Paper short abstract:

The paper will explore the verbal interaction between teachers and students in two classrooms at two nursery schools in an Atayal region in northern Taiwan: one with the immersion program and the other without, with a view to making a comparative analysis between the two schools. The result of the observation revealed that the two classrooms exhibit certain features that distinguish them from each other. The author made some conclusive remarks for improvement in the issues.

Paper long abstract:

In Taiwan, the development of indigenous educational policy is linked to the social and educational movements in the 1990s in the wake of the 1980s political liberalization such as the lifting of martial law in that country. It was during that period that the authorities began to recognize indigenous education such as ‘mother tongue instruction’ as a necessary form of educational activity and gave it a legitimate status by drafting the Indigenous Educational Act in 1996.

Since then, a number of professionals, educators and practitioners have been promoting ‘immersion program’ under the aegis of Ministry of Education and Council of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan. It is revealed that immersion program in that country is still in a developing stage with many challenges to encounters in the foreseeable future. The paper will explore the verbal interaction between teachers and students in two classrooms at two nursery schools in an Atayal region in northern Taiwan: one with the immersion program and the other without, with a view to making a comparative analysis between the two schools. It gave a delineation of through the use of observation the classroom dynamics in these two schools. A number of observation forms (such as Flanders’ Interaction Analysis Categories) were made by which to record what immersion activities were planned and promoted. The results will reveal that there are several types of verbal interaction between teachers and students in these classrooms under investigation.