Junior College Students' Perceptions of English Vacation Homework

Abstract

課外作業的指定，是許多學科共有的現象，也一直是教學研究及討論的熱門題材。對於以英語為外語的學習者而言，課外的英語學習至為重要。長時間的連續假期如寒暑假，得以提供有學習意願的學生極佳的自學機會。然而根據筆者及其他英文學科任課教師的經驗，學生的寒暑假作業完成率頗低，也因此在開學後所施行的作業檢測考中表現不佳。假期英語文作業的實施在英語教學的研究領域中較少被觸及，筆者於是以問卷調查法在2004年秋季對此議題作初步的探究，以期提供英文教師日後指定寒暑假作業時的參考依據。調查對象針對五專學生，抽樣5個五專二年級班級，共246位學生，實施筆者設計之英文寒暑假作業問卷。問卷內容包括學生做英文寒暑假作業的經驗及其對此類作業的看法。問卷調查結果呈現於11個統計圖表中。

The requirement to do routine academic work in settings outside school is commonplace in education and has been a topic of interest to researchers of diverse fields. For EFL learners, it is especially important to extend their Eng!ish practices to out-of-school contexts. Long no-school periods such as vacations can provide good self-study opportunities if students are motivated to leam English. Nevertheless, experiences of this researcher and her colleagues indicate that junior college students have low completion rates of the assigned English vacation homework and show underachievement in homework assessment tests. Such phenomena prompted this study to investigate the rather unexplored area of English vacation homework by looking into students' perceptions of it. A questionnaire was administered to 246 second-year junior college students in Fall, 2004. The survey findings are displayed in 11 tables to compare and elaborate on students' previous homework experiences and their attitudes toward English vacation homework. As a pioneer study concemingvacation homework assigned in the EFL context, this study serves to provide EFL teachers a basic understanding about what factors may affect students' effort and beliefs towards English vacation homework and offers suggestions for what can be done to assist students in their vacation homework practices.