The study has investigated what makes Korean high school students motivated and demotivated, and what they think about learning English. To conduct this study, a quantitative approach with a questionnaire with Likert Scale Format and a qualitative app...
The study has investigated what makes Korean high school students motivated and demotivated, and what they think about learning English. To conduct this study, a quantitative approach with a questionnaire with Likert Scale Format and a qualitative approach by conducting interviews with the subjects are examined. Some of the findings are differentiated from those of foreign countries. Results drawn from this study are following:
(1) One is that most Korean high school students have great attention on studying English even if they feel English itself as a great burden. (2) The other is that demotivation is the clear tendency in studying English, including many reasons. Above all, English teachers are much blamed from the students for their negative personalities, lack of commitment to teaching and attention paid to the students, and making them do boring routine memorization of the text, English for only entering university, typical reading and learning grammar. The second one is the lack of chances of speaking English in their daily lives. In the literature review of former foreign researchers' studies, this factor is not identified. It is the unique, being in Korea only. Compulsory nature of EFL study is also one of the demotives. It is obviously related to the lack of autonomy. Others are inadequate school facilities, the weak will and reduced self-confidence from experience of failure of success or low grade. Because these results are much different from those of foreign examples, the proper ways of English teaching and learning in Korea should be recommended.
These are some suggestions for our future teaching and learning based on the analysis and results of the investigation: (1) English teachers should discuss the effective teaching ways together so that they find the suitable one of teaching English. They should find the best teaching method. (2) To have students less bored, they should encourage their students to study English in a comfortable, active surroundings. (3) English teachers should use English much more to teach English in classes and make them master their English in real talk. (4) To give students more chances to speak English, the Ministry of Education should employ English native speakers and make them teach students in schools.