그래픽오거나이저의 적용이 의사소통능력 신장에 미치는 영향 연구

An Effect of Graphic Organizer on the Development of Communicative Competence

This study aims to find out whether graphic organizer will have an effect on the communicative competence of elementary school students. The study was conducted from March to December in 2012 targeting an applied class (23 students) and a comparative class (22 students) in the 4th grade attending an elementary school located in Seoul. Unlike ESL context or the environment in which English is spoken as a mother tongue, EFL context is rarely given the chance to use English. Because the exposure to English is definitely lacking due to the environmental characteristics, students often have difficulty studying English. Written language in the EFL context is one of the communication tool to replace the deficient spoken language activities. Besides, an increase in vocabulary through written language activities is also the most fundamental element of communication through English. Through a pre-survey, it was found that students strongly opposed written English. Therefore, applying graphic organizer to elementary students as an alternative to approaching written English to them effectively to examine the effect on development of their communicative competence showed that there was a statistically significant effect each in the domains of vocabulary ability, communicative competence and affectiveness. The result of this study showed that graphic organizer activities not only made students more familiar with and more interested in English but also became one of the effective ways to reach the final aim of improving communicative competence. Accordingly, in the future, it is expected that graphic organizer will be used usefully at school.