Past research has shown that students at higher grades tend to lose interest in English learning. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce an English program which satisfies their needs. This paper shows how content-based instruction (CBI) was introduced into the "period for integrated study" at an elementary school. This research investigated two aspects: the relationship between CBI and motivation, and the effect of visual aids on students' comprehension of content. A volunteer group of university students at Tsuda College provided a three-day CBI project entitled the rice project, to eighty-one 5th grade students at a public elementary school in Tokyo. To collect data, researchers asked students to complete closed questionnaires before and after the program and teaching assistants observed the students. The results showed that the participating students developed positive attitudes toward foreign countries and higher motivation for learning English after the program. As for the effect of visual aids, videos and pictures helped students to activate the schemata formed by previous studies in social science or home economics to understand unfamiliar 'anguage. Thus, it might be said that the English program based on CBI is suitable for upper grade elementary students.
抄録全体を表示