• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제17권3호
• /
• pp.161-175
• /
• 2011

This paper examines Korean EFL high school students' reader responses on an expository text and a narrative text with the same topic. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether they have different reading models depending on the two genres and whether there are any differences depending on the learners' proficiency levels. The analysis focuses on textual, critical, and aesthetic reading models in the reader responses written in English by science-gifted high school students (N=30). The results show that the participants have different reading models in reading an expository text and a narrative text. They tend to read the expository text in a more critical way while reading the narrative text in a more personal and emotional way. Moreover, regardless of the proficiency levels, they wrote longer responses on the narrative text than the expository text. However, the proficiency level of English does not support any significant differences in the types of reading models. The findings provide Korean EFL high school students' characteristics in L2 reading and suggest the pedagogical implication to pursue linguistic development as well as reading for pleasure.

• 말소리와 음성과학
• /
• 제15권3호
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2023

This study investigates perceptual confusions of English fricatives among 121 Korean elementary school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with shorter periods of learning English. The objective is to examine how they perceive English fricative consonants and to provide educational guidelines. Two sets of English fricative identification tasks-voiceless fricatives and voiced fricatives-were administered to participants in a High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) setting. Their phonemic awareness of the fricatives was visualized in perceptual confusion maps via multidimensional scaling analysis. The findings are explored in terms of the impacts of Korean EFL learners' L1 linguistic aspects and a comparison with L1 learners. Learners' phonemic awareness patterns are then compared with their relative importance in speech intelligibility based on a functional load hierarchy. The results indicated that Korean elementary EFL learners recognized English fricatives in a manner largely akin to L1 learners, suggesting their ongoing acquisition progress. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that the young EFL learners possess sufficient phonemic awareness for most high functional load segments but encounter some difficulties with one high and one low functional pair. The findings of this study offer suggestions for diagnosing language learners' phonemic awareness abilities, thereby aiding in the development of practical guidelines for language instructional design and helping educators make informed decisions regarding teaching priority in L2 classes.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제17권4호
• /
• pp.157-175
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to compare learners' view on Korean and native teachers of English with regard to competence of teaching skills. A total of 166 high school students attending the same high school in Korea participated in a questionnaire survey. The students were asked a series of questions about their five Korean teachers of English and three natives. The analysis of the results indicates that the learners believed Korean English teachers would be better in teaching vocabulary, grammar and reading than native English teachers. The learners answered native English teachers would be better in teaching speaking, listening, and writing. In the areas of the accuracy of classroom language, the level of teacher-centeredness, and the amount of cultural information given in a classroom, there were no significant differences in the learners' responses between Korea and native teacher of English. By recognizing the differences of the learners' views on two different types of ELT teachers, we suggest that it would be beneficial for learners if we would utilize their views in designing and administrating a team-teaching program.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제15권4호
• /
• pp.365-382
• /
• 2009

This study aims to examine the reading materials of high school English textbooks to propose the integration of the literary texts into reading materials in the classroom for development of communicative competence. Five kinds of high school English textbooks were critically examined in terms of three factors -limited text types, deficit of emotional adjectives and non-authenticity- selected by the author as characteristics of non-communicative language teaching materials. With regard to text types, more than half of the reading materials were expository and simple narratives. This imbalance of text types led materials to the deficit of emotional vocabulary. These factors seem to be closely related to the issue of authenticity of reading materials. Compared to the authentic texts, fabricated texts are likely to make reading vapid and boring task. On the basis of these results, some pedagogical suggestions are made.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제11권1호
• /
• pp.99-118
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine visual elements in Korean high school English textbooks and compare the results with Hill's (2003) which attempted to analyze visuals in British EFL coursebooks. In this study, all 15 English textbooks of high school year 1 in Korea were selected and analyzed. On the basis of the analysis and comparison, the following results have been obtained. First, there were some similarities and differences between the two kinds of texts-Korean high school textbooks and British EFL coursebooks. One similarity was found in regard to the average of pictures and drawings. Second, it was found that in both cases, more pictures were used than the drawings. Third, with regard to the identity of the pictures and drawings used in both texts, there was a higher degree of the use of people than that of objects. Finally, it was found that the pictures and drawings were used more for decorative purpose rather than for the purpose of actual use in teaching and learning. The findings of the current study will shed light on visual impact in EFL coursebooks and explore ways to provide learners and teachers with meaningful learning and teaching experiences.

