• Title/Summary/Keyword: English grammar

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INTONATION OF TAIWANESE: A COMPARATIVE OF THE INTONATION PATTERNS IN LI, IL, AND L2

  • Chin Chin Tseng
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 1996.10a
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    • pp.574-575
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    • 1996
  • The theme of the current study is to study intonation of Taiwanese(Tw.) by comparing the intonation patterns in native language (Ll), target language (L2), and interlanguage (IL). Studies on interlanguage have dealt primarily with segments. Though there were studies which addressed to the issues of interlanguage intonation, more often than not, they didn't offer evidence for the statement, and the hypotheses were mainly based on impression. Therefore, a formal description of interlanguage intonation is necessary for further development in this field. The basic assumption of this study is that native speakers of one language perceive and produce a second language in ways closely related to the patterns of their first language. Several studies on interlanguage prosody have suggested that prosodic structure and rules are more subject to transfer than certain other phonological phenomena, given their abstract structural nature and generality(Vogel 1991). Broselow(1988) also shows that interlanguage may provide evidence for particular analyses of the native language grammar, which may not be available from the study of the native language alone. Several research questions will be addressed in the current study: A. How does duration vary among native and nominative utterances\ulcorner The results shows that there is a significant difference in duration between the beginning English learners, and the native speakers of American English for all the eleven English sentences. The mean duration shows that the beginning English learners take almost twice as much time (1.70sec.), as Americans (O.97sec.) to produce English sentences. The results also show that American speakers take significant longer time to speak all ten Taiwanese utterances. The mean duration shows that Americans take almost twice as much time (2.24sec.) as adult Taiwanese (1.14sec.) to produce Taiwanese sentences. B. Does proficiency level influence the performance of interlanguage intonation\ulcorner Can native intonation patterns be achieved by a non-native speaker\ulcorner Wenk(1986) considers proficiency level might be a variable which related to the extent of Ll influence. His study showed that beginners do transfer rhythmic features of the Ll and advanced learners can and do succeed in overcoming mother-tongue influence. The current study shows that proficiency level does play a role in the acquisition of English intonation by Taiwanese speakers. The duration and pitch range of the advanced learners are much closer to those of the native American English speakers than the beginners, but even advanced learners still cannot achieve native-like intonation patterns. C. Do Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers\ulcorner Ross et. al.(1986) suggests that the presence of tone in a language significantly inhibits the unrestricted manipulation of three acoustical measures of prosody which are involved in producing local pitch changes in the fundamental frequency contour during affective signaling. Will the presence of tone in a language inhibit the ability of speakers to modulate intonation\ulcorner The results do show that Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers. Both advanced (84Hz) and beginning learners (58Hz) of English show a significant narrower FO range than that of Americans' (112Hz), and the difference is greater between the beginning learners' group and native American English speakers.

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A Study on Improving English Pronunciation and Intonation utilizing Fluency Improvement system (음성인식 학습 시스템활용 영어 발음 및 억양 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Yi, Jae-Il;Kim, Young-Kwon;Kim, Gui-Jung
    • Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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    • v.8 no.11
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    • pp.1-6
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    • 2017
  • This paper focuses on the development of a system that improves the convenience of foreign language learning and enhaces the learning ability of the target language through the use of IT devices. In addition to the basic grammar, the importance of pronunciation and intonation have somewhat crucial effect in everyday communication. Pronunciation and intonation of English are different according to the basic characteristics of a native language and these differences often cause problems in communication. The proposed system distinguishes acceptability in English communication process and requests the correction in realtime. The proposed system minimizes system intervention by collecting various voice signals of foreign language learners and setting that can be considered as acceptable threshold points. As a result, the learner can increase the learning efficiency with minimal interruption of the utterance caused by unnecessary system intervention.

