• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.27-46
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• 2007

Teachers can maximize students' L2 learning by knowing preferred learning styles. This paper presents the results of a survey that asked 309 English learners to identify their perceptual learning style preferences. It further compared students' favored learning styles in terms of their gender and major field of study and explored a possible link between learning styles and English achievement. Collected data using Reid's (1995) questionnaire were analyzed by descriptive statistics, MANOVA, ANOVA, correlations, multiple regressions including squared partial correlations, and Cronbach's alpha. The results indicated that Korean students favored English learning in group regardless of gender, while their preferred mode of learning was significantly different in regard to their major field of study. Certain learning styles might be profitable for English achievement. Multiple regression analyses revealed that individual mode of learning was the best predictor of students' English achievement. It furthermore showed significant relationships between visual and individual styles of learning and English performance. The findings of the study reflected students' English learning context in which English native-speaking teachers frequently used communicative pair and small group activities for speaking practices that were consonant with students' learning styles.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.39-46
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• 2009

This study compares the perception of English high tense and lax vowels (/i, I, u, $\mho$/) by English speakers and Korean speakers of English. The four vowels were produced in /hVd/ context by a native speaker of English, and each word's vowel duration was manipulated to range from 170ms to 290ms in 30ms increments. Two English speakers and six Korean speakers of English were asked to listen to pairs of tense and lax vowel words with manipulated vowel durations and to identify the pair by choosing either heed-hid or hid-heed for front vowels and either who'd-hood or hood-who'd for back vowels. The results show that English speakers distinguished tense vowels from lax vowels with 100% accuracy regardless of the different durations, compared to 62% accuracy for Korean speakers of English. Most errors occurred for lengthened lax vowels and shortened tense vowels. The results of this study demonstrate that Korean speakers mainly rely on vowel duration as a cue to discriminate the tense and lax vowels. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of this finding are discussed.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.5
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• pp.79-101
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• 1999

With the advent of the 6th and the 7th national educational curricula in Korea. English language teaching in communicative perspective has been highly recommended and widely practised in that context. The aim of new approach is to enhance the students' general communication abilities in English. However, English teachers still find it very hard to improve the students' communicative competence in English since English remains to be taught as a school subject. In so far as English is taught as a school subject, students' attention is paid to the formal elements of English and the increase in communicative competence in English is hardly expected Only when the students' attention is paid to the content, their communicative competence is expected to increase. The best way to shift the students' attention from formal elements to content is to teach other school subjects in English, that is, English immersion education. To introduce immersion education to Korea, the two most successful examples of Singapore and Hong Kong are reviewed in terms of language policies and general practices in their primary and secondary schools respectively. To implement the program into Korea, extensive research on it is expected henceforth.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.129-150
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• 2009

This paper attempts to examine the effect of children's English stories on the development of Korean EFL primary school learners' listening and speaking competences and their motivation to learn English. This paper also discusses factors of English children's stories that make EFL learners' language learning efficient. Participants were 120 primary school students who attend one of the elementary schools in Chungnam province. They were randomly chosen and divided into two groups: experimental and control groups. In order to collect data, students' listening and speaking proficiency pre- and post-tests and the pre- and post-questionnaires regarding the participants' motivation to learn English were administered. The data were analyzed by ANOVA. The results indicate that the application of English children's stories to EFL learning settings can be an efficient way to improve EFL learners' listening and speaking competences and motivation to learn their target language. The findings of this study suggest that English children's stories provide language learners with interest, meaningful and authentic contexts and enjoyment. The pedagogical suggestion and implications are provided for EFL educators and teachers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.291-320
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• 2010

The Bible has been and still is one of the most influential books ever published. The English Bible has a great impact on English language, literature, and culture. Therefore, knowledge of the Bible is essential in learning English language, its literature, culture and tradition. Biblical allusions are found in great literature and the daily newspapers as well. Rock musicians, screenwriters, television producers, and advertisers use the Bible as a source. Politicians use the words and accounts of the Bible to frame their debates. The Bible has continued to be philosophically, ethically, religiously, and politically influential in Western, Eastern, now World cultures. Therefore, not to know it means not to understand a great portion of world culture. This study examines the influence of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, in English language, literature, and culture. Furthermore, this study suggests why we should incorporate the English Bible in English education.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.93-106
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• 2001

