사이버 가정학습이 초등 1학년 학생의 영어듣기능력과 정의적 영역에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The Effect of Cyber English Home Learning on the First Grade Elementary School Children's Listening Ability and Affective Domain

Young Hwa Lim

Graduate School of Education Pukyong National University

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using a cyber home learning program on the elementary school first graders' English listening ability and affective domain, that is, student interest, confidence, and attitude toward English. A case study was conducted for 12 weeks from the first week of April 2011 until the fourth week of June 2011. For the research method, 27 first grade elementary school children consisting of 13 boys and 14 girls from a local elementary school in Busan participated in the current study. The cyber English materials developed by Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeong-nam Education and Research Center were adopted for the study. There were several things the children were asked to do in this program: They were asked to listen and practice words and dialogues after studying the animated lessons. In addition, they were asked to take some word quizzes, and play on-line bingo games. Besides, they had to listen to the conversations from animated lessons for the cyber home learning as many time as they wished. They had to do English homework the teacher made or send the answers to their homework assignment to their teacher by text messages. The group was tested at the beginning and at the end of the study period for their listening abilities. For evaluating their affective domain, they answered a questionnaire survey the researcher made. The collected data were analyzed statistically using the SPSS 12.0 program. The findings of the study are as follows: First, the cyber English home learning program was shown to have a more positive effect on the children's English listening ability. Through the cyber English home learning program, the children were able to understand dialogues carried out in English better because they were able to repeat the dialogues as many times as they wanted. Second, the cyber English home learning program seemed to influence positively on the children's affective domain. They showed a keen interest in their English classes and more confidence in understanding English. To sum up, using the cyber English home learning program was effective in improving the children's English listening abilities and possibly reinforcing their affective domain. Based on the findings mentioned above, the following suggestion can be made for the elementary school teachers. In order to yield positive results from utilizing cyber English learning programs such as the one adopted for the current study, the role of teachers are important in that they need to strive for effectively conducting cyber-learning activities to their students by diligently checking their attendances on the cyber program, and motivating them with compliments and rewards for the children's active participation.