• English & American cultural studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.169-191
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• 2014

This explores an African American male poet, Etheridge Knight, and his poems. He died in 1991 and had been wounded in the battle field during the Korean War (1950-1953). Particularly, engaged in the war as a boy soldier, due to his wound, he had turned to a drug addict. Despite his experience in the war, Knight didn't write poems much about the war and wartime experience. Rather than war experience, for Knight, the prison gave him a strong motivation to be a poet with Gwendolyn Brooks' help. Further, Korean scholars are not familiar with contemporary African American poets, and my study is an introduction of those poets. Since in Korea researches on African American poets have been relatively rare, it is needed to sincerely work on those poets. The none-white writers, above all, penetrate the undercurrent of canonized American poets and poems. By examining Knight's poems, I eventually align a notion of the ethnic with racial minorities in the U. S.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.29-50
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• 2006

This study examines the effects of pre-employment efforts of the youth on their transition to the labor market. Labor market performance is accessed by the transitory period, the employment at workplace with more than 300 employees, and the wage level. Based on the effects of employment efforts for the first transitory period, job experience during school and preparatory period for employment would raise the likelihood of employment, but the school credit, grade in English, and the frequency of interviews, on the contrary, failed to reduce the transitory period. Employment effect varied according to educational background. In case of college graduates, vocational education and job experience during school were statistically significant variables leading them to decent jobs. On the other hand, in case of university graduates, job experience and language skills were proven to be important factors. Lastly, for the wage effect, in case of college graduates, vocational training, job experience during school, and English ability were proven to increase the wage level. However, vocational training after graduation and job experience during school decreased the wage level, but grade in English and pre-employment efforts during school increased the possibility of getting a decent, highly paid job for university graduates.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2021

This study aims to enhance English pronunciation education for Korean students by examining the impact of standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect on the articulation of English vowels. Data were obtained through the Korean-Spoken English Corpus (K-SEC). Seven Korean words and ten English mono-syllabic words were uttered by adult, male speakers of standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect, in particular, speakers with little to no experience living abroad were selected. Formant frequencies of the recorded corpus data were measured using spectrograms, provided by the speech analysis program, Praat. The recorded data were analyzed using the articulatory graph for formants. The results show that in comparison with speakers using standard Korean, those using the Gyeongsang regional dialect articulated both Korean and English vowels in the back. Moreover, the contrast between standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect in the pronunciation of Korean vowels (/으/, /어/) affected how the corresponding English vowels (/ə/, /ʊ/) were articulated. Regardless of the use of regional dialect, a general feature of vowel pronunciation among Korean people is that they show more narrow articulatory movements, compared with that of native English speakers. Korean people generally experience difficulties with discriminating tense and lax vowels, whereas native English speakers have clear distinctions in vowel articulation.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.281-308
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of CMC-based English learning. In this study, CMC components were found to provide circumstances of facilitating interactions between student-student and student-student-teacher, which enabled students to accomplish language learning tasks. Findings of this study are as follows: First, CMC based language learning experience helps students have positive attitudes toward their English language learning. Second, student-student-instructor interaction group outperformed other groups in academic achievement and class activity participation. Third, cooperative learning groups more actively participated in the class activity than the individual learning group resulting in better academic performances. These findings supported the fact that cooperative learning with CMC components are useful in bringing more class participation and positive attitude that were believed to foster language learning than other groups in traditional language learning environments. This study suggests that the instructor needs to use instructional design strategies helpful to facilitate active interactions between instructors and students in order to achieve better effectiveness of English learning in a CMC based learning environment.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.233-257
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of 3D avatar-based Virtual Reality chatting on college students' English learning achievement. Forty college sophomore students participated at this study and the research lesson continued for 8 weeks. They were administered to take a pretest to evaluate their vocabulary knowledge and writing skills. Their progress was assessed on the basis of midterm. Finally, a post-questionnaire was administered to measure their interest and understanding toward their learning experience in 3D avatar-based Virtual chatting. The results of this study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the control group and experimental group with respect to their midterm scores and writing. The result of the post-survey indicated the interest of English was statistically higher than the understanding of English.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.525-536
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• 2017

