• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.99-106
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to analyze the cultural contents of 5th and 6th grade English textboooks written according to 2015 Revised National Curriculum, and to examine how much suggestions from preceding studies were reflected in the English textbooks. This study also aims to seek directions for desirable culture education in Elementary English textbooks. For this purpose, the culture content in 5th and 6th grade English textbooks were analyzed according to the types, materials, and background. The results show that the current English textbooks still has an imbalance by culture type, material, and background. Futhermore, the suggestions from previous studies were not fully reflected to new English textbooks. Therefore, cultural contents in textbooks should include more varied and balanced culture types, materials, and background in order for effective cultural education. Based on the findings, several suggestions are made for future research.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.274-281
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• 2020

N-gram analysis casts a new look at the n-word cluster in use different from the previously known idioms. It analyzes a corpus of English textbooks for frequently occurring n consecutive words mechanically using a concordance software, which is different from the previously known idioms. The current paper aims at extracting and comparing 4-gram words clusters between South Korean high school English textbooks and its North Korean counterpart. The classification criteria includes number of tokens and types between the two across oral and written languages in the textbooks. The criteria also use the grammatical categories and functional categories to classify and compare the 4-gram words clusters. The grammatical categories include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, partial clauses and others. The functional categories include deictic function, text organizers, stance and others. The findings are: South Korean high school English textbook contains more tokens and types in both oral and written languages. Verb phrase and partial clause 4-grams are grammatically most frequently encountered categories across both South and North Korean high school English textbooks. Stance is most dominant functional category in both South and North Korean English textbooks.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2020

This paper aims to explore the vocabulary difference between South and North Korean English textbooks as a first step toward a unified vocabulary list. To this end, both South and North Korean English textbooks in 2000s and 2010s are digitized into a corpus of text files, and a vocabulary list is constructed based on the corpus with reference to its concordances for the vocabulary use and contexts using AntConc 3.5.7. The vocabulary list of North Korean English textbooks are compared and found in their differences of quantity and quality of the English vocabulary in English education. Both quantitative and qualitative differences are found in between South and North Korean English textbook corpus. Both South and North aim that students learn about 3,000 words throughout the English education. North Korean English textbook contains more special academic vocabulary while South Korean English textbook is constrained by a strict vocabulary control which does not allow such a flexibility. Differences of vocabulary and their use are caused by the capitalistic market economy of South and the socialists' planned economy of North. Differences are also attributed to the religious words and grammatical vocabulary appearance.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.242-251
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• 2017

For the purposes of this research, a corpus of words was created from the English textbooks of the "First Middle School" for the gifted in North Korea, and using the corpus, their linguistic characteristics were analyzed. Although there have been many studies that identified the traits of English textbooks in the North Korea's general middle school, not much focus has been placed on the English textbooks used at North Korea's First Middle School. Initially, the structure of English textbooks of the first, second, fourth, and sixth grades that had been procured from the Information Center on North Korea was reviewed, after which their corpus was created. Then, by using Wordsmith Tools 7.0, linguistic properties and high frequency content words appeared in the English textbook of the first grade were analyzed specifically. Basic statistical data gathered indicated that while the number of vocabulary did not increase as students progress through the grades, the words used tended to diversify incrementally. In the mean time, a distribution of the high frequency content words by grade illustrated that a big difference was found between the content words used in the English texts of each grade, and it was a subject matter of the texts that determined such difference.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.435-444
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• 2014

As vocabulary acquisition has become one of the emerging key issues in the foreign language education field, interest in vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) has also increased. However, little has been done to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies of young learners. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate VLS use in elementary school English language textbooks. A total of three fifth grade English textbooks and teachers' guidebooks were chosen and analyzed with the vocabulary learning strategies taxonomy suggested by Scbmitt (1997). The researcher identified there were only a limited number of vocabulary learning strategies in the textbooks and most of them were consolidation strategies. It was concluded that a variety of VLS should be introduced in multiple ways in consideration of learner preference, styles, culture and level of English proficiency. Some implications for the teaching and learning of vocabulary for EFL instruction amongst young learners are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.331-341
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• 2017

