• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.177-197
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• 2007

This study discussed the climbing learning method which studied and practiced by Professor Saito Noboru. This is the learning method which is devised to know not only the relationship of the learning factors but the systemic or structural connection of whole studying contents- affects children's math learning ability through practical class to both the lower and the higher grades. To achieve the purpose of this study, these following issues were set; A. Develop the teaching and learning course of mathematics by applying the climbing learning method. B. Execute the mathematics lesson according to the climbing learning method and analyze the learning achievement. C. Analyze the difference between application of the climbing learning method and that of the learning method by student's level in mathematics. D. Analyze what the climbing learning method gives a shift of the recognition of learning mathematics. In order to accomplish these study issues, we analyzed the text book of math not only for children but also for teachers and developed the teaching and learning course applied the climbing learning method with advice of experts. It was chosen two different homogeneous groups each, third year for lower grade group and fifth year for higher grade group. It was done the experimental group lesson applying the climbing learning method and general lesson for the control group. After then, t-test against independent samples was done depending on the result of the student's assessment(T1, T2). These two groups' students were divided into smaller groups based on result of achievement level regardless of gender. These subgroups were confirmed the difference of learning ability between upper and lower level group. As regarding the result making out grades of faith and attitude for math, t-test was used on independent sample. At the same time, experimental groups were tested using learning attitude with the learning structure chart. Through this study the following results are obtained and the conclusion was drawn. Firstly, although applying the climbing learning method to the lesson does not have significant effect to the lower grade of elementary school student's achievement it has significant influence on the higher grade student's achievement. Second, as a result of analyzing the difference between the climbing learning method and the learning method by student's level in mathematics, it is of no beneficial effect to the lower grade both upper level and lower level. However, it has appreciable effect to the higher grade classes both upper level and low level. Especially, upper level students have higher effect than low level students. Third, climbing learning method does not affect to the faith and attitude of the lower grade students positively, but it has affirmative effect to the higher grade students'. As a result of the survey of the experimental groups which were applied to the climbing loaming method, the lesson by using the learning structure chart proved to be helpful to the both the lower and higher grade. The best advantage of using the learning structure chart, children say, is easily understood whole contents of studying and is useful for review. Furthermore, using the learning structure chart is more efficient compared with previous learning method and is given the successful result to self-directed learning. In conclusion, keeping up with the current of the thought of education, we suggest a scheme as a new teaching method from the constructive learning method which emphasize the self-directed learning.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1047-1065
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• 2010

English inversion constructions are not only hard for non-native speakers to learn but also difficult to teach mainly because of their intriguing grammatical and discourse properties. This paper addresses grammatical issues in learning or teaching the so-called 'predicate inversion (PI)' construction (e.g., Equally important in terms of forest depletion is the continuous logging of the forests). In particular, we chart the grammatical (distributional, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic) properties of the PI construction, and argue for adata-driven teaching for English grammar. To depart from the arm-chaired style of grammar teaching (relying on author-made simple sentences), our teaching method introduces a datadriven teaching. With total 25 university students in a grammar-related class, students together have analyzed the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB), containing about one million words distributed across a variety of textual categories. We have identified total 290 PI sentences (206 from spoken and 87 from written texts). The preposed syntactic categories of the PI involve five main types: AdvP, PP, VP(ed/ing), NP, AP, and so, all of which function as the complement of the copula. In terms of discourse, we have observed, supporting Birner and Ward's (1998) observation that these preposed phrases represent more familiar information than the postposed subject. The corpus examples gave us the three possible types: The preposed element is discourse-old whereas the postposed one is discourse-new as in Putting wire mesh over a few bricks is a good idea. Both preposed and postposed elements can also be discourse new as in But a fly in the ointment is inflation. These two elements can also be discourse old as in Racing with him on the near-side is Rinus. The dominant occurrence of the PI in the spoken texts also supports the view that the balance (or scene-setting) in information structure is the main trigger for the use of the PI construction. After being exposed to the real data and in-depth syntactic as well as informationstructure analysis of the PI construction, it is proved that the class students have had a farmore clear understanding of the construction in question and have realized that grammar does not mean to live on by itself but tightly interacts with other important grammatical components such as information structure. The study directs us toward both a datadriven and interactive grammar teaching.