One of Africa's most accomplished writer, Chinua Achebe is not only known to have to contributed to writing a renowned folk literature but to contributing to the expansion of the English language. This research paper seeks to explore Achebe's most widely read novel "Things Fall Apart" and his 1 other novel and analyze how the incorporation and purposeful use of Ibo words, proverbs and phrases contribute to not only conveying the rich African experience but expanding the English language.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.67-88
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• 2004

Given the noteworthy increase in the number of native-born English-speaking. EFL instructors teaching overseas, this research examined 6 American EFL instructors who had taught English abroad with special reference to their experience as foreigner instructors in their respective host countries. With the use of interviews as the major technique employed, this research was centered on identifying conflicts or difficulties the research participants encountered as novice instructors, both internal and external to the classroom settings of their host countries. Research findings revealed that the current participants were not adequately prepared to cope with new and unfamiliar physical settings of their host countries, or to familiarize themselves with their new classroom settings and students. Studying the various the conflicts which native EFL instructors encountered, both internal and external to the classroom environment, will hopefully shed light on, and provide a more accurate portrayal of EFL professionals' teaching overseas and may provide possible insights into potential solutions to them. Furthermore, the research findings were considered and discussed in terms of acculturation theory.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2004

This study investigated the relations of children's age, intelligence, and the concept of conservation to their learning of English. Ten 4-year-old children from 1 child-care center and 13 7-year-old children from 1 elementary school were tested after completion of 8 sessions of experimental English classes. Children's intelligence was measured by K-WPPSI for 4-year olds and K-WISC for 7-year-olds. Children were tested for number and liquid conservations. A Korean teacher with 11 years of experience of teaching children at American elementary schools taught the 2 groups with the same subjects and methods. Data were analysed by independent samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Pearson's r. The results showed that children's age and the concept of conservation were related to English learning. No statistically significant relationship with IQ was found.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.195-208
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• 2005

This paper discusses the independent seminar as one of the appropriate courses, in particular, for the students who study English literature in the doctoral program. Those who take the Ph.D. program in English literature are considered as future scholars or teachers. In taking the coursework, they not only delve into the knowledge of literature, but also begin to establish broader and deeper senses of research ability. The independent seminar class helps them build such senses through the way in which they experience to the development of the syllabus by themselves. Furthermore, in contrast to a regular class, in which a group of students learn in a classroom, the independent seminar gives each student intensive interactions with his/her professor through the out-of-classroom circumstances, since the seminar is based upon one-on-one study between the student and the professor.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.155-177
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• 2005

In the EFL context, Korean students don't have enough opportunities to directly experience the target culture, prompting the need to offer some well-organized culture education in class. The goals of this study are to analyze how many cultural contents are reflected in High School English textbooks and to suggest an implication for cultural learning. These textbooks were carefully examined, focusing on the cultural contents, by four categories: 'cultural skill section', 'cultural patterns', 'related language skills', and 'target countries'. The results of the analysis were like the following: First, although many of the textbooks are dealing with the culture skill sections, their contents were still wanting consistency and were small in quantity. Second, as for the cultural patterns, the pages dealing with behavioral culture were 43%, spiritual culture, 35.7%, material culture, 21.3%. Third, as for the related language skills, the cultural contents in the textbooks were organized in the order of listening, reading, speaking, writing, and cultural skill sections. Since it is impossible to separate language skills from culture, we suggest that the aspects of target culture should be incorporated in various forms into the learning situations. Fourth, as for the issue of target countries, the contents about the general or whole English culture were insufficient. So we suggest that English textbooks should play an essential role in providing students with various cultural information about various English speaking countries.