스토리텔링이 초등영어 활용능력에 미치는 효과

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Effects of Storytelling on the English Proficiency of Elementary School Students

Jeong Soon-young Advisor : Prof. Kim Gui-seok, Ph.D. Department of English Education, Graduate School of Chosun University

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are any differences in elementary school students' English-learning interest, self-confidence, comprehension, participation and preferences in activity programs conducted by the teacher's guide, and to analyze their effects on listening, speaking and reading ability through storytelling. The subjects of this study were 56 students in the fourth grade at Yeonje Elementary School, divided into 28 in the experimental group and 28 in the control group. The control group was taught using CD-ROM Title and text book activities, while the experimental group was taught using storybook and book-making activities by applying storytelling. Both groups were given a post-test after the instruction. The students' interest, self-confidence, comprehension and participation in English-learning activity programs were measured by a questionnaire in which eight items were chosen out of Kang young-eun's ten attitude evaluations, and their listening ability was measured by a questionnaire in which twenty items were chosen from the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation and Edunet Teaching & Learning Centre. The students' ability to speak and read was analyzed according to the reliability of their assessors. The subjects' English proficiency was evaluated in five areas: interest in English learning, book-making activities, listening, speaking and reading ability through storytelling. The subjects were tested on two texts of listening, speaking and reading tests repeatedly, of which one was a pre-test and the other was a post-test. Two analyses of variance with repeated measures were performed on the scores of listening, speaking, reading and analyzed using SPSS WIN 12.0. The results were as follows: First, there were positive effects on the experimental group students' interest in English learning through storytelling: the more the subjects participated in the activities, the higher interest they revealed in the survey. A total of 89.3% of the experimental group students answered that storytelling was very helpful in their reading, and 82.2% of them understood most of the stories. And also, there were also different preferences for the activities between the two groups. It was found that 50% of the experimental group students enjoyed book-making but 53.6% of the control group students liked to play games. It is thus suggested that teachers' activity programs can produce different preferences among their students. Second, there was a significant difference in listening ability according to use of storytelling. It was found that the average score on the post-listening test of the experimental group was 4.30 points higher than that of the pre-listening test, while that of the control group was only 1.77 points higher. Third, there was a significant difference in speaking ability. The experimental group students' speaking usage ability was found to be 2.39 points higher than that of the control group students. This shows that storytelling improved the subjects' speaking proficiency. Finally, there was a significant difference in reading ability. This suggests that there is a positive correlation between story-telling and reading ability, and that instruction using storytelling is more effective than meaningless reading. The more the subjects became familiar with the storybooks, the higher scores they obtained on reading ability. The pedagogical implication is that students' reading of storybooks is significantly related to their interest, self-confidence, comprehension and participation in English learning, while it improves their listening, speaking and reading abilities.