Fun Writing Projects

Abstract

Koreans spend a lot of money, energy, and time to learn English; however, they still seem to lack confidence and struggle to communicate in English (Chang, 2010). This is also true for young learners in Korea. For example, while I was working in a Korean English kindergarten I observed that the students used text books for Grade two and three but they had some problems expressing their thoughts in English. This is because in Korea, the students do not have much opportunity to apply their language knowledge and build confidence in communicating in English. In class, the kindergartners were able to read, listen, and understand, but when they had to speak, they tended to hesitate and had to rely on some Korean to express themselves. They also had difficulty in writing and needed more support, despite the fact that their vocabulary and grammar knowledge were fairly high. To help the target students overcome these problems, the text book contains a variety of communicative activities that will actively involve students in different activities and provide comprehensible input to help students cultivate confidence and skills in writing and speaking. Especially for young learners who have short attention span and lack motivation, learning should be fun, interactive, and tangible (Brewster, Ellis, & Girard 2002; Brown, 2007). Thus the topics in the textbook will aim to be fun and relevant to their interest; also there will be various activities of writing different genres for students to practice. The target students are fifth grade students in Korean EFL context. The class is an afterschool program and most of the students are already familiar with using English; some students even have experience living abroad. Their English proficiency level is around Expanding, 4, according to the WIDA framework. The students are able to write in short paragraphs and express themselves in English but these students have little opportunity to use English during class. Moreover, when their proficiency level is examined in detail, their listening and reading is fairly higher than their speaking and writing level. Their speaking and writing is below level 4 due to the fact that they have problems writing multiple paragraphs and some students have trouble with delivering their meaning across by using English. The textbook is designed to help students develop written and spoken language by participating in various activities.