• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.2440-2450
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• 2009

The aim of the study is to look at the impact of 'NPD process planning proficiency' on NPD performance. In particular, the current study examines this effect at firm's level (NPD program), rather than at the level of individual project. This study investigate the impact of process planning proficiency considering other NPD proficiencies (i.e. marketing and technical proficiency). In addition to the main effect of process planning proficiency, the current study investigates the interaction effect between process planning proficiency and marketing proficiency (or technical proficiency). Based on a cross-industry sample of 103 Korean manufacturers, this study examines the impact of NPD process planning proficiency on product family performance. The current study focuses on platform projects which play a critical role on product family's successes. NPD process planning proficiency has significant impact on both NPD technical and commercial performance. Technical proficiency is not directly associated with NPD performance. However, this study finds the interaction effects of technical proficiency with process planning proficiency on NPD performance.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.193-211
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• 2003

This study aims to illustrate students' and teachers' perceptions towards certification of English proficiency and proficiency- based curriculum, and to investigate their needs for developing college English program. A total of 597 students and 28 teachers participated in the survey. The findings showed that both groups acknowledged the usefulness of the certification of English proficiency and proficiency-based curriculum. However, both groups showed a negative response to 'waive test' (testing for the replacement of English required class). They also expressed high level of needs in increasing the number of courses and credit hours, reducing the class size, and improving facilities. Both groups perceived speaking and listening as more important skills, while students showed various preferences for effective language practice activities. The findings of this study suggest t hat the introduction of certification of English proficiency should he supplemented with follow-ups both in pedagogical aspect and on administrative level.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.37-54
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• 2009

This study investigated vocabulary learning strategies used by EFL middle school learners in Korea and examined the relationship between the middle school learners' vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) use and their vocabulary proficiency level. One hundred and forty-one students in a public middle school participated in the study and the data for this study were collected from a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire and a vocabulary proficiency test. Based on the result of the vocabulary proficiency test, the participants were divided into three proficiency groups: high-, mid- and low- level proficiency groups. The overall findings of the study revealed that the participants used cognitive strategies most frequently and social strategies least frequently. The most frequently used individual strategies were 'using a bilingual dictionary,' 'studying the sound of a word' and 'practicing words through verbal repetition.' The least frequently used ones were 'interacting with native speakers' and 'studying or practicing the meaning of a word in a group.' The research results also showed that the vocabulary proficiency level has a significant influence on the vocabulary strategy use. The more proficient learners used vocabulary learning strategies more actively. More specifically, the high proficiency level group used metacognitive strategies the most. The middle and low proficiency groups used cognitive strategies the most. It is suggested that language teachers should facilitate the vocabulary learning process by helping learners develop appropriate strategies.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.51-58
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of Korean speakers' English stop pronunciation on their general pronunciation proficiency. For these purposes, 20 Korean speakers read English sentences and their pronunciations were rated by native English speakers. The Korean speakers' VOT values of English stops in sentences were then measured and the relation between the VOT values and native speakers' pronunciation rating was compared. Here, the relation between (1) the proficiency score of each speaker and VOT values; and (2) the proficiency score of each sentence and VOT values were analyzed. The results show that there is a relation between the proficiency score of each sentence and VOT values of /t, b, d, g/; and there is a relation between VOT values of /t, b, d, g/ and proficiency scores of each speaker while these is a weak relation between VOT values of /p, k/ and proficiency scores of each speaker.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.101-122
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• 2009