The pronunciation of English l and r was a consistent problem in learning English in Korea as well as Japan. This problem occurs from the fact that in Korea and Japan there is only one liquid sound. Substituting the Korean liquid for English l and r was a common error. The pronunciation of the dark l causes a further problem in pronouncing the English l sound. To see the relationship between the English l, r, and the Korean liquid sound, an electropalatographic (EPG) experiment was done. The findings were (1) there were no tongue contacts either on the alveolar ridge or on the palate during the articulation of the dark l. (2) The Korean liquid sound was different in the tongue contact points either from English l or r. The English clear l consistently touched the alveolar ridge in the forty tokens, but the Korean liquid sound in the intervocalic and word-final position touched mainly the alveopalatal area. The English r touched exclusively the velum area. The Korean intervocalic /l/ was similar to English flap in EPG and spectrographic data. There was evidence that the word-final Korean /l/ is a lateral.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.193-206
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• 2011

The purpose of the study is to examine the use of emotion vocabulary by Korean English learners. Three basic emotion fields, pleasure, anger, and fear were selected to elicit the participants' responses. L1 English speakers' data was also collected for comparison. The major results are as follows. First, English learners responded with various inappropriate verb forms like I feel~, I am~ while the majority of English native speaking teachers responded with subjunctive forms like I would feel~. In addition, L2 English learners used mostly simple and coordination sentences. Second, the lexical richness, measured through type/token ratio, was higher in English L1 data than in English L2 data. The proportion of emotion lemmas reflects the lexical richness or the diversity of the emotion words. Lastly, L2 English learners' responses focused on a few typical adjectives like happy, angry and scared. This structural and semantic distinctiveness of Korean English learners' emotion words was discussed from pedagogical perspectives.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.127-152
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• 2007

Recently, the number of students to choose to study in Australia has been increasing significantly. The purpose of this study is to examine how Korean primary school children perceive their own English language learning and cultural adaptation in Australia. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 34 Korean children aged 8-13 who were attending primary schools in Brisbane, Queensland. The study results show that they made diverse efforts to learn English language and culture in Australia, such as making English-speaking friends, watching TV/video/DVD, reading English books, and studying with a foreign tutor. Their English listening and writing abilities were thought to be improved most, followed by speaking, reading and cultural understanding after studying in Australia. The subjects were mostly satisfied with their study and life in Australia but they had difficulties with communicating in English, homesickness, foods, weather, insects, and discrimination. In particular, they had problems with understanding classes conducted all in English and participating in the classroom activities due to their low level of English ability and understanding of Australian classroom culture. The findings of this study have pedagogical implications for educators both in Australia and Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.113-137
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• 2001

English has been taught as a compulsory subject at elementary schools since 1997 starting with third graders, to sixth graders. We have seen active research on teaching methods for elementary English, but little has been done from the learners' perspective. It is very proper time for English educators to review what the elementary students think about their English classes. The purpose of the present study is as following. First, we tried to find out how the students' attitude toward and interest in English have changed over the four-year English education. Second we attempted to suggest the ways to promote the students' interests, and to increase understanding and participation in English classes. We also suggest that curriculum developers need to consider the students' lower interests and understanding in English classes as they move to higher grades, and that classroom teachers need to have a better understanding of what their students do and feel in the English classes.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.561-568
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• 2022

This study investigated how pre-service English teachers perceive the effects of machine teaching on their English writing competence. 35 Korean students who are majoring in English education participated in this study. The participants used machine translators for one of the required courses related to English composition. A survey and focus group interview were conducted at the end of the course. They were asked to answer to what degree they perceive the effects of machine translators on their writing in terms of lexical, sentential, and discourse levels. Furthermore, their perspectives on the effects of machine translation on English teaching including limitations of machine translators, were interviewed in more detail. The results show that the participants perceive machine translators quite positively in terms of improving their writing competence, but they also point out some critical limitations of machine translators. These findings have some pedagogical implications for English writing course instructors, English teacher educators, and program developers.