Learning the Subordinators in English, Utilizing the TV Series Suits:

This study aims at two goals: suggesting a practical grammar learning method for the English subordinators, utilizing the TV series, Suits, and reporting on the results of implementing the model in an English conversation class at a Korean university. Twenty-eight students who enrolled in the class participated in the activities designed according to cognitive learning stages, i.e. awareness, conceptualization, proceduralization, and performance stages in learning. Their development in appropriately using the subordinators was measured by means of pre- and post-tests customized for each stage for quantitative analysis. Written interviews inquiring how they perceived the TV-drama-assisted learning method were also carried out for qualitative analysis. While the learning effect was overall positive, the proceduralization-stage learning was dominant. The participants’ use of subordinators was improved at statistically significant levels for all categories of the nominal-clause, adjectival-clause, and adverbial-clause subordinators. The initial mean scores of this stage were lower than those of the conceptualization stage, but the gap was restored in the post-test. Among the three types of grammatical forms, the participants’ improvement was most consistent for the adverbial-clause subordinators. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses alike support TV-drama-assisted grammar learning as a source of motivation and fun.