• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.285-294
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• 2021

Motivated by the mixed results in the previous studies on the relationship between speech production and perception, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between production and perception in depth through a case study on how Korean EFL university students produce and perceive American English vowels. To this end, 19 Korean students at a university located in the Seoul-metropolitan area participated in the production and perception tests on American English vowels to elucidate the precedence relationship and the correlation between production and perception. Results showed that precedence of neither perception nor production was found in the overall result. However, either precedence of perception or production was found for the vowels [ɛ], [α], [ɔ], [u], which implies that the precedence relationship between production and perception varies depending on individual vowels. As for the correlation between production and perception, no correlation was attested between production and perception, suggesting that production and perception skills are not closely linked for these participants. Given that mastering language requires to coordinate two distinct production and perception skills and that L2 learners' preception and production skills become more closely connected as the learners' L2 experience and proficiency increases, no correlation between production and perception attested by the current EFL students implies that the correlation between production and perception varies during the course of foreign language/L2 acquisition in such a way that production and perception skills become increasingly related. Implications of the findings were further discussed and pedagogical suggestions were provided.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.574-575
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• 1996

The theme of the current study is to study intonation of Taiwanese(Tw.) by comparing the intonation patterns in native language (Ll), target language (L2), and interlanguage (IL). Studies on interlanguage have dealt primarily with segments. Though there were studies which addressed to the issues of interlanguage intonation, more often than not, they didn't offer evidence for the statement, and the hypotheses were mainly based on impression. Therefore, a formal description of interlanguage intonation is necessary for further development in this field. The basic assumption of this study is that native speakers of one language perceive and produce a second language in ways closely related to the patterns of their first language. Several studies on interlanguage prosody have suggested that prosodic structure and rules are more subject to transfer than certain other phonological phenomena, given their abstract structural nature and generality(Vogel 1991). Broselow(1988) also shows that interlanguage may provide evidence for particular analyses of the native language grammar, which may not be available from the study of the native language alone. Several research questions will be addressed in the current study: A. How does duration vary among native and nominative utterances\ulcorner The results shows that there is a significant difference in duration between the beginning English learners, and the native speakers of American English for all the eleven English sentences. The mean duration shows that the beginning English learners take almost twice as much time (1.70sec.), as Americans (O.97sec.) to produce English sentences. The results also show that American speakers take significant longer time to speak all ten Taiwanese utterances. The mean duration shows that Americans take almost twice as much time (2.24sec.) as adult Taiwanese (1.14sec.) to produce Taiwanese sentences. B. Does proficiency level influence the performance of interlanguage intonation\ulcorner Can native intonation patterns be achieved by a non-native speaker\ulcorner Wenk(1986) considers proficiency level might be a variable which related to the extent of Ll influence. His study showed that beginners do transfer rhythmic features of the Ll and advanced learners can and do succeed in overcoming mother-tongue influence. The current study shows that proficiency level does play a role in the acquisition of English intonation by Taiwanese speakers. The duration and pitch range of the advanced learners are much closer to those of the native American English speakers than the beginners, but even advanced learners still cannot achieve native-like intonation patterns. C. Do Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers\ulcorner Ross et. al.(1986) suggests that the presence of tone in a language significantly inhibits the unrestricted manipulation of three acoustical measures of prosody which are involved in producing local pitch changes in the fundamental frequency contour during affective signaling. Will the presence of tone in a language inhibit the ability of speakers to modulate intonation\ulcorner The results do show that Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers. Both advanced (84Hz) and beginning learners (58Hz) of English show a significant narrower FO range than that of Americans' (112Hz), and the difference is greater between the beginning learners' group and native American English speakers.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.235-240
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• 2000

In the age of global communication, more human exchange is extended at the grass-roots level. In the old days, language policy and language planning was based on one nation-state with one language. But high waves of globalizaiton have allowed extended human flow of exchange beyond one's national border on a daily basis. Under such circumstances, homogeneity in Japan may not allow Japanese to speak and communicate only in Japanese and only with Japanese people. In Japan, an advisory report was made to the Ministry of Education in June 1996 about what education should be like in the 21st century. In this report, an introduction of English at public elementary schools was for the first time made. A basic policy of English instruction at the elementary school level was revealed. With this concept, English instruction is not required at the elementary school level but each school has their own choice of introducing English as their curriculum starting April 2002. As Baker, Colin (1996) indicates the age of three as being the threshold diving a child becoming bilingual naturally or by formal instruction. Threre is a movement towards making second language acquisition more naturalistic in an educational setting, developing communicative competence in a more or less formal way. From the lesson of the Canadian immersion success, Genesee (1987) stresses the importance of early language instruction. It is clear that from a psycho-linguistic perspective, most children acquire basic communication skills in their first language apparently effortlessly and without systematic and formal instruction during the first six or seven years of life. This innate capacity diminishes with age, thereby making language learning increasingly difficult. The author, being a returnee, experienced considerable difficulty acquiring L2, and especially achieving native-like competence. There will be many hurdles to conquer until Japanese students are able to reach at least a communicative level in English. It has been mentioned that English is not taught to clear the college entrance examination, but to communicate. However, Japanese college entrance examination still makes students focus more on the grammar-translation method. This is expected to shift to a more communication stressed approach. Japan does not have to aim at becoming an official bilingual country, but at least communicative English should be taught at every level in school Mito College is a small two-year co-ed college in Japan. Students at Mito College are basically notgood at English. It has only one department for business and economics, and English is required for all freshmen. It is necessary for me to make my classes enjoyable and attractive so that students can at least get motivated to learn English. My major target is communicative English so that students may be prepared to use English in various business settings. As an experiment to introduce more communicative English, the author has made the following syllabus design. This program aims at training students speak and enjoy English. 90-minute class (only 190-minute session per week is most common in Japanese colleges) is divided into two: The first half is to train students orally using Graded Direct Method. The latter half uses different materials each time so that students can learn and enjoy English culture and language simultaneously. There are no quizes or examinations in my one-academic year program. However, all students are required to make an original English poem by the end of the spring semester. 2-6 students work together in a group on one poem. Students coming to Mito College, Japan have one of the lowest English levels in all of Japan. However, an attached example of one poem made by a group shows that students can improve their creativity as long as they are kept encouraged. At the end of the fall semester, all students are then required individually to make a 3-minute original English speech. An example of that speech contest will be presented at the Convention in Seoul.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2023

This study investigates why Korean English speakers misunderstand the English article system, which article Korean EFL learners use more accurately in their English writings, and implications for English writing instruction from Korean EFL learners' utterances. There have been numerous studies on the acquisition of English article system by non-native English speakers. Those studies agree that acquiring English articles is difficult for learners of English as a second language. As a result, in this study, many English learners use the definite and indefinite articles a/an. Many wrote articles from their writings, and occasionally, errors of excessive use of definite articles occurred. Through this, this paper investigates how a Korean English learner whose native language has no articles chooses the English article system in speech. It is based on the elicited production of the Korean English learner and suggests some implications for teaching English writing in the classroom. When English instructors teach Korean English learners to write English, it is more important than anything else to practice the correct usage of definite articles or indefinite articles.