• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.77-88
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• 2011

Foreign accent in second language production depends heavily on the transfer of features from the first language. This study examines acoustic variations in segments and suprasegments by native and nonnative speakers of English, searching for patterns of the transfer and plausible indexes of foreign accent in English. The acoustic variations are analyzed with recorded read speech by 20 native English speakers and 50 Korean learners of English, in terms of vowel formants, vowel duration, and syllabic variation induced by stress. The results show that the acoustic measurements of vowel formants and vowel and syllable durations display difference between native speakers and nonnative speakers. The difference is robust in the production of lax vowels, diphthongs, and stressed syllables, namely the English-specific features. L1 transfer on L2 specification is found both at the segmental levels and at the suprasegmental levels. The transfer levels measured as groups and individuals further show a continuum of divergence from the native-like target. Overall, the eldest group, students who are in the graduate schools, shows more native-like patterns, suggesting weaker foreign accent in English, whereas the high school students tend to involve larger deviation from the native speakers' patterns. Individual results show interdependence between segmental transfer and prosodic transfer, and correlation with self-reported proficiency levels. Additionally, experience factors in English such as length of English study and length of residence in English speaking countries are further discussed as factors to explain the acoustic variation.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.24
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• pp.107-133
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• 2011

As importance of English has been getting more important with globalization, English education for preschoolers has drawn more attention from parents who were born in 1970's and 1980's. Demands for English education are very intense mainly because parent generation has experienced importance of English through own career and they have only one or two children, resulting parents' willingness to invest more on children's education. In order to response high demands for English education, Korean public education system has introduced more intense English education curriculum for younger children and put more weights on English education even for preschoolers. Even though there are numbers of studies to support effectiveness of English education for pre-school age children, adaption of English education for them without through preparation may cause unwanted results on children's learning experience. Hence, it is imperative to develop guideline for English education targeting pre-school age children based on through studies. The purpose of this paper is to justify English education for preschoolers based on various theories for language acquisition, research effectiveness of edutainment animation for English education, and provide basic guideline to develop edutainment animation in the future. To achieve this goal, this study visits how each theory emphasizes importance of language education in preschool age children and analyzes well-known edutainment animation titles by comparing them per characteristics. Furthermore, specifically from participation-inducing animation for education, each component, such as characters, story structure, & story telling methods, has been discussed. Based on the findings from this paper, basic guidelines to develop edutainment animation are developed by suggesting teaching tools for English education for preschoolers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.541-554
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• 2012

This study suggests the effectiveness of G-learning English afterschool classes implemented to elementary school students at low achievement level in English. These days, the use of games in teaching and learning, known as G-learning, has gradually expanded, so it is necessary to consider how to adapt G-learning generally in English education. A G-learning afterschool English class was implemented to 23 low-level 5th grade students in an elementary school located in Daejon for 12 weeks. This study set two hypotheses aiming to determine the effectiveness in achievement and affectiveness of the participants. Pre and post achievement tests were conducted. Also, survey and FGI (focused group interview) were carried out twice with the participants. The study found that students' spelling awareness, vocabulary recognition and dialogue comprehension ability (hypothesis 1) were all improved with statistical significance. Moreover, after the class, participants' confidence and interest toward English study showed meaningful increases.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.497-507
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• 2017

Research on software education and linking and convergence of other subjects has been mainly focused on mathematics and science subjects. The dissatisfaction of various preferences and types of learning personality cause to learning gap. In addition, it is not desirable considering the solution of various fusion problems that can apply the computational thinking. In this way, it is possible to embrace the diverse tendencies and preferences of students through the linkage with the English subject, which is a linguistic approach that deviates from the existing mathematical and scientific approach. By combining similarities in the process of learning a new language of English education and software education. For this purpose, based on the analysis of teaching - learning model of elementary English subject and software education, we developed a class model by modifying existing English subject and software teaching - learning model to be suitable for linkage. Then, the learning elements applicable to software education were extracted from the contents of elementary school English curriculum, and a program applied to the developed classroom model was designed and the practical application method of learning was searched.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