• 대한음성학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한음성학회 2007년도 한국음성과학회 공동학술대회 발표논문집
• /
• pp.183-186
• /
• 2007

This study analyzes Korean high school students' pronunciation errors in word-initial onglides in English. For this study, 24 Korean high school students read 34 English words including glide-vowel sequences in word-initial positions and vowel-initial words in a frame sentence. The results showed 2 different error types: glide deletion and vowel distortion. After the analysis of the first recording, the subjects were taught how to pronounce glide-vowel sequences properly in a 60-minute class. Comparison of the analyses of the first and second recordings showed that the subjects improved on the pronunciation of glide-vowel sequences. After the training, the pronunciation errors of diphthongs unique to English, [$j_I$], decreased substantially. However, most subjects still had difficulties in pronouncing [$w{\mho}$], [wu], and [wo]. There was no significant correlation between English course grade and error reduction.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제16권3호
• /
• pp.183-206
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether using English newspapers as supplementary teaching materials for the present textbook could increase students' English reading ability, interest in class and their willingness to take an active part in activities. Schools in rural areas, compared to urban schools, did not have the appropriate resources to teach students effectively. Understanding the disadvantages of the students in rural areas, one idea was to use newspapers to inspire the students to reach outside their local community and incorporate new styles of English and cultural aspects into their lives. The participants were 2nd grade high school students in the rural area. The experimental group received reading lessons with the textbook and English newspapers. They were also encouraged to make their own portfolios. The control group received reading lessons with the textbook and other supplementary materials. Before and after the experiment, reading comprehension tests as well as the questionnaires of interest and self-directed learning were administered. The results of this study were as follows: First, students' English reading ability was significantly improved in the experimental class using English newspapers. Second, students' interest and self-directed learning were positively increased in the same class above.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제15권4호
• /
• pp.75-94
• /
• 2009

This study was designed to assess demotivation factors and compare the factor between two secondary school student groups. It furthermore examined how the factors related to students' L2 proficiency. A 31-item questionnaire was completed by 407 junior (JH) and senior high school (SH) students. Five factors were extracted through the principal axis factoring: Teachers' competence and teaching styles, Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system, Difficulty of learning English, Lack of motivation and interest in learning English, and Inadequate learning contents. Although both JH and SH students did not perceive their English teacher as a strong attribution of demotivation, Difficulty of learning English and Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system were the two strongest demotivating factors. When compared the overall mean scores of each factor between JH and SH groups, significant differences were found in all factors except Factor 4, with SH students reporting stronger demotivation. JH students attributed their demotivation to Difficulty of learning English, while SH students attributed that to Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system. Both groups tended to attribute their demotivation to external forces. The study also showed that several demotivation factors related negatively to L2 proficiency.

• 영어어문교육
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.165-198
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this research is to improve the writing ability of students by an ideal test model of English writing based on strategies of procedural learning stages enhancing the level of students' writing ability. Assessment of writing in the field of English education has been limited so far to very restricted areas with no appropriate scientific scrutiny. Assessment is really meaningful only when it exactly estimates the ability of students. Since English writing competence has become indispensable in this era of global village, writing instruction should be most emphasized. The most forceful method of busting writing instruction is to utilize the so-called washback effect of testing. So, to develop a good test model of writing, the first thing that is required is to inspect writing strategy in steps and, then, testing itself. First of all, analyzed with a special reference to the 6th high school English curriculum were the goals and contents of the syllabus reflected in one kind of junior high textbook and eight different kinds of senior high textbooks. Then questionnaires on the whole area of writing and tendencies of English writing classes were given to 100 English teachers, 300 students. The results of questionnaires were statistically analyzed. Then, some suggestions and opinions about the questioning method were made: the procedural strategy in steps, English writing instruction and test model of assessment were applied to the syllabus referring to teaching plans. On the bases of the results of the questionnaires, three pretests and a final test of English writing were administered to verify the effect of enhanced English writing competence which had been gradually promoted and, through the promotion, produced the test criteria of English writing. In conclusion, guidance and evaluation of English writing through in steps are really indispensable to increase student's practical ability and, accordingly, we are in need of the development of a testing method of useful writing practiced in school class above anything else. So, it is necessary to further the study on methods to assess writing ability on the bases of participation and fluency of students with their keen interest in English. Also, to intensify the effect of the test model, more accommodating reorganization of syllabus is required in our education. For instance, we need a flexible operation in organizing time units from the current 50 minutes to 100-130 minutes.

• 대한음성학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한음성학회 2004년도 춘계 학술대회 발표논문집
• /
• pp.245-249
• /
• 2004

The aim of this paper is to show the possibilities of the proficiency -based and integrated teaching of High School English reading and listening based on sense group and utterance restructuring. The proficiency -based and integrated listening and reading activities in stages are as follows. Step1, students fill in the blanks with strong or weak sounding words according to their abilities. Step2, speak along (track) based on restructuring and post-lexical phenomena while listening to the sentence. Step3, read and understand directly the passage, which have been marked the differentiated places where a native speaker of English would beat all likely to pause. Students need to listen to spoken English, so they recognize words in written and spoken form. They must be familiar with suprasegmental features, stress and rhythm, and post-lexical phenomena during reading activities.