| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 外國語文學系 === 99 === This is a case study exploring children’s attitudes toward learning English through watching animated films and learning vocabulary by using film scripts. Five sixth graders were selected from an elementary school in Northern Taiwan. Each child watched an animated film two times and received two types of vocabulary instruction-- instruction with and without the use of film scripts. After finishing all the viewing sessions, the children were given one post test and one delayed test containing both receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary test items.
The findings of the study showed that the children held positive attitudes toward learning English through animated films. They believed that watching animations with English soundtracks was a great way to increase their sensitivity as well as familiarity with English, particularly in terms of English pronunciation and listening ability. Nevertheless, the statistical results revealed that the treatment did not exert much influence on the five subjects’ overall motivation for learning English.
It was also found that the children preferred learning English vocabulary without the use the film scripts, which corresponded to results of their vocabulary tests-- the children achieved both better receptive and productive vocabulary learning results under instructions without the use of film scripts.
It is suggested that for future research, more consideration should be given to learners’ proficiency levels and their grammatical knowledge before using animated materials and film scripts. Also, different teaching methods and test formats of productive vocabulary are encouraged. Finally, more longitudinal studies are expected to evaluate the cumulative effects of using animated films in language learning.
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