• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.335-357
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• 2007

This study aims to investigate the pragmatic features of Korean EFL learners' interlanguage in the communicative act of complaining. Since a complaint, by its nature, is likely to cause offence, thereby threatening the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer, making a complaint in a polite manner is of crucial importance in maintaining harmonious social relationships. However, very little research has been carried out on the complaint speech act performances of Korean EFL learners. In particular, studies which attempt to examine the effect of social status on the choice of complaint speech act strategies are rare. The present study compared the complaint speech act performances of Korean EFL learners and those of native speakers of English with respect to social status. 24 Korean EFL learners and 28 native speakers of English participated and the data were collected via a Discourse Completion Test. The findings revealed that Korean EFL learners differed from native English speakers in the use of complaint strategies. These results indicate that Korean EFL learners lack certain important skills necessary to make complaints appropriately, suggesting the need for the foreign language learners to develop a more extensive pragmatic knowledge of complaint strategies.

• Korean Linguistics
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• v.63
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• pp.103-132
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• 2014

This study compares various speech rates of Korean learners with those of native Korean. Speech data were collected from 34 native Koreans and 33 Korean learners (19 Chinese and 14 Japanese). Each participant recorded a 9 syllabled Korean sentence at three different speech rate types. A total of 603 speech samples were analyzed by speech rate types (normal, slow, and fast), native languages (Korean, Chinese, Japanese), and learners' proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). We found that learners' L1 background plays a role in categorizing different speech rates in the L2 (Korean), and also that the leaners' proficiency correlates with the increase of speaking rate regardless of speech rate categories. More importantly, faster speech rate values found in the advanced level of learners do not necessarily match to the native speakers' speech rate categories. This means that learning speech rate categories can be more complex than we think of proficiency or fluency. That is, speech rate categories may not be acquired automatically during the course of second language learning, and implicit or explicit exposures to various rate types are necessary for second language learners to acquire a high level of communicative skills including speech rate variation. This paper discusses several pedagogical implications in terms of teaching pronunciation to second language learners.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.129-153
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• 2007

When English language teachers are deciding on their priorities for teaching pronunciation, it is imperative to know what kind of differences and errors are most likely to interfere with communication, and what special problems particular first-language speakers will have with English pronunciation. In other words, phoneme discrimination skill is an integral part of speech processing for the EFL learners' learning to converse in English. Training using sound visualization technique can be effective in improving second language learners' perceptions and productions of segmental and suprasegmental speech contrasts. This study assessed the efficacy of a pronunciation training that provided visual feedback for EFL learners acquiring pitch and durational contrasts to produce and perceive English phonemic distinctions. The subjects' ability to produce and to perceive novel English words was tested in two contexts before and after training; words in isolation and words in sentences. In comparison with an untrained control group, trainees showed improved perceptual and productive performance, transferred their knowledge to new contexts, and maintained their improvement three months after training. These findings support the feasibility of learner-centered programs using sound visualization technique for English language pronunciation instruction.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.185-208
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• 2017

This study is for investigating strategy of associating loanwords to original words of Korean language learners. Loanwords have often been thought as easily learnable because the knowledge of the original word is assumed to be helpful in discovering the meaning. But there is much phonological, morphological and semantic transforming in accepting original words in Korean, and therefore, it is not easy to connect Korean loanwords to the original words. In this study, the awareness of loanwords and competence of associating Korean loanwords to the original words of advanced Korean language learners from China are investigated. As a result, the awareness of loanwords is remarkably lower than the awareness of non-loanwords. And, the competence of association also was very low with 17.9% of successful association. This means the learners have difficulty in inferring the meaning of loanwords by connecting that to original words.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a discourse analysis activity that can be used in the stage after performing tasks in task-based Korean speaking class and show its pedagogical advantages. A discourse analysis activity is an metadiscourse activity in which learners speak what they have spoken. By analyzing discourse and performing tasks again, learners can enhance their fluency and accuracy, make their knowledges in target language more stable and extend them, and develop problem solving skills. Consequently, this facilitates learners' acquisition of Korean language. This paper reviewed theoretical background of proposing discourse analysis activity, suggested the pedagogical advantages of the analysis, and examined discourse analysis activity in Korean speaking class. And it included the discourse sample of learners in actual class.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.109-126
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• 2007

