운(韻)을 활용한 초등영어 노래자료의 개발과 실행

The development and the implementation of English rhyming song materials for elementary school learners

  The present study, as a part of a long-term project to develop English song materials appropriate for Korean elementary school learners, aims to examine the learning effects of the devised song materials characterized by rhyming texts. The new song materials were taught in a fifth-grade experimental class, with a focus on the rhyming words in each text, while the concept of rhyme was not introduced to the control group. The statistical analysis of the experimental results put forth these findings: In the experimental group, the students’ interest in studying English increased to a statistically significant extent, compared to that of the control group; they showed a strong preference for the experimental materials over the textbook songs, and the primary reason given for the preference was the presence of rhyming patterns; they remembered far more songs of the experimental materials than the textbook songs among what they had memorized and could sing by themselves; the score of the achievement test to evaluate their word reading and writing ability was higher, to a statistically significant extent, than that of the control group. The positive outcome of the experimental teaching suggests that the future elementary English textbooks include song materials with rhyming patterns.