| The role of language play in awareness-raising tasks: Using captions from Desperate housewives |
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Ji young Seo, Dong han Lee |
| 언어자각력 자극 활동으로서의 언어유희에 관한 연구 |
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서지영, 이동한 |
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| Abstract |
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This paper shows how using the captions of movies and TV dramas can be an effective tool to activate language awareness. Children as well as adults are often engaged in language play when learning first or second languages. Language play relates to language awareness as it encourages learners to focus on language forms through noticing. However, not many coursebooks deal with activities for raising language awareness. This paper suggests an awareness-raising activity that uses the captions of a drama. The validity of this method follows Tarpey's (2007) point of view with 1) a preponderance of focusing on form caused by play, 2) considering the relationship between play and proficiency, and 3) elicitation of output that occurs during language play. Tarpey argues that there is a possible link between language play and second language acquisition. Six randomly chosen students watched a scene from Desperate Housewives (2004) and compared the Korean captions with the English captions. A memory test was conducted afterwards and followed by an interview. The results corresponded with Tarpey's views, showing positive results from the test despite students' different English proficiency levels. The findings, therefore, supported the view that movie or drama captions could be a powerful tool for awareness -raising tasks. |
| Key Words:
language play;awareness-raising tasks;captions |
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