An instructional design theory for teaching freshman English in a hybrid Web -based instruction course in Taiwan.

摘要

There is little research or design theory concerning methods for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in a hybrid Web-based instruction (WBI) course (including both classroom and Web-based context) in Taiwan. In order to develop a tentative theory that is applicable to current and cutting-edge reality in Taiwan, the purpose of this study is to develop a tentative instructional design theory (IDT) for EFL instructors to teach English to Taiwanese first-year undergraduate learners in a hybrid WBI course.;The researcher used Omaggio-Hadley (2001) to combine the instruction of skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) into integrative, communicative language use through the provision of integrated instructor guidelines in this study. He followed the three communicative modes---"the interpretive mode," "the presentational mode," and "the interpersonal mode"---to develop tentative guidelines for teaching Freshman English using the intermediate level of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. The tentative IDT is for 25--30 students in a course designed to use class and team discussion and asynchronous collaboration on the Internet.;This study utilized the broad framework of instructional design theory (Reigeluth, 1999) to develop guidelines for teaching EFL in a hybrid WBI course, and used the formative research methodology (Reigeluth & Frick, 1999) to collect and analyze data to refine the guidelines in the theory in a five-stage process. This research followed the "designed case" type of formative research studies for expert review of a holistic single case (one application of the theory) for a new theory. In addition, the designed case in this study was intended to provide readers a clear picture of a course description and a weekly schedule to help interested readers implement the IDT's tentative guidelines in their courses. The results of the expert review indicate that the "hybrid Web-based instruction course" approach is likely to be an appropriate way for teaching Freshman English in Taiwan in this information age.