This study is to investigate the correlation between language aptitude and vocabulary levels of 5th graders of a Korean elementary school. The participants of the study were 39 elementary school students in Daejeon Metropolitan City. Language aptitude was elicited using LLAMA B, D, E and F classified respectively into memory retention, sound recognition, sound-symbol correspondence, and inference and application. A vocabulary size test modified from the vocabulary size test (Nation, 1990) was injected to the students to investigate their vocabulary levels. A correlation between each LLAMA score and vocabulary size of students was tabulated for their correlationship along with their statistical significance of 95% probability rate. The findings are: Positive correlations were found between each language aptitude ability and vocabulary ability. Among them, the correlation between memory retention and vocabulary ability is only statistically significant. This finding implicates that memory retention is an important factor to learn and retain new words, and learning vocabulary with pictures is recommended to reinforce the connection between meanings and forms of new words.

With the advent of mobile technology, teaching and learning have been more effective with the help of smartphone education applications. This study investigates the effects of vocabulary learning using the smartphone education applications on Korean elementary school learners’ English vocabulary learning and attitudes. A total of fifty-seven elementary school students in the 5th grade participated in the study and were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. The results of the study manifested that both the experimental and control group showed an increase in the comprehension and production score from pre- to post-tests. The effects of the long-term vocabulary learning, however, were not found to be statistically significant. The average score in the delayed test for both groups slightly increased, which indicated that the treatment was beneficial for learners’ long-term memory enhancement. In the affective domain, interests and confidence ratings were significant for the upper-level experimental and lower-level control group. The results of the survey questionnaire showed that the vocabulary learning using direct examples and pictures for both groups was helpful to improve learners’ lexical competence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate paths of the effects of L2 motivational self system and self-efficacy on Korean EFL learners’ English ability. For this purpose, questionnaires were conducted and 580 Korean elementary school students in Gyeonggido participated in this survey. Correlation and path analysis were used to analyze the data. The major results of the study are as follows: (1) Self-efficacy is correlated with all constructs of motivation. It has the highest correlation with ideal L2 self and the lowest correlation with ought-to L2 self; (2) self-efficacy has a direct effect on ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self whereas it has direct and indirect effects on elementary students’ English proficiency; and (3) ought-to L2 self has a positive direct effect and L2 learning experience has a negative direct effect on elementary students’ English proficiency. However, ideal L2 self has no effect on elementary students’ English proficiency. At the end of the paper, pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.

Effects of primary English education using children’s literature have been extensively examined by many researchers in Korea during the past about two decades. This study aims to delineate the research domain by employing a meta-analysis of 31 primary studies that have been published in Korean refereed journals by February 2017. From the primary studies, 41 effects sizes were calculated based on the contrast of the means of two groups and 152 pre-to-post effect sizes based on the contrast of pretest and posttest scores. The results indicate that primary English education using children’s literature had overall a medium-sized effect (g = .60), with its effect being greater in the affective domain (g = .93) than in the cognitive domain (g = .37). More specifically, it was found that introducing children’s literature in the elementary English classrooms would bring about positive learning effects in the areas of vocabulary and reading and would be effective to develop positive learner interest and attitudes toward English learning. The results and their implications are further discussed.

Morphological competence plays an important role in extending one’s vocabulary in grammatical context. This study is to explore the developmental distribution of English grammatical morphemes appearing in elementary English textbooks. To this end, the study developed grammatical morpheme recognition and elicitation tests based on the bilingual syntax measurement (BSM). The tests are given to 114 fifth graders and 126 sixth graders across small, medium and metropolitan cities. The students were stratified into high, mid and low English ability groups by their English achievement scores. The result shows that English grammatical morpheme awareness was positively correlated with students’ English ability. The grammatical morphological development of Korean students was more in alignment with that of English learners as a foreign language than that of native speakers. Pedagogical implications are provided at the end of the paper.

