Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL

Remedial Program

Chen, Tzu-Ching∗

Abstract

There is a tendency for Taiwanese elementary school students to reinforce their

English in a cram school after regular school hours. However, there are still some
students who constantly fail cram school classes. For this reason, the selected cram
school set up a supplementary program to have these students gathered for an
intensive training after regular English programs, which is what we called a remedial
program. The aim of this article is to introduce a developmental approach to
integrating remedial program in the process. The teaching concepts have also
illustrated by investigating and observing a class in a selected cram school. In
addition, how this program worked for underachieving students is explained in detail.
The results showed this remedial program was significantly effective in assisting
students in improving their English abilities. All students met the intended goal of the
program and six students obtained growth with scores above 70%. It provided a
model of the remedial program for underachieving students in cram schools or
language schools in Taiwan or any countries learning English as a foreign language.

Key Words: remedial program, primary English program, underachieving

students, remedial instruction, cram school.

∗
Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied English Studies at MingDao University
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

1. Introduction

The research highlighted the significance of remedial instruction by investigating

the effectiveness of a remedial program in a cram school. The main objective was the
student’s basic English language learning skill development. While attention is paid to
mastery of basic spoken English skills on corresponding with the standard of Ministry
of Education (MOE) in Taiwan. The observation was done in a selected cram school
base in Taiwan, where the first remedial course was set. This study adopted action
research methodology and data was collected through observation, field notes,
interviews, and teacher’s reflective journals to ensure the validity of the study. The
remedial program lasts for four months. The program teacher was an English major
college student in her 4th year. She appears to have a strong interest in researching
and teaching in the field of Children’s English. The class was designed to remedy low
English achievers in the regular cram school classes. The classes were delivered one
hour a day, twice a week after the regular classes to reinforce students’ English
learning outcomes.

¾ Problem Identification
Students in the selected cram school for children’s English were taught English
at their grade level to meet the MOE’s standards of elementary English curriculum.
However, 27% of them did not acquire adequate English skills according to the scored
report given by an English proficiency test in this cram School at the end of a
four-month session. Students, especially in the Computer Assisted English Learning
(CAEL) class, show insignificant improvement which concerned the parents. The
school then decided to open a reinforcement class to improve those students’ English
learning in expectation of remedying the situation in the shortest time to rejoin the
regular class.

¾ Setting
The selected cram school is considered to be one of the best organized English
cram schools in Taiwan which founded in 1986. It has a total of 90 branches in its first
three years and expanded to 2500 branches as of 2005. In 1995, it became the first
English cram school to offer a Children CAEL course. The branch where the study

264
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

was conducted is set in downtown Taichung area with 124 students enrolled in the
entire school at the time. It offers math, abacus and mental calculation, children’s
English (Multi-levels), CAEL, and other after school programs. A significant number
of students fail their regular classes even after attending cram schools courses. It was
the impetus that urged this cram school to set up a four-month remedial program for
students who failed in their regular programs.

¾ The Participants
The participants involved in this study were eight low achievement primary
students from CAEL class who scored less than 60 on the English achievement test
after completing their first session. Among them one student, Zaphod, quitted this
program after the sixth class due to the schedule conflict with his art class. There were
a total of seven boys and one girl. Below are the backgrounds of all participants. The
reason why only eight participants are included in a class is for the teachers to
implement individual tutoring when necessary to fulfill the concept of remedial
program, due to the fact that individual one to one instruction has the advantage in
allowing the instructors to provide immediate corrective feedback (Gettinger, 1993;
Wentling, 1973). Today’s language learners require more special needs and teacher’s
assistance in a new way. Teachers often have to search for appropriate pedagogic
approaches to help their student’s language learning.

Table 1 Background Information of the Participants

Student name Characteristics of individual student

Dagwood: Dagwood is a high English beginner and also the best performer in
(boy) the program.
Lirch: Lirch doesn’t like to learn English and mentioned to his teacher that
(boy) his older brother doesn’t like English, either. He’s a student who
frequently speaks with his classmates in Chinese during class, but
will try to respond to the teacher in class.
Esmerelda: Esmerelda, the only girl in the program. She is terribly shy. She can
(girl) hardly concentrate on the class material and is not able to pronounce
or recognize words she previous learned.
Egbert: (boy) A student who is motivated to practice writing the English alphabet

265
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

but has problems pronouncing the words which he has learned in

class.
Scaramouch: Scaramouch always talks with his classmates in class and finds it
(boy) hard to concentrate on the lecture. However, he is willing to take
chances to present himself in front of other students.
Byron: Byron likes to learn English but often is distracted by other
(boy) classmates. He shows a strong willingness to participate in the class
conversation with his classmates.
Abner: Abner is always the first one to voice his opinions in front of other
(boy) students. He can not read fluently, but really likes learning English.
Zaphod: (boy) Zaphod is eager to learn English. Due to the schedule conflict with
his art class, he could not attend the entire program. His parents
often stay abroad and he currently lives with his grandmother. He
has difficulty in recognizing vocabulary words and needs more
practice to catch up with other students.

