Abstract
As the world becomes more interconnected due to globalization, people have more reasons to travel, be it for business, study, or holidays. Therefore, tourism has become a thriving industry in many parts of the world. This is also true for Taiwan, where the number of visitors grew from 2.62 million in the year 2000 to over 10 million in 2015, with over 70% of them traveling for pleasure (Tourism Bureau, Visitor arrivals, 1956–2015. Retrieved from http://admin.taiwan.net.tw/statistics/year.aspx?no=134, 2016). To accommodate this boom in the tourism industry, many tourism-related programs have been opened at universities in Taiwan. In 2004, there were 48 tourism-related programs; in 2014, the number grew to 66, which was a 37.5% increase. Another trend that has impacted higher education as a result of globalization is the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI). In order to document the features of EMI tourism instructional activities, we have identified one of the EMI tourism programs as a site for exploration. We observed classes, interviewed the instructor, and conducted student surveys as well as follow-up interviews. This chapter will start with an overview of studies on EMI programs in Taiwan and then take a close look at classroom activities of the specific course chosen for this study. In the last part of the chapter, we will discuss the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the effects of instructional activities and identify features that motivate learning.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Chang, Y. Y. (2010). English medium instruction for subject courses in tertiary education: Reactions from Taiwanese undergraduate students. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 2(1), 55–84.
Cho, D. W. (2012). English-medium instruction in the university context of Korea: Trade-off between teaching outcomes and media-initiated university ranking. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 9(4), 135–163.
Fredricks, J. A. (2014). Eight myths of student disengagement: Creating classrooms of deep learning. Los Angeles: Corwin.
Huang, Y. P. (2012). Design and implementation of English-medium courses in higher education in Taiwan: A qualitative case study. English Teaching and Learning, 36(1), 1–51.
James, N. P. (2014). Golden rules for engaging students in learning activities. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/golden-rules-for-engaging-students-nicolas-pino-james
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1995). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2003). The competitive destination: A sustainable tourism perspective. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.
Tourism Bureau. (2016). Visitor arrivals, 1956–2015. Retrieved from http://admin.taiwan.net.tw/statistics/year.aspx?no=134
Wu, W. S. (2006). Students’ attitudes toward EMI: Using Chung Hua University as an example. Journal of Education and Foreign Language and Literature, 4, 67–84.
Yeh, C. (2010). A survey study on university instructors’ views of EMI teaching. In National Kaohsiung Normal University (Ed.), Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on English Teaching and Learning in the R.O.C (pp. 263–276). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.
Yeh, C. (2013). Instructors’ perspectives on English-medium instruction in Taiwanese universities. Curriculum & Instruction Quarterly, 16(1), 209–231.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chern, CL., Lo, ML. (2017). Instructional Activities that Motivate Learners in Tourism Program. In: Tsou, W., Kao, SM. (eds) English as a Medium of Instruction in Higher Education. English Language Education, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4645-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4645-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-4644-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4645-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)