earticle

영어

This paper has dual aims. One is to analyze communicative activities included in each period of lessons in Korean elementary school English textbooks for sixth graders, in terms of focused or unfocused tasks for focus on form (FonF) and task-based language teaching (TBLT). The other is to discuss strategies for designing tasks for planned and incidental FonF in elementary school English classrooms. The results of analyzing communicative activities in each period of lessons are as follows: (1) The activities in 1st and 2nd periods are designed based on free production activities of PPP for focus on forms (FonFs) or free activities for task-supported language teaching (TSLT). (2) The activities in 3rd, 4th, and 5th periods are designed based largely on free activities for FonFs or TSLT, but partly reflect some features of focused tasks for planned FonF in that they elicit natural language use but also elicit the use of predetermined linguistic features. The strategies for designing tasks for FonF in elementary school English classrooms are as follows: (1) Focused tasks can be designed to elicit the natural use of what students have learned in previous lessons as well as the intentional use of predetermined language forms. (2) Unfocused tasks can be designed to elicit the free use of language in general that students know or have learned in previous grades rather than the use of specific, predetermined linguistic forms. This study will help elementary school English teachers recognize that both TBLT and FonF are required to enhance students’ English fluency and accuracy simultaneously.