• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.161-180
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• 2011

This study aims to illustrate the value of teaching English drama in the course of teaching primary English and suggests a model for primary English drama in an English camp for Children. Drama is the world of assumption where language is used just like in real life. It has a positive effect on foreign language learning by encouraging the operation of certain psychological factors which facilitate oral communication. Dramatic techniques such as storytelling, role play, chant, song and games can be used in the EFL classroom to help bring about such results. Meanwhile, making a primary English drama in an English camp for Children would be practical mode to attain the essential purpose of EFL teaching particularly to get over the drawbacks of Korean students' communicative competence under the school's inflexible EFL education curriculum. In this paper, I will present the effectiveness of English drama and the skills for using it with ESL students and suggest some notes that can be used to reinforce the goals set out from the position of the teacher, student and teaching material. It is confirmed that the trained leader, students' affirmative attitude and systematic teaching materials are needed to maximize the effects of drama activities. In addition to that, there will be showed a model of instruction targeted to the primary students learning English in an English camp for Children.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.287-304
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• 2005

Since Air and Correspondence High School (ACHS) in Korea was established in 1974, it has been serving many people who couldn't take the opportunities for learning in the regular high school due to several reasons. Regardless of the rapid change in technologies and educational needs during the past 31 years, however, ACHS hasn't changed much. Concerns have been recently made about the validity of the unchanged school system and many issues have been discussed relating to the innovation of the school system. Focusing on the teaching and learning contents, one of the important issues with respect to the school system, this paper examines the 7th English Curriculum for ACHS. The paper also investigates the textbooks used in ACHS to see how closely they align with the students' English proficiency and ACHS' instructional method by employing McDonough and Shaw's(1993) framework for textbook analysis. The results revealed that the current curriculum does not sufficiently reflect ACHS's characteristics, which leads to the adoption and development of inappropriate textbooks in terms of overall coherence, proficiency level, etc. The results suggest that the development of the curriculum and textbooks for ACHS should be based upon the students' needs and their level of proficiency rather than depending on the national curriculum and government-authorized textbooks intended for the relatively homogeneous school-age learners.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.99-118
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine visual elements in Korean high school English textbooks and compare the results with Hill's (2003) which attempted to analyze visuals in British EFL coursebooks. In this study, all 15 English textbooks of high school year 1 in Korea were selected and analyzed. On the basis of the analysis and comparison, the following results have been obtained. First, there were some similarities and differences between the two kinds of texts-Korean high school textbooks and British EFL coursebooks. One similarity was found in regard to the average of pictures and drawings. Second, it was found that in both cases, more pictures were used than the drawings. Third, with regard to the identity of the pictures and drawings used in both texts, there was a higher degree of the use of people than that of objects. Finally, it was found that the pictures and drawings were used more for decorative purpose rather than for the purpose of actual use in teaching and learning. The findings of the current study will shed light on visual impact in EFL coursebooks and explore ways to provide learners and teachers with meaningful learning and teaching experiences.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

It has long been shown that Korean EFL students have not practiced extensive reading in school curriculum. Their vocabulary knowledge is limited and a tool for measuring text readability for them has hardly been developed and used. The study aimed to check the current situations on the above issues and develop a reading framework appropriate for extensive reading within the national English curriculum, including the Readability Formula in Korean EFL contexts (KRF). The study consists of four steps. The study does a survey to check the current Korean EFL situations on the issues, suggests a new vocabulary learning size, develops a readability formula as a tool for measuring text difficulty based on the newly suggested vocabulary size, and finally validates the formula with various kinds of English books, including the primary and secondary school English textbooks. It is expected that this study will provide a model for the vocabulary size and the readability index for extensive reading in EFL contexts.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.582-590
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• 2020

This paper aims to analyze and introduce the primary English curriculum of North Korea reformulated according to the New Educational Program. Sources for analysis are the 4th and 5th primary school English syllabus based on the New Educational Program, explanations of the New Educational Program appeared in People's Education and Kim, Jeong-Il's selected writings. The analytical sources are classified into characteristics, objectives, contents, methods and evaluation. The findings are as follows: The primary English education aims to reach to the basis of middle school English by learning English alphabets and basic English expressions. 4th graders learn basic oral English such as pronunciation, stress and intonation for the first semester and learn English alphabets and their sounds for the second semester. 5th graders learn familiar topics in English and repeatedly practice the important components of English such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The method is to maintain students' interests in English and encourage students to use classroom English. Also, structural practice is an important part of the method. Evaluation is primarily process-oriented and must motivate students to excel in English rather than fail in English.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.71-90
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze the improvement of students' interest and general proficiency of English through cultural understanding. To achieve this purpose, two classes of the 2nd grade in the informational high school were divided into the experimental class and the control class. The Grammar-Translation Method was used for the control class and a cultural learning - compare and contrast Korean culture and American culture - was taken for the experimental. After various cultural differences were studied, surveys of students' attitude and reading and listening test were taken. The results from this study were as follows: Firstly, students' interest in English was improved through learning the American culture that was related to the content of each lesson. Secondly, English reading and communicative skills were improved by learning about cultural aspects. Therefore, it can be said that teaching culture stimulates students' interest and motivation for learning English and helps students retain such affective attitudes. And English communicative skills were improved as well.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2022

The English word-final /rl/ cluster poses a particular problem for Korean learners of English because it is the sequence of two sounds, /r/ and /l/, which are not contrastive in Korean. This study compared the similarity distances between English and Korean speakers' /rl/ productions using the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm. The words with /rl/ (pearl, world) and without /rl/ (bird, word) were recorded by four English speakers and four Korean speakers, and compared pairwise. The F2-F1 trajectories, the acoustic correlate of velarized /l/, and F3 trajectories, the acoustic correlate of /r/, were examined. Formant analysis showed that English speakers lowered F2-F1 values toward the end of a word, unlike Korean speakers, suggesting the absence of /l/ in Korean speakers. In contrast, there was no significant difference in F3 values. Mixed-effects regression analyses of the DTW distances revealed that Korean speakers produced /r/ similarly to English speakers but failed to produce the velarized /l/ in /rl/ clusters.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.274-281
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• 2020

N-gram analysis casts a new look at the n-word cluster in use different from the previously known idioms. It analyzes a corpus of English textbooks for frequently occurring n consecutive words mechanically using a concordance software, which is different from the previously known idioms. The current paper aims at extracting and comparing 4-gram words clusters between South Korean high school English textbooks and its North Korean counterpart. The classification criteria includes number of tokens and types between the two across oral and written languages in the textbooks. The criteria also use the grammatical categories and functional categories to classify and compare the 4-gram words clusters. The grammatical categories include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, partial clauses and others. The functional categories include deictic function, text organizers, stance and others. The findings are: South Korean high school English textbook contains more tokens and types in both oral and written languages. Verb phrase and partial clause 4-grams are grammatically most frequently encountered categories across both South and North Korean high school English textbooks. Stance is most dominant functional category in both South and North Korean English textbooks.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.3538-3549
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• 2013

This study focuses the architectural planning solution and guiding principle for English only classroom spatial layout and operation program to establish English educational environment proper to English curriculum contents and methodology by the grade level of elementary school. To accomplish this purpose of the study, this study proceeds as follows. First, the English facility condition such as type of classroom, retainment and floor space were researched and analyzed through the nationwide survey for elementary schools to understand English educational environment. Second, the study analyzes English educational procedures, contents and methodology and most typical educational scenes, facilities and equipments are extracted through the analysis. Finally, the study pursues the spatial layout factors and proposes the architectural planning principle for English only classroom to provide English educational environment per its size and type.