• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the comprehension and production of various tense markings in Korean-speaking children with and without language delay. Thirty children with language delay(LD) and 30 typically developing(TD) children participated in the study. In each group, half were at the age of 4-years and the other half at 7-years. In both the comprehension and production task, 28 verbs containing four types of tense markings were used: past tense '-et ta', two present progressives '-ko itta', '-enta', and future tense '-elyeko hanta'. In the comprehension task, the children were presented with three printed still-scenes of video recording of a verb action, each representing future, present progressive, and past tense of the verb, respectively. Then they listened to the action verb with one of the 4 tense markings and had to pick the scene that matched the verb tense. In the production task, the children were given one of the three scenes and asked to produce the verb with appropriate tense marking. In both tasks, the LD children performed significantly worse than the TD children, and the older children performed significantly better than the younger children. Interestingly, the pattern of performances across different types of tense markings at the two language-age levels were closely similar in LD children and TD children. This similarity of groups seemed stronger in the comprehension task than the production task.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.85-104
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of listening comprehension ability, self-efficacy, comprehension anxiety, and exposure time on Korean language understanding. In order to achieve our goal, listening examinations and surveys were conducted among 95 students from a university in Thailand, studying Korean language. As a result, it was revealed that the most influential factor on one's listening ability was self-efficacy. In addition, when the correlation between listening self-efficacy and other factors was examined, it was shown that there existed a statistically significant relationship. Particularly, listening comprehension anxiety had the most significant correlation with listening self-efficacy. Similarly, cognitive strategy demonstrated a significant correlation with listening self-efficacy. On the other hand, the effects of self-efficacy and other factors on listening scores such as the degree and types of strategy that students used were also studied. The findings revealed that, in most cases, strategy-intensive group's test results were influenced more by exposure time, while the less intensive group's scores were influenced more by their self-efficacy. Finally, after analyzing the effects of time spent on conversing with friends and watching Korean television on listening self-efficacy, it was discovered that both factors had statistically significant relationships with listening self-efficacy. Through this study, such results can be integrated and applied to education in various ways. The most important part for listening comprehension ability is enhancing self-efficacy and in order to do so, the appropriate education methods should be used to reduce listening comprehension anxiety, stimulate strategy use, and increase listening exposure time.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.197-218
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to help the students in middle school improve their English listening comprehension by presenting effective teaching and learning techniques using animation. A good animation provides a self-contained world with language expressed in a virtual context. A few animation such as "Mulan", "The Emperor's New Clothes", and "Gulliver's Travel" are presented. The materials are primarily for English listening comprehension, enhance awareness of American culture and life-styles, and to encourage students' active role in learning English. It is suggested that their use with content-based instruction, where animation provides relevant schema background, makes language relevant and comprehensible. Practical aspects of classroom instruction are discussed, focusing on the adaption of pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities to the selected animation. It is concluded that careful animation selection, purposeful lesson planning, and the integration of pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities into the content-based lesson encourage natural language skills, especially the listening comprehension and students' interest in English.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The study examined the effects of explicit derivational morphology instruction (henceforth DMI) on the incidental vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension of 132 Korean 1st-year high school students who responded to a battery of tests (two vocabulary tests and a reading comprehension test). Multiple statistical tools were used to analyze the data: Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Simple Regression Analysis, Tests of Simple Main Effects, and effect size computation using Cohen's d. The results indicated that (a) DMI enhanced students' ability to infer word meanings in context, (b) DMI promoted high proficiency students' reading comprehension, whereas it impeded intermediate proficiency students' reading comprehension, (c) vocabulary knowledge has a strong positive predictive value for reading comprehension, and (d) the gaps of vocabulary knowledge across proficiency levels were still substantial, despite the observation that DMI promoted students' vocabulary acquisition. These results have a bearing on English as Foreign Language (EFL) reading pedagogy.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.23-36
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• 2009

