Will Digital Teaching Materials for Elementary School Students Improve the English Proficiency of Elementary School Teachers?

<p>The purpose of this study was to estimate whether the English proficiency of elementary school teachers would improve with use of digital teaching materials for 5th and 6th graders by comparing the results with the data of university freshmen. Therefore, an EIKEN Grade Pre-2 listening test was conducted during the one-day license renewal class held for 18 incumbent elementary school teachers. They were subsequently asked to experience one lesson (about 15 minutes) using digital teaching materials for elementary school students, followed by a six-item questionnaire (a five-point Likert scale) on emotional aspects. When the results of the listening test were compared with those of the pre- test of 27 university freshmen who experienced the same learning five times with these teaching materials, there was no significant difference. In addition, when compared with the results of the university freshmen who were given the same questionnaire, there was no significant difference in any of the six items. These university freshmen experienced a total of five lessons using these digital teaching materials once a week, and showed a significant improvement in listening skills. Therefore, it was suggested that incumbent elementary school teachers can expect to improve their listening skills if they learn in the same way, which will lead to an improvement in their overall English proficiency.</p>