In the era of globalization, English has been established as the important means of communication with a variety of people across borders. As the use of the Internet and mobile becomes popular with globalization, the written language-based communicati...
In the era of globalization, English has been established as the important means of communication with a variety of people across borders. As the use of the Internet and mobile becomes popular with globalization, the written language-based communication of reading and writing gradually becomes as important as the spoken-language based communication of speaking and listening. Under this circumstance, the teachers and the students feel pressure of teaching and learning how to write in the field of the elementary school education. The students also feel difficult to select proper vocabulary of what they want to express as well as to use it correctly in the process of writing. This is because vocabulary is considered to be taught through individual word list for oneself rather than being taught through vocabulary teaching in the classroom.
The purpose of this study is to explore how mind-mapping and summarizing activity as the specific instructional activity utilizing the Internet English Story Flashes effect on the English vocabulary and the writing education of the elementary school students and their affective attitudes. To identify the effects of the mind-mapping and summarizing activities education utilizing the English Story Flashes, this study was conducted targeting total 78 of three classes in the sixth grade of the elementary school located in Busan. The students were classified as the high-achieving group and low-achieving group through the pre-test. Prior to the experiment, the affective survey on pre-vocabulary and writing was carried out. After finishing the experiment, post-assessment survey and the affective survey was conducted targeting all three groups. For two experimental groups, the intensified-activity questionnaires were additionally distributed.
The results obtained from this experimental research are as follows;
Above all, according to the analysis of the pre and the post vocabulary test scores of three groups, the control group centered on the textbook and the experimental group with mind-mapping and summarizing activities all showed significant improvement in vocabulary skill. Thus, it can be inferred that the classes with the Internet English Story Flashes have positive effects on the vocabulary education of the learners, and more positive education effects were showed when the mind-mapping and summarizing activities were added. In terms of the improvement of vocabulary skill per level, there was no significant difference among three groups for the high-achieving group and the low-achieving group both. In contrast, in terms of the score improvement within the groups, the high-achieving group and the low-achieving group with mind-mapping and summarizing activities showed significant score improvement.
Secondly, according to the comparison of the pre and the post test scores of the control group and the experimental group, it can be confirmed that the mind-mapping and summarizing activities utilizing the Internet English Story Flashes can positively affect the improvement of wiring skill of the learners. There was significant difference between the control group and the experimental group in the high-achieving group of writing. As the result of the post test, the mind-mapping activity after watching the Internet English Story Flashes can help the high-achieving students to improve writing skill. Also, the comparison between the pre and the post test scores among the groups showed that the mind-mapping and summarizing activities utilizing the Internet English Story all affect positively on the writing skill of the low-achieving students.
Thirdly, as the results of analyzing the post assessment in order to examine the effects of mind-mapping and summarizing activity utilizing the Internet English Story Flashes on the affective attitude of the English learners in the elementary school, there was significant difference among all three groups in the four areas of interest, self-confidence, necessity, participation level. In the comparison within the groups, they all showed positive change in the attitude toward vocabulary and writing excepting for self-confidence area.
The educational implications which can be derived from the research results of this experiment are as follows.
First of all, in the elementary school classes, teachers should help the learners to get interested in the English classes as well as be exposed into a whole language learning environment by utilizing the Internet English Story Flashes which are related to the textbook subjects or the learners’ interests. From the result of this study, constant classes utilizing the English Story Flashes can be expected to make positive effects on the improvement of the students’ learning skills and the attitudes toward English. In addition, the teachers should help students to learn and realize for oneself beyond the passive education of the excessive English private lessons so the English education utilizing the Internet English Story home pages can be developed into the opportunity of self-directed learning beyond the classroom.
Secondly, the teachers should instruct the learners on the importance of post-writing activities and the educational effects after watching the English stories so they can be guided to write the subject-related vocabulary with free-association or to write the contents in the stories with the summarized sentences more than simply reading or listening the stories. As the results of the pre and the post survey and the results of the intensified-activity supplement questionnaires of this experiment said, the group with the mind-mapping and summarizing activity after watching the Internet English Story Flashes showed very positive responses in the affective area. Besides, the group who performed each writing activity showed the higher improvement compared to the control group in the vocabulary and writing education skill. Therefore, the teachers should guide the learners to write down the vocabulary and the contents which the learners initiatively learn so they can actively participate in writing activity by performing post-writing activity after utilizing a variety of materials including the English story in the field of education.