• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.171-198
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• 2009

The current study explored a pedagogical possibility of utilizing magic as a source of communicative tasks for young learners in developing their English speaking proficiency. Fifteen primary school students participated in the study, which consisted of a 17-week period of task-based English instruction and data collection. The participants were instructed to accomplish various types of magic task through collaborative group interaction. The data collected for the study pertained to the students' linguistic outputs, interactions in group and attitudes to English learning. They were analyzed for how magic tasks affect the students' English proficiency developments and group interactions. The study results suggested the significant improvement in the students' English speaking proficiencies. They revealed that magic tasks contributed to a) enhancing the motivation to speak in English, b) stimulating the creative and problem-solving processes, and c) providing the sufficient opportunity to repeat and internalize the target expressions. The study results also indicated that the students' satisfaction with their group members and tasks seemed to have positive influences on their interactions in group and English proficiency development. Further discussion and pedagogical implications are provided as well as the study limitations.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.533-548
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• 2005

According to the increasing of the internet infrastructure and growth of contents technology, the users can access an education service at anytime and anywhere. In a field of English education, especially, internet technology has enabled learners to communicate with their teachers and multimedia contents technology has been able to provide learner not only lots of interests, but also good effect on English learning. In this paper, we propose a method diagnosing learner's level by using some question-items, which consist of item's type and item's function. Futhermore, the proposed system can support three devices which are PC, PDA, and Mobile Phone on wired and wireless internet communication environments. Also, the system provides multimedia contents including flash movies, image, and audio contents. We have applied the system into real classroom, and we verified that the question-items that system provides has no problem, and our method could improve each learner skill on English education. Therefore, we expect that learner who uses the proposed system will get level-based English learning service at anytime and anywhere.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.159-181
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of presentation-based instruction and to suggest a model of instruction targeted to the Korean intermediate level students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). To achieve this objective, the author examined how the acquisition of practical English through oral presentation would enhance the students' learning motivation, language abilities, and communicative competence in concrete situations. It was confirmed that the trained leader and systematic teaching and learning are needed to maximize the effects of presentation-based instruction. In doing so, the author compared and analyzed the collected data in order to support the validity of this teaching method. It was further pointed out that the teacher should have a close look at the roles of the presenter and learner in an effort to work out the usefulness of such an instruction model. The method of presentation in classroom settings would be a practical mode to attain the essential purpose of EFL teaching particularly to get over the drawbacks of Korean students' communicative competence. As a result, it would be an effective teaching method to meet the nation's long-standing demands for EFL education.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2002

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.139-157
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• 2006

As the Communicative Approach has become the norm in foreign language teaching, the objectives of teaching English in school have changed radically in Korea. The focus in high school English textbooks has shifted from mere mastery of structures to communicative proficiency. This paper will study five polysemous words which appear in twelve high school English textbooks used in Korea. The twelve text books are incorporated into a single corpus and analyzed to classify the usage of the selected words. Then the usage of each word was compared with that of three other corpora based sources: the BNC(British National Corpus) Sampler, ICE Singapore(International Corpus of English for Singapore) and Collins COBUILD learner's dictionary which is based on the corpus, "The Bank of English". The comparisons carried out as part of this study will demonstrate that Korean text books do not always supply the full range of meanings of polysemous words.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.129-153
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• 2007

When English language teachers are deciding on their priorities for teaching pronunciation, it is imperative to know what kind of differences and errors are most likely to interfere with communication, and what special problems particular first-language speakers will have with English pronunciation. In other words, phoneme discrimination skill is an integral part of speech processing for the EFL learners' learning to converse in English. Training using sound visualization technique can be effective in improving second language learners' perceptions and productions of segmental and suprasegmental speech contrasts. This study assessed the efficacy of a pronunciation training that provided visual feedback for EFL learners acquiring pitch and durational contrasts to produce and perceive English phonemic distinctions. The subjects' ability to produce and to perceive novel English words was tested in two contexts before and after training; words in isolation and words in sentences. In comparison with an untrained control group, trainees showed improved perceptual and productive performance, transferred their knowledge to new contexts, and maintained their improvement three months after training. These findings support the feasibility of learner-centered programs using sound visualization technique for English language pronunciation instruction.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.241-254
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• 2000

The past decade has witnessed the abundant use of computer in testing language skills such as listening and reading. Compared with these language skills, we have experienced little use of computer in testing a speaking skill including pronunciation. This is largely due to limitations of the current computer technology. One of such limitations for testing pronunciation is to store and automatically evaluate what the learner utters. Due to this limitation, the computer simply stores what the learner utters and raters evaluate it afterward on a certain rating continuum. With the advent of voice recognition technology, however, the computer has been able to test pronunciation in a systematic way. This technology enables the computer to identify, visually show, and evaluate the learner's intonation pattern by means of autocorrection. The evaluation is expressed in terms of the degree in which the learner's intonation pattern overlaps with that of the native speaker of the target language. In particular, the degree is numerically displayed on the screen, and this numeral is considered as the score of the learner's utterance under our testing framework.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.7-16
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• 2000

It is a great honour for me to speak to you today on the Korean's problems in learning English pronunciation. First of all I would like to thank Prof. H. B. Lee, President of the Phonetic Society of Korea for calling upon me to make a keynote speech at this International Conference on Phonetic Sciences. The year before last when the 1 st Joint Summit on English Phonetics was held at Aichi Gakuin University in Japan, the warm hospitality given to me and my colleagues by the English Phonetic Society of Japan was so great that I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the English Phonetic Society of Japan and especially to Prof. Masaki Tsuzuki, President of the Society. Korean learners of English have a lot of problems in learning English pronunciation. Some vowel problems seem to be shared by Japanese learners but other problems, especially in consonants, are peculiar to Koreans owing to the nature of phonological rules peculiar to the Korean language. Of course, there are other important problems like speech rhythm and intonation besides vowels and consonants. But they will not be included here because of limited time.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.177-182
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• 2020

In the age of technology and information, communicating with people from different cultures is significantly important. Regarding this perspective, communicative competence has been the focus in the EFL educational context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using movies in a culture-integrated English reading course at the college level. In order to achieve this purpose, pre- and post-reading comprehension tests, pre- and post-surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted. The results of data analysis showed that using movies in the culture-integrated English reading class positively affected students' interest and confidence towards English reading as well as their reading achievement. In this respect, we suggest that cultural teaching through movies in English classes should be learner-centered so that learners can proactively analyze and understand different cultural backgrounds shown in the movies and build schemas which can be used in their learning process.