This study was purposed to discuss an educational concept of listening potential in ESL/EFL contexts as a counterpart of the reading potential concept in L1 contexts. As a preliminary condition for the concept of listening potential, this study investigated a relationship between reading and listening proficiency of ESL/EFL learners, focusing on roles of grammar knowledge in reading and listening comprehension. Reading and listening comprehension and grammar knowledge test scores of 231 Korean college students studying at a university in the U.S. were analyzed for this study. This study found that there was a positive correlation between reading proficiency and listening proficiency of Korean ESL college students. Grammar knowledge played significant roles accounting for reading and listening comprehension. Furthermore, this study found a difference between the reading proficiency and the listening proficiency across the stages of language development. However, results of this study did not empirically verify the concept of listening potential.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.135-151
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between preschoolers' motor proficiency and their executive function. Participants were 72 children who participated in individual tests. Motor proficiency was measured by a shortened form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency Second Edition(BOT-2). Executive functions were assessed by utilizing the revised version of the four tasks: 'Day-Night Task', 'Dimensional Change Card Sort Task', 'Lift Flag Task' and 'Digit Span Task'. The major findings were as follows. First, the 5-year-olds motor proficiency was found to be better than the 4-year-olds. Second, the 5-year-olds executive function was found to be better than the 4-yeat-olds. Last, the 4-year-olds' and 5-year-olds' motor proficiency was related to their executive function. Concretely, fine manual control of motor proficiency was executive function and there was a high correlation. And behavior response inhibition and working memory of executive function was motor proficiency and there was a high correlation. Data analysis showed that preschoolers' motor proficiency and their executive function were different by their age level and that preschoolers' motor proficiency was correlated with their executive function.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.31-47
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• 2019

The recently revised Act on External Audit has taken effect as of November 2018, where standard audit hour rule is included to enhance the audit quality requiring appropriate audit hour input. It has two issues, one is how much the standard audit hours should be and the other is how to control the auditor proficiency between positions when deciding standard audit hours. This paper focuses on the latter issue and studies if auditor proficiency measured with the KICPA position proficiency weight is economically meaningful and has audit quality implication. The KICPA proficiency weights of partner and junior CPA are 1.2, and 0.4 with senior CPA being 1. The results are as follows. First, we find that the audit proficiency decreases discretionary accruals, the proxy of audit quality. Second, the degree to which the audit proficiency decreases discretionary accruals is pronounced with non-big4 firm. The results imply that the KICPA position proficiency weight reflects auditor experiences which help to improve audit quality.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.309-326
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• 2011

This study examines the relationship between second language use outside of class and oral proficiency development. It first identifies out-of-class activities of international graduate students in the U.S. and the average time spent speaking English in those out-of-class activities. Interviews and student self-measurements of time spent speaking English each day were used to investigate the types and quantities of out-of-class activities. In addition, two sets of student oral proficiency test scores were collected. Correlation analysis is used to find out the relationship of the variables between the most salient out-of-class activities and oral proficiency gains. The findings indicate that second language use outside of class is important for international graduate students to improve their oral proficiency. This is especially true with regularized interaction such as talking at work and the average time spent speaking in English a day outside of class. This study suggests that learners of English in an ESL environment should be encouraged to take part in out-of-class activities in addition to English use in the classroom in order for them to improve their oral proficiency.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2006

A purpose of this study is to investigate the acoustic characteristics of English stress produced by the two groups of South Kyungsang (henceforth, SK) Korean speakers: high-proficiency and low-proficiency with reference to English native speakers. Another purpose is to compare results from the high- and low-proficiency SK Korean subjects with those of the native speakers, and to provide an analytical account of how approximate the high-proficiency SK Korean subjects' production is to the native speakers' and how different the low-proficiency SK Korean subjects' is from the native speakers'. Results indicated that the native speakers' main strategy used in producing stressed syllables was duration while the high-proficiency SK Korean subjects' was predominantly pitch-oriented. The low-proficiency SK Korean subjects' pitch patterns showed regularity, emphasizing the penultimate syllable with pitch. In comparing duration among the three groups, both groups of the SK Korean subjects became more even in their duration values for each syllable as the structure of the word or the sentence became more complex.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.127-142
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• 2004

This paper examines the relationship between children's English proficiency in grade three and English learning environment and experiences before entering elementary school. In English learning environment and experiences, three influences consisting of children, home environment, and environmental influences of English learning are used to find out which influences contributed to children's English proficiency in grade three of elementary school. The result of this study shows that children with high interest in English have higher proficiency in all language skills reading, writing, listening, and speaking than that of children with low interests. For parents' influences, parents' high interests toward their children's English leaning and high monthly income result in children's high English proficiency. For English environmental influences, children who start at the early age and continue studying English have higher English proficiency.