• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2012

Research has shown that mothers' attitudes towards early English language and literacy learning are important for children's English language development. Some researchers have indicated that in Taiwan most parents have a positive attitude towards English instruction and are motivated to teach English at home to their preschoolers. There is, however, little current data available to explain the motivations behind such parents' decisions to teach English to their child in the home before the commencement of formal schooling. We conducted a thematic analysis of the written survey responses of 263 Taiwanese mothers who explained why they taught their preschool children English at home. The findings indicate that English is highly valued for children's school readiness, future career opportunities, and because of its status as a global language. The mothers' motivations for teaching English include the desire to cultivate the child's interest, a belief in 'the earlier the better" for second language learning, and a belief in the need to review and practice English. These findings have the potential to inform educational policies and implementation strategies, as they can reveal whether mothers' motivations align with national priorities for English language education.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.131-152
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between the introduction order of 9 English morphemes in the English textbook used in the middle school and the learning order of the morphemes by the 7th graders learning English as a foreign language. The subjects are 139 students in two middle schools, who learn English with different textbooks. The introduction order of each morpheme in two textbooks was examined according to its quantity and frequency. Data on the real learning order were collected through the written SLOPE test, and each morpheme was ranked by its group score. The introduction order of each morpheme in the textbook and the real learning order were analyzed by Spearman rank order correlation. It was shown that the correlation between the two was very low. This means that those textbooks do not take the learning order of English morphemes into account. Also it was shown that in the earlier stage of learning English the introduction order of each morpheme in the textbook had much influence on its learning order, but in the later stage such influence reduced gradually. This means that the learning order of English morphemes approaches the natural order as time passes by.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.537-553
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• 2002

This paper discusses various problems related to the teaching of English grammar at Korean universities. We first discuss whether English grammar should be taught at universities, and, if it is, what kind of English grammar needs to be taught. We propose that the English grammar we teach to Korean undergraduate students be eclectic in the sense that the traditional grammar established by Jespersen and others be the major source of instruction, supplemented, if necessary, by school grammar and also by linguistically oriented grammars such as generative grammar or cognitive grammar. Then we discuss the content of the English grammar that should be included in the curriculum : (i) present perfect vs. past, (ii) will vs. be going to, (iii) must vs. have to, (iv) may vs. can, (v) infinitives vs. gerunds, (vi) conative constructions, and (vii) the passive.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.11-16
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• 2023

The present study examines how a cognitive attention affects Korean learners of English (L2) in perceiving the English stop voicing distinction (/d/-/t/). This study tested the effect of attentional distractor on primary and non-primary acoustic cues, focusing on the role of Voice Onset Time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0). Using the dual-task paradigm, 28 Korean adult learners of English participated in the stop identification task carried with (distractor) and without (no-distractor) arithmetic calculation. Results showed that when distracted, Korean learners' sensitivity to VOT decreased as priorly reported with native English speakers. Furthermore, as F0 is a primary cue for a L1 Korean stop laryngeal contrast, its role in L2 English voicing distinction was also affected by a distractor, without compensating for the reduced VOT sensitivity. These findings suggest that flexible use of multiple cues in L1 is not necessarily beneficial for L2 phonological processing when coping with a adverse listening condition.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.461-470
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• 2012

English as official languages of the world has constantly increased the necessity. Since 1997 the government has adopted English as a regular subject in elementary school and Currently, an English specialist teacher has been employed, and native speakers have been hired in schools. In addition to, Teaching English in elementary schools was common. The importance of English was emphasized not only private organizations but also government, As the early 2000s, local provinces were interested in English education. To reflect the phenomenon is an English village. Seoul, Gyeonggi province and almost all other municipalities built the English village for each region. The English Experience Center and the English village surveyed how they are being operated and also checked students who have completed English Experience Center Research methods is to survey currently running the English Villages, and the experience centers by analyzing the programs. As a result of the programs, most English centers achieved its own purposes. Thus, This study checks Busan, Seoul, Gyeonggi English Village and Jeollanam-do English experience camp used for data analyzes and suggests improvements for English education.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.33-40
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• 2010