This study explored how Korean L2 learners of English utilize multiple acoustic cues (VOT and F0) in perceiving and producing the English alveolar stop with a voicing contrast. Thirty-four 18-year-old high-school students participated in the study. Their English proficiency level was classified as either 'high' (HEP) or 'low' (LEP) according to high-school English level standardization. Thirty different synthesized syllables were presented in audio stimuli by combining a 6-step VOTs and a 5-step F0s. The listeners judged how close the audio stimulus was to /t/ or /d/ in L2 using a visual analogue scale. The L2 /d/ and /t/ productions collected from the 22 learners (12 HEP, 10 LEP) were acoustically analyzed by measuring VOT and F0 at the vowel onset. Results showed that LEP listeners attended to the F0 in the stimuli more sensitively than HEP listeners, suggesting that HEP listeners could inhibit less important acoustic dimensions better than LEP listeners in their L2 perception. The L2 production patterns also exhibited a group-difference between HEP and LEP in that HEP speakers utilized their VOT dimension (primary cue in L2) more effectively than LEP speakers. Taken together, the study showed that the relative cue-weighting strategies in L2 perception and production are closely related to the learner's L2 proficiency level in that more proficient learners had a better control of inhibiting and enhancing the relevant acoustic parameters.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.253-276
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the aspects of task-based materials in high school English textbooks for first year students in Korea. Based on the theoretical backgrounds for designing communicative tasks and the basic contents of the 7th national curriculum for English, a total of six different qualitative evaluation categories of task-based materials are constructed. The six categories include input data, settings, activity types, language skills, activity themes, and communicative functions. The results of the data analysis showed that the regulations of the 7th national English curriculum, which were aimed at improving the students' communicative abilities, were properly reflected in the materials of task-based activities of all textbooks. On the other hand, a few problems were found in some textbooks: too many individual tasks; being out of proportion in presenting task types and themes; non-systematic introduction of language skills, etc. To conclude, a few suggestions are made to provide some meaningful considerations for the text material developers in order to produce better textbooks in the future: task goals and rationale that encourage the learner's positive motivation; authenticity of input data based on the real-world context; a collaborative learning environment that enhances communicative interaction; a proportional representation of the various activity types including creative problem-solving procedures; systematic introduction of integrated language skills, etc.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.41-66
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• 2004

Under the textbook-driven approach to English education in the Korean selling, the importance of the English textbook can not be overemphasized as the main source of learning materials. Recently, with the development of computer-based language corpora, the recognition of the importance of collocations and the availability of computerized databases of words have caused a resurgence and facilitation in the instruction of collocation. The primary purpose of the present study is to identify the characteristics of lexical collocation and the extent of its use in high school 10th-grade textbooks. From all the analyses, it is revealed that the language materials reflect various constructed collocation in the case of adjective+noun and noun+noun collocations in a natural context. However, verb+noun and adverb+verb collocations are not fully reflected. This is true for delexicalized verbs, and verb and adjective intensifiers. Also the language materials do not provide sufficient support for the lexical syllabus, even though all textbooks may be somewhat adequate in terms of vocabulary size. Finally, based on the analyses of the texts, the suggestions for English collocation instruction are made in the lexical approach.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.453-497
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate social aspects of young EFL learners' interaction at the computer. Data were taken from the interactions of three pairs of fourth-grade primary school children who worked together on English learning software. Their interactions at the computer were videotaped and then all the talk produced by the students and the utterances emitted from the computer were transcribed. As for the analytical tools, the notion of ‘contextualization cues’ (Gumperz, 1982) and the concept of ‘positioning’ (Davies & Harre,1990) were employed. The analysis reveals that the roles of the students were not tied to a certain position, but rather dynamically changed during the course of interactive work according to the situation at hand. The dynamic changes in their positions were realized through various means; their capability in solving problems, their taking responsibility or assigning it to each other, or cooperation. There were also instances of peer teaching and motivated learning. In addition, the students showed autonomy in their learning activity. These findings suggest that both students in a dyad had their own place in performing task activities, contributing to solving problems and getting benefits from peer interaction. Furthermore, students' working together on English learning software may provide an environment which can promote cooperative attitude and responsibility for learning and enhance motivation and autonomy in their learning process.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.89-112
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of the method of English teaching and learning through the student-centered environmental instruction. I've been skeptical about the traditional instruction, which is composed of the teachers-centered instruction, because of the lack of creativity. Until now, I've always wished to have an alternative method that can be substituted for routine's style. To achieve it, I selected 90 students from 2 classes, in the 3rd year at a girls' high school in Chungnam as the subject of study. I divided them into two groups, the student-centered environmental instruction and the teacher-centered traditional instruction. The tools used in this study are a preliminary English achievement test, a self-directed learning attitudes test and two teaching plans. For this test, a high school text book was assigned. I have treated 20 times of the test each for two groups using two types of teaching-learning plans which I made for this purpose. To verify the hypotheses after administrating the test, I selected t-verification for post test result. Based on this test result, I could conclude that there was a significant improvement of English proficiency and a change in the self-directed learning attitudes; also the student-centered environmental instruction is more effective than teachers-centered instruction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.508-512
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• 2003

In 2000, the economy of Asia made a V-character type recovery from the currency and financial crisis in 1997. The increase in exports is assumed to be one of the causes. To negotiate with foreign countries, English must be indispensable in many cases. In this study, we investigated how English education is performed in East Asian countries while focusing on English textbooks. We metrically analyzed some textbooks used junior high schools and high school in Japan and Korea, and elementary schools in China and Singapore to compare them with U.S.A and U.K textbook. We investigated some characteristics of character-and word-appearance of English textbook using an exponential function. Moreover we derived the degree of difficulty far each material through the variety of words and their frequency on the basis of the required English vocabulary in Japanese junior high schools. As a result we could show at which level of U.S.A. or U.K the English textbooks used in East Asian countries are.