Research Proposal on "English Language Teaching"

Quoted Instructions for "English Language Teaching" Assignment:

Use below one as a basis. I basically have a research area as you can be seen below so I want you write the research porposal properly on the basis of this written proposal.

Here are the requirements

A set of research questions which clearly outline what you hope

to accomplish in their research.

* An indication that you are familiar with the literature of your

field and how it will guide your research.

* An indication that you have an initial understanding of some of

the research methodologies that you will be using in your research.

* An indication that you have identified the necessary resources

to carry out your research. For example, this could include a

participant pool for empirical studies, or archive or corpus resources

for research on texts.

* Evidence of previous research success. This could include

research that you have undertaken at the undergraduate or Masters level,

or research carried out privately.

The popularity of American and British soap dramas has become closely linked to the present situation of learning and teaching English, to the extent that it has become a social phenomenon. It would be therefore a timely step to look into the characteristics and effects of soap dramas and movies and search for methods by which English learners could benefit from watching them. The goal of this study is to be a guide for English students and teachers in using these media.

Over the past 10 years, the English language learning and English materials which use English films and dramas (especially American dramas) have been increasingly popular in Korea. According to the survey by Ryo (2009), over 53 blogs have at least 100 members for English language learning using films and dramas, one even has 550,000 members. With this trend, a number of famous English language institutes in Korea have opened classes using American dramas called Media English, Movie Class, Screen Listening, Drama SP/WR Listening and Sitcom Listening. In fact, English drama series are generally preferred over films because films are shorter and over a long term course, drama series have more interesting characteristics that appeal the audience. Owing to this popularity, there is a movement to use English dramas for English language learning. Although some people suspect this trend might be temporarily, more broadcasting companies and cable TV channels are attempting to air American and British dramas. As a result, Universities are turning to films and soap dramas as a classroom aid, but teachers are generally unsure how to use this tool to teach students.

At the moment, it is necessary to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of using English film and drama for English language teaching and how to maximize the effects of using dramas and movies in college. The differences between the two types of resource should also be explored to discover how they should be used to meet the optimal effect. Contemporary classroom instructors and teachers have many types of media available for instruction. Traditional forms include lectures/discussions and printed media such as book materials or projected text. Visual forms include overhead projection of drawings, slide projection of images, or computer projection of slides. I would like to add films and drama series to this existing instructional media.

In this research, I would therefore like to make a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using films and dramas as a tool for teaching English to find out firstly what kind of potential they have for English language learning at post-secondary level including university students. Secondly, I will investigate what kinds of language skills can be developed using these media. As a first step I will use questionnaires and interviews to investigate the students***** thoughts about why they joined the blogs that promote English learning via watching English films and dramas on online. As dramas and movies have a great range of stories and themes, in order to compare the two media types, I will choose films and dramas that share similar themes and focus on themes commonly related to daily life. After choosing the movies and dramas, I will choose certain students among the respondents who complete the questionnaire. Students who watch English movies and dramas regularly will be chosen for the selection of the participants. Once the students have been chosen, they will be asked to set their own standards for what they would like to focus on most in English language learning by using movies and dramas. At this moment I cannot predict exactly what students think is the most important topic when studying English using movies and dramas I hypothesize that the noun, verb (vocabulary) and some routines might be important topics. Based on these results, I will present from a learner*****s perspective, generalized categories of what students consider to be the important standards for English learning using these media types. At the same time it is not only about learner*****s perspective but also, the existing discourse analysis will be conveyed from the different researcher*****s theoretical frameworks as a researcher*****s aspect to support this study. I*****m afraid I don*****t understand what you are trying to say in this sentence. It is true that some learners believe unquestioningly in the benefits of watching dramas and films owing to their social popularity in Korea. But, we need to be cautious in exploring how we can utilize movies and dramas for language learning effectively. The underlying aim of this whole research project is therefore to help develop English Language learning and help learners to improve their English skills.

I believe the research will show some unique and positive characteristics of films and dramas as a communication medium and a teaching resource.