New Literacy & Global Learning
Creative Synthesis
How can I effectively motivate
my first-year vocational high school students
in English class


In SCUD vocational high school, along with major courses, English, Math, and Chinese are required subjects. English as one of the compulsory course, however, is the most neglected and less supported one. Students not only have feebleness English basis knowledge but have no interest in English, the language that they barely use in their life. Regarding the fact, our school edited school-based English textbooks that exclusive to students in different majors. The school-based English textbooks usually cover simple English words and some daily conversation, as well as some terms in their field.
Under this situation, my weekly English course faced students who have little English knowledge, who believed English is a useless subject, and who came to class to kill time. Three years ago, as an inexperienced first-year teacher, every 90 minutes session class was a challenge to me, both the in-class teaching and the class management.
Today, after three years, I will use the pedagogy knowledge that I harvest from NLGL program, as a world citizen, a teacher, a teacher leader, and a teacher-researcher, to present a general plan to help my first-year students in SCUD vocational. The course that involved in this project listed
ECI 508 Teachers as Leaders—Dr. Linda Robinson
ECI 512 Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning—Dr. Julia McKeown
ECI 520 The Teaching Of Composition—Dr. Carl A. Young
ECI 523 Teacher as Researcher—Carl A. Young
ECI 524 Theory and Research in Global Learning—Dr. Ivonne Chirino-Klevans
ECI 546 New Literacies & Media—Dr. Lisa Hervey
ECI 550 Foundations Of Middle Years Education—Dr. Candy M. Beal
