An Analysis of Elementary Students’ L2 Meaning Making in an EFL Context

This study investigated how Korean elementary students made meaning in English classes and the learning activities they utilized in this process. The participants in the study were the teachers and students in four different elementary English classes. The data were collected by the four teachers who voluntarily videotaped their classes. All classroom discourse from the four classes was transcribed. The lesson plans and the researchers’ notes from class discussion were also collected. The study reliability was increased by triangulating the data, and the data were externally validated by exact transcription of the classroom discourse. The themes derived from the cross-case analysis revealed that the students in this study constructed meaning in L2 in multiple ways: 1) by using L1 as a foundation; 2) chorusing pattern drills; 3) recalling learned materials; 4) generalizing the meanings of words through visual aids; 5) making sentences with unscrambled words; and 6) using stories. The classroom activities were embedded in these six different themes. Discussion from these findings is provided.