This paper aims to analyze English vocabulary of the North Korean textbooks diachronically using the constructed English textbook corpus. The North Korea English textbooks attained from Information Center on North Korea of the Ministry of Unification are divided into before and after Kim Jong-Il era for the year of 1996 in which the curriculum revision has been conducted. They are stored as text files to analyse vocabularies using WordSmith Tools 7.0. The vocabulary size of the revised textbooks increased after the curriculum reorganization, but the number of vocabulary types and vocabulary diversity decreased. After the curriculum revision, it was found that lots of vocabulary related to the establishment of the Kim Jong-Il system appeared as the keyword. It was also found that some vocabularies reflected the economic and social life of North Korea. In addition, through comparison of the 100 high-frequency word list and keywords, it can be concluded that the vocabulary of the English textbooks of North Korea is gradually changing into communicative contents from contents related with written language.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.32
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• pp.383-409
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• 2013

This research comes from the premise that a student-oriented English digital textbook's design should be age appropriate. Our study is intended for third-year elementary students, since that age is the onset of English education within the Korean national curriculum. Our proposal focuses on this age's need for concrete information. Three popular textbooks' designs were analyzed using Cress's "Grammar Flame of Visual Design [Cress 2006]," and the results reflected in our modified book design. Via two case studies, a focus group interview, questionnaire, and observation analysis, we learned that the design of an age-appropriate digital English textbook changes the effectiveness of the education. An age-appropriate modified digital English textbook improves student satisfaction and interest. Our research proposes a systematic textbook design guide for age-specific preferences and characteristics.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.71-83
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• 2013

In a EFL situation, most Korean students and teachers are exclusively dependent on English textbooks to acquire the cultural factors of English. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze cultural elements in the English Textbooks. The results of the study are as follows: First, although all of the textbooks contain the culture part at the end of each lesson, it is insufficient for students to build a cultural schema. Second, in the analysis of cultural types, three types of cultures are presented in a similar percentage. Third, the culture elements were analyzed based on the 7th national curriculum revised in 2011. The most dominant is the culture regarding arts and literature. Forth, in nationality analysis, universal culture takes up the largest portion. Therefore, it is required more efforts to improve students' knowledge of the American and English culture.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to analyze the cultural contents represented in elementary school English textbooks for grades 3 and 4 based on the 2015 revised Korean national curriculum. An analysis of cultural contents was conducted on the basis of Morgan(2001)'s five category criteria. Among the five aspects of culture, 'practices' relevant to daily life were presented most frequently in the textbooks followed by 'products'. English textbooks showed a relatively low frequency in 'perspectives' and 'communities' areas of culture. 'Persons' did not appear at all in all eight textbooks. It revealed that there was a serious imbalance in the representation of textbook about cultural contents. In conclusion, there should be balanced cultural contents for the students to have a balanced cultural awareness and to accept cultural diversity and differences. In addition, textbooks should include more various cultural materials and activities for the students to develop four key competencies suggested on the 2015 revised Korean national curriculum.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2023

We aim to investigate whether the activities in the 2015 revised elementary English textbooks are reflected in terms of Multiple Intelligences. Specifically, we analyze three types of activities including project, game, and cultural activities in three types of the 5^th grade English textbooks. Additionally, we compare the differences in the Multiple Intelligences according to three different publishers. The data includes three different sorts of fifth-grade English textbook activities. We found that verbal-linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and visual-spatial intelligence are heavily involved in project activities. Verbal-linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, and kinesthetic intelligence are all utilized in game activities. Lastly, cultural activities demonstrate verbal-linguistic and visual-spatial intelligence. In consideration of the diversity of students, we suggest that English textbooks need to consider diverse and well balanced approach to incorporating Multiple Intelligences in order to make the textbooks to meet the needs of the diversity of learners.