• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.101-107
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• 2010

This study investigates the difference in the evaluation of English pronunciation quality between native speakers of English and Korean learners of English. This study employs a novel method of independently evaluating the prosody and segmentals of English sentences. A set of stimuli were made by swapping the prosody and the segmentals of English sentences read by a native speaker of American English and a Korean learner of English. Evaluations of the difference level of stimuli pairs and the goodness of the pronunciation quality showed that both native speakers of English and Korean learners of English give priority to the segmentals but native speakers of English were more sensitive to the difference in prosody in the evaluation of English pronunciation.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative case study on teaching English as an international language in Korean context. The researcher investigated the implementation process of the new elementary English program from the government to local schools to find out to what extent the symbolic value of English as an international language affect the implementation process of the elementary English program. The research result showed that the elementary teachers shared the different views of the status of English from those of government and the parents, and their differing perception of the role of English constantly affected their implementation efforts. The research findings also revealed that the public's concern of English dominance in Korean educational system resulted in the government's 'comprised curriculum' by lowering the learning goals of the English program. The findings also indicated that the introduction of the elementary English program accelerated English dominance in both teacher and student culture. The question of how to resolve the conflict between acquiring English proficiency and its negative influence on Korean culture remains a complex issue in implementing the new elementary English program.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.115-137
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• 2011

The tourism industry has attained remarkable growth, and the need for professional Tourism English education has increased. Universities of online education can offer an environment for education to both job applicants and laymen who are interested in Tourism English. Tourism English belongs to English for Specific Purposes, which reflects the needs of specific area. The aim of this study is to propose improvements in classes design for online Tourism English instruction. The results of a needs analysis conducted on 160 Korean online university students suggest that online Tourism English class should be different from a traditional classroom-based one in regards to aims, contents, and methods. Online Tourism English class should not only focus on English for specific purposes, but also include more generalized topics. This comes as a result of the diverse backgrounds of online students. The results suggest that extralinguistic elements, such as culture and etiquette differences among English-speaking countries, become more interesting when introduced using pictures, videos, animations, etc. Additionally, SMS or emails can be utilized to raise students' motivation for online Tourism English class.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.255-272
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• 2011

As the demand of English education is increasing, the demand for Native English speaking teachers (NEST) is rising, especially in Asian countries. However, due to the low number of NEST, the Korean government is suggesting that Filipino Women be used as English teachers as an alternative. This study aims to answer three questions: (1) are Filipino women in Korea qualified to teach English based on the error analysis of their written essays? (2) what are the linguistic features found in their diagnostic essays? and (3) is their written English better than Korean college students' written English based on the comparison of the two groups? The findings from the Filipino participants show the most frequently occurring errors are related to punctuation usage (commas and hyphens), vocabulary (word choice), verb usage, redundancy, and even as basic as capitalization usage. The results from the comparison of the two groups show that the percentage of the Filipino participants' written error was 14% while the percentage of the Korean participants was 17%. The findings would give us some ideas on the qualification of Filipino women in Korea as English teachers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.45-53
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• 2011

Flemming and Johnson (2007) claim that there is a fundamental distinction between the mid central vowel [ə] and the high central vowel [?] in that [ə] occurs in an unstressed word-final position while [?] appears elsewhere. Compared to English counterparts, Korean [ə] and [?] are full vowels and they have phonemic contrast. The purpose of this paper is to explore the acoustic quality of two English reduced vowels produced by Korean learners and native speakers of English in terms of their two formant frequencies. Sixteen Korean learners of English and six native speakers of English produced four types of English words and two types of Korean words with different phonological and morphological patterns. The results show that Korean learners of English produced the two reduced vowels of English and their Korean counterparts differently in Korean and English words.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.123-139
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• 2011

