• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2009

This study examines the socio-cultural readjustment of the Korean students returning from overseas study at an early age. For this study 259 returnee students from elementary through high school completed a questionnaire which covered aspects such as school adjustment and re-acculturative stress in relationship to gender, grade, number of parents accompanying the students overseas, length of overseas stay, age of return, length of stay in Korea, and the acculturative stress experienced in a host culture. The findings indicate that re-acculturative stress level of returnee students is higher than the level of the acculturative stress, and that the two are positively related. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses reveal the grade and acculturative stress of returnee students as a significant predictor of school adjustment. The length of overseas stay and acculturative stress significantly predicted the re-acculturative stress level. The acculturative stress significantly affected both school adjustment and re-acculturative stress of returnee students back in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2002

The purpose of the study is to compare and analyze the elementary science textbooks' contents between the United States(Science Horizons) and Korea for teaching the Returnee students. The analyzed contents are the name of chapters, the number of chapters, the page amounts of chapters, the structure of chapters and the studying time of chapters. The results of this study are : 1. Korean science textbook's number is 20. 'Science Horizons' has 6. Korean science textbook's total number of chapter is 58, 'Science Horizons' is 75. Korean science textbook's total number of page is 1,60.3, 'Science Horizons' is 2,106. So 'Science Horizons' has more number of chapter and page than Korean textbooks. 2. The ratio of Korean science textbook's contents is as follows: physical area, 22.4%; chemistry area, 12 1％: biology area, 39.6%; earth science area, 25.9%. But the ratio of 'Science Horizons' science textbook's contents is as follows: physical area,21.3%; chemistry area,4.0%; biology area, 46.7%; earth science area. 28.0%. 3. In case of 'Predicting the Weather' chapter, Korean science textbook has 3 lessons, 17 themes and 11 activities, whereas' Science Horizons' has 5 lessons, 10 themes and 5 activities. 4. The themes or chapters of 'Science Horizons' to propose deeper than Korea are about animals and plants, energy and movement, weather and season. our body, and earth and outer space. In case of Korean textbook are about chemistry area, the rock and volcanic activity and electric circuit. There are some differences between Korean and the United States' elementary science curriculum and textbook's contents. And the returnee students has many troubles to adapt korean science curriculum, textbooks and educational environment,;. Therefore, teachers should know and understand that, and help them.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-146
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• 2010

A total of 181 college students(61 males 121 females) with at least 5 years of living abroad (Returnee Group) and another group of 181 students (92 males and 93 females) without extended period of living abroad (Comparison Group) participated in the study by completing a questionnaire consisting of Acculturation Index, Multidimensional Acculturation Scale, Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire, Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, CES-D, and WHOQOL. The results indicated that the Returnee Group, compared to the Comparison Group, reported as good adjustment toward college life in Korea and positive attitude toward the Korean identity, but a higher level of loneliness. When the Returnee Group were divided into 4 different groups on the basis of acculturation pattern, the Integration and Assimilation Type reported a better adjustment to college life, lower depression and loneliness and better quality of life than the Marginalization Type. The Mariginalization Type appears to be the most vulnerable group, experiencing difficulties in all areas of adjustment, and is clearly in need of interventions. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research were discussed.

• 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.