Teaching and Learning English Verb Tenses in a Taiwanese University

Abstract

This study compares the effect of inductive and deductive approaches in teaching English verb tenses to Taiwanese English-majored freshmen of field independent/dependent (FI/FD) cognitive styles. Research questions include: 1) what is the effect of the two approaches on students’ learning outcomes? 2) What are the learning outcomes of FI/FD students? 3) Do FI students outperform FD students in the inductive group? Do FD students outperform FI students in the deductive group? The Group Embedded Figure Test was used to identify student cognitive styles. A self-designed test was conducted to realize student learning outcome. T-test, ANOVA, and descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the data. Results indicated both approaches were effective, and the deductive group had more significant improvement. Next, both FI and FD students improved significantly, and FD student improvement was especially evident. Moreover, FD students in both groups improved more than FI students, but the difference was not significant.

Keywords: inductive, deductive, field independent, field dependent