The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of English immersion science class on the improvement of English proficiency and affective domain of science gifted middle school students. For the purpose, communicative competence of students, attitudes towards English learning, first and applicability of science immersion class were studied. Then the science curriculum of middle school was reorganized, and procedures and models of instruction for science immersion class were formulated and practiced. For this study, the experiment was conducted in two 2nd grade science-gifted classes for 5 months. The immersion class consists of three fields of science, that is, 'atmosphere' for earth science, 'the states of matter' for chemistry, and 'respiration and digestion' for biology.
For this study, a mid-term and a final exam on academic achievement about four skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing were implemented. A pre-survey and a post-survey on an affective domain were conducted, and the students' portfolio and the teacher's observation logs for a qualitative research were drawn up. The results of the experiment were analyzed by a paired T-test. The findings of this study are as follows:
First, English immersion science class increased students' interest, self-confidence, and participation towards English learning. This shows that the immersion class has a positive influence on students' affective domain towards English learning.
Second, four English skills were significantly enhanced from the mid term to the final term. Students' improvement of listening, speaking, reading, and writing were evaluated statistically significant. Students' speaking abilities in accuracy and fluency were also significantly improved.
In conclusion, the immersion class has contributed to the improvement of science-gifted school students' English proficiency and have positively influenced students' affective domain. Therefore, the class is regarded as an effective way to improve their English performance.
The results of this study suggest that the incorporation of English immersion science class into secondary students' English study should give great benefits to developing their English skills. Thus, the method of immersion class should be incorporated into teacher training programs for new teachers and should be encouraged for experienced teachers as well.