¾ Goal
The concept of remedial instruction is to teach in a faster pace than the regular
class to help learners’ that have been left behind by their peers (Bereiter, 1985). The
goal was to help the underachieving students to improve their English abilities so they
would be able to rejoin the regular class and never regain lost. The observation results
helped to identify if this remedial English program assisted students in language
learning and also at the same time served to provide the guideline of setting up a
remedial program in cram schools or even regular schools.

¾ Curriculum Design
The primary English instruction in Taiwan that the students received had a heavy
focus on learning English communicative skills rather than on writing and reading. To
cope with this national standard, Way To Go (WTG) Book 1 and Sound It Out (SIO)
Book 1 were the textbooks used in the CAEL class and reviewed in the remedial
program, edited by Kid Castle Educational Corporation located in Taiwan, and the
curriculum was tailored to suit the age of the students. The focus of the curriculum
was on spoken English rather than written English to fit the latest MOE standards for

266
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

elementary English curriculum.

In the remedial program, students learned and practiced conversations from the
textbook, Way To Go Book with their classmates, as conversations being excellent
examples of the interactive and interpersonal nature of communication (Brown, 2000).
Krashen (2003) further stated that the major concern of language learners and their
parents is accent and apparent fluency, what Cummins (2000) referred to as
conversational language. For this reason, repetition and gestures were emphasized in
the classes. The goal is to have students demonstrate their understanding through
action responses in the least stressful way to achieve English learning and follow the
instructor’s directions. Sound it Out 1 is the textbook designed to cope with Way To
Go Book for the purpose of reinforcing students’ pronunciation through phonics.

2. Related Literature Review

¾ Children’s English Cram School Programs in Taiwan

After the establishment of First to Ninth Grades Curriculum Alignment, the
MOE in Taiwan implemented English Education into elementary curriculum in 2001
(Chiu, 2005); that is, all elementary school students have to start English learning
from 5th grade instead of starting learning English from junior high school (seventh
grade). The implementation of Taiwan’s New Elementary English Curriculum has
been a great challenge for the thousands of elementary school educators and students.
Even though the MOE declared a set of policies and regulations as to how the
elementary English education should be implemented, each school adopted its own
English curriculum, which caused anxieties to the parents (Liao, 2005). Many parents
started sending their children to study English in cram schools earlier than entering
fifth grade. As a result, many elementary schools then lowered the English learning
age to first grade due to parents’ expectations, the school and school competition, and
the influence of General English Proficiency Test (GEPT), etc. (Chen, 2004).
Under these circumstances, bilingual kindergartens and children’s English cram
schools have been established to help despairing parents by providing after school
supplementary English programs for their children to ensure their English proficiency
(Wang, 2004). The main motivations of the parents whose children attend these
programs in cram schools are the well-designed curriculum, intensive teaching
267
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

methods, and the comfortable environment (Wang, 2004). In 1995, over 450,000
people, which made up one forth of the population, studied English in Taiwan’s cram
schools and most of them were children in private children’s English schools (Wachob,
1995). Today, with a profit of more than 40 billion in the cram school markets,
large-sized Children’s English Cram schools include Giraffe Cultural Enterprises,
Hess Educational Organization, Joy Enterprises Organization, and Kid Castle
Educational Corporation; these schools comprise sixty percent of the Children’s
English cram school market (Anonym, 2005).
Lately, the MOE decided to further lower English learning age to third grade in
2005 to reflect the theory of the advantages of the early language learning and the
need of improving English among Taiwan's people (Hsu, 2005). In fact, Taiwanese
parents tended to send their children to cram schools, hoping to stop their children
from being left behind. Thus, most kids in Taiwan have to start their English learning
as early as from kindergarten to keep their parents satisfied and for a guaranteed
successful future. An investigation indicated that 29% of primary school students
studied at the cram school after their regular elementary school hours (Krashen, 2003).
Mostly, because researches reported that the reinforcement course after regular
programs will help underachievers who have low motivation in learning the language
(Chen & Lee, 2002).

