A STUDY OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF ENGLISH FACULTY AND STUDENTS OF EXIT ENGLISH EXAMINATIONS AT TAIWAN\u27S TECHNOLOGICAL AND VOCATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The mix-method research aimed to investigate the attitudes toward the implementation of Exit English Examination (EEE) from the perspectives of English faculties and their students at Taiwan\u27s technological and vocational higher education institutions. The survey participants were 66 English faculty and 1009 students in ten first-tier Universities of Technology and Institutes of Technology in Northern Taiwan based on the admission scores of the Technological and Vocational College Entrance Examination in the school year of 2009-2010. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Spearman Correlation tests of the SPSS were conducted to determine the characteristics and statistically significant differences of participants\u27 survey questions. Findings indicated the following: various factors for the faculties and students played significant roles in attitudes toward EEE implementation; motivation and desire to learn English were highest in those students with medium English performance; a majority of students perceived a stronger influence from the EEE than the faculties; influence of the EEE on future jobs was recognized by both groups, as well as the need for assistance with fees, monetary incentives, and the subsidization for financially challenged students; faculties and students had conflicting opinions in regard to teaching to the test, the curriculum, and teaching effectiveness; the qualitative data analyses was predominated by concern regarding the test standard, test choices and future jobs. Suggestions for this study included: a continuous implementation and overhaul of the EEE in Higher Education; help in facilitating professional development and a learning community; a review and adjustment of the existing English curriculum, methods and test standards; an alignment of the curriculum with the EEE standard and student preparation; a review of existing preparation programs, including monetary incentives and fees; professional assistance for juniors and seniors; utilization of international counterparts\u27 assessment tools. Further research could include (a) covering major stakeholder\u27s participation in decision making, implementation and gathering of information and analysis, (b) longitudinal work tracking students who failed the EEE, and (c) replicating a similar study in other geographical areas of Taiwan. Numerous implications for future studies were also provided