The current study applied VanPatten and Cadierno(1993)'s processing instruction to Korean language teaching and tested its effect. Compared to the existing traditional instruction based on the output, processing instruction is a teaching technique tha...
The current study applied VanPatten and Cadierno(1993)'s processing instruction to Korean language teaching and tested its effect. Compared to the existing traditional instruction based on the output, processing instruction is a teaching technique that leads to the learners' sufficient and efficient language acquisition through structured input activities. Accordingly, the current study selected Korean language passive because processing instruction was expected to serve as a targeted grammatical item that tests whether or not processing instruction is effective.
The research questions of the present study are as follows: First, will processing instruction have an effect on Korean language learning? We formulated a hypothesis that the group which took processing instruction would improve their scores significantly after applying instruction and get higher scores than the traditional instruction group. Second, will processing instruction be effective in terms of interpretation and production of Korean language learning through a comparison within the group? We built a hypothesis that after applying instruction the processing instruction group would get higher scores than the traditional instruction group in terms of interpretation and achieve scores of similar levels to the traditional instruction group in terms of production. Third, will processing instruction be more effective than traditional instruction in terms of interpretation and production of Korean language learning through a comparison between the groups? We formulated a hypothesis that after applying instruction the processing instruction group would get higher scores than the traditional instruction group in terms of interpretation and get scores of similar levels to the traditional instruction group in terms of production. And finally, will the effect of processing instruction persist even as time passes? We constructed a hypothesis that delayed post test scores of the processing instruction group would be higher than those of the traditional instruction group in the area of interpretation and scores of the similar levels will appear in the area of production.
In order to confirm the hypotheses we chose the derivative passive out of Korean language passives as a targeted grammatical item and conducted a test with 27 Korean language learners at the intermediate level dividing them into a processing instruction group, a traditional instruction group and a control group.
As a result of the test, the processing instruction group made significant improvements in scores after applying instruction while the differences in scores were not significant compared to the traditional instruction group. As a result of dividing the effect of processing instruction into the areas of interpretation and production, the processing instruction group made significant improvements in scores respectively in the areas of interpretation and production. However, compared to the traditional instruction group the gap in scores was not significant in the area of interpretation and scores of similar levels were shown in the area of production. This indicates that processing instruction has an effect on Korean language passive learning and compared to traditional instruction, the level of the effect is similar. However, it deserves mention that input-based processing instruction had a similar effect to output-based traditional instruction in the area of production. In the case of the delayed post test, the traditional instruction group got higher scores than the processing instruction group in the areas of interpretation and production but the gap in scores was not significant. It can be said that this results from the fact that exogenous variables were not controlled very well in the process of the test.
The current study applied processing instruction to Korean language education based on a number of precedent studies including VanPatten and Cadierno(1993) that tested the effect of processing instruction. As a result, like the outcomes of the previous studies this study verified through a test that input-based processing instruction has a similar effect to output-based traditional instruction in terms of learners' production and exert an effect in both of interpretation and production although the finding that it had no significant difference over traditional instruction in the area of interpretation is a different outcome from that of previous studies.
The present study holds major significance in that it confirmed the applicability of processing instruction to teaching passive form of Korean language and supported its relevance in an objective manner.