• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.981-1001
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• 2016

At old age, as people depend on superficial clues when they interpret the overall context of communication, their ability to understand connotative and figurative words and articles could deteriorate. In this study, 50 normal young(junior) people and normal old(senior) people were made to perform a task to understand similes, metaphors, idioms, and proverbs, the sub-areas of figurative language. For the task, participants were made to understand a paragraph consisting of several sentences and select a correct answer representing appropriate figurative language. As a result of the analysis, first, old people showed a lower level of performance than young people in all the sub-areas of figurative language. Second, in understanding idiomatic words and proverbs, old people showed a lower level of performance due to unfamiliarity. Third, for the types of wrong answers, old people mostly understood only the literal meanings in all the sub-areas of figurative language. Due to aging, old people come to have a lowered level of the pragmatic language ability, reasoning ability, and inhibiting ability to efficiently communicate with others considering certain situations and contexts. Thus, old people could have difficulties in understanding inner meanings from others in daily communication.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.487-515
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the individual differences in cognitive processes on paragraph comprehension. To do so, the lexical decision task and the pattern comparison task were used to measure the low-level cognitive processes. Digit span task was used to test the phonological loop capacity. The individual differences of the central executive processing capacity were measured by operational span task. Reading span task was used to test the working memory capacity related with the sentence processing. Reading times and accuracies of the logically valid inferences and logically void inferences were tested to measure the high-level cognitive processes. Reading times and accuracies for the target sentences with and without prior explicit causal sentence were measured to test individuals' paragraph comprehension abilities. The results showed that the speed of the low-level cognitive processes was related with the speed of the high-level cognitive processes. Also, the accuracy of the low-level cognitive processes was related with the accuracy of the high-level cognitive processes while there was no significant correlation between the speed and the accuracy in any measures of the cognitive processes. Working memory capacity was related with the accuracy of the cognitive processes while it was not significantly correlated with the speed of the cognitive processes. Most importantly, the speed of low-level cognitive processes significantly affected the speed of the paragraph comprehension while the working memory capacity and the high-level cognitive processes had influences on the accuracies of the paragraph comprehension. The speed of the paragraph comprehension had no influence on the accuracies of the paragraph comprehension.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.209-235
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• 2005

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of reciprocal teaching procedure for improving Korean college students' reading comprehension of English text. In particular, this study sought to explore the qualitative features, if any, in students' use of reading comprehension strategies presented in the process of Reciprocal Reading Procedure (RRP). In order to accomplish the goal of the study, transcripts of the students' dialogues, open-ended questionnaires, and researchers' observation notes were examined. The results of the study showed that the participants used different four kinds of reading strategies in the process of RRP (questioning, clarifying, predicting, summarizing). The findings also suggested that the readers with limited knowledge of vocabulary had difficulty in moving on to the next level. Additionally, future research direction and some pedagogical implications are presented for the practical EFL classroom.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.77-92
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• 2012

This paper explores the learners' experience process and features in the initial stage of extensive reading process through college students' daily based journal writings. The subjects of this study were 10 volunteer students and they kept their journals from 30 minutes to 2 hours daily based for two weeks. The participants took pre and post tests in order to find out how their reading comprehension ability improved. Four of them improved it while the rest of them did not. After writing journals for two weeks, all students agreed on the potential power of extensive reading. In addition, they realized their learning problems and tried to overcome them on their own ways. Although the research period was only two weeks, the students showed the potential of extensive reading in learning English. From the results of the study, extensive reading encouraged the students to read more and they were convinced that extensive reading will lead to successful learning English. It can be meaningful outcome from the 2-week period research. Thus, a longer period scheme could provide more detail information to the extensive reading.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2004

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of content and formal schemata for processing the scientific texts which encompass the human knowledge of the physical world. In general, schema theory is based on the culture-oriented background of a text. From this point of view, the problem as to whether both content and formal schemata are applicable to the comprehension of a scientific text deserves a focal attention in terms of information processing modes. The results of empirical study indicate that whereas the universality of general knowledge content about the natural world attenuates the tenets of schema theory, the rhetorical organization of scientific texts encourages the application of the schema-based approach; the reader's familiarity with the structural patterns of a text facilitates his reading comprehension.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.27-49
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• 2009

This study aimed to explore EFL learners' beliefs and preferences about reading tasks and to examine the reading processes that they use for making sense of text. The subjects were comprised of 107 college students who were non-English majors and aged 19-28 years. Based on scores achieved on a reading comprehension test, they were divided into two groups (more-skilled and less-skilled readers) and asked to respond to a survey in class. The results of the survey revealed that: (1) a majority rate themselves as fair readers, which might be indicative of the insecurity they feel toward L2 reading; (2) authentic texts (especially magazines) and popular media appear to be their favorite reading materials; (3) unknown vocabulary is a major impediment to their L2 reading comprehension; (4) the more-skilled readers manifest a meaning centered view of reading, whereas the less-skilled readers center on vocabulary; and (5) both groups employ a multistrategic approach to L2 reading; however, the less-skilled readers are less successful in determining the meaning of unknown vocabulary. Pedagogical implications for EFL classroom teachers are provided.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2010

Recently, the scientific approach to brain engineering is actively being made for effective foreign language learning and diagnosis. In order to supplement the problem of preexistence paper exam, the study aimed to develop a tool for foreign language fluency diagnosis which based on brain engineering. The proposed tools in the paper indirectly measure the aspects of brain information processing by testing learners' 3 abilities of linguistic memory, comprehension, and language production in 5 different ways.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.49-67
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• 2024

Recent interest in the diverse applications of artificial intelligence (AI) language models has highlighted the need to explore didactical uses in mathematics education. AI language models, capable of natural language processing, show promise in solving mathematical word problems. This study tested the capability of ChatGPT, an AI language model, to solve word problems from elementary school textbooks, and analyzed both the solutions and errors made. The results showed that the AI language model achieved an accuracy rate of 81.08%, with errors in problem comprehension, equation formulation, and calculation. Based on this analysis of solution processes and error types, the study suggests implications for the didactical application of AI language models in education.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of storytelling and discussion types on the language development of young children. 32 treatment sessions were applied to the two experimental groups and the control group(N=151) during 16 weeks. One experimental group children discussed among themselves while the other experimental group children did with teacher. The control group children listened to storytelling by their teacher. Findings are as followings. Children of two experimental groups discussing on storytelling gained higher scores in vocabulary test and reading test than those of control group. The first experimental group discussing about storytelling with teacher gained higher scores in comprehension test than the second experimental group debating among themselves. But, there was no statistically significant difference on vocabulary and reading tests between two experimental groups. It was statistically significant difference on meaning test between two experimental groups.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Language and Information Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.532-541
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• 2007

This paper investigates children's comprehension and production of demonstrative pronouns (DPs), 'zhege' (this) and 'nage' (that), in Mandarin Chinese. Subjects are children of ages three, four, five and six. Based on the results of the present experiment, children's developmental stages and the corresponding age grading are provided. Also, the present study incorporates a physical clue into the experiment. The result suggests that in the acquisition of deixis children rely highly on physical context to work out the meaning distinction. In addition, Piaget's egocentrism hypothesis and H. Clark's marking hypothesis are examined in the study. The result seems to support the egocentrism hypothesis. Subjects under the age of six do fail to shift the deictic center when they and the experimenter have a different perspective. As for the marking hypothesis, the study seems to challenge the hypothesis. The result shows that children actually performed better on the marked term 'zhege' than the unmarked member 'nage'.