¾ The Effectiveness of Remedial Program

The effectiveness of remedial program at all levels has been researched for years
regarding its effectiveness and practices (Chan & Li, 2002; Besty, 2002). “Remedial
instruction focuses on specific areas, depending on the student's age, his/her specific
Learning Disability and the long-term goals identified for the student” (Sankar, 2001).
Remedial instruction is set mainly for individual learners rather than for group
instruction to strengthen the teaching results.
There are several research topics that discuss supplementary programs to
highlight the significance of remedial instruction in Taiwan (Chang, 2001; Kams,
2005; Wu & Lin, 2003).Yang (2004) specifically indicated that the average English
academic achievement of students who attended English supplementary classes was
significantly higher than those students who did not attend English supplementary
classes, and students who attended English supplementary classes possessed more

268
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

cultural capital and social capital in some aspects. These supplementary programs,
grasped the attention of researchers and their studies, has been assumed effective
toward improving English language learning.
The implementation of remedial instruction for the underachievers has been
included as an important measurement of contemporary educational reform (Chen,
2004). The supplementary program is important because it will help students who
have low motivation, a lack of confidence, and low sense of achievement in learning
English. Students who need the supplementary program have some common
characteristics: low self-esteem, low motivation about self-achievement, inability to
socialize normally, and high test anxiety (Chan & JEgbertg, 2004)

3. Implementation

Month One
The teacher started from the book Sound it out 1 to reinforce students’ alphabet
recognition, and allowed the students to read the textbook several times after lecturing
the text. For the purpose of identifying students’ English proficiency levels, students
were quizzed to recall the text. Teachers found that the students were not easily
managed, even with only eight of them in one class. They kept talking with each other
when the teacher was giving a lesson. Occasionally, one of the students, Lirch
responded during the lesson spontaneously and showed improvement after the lesson
was done.
The teacher always started the lesson by greeting the students and asking how
they had been doing, and then reviewed the text from last week before moving on to
the new lesson. After the lesson, the teacher made sure that she asked each student
questions before having the students practice the conversations with their classmates
according to the textbook. This also helped the teachers to further confirm the
student’s English proficiency levels. The teacher found that students did not talk as
frequently as in their first class, but focused more on the textbook. Only a few
students did not concentrate on practicing the conversation, but were chatting in
Chinese instead.

269
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

Month Two
Hoping to give students a sense of security in class, the teacher tried to teach this
month’s lessons following the routine of the previous class, starting from the greeting,
reviewing, and then inputting of new text to establish a teaching routine. Educational
technology tools such as CDs, films, and computers program and software are used to
raise students’ learning motivations. In addition, quizzes were given at the end of the
class to reinforce students’ learning. The questions were taken from the text the
students studied in the first two classes. Even though, the teacher sensed high anxiety
from the students when giving the quiz, some of them scored more than 80 from the
third quizzes. During this month, the teacher also tried to pair the students in the
beginning of the class to practice their conversations and to facilitate the class review.
The same teaching routine was then used in every class to create regular learning
pattern for students. In this month, the teacher noticed that most students changed
their learning attitudes by actively participating in the classroom activities and talked
to their classmates less frequently.

Month Three
This month, the teacher tried to pair them for conversation practice again and
found that students immediately seized the chance to talk to their classmates before
the lesson. The teacher expected and encouraged her students to speak correctly so
that immediate corrections were made to strengthen their pronunciations. It was
Egbert’s birthday on the first class day this month. The teacher had the students sing
the “Happy Birthday" song to Egbert to start the class. The teacher also tried to
start every lesson a bit differently by dividing students into small groups when
reviewing a set of vocabulary and asked them to practice spelling with their group
members. Students were confused about the lesson procedure, but were fully
participated in the class.
In the last two weeks, the same teaching routine was used except for beginning
with a 10-minute free conversation. During the lesson, the teacher made sure to give
students some hints if they didn't know how to pronounce or spell the words. After the
overview of the class materials, a quiz was given and most students answered with
confidence. Surprisingly, six of them scored more than 80 at the last class of the
month. The teacher noticed that encouragement helped the students to participate
more in the class. In addition, some students began to show their interests in learning

270
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

English from this specially created learning atmosphere. Esmerelda, Lirch, and Byron
were showing more enthusiasm about taking turns reading the text during the lessons.

