Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been considered as a high impact practice because it promotes knowledge acquisition, professional advancement, and personal development (Lopatto, 2010). Many studies on UREs focused on nature-science students working in labs or with a group in research courses. However, few studies examined students in applied linguistics departments, and far fewer studies discussed UREs of English majors in the EFL context. This study investigated UREs of English majors from the perspectives of EFL learners and instructors in Taiwan. Nine instructors and 23 Applied English Majors participated in the study. Two modified questionnaires on UREs were distributed to students and instructors respectively for data collection. The data collected from questions with Likert Scale were analyzed with descriptive statistics and the responses to the open-ended questions were analyzed with the qualitative content analysis to establish themes for discussion. The findings revealed that students were highly motivated due to preparation for graduate school and the project ownership. The benefits and challenges were presented as two sides of a coin, manifesting that both students and faculty worked together to overcome the obstacles in academic writing, time management, and health problems so as to taste the fruitful harvest in professional and personal growth. The results also disclosed the essential attributes for successful implementation of independent research courses. It is hoped that the findings would be valuable assets to the field of English education, especially in the EFL context.
本站僅提供期刊文獻檢索。
