초등 영어 학습에서 실제 자료와 제작 자료의 효과 고찰

Investigating the effects of authentic materials and artificial materials on English learning in the primary school classrooms

This research investigates the effects of authentic materials and artificial materials on English learning in the primary school classrooms in terms of language learning, task involvement, and learner interest. The two types of materials were alternately used to teach English to 38 students in the two intact classes of grade 6 in a counterbalanced manner. The effects of material types were tested through language skills (i.e., speaking, listening, reading, and writing), observation scales, surveys and interviews in order to see if there are any differential effects on leaners. A confounding variable was the learner’s level of English proficiency. The statistical analyses of data revealed that there were significant interactional effects between the type of material and the learner level. For the upper-level learners, authentic materials were effective only in listening with no significant differences in the other skills. For the mid-level learners, artificial materials were effective only in writing with no differences in the other skills. For the low-level learners, artificial materials worked much more effectively on all four skills. As for task involvement, the upper-level learners obtained higher scores with authentic materials whereas the low-level learners did so with artificial materials. The mid-level learners showed no statistical differences in the type of material. As for learner interest, the upper-level learners showed more interests with authentic materials, whereas the low-level learners did so with artificial materials. The mid-level learners did not show any preferences for the type of material. This study suggests that teachers need to take careful consideration of learner level when exploiting teaching materials in English classes.