A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on EFL Students’ Attitudes Toward Ability Grouping

This research aims to explore English as a Foreign Language (EFL) third-year students’ attitudes toward ability grouping at a junior college in Taiwan. Homogeneous learning is considered to enhance the quality and quantity of student learning. However, the existing literature, mainly conducted via survey questionnaires, shows that students’ attitudes toward ability grouping are conflicting. The significance of this study lies in its use of a convergent mixed methods research design to contribute to understanding students’ perceptions of ability grouping as a meaning-making process through Herbert Blumer’s (1986) symbolic interactionism—meaning, interaction, and interpretation. The combination of a quantitative survey and qualitative interviewing allows this study to contextualize the meaning of the ability grouping which students make out of their experiences. The research context is unique as a uniform curriculum was implemented across the three-level groups of English proficiency. The survey results indicate that the students somehow agreed with grouped learning; the interview findings identify that the extent to which the students supported or opposed ability grouping was mediated by learner profiles, English proficiency, classroom climate, student–teacher interactions, teaching approaches, and curriculum materials. Symbolic interactionism illuminates that ability grouping is located within the web of individual and collective acts; therefore, one’s attitude toward ability grouping is situated and evolving.