English article has been considered as one of the most difficult areas to learn among ESL/EFL students. The current paper reviews English learners' article error patterns as well as pedagogy in order to teach English articles and to minimize learning difficulties on English articles. Different pedagogy for English articles on the basis of learners' proficiency levels are suggested as each proficiency level student shows a different error tendency; beginning level language learners used the zero article with the most facility while intermediate level language learners used the definite article the most accurately. However, studies about high advanced level learners' error patterns present that these high accuracy rates among beginning level students might be a result of students' plain guessing. Considering these error patterns, pedagogy for advanced level is also suggested.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1163-1190
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• 2010

Korean EFL learners' stylistic sensitivity was examined through the two types of letter writing, professional and personal. The base of comparison with the English native speakers' stylistic sensitivity was the linguistic style markers that were statistically found by Biber's (1988) multi-dimensional model of variation of English language. The main finding was that Korean university students were sensitive to stylistic difference in the correct direction, though their linguistic repertoire was limited to the easy and simple linguistic features. Also, the learners were skewed in the involved style in both types of the letters unlike the native speakers and it was interpreted as due to the general developmental direction from informal to formal linguistic style. Learners were also skewed in the explicit style in both types of letters unlike the native speakers and it was interpreted as due to the learners' heavy reliance on one particular linguistic feature. As a whole, the learners' stylistic sensitivity heavily relied on the small number of linguistic features that they have already acquired, which happen to be simple and basic linguistic features.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.spc
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• pp.1-17
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• 2003

This paper aims to propose that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a method that can help meet the conditions in language learning and instruction. PBL was first used in medical education, where learners engaged in problem-solving activities that reflect the demands of real-life professional practice, thus promoting critical thinking in the content domain. The paper proposes that by applying PBL in language learning and creating situations in which learners work collaboratively on problems, the learners benefit in two respects: (i) they have the opportunity to practise the kind of thinking skills and problem-solving strategies needed in real life, and (ii) they engage in purposeful language activity with others through discussion and negotiation. The paper first provides a theoretical rationale far the use of PBL in language learning and suggests attendant changes in the role of a language instructor in a PBL context. The paper then presents an outline of the stages and components needed in designing an online PBL Unit far use in an undergraduate language class.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.53-82
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• 2014

This study aims to find the method to promote interaction in L2 classrooms. Active interaction between learner-to-learner and learner-to-teacher in L2 classroom plays an important role in language acquisition. In light of this, L2 classroom would benefit with the help of learning tools such as Clickers which helps learners to express their level of understanding during the process of learning itself. This is because the anonymity of Clickers allows learners to express their needs without the social risks associated with speaking up in the class. It allows for an evaluative feedback loop where both learners and teachers understand the level of progress of the learners, better enabling classrooms to adapt to the learners' needs. Eventually this tool promotes participation from learners, This is in turn, believed to be effective in fostering classroom interaction, allowing learning to take place in a more comfortable yet vibrant way. This study is finalized by presenting the result of an experiment conducted to verify the effectiveness of this approach when teaching pragmatic aspect of the Korean expressions with similar semantic functions. As a result of the research, the learning achievement of learners in the experimental group was found higher than the learners' in a control group. Analyzing the data collected from a questionnaire given to the learners, the study presented data suggesting that this approach increased the scope of interactivity in the classroom, thus enhancing more active participation among learners. This active participation in turn led to a marked improvement in their communicative abilities.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.77-100
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• 2012

This study investigates issues in relation to text segmenting, in particular, line breaks in Korean language textbooks. Research on L1 and L2 reading has shown that readers process texts by chunking (grouping words into phrases or meaningful syntactic units) and, therefore, phrase-cued texts are helpful for readers whose syntactic knowledge has not yet been fully developed. In other words, it would be important for language textbooks to avoid awkward syntactic divisions at the end of a line, in particular, those textbooks for beginners and intermediate level learners. According to our analysis of a number of major Korean language textbooks for beginner-level learners, however, many textbooks were found to display line-breaks of awkward syntactic division. Moreover, some textbooks displayed frequent instances where a single word (or eojeol in the case of Korean) is split between different lines. This can hamper not only learners' learning of the rules of spaces between eojeols in Korean, but also learners' development in automatic word recognition, which is an essential part of reading processes. Based on the findings of our textbook analysis and of existing research on reading, this study suggests ways to overcome awkward line-breaks in Korean language textbooks.