Effects of Level and Style-based EFL Instruction from the Perspectives of Korean Elementary Teachers

Effects of Level and Style-based EFL Instruction from the Perspectives of Korean Elementary Teachers

  This paper investigates Korean elementary school teachers’ perspectives on level-based and learning style-based EFL instruction. After teaching English to their students in the context of level-based instruction and learning style-based instruction, the teachers videotaped their classes, filled out a questionnaire, submitted reflection papers, and discussed the problems and solutions. The results of the study showed that 1) the teachers liked using level-based instruction more often than learning style-based instruction mainly because of the burden of class preparation and their unfamiliarity with learning style-based instruction; that 2) the most favored type of lessons by the teachers was level-based instruction and the least favored one was learning style-based instruction; that 3) teachers believed, however, that most of their students (85.7%) liked learning style-based instruction most and none liked basic instruction; and that 4) teachers believed that the most effective type was level-based instruction and the least effective type was basic instruction. Finally, the study suggests an alternative way of teaching to overcome students’ individual differences in English classes, selective corner study instruction, which is task-oriented but still considers students’ achievement levels and learning styles.