• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.770-779
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• 2016

The study aimed to investigate what difficulties and needs North Korean refugee college students have in their college English programs and what they experience over an English tutoring program offered by pre-service English teachers. Before the tutoring started, a survey was conducted to examine the current difficulties and needs 100 NK refugee college students had. After the survey, six NK refugee college students and 12 pre-service English teachers participated in the tutoring on the voluntary basis. The survey questionnaires were analyzed statistically, and the effects of the tutoring program were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that NK refugee students reported the severe difficulties in learning English, their increased awareness of the slightly improved English skills over the tutoring program, the increased awareness of their affects, and the increased awareness of their linguistics development at the end of the tutoring. Pedagogical implications for supporting NK refugee college students are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.231-239
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to research the process of Korean university students' acquiring the subjunctive mood. To research this, we will propose three subjects of study as below. First, what correlations exist between the general English ability and the English subjunctive mood acquisition? Second what difference is there in English subjunctive mood acquisition to gender? Third, what difference is there in the English subjunctive mood acquisition according to English proficiency? The subject of a sample survey was 36 female and 37 male students, 73 students in total, who take English courses as a required subject at 'C' university in Gwangju. The necessary data for this study was obtained by the questionnaires with 40 questions about the subjunctive mood. The data analyzing method was ANOVA(analysis of variance between groups) through the statistics program SPSS 12.0. When the results of the questions were analysed, there was no significant difference in the English subjunctive mood acquisition according to gender, but according to English proficiency, the English subjunctive mood acquisition was different: advanced-, intermediate- and low group.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.373-380
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean EFL university students acquire an understanding of English tenses. To research this, we proposed two research questions of study as below. Firstly, what difference is there in English tense acquisition between an experimental group and a control group? Secondly, what difference is there in the English tense acquisition according to English proficiency? The subject of a sample survey was a 39 student experimental group and a 38 student control group, total 77 students, who take English courses as a required subject at 'C' university in Gwangju. The data needed for this study was obtained by the questionnaires with 40 questions about the English tense. The data analyzing method was t-test through the statistics program SPSS 12.0. There was a significant difference between the experimental group's tense acquisition ability and the control group's, even though low group showed no significant improvement in their tense acquisition ability. Studying English tense through reading led the students to be present in classes with interests, so the experimental group showed more academic accomplishments than the control group.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.265-278
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• 2018

This study aims to understand how a global corporation's storytelling-based curriculum is developed for improving English proficiency. Little research has been done from the perspectives of global corporation, and a curriculum of storytelling on Stein and Glenn (1979)'s model was implemented inside English Language Education Program of Samsung Display. 10 participants employed at the global corporation were taught by two instructors during the first semester of 2017 language learning program. The curriculum consisted of three modules: event focused, structure focused, character focused. Storytelling elements of each module were explicitly planned and taught by two instructors. All classes were audio-recorded and observed by the other researchers. It was found that there is a need for improving storytelling proficiency in the global corporation, and that storytelling skills can be teachable, learnable, and assessable.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the mean fundamental frequency (F0) changes depending on language, task, or language proficiency for Korean-English bilinguals. A total of forty-eight Korean-English speakers (28 balanced bilinguals and 20 Korean dominant bilinguals) participated in the study. Participants were asked to read aloud two types of tasks in English and Korean. For statistical analyses, the language ${\times}$ task two-way repeated ANOVAs were conducted within the balanced bilingual group first, and then group ${\times}$ language two-way mixed ANOVAs. The results showed that the females in both bilingual groups changed their mean F0 depending on the language they used and the tasks (p<.05), whereas no significant results were found in the males in either group under any conditions. The mean fundamental frequency in the Korean reading task was significantly higher than that in the English reading task for females in both balanced and Korean dominant bilingual groups. Thus, changes in mean F0 depending on language and context may reflect gender-specific characteristics, and females seem to be more sensitive to the socio-cultural standards that are imposed on them.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.404-411
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to suggest the effects of schema activation on reading comprehension. The subject of a sample survey was a 36 student experimental group and a 32 student control group, total 68 students at third grade class of C Middle School in Gwangju. Students ability to read English in the two groups were almost the same through, which was shown by pre-test administered before the beginning of the experiment. As a pre-reading activity, the experimental group was showed the pictures and vocabularies related to the text before reading. The other control group did Grammar Translation Method about text. The data needed for this study was obtained by the questionnaires with 25 questions about the English reading. The data analyzing method was t-test through the statistics program SPSS 12.0. The result of this study is as follows : First, the experimental group got a more meaningful score than the control group at the test. Second, pre-reading activities for providing prior knowledge of the text were affected by the student's English proficiency, peculiarly more effective on low level student than advanced level. Studying English reading through schema activation led the students to be present in classes with interests, so the experimental group showed more academic accomplishments than the control group.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.33-40
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• 2020

The purpose of this research was to find out the relation between Korean learners' English proficiency and the ratio of the length of the stressed vowel in a monosyllabic noun to that of the unstressed vowel in an article of the noun phrases (e.g., "a cup", "the bus", etcs.). Generally, the vowels in monosyllabic content words are phonetically more prominent than the ones in monosyllabic function words as the former have phrasal stress, making the vowels in content words longer in length, higher in pitch, and louder in amplitude. This study, based on the speech samples from Korean-Spoken English Corpus (K-SEC) and Rated Korean-Spoken English Corpus (Rated K-SEC), examined 879 English noun phrases, which are composed of an article and a monosyllabic noun, from sentences which are rated on 4 levels of proficiency. The lengths of the vowels in these 879 target NPs were measured and the ratio of the vowel lengths in nouns to those in articles was calculated. It turned out that the higher the proficiency level, the greater the mean ratio of the vowels in nouns to the vowels in articles, confirming the research's hypothesis. This research thus concluded that for the Korean English learners, the higher the English proficiency level, the better they could produce the stressed and unstressed vowels with more conspicuous length differences between them.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.189-208
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge and use of English collocations in their relation to Korean college students' general English proficiency and writing abilities. Participants in the present study were 203 Korean college students. Their knowledge and use of English collocations were measured by a self-designed collocation test and an essay writing test. The findings were as follows: First, there was a significant difference in students' knowledge of collocations according to their general English proficiency. Students' performance in the collocation test increased as their level of proficiency increased. Second, there was a significant difference in students' knowledge of collocations according to their writing abilities. Students showed better performance in the collocation test as their level of writing abilities increased. Third, there was a significant difference in students' use of collocations according to their writing abilities. Students' collocation use in the writing test increased as their level of writing abilities increased. Fourth, there was a strong relationship between the students' knowledge of collocations and their general English proficiency and between the students' use of collocations and their writing abilities. Pedagogical implications of the study and suggestions for further research were discussed on the basis of the research findings.

• 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.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.71-77
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• 2017

This study examines the effects of in-company English programs on Korean employees' English learning. During the twelve weeks, 68 employees in Korea engaged in an English learning program in the workplace. Before and after the program, pre- and post-tests were conducted to see if their English proficiency improved. Pre- and post-surveys and interviews were also administered to understand how they perceived the program. Results show that the employees improved their English oral proficiency and their attitudes toward English learning positively changed, as a result of participating in the program. Also, the program appeared to be successful, meeting their needs. Given that little research has investigated the effects of in-company English learning, this study provides insights on the effectiveness of English programs in the workplace in Korea.