ABSTRACT

This paper surveys and analyzes the practice of music teaching and discusses directions to go, in order to find out teaching methods that improve the effectiveness of teaching. Ten elementary schools in Taegu participated in this study. We videotaped and analyzed 10 hours of music teaching, each performed by a different teacher. The students taught are from third graders to the 6th graders. We analyzed the kinds of language that teachers and students use in class, by means of the Flanders Category System. In this system, language activity (expressions) used in class are classified into 10 categories : (1. accept students` feeling. 2. praise or encourage. 3. accept or use students` ideas. 4. teacher`s questions. 5. lecturing. 6. giving directions. 7. criticizing. 8. students` simple responses. 9. Students` questions or statements. 10. Silence or confusion.) The first 7 categories are teacher activity and the last three categories are students` activity. It turned out that 25.6% of the time is spent for lecturing. 13.4% of the time for giving directions, and 39.2% for students` activity and teacher`s writing on the blackboard. Due to the nature of music teaching, lecturing is less significant compared to other classes. This seems desirable. The nondirective expressions that accept students` feeling (1), praise them (2), and use their ideas (3) are 7.2%, but the directive expressions that give directions (6) and criticize (7) are 14.3%. Their ratio (nondirective/directive) is 0.34. It means that music teaching is still teacher-centered and does not emphasize student`s involvement. The nondirective-directive ration should be at least 0.5. Teachers should understand encourage students more compared to rather than giving directions and criticizing. It will improve their human character and social interaction ability in addition to the effectiveness of teaching. The students express themselves for the 11% of the time, and their expressions are just simple responses to the teacher`s questions. Teachers need to phrase their questions and set up the mood of class so that the students may feel free to ask and egress themselves.