrights. He also spent most of his leisure hours in a small library that a local benefactor made available to working boys. After the Civil War, Carnegie saw great potential in the iron industry. He devoted himself to the replacement of wooden bridges with stronger iron ones and earned a fortune. He further introduced a new steel refining process to convert iron into steel. By 1900, Carnegie Steel produced more of the metal than all of Great Britain. However, Carnegie often expressed his uneasiness with the businessman’s life. Wishing to spend more time receiving instruction and reading systematically, he once wrote, “To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery.” The strong desire for intellectual pursuit led him to sell his company and retire at 64. Fond of saying that “the man who dies rich dies disgraced,” Carnegie then turned his attention to giving away his fortune. He abhorred charity; instead, he used his money to help others help themselves. He established over 2,500 public libraries, and sponsored numerous cultural, educational and scientific institutions. By the time he died in 1919, he had given away 350 million dollars. (He also founded the famous Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.)

14. The Volcano in Iceland erupted, drifting ash at 18,000 to 33,000 feet above the earth. Volcanic Ash Grounds Flights across Much of Europe (Reuters 4/17/20) Volcanic Ash to Curtail Air Traffic(New York Times 4/15/2010) A dark and spectacular volcanic cloud shrouded much of northern Europe on Thursday, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights. Europe Cuts 77% of Flights due to the volcano which erupted in Iceland on Wednesday, April 14. Relief may hopefully come by April 22. Millions of passengers were stranded at airports in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, London, and other cities in Europe.

15. To me,one of the greatest books ever written is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Why? Because of its simple premise: Doing the right thing makes you feel better. It’s not a religious thing. It’s just that doing good things will improve your life. Let’s face it, you cannot eat the whole pie or you’ll make yourself sick. Eat some, and then give whatever is left over to other people. (Jay Leno) The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) Decent vocabulary, useful and practical syntactic structures, and styles, etc., can be learned to use productively in an EFL/EIL context.

16. The value and extensive reading and multiple rewritings

17. Product-based approaches boost students’ motivation for learning. Tuesday, May 26, 2009, Page 8 Lessons from the DPP sit-in I read with great concern, and watched the TV with interest, regarding the recent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sit-in (“DPP wraps up sit-in demonstration,” May 19, page 1). I have learned a very important lesson about how to keep social and political rationality. The DPP’s “sit-in” was a major protest activity against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance during his first year in office. In a democratic society, everyone has the right to demand that the government provide a good environment of complete freedom, a stable economy and overall prosperity. However, we should not insult or bitterly criticize a person or a government without employing rationality and reasonable consideration. During the sit-in, some people were shouting in coarse language to express their feelings. I think they should calm down, because it is useless to argue for their needs in such a manner when protesting on the street. On the other hand, the sit-in influenced many students writing examinations that day. The noise disturbed students’ concentration and the traffic problem brought many inconveniences to them, their parents and others. In conclusion, I have learned and endorsed the rationality of the DPP organizers. Democracy in Taiwan still has a long way to go. Both the ruling and opposing parties have yet to learn to behave rationally for the sake of Taiwan.ANN LAITaipei

18. Extensive reading, on-line discussion and further challenges

19. Gender Equality Imperative For centuries, men have been thought of as the main labor force in the open market as well as in the countryside. As time passed, many women have been gradually taking up jobs to earn money to share the household expenses of the family. Although women devote themselves to their jobs, they still face unfair treatment in the workplace. Reading the Taipei Times’ report on women in the workplace (“Women still face discrimination,” March 9, page 2), I have found that the number of career women is rising rapidly, although gender discrimination has still not been eliminated. Gender discrimination is particularly evident when it comes to promotion and pay. Thanks to our government’s policy on gender equality in employment, women are entitled to more protection in the workplace. In another Taipei Times article it was reported that India’s government decided to reserve a third of all seats in parliament’s upper house for women (“Women’s bill triggers uproar in India,” March 9, page 4). It is evident that many conservative countries have started to take women’s rights and gender equality into account. However, there are still many policies that limit women’s rights, limiting their achievement in their jobs. Many female professionals and laborers are confronted with prejudice in different workplaces. Occasionally, some are even sexually harassed. It is thus imperative that all governments take action and enact laws that eliminate these types of discrimination, thereby better protecting female workers on the grounds of justice and humanism.Steven ChangTaipei Saturday, Apr. 3, 2010

20. Prompting students to extend “Academic Writing” based on general writing skills, covering resourceful academic, literary, social and cultural contents. It justifies the function of holistic learning.

