• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.95-106
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• 2011

This study was conducted to better understand the effect of the classroom literacy environment on the young children's vocabulary abilities, and the concepts of print matter. The subjects consisted of 276 children aged 3 to 5 enrolled in 93 classrooms in child-care centers and kindergartens. The Early Language & Literacy Classroom Observation Pre-K (Smith, Brady, & Anastasopoulos, 2008), the Picture Vocabulary Test (Kim, Jang, Yim, & Bae, 1995) and the Concepts About Print (Kim & Kim, 2004) were used for the purposes of this study. The data collected were analyzed by means of ANOVA, and regression analysis. The results indicated that the vocabulary abilities and print-concepts of children aged 3-5 were more likely to increase when a rich classroom environment was provided for the children's literacy development. In particular, it was found to be important for children's language and Literacy development to provide them with an enriched 'language environment' within the classroom, the quality of 'books and book reading', and the active utilization of 'print and early writing' all being important elements of this.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2005

This study investigated the reading ability of Korean second-graders and the relationship between reading and phonological awareness and RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming) ability. A language-based reading assessment battery was used. Children at the end of the Korean second-grade were still at the developmental stage of decoding skill and seemed to be at Chall's stage 1. Findings indicated significant correlations between reading ability and phonological awareness and between reading ability and RAN ability. Therefore, the importance of phonological processing could be extended to syllable-based alphabetic languages.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.123-139
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• 2011

This study sought to examine the impact of reading ability and vocabulary at age 5, as well as analyzing the impact which children's gender, parental education level and family income level has on reading comprehension ability and vocabulary at the first grade level in primary school. The study also sought to compare the characteristics of the results obtained in Korea and Japan on this particular research topic. For the Korean part of the study, 328 first grade Korean children, who had participated in the initial testing as five-year olds and agreed to participate in the longitudinal study were tested; whereas in Japan, 215 students were tested. The study results indicated that, in the case of Korea, reading comprehension ability in the first grade was affected by vocabulary and reading abilities at age 5, gender, as well as the mother's education level, in that order. In Japan, it was affected in the order of vocabulary, gender, and father's education level. In terms of first grade vocabulary, in the case of Korea, it was affected in the order of vocabulary and reading ability at age 5 and father's education level; whereas in Japan, it was affected in the order of vocabulary, gender, and reading ability. In both Korea and Japan, at age 5, vocabulary was shown to have a more significant impact than reading ability on both of language ability and vocabulary in the subsequent primary school period. As such, it can be seen that more interest should be shown not only in the ability to read at age 5 but also in expanding the vocabulary of children at this age through appropriate interaction and support.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.81-101
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• 2009

This study analyzed a total of 37 studies about bi-lingulism and English education as a foreign language published in 8 academic journals in early childhood education or child development fields. Research topics, participants, methods, and variables in the studies were categorized and descriptively analyzed. The research findings which had been statistically investigated were also summarized. The most frequently studied research topics were children's development and English education program exposure, actual conditions of English education in preschool settings and effectiveness of specific English programs for preschool children. However, children's home characteristics were seldom included as research variables and no research investigated so called English preschools. Several studies reported that bi-lingual children may have different language development paths from mono-lingual children but they eventually have comparable language abilities to mono-lingual children. Also some studies reported that, when learning English as a foreign language in school settings, older children can handle more information regarding English than younger children, resulting in better outcomes of older children. Exposure to two languages in early childhood seems to contribute to young children's meta linguistic awareness but the long term effect of English education in early childhood should be further studied. Several English education programs for preschool settings were developed and the effectiveness were investigated. Even though most of them reported that their programs were effective to children's English ability or interests, the results should be carefully interpreted because their research designs and methods were not rigorous.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.601-612
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• 2010

It is widely known that language functions in our brains are lateralized to the left hemisphere and spatial recognition functions are lateralized to the right hemisphere. It is also known that handedness is closely related to the lateralization of brain functions. However, at what point in the brain‘s development the lateralization of brain functions takesplace is still disputed. This study sought to find differences in linguistic and spatial abilities between left-handed and right-handed children, and provide objective data on the relationship between the handedness and the brain lateralization. 19 left-handed children and 20 right-handed children aged 5 were chosen through questionnaire for this study and the K-WPPSI simple intelligence test was used to check the homogeneity of two groups. The results showed that the differences inlinguistic and spatial ability between left and right-handed children were not statistically significant.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.141-149
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• 1999

