2009 개정 교육과정에 따른 고등학교 1학년 영어 교과서의 삽화 분석

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the visuals in Korean high school English textbooks revised for the 2009 national curriculum and compare the results with those of Korean high school English textbooks in the 7th national curriculum and British EFL coursebooks. To achieve this purpose, all 8 EnglishⅠ textbooks for first year were selected and analyzed with regard to the following five categories: the types of the visuals, the contents of the visuals, the purposes of the visuals, the visuals by units, and the visuals by language skills. The findings of this study were as follows: First, it was found that the use of photos was significantly higher than the use of drawings in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum when compared to the result of Korean textbooks in the 7th national curriculum. However, the proportion of the photos in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum was still far fewer than that of the EFL coursebooks. These results would show that with the development of social media and mobile technology, it has become easier to find a suitable photo for activities for four language skills, communicative language learning, and meaningful language learning in the current Korean textbooks. Still, some degree of using drawings is needed for the convenience of publishing textbooks. Second, it was found that in all cases, more than half of the visuals were the descriptions of people, not of objects, but they were more evenly used in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum than in the other coursebooks. It could mean that the contents of both sets of Korean textbooks focus on communicative language learning because people could be generally thought of as the performers or receivers of communication. However, the visuals related to the communicative language learning have been diversified in the current Korean textbooks. Third, it was found that in all cases, the visuals seemed to be used more for decorative purposes rather than for the purpose of practical use in teaching and learning, particularly in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum. It can be presumed that decorative visuals could be considered necessary for editing coursebooks, but they do not directly affect language learning because most activities could be done without them. Therefore, as visuals are created to relate to learning activities, they could provide learners and teachers with meaningful educational opportunities such as presenting various topics and leading to natural communication to learn language by personalization. Fourth, it was found that the gap between the highest and lowest numbers of the visuals in each unit was lower in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum, compared with Korean textbooks in the 7th national curriculum, but the irregularity in the number of the visuals by units still remained. It seems that such imbalance could cause learners confusion in their studies. Lastly, it was found that in both sets of Korean textbooks, the visuals were overwhelmingly used for one language skill rather than for integrated language skills. With regard to four language skills, the percentage of the visuals for writing skills slightly increased as much as those for speaking and listening skills. However, the majority of the visuals were used only for reading skills in Korean textbooks for the 2009 national curriculum, compared with Korean textbooks in the 7th national curriculum. This phenomenon might result from learners' language proficiency. Since learners are able to understand language that they couldn't possibly produce, visuals could be regarded as more appropriate for receptive skills rather than productive skills. The following suggestions are made based on the above results. First, to analyze the usefulness of visuals in coursebooks more deeply, various aspects of views on them should be considered such as the perception and requests of teachers and learners on the visuals in the coursebooks through a needs analysis and the intention of authors on them through a workshop or a seminar. Second, the study on visuals in coursebooks needs to be continued because a replication study provides data to get a full picture of visuals in coursebooks and reliable criteria for the revision of coursebooks. Lastly, even though an analysis of visuals in coursebooks themselves might be useful, it is necessary to analyze the suitability of them as an educational application, the appropriateness of them on subject contents, and the effect of them on learners' language learning as a further study in order to improve the quality of coursebooks and increase learning effect.