• 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.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.741-756
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• 2016

This study is to identify the effectiveness of English literature in reading instruction using meta-analysis of advanced researches. 80 studies published in Korea were selected for this research wherein the studies are in experimental nature on reading instruction using English literature. The result of the meta-analysis are as follows: Reading instruction with English literature for early children in kindergartens and primary schools showed statistically significant positive effects in both reading abilities and affective domains, in particular for younger children from kindergartners to 2nd graders of primary school. It was more effective when the instructor used top-down approach than bottom-up or balanced approach. No significant coorelation was found between the number of English stories and the students' linguistic ability. Diverse activities tailored to students' need are turned out to be more effective than using same old activities with more stories.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2007

In this study, the researchers evaluate the hypothesis that the reaction time (RT) in the brain is largely dependent on age and gender. The researchers tested English and Korean words using two types: reading as visual stimuli, and listening as auditory stimuli. The E-Prime program installed in functional magnetic resonance imaging (f-MRI) was used. There are 136 Korean subjects in three groups: 30 children (5th and 6th grade elementary school students), 76 young adults (college students), and 30 adults (35-53 years old). In the listening test, the variation for the two languages was different among the three age groups, regardless of gender, whereas the data did not show meaningful differences in the reading test. The findings will provide some meaningful information regarding perception and acquisition of a foreign language.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.101-122
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• 2009

This study was purposed to discuss an educational concept of listening potential in ESL/EFL contexts as a counterpart of the reading potential concept in L1 contexts. As a preliminary condition for the concept of listening potential, this study investigated a relationship between reading and listening proficiency of ESL/EFL learners, focusing on roles of grammar knowledge in reading and listening comprehension. Reading and listening comprehension and grammar knowledge test scores of 231 Korean college students studying at a university in the U.S. were analyzed for this study. This study found that there was a positive correlation between reading proficiency and listening proficiency of Korean ESL college students. Grammar knowledge played significant roles accounting for reading and listening comprehension. Furthermore, this study found a difference between the reading proficiency and the listening proficiency across the stages of language development. However, results of this study did not empirically verify the concept of listening potential.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.59-85
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• 2007

This study examined patterns of engaging in "reading in connection to writing" (hereafter reading-writing practices) in the context of two ESL college composition classrooms. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the L2 proficiency level could be a key construct in explaining similarities and differences in reading-writing practices which students engaged in during the composing process. Multiple sources of data collected over the semester included interview protocols, written products, and observational notes. The results showed that the three proficiency groups under examination differed widely in the ways reading was connected to writing and in the types of intermediate texts produced during the composing process. The students in the high proficiency group produced more intermediate texts through an engagement in reading-writing practices connected to each other. On the contrary, the students in lower proficiency groups engaged in a limited range of reading-writing practices without support of intermediate texts. This study provides insight into the different ways ESL college students coordinate reading and writing while composing essays.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.26-30
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• 2012

Nowadays, fewer Japanese university students are taking PhD degrees in the U.S.A than Koreans or Taiwanese. The language barrier is considered as one of major reasons for this. This lack of international education is one of the reasons cited, as Japan has been falling behind in industrial globalization. Reading aloud is a good practice for learning a foreign language, since many areas of our brains are simultaneously activated. Furthermore, students have a chance to overcome the psychological barrier in reading aloud in front of others, in a meeting. The authors start the voluntary meeting (which is unrelated to official classes of the curriculum) by reading English articles aloud. Topics in the meeting are selected from articles on web sites, therefore, (1) textbooks were not needed, (2) voice data could be listened to, and (3) the meaning and the pronunciation of an unknown word could be checked by web tools. Once the methodology has been mastered, volunteer students can manage the meeting. The authors introduce our experiments conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ehime University.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.81-100
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• 2009

The current study reported on the continuing relevance of the schema theory for reading as it relates to the field of teaching and SLA, whilst highlighting the inherent limitations affecting individual learners. A relevant study was conducted for this article focusing on the extent to which university teacher trainees of English Education are exposed to second language readings with an adherence towards utilizing prior knowledge and drawing upon schemata to support their comprehension. Results from quantitative and qualitative data measured and collected from two groups of university students respectively, indicated certain advantages to this strategy use in respect of increased understanding, familiarity, and comfort level in SL reading. However, those same results identified existing limitations associated with cultural bias, stereotyping and a tendency to focus on wrong information when activating said schemata. As such, the purpose of this study is to promote awareness of the schema theory as an effective strategy option whilst reinforcing a need to pay heed to the concerns associated with strict reliance upon such theory to aid reading skills. Further discussion of these issues and pedagogical implications has been provided along with both suggested considerations regarding teaching for EFL teachers and evaluators.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.71-90
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze the improvement of students' interest and general proficiency of English through cultural understanding. To achieve this purpose, two classes of the 2nd grade in the informational high school were divided into the experimental class and the control class. The Grammar-Translation Method was used for the control class and a cultural learning - compare and contrast Korean culture and American culture - was taken for the experimental. After various cultural differences were studied, surveys of students' attitude and reading and listening test were taken. The results from this study were as follows: Firstly, students' interest in English was improved through learning the American culture that was related to the content of each lesson. Secondly, English reading and communicative skills were improved by learning about cultural aspects. Therefore, it can be said that teaching culture stimulates students' interest and motivation for learning English and helps students retain such affective attitudes. And English communicative skills were improved as well.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.179-208
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• 2001

Using literary materials as resources for English learning rather than an object of literary study can be a genuine tool for the students to learn English in the form of oral and written communication. This case study treated the applications of a whole text to the overall course divided into pre-reading activities, while-reading activities, and post-reading activities and the applications of some partial passages extracted from various texts to teaching objectives with many levels of difficulty. This study found that literary texts could be good materials to teach the target language in EFL setting. The English-speaking students with little linguistic competence as a foreign language may be limited in learning English at first, but soon they can accelerate their linguistic competence by reinforcing the literary competence through the literary texts. To achieve effectively a desired goal through the use of literary texts as resources for language development several concrete techniques should be introduced: teacher-guided question strategies laying a central emphasis on the text itself, a problem-solving ability through student-centered activities, process-based and open-ended activities should be presented in a variety of ways using many appropriate activities according to teaching procedure with a careful selection of the texts.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.189-215
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• 2008

This study proposes using children's literature as a means of teaching and learning English as a foreign language and suggests practical strategies on the basis of transactional theory of reading suggested by Rosenblatt (1994, 1995). This study suggests three novels written for children or young adults: On My Honor (1986) by Marion Dane Bauer, The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry and Hatchet (1987) by Gary Paulsen. These texts were selected because of their diverse topics, easy and comprehensible language, engaging stories, and authentic and rich expressions, making them effective materials for foreign language learners. This paper is organized as follows: First, it reviews research on teaching literature in English education and response-oriented language teaching to provide theoretical background of literature-based language teaching and learning. Second, it provides the background of the texts selected for the study. Third, it develops diverse, practical strategies for instructors who intend to use children's literature in EFL teaching. We expect to guide EFL instructors in adopting children's literature in their English class by connecting theory and practice and by providing diverse methods and strategies, and sample responses by EFL university students.