Month Four
In the first two weeks, a bingo game was used to start the lesson every week to
recall what they had learned in the past weeks. It took almost half of the class time to
finish the game, but apparently students liked the game as they asked to play it over
and over again. Even though the teacher found that it was difficult to settle the
students down to the teaching routine, the students were more motivated in their
English learning.
In the later weeks, the teacher followed the teaching routine in the last month and
reviewed all the lessons before giving the final achievement exam. The students, most
of the time, were all quiet and concentrated on the lecture. Even though the students
were told to prepare for the final exam two weeks ago, their faces showed their
anxieties. An English achievement test similar to the test they had at the end of their
last term was given after the review was done to identify students’ improvements after
attending the remedial program.

4. Results

¾ Statistical Findings
A total of six out of seven scored more than 70%. All students improved in their
English proficiency test after the remedial program excludes Zaphod who failed to
attend the program from the seventh classes. The results indicated from paired t test,
as shown in Table 2, students who attended the entire program made statistically
improvements over the four-month period. Students’ improvements can also be
distinguished from the statistics presented in Table 2, mean of test scores after the
remedial program (M=71.71) is higher than before the program (M=47.7) with
standard deviation of 8.86 and 5.06.

271
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

Table 2 English Achievement Test Results Before and After the Remedial Program
Name Dagwood Lirch Esmerelda Egbert Scaramouch Byron Abner Zaphod
Before 45 55 48 56 53 47 30 46
After 78 70 72 66 74 77 65 Dropped
out

Table 3 Mean Scores and Standard Deviation of English Achievement Test Results

Before and After the Remedial Program

Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Before 47.71 7 8.864 3.350

After 71.71 7 5.057 1.911

To further identify if students’ scores before and after the remedial program are
statistically significant. Independent paired samples t test was applied to analyze
students’ test scores before and after the program. As indicated in the table, the means
of scores before and after the program is -24.0 and t=-6.795, df=6, p=.000<.05, which
indicate significant differences between the test results before and after the
four-month remedial program. The test scores after the remedial program is
significantly higher than the test scores before the program. Students improved their
English abilities after attending the remedial program for four months.

Table 4 Independent Paired Samples t Test Results of English Achievement Test

Before and After the Remedial Program

Paired Differences

95% Confidence

Std. Interval of the t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Deviation Difference

Lower Upper

Before - -24.000 9.345 -32.643 -15.357 -6.795 6 .000

272
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

After *

*p < .05.

¾ Classroom Observation
Classroom observation by the teacher supported the statistical result that the
students made good progress in improving their English communicative skills. The
teacher especially noticed that most students changed their English learning attitudes
over the program period. Lirch, who did not like to learn English, has become anxious
to show what he has learned from the class in front of his classmates. Esmerelda, the
shy girl, gained more confidence in reading English aloud and claimed to like learning
English after the program. The teacher also stated that the use of educational
technology attracted learners’ attentions and inspires their learning interests.

5. Discussions and Suggestions

From the class observations, the researchers found difficulty with classroom
management for the underachieving students because of their negative motivations
toward English learning. When the teacher focused on talking with one student or one
group of students, the rest of them started to chat with each other in Chinese. It was
impossible for the teacher to give equal care to each student at the same time. The
class was also easy to lose control of if the teacher didn't have good classroom
management skills. It was found that good classroom management was one of the
keys to a successful English teaching. The teacher might have to develop class rules in
the very first class to ensure the order of the class.
Further, students may be threatened when they are giving quiz in class. This
makes sure students pay more attention on their learning, even though it seemed like a
bad idea in classroom teaching because of the limited time, and students may have a
sense of increased anxiety that hinders their learning if they cannot answer the
questions. In addition, the remedial program is rather short. If the class could last for
two months or longer, students might reach higher achievements as none of them

273
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

scored more than 80, even though they have improved from below 60 to a score as
high as 78. Therefore, further research should focus on observing a longer course to
assure the effectiveness of the remedial program.

¾ Acknowledgements
I am especially grateful to students whose participation and cooperation has
made this study possible. My special thanks go to Yi-Ting, Lin, the classroom teacher
of this program, who graduated from Applied Foreign Language Department at
HungKuang University.

