• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.171-194
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• 2005

The essay attempts at a critical reading of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) in terms of character and socio-cultural change. Juxtaposing the story of Michael Henchard's career with the social and economic changes in the agricultural town, it attempts to elaborate on the complex ways in which Hardy relates the old modes of life and thinking to the material culture. Though the novel is centered on the story of Henchard, the Henchard-Farfrae clash represents the conflict of "old" and "new" modes of socio-economic organization and consciousness. The story of the rustic man of character struggling with his contradictory traits of strong will-power and emotional collapse suggests that Hardy's literary representation of the rural community and the rustic protagonist is deeply rooted in historical reality. However, while there is the interlocking of the changes in personal fate and social change, the representation is a "reinvented" literary construction with complex mediation. Despite the narrator's emphasis on Henchard's immutability, peculiarity, and resilience, his character is, in a complex, mediated way, shaped by the material conditions of English rural community in the late 19th century. The mediating role of Elizabeth-Jane as a narrative resolution embodies Hardy's ambivalent historical position concerning the period undergoing change and conflict.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.38
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• pp.351-384
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• 2015

This paper is concerned with the effectiveness of songs in the acquisition of formulaic sequences in the college EFL classroom. The existing research mentions the use of songs in terms of the power of their melodies (Fonseca-Mora, 2000), linguistic features in song lyrics (Abbott, 2002), and the emotional basis of memory (LI & Brand, 2009). Learners' opinions about the use of songs has been ignored, however. In this paper, seven subjects with English ability ranging from advanced (one) intermediate-high (three), intermediate-middle (two), and intermediate-low (one) studied five different pop songs. The results showed that they did not agree with the existing research findings. Rather, they were negative about using songs in the classroom. Their complaints were the burden of using too many hours to memorize lyrics, few language expressions to learn, and too much emphasis on expressions about love and feelings. Students at all levels expressed similar negativity about the use of songs. When their complaints were discussed during interviews, however, their attitude changed from negative to positive. The case study in this paper was on a small-scale but it is suggested that through further research the use of songs could be activated in the EFL classroom. Considering college language learners disregard most existing EFL materials, it appears to be worthwhile to continue further with this kind of research.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.39
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• pp.407-432
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• 2015

This study focuses on the flow of story and content or related context when using movies as learning materials in a class. A great advantage of using movies is that they have a consistent story and detailed content development. Most teachers, however, tend to concentrate on practical expressions totally unrelated to the story or context of the movie they are using. This way might be efficient in the short run but it is certain that the expressions are unlikely to be retained in long-term memory. This study examines how a story-centered class influences learning of practical expressions and how efficient this approach to learning is. Learning and teaching with focus only on the expressions in a movie shades the meaning of the use of the movie a little. In this study the movie, Cars 2, was used in a course of general education with 150 students enrolled. Various group activities were suggested to immerse students into the story and contents of Cars 2. It was found that a story-centered class is helpful for students to acquire practical expressions and that students' satisfaction level with the class was high.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.89-115
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• 2014

This research aims to develop an elementary school English e-learning system based on the 'Self-determination theory (SDT)', which is widely applied to traditional face-to-face foreign language classes. The study also attempts to verify whether SDT-a traditional motivational theory that has been applied to face-to-face classes- is effective in an e-Learning environment with students who use this newly developed system. For the purposes of this project, the following three actions were carried out. First, a motivational strategy based on SDT was deduced. In SDT, the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were introduced as basic psychological needs, and assumed that these three needs provided the natural motivation for learning, growth, and development. Second, an e-Learning system was created based on the deduced motivational strategy. Third, the system was implemented in 115 private tuition academies, and education was provided to 1,400 users for one year across the country. Afterwards, by surveying users, correlation between the role of the three psychological needs in learning English, and also the correlation between each need and motivation were investigated. Research results showed that traditional motivational theories used in face-to-face classes so far were effective in an e-Learning environment.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.7-30
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• 2023