This study explores whether there are differences in the types and characteristics of teacher talk between primary English teachers with different degrees of teaching professionalism. Two primary English teachers who were different from each other in their teaching professionalism were selected. They both taught sixth grade students and used the same English textbook. The data for the study were collected while they both were teaching the same unit of the textbook. Their classes were video-recorded and their interaction was transcribed and analyzed based on the framework of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk (Walsh, 2002). The results show that the two teachers differed in the amount of the use of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk. The more professional teacher used more constructive talk while the less professional teacher used more obstructive talk, and the more professional teacher encouraged the students to engage in the interaction by using constructive talk, such as error correction, content feedback, scaffolding, and so forth. On the basis of these results, some pedagogical implications were made.

This study investigates the opening stage of English class in the elementary school. It specifically explores the significant features of the interactions among teachers and students. A non-native Korean English teacher, a native English teacher, and 25 elementary students participated in the study. Twenty-three opening parts of the English classes were collected, transcribed, and analysed for the study. Data analysis showed that 1) the openings consist of greetings, reviewing, promoting motivations, and giving class objectives, 2) students had authentic communication, in that they moved out of the I-R-F sequence and even took the lead in the conversation as in Waring (2009)’s study, and 3) there were three types of learner initiatives in the class opening, which were reported by Waring (2011). It is also worth while to note that students self-selected, volunteered to respond, and began a sequence on the assigned turn regardless of their English competence. Some implications were suggested for meaningful interactions in the opening stage of English class in the elementary school.

The study investigates the effect of different types of visual images, i.e., static images versus dynamic images, on English vocabulary learning. Eighty-four students in the fourth grade of an elementary school participated in this study, and they were divided into two experimental groups and a control group. One of the experimental groups utilized static images, and the other group, videos as dynamic images in vocabulary learning. The control group was provided with the definition or the explanation of each target word in L1. The results of the study manifested that the static image group showed higher scores for the post test than the dynamic image group. The comparison of the pre and post affective tests demonstrated that the static image group showed an improvement in confidence in language learning and the dynamic image group showed positive change in the attitude of all three areas: interest, confidence, and aroused motivation. The analysis of the open-ended questionnaires showed that many participants in the static image group tended to use pictures as retrieval cues to remember vocabulary.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of writing workshop in a primary EFL context using children’s literature featuring social problems as the language input for learners. To accomplish the objective, two research questions were set up: 1) What aspects are shown in the development of primary EFL learners’ literacy skills through writing workshop using children’s literature? 2) What are some impacts in promoting social sensitivity through writing workshop using children’s literature featuring social problems? The data collected from diverse sources including worksheets, surveys, teacher’s logs, interviews, and self-reflection responses yielded two major findings. The first finding showed that participants learned how to utilize literary texts in their writing. In other words, the text used in the study played a motive for the participants in initiating and developing their writing. The second finding revealed the potential of cultivating social sensitivities of language learners through reading based writing workshop. For example, the participants identified the problematic situation by sympathizing with the characters from the texts, and tried to offer solutions. Also, democratic civic qualities of students were ascertained through the process of writing workshop. Based on the results, educational implications were provided.

This study aimed to examine educational connoisseurships of the 3rd and 4th year pre-service elementary school teachers (PSTs). Twenty eight 3rd year and 28 4th year PSTs were asked to write a critique on a video-taped elementary English lesson. Their comments were categorized and examined to see if there were any outstanding characteristics. It was also investigated whether the different amounts of coursework the two groups of PSTs had completed were reflected in their critiques. Many PSTs were found not to have developed their educational connoisseurships to examine whether a lesson was designed to maximize learning, and the functions of the target expressions were practiced and learned in a meaningful way. Two most common perspectives in their critiques were to examine whether the students were interested in the learning activities, and whether the learning activities helped students learn the target expressions. Some differences in the views on classroom English and differential learning activities were found across the two groups.

