Learning Strategies in Elementary and Junior High School English Textbooks in Taiwan

Abstract

Learning strategies help learners develop language proficiency as well as foster autonomy. In Taiwan, English is a subject in elementary school for more than ten years and the objectives of the curriculum guidelines are to cultivate learners’ language abilities, autonomy and intercultural understanding. Learning strategies play crucial roles in achieving the goals of increasing language proficiency and autonomy. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology has declared that English will be taught as a subject in elementary school from 2020. In implementing this change, there are many issues which have to be considered, one of which is teaching materials. International comparison of materials development could be a source of recommendations for Japan. This study aims at clarifying the learning strategies in Taiwan’s elementary and junior high school English textbooks and providing reference data for elementary school English textbooks in Japan. 34 authorized English textbooks for elementary and junior high school in Taiwan were analyzed according to Chamot’s (2009) strategy taxonomy. The results indicated that activities which contained evaluate strategy could be applied to elementary school English textbooks in Japan. Moreover, the adaptation of activities which include learning strategies and conform to elementary school English class was also discussed.