• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.91-106
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• 2010

This study examines the use of hedges in cross-cultural communication between EFL learners in an e-learning environment. The study analyzes the use of hedges in a corpus of an interactive web with a bulletin board system through which college students of English at Japanese and Korean universities interacted with each other discussing the topics of local and global issues. It compares the use of hedges in the students' corpus to that of a native English speakers' corpus. The result shows that EFL learners tend to use relatively smaller number of hedges than the native speakers in terms of the frequencies of the total tokens. It further reveals that the learners' overuse of a single versatile high-frequency hedging item, I think, results in relative underuse of other hedging devices. This indicates that due to their small repertoire of hedges, EFL learners' overuse of a limited number of hedging items may cause their speech or writing to become less competent. Based on the result and interviews with the learners, the study also argues that hedging should be understood in its social contexts and should not be understood just as a lack of conviction or a mark of low proficiency. Suggestions were made for using computer corpora in understanding EFL learners' language difficulties and helping them develop communicative and pragmatic competence.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.4
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• pp.207-228
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• 1998

This study investigated how Korean learners of English acquired the English reflexives. There is emphasis on the effects of the GCP and PAP(Wexler and Manzini, 1987). The purpose is to examine the major hypothesis that L2 learners are still constrained by Universal Grammar (UG), despite the influence of the parameter setting of their native language as well as the non-operation of the Subset Principle. The experimental group consisted of 30 middle school students (age 14-15), 30 high school students (age 16-17), and 30 university students (age 18-19) as well as 20 ESL students (age 16) studying English in the USA. Twenty native speakers of English served as a control group. The subjects responded to a test on reflexives that used a multiple-choice grammaticality judgement task. Findings show that L2 learners transfer their L1 parameter setting and, as a result, make errors in the choice of antecedents for reflexives. Therefore, I argue that the L2 learner is still constrained by UG.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.120-131
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• 2017

The popularity of the Korean Wave have attracted global interst and attention in Korean and Korean culture internationally, but this has not led to the formation of true Korean learners. The reason for this is that Korean learners based on Korean Wave has different characteristics from other Korean learners. Therefore, it is necessary to study different learning methods in order to increase learning effects. In this study, we focused on the effect of mobile devices as learning tools and examined the characteristics of mobile devices and found that mobile devices could positively influence Korean language learners. As a result, various features of mobile devices can positively affect the learning characteristics of Korean learners based on the Korean Wave, so that it can be expected to enhance their learning effects and enable them to constantly learn Korean language.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.151-176
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• 2003

Motivation and learning strategies, some of the important factors affecting language learning, have mostly been studied with reference to their relationship in terms of proficiency. This study investigated motivation and learning strategies and their relationship in order to find the inward predisposition of learners. Data was collected from 200 university students in Taejon and Chungnam province, Korea language learning strategies were measured by the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL), and motivation by the Attitude / Motivation Test Battery(AMTB), with adaptations for Koreans. The detailed analysis of the data Indicated that Korean university students were more motivated to learn English for a practical goal than a formal one. They had a strong willingness to learn but showed 'the tendency of the new generation' of choosing the easiest and most convenient ways in studying English in terms of motivational intensity and strategy use. Findings imply that there have to be some changes and improvements in the deep-rooted classroom teaching methods. A systematic device is needed to induce students to be autonomous learners, providing them with a variety of activities suitable for their purposes and levels, as in opportunities of contacting native speakers, multi-media language labs, the Internet etc.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07d
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• pp.2540-2542
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• 2003

This paper presents an internet-based self-learning educational system which can be enhancing efficiency in the learning process of Java language. The proposed self-learning educational system is called Java Web Player(JWP), which is a Java application program and is executable through Java Web Start technologies. In this paper, three important sequential learning processes : concept learning process, programming practice process and assessment process are integrated in the proposed JWP using Java Web Start technologies. This JWP enables the learners to achieve efficient and interesting self-learning since the learning process is designed to enhance the multimedia capabilities on the basis of educational technologies. Also, online voice presentation and its related texts together with moving images are synchronized for efficient language learning process. Furthermore, a simple/useful compiler is included in the JWP for providing language practice environment such as coding, editing, executing and debugging Java source files. Finally repeated practice can make the learners to understand easily the key concepts of Java language. Simple multiple choices are given suddenly to the learners while they are studying through the JWP and the test results are displayed on the message box.

