초등학교 1, 2학년 영어과 도입의 효과 연구

Exploring the effect of introducing English subject into first and second grades in elementary school

  The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of introducing English subject into first and second grades in elementary school, which comprised three objectives: specification of achievement standards, design of learning contents and activities, and their application to elementary English classes. Achievement standards were specified on the basis of topics and functions. Learning contents were selected according to exponents and words related to functions. Activities were designed by the principles of first language acquisition. Topics and contents of the integrated subjects in the first and second grade were analyzed and applied in developing achievement standards, learning contents and activities. The learning contents and activities were applied to elementary English classes. The students were 164 first and second graders. The results of this research were as follows. Firstly, the students were very interested and confident in learning English. Although some students did not have English learning experiences, they could achieve the achievement standards successfully. Secondly, learning English for 40 minutes is a little boring for first and second graders because of their short attention span. Thus, English subject could be introduced in the type of a theme-based integrated subject. Thirdly, elementary school teachers may be anxious about teaching English but this research shows that classroom teachers can teach English without too much burden.