초등영어 리터러시 격차 및 보정체계 연구

EFL in the elementary school: Literacy gap and intervention.

This study diagnosed the basic literacy skills and analyzed the competency gaps of 91 second graders across four classes of a public elementary school in Metropolitan City B in South Korea. Second graders were selected because they have not begun formally studying EFL (English as a foreign language) in school. Based on Acadience Reading K-6, the test used in this study consisted of 30 multiple-choice questions specifically developed for Korean students encompassing eight diagnostic areas (Alphabetics, Letter Naming, Fluency, First Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segment Fluency, Non-Sense Word Fluency, Word Decoding, and Maze). The study found a wide gap among the participants in basic literacy skills, and a key variable was the starting age of English study. Multi-level analysis showed that the participants’ abilities grew systematically and disproportionately. Explicit instruction for the deficit areas was found to be required, and systematic phonics education was deemed essential. The study attempted to derive the implications of systematic intervention in the future, based on the revealed areas of deficit in the detailed literacy capabilities.