21. Third revision after on-line discussion.

22. The perils of prostitutionSaturday, Apr 17, 2010, Page 8 Kudos to the Taipei Times for your article on prostitution (“Sex workers coerced into trade,” April 12, page 2), reversing the popular myth that many young girls voluntarily enter the sex industry merely for money. A study by The Garden of Hope Foundation found that 60 percent of young sex workers are victims of coercion or deceit. The others, who are needy, have no choice but to become prostitutes. Most of them are controlled by large brothel groups. They did not volunteer to be sex workers. As the Taipei City Department of Social Welfare’s Chen Shu-chuan (陳淑娟) said, “Many of the girls are desperate for money, for care, or for love.” During the Victorian era in the UK, some young girls from the working class were sacrificed for the sake of their families to work as prostitutes. For example, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles depicted how a mother intended to sell her daughter to cover living expenses. In the 19th century, girls were used in this way to get money for their needy families. However, in the 21st century, some underage girls are still forced to be sex workers for the sake of financial survival. A NOWnews article on Monday told the story of Fenfen (芬芬), whose father forced her into the sex trade when she was eight. The sad case of this girl is a typical one, characterizing the malfunctioning of our social system. The Garden of Hope study found that some of the young girls are deceived by their parents and friends. Most of these young girls in the sex trade are not in it for easy money. They are in fact victims. As a mother of a six-year-old girl, I read this report with grave concern. This issue relates to social problems and education. What can we do to safeguard these young kids? Love and care are the most treasured elements in the family and in school education. First, teachers should not only take care of students’ studies, but also take their family conditions into account. Second, establishing positive values is parents’ most important responsibility to their children. Third, reinforcing family ethics is indispensable in our modern society. Finally, with love and care, our children may steer clear of being deceived by prostitution syndicates. All women and girls should be treated fairly in terms of the humanistic concept of “gender equality,” a theme which has been globally proclaimed. It is everybody’s responsibility to rebuild a society of compassion and harmony.Irene WangTaipei

23. Convert the textbook contents into contextualized practice through teacher-students interaction in a diverse way.

24. ENGLISH 考科的命題新趨勢: 內容：廣泛、多元、新知、啟發。 文法：實用、搭配閱讀；後設認知。 作文：延續閱讀能力、啟發潛能。 翻譯：配合寫作與閱讀、背景知識。 啟示：Contents/Task-based; 師生互動。 83學年度學科能力測驗各科試題及選擇題答案

25. 2008 TOEFL iBT in Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing: Taiwan, China, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore Why do most college students fail to write or speak English? 73 78 78 79 100 Full Score: 120 World average: 79

26. For your reference: [129] 2009/06/16 世新菁英的哈佛大學國際啟示 [128] 2009/02/18 蓋茲堡演說的經典內涵與修辭藝術 [127] 2009/02/04 閱讀是提升高中生英文能力的致勝關鍵 [126] 2009/01/14 語言學家葛瑞鐸看21世紀的英語新發展 [125] 2008/12/04 提升大學生英文素養的多元互動策略 [124] 2008/12/04 Bachman 教授理論延伸的大學指考英文命題藝術 [123] 2008/11/19 從大學指考探討高中生英文寫作能力的問題 [115] 2008/08/20 大學指考英文成績回穩的多元啟示 [114] 2008/08/06 大學指考翻譯與作文彰顯的英語文能力培養之道 [99] 2008/02/13 2008 年學測所凸顯的英語文學習訣竅 (下) [98] 2008/02/06 2008 年學測所凸顯的英語文學習訣竅 (上) [97] 2008/01/30 高中生邁向國際化教育的英語文準備策略 [96] 2008/01/16 以泛讀與知識背景提昇英語實用能力的策略 [94] 2007/12/19 Group Dynamics 激發的英語文說寫功能 [93] 2007/12/12 提昇英文閱讀素養是人才培育的基礎 [92] 2007/12/05 APEC 計畫下的大學生英語文能力挑戰 [91] 2007/11/21 藉廣泛閱讀以提昇英語文能力的教學策略 [90] 2007/11/14 提昇高中生英語文統整能力的教學策略（下） [89] 2007/11/07 提昇高中生英語文統整能力的教學策略（上） [77] 2007/07/11 以閱讀為核心的 2007 年大學英文指考 [58] 2007/01/10 善用 e-mail 的互動功能以歷練英語文溝通能力 [57] 2007/01/03 英文和華語文教學的本土發展與國際接軌 [40] 2006/08/23 激發高職生英語潛能的基本途徑 [21] 2006/04/19 提昇資優生的英語能力以拓展視野與品格 [20] 2006/04/12 高中生的英文潛能開發 [13] 2006/02/22 增進英語文多元能力的單字記憶法（下） [12] 2006/02/15 增進英語文多元能力的單字記憶法（上） Nov. 25, 2005

27. English, English Everywhere: 1982 - 2010 全方位提升當前大學生英語文能力的必要性與迫切性 從(高等)教育、政治、外交、文化、科技研究與發展到金融，英語幾乎已經成為人類各種行業的共同語言。(2005) 2010世界將有1/2的人口以英語溝通