The Effect of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity Using Children's Literature on Primary English Education

This study aims to develop children's literature-based Directed Reading-Thinking Activity model for English teaching and learning using graphic organizers in elementary schools. The subjects are fourteen sixth grade students who participated in the extracurricular activities in an elementary school. This model is made up of the following three phases: 1) the "Predicting, Reading, and Proving" process to delve into each different phase of the text, 2) the use of graphic organizers to grasp at the gist of the textual flow, and 3) the "Expanding and Refining Concepts" step to go beyond the textual boundaries on the basis of students' prior knowledge. The researcher has analyzed students' English ability test results, learning journals, teaching journals, interviews, and the survey results about both students' reading strategies and their affective domain responses. The overall appreciations of story elements in literary texts were also included in the analysis process. The major findings are as follows. First, this model contributed to improving students' English ability, especially for the higher level students. Second, the "Predicting, Reading, and Proving" process is effective in developing students' reading strategies as well as improving their overall reading comprehension. Third, the middle and lower level students pose more positive attitudes to the graphic organizer-based tests than the higher level students. Finally, this model shows positive improvements in the affective domain, except confidence and anxiety. In conclusion, this study has pedagogical implications on English teaching and learning.