The purpose of the current study is to analyze a model of OPIc-based speaking test for Korea English classroom. The research questions were (1). What is the English teachers' opinion on the current speaking teaching and testing? (2). Is the OPIc speaking test appropriate in the Korea English class? and (3). What are the English education students' perceptions of the OPIc-based speaking test for English classes? To answer the first research question, a survey was conducted targeting one hundred and forty-seven teachers. The result of the survey shows that Korea English teachers' great concern on the English teaching and speaking test are "communicative competence," "scoring and criteria," and "condition and need." To answer the second research question, the OPIc speaking test for the class was analyzed and it was found that in terms of the communicative competence," "scoring and criteria," and "condition and need" issues, OPIc based speaking test is appropriate in Korea English class. For the third research question, Q methodology was used targeting English education students and the result shows that most English education students strongly agree to the statements that the OPIc-based speaking test has the advantage to improve communicative competence. This study may provide the information about creating and adopting tests for English classes and relating standardized test and the English classes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.378-390
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• 2020

English stress plays such a critical role in understanding spoken English words that its misplacement can lead to a breakdown of communication. Korean learners of English, whose native language is known to lack this feature, are expected to have some difficulty acquiring this English prosodic system. This study explored how Korean is different from English in manifesting prominence at the word level and how the interlanguage of Korean learners of English is dissimilar to both languages in that regard. Four polysyllabic English loanwords in Korean and their English source words were used as stimuli. Ten native English speakers read the English source words while ten Korean learners of English read the English loan words first and then the English source words. The analysis of 120 speech samples revealed that Korean words did not have any salient syllable realized by all stress features: duration, amplitude, and F0. On the contrary, English words had syllables with relative prominence, which was consistently manifested by all the features. Interestingly, in realizing English stress, the interlanguage of the Korean English learners bore more resemblance to that of English than that of their native language.

• MALSORI
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• no.38
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• pp.71-97
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• 1999

In this paper I have surveyed vowel phonemes in a variety of English accents and have proposed the vowel systems of English. The English accents covered in this paper include General American English, Northeastern American English, Western American English, Southern British English, Northern British English, Scottish English, Southern Irish English, Northern Irish English, Australian English, and New Zealand English. The vowel systems proposed here reflect the acoustic information of vowels and phonological aspects of English. This paper offers an Optimality Theory-based analysis of the English vowel systems by appealing to independently motivated constraints. This paper, following Flemming(1995), makes an assumption that the vowel system in question is selected in output as an optimal candidate by a given constraint ranking, the assumption which is different from the view that the vowel system is fixed in input. The analysis proposed here gives an answer to why a specific vowel system is selected and why dialectal variations come about. It is shown in this paper that the vowel system selected in a specific dialect comes from an optimal satisfaction of a given constraint ranking and that dialectal differences result from dynamic permutations of the same constraints. The constraint-based analysis proffered here accounts well for the similarities and differences among dialects in regard to the vowel system.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.36
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• pp.173-194
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• 2007

The purpose of this article is primarily to give prominence to the importance of International Business English education. Although English is one of the most crucial parts in international business transaction it has not been treated as one of academical sciences. As English is a main language when the international business transaction is done International Business English should be studied by scholars who majored in international business area. It is true that there has been no study at all regarding International Business English(in this article, it does not mean General International Business English) so far. Anyone who does and learn the international business should have some opportunities to have a contact towards international business correspondence and other documents before they do in reality. However, in Korea, most English education has been focused on general English and English certificate tests at universities. At universities' level, it is certainly a scholars' task to study International Business English education in order to provide decent education to the students. For doing so, this article examine, focusing only on reading part, how International Business English should be taught and especially, how reading skills should be activated and integrated with other language skills. This objective will be fulfilled by asking, what reading means in International Business English, as well as what role reading plays in International Business English education.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-115
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• 2006

English immersion has emerged in Korea only recently as an innovative approach to learning and teaching English. Lack of real life experience of using English has been one of the biggest obstacles for Korean learners of English and has resulted in an increasing number of children being sent to English-speaking countries and a huge amount of dollar outflow. This recent innovation is expected to be the magic wand to resolve all these problems. However, setting up an immersion program in a typical EFL context like Korea has brought in another set of issues and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a short-term immersion English program in Korea and provide some empirical data to develop programs that can better cater to the needs of EFL learners. A two-week English immersion program was developed and implemented with 57 Korean and Japanese students whose grade level ranged from 4 to 12. The study results show that the program was successful in terms of changing the participants' attitude toward learning English, improving their English skills, enhancing intercultural understanding and competence, and motivating them for further studies of English and other foreign languages and cultures.