Wikispaces: A Social Constructivist Approach to Flipped Learning in Higher Education Contexts

  • Ha, Myung-Jeong
    • International Journal of Contents
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.62-68
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    • 2016
  • This paper describes an attempt to integrate flip teaching into a language classroom by adopting wikispaces as an online learning platform. The purpose of this study is to examine student perceptions of the effectiveness of using video lectures and wikispaces to foster active participation and collaborative learning. Flipped learning was implemented in an English writing class over one semester. Participants were 27 low intermediate level Korean university students. Data collection methods included background questionnaires at the beginning of the semester, learning experience questionnaires at the end of the semester, and semi-structured interviews with 6 focal participants. Because of the significance of video lectures in flip teaching, oCam was used for making weekly online lectures as a way of pre-class activities. Every week, online lectures were posted on the school LMS system (moodle). Every week, participants met in a computer room to perform in-class activities. Both in-class activities and post-class activities were managed by wikispaces. The results indicate that the flipped classroom facilitated student learning in the writing class. More than 53% of the respondents felt that it was useful to develop writing skills in a flipped classroom. Particularly, students felt that the video lectures prior to the class helped them improve their grammar skills. However, with respect to their satisfaction with collaborative works, about 44% of the participants responded positively. Similarly, 44% of the participants felt that in-class group work helped them interact with the other group members. Considering these results, this paper concludes with pedagogical suggestions and implications for further research.

The effectiveness of diverse types of written feedback: Comparative study of teacher and student feedback (다양한 종류의 피드백이 영어작문 향상에 미치는 효과: 교사.동료 피드백의 비교 연구)

  • Kim, Yanghee;Joo, Mijin
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.133-152
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    • 2010
  • There is disagreement, among researchers, on the benefits of corrective feedback on L2 learners' written output. Some scholars advocate the usefulness of corrective feedback while some claim that error correction is ineffective and even harmful. So far, however, research outcomes cannot settle this debate. Based on this debate, this study examines whether there is a difference among diverse types of feedback on the effects of L2 learners' writing improvement. This study found that teacher's direct feedback was more effective than any other types of feedback on the effect of participants' writing improvement. In particular, teacher's direct feedback helped their improvement on grammar, mechanics, and form. Among the types of peer feedback, self-correction was the most effective. In teacher feedback, form-focused feedback had more effects than content-focused feedback, but no difference with regard to peer feedback. In addition, teacher's content-focused feedback was more effective than peer's content-focused feedback. Overall, in all types of feedback, teacher feedback was more effective than peer feedback. However, direct (form-focused) feedback was the most effective in teacher feedback, and self-correction in peer feedback. The least effective feedback in both teacher and peer feedback was indirect (form-focused) feedback, which is simple underlining of errors.

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Resolving the Ambiguities of Negative Stripping Construction in English : A Direct Interpretation Approach (영어 부정 스트리핑 구문의 중의성 해소에 관한 연구: 직접 해석 접근법을 중심으로)

  • Kim, So-jee;Cho, Sae-youn
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.52
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    • pp.393-416
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    • 2018
  • Negative Stripping Construction in English involves the disjunction but, the adverb not, and a constituent NP. This construction is an incomplete sentence although it delivers a complete sentential meaning. Interpretation of this construction may be ambiguous in that the constituent NP can either be construed as the subject, or as the complements including the object. To generate such sentences and resolve the issue of ambiguity, we propose a construction-based analysis under direct interpretation approach, rejecting previous analyses based on deletion approaches. In so doing, we suggest a negative stripping construction rule that can account for ambiguous meaning. This rule further can enable us to explain syntactic structures and readings of Negative Stripping Construction.

Psychological Distance between Students and Professors in Asynchronous Online Learning, and Its Relationship to Student Achievement & Preference for Online Courses

  • LEE, Jieun
    • Educational Technology International
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.123-148
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    • 2010
  • Relationships between students' perception of psychological distance with online professors and their academic learning achievement and their intention to continue online learning were examined. The courses selected for this study are two online courses: 1) 'English Grammar' and 2) 'TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) Preparation' offered by a campus-based, medium-sized university. This study employed a mixed-methods approach by conducting a survey as well as one-on-one interviews with students. Students who feel psychologically distant with the online professors show significantly lower degree of perceived learning achievement, and higher tendency not to take online courses any more. All the three scales measuring the psychological distance -mutual awareness, connectedness, and availability- with professors turned out to be significantly related with students' perceived learning achievement. According to the result of the interview data analysis, the student interviewees unanimously said that the university should limit the number of online courses that students can register in a semester to one or two courses. Most students regard low interactivity of online learning as inevitable phenomenon. There is a statistically significant difference in perceived learning achievement between the online preferred group and the offline preferred group. Also, there is a significant difference in connectedness and availability and no significant difference in the degree of mutual awareness between the online and the offline preferred group.

