• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2007

In this study, the researchers evaluate the hypothesis that the reaction time (RT) in the brain is largely dependent on age and gender. The researchers tested English and Korean words using two types: reading as visual stimuli, and listening as auditory stimuli. The E-Prime program installed in functional magnetic resonance imaging (f-MRI) was used. There are 136 Korean subjects in three groups: 30 children (5th and 6th grade elementary school students), 76 young adults (college students), and 30 adults (35-53 years old). In the listening test, the variation for the two languages was different among the three age groups, regardless of gender, whereas the data did not show meaningful differences in the reading test. The findings will provide some meaningful information regarding perception and acquisition of a foreign language.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.133-143
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the differences in executive function according to type of early English learning experience. The subjects were 75 5-years-old who had immersive early English learning in language school, and daycare center. The measurement tools were stroop, DCCST, memorize numbers, pattern fluency, and maze. We conducted covariance analysis with total intelligence as the covariates. In the results, there were significant differences in attention control and cognitive flexibility, but weren't significant differences in information processing and goal setting according to type of early English learning experience. This study suggests that experience of immersive early English learning positively affected attention control and cognitive flexibility, and didn't affect information processing and goal setting.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1047-1065
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• 2010

English inversion constructions are not only hard for non-native speakers to learn but also difficult to teach mainly because of their intriguing grammatical and discourse properties. This paper addresses grammatical issues in learning or teaching the so-called 'predicate inversion (PI)' construction (e.g., Equally important in terms of forest depletion is the continuous logging of the forests). In particular, we chart the grammatical (distributional, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic) properties of the PI construction, and argue for adata-driven teaching for English grammar. To depart from the arm-chaired style of grammar teaching (relying on author-made simple sentences), our teaching method introduces a datadriven teaching. With total 25 university students in a grammar-related class, students together have analyzed the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB), containing about one million words distributed across a variety of textual categories. We have identified total 290 PI sentences (206 from spoken and 87 from written texts). The preposed syntactic categories of the PI involve five main types: AdvP, PP, VP(ed/ing), NP, AP, and so, all of which function as the complement of the copula. In terms of discourse, we have observed, supporting Birner and Ward's (1998) observation that these preposed phrases represent more familiar information than the postposed subject. The corpus examples gave us the three possible types: The preposed element is discourse-old whereas the postposed one is discourse-new as in Putting wire mesh over a few bricks is a good idea. Both preposed and postposed elements can also be discourse new as in But a fly in the ointment is inflation. These two elements can also be discourse old as in Racing with him on the near-side is Rinus. The dominant occurrence of the PI in the spoken texts also supports the view that the balance (or scene-setting) in information structure is the main trigger for the use of the PI construction. After being exposed to the real data and in-depth syntactic as well as informationstructure analysis of the PI construction, it is proved that the class students have had a farmore clear understanding of the construction in question and have realized that grammar does not mean to live on by itself but tightly interacts with other important grammatical components such as information structure. The study directs us toward both a datadriven and interactive grammar teaching.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.157-185
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing preschoolers' emergent English as a second language literacy skills in terms of maternal language behavior in Korean and English picture book reading. This study was also conducted in order to identify the pathways of each factor. The subjects consisted of 201 mothers and their 3~5 year-old children from middle income families living in Seoul, Incheon, Gyyounggi-do, and Chungcheongbuk-do. The results indicated that the factors influencing preschoolers' emergent English as a second language literacy skills acquisition were as follows : maternal beliefs about the value of picture book reading, the child's level of interest in picture book reading, the time spent on picture book reading and maternal language behavior during picture book reading activities. The results further indicate that it is important that the mother shares desirable language interaction with her children in their native language while reading not only Korean but also English picture books when aiming to improve preschoolers' emergent English literacy skills.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.27-50
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• 2018

Old age is often compared as climbing mountains which requires walking out of breath, yet with wider vision. And it is also likened to the estuary where the river flows slowly and broadly into the open sea. Socially, old age has been regarded as a symbol of wisdom and reflection, and elderly people often take the role of sage who leads the community. On the other hand, the dementia, gray hair and wrinkles of old age were sometimes perceived as the decline of intellect and vitality. Especially, in the digital age in which technology makes people more sensitive to physical artificiality, the evaluation of the old age becomes more complex and obscure. In other words, some elderly people can not escape from Confucious convention of the elders first, which causes the denouncement by younger generations. On the other hand, some elderly people are becoming more adaptable to the trend of young people, emerging as the new elderly people. The anti-aging movement, early adaptation of IT, bioengineering regimen also strong for the advanced age. However, as the new elderly people are active in many fields of society, they also face intergenerational conflicts in some areas where remains the overlap between young people and them due to the limited openings in economy and culture. This study is a transdisciplinary research which can be called old age humanities. First of all, this paper looks at the aspects of lifestyles and intergeneration conflicts in old age in four Korean and Western literary works about the old people, and also searches how to improve the quality of the later life of old people, Overall, this paper aims to explore the way the old people can achieve the full life with the help of intergenerational dependency through building aging humanities and new communities for old people.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2015

We developed a test of English silent word reading, following work by Mather, Hammill, Allen and Roberts (2004) and Bell, McCallum, Krik, Fuller, and McCane-Bowling (2007), in order to tap Hong Kong Chinese children's reading of English as a foreign language. We created one subtest of individual word reading and another of word reading contextualized within sentences; together, these tests require no more than 10 minutes for administration. In Study 1, we administered the entire test to 552 second grade Hong Kong Chinese children between the ages of 70 and 121 months old, from five different primary schools. The association between the subtests of English silent word reading and contextual reading was positively correlated (.78). In Study 2, 77 Hong Kong Chinese second graders were tested on our newly developed English silent word reading test, together with non-verbal IQ, an English word reading and a Chinese character recognition test (both read aloud). With age and non-verbal IQ statistically controlled, there was a significant correlation between English silent word reading and the more standard English word reading, read aloud, (.78); the association between English silent word reading and Chinese character recognition was also positively correlated (.49). This newly created test is a quick and reliable measure, suitable for both educators and researchers to use to identify poor readers who learn English as a foreign or second language.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Language and Information Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.119-129
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.183-189
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• 2020

This study was carried out to find out the acquisition effect by measurement periods of adult learners learning through English pattern practice. The subjects of this study were divided into adult learner groups including the learners in their 40s and those who were over 65 and the child group who were 8 years old as a comparative group. After the subjects had a pre-test at first, person agreement and tense were instructed though English pattern practice and right after that, they had a post-test. Then 4 weeks later, they had a delayed test. As a result, the acquisition result of adult learners learning though English pattern practice showed the largest rise by those in their 40s and the learners of those over 65. However the adult learners aged over 65 showed the largest drop in delayed test of the reading comprehension. Based on these results, it is necessary to develop teaching method for adult learners in consideration of their characters and weak points.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.147-161
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• 2008

The present study compared characteristics of Korean nominal particles (occurrence, error, error patterns) of ten 5- to 6-year-old Korean-English simultaneous bilingual children with ten Korean monolingual children. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman Rank Correlation and by qualitative analysis. Results were (1) bilingual children showed significantly lower frequency based on the number of occurrence of nominal particles per utterance. (2) The error percentage of adverbial markers was significantly higher for bilingual children. (3) Error patterns of bilingual children showed a higher percentage of in-case substitution and double use error. These findings suggest that Korean-English simultaneous bilingual children have a different Korean nominal particles development from Korean monolingual children.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.651-671
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• 2001

There are several English constructions in which a certain constituent appears to the left of its canonical position, typically sentence-initially, leaving its canonical position empty. Such constructions involve Left-dislocation and Y-movement. These operations are called ‘Preposing.’ The preposed constituent of such constructions is generally regarded as the topic of the sentence which involves that constituent. Topics must have at least two features; ‘aboutness’ and ‘givenness.’ The feature ‘aboutness’ defines the range of comment, and the feature ‘givenness’ means ‘informationally old or given.’ The purpose of this paper is to show that the function of Preposing is to reinforce the aboutness of the preposed constituent of a sentence and that most preposed constituents have givenness. We examined Preposing for this purpose. Tough-movement and Passivization were examined also, because they have characteristics informationally similar to those of Preposing.