A Discourse- and Production-Based Approach to Teaching Sentence-Level EFL Grammar: A Cyber Course Using Movies

The purpose of the current study is to examine the perceived effectiveness of a discourse-based approach to teaching sentence-level EFL grammar. The instruction utilizes movies as a source of discoursal contexts. The study further explores its efficacy when teaching cyber university students in Korea. The research conducted a survey to which 80 students responded. It also used in-class exam scores. A mixed method was applied to analyze the data statistically and qualitatively organize their written answers to the open-ended questions. One major finding is that students aged 30 or older responded more positively to the class while the overall satisfaction was quite high. The perceived effectiveness of the production activities for speaking was also higher in the older group than the younger counterpart. Despite these discrepancies, however, both groups revealed a similar sentiment about the effectiveness of the activities, preferring filling in blanks and sentence writing over correcting errors and creating a story based on their experiences or opinions. The correlation analyses between the students’ in-class exam scores and the perceived effects of activities also showed an interesting association between them. Based on the results, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.