멀티미디어 영어 교육이 유아들의 성취도 및 흥미도에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of multimedia on young learners？ achievement and interest in English. The subjects were 40 five-year-olds enrolled in a kindergarten located in Kimhae city. They participated in 30-minute-long multimedia English classes three times a week for seven weeks. To evaluate the influence of multimedia on children, a survey on children？s learning interest, their achievement tests both in listening and speaking skills, and key informant interviews were conducted. The items for the children？s interest survey and individual interviews were selected from previous research and modified for the current study. The children's achievement tests were developed by the author based on various multimedia English teaching materials. The achievement tests consisted of both listening and speaking sections. The findings of the research show that using multimedia in English education influenced young learners' motivation positively. Specifically, independent variables including interest in subject matter, teachers, and study materials seemed to have motivated young learners significantly. They also appeared to have increased their interest positively. However, the influence of parental involvement on the children seemed to be insignificant. Multimedia in English education seemed to have improved the young learners' listening skills and speaking skills overall. With regard to the English listening skills, the improvement in the listening test was shown to be statistically significant, especially with the young learners with high-level proficiency, who showed more improvement than those with low-level proficiency. With regard to the English speaking skills, the result seemed to have shown an improvement which was statistically significant in both the high- and low-level children. On the basis of the results mentioned above, the study seems to support the practical benefits of utilizing multimedia in English education. Future research may focus on how multimedia-driven education might influence young learners？intellectual, physiological, and emotional development at a deeper level. Also, the present study seemed to show a positive relationship between self-study at home using CD-ROMs and children's academic achievement in English. Thus, how to develop and facilitate multimedia programs such as CD？Rom in English education may be further investigated. One potential benefit of adopting multimedia English teaching materials for young children may be to increase their interest in English, which, in turn, could extend to their home learning. Furthermore, parental involvement in children's English studies may reinforce young learners？ interest in English and thus, this area need to be further investigated. It is recommended to further look at how to increase parental involvement in English multimedia education, and how to advertise and promote such programs. Developing various multimedia programs would be necessary in order to maintain attention and interest of young learners.