Self‐paced English as a Foreign Language in a Competency Based Education program for Korean learners

This research project is an action research investigation into the breadth and effectiveness of self‐paced study in comparison with traditional fixed‐paced learning in the researcher's instructional environment and self‐owned English language institute. Background There were nine South Korean English as a Foreign Language (EFL) adult students who participated in the study and who were previously enrolled in the school to improve their English conversational ability. Methods The nine students were split into two groups of self‐ and fixed‐paced study using a Competency Based Education (CBE) model, and the instruction covered the exact same material and competencies in both classes. From those students, mixed data (both quantitative and qualitative) were gathered both before and after instruction, as well as some observation in the middle of the lessons. The study measured the performance differences as well as the range of benefits received due to each program methodology. Results The resulting data demonstrated that students who were underperforming their peers in the fixed‐paced study improved and outperformed their peers after taking a self‐paced program and could answer on average 20% more accurately on questions posed to them about the material and about themselves in English. They also displayed a number of other benefits to their learning including confidence, quantity of learned material, and better time management and flexibility. Discussion Although the sample size was too small to draw conclusions for other populations, this pilot study confirmed for this population that self‐paced study was more beneficial and led to the Institute discontinuing the fixed‐pace program altogether.