The purposes of this study is to analyze the effects on reading ability and affective characteristics for fourth grade learners in the revised 7th English national curriculum which is notified by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(2009)...
The purposes of this study is to analyze the effects on reading ability and affective characteristics for fourth grade learners in the revised 7th English national curriculum which is notified by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(2009).
To achieve such objectives, the following has been done. First, the study analyzed the reading contents and criterion of first semester of the fourth grade in both the 7th English national curriculum and revised 7th English national curriculum. Second, the reconstruction of the textbook for various reading activities and increasing number of English class hours were performed. Lessons of textbook are organized to teach eight periods so that learners had two English classes a week other than one which they used to had in 7th national curriculum. Third, two classes of 4th graders in G elementary school, located in Daejeon city, was selected for this study. The experimental group was composed of 30 male and 29 female students. At the onset, basic data was collected though a questionnaire in which all 59 students participated. The data was analyzed in four facets: experience of English learning, experience of English Reading, preferred learning activities and expectation of learning English twice a week.
To verify the effectiveness of this experiment in the cognitive domain, English reading achievement test was given before and after the experiment. For the same reason the affective domain, the questionnaire as to students self-confidence, anxiety, interest, attitude, learning motivation about English learning was surveyed before and after the experiment. In the middle of the experiment, change of participation was conducted by teacher's observation checklist and a survey on students' self-test about interest, self-confidence and satisfaction was performed. And furthermore, students' reflective writing after experiment was analyzed qualitatively.
The results of this study are as follows; The results from the English reading achievement test showed that reading ability of the students gradually improved after learning reading of the revised 7th English national curriculum. It has showed that self-confidence, anxiety, interest, and attitude in the affective domain improved and had meaningful results. Teaching two periods a week expanded to provide chances for students to learn reading English and kept up students achievement of reading ability.
In conclusion, reading instruction using the criterion and numbers of English class hours of revised 7th English national curriculum had positive effects on elementary school students' English reading ability and learning attitude.
The implications for elementary English education can be suggested based on the finding above: Various lesson programs including more varieties of reading English should be developed. It showed some of low-level students were not improved in reading English test after the experiment. Teachers' elaborate advance preparation and development of various activities suitable for students' level are required so as to unfold good qualitative class. English teachers should be encouraged to study ways to teach efficiently and create a variety of materials classes for written English which are newly adopted in revised 7th English national curriculum.