Learning English is a basic requirement amongst Taiwanese university students. A detailed scrutiny of what activities in an English class are more attractive to this need-to-be productive population would prove very useful to the education authorities. Thus, the current study has focused on the university students’ opinion on the ideal English class. The participants were 446 students from TransWorld University. A 10-item multiple-choice questionnaire based on Littlewood (2010) was the instrument.  The results revealed that girls and boys showed significant differences in their preference for English language activities. However, they had almost equal stand towards usage of language games and emphasis on correct pronunciation. Also, both genders showed the highest interest in a relaxed class atmosphere; and the lowest interest in the usage of smart phones in the class activities. Moreover, EFL-major students shared many common expectations with students of College of Hospitality and Tourism; and the least with the students of College of Management.

This paper reports the usage of Japanese karaoke films in order to enhance learning Japanese vocabulary among students in a university in Taiwan. A pretest-posttest control-group design was implemented in which the treatment students (55 girls and 48 boys) were given Japanese vocabulary lessons via listening to and watching two karaoke films, while the control group (62 girls and 47 boys) received their Japanese vocabulary lessons through only listening to the same songs (N=212, P ≤ 0.05). The treatment lasted for six consecutive regular general Japanese classes in which the last 20 minutes of the session was allocated to this experiment. The statistical independent samples T-tests used for each of the three comparisons in this study revealed a significant higher gain scores for the girls treatment group, while the boys treatment and control, as well as the general (all) students  treatment and control groups did not show any significant difference. Given the ever-growing usage of karaoke in many countries such as Taiwan, the authors believe that addressing the possible and potential capabilities of such a favorable activity, particularly among the youth, can prove effective and helpful in teaching/learning Japanese and other languages.

Learning Japanese has become very common amongst Taiwanese high school and university students, ranking thesecond most sought for language. A concise study of the likeable activities in a typical language class for theTaiwanese students seems to be quite useful. Therefore, the present study has concentrated on the senior high schoolstudents’ opinion about the ideal Japanese class. Subjects in this research were 478 students (181 boys, and 297 girls)in nine private schools in three counties. The instrument was a 10-item multiple-choice Chinese questionnaire basedon Littlewood (2010). The findings illustrated that females and males had similar opinions concerning thecommunicative language activities in an ideal Japanese class. They revealed much more differences related tonon-communicative activities, though. Moreover, both boys and girls displayed the highest interest in a relaxed classatmosphere, and the lowest interest in the usage of smartphones in the activities in the class.

The present study investigated the feasibility of applying the Silent Way in teaching Japanese to Taiwanese university students. A total of 168 (96 female and 72 male) students in a university in central Taiwan were the subjects of this study. They were studying Japanese as a general course, and were grouped in five classes ranging from freshmen to juniors. Some basic principles and techniques of the Silent Way were adopted in teaching them some vocabulary and 50 Japanese Hiragana sounds during six successive sessions in three weeks. Each administration took about 20 minutes embedded in the normal class time. A 25-item Hiragana sounds oral test was used as the pre-test and post-test in order to examine the effects of applying this method. Using a paired sample T-test (α ≤.05) significant difference between students’ knowledge of the Japanese sounds before and after the experiment was observed. However, comparing female and male students’ gained scores via applying a Mann Whitney U-test, no significant difference was observed. Thus, this study shows that the Silent Way can be used in teaching Japanese sounds and vocabulary, and that the effects for both females and males seem to be the same.

This study investigated Taiwanese high school students’ study skills with reference to gender differences. 612 students (358 girls, and 254 boys) from six random high schools in Taiwan participated in this study. A 24-item questionnaire originally developed by University of Houston Clear Lake, Texas was adopted, abridged, and administered. The main focus of the questionnaire was on three study habits/skills constructs of “time management & procrastination”, “study aids & note-taking”, and “organizing & processing information” (eight items each). A Pearson Chi-square test (α ≤.05) was used for each of the 24 items of the questionnaire. The results showed that Taiwanese high school boys and girls have very similar, an even sometimes identical, viewpoints towards study skills. The only significant difference observed in the data analysis in this study were items 1, 5, and 8, suggesting that compared with girls, boys typically care more about time management. Moreover, and based on the rubrics devised by the original instrument developer, it was calculated that the highest difference between boys and girls was .61 “arriving at classes and other meetings on time”, whereas the lowest difference was 0 for “maintaining a critical attitude during study - thinking before accepting or rejecting”. Also, both girls and boys equally seemed to be strongest in “arriving at classes and other meetings on time” (item 1), and weakest in “having a system for marking textbooks” (item 14).