Parental speaking rates reduction is frequently recommended by speech-language pathologists as a way to facilitate the fluency of preschool children who stutter. However, this clinical notion is in need of empirical support. For this reason, Sim & Zebrowski (1995) examined the ability of young children imitating different speaking rates. However, Sim & Zebrwoski's study was not made in a natural context but in the laboratory, so the findings are limited to apply to the clinical situation. The current study aimed to examine the ability of three different speaking rates(baseline, 10% slower, and 24% slower) in a natural situation both with instruction and without instruction. The results show that (1) all children were able to imitate the stimulus speaking rates adequately, (2) instruction about speaking rates for each child influenced the ability to imitate slower speaking rates. These clinical implications of findings in this study are that 4-5 year-old children are able to imitate different speaking rates with instruction and can be candidates for the parental speaking rates reduction program in the stutter therapy.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-32
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• 1997

This study explored an alternative activity for the assessment of young children's literacy in Korea; namely, the evaluation of children's ability to construct meaning independent of decoding skill. The subjects were 78 children 4 to 5 years of age in Seoul. Instruments were the researcher's revised form of the Story Construction from a Picture Book, TRSR (Teachers' Ratings of Students' Reading) designed by van Kraayenoord & Paris (1996), and the revised form of the WLAT (Written Language Awareness Test, Kim, 1995). The assessment scores and oral responses of the children were analyzed by Pearson's r, MANOVA and one-way ANOVA, using repeated measures. The findings showed that (1) the story construction total scores were significantly correlated with WALT scores and the subcategory scores were intercorrelated with each other. (2) The story construction total scores differed by age, and (3) the 2 phase scores were higher than the 1 phase scores.

• Language and Information
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.127-139
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• 2005

In this paper I investigate whether Korean-speaking children know the basic meaning of reciprocal anaphors like each other. I further examine whether they have knowledge of subtle differences in the interpretations of such anaphors depending on the two types of verbs. Fiengo and Lasnik (1973) pointed out a contrast between reciprocal sentences with active verbs and stative verbs. For example, a sentence with an active verb like The men in the room are hitting each other, has both a strong reciprocal reading (i.e., everyone of them in the room is hitting every other one) and a weak reciprocal reading (i.e., certain pairs of men are not engaged in the action of hitting each other). In contrast, a sentence with a stative verb like The men in the room know each other allows only a strong reciprocal reading (i.e., everyone of them know every other one). 16 Korean children and 15 Korean adults were tested using the Truth Value Judgment Task methodology. The results of the present study show that like English children, Korean children know the meaning of reciprocal anaphor, and that they also know the semantic difference of reciprocal sentences with active and stative verbs. Therefore, the present study strongly supports the claim that the semantic distinction of reciprocal sentences with active and stative verbs may be universal, and that children's ability of this semantic distinction might be innately given.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.343-365
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• 2013

This study examined the effects of various individual differences on children's memory of a stressful experience. The participants for the current study were children (N=85) aged 4-9 years those who experienced a naturally occurring stressful experience from a dental procedure. There was overall negative relation between the level of stress and children's memory performance. However, more interestingly, the results of this study provided some further evidence that several cognitive (i.e., receptive language ability and working memory capacity) and emotional (i.e., children's general anxiety condition, children's self-report of pain and anxiety about the event) individual difference factors were associated with variations in children's remembering across ages. The results suggest that the relation between stress and children's memory might be impacted in part by children's various individual characteristics. Furthermore, the findings are discussed in the applied context that based on the results clinical and legal professionals can tailor interviews to best meet children's needs and capabilities, and create developmentally and individually sensitive guidelines for interviewing children in the legal system.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-40
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• 1985

This study investigated Korean children's early acquisition of negatives and focused on four research questions: 1) processing of negative variations; 2) the nature of negatives when negatives are completely acquired in Korean (in which meaning and form are matched in one to one mapping); 3) the validity of Bellugi's negative acquisition model in Korean; and 4) the cause of child's erroneous sentence production: limited ability or regularity in children's cognition. The language data of the five subjects (age span; 1.1 - 3.11) were collected by their parents in the natural setting of the home. The results showed that 1) the pivot form, was processed in many ways from a simple to a complicated form, such as <(X+X')+N> <(x+x')+N,Y> <(x+x') N,(y+y')>. It appeared that the children used a simple negative format to reach a one-step advanced negative format. 2) Korean negatives are divided into range of negation in the negative sentence (part or whole), strength of negation (absolute or general), functions of meaning (negation, absences, refusal, prohibition, impossibility). All five children acquired negative sentences in all functions and the complete range after 3 years of age. 3) In spite of the differences in age level, Bellugi's four stage model was in evidence; that is, Korean children's negative acquisition was almost identical with Bellugi's tour stage model in deep structure. 4) Analyses of children's error sentences showed that the sentences with errors were made not because of the children's limitation in cognitive ability but because of the strict application of regularity of rules from the original grammars. Consequently, the children produced negative sentences using two rules: the rule of additive complexity (from simple to complex) and the rule of division (from one to several).