Constructive destruction: designing language awareness raising activities for Taiwanese adult learners

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to construct a learning experience that raises Taiwanese adult learners' Language Awareness in the hope of turning the knowledge they have acquired during schooling and from outside-school exposure into actual communicative competence. The learners are expected to go through the experience best characterized by "constructive destruction," where their conceptions about English and its learning will be examined and purged for the establishment of functional beliefs and strategies to enable life-time, effective learning. The first section will be an in-depth discussion of their previous learning issues, primarily focusing on the constraints in school education and the culture. The next chapter will tap into the topic of adult learning, seeking for a comprehensive picture of how adults learn, so we can increase their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Then, the paper will proceed to argue for raising language awareness as the first and most crucial step for teachers and earners in an adult classroom. Finally, I will introduce example lessons through which the outcomes will promisingly "mold" the adult learners into not just good English speakers but also life-long successful learners.