An Analysis of Listening Activities in Korean Middle School English Textbooks

Abstract

For most Korean middle school students, the English textbook is the main source of learning materials. This research examines what kinds of listening activities are most frequently used in the textbooks, and whether they reflect both students’ and teachers’ preferences. Of the 13 kinds of English textbooks for first year students of middle school, the top seven sold are used for this research. To find out preferred listening activities of students and teachers, two questionnaires are utilized. Eighteen most commonly used listening activities from the seven textbooks are selected for the research analysis. The findings show that most textbooks are quite skewed in utilizing English listening activity types: some are heavily used, and others are hardly used. Kendall tau-b and Spearman rho coefficients show that students’ preferred listening activities are significantly correlated with those of teachers. However, the activities in the textbooks hardly reflect their preferences. The results show that textbook writers should pay more attention to students’ and teachers’ preferences in listening activities. In addition, textbook writers should be more prudent in selecting types of listening activities, so they can provide learners with varied and more types.