274
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

References

Anonym. (2005). The popularity of Children’s English learning; foreign company join
the completion. TVBS News. March 8, 2005. Retrieved May 02, 2006 from
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/050308/39/1kead.html
Bereiter, C. (1985). The changing face of educational disadvantagement. Phi Delta
Kappan, 66(8), 538-541.
Betsy, O. (2002). Remediation at the community college: Pressing issues, uncertain
solutions. New Directions for Community Colleges, 117, 35-44.
Brown, H. D. 2000. Principles of language learning and teaching. (Fourth Edition.).
White Plains, NY: Longman.
Chan, Y. C. and JEgbertg, Y. W. 2004. A Case Study of Applying Children's English
Reading Instruction Strategy in English Remedial Instruction. Elementary
Education Journal, 44(5), 20-28.
Chan, Y.W. and Li, C.S. (2001). Form-focused remedial instruction: An empirical
study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 12 (1), 24-53.
Chang, S. Z. (2001). Effective Remedial Programs and Instruction. Education Journal,
17, 85-106.
Chen, Y. H. (2004). Elementary and junior high school English teachers’ perceptions
and implementation of remedial instruction for underachievers. Unpublished
Master thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chen, C. M. and Lee, C. P. 2002. The concept and strategies of Teenager’s after
school program. Journal of National Taipei Teachers College, 15, 139-162.
Chiu, T. M. (2005). The study of supplementary program model of Elementary
English Education. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from
http://www.nknu.edu.tw/~edu/new-eduweb/08Learning/learning%20thesis/learnin
g%20thesis-2/learning%20thesis-2-2/learning%20thesis-2-2-5.html
Cummins, Z. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
Gettinger, M. (1993). Effects of leaner ability and instructional modifications on time
needed for learning and retention. Journal of Educational Research, 76(6),
362-369.
Hsu, C. I. (2005). Memorization skill is not the only English learning method.
Retrieved May 16, 2006 from http://mail.nhu.edu.tw/~society/e-j/38/38-35.htm
Kams, M. (2005). Inoculating against low achievement. Leadership, 34(3), 12-38.
Krashen, S. (2003). English: The world’s second language. The Proceeding of Twelfth
International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 100-108). Taipei, Taiwan: The
Crane Publishing Company.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford:
Oxford Press.

275
 第二期（2007 年 3 月）

Liao, P. S. 2005. The clarification of learning English in an early age. Retrieved May
10, 2006 from, http://www.cavesbooks.com.tw/cet/htm/m0120500.htm
Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (2000). First to Ninth Grades Curriculum Alignment
Revision Procedure. Taipei. R.O.C. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://teach.eje.edu.tw/9CC/brief/brief 7.htm
Sankar, S. (2001). Remedial instruction. Retrieved July 10, 2006, from
http://www.nalandainstitute.org/instruction.htm
Wachob, P. (1995). Taiwan cram schools in the twenty-first century. Selected Papers
from the 4th International Symposium on English Teaching, 527-541. Kaoshiung:
English Teachers Association of the ROC.
Wang, H. H. (2004). The key factor and decision behavior of the elementary school
students’ parents selecting English supplementary school for their children.
Unpublished Master thesis, Nanhua University, Cha Yi, Taiwan.
Wentling, T. L. (1973). Mastery versus non-mastery instruction with varying test
feedback treatments. Journal of Educational Psychology, 65, 1.
Wu, C. S. and Lin, T. Y. (2003). Terminology: Remedial Instruction. Educational
Research Journal, 116, 159.
Yang, W. Y. (2004). A study on the relationship between English supplementary
education. Unpublished Master thesis. National Tai-Tung University, Taiwan.

276
 Underachieving Students’ Improvements in a Primary EFL Remedial Program

提升國小英語低成就學習者之補救教學模式

陳姿青∗

摘 要

在台灣，小學生多傾向利用課外時間到補習班加強英語能力，但即使是如
此，仍然有學生補習效果不佳，無法達到預期學習目標，本研究針對這些英語低
成就學生，於某一知名補習班的協助下成立補救教學，目的在藉由此補救教學措
施改善學生的英語能力，以期能夠趕上其他學生的進度，重新回到原來的班級。
研究中之教學概念經由探討與觀察此一特定班級，並且詳述此補教教學班級的運
作與教學過程，結果顯示此課程確實有效的提升了學生的英語能力，參與的八個
學生當中，一位學生於第六週後，因課程時間與其他課程衝突而無法參加，其餘
有六位最後顯示進步達到 70 分以上，此補救教學模式可提供給台灣或其他以英
語為外語的國家，欲設立補救教學課程之補習班或學校做為參考。

關鍵詞: 補救教學，國小英語課程，低成就學習者，美語補習班

∗
明道管理學院應用英語系助理教授

277
第二期（2007 年 3 月）

278