• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.4
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• pp.85-116
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• 1998

Since the 1980's language teachers have been urged to take more communicatively oriented practice instead of traditional audio-lingual and grammar-translation instruction. However, there are many reasons why communication-centered teaching approaches haven't been easily adopted in Korea. First of all many English teachers haven't been prepared for communicative language teaching. And class size is very large. Another reason is that students' reading and writing skills are more important than their speaking and listening skills to enter colleges. But the world has been changing rapidly. We have many chances to meet foreigners and to talk to them. So many students want to improve their communicative proficiency. The purpose of this study is how to improve their communicative proficiency by performing games in English classes. There are many advantages of using games and songs in the classroom. First, games are motivating and challenging. Second, students can improve their four skills(speaking, writing, listening and reading skills) by using games and songs. Thirdly, games and songs help students to study English without their conscious efforts and to practice English repeatedly because they are interested in them. Fourthly, games and songs create a meaningful context for language use. Lastly, students can learn English with less tension and anxiety. Therefore, English games and songs are worthy of using in classes. To use English games and song more effectively, more various and useful materials have to be developed for English teachers and have to be introduced pertinently into classes.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.19-28
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• 2022

The current study was designed to explore whether taking English pronunciation classes could improve the realization of English rhythm by Korean learners of English. Specifically, this study used various rhythm metrics to examine the extent to which the learners' speech became rhythmically similar to the target language after taking classes that focused on English pronunciation. Sixteen learners who took a 15-week English pronunciation course at a university read an English passage twice (at the beginning and the end of the semester). The rhythm metrics such as Deltas, Varcos, and Pairwise Variability Indices were calculated for the learners' speech, as well as that of 8 native speakers of English. The results demonstrated that the learners' speech was slower, and they put more frequent within-sentence pauses than the native speakers even after the classes. The analyses also indicated that the speech recorded at the beginning of the semester was rhythmically much more different from the target language than at the end of the semester. After the classes, however, the learners' consonantal intervals became much more target-like, while the vocalic intervals were rhythmically even further from those in the target language. Overall, the findings suggested that the pronunciation classes helped the learners to produce English speech that was rhythmically similar to the native speakers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-75
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• 2002

The present study examined whether Kang's (1999) model of the relationships among language learning strategy use and language proficiency for the Asian students could be applied to a more heterogeneous group. In Kang's study, he collected information of language learning strategies of 957 foreign students learning English as a second language in American colleges through a questionnaire. He also measured the subjects' language proficiency with the Institutional Testing Program TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). This study analyzed the same data without the limitation of cultural identity. Structural equation modeling was used to model the relationships among strategy use and language proficiency. Then, the model of the present study was descriptively compared with Kang's (1999) model for the Asian students. The overall flow of the relationship paths appeared to vary very little across the two models, which would have indicated that the generalizability of Kang's (1999) model could be extended more than originally examined. (156)

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2016

To help define future research direction and enhance educational service for children from Asian and Latino immigrant backgrounds, this review examines research investigating social competence with reference to host and heritage language skills. A targeted search obtained 14 peer-reviewed studies published from 1994 to 2014 focusing on children aged from birth to 12 years. Social competence is mainly measured by four dimensions: externalizing behaviours, internalizing behaviours, social skills and relationships with others. The evidence suggests that English proficiency levels are positively associated with social skills and parent-child relationships are of higher quality when parent-child heritage language difference is minimal. However the findings are mixed regarding how English levels are associated with externalizing, internalizing behaviours and relationships with others and how heritage language levels are associated with social competence. This review makes a set of recommendations for future research including assessment of participants' language proficiency with language tests and examination of emotional factors in the relationship between English and social competence. The implications of the findings are also discussed for educators.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.4
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• pp.117-130
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• 1998