This study examines the difficulty of reading text in elementary school English textbooks. Four elementary school English textbook series published by three publishers were evaluated by Word Critical Factor (WCF). WCF considers cognitive demands for word recognition; it assesses the match of linguistic content in the text with the phonetically regular and high-frequency words that are associated with particular stages of reading development. For the analysis, all of the words that appeared in the reading and writing sections from four elementary school English textbooks were analyzed by two criteria, that is, the ratio of high frequency words and phonetically regular words among 100 running words, and the number of unique words in each textbook. The results showed that all four textbooks’ difficulty levels were very high considering the learner’s reading ability. This was due to the textbooks having a low repetition of words and also the complicated vowel patterns that were above the reading abilities of students. All of these factors combined are what have caused the difficulties presented in English textbooks. In conclusion, although the reading text introduces a variety of genres and activities for the development of reading skills, most reading text could not assist the reader’s cognitive processing.

This study explores the morphological awareness of different graders with different vocabulary levels. A total of 275 elementary students (148 5th graders and 127 6th graders) across small, midium and large cities are selected to test their morphological awareness. First, they were divided into 30%, 40% and 30% of students according to their vocabulary levels. Second, they were tested on the recognition tests, the production tests and the distributional tests of English derivational morphemes divided by the prefixes and the suffixes appeared in the English textbooks. The results are: The recognition and production tests show significant differences for both vocabulary levels and different English levels across different grades. However, the distributional test shows no clear difference like the other two tests. Based on the results, the study draws the conclusion that morphological awareness is developing in the order of recognition, production and distribution of morphologized words in sentences. In other words, recognition of forms precedes the production of forms, and the production is followed by the functional awareness of morphologized words.

This study investigated the effects of different gloss locations in extensive reading readers on English reading abilities of elementary students. It examined four groups of sixth graders in an elementary school and an extensive reading class was conducted over sixteen weeks. The four groups were given graded readers with four different types of glosses, such as non-gloss, marginal gloss, footnote gloss, and endnote gloss. To verify the effects of this experiment, pre- and post-reading ability test for the cognitive domain and pre- and post-questionnaire for the affective domain were administered to see if there were any achievement in reading ability and affective domain. The findings were as follows: (1) The four groups showed improvement in the reading ability tests. This result indicates that extensive reading was effective in improving students' reading ability; (2) The footnote gloss group showed the greatest change. This result indicates that footnote glosses influenced the most in improving students' reading ability; (3) All the groups showed positive results in the affective domain including attitude, self-confidence, interest, expectation, and value. In conclusion, extensive reading made a positive effect on all four groups and footnote glosses proved to be the most effective in both cognitive and affective domain.

This study examined how smart device applications affected elementary school students who have learning difficulties in English. Five 6th grade students who needed remedial instruction were selected and given 50 hours of instruction using English vocabulary flash cards in a smartphone application. one hundred vocabulary words were chosen and developed for flash cards for the students to examine their intellectual and emotional changes in English learning. The research results showed that the students' vocabulary improved in listening, reading and speaking. It also revealed that the students gained confidence and interest in English learning, and their anxiety decreased. In addition, the application was easy and convenient for the students to use, especially in recognizing the pronunciation and the meaning of the vocabulary words. This study recommends further development and use of smart device applications for elementary school English instruction.

The purpose of the study was two-fold: to investigate the effects of a group-based book reading plus self-efficacy and outcome expectancy intervention on reading amount, perceived reading ability, reading behavior, and social cognitions and to examine influencing factors of book reading behaviors. Sixty-three sixth graders completed a ten-week book reading intervention in two experimental conditions: one with book-reading activities only and the other with a book-reading plus social cognition intervention. The control group (n=32) studied English in their regular English classes. Questionnaires were administered three times to assess the participants' social cognition, reading behavior, and perceptions of reading English books: right before and right after the intervention, and at eight weeks post intervention. The results showed positive effects of the intervention on reading amount, perceived reading ability, and reading behavior. Of the two experimental groups, the group that had received the book-reading plus social cognition intervention showed more positive results. At eight weeks post intervention, intervention effects on goal efficacy, reading behavior, and attitude toward reading were maintained. Social cognition was found to affect reading amount and behavior for the experimental groups. Research and practical implications are suggested.

