과업중심학습 활동을 통한 대학생들의 영어능력향상을 위한 연구

Abstract

This study is an action research designed to improve learners’ English competence at a EFL classroom from a teacher’s perspective. During the 15 week English conversation classes, various task-based activities were used for the freshmen based on a task-based syllabus. There are three following research questions. First, have learners improved their interest and confidence through task-based learning? Second, have classactivities affected the learning of English usages? Third, do youthink that learners’ four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) were improved through task-based activities? Additionally, which skill was most improved? In this study, sixteen (male:7, female:9) freshmen took the ‘English Conversation’ class over the 15 week period. Most participants did not have experience in living or studying at English-speaking countries. But they could express and understand basic English expressions. A textbook entitled ‘American Headway 2’ was used for the task-based English conversation class. In addition, some other supporting materials designed by the EFL teacher was used. For this study, the following tasks were used in the classroom: ‘information gap activity’, ‘role-play activity’, ‘problem-solving activity’, ‘discussion activity’ and ‘essay writing activity’. The result shows that 69% of learners have interest and confidence through the task-based class in the EFL classroom. And 81% of students show positive response on the effect of the task-based activities. Among four language skills, three skills such as ‘speaking’, ‘listening’, and ‘writing’ have been improved. In particular, ‘speaking’ skill has been most improved through task-based activities in the EFL classroom.