Nigeria is a country with multiple ethnic groups; as a result, English language is used as a lingua franca to enhance information flow. Despite this, the Indigenous languages of communities are mostly used for interactions, even in university environments thereby affecting smooth interaction for those who do not understand them. This study therefore investigated the impact of being a linguistic outsider on information access, learning and social wellbeing of students. Descriptive research of a case study was used for this study. The population for this study consisted of non-Yoruba indigenous students. Judgmental sampling technique was used to select 50 non-indigenous students; structured interview was used. Results showed that Yoruba indigenous language was used lightly in the classroom and heavily outside the classroom, with mixtures of pidgin and English languages. It was found that being a linguistic outsider had a negative influence on information access. However it was not a total dependent factor to social wellbeing of students who desire for their various languages to be predominantly used and for them to enjoy equal benefits with Yoruba indigenes. This study also revealed that being a linguistic outsider does not have negative influence on academic learning. It was recommended that the stakeholders in university management promote the complete use of English language in the classroom while students should be encouraged to interpret Yoruba language when spoken in the midst of non-indigenes.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.61-81
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• 2007

Recently, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising is a general trend in Korea even though the effect has not been well-known..Most of the previous research shows rather an opposite effect claiming marketing communication is more effective when higher congruity between marketing communication and consumer's cultural values are achieved. However, the introduction of global culture due to the expansion of new media such as Internet or cable television makes the congruity not the best choice of marketing strategy. In addition, use of highly attractive models in advertising to increase the effect of advertising is general. However, recent studies show that targeted women audience tend to compare themselves to the highly attractive models and do experience negative sentiment. Bower (2001) proved the difference between 'comparer' and 'noncomparer' when women face highly attractive models. The results show that a comparer who has an intention to compare highly attractive model (HAM) with herself has a significantly negative effect on model expertise, product argument, product evaluation and buying intention. Therefore, HAM is not always a good choice and model attractiveness plays a role in the processing other cues or changing the advertising effect from result of processing other cues. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the use of foreign language on the advertising response of the audience with regard of the model attractiveness. For the empirical study, the virtual advertising using foreign models (HAM, NAM), brand names and slogans(Korean, English) were used as stimuli. The respondents of each stimulus were 75('HAM-Korean'), 75('NAM-Korean'), 66('HAM-English') and 66 ('NAM-English') respectively. To establish the effect of marketing communication, the attitude for media(AM), the attitude for product(AP), targetedness(TD), overall quality(OQ), and purchase intention(PI) with 7 point likert scale were measured. The manipulation was verified to check the difference between HAM attractiveness assessment (m=3.27) and NAM attractiveness assessment (m=5.12). The mean difference was statiscally significant (p<.05). As a result, all consequences were significantly changed with model attractiveness, and overall quality evaluation(OQ) were significantly changed with language. The interaction effect from model attractiveness and language was significant on attitude toward the product(AP) and purchase intention(PI). To analyze the difference, the mean values and standard deviation of consequences were compared. The result was more positive when model attractiveness was high for all consequences. For language effect, the assessment was more positive when English was used for OQ. Considering model attractiveness and language simultaneously, HAM-Korean was more positive for AP and PI, and NAM-English was more positive for AP and PI. In other words, the interaction effect was confirmed by model attractiveness and language. As mentioned above, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising was explained by cultural match up hypothesis (Leclerc et al. 1994) which claimed that culture of origin effect. In other words, in advertising, use of same cultural language with the foreign model could make positive assessment for OQ. But this effect was moderated by model attractiveness. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of English makes PI high because of the effect of foreign language which supported the cultural match up hypothesis. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of Korean made AP and PI high because the effect of foreign language was diluted. It was a general notion that the visual cues got processed before (Holbrook and Moore, 1981; Sholl et al, 1995) compared to linguistic cues. Therefore, when consumers were faced HAM, so much perception was already consumed at processing visual cues making their native language of Korean to strongly and positively connected with the advertising concept. On the contrary, when consumers were faced with NAM, less perception was consumed compared to HAM, making English to accompany cultural halo effect which affected more positively. Therefore, when foreign models were employed in advertising, the language must be carefully selected according to the level of model attractiveness.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.42-47
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• 2020