This study aims at investigating the linguistic and educational factors affecting TOEFL scores, focusing on three OECD countries, Korea, Japan, and Finland. The data comprise document analysis on curriculums, websites, and literature. The findings reveal that the number of Korean test-takers and their TOEFL scores gradually increased year by year. Finnish test-takers consistently gained greatly high scores, and Japanese examinees showed the lowest scores. The languages Korean, Japanese, and Finnish are all far distant from English and receive little support on historical grounds from the Indo-European family tree. In Finland, however, Swedish which belongs to Indo-European languages is still used as an official language with Finnish. Korea and Finland adopt English education from Year 3 in primary school, whereas English is not an official subject in primary school at present in Japan. Finnish students are taught a foreign language in addition to English from primary school. These seem to support the result of the high TOEFL scores of Finnish test-takers. This study concludes that social context which includes linguistic and educational environments are the main factors which affect TOEFL scores.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.141-159
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• 2011

This study examined the effects of collocation-based instruction on L2 vocabulary acquisition and learners' interests in it. Fifty one students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (collocation-based instruction group) and to the control group. The participants' English vocabulary capacity was checked through pre and post tests, and two surveys were used to probe the learners' vocabulary learning behaviors and their interests in English vocabulary learning respectively. To better understand the participants' opinions and feelings on the collocation-based learning, follow-up interviews were also carried out. The results showed that second language (L2) learners' vocabulary capacity was significantly improved through collocation-based instruction. However, the participants' degree of interest in vocabulary learning did not reach our expectation partly because of external factors such as the Test for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and lack of familiarity of collocations. Such results indicate that the high school students' rooted perception of putting importance on test-based language learning could not be easily changed since it is closely related to their immediate needs. Based on the results, this study suggested how to implement collocations into L2 classrooms effectively.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 1995

Nowadays in Korea the subject of English education has been rising as one of the essential matters which need to be emphasized, reorganized, and thus refined. From the history of about one century to the current, English education may be compared to an adolescent who should be paid much more attention to grow as an independent adult. Although we recognize that there was much improvement in the past age of English education, a lot of assignments to solve await us. This study aims to suggest a recipe for optimal learning in English classes by linking theory with practice: First, the nation-wide academic associations of English teaching should act more energetically and cooperatively than ever. They need further specialization, dynamic participation, and systematic organization. At the same time the academic journals of their own should be publicized broadly, internationally as well as nationally. Second, there should be close contact and discussion between professors and secondary-school teachers. To achieve better learning in English classes, an effective cycle of equilibrium ought to be maintained by combining theory with practice. For example, language institute in universities/colleges can serve instructional programs such as lectures, colloquiums, and intensive courses for conversation. Third, native speakers of English should be positively utilized. Teachers had better keep close contact with native speakers as frequently as possible if they want to become fluent or at least acceptable speakers in English. Teachers may also use native speakers as aides in their classes.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.961-972
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the improvement of English proficiency of children in the ESL and EFL learning style classrooms through the experiment method. The results of this research are as follows: first, the scores of listening and speaking and the perception of alphabets in the ESL program are higher than that in the EFL program. This means that learning in the ESL style classroom is the better way to improve English skills than in the EFL style classroom, which is common in Korea. Second, there is no difference in the English listening and speaking skills and the perception of the English alphabets between the two gender groups in the ESL & EFL style classrooms. These results suggest that the target language may be used in the English classrooms by the teachers and the students with the materials, books, and equipment are English. Teachers are expected to be in charge of playing decisive roles as demonstrators of speech, models and correctors of pronunciation and providers of materials including TV, VCR, CD players, and cassette recorders, etc.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.22-33
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• 2014

This paper presents a comparative study on the effectiveness of teaching an engineering course using English with Specific Purpose(ESP). A study was performed using student groups; one class using ESP, and one class conducted in English with an English text. The course conducted using ESP showed the greatest improvement in English writing and conversation, and the students reported a greatly increased confidence in their ability to function professionally using English. A self-assessment of each student was conducted before and after the courses. Prior to the course less than 10% in each group felt that they are able to: a) understand a textbook, b) write an email, c) generate a project report, or d) follow a lecture given in English. The survey at the end of the course showed that the ESP teaching style resulted in significant improvements in students ability and confidence with writing and speaking in English, whereas reading skills were similar for both groups. This is due to the ESP method, in which students are required to give presentations and keep journals in English. After a brief review of the ESP principles and a discussion of how they were implemented, the background data of the participants(students) are described. Finally, the end-of-semester survey highlights the efficacy of the ESP approach.