자유학기제의 실시에 따른 영어 공교육과 사교육에 대한 학생들의 인식 조사

Abstract

This study is aimed to analyze middle school students’ perceptions of public and private English education with a Free Semester Program (FSP). Since the FSP is intended to provide students with the opportunities to develop their talents, creativity, problem solving ability, self-directive learning skills, and social skills, a survey questionnaire was administered to 240 students at a middle school in Sejong, Korea to investigate their satisfaction of the FSP. Most students answered that English class under the FSP was overall satisfactory. But teachers should develop some specialized teaching methods or activities for the FSP to make the FSP distinct from the class in a regular semester. It also turned out that most students acknowledged the need for private education during the Free Semester. It is interesting to note that mid-higher level students took more private lessons than mid-lower and lower level students did, which could result in the wider achievement gap between upper and lower level students. We therefore concluded that the effect of the FSP was minor in reducing the number of students who received the private education. Finally, we suggested that reforms of the entrance examination system and more effective methods for assessing students’ achievement would be prerequisite to the success of the FSP.