It is simply not true that anyone who can speak English can teach it. Language teaching is both a science and an art; its methods are based on a theoretical foundation and implemented by techniques. However, at a time like the present, when the scientific justification for our methods seems to be uncertain, we should concern ourselves less with theory and more with developing techniques that work with our students. The success of language teaching must be evaluated by the effectiveness of the techniques used. The purpose of the present study is to suggest some useful techniques that the teacher can utilize in teaching English as a foreign language in the elementary school. The techniques suggested are based on the investigation of the characteristics peculiar to children. The investigation takes into account cognitive, affective, and linguistic factors affecting specific techniques. The goal of language teaching is communication and all techniques should move toward this end. The resourceful teacher will provide techniques which exact more and more from the students and less and less from the teacher.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.233-254
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• 2003

This paper analyzed the effect of using a content-based English textbook in teaching English to Korean college students. The textbook reflected the recent trend in EFL/ESL development that subject matters should be taught as part of the language instruction. The analysis of the questionnaire survey conducted to college students at the end of the semester revealed an encouraging result that this new type of ELT college textbook is effective in helping Korean college students prepare for learning their subject areas through English. Based on this positive outcome, a suggestion is made that the current general purpose college English teaching curriculum be shifted toward a content-based specific purpose type to accommodate the increasing demand of learning subject areas through English in colleges in Korea.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.43-54
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine temporal structures of English words beginning with an /s/ plus stop sequence through production experiments with native speakers of Korean learning English and native speakers of English. According to the results of our production experiment, both a beginner and an advanced group of Korean English learners produced /s/ shorter than a following stop, while the opposite pattern was observed in English native speakers' production. An advanced group of Korean English learners were good at producing a stop after /s/ as unaspirated, but their production of a stop following /s/ was different from English native speakers' production in that the closure duration of the stop was much longer.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.248-253
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to understand how English textbooks in Korea reflect English education policies for improving the English language learners' cultural ability. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the method of analyzing English textbooks was used because English textbooks are an important tool that most specifically reflects the English policy of a country. This study analyzed a total of 15 English textbooks currently used in South Korea. We analyzed nouns/pronouns related to culture presented in the reading section included in each unit, and compared cultural diversity and cultural identity included in English textbooks in Korea. As a result, it was found that South Korea has tried to cultivate Korean learners' cultural competence through English education and introduced their cultural pride to Western culture to realize the goal of strengthening global capabilities.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.159-187
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to investigate common errors made by Korean learners in English composition and to find out what is an effective and appropriate teaching method of English composition in Korea. For these purposes, 197 students on the third grade in high school were selected as the subjects of this research. The students were tested by way of the immediate translation of 31 simple Korean sentences into English which are supposed to be easy for those students to write without any difficulty. About 2 minutes were given for testing each sentence. The results are as follows : First. the whole sum of errors made by 197 students was 2,972 and these types of errors were classified into 13 categories by Duskova's grammatical method and James'. The errors with comparatively high frequency were prepositional errors(17.2%), verbal errors(15.4%), and the errors with low frequency were article errors(1.9%), to-infinitive errors. Second, when Korean students learn English as a target language, overgeneralization(33.6%) and reduction(17.5) influenced the learners much more greatly than language transfer(22.2) did. But the influence of language transfer including interference & overgeneralization(l5.2%) and interference & reduction(10.7%) was no less than 48.1%. The statistics shows that the learners have a tendency to analyze, systematize and regularize the target language when they start to learn a new language.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.272-277
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• 2008

Functional MRI technique was used in this study for examining the language switching mechanisms between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2). Language switching mechanism is regarded as a complex task that involves an interaction between L1 and L2. The aim of study is to find out the brain activation patterns during the phonological process of reading real English words and English words written in Korean characters in a bilingual person. Korean-English bilingual subjects were examined while they covertly read four types of words native Korean words, Korean words of a foreign origin, English words written in Korean characters, and English words. The fMRI results reveal that the left hemispheric language-related regions at the brain, such as the left inferior frontal, superior temporal, and parietal cortices, have a greater response to the presentation of English words written in Korean characters than for the other types of words, in addition, a slight difference was observed in the occipital-temporal lobe. These results suggest that a change in the brain circuitry underlying the relational processes of language switching is mainly associated with general executive processing system in the left prefrontal cortex rather than with a similarity-based processing system in the occipital-temporal lobes.