This study compares the phonics instruction with the whole language approach to literacy instruction in elementary English education and investigates the effects of the two approaches on literacy skills and affective factors. The experiment was conducted over eight weeks by sampling 56 fifth-graders at an elementary school in Seoul. The control group was given phonics instruction using English stories, whereas the experimental group was given the whole language approach using the same English stories. The instruments included pre- and post-reading and writing English tests and pre- and post-questionnaires. The analyses showed that the whole language approach had more positive effect than phonics instruction on improving learners’ English reading and writing ability. Furthermore, the whole language approach showed a positive change in the affective domain of interest, self-learning attitude and recognition, whereas two sectors of self-confidence and learning motivation did not show statistically significant difference compared to the control group. These results suggest that the whole language approach is more efficient than phonics instruction in developing learners’ literacy in elementary English education.

This study aimed to examine English oral reading fluency of 5th and 6th grade students. Twenty three 5th graders and 22 6th graders at an elementary school in Daejeon participated in the study. Four texts were prepared: a 5th grade equivalent dialog text, a 5th grade equivalent narrative text, a 6th grade equivalent dialog text, and a 6th grade equivalent narrative text. The students were asked to read them aloud at the end of the first semester and the second semester. Comprehension check-up questions were given immediately after they read the texts. Their reading rate was measured in the number of words they read correctly per minute (WCPM). At the end of the school year, the 5th graders read their grade level dialog text at 103 WCPM on average, and the narrative text at 97 WCPM on average. The 6th graders read the dialog text 111 WCPM on average, and the narrative text at 99 WPCM on average. The correlations between reading rates and comprehension were moderate; .60 at the first administration and .58 at the second administration.

The present study sought to examine the continuity of the English textbooks of the elementary school 6th grade and the middle school 1st grade by analyzing the readability and vocabulary difficulty of their reading passages. It investigated the continuity between textbooks of the two grades and among chapters of each textbook. For the analysis, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index was used to measure the readability of reading passages, whereas vocabulary difficulty was measured in terms of TTR (type-token ratio) and frequency by using VocabProfile. The results showed that the readability of middle school textbooks was one point higher than that of elementary school textbooks. Given that the readability index is based on the American school system, the increase in readability index between grades can be seen as large gap. In terms of vocabulary difficulty, the total amount of vocabulary in the middle school textbooks was three times as much as that of the elementary school textbooks. Second, readability index fluctuated across the chapters of each textbook, while the TTR was found to be higher in the former chapters than in the latter chapters in elementary school textbooks. All these could lead to learning difficulties for students. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study aims to develop an English writing model using pattern-based reading materials and to apply it to the elementary classroom. The meaning of “patterns” was searched for in the language learning and teaching methods, and their roles were examined in terms of language acquisition and learning. The writing class was connected to the reading class so that learners could properly model and transfer their forms and meanings of the patterns recognized in the reading class to what they want to write in the writing class. The experiment was conducted on one class of grade 6 elementary school students in which the reading and writing class was integrated into the regular English class during one semester. Six pattern-based reading materials were selected with a range of genres including stories and poems. The effect of the pattern-based reading materials on the writing class was examined through writing test and a questionnaire about the affective domain before and after the experiment. The result showed that writing scores were increased significantly in all the leveled-group learners. As for the affective domain, interest, participation, confidence, and adventure each had a significantly increased score. The sense of adventure increased the most. This is considered attributable to the feedback which ignored grammatically trivial errors and focused on how to properly express the contents learners wanted to write.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between prosody and reading comprehension of elementary school students in Korea. To achieve the purpose of the study, 114 fifth and sixth graders were selected from three schools of Seoul city and Gyeonggi province, and their prosody, word recognition and comprehension were assessed. In order to measure their prosody, students were asked to read a reading text orally for one minute, and the teacher checked their reading rate, decoding accuracy, and prosody. Students’ prosody was measured through Clay and Imlach’s (1971) method. The results of this study showed that while most students gained higher score in word recognition and reading rate, their prosodic features was found comparatively weak. It also revealed a correlation between the three sub-categories of prosody and reading comprehension. Based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that prosodic reading features of Korean EFL students have co-relations with comprehension, even if their prosodic feature is weak. Finally some ideas for enhancing prosody in L2 students’ reading instruction were suggested.