An Exploratory Study of University EFL Students’ Participation in CBI

An Exploratory Study of University EFL Students’ Participation in CBI

  A substantial body of research in ESL contexts has investigated how content-based instructions (CBI) have contributed to both content and L2 language learning, but there has been little research to investigate the effects of CBI on EFL, especially in Korean university contexts. This study addresses students’ participations in CBI classroom by investigating their attention, motivational intensity, persistence, anxiety, willingness to communicate (WTC), and self-confidence in the classroom through the questionnaires before and after the instruction. The findings showed that the students in the CBI class paid more attention to the lesson than those in the Korean-medium one did. However, the students, especially at low-level, had trouble understanding the lesson, and the students with previous CBI experience were better accustomed to the CBI. In addition, the students reported their improvement in listening and speaking skills after CBI. This finding suggests the beneficial effects of CBI in Korean university EFL contexts.