Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of teaching EFL students with low proficiency and learning motivation. The instruction of such students has been frustrating hundreds of English teachers in Taiwan for a long time. It is indicated that EFL teaches’ misconceptions about the nature of teaching such students are the major cause of the long existing and widespread problem they experience in their teaching. Although many teachers believe that the problem is the students themselves, the author argues that the key to the solution of the problem is the decision-making teachers, not students. He also argues that no learner’s English proficiency is too low to learn from the point of view of SLA. Students with whatever English proficiency can learn effectively if they are provided with the teaching and learning materials that match their proficiency levels, and if they are trained to be independent learners. Almost all English teaching in the local elementary and high schools relies on a single set of textbooks. Nevertheless, research literature from SLA supports the idea that a fine-tuned text alone is not sufficient for a group of learners with various proficiency levels to develop their interlanguage. Extensive learning or reading materials are also critical for successful teaching. The misconception of the relationship between curriculum goals and student-centered teaching held by many local English teachers is also clarified. Based on empirical evidence from the English program of a local bilingual elementary school and an experimental study in a high school, it is suggested that in contrast to uniform textbooks for each grade level, multiple-leveled textbooks based on students’ proficiency levels, an array of leveled learning materials, and task-based teaching activities, which lead to the promotion of independent learning, are necessary for efficient EFL teaching in Taiwan.
