Abstract
Most Taiwanese universities and colleges offer a wide selection of English courses, compulsory or elective to cater to student needs. Compulsory courses are usually prerequisites for selective courses, except when students can prove an exceptionally high proficiency level with authenticated evidence, then the course can be waived and take selective courses immediately upon entering the college. Based on course objectives, elective courses are at a higher standard, or difficult, in terms of course goals, content, and tasks. Therefore, these courses can be compulsory basic English and selective advanced English. However, do students in these two kinds of courses really differ in terms of proficiency? If yes, to what extent do they differ? If this is truly the case, how should teachers deal with the situation of same level students but two different leveled courses? The results indicated that the participants in this study do not have significant differences in terms of vocabulary size and standardized tests. Therefore, the author offers some pedagogical advice based on the literature and their own experience and suggestions for future studies.
Highlights
Being an English teacher in higher-level education in Taiwan for over 20 years, our observation is that most the universities and colleges offer basic and compulsory English courses for freshmen in addition to advanced and elective English courses for others
In terms of curriculum planning, these two types of courses have different course goals, as advanced English is more difficult than basic English
If we consider the modes of the two courses in comparison, the data showed that basic English had a higher number than advanced English
Summary
Being an English teacher in higher-level education in Taiwan for over 20 years, our observation is that most the universities and colleges offer basic and compulsory English courses for freshmen in addition to advanced and elective English courses for others (hereafter basic English and advanced English). In terms of curriculum planning, these two types of courses have different course goals, as advanced English is more difficult than basic English. The course website that contains all information, including themes, lesson plans, in-class activities, homework and assignments, projects, assessments, etc. Even though the students of the university that we work for are comparatively more highly proficient than many other institutes, the departmental and individual differences are apparent. While working on the syllabus and activity design, teachers must find activities and tasks that are easy to connect to other activities or to extend to projects. Since the course design includes after-school assignments, to know student proficiency levels and their capabilities is of paramount importance in teaching
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