International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract

The problem of students with various English proficiency levels in a class has been a major obstacle for English teaching and learning. Therefore, educators and researchers have studied the effects of ability-grouping teaching on English teaching in recent years, but there are still few findings from research based on experimental teaching or real practice of English ability-grouping teaching. This study investigated a practical implementation in terms of program planning, instruction, and evaluation in a university of technology in central Taiwan, using a fuzzy competitive learning technique. The results indicated that the application of English ability-grouping teaching could solve the problems which had been challenging English teachers with the diversity of language proficiency levels of students in a class. Students accepted the new teaching strategy and felt intermediately satisfied with the ability-grouping teaching.