Relationships between immigrant mothers' Korean language ability and preschoolers' language development in multi-cultural families were studied with 91 mothers and their children. Language capacity of mothers and children was measured by receptive and expressive vocabulary test, sentence comprehension test and two kinds of reading tests. Results showed that mothers' level of comprehension was relatively low but their reading ability was higher than that of elementary school first-grade Korean students. Comprehension of children in multi-cultural families with non-immigrant counterparts showed a lower level of language ability. Mother's level of expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary and reading ability correlated with children's language development. These results indicate a relationship between children's delayed language development in multi-cultural families and mother's low proficiency in Korean language.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.201-223
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of text modification by comparing differences in Korean reading comprehension levels that arise from differences in vocabulary levels in texts. This study intends to use simplified texts with the vocabulary difficulty adjusted differently from the original text to measure reading comprehension levels of Korean learners and analyze the result. To measure reading comprehension, the researcher divided 55 Korean learners of intermediate to advanced level of fluency into two groups; the control group read the original text and the treatment group read a simplified text in which complex vocabulary were substituted with easier words of medium difficulty. Then the two groups were tested with the same questionnaire to measure comprehension levels of each group. The result showed that the groups that read simplified texts scored higher than the control group; this suggests that the reading comprehension level was increased in the treatment group. The experiment confirmed that unknown vocabulary density has direct impact on Korean reading comprehension. The result shows that the proportion of unknown vocabulary should be reduced for meaning-focused reading. It also demonstrates that comprehension of the learner was enhanced with lexical simplification rather than structural simplification i.e. simplification of grammar or sentences. Thus, diverse reading materials adjusted to the learners' level of fluency should be developed to enable reading for learning Korean. By reducing the burden of understanding the meaning of each vocabulary, learners will be able to achieve the initial goal of reading.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.149-179
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to establish a Korean reading ability assessment category based on a reading comprehension theory, and to establish an evaluation framework for Korean reading ability after creating the evaluation factors corresponding to each category through expert Delphi survey. The three levels of reading comprehension that were constructed are the following: language knowledge, text comprehension, and interpretation and comprehension of new ideas and application. This study suggested that constructs of Korean reading assessment reflected reading theory. This study has meaningful consequences which suggest verified constructs through Delphi surveys.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.235-252
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• 2000

This study investigated the effects of story making activity with wordless picture books on the language abilities of 5- and 6-year-old children. The 52 subjects attending a kindergarten in Kwangju were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group of 26 children each. The experimental group made stories with wordless picture books while the control group listened to stories. Experimental treatments were given twice a week for 6 weeks. Assessment was by The Language Comprehension-Cognition Test(1994), The Picture Vocabulary Test(1995), and The Sentence-Comprehension Test(1996). Qualitative level of the stories was analyzed by Morrow's(1985) revised Instrument Assessing Children Understanding of Stories(Chae, 1996). The vocabulary, language-comprehension, and story-composing ability of children who made stories with wordless picture books were higher than those of children who listened to stories told by teachers.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.19-36
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• 2007

This study explored proverb comprehension and use in elementary school children by familarity and concreteness of proverbs and children's age, sex, experience of living with grandparents. The 529 fourth and sixth grade participants completed a questionnaire probing knowledge of 16 proverbs; 4 each in four categories(familiar-concrete, familiar-abstract, unfamiliar-concrete, and unfamiliar-abstract). Results showed highest comprehension scores for familiar-concrete proverbs. Sixth graders obtained higher comprehension score than fourth graders in all four proverb categories. There was no difference between grades in frequency of proverb usage. An interaction effect between grade and sex showed that female sixth graders had the highest comprehension score. These results suggest a possibility of relationship between figurative language and cognitive development related to abstract thinking in late school-age children.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.35-50
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• 2005

Thirty six EFL freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were given a dictation, a listening comprehension test and a decoding test. The purpose of the study was to find out whether EFL freshmen students' spelling ability correlates with their listening comprehension and decoding skills. Data analysis showed that the typical EFL freshman student misspelled 41.5% of the words on the dictation, gave 49.5% correct responses on the listening comprehension test, and 52% correct responses on the decoding test. The median and mean scores showed that the subjects' spelling, listening and decoding achievement is low, which implied that the subjects were having spelling, listening comprehension and decoding difficulties. The students' spelling errors and correct listening comprehension and decoding responses revealed strong correlations between spelling ability, listening comprehension and decoding skills. This means that good spelling ability in EFL is related to good listening comprehension and good decoding skills. The better the listening comprehension and decoding abilities, the fewer the spelling errors. When listening comprehension and decoding skills are poor, spelling ability is also poor. Recommendations for spelling, listening and decoding instruction are given.