Considerations for Helping Korean Students Write Better Technical Papers in English (한국 대학생들의 영어 기술 논문 작성 능력 향상을 위한 고찰)

  • Kim, Yee-Jin;Pak, Bo-Young;Lee, Chang-Ha;Kim, Moon-Kyum
    • Journal of Engineering Education Research
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.64-78
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    • 2007
  • For Korean researchers, English is essential. In fact, this is the case for any researcher who is a non-native English speaker, as recognition and success is predicated on being published, while publications that reach the broadest audiences are in English. Unfortunately, university science and engineering programs in Korea often do not provide formal coursework to help students attain greater competence in English composition. Aggravating this situation is the general lack of literature covering this specific pedagogical issue. While there is plenty of information to help native speakers with technical writing and much covering general English composition for EFL learners, there is very little information available to help EFL learners become better technical writers. Thus, the purpose of this report is twofold. First, as most Korean educators in science and engineering are not well acquainted with pedagogical issues of EFL writing, this report provides a general introduction to some relevant issues. It reviews the importance of contrastive rhetoric as well as some considerations for choosing the appropriate teaching approach, class arrangement, and use of computer assisted learning tools. Secondly, a course proposal is discussed. Based on a review of student writing samples as well as student responses to a self-assessment questionnaire, the proposed course is intended to balance the needs of Korean EFL learners to develop grammar, process, and genre skills involved in technical writing. Although, the scope of this report is very modest, by sharing the considerations made towards the development of an EFL technical writing course it seeks to provide a small example to a field that is perhaps lacking examples.

Syllabus Design and Pronunciation Teaching

  • Amakawa, Yukiko
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 2000.07a
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    • pp.235-240
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    • 2000
  • In the age of global communication, more human exchange is extended at the grass-roots level. In the old days, language policy and language planning was based on one nation-state with one language. But high waves of globalizaiton have allowed extended human flow of exchange beyond one's national border on a daily basis. Under such circumstances, homogeneity in Japan may not allow Japanese to speak and communicate only in Japanese and only with Japanese people. In Japan, an advisory report was made to the Ministry of Education in June 1996 about what education should be like in the 21st century. In this report, an introduction of English at public elementary schools was for the first time made. A basic policy of English instruction at the elementary school level was revealed. With this concept, English instruction is not required at the elementary school level but each school has their own choice of introducing English as their curriculum starting April 2002. As Baker, Colin (1996) indicates the age of three as being the threshold diving a child becoming bilingual naturally or by formal instruction. Threre is a movement towards making second language acquisition more naturalistic in an educational setting, developing communicative competence in a more or less formal way. From the lesson of the Canadian immersion success, Genesee (1987) stresses the importance of early language instruction. It is clear that from a psycho-linguistic perspective, most children acquire basic communication skills in their first language apparently effortlessly and without systematic and formal instruction during the first six or seven years of life. This innate capacity diminishes with age, thereby making language learning increasingly difficult. The author, being a returnee, experienced considerable difficulty acquiring L2, and especially achieving native-like competence. There will be many hurdles to conquer until Japanese students are able to reach at least a communicative level in English. It has been mentioned that English is not taught to clear the college entrance examination, but to communicate. However, Japanese college entrance examination still makes students focus more on the grammar-translation method. This is expected to shift to a more communication stressed approach. Japan does not have to aim at becoming an official bilingual country, but at least communicative English should be taught at every level in school Mito College is a small two-year co-ed college in Japan. Students at Mito College are basically notgood at English. It has only one department for business and economics, and English is required for all freshmen. It is necessary for me to make my classes enjoyable and attractive so that students can at least get motivated to learn English. My major target is communicative English so that students may be prepared to use English in various business settings. As an experiment to introduce more communicative English, the author has made the following syllabus design. This program aims at training students speak and enjoy English. 90-minute class (only 190-minute session per week is most common in Japanese colleges) is divided into two: The first half is to train students orally using Graded Direct Method. The latter half uses different materials each time so that students can learn and enjoy English culture and language simultaneously. There are no quizes or examinations in my one-academic year program. However, all students are required to make an original English poem by the end of the spring semester. 2-6 students work together in a group on one poem. Students coming to Mito College, Japan have one of the lowest English levels in all of Japan. However, an attached example of one poem made by a group shows that students can improve their creativity as long as they are kept encouraged. At the end of the fall semester, all students are then required individually to make a 3-minute original English speech. An example of that speech contest will be presented at the Convention in Seoul.

