A Description of What Students Did in the Pilot Project:

     This class experiment was conducted at National Chung-Hsing University in Taiwan
in June 1998. Of the target groups of 119 university students, 69 persons are English
majors, while 50 persons are non-English majors. This experiment lasted for  3 weeks --
the first week for instruction, second week for simulation test of TWE in 30 minutes,
the third week for observation survey based on questionnaire, which the Associate
Professor distributed in the classroom.

     An interesting incident occurred during the experiment. Given the traditional method
--such as topic sentence, unity, coherence, sentence structure, etc-- and the new method
-- Topical Structure Analysis (TSA), the professor and most of the students prefer the
new method. The traditional method was meant to be used by the control group, while
the new method TSA was meant for experimental group use. However, TSA was
conducted inadvertently, without my notice. My professor told me during the debriefing
that it turned out to be a great success -- my professor liked it; most of the students
benefited from participating in this class experiment.

     Based on the observation survey below, this experimental research confirmed the
reliability of the topical structure analysis as indicated by the answer to the 4th question :
 

What I like most about this project is:   It improved my English composition ability                    106 persons   No comment                                                                  13 persons

which indicates how we might use such samples and analysis for learning as well as
for teaching. This table is presented as part of the documentation of my project.

     Although I started off this pilot project primarily for Taiwan ESL students wishing
to learn essay writing, in which I help them by teaching, by showing them techniques
or strategies to better achieve their new standard of essay writing, I am very optimistic
in that I have deep belief that this analytic,concrete, explicit, discrete, authentic,
accessible new approach (TSA) will be generally applicable to any ESL learners.

     In conclusion, the traditional pedagogy becomes pale in comparison with the new
teaching approach -- Topical Structure Analysis (TSA).

 Table 1 Observation Survey based on Questionnaire
 

Tabulation of the Observation Survey Result

1. Target Group:      English Major                                                                 69 persons      Non-English Major                                                         50 persons                                                                                                                   Total: 119 persons

2. The name of the course in which I use this project is:      English composition                                                        26 persons      Freshman English                                                           93 persons                                                                                                                   Total: 119 persons

3. My general reaction to this project is:      The articles are useful for Chinese to read; Great            37 persons      Glad to read it; Improved the ability of composition        34 persons      Bored in the begining, but interested in it and feel it        useful afterwards                                                           8 persons      Got new information                                                        5 persons      Bored                                                                             7 persons      Not useful                                                                       2 persons      No comment                                                                 26 persons                                                                                                                   Total: 119 persons

4. What I like most about this project is:      It improved my English composition ability                    106 persons      No comment                                                                  13 persons                                                                                                                   Total: 119 persons

5. What I like least about this project is:       Time constraints of 30 minutes                                       53 persons       Content is too short                                                         1 persons       Sentences and words are too difficult                               7 persons       Boring, too long and hard to read                                   11 persons       Insufficient examples                                                        7 persons       Extended parallel progression                                          8 persons       No comment                                                                 32 persons                                                                                                                  Total: 119 persons

6. Were all of the lessons of this project assigned for you to read?       Yes                                                                               74 persons       No                                                                                27 persons       No comment                                                                 18 persons                                                                                                                  Total: 119 persons

Total                                                                                119 persons in each category