YouTube, the online video streaming platform, has become popular and influential around the globe. Due to the development of science and technology, people without expertise in filming can now easily produce their videos with unique content. Many people are more eager to become a popular YouTube creator because they can earn money by placing commercials or Products in Placement (PPL) in their video clips. However, it is yet unknown what genres of YouTube videos are popular. YouTube creators have their channels where they upload videos of a certain type of genre. This study investigates video genres of the top 250 YouTube channels in English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia) using Social Blade, which is a research website. The ranking is set based on the number of times people watched a video ("Video Views"). We handsomely analyze popular genres of the channels and also the YouTube ecosystem, and it will be meaningful for today's new media era.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.193-210
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• 2007

This essay is an attempt to give a theoretical articulation of novelistic mimesis as the narrative form of modernity. With the passage to modernity, what assumes the locus of the symbolic authority is no longer God, Father, or tradition, but the cultural gaze or the ego-ideal. At the same time, this gaze paradoxically coalesces with the "spectacle of the world," on the side of the reified "other": the gaze is both the desexualized ego-ideal and its instantaneous transmogrification and resexualization in the opaque world of objects. The imaginary ego or the eye on the side of the subject of representation is held at abeyance in a state of perpetual fascination and desperation in relation to the gaze as the world of "others," which lies always at one remove from the purview of the imaginary ego. This understanding of the inadequation of the ego to the cultural gaze of the reified world provides a critical fulcrum upon which I base my theory of the modern narrative mimesis as the "perverse" field of spatial arrangement, in which the split of the subjectivity into the imaginary ego and the ego-ideal is suspended over the phantasmatic world of bodies and territories.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2010

This study examined the effects of previewing and providing background knowledge on low level EFL readers' comprehension of expository texts and their responses to these treatments. 130 college freshmen were randomly placed into one of three treatment groups and read two expository texts reflecting unfamiliar cultural information. Prior to reading, one group was given previewing instruction, which included vocabulary preteaching and summaries, and a second group was provided with culture-specific background knowledge through watching videos and slides. The third group read each text without any prereading instruction. Immediately after reading a passage, subjects answered a 10-item multiple-choice test. Results showed significant positive effects of the previewing treatment and weak positive effects of the providing background knowledge treatment. Students' responses on the questionnaires revealed that the majority felt that the experimental treatments contributed to comprehension enhancement, made reading more enjoyable, and expedited their reading process. Students in the control group, however, indicated that they needed explicit prereading instruction in order to understand the texts. Pedagogical implications of the findings for EFL reading instruction are provided.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.177-200
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• 2007

The language socialization approach states that novices are socialized into cultural norms through participating in routine, repeated interactional acts and sequences (e.g., Ochs & Schieffelin, 1984; Ochs, 1988; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986a; 1986b; Watson-Gegeo & Gegeo, 1986). One of the cultural norms or dominant epistemological orientations in American culture is the tendency to avoid the overt display of power asymmetry in novice-expert relationship (Ochs & Schieffelin, 1984). This study examines how this cultural preference is reflected and encoded in ESL teachers' use of routine discourse patterns in corrective sequences. Eight hours of ESL classes taught by three Caucasian teachers born and educated in the U.S. were analyzed for the study. The analysis showed that the cultural tendency in question is keyed and indexed in the teacher's routine corrective discourse patterns in the form of various questioning, elicitation, and mitigation practices. Findings support that teachers' routine classroom discourse practices represent their cultural ideologies and transfer these cultural predispositions to second language learners and that they possibly socialize the learners into the target language-oriented beliefs.