• MALSORI
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• no.38
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• pp.113-124
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• 1999

It is well known that Japanese prosodic structure assumes mora below the syllable tier. Syllables with V or CV structure are counted as having one morn whereas those with coda consonants /-pp, -tt, -kk, -ss, -N/ or long vowels are counted as having two morns in Japanese. This study measured the acoustic duration of these special moras ('tokusyuhaku') produced by Tokyo dialect speakers to see if they are isochronic with V or CV. It also examined the production of Korean(Seoul/Kyungsang dialect) and Chinese native speakers loaming Japanese as a second language to examine how the learners' first language influence their second language. Finally, it examined how speakers of the Akita dialect, which is blown as a syllabeme dialect in Japanese, produced them. The results showed that intra-speaker variation as well as inter-speaker variation was observed in the production by Akita dialect speakers. Production of native speakers of Chinese and Kyungsang dialect of Korean -- which have vowel length contrast in their phonological systems -- showed a similar result to Tokyo dialect speakers, which implies the influence of the learners' first language on the acquisition of the second language.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.123-159
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• 2012

This study investigates relationships between TOPIK ratings and measures of grammaticality judgement competence in the acquisition of Korean as a second language. Data were collected on the linguistic abilities of learners' at 3 to 6 on the TOPIK scale, focusing on perception in grammar-mostly morphology and syntax, some lexis, and a few of collocation. The results show that (i) proficiency and grammaticality judgement competence show high correlation, (ii) individual accuracy scores correlate strongly with levels on the TOPIK proficiency scale on most linguistic features in the test, and (iii) Japanese speakers outperform Chinese speakers at the same levels of proficiency on most linguistic features. The findings indicate that global proficiency scales like the TOPIK can be deconstructed using grammaticality judgement test that provides detailed measures of learners' control of linguistic features.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.227-248
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• 2002

This paper reviews current developments in UG-related SLA·FLL research. It discusses the findings of Hahn (2000), Shin (2000) and Yang (2001) with respect to the following issues: the role of UG parameters in SLA·FLL and the developmental aspects of inflectional categories in Korean EFL learners' interlanguage. It contends that Korean EFL learners' inflectional grammars are constrained by L1 as well as by Universal Grammar.

• Korean Linguistics
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• v.80
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• pp.211-234
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• 2018

This study aims to research the acoustic properties of Korean and Vietnamese monophthongs by Vietnamese advanced Korean learners, and to discuss the realization of Korean monophthongs compared to Koreans. The Vietnamese advanced Korean learners do not distinguish between /e/ and /${\varepsilon}$/, which are the same as Korean. They pronounce Korean /e(${\varepsilon}$)/ close to /e/ in their native language. In the case of /ʌ/, it is reported that many errors are observed in previous studies. However, /ʌ/ of Vietnamese advanced learners is realized similar to /ʌ/ spoken by Koreans. /ɯ/ of Vietnamese advanced Korean learners is pronounced in the back of the tongue, whereas in the central by Koreans. In the case of /o/ and /u/, there is no significant difference by the Vietnamese advanced Korean learners. /ɯ/ and /u/ are pronounced in relatively front side of the tongue in Korean, but it is not observed in the Vietnamese advanced Korean learners.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.91-99
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• 2014

Although it is well documented that patients with cochlear implant experience hearing difficulties when processing their first language, very little is known whether or not and to what extent cochlear implant patients recognize segments in a second language. This preliminary study examines how Korean learners of English identify English segments in a normal hearing and cochlear implant simulation conditions. Participants heard English vowels and consonants in the following three conditions: normal hearing condition, 12-channel noise vocoding with 0mm spectral shift, and 12-channel noise vocoding with 3mm spectral shift. Results confirmed that nonnative listeners could also retrieve spectral information from vocoded speech signal, as they recognized vowel features fairly accurately despite the vocoding. In contrast, the intelligibility of manner and place features of consonants was significantly decreased by vocoding. In addition, we found that spectral shift affected listeners' vowel recognition, probably because information regarding F1 is diminished by spectral shifting. Results suggest that patients with cochlear implant and normal hearing second language learners would experience different patterns of listening errors when processing their second language(s).