Improving Low-Proficiency Korean EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills Using Two Different Modes of Movie Clips: A Media Literacy Perspective *

This research examined a salient media mode by comparing the use of two different types of movie clips—one without sound and one with sound—for oral proficiency from a media literacy perspective. This research was conducted for 62 low-proficiency Korean EFL learners over a 12-week period. The results revealed that the presentation of visual animation without sound can be particularly beneficial for low-proficiency EFL learners to enhance their speaking skills in terms of discourse and vocabulary, which can facilitate cognitive processes by offering more learning opportunities through media interpretation. Interestingly, content in movie clips without sound was considered important to create stories and it is related to vocabulary learning. Unlike the interpretation of a movie clip without sound, although the movie clip with sound may provide benefits for listening enhancement and can be a good summarization task for listening and speaking skills, a given storyline of a movie clip with sound used to create a story could limit language learners’ critical thinking and ability to employ further ideas about media. Importantly, the participants agreed that the movie clip without sound could promote critical thinking, which boosts media literacy and leads to higher-order thinking to form opinions about the media.