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On the Study of the Interaction between Syntax and Semantics in See Verb Construction in English (영어 '보다(see)' 구문에 나타나는 통사와 의미의 상호관련성 연구)

  • Kim, Mija
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.39
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    • pp.329-354
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    • 2015
  • The major goals of this paper are to identify the degree into which the meanings of 'see' verb can be extended, focusing on the extended meanings shown in the expressions that denote our instinctive actions for survival, such as eating or drinking, etc., and to clarify the doubt on whether any syntactic pattern can be associated with the meaning in the process of meaning extension of 'see' verb. For doing this task, this paper picked out 2,000 examples randomly from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), in which the verb 'see' is used. This paper classified the sentences into thirteen different sentence types, according to the syntactic patterns. This research showed that these thirteen syntactic types lead us to figure out the process of the meaning extension of the verb 'see'. With this result, this paper made an attempt to provide the four steps toward the meaning extension of verb 'see'. The verb 'see' in the first step denotes the meaning of purely seeing the visualized objects. This verb in the second step expresses the shifted function, under which the agent in the subject position takes the seeing action as a secondary task in order to carry out other main task. The verb in the third step denotes the extended meanings irrelevant to the seeing action, because the sentences on this step do not contain any visualized objects. In the last step this verb functions as conventional implicature whose meaning does not contribute to the whole meaning of a sentence. In addition, this paper identified that the syntactic properties are deeply associated with the process of meaning extension of the verb 'see', and tried to formalize this relationship between the syntax and semantics within the framework of Construction Grammar based on A. Goldberg.

A Comparative Study on the Korean and English Genderlect: Focused on Polite Expressions (한국어와 영어 성별어 비교연구: 공손표현과 관련하여)

  • Kim, Hyun Hyo
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.16 no.10
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    • pp.6527-6533
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    • 2015
  • It is generally accepted that there are differences between men and women in linguistic communication style. Genderlect is a socio-linguistic term to refer to the linguistic differences spoken by specific gender. Some linguistic features are provided as evidence to show the genderlects: pitch, lexicon, intonation, grammar and styles. The purpose of this paper is to compare the characteristics of genderlect in English and Korean. To do so, I analyzed the scripts of an English movie, 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and Korean tv drama, 'Oohlala couple'. In "Mrs. Doubtfire, tension and laughter arose out of discrepancy from the way he looked (as a woman) and the way he spoke (like a man). The same is true with "Oohlala couple." In the language of Mrs. Doubtfire, male speech characteristics with nouns were salient while in "Oohlala couple" with verb forms, especially with honorific style, which shows a difference between Korean and English genderlect. Korean language has special genderlect characteristics with honorific speech style realized in verb endings. In Korean the highest honorific speech style, 'Habsho-che' is used in official situation and men are more accustomed to it than women. When women have to use polite expressions they have to choose between the highest honorific style, 'Habsho-che' losing the female characteristics or the second highest honorific style 'Haeyo-che' keeping the female characteristics.