• 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.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.179-187
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• 2019

As the globalization process progresses more rapidly and widely, there has been a ever-growing demand for multilingual learning. Compared with the study of Second Language Acquisition, studies on the Third Language and even Multilingual Acquisition have attracted a relatively poor attention. At the same time, considering current educational environments for ethnic colleges and universities, the effects of college English teaching for minority students can be said to have been 'generally poor.' In this situation, when we try to find ways to improve college English studies for minority students most of whom already can speak two languages or even more, it would not be the best idea to keep following the experiences of traditional Second Language Acquisition. It is necessary first to find out whether there are positive or negative effects in acquiring multiple languages, and then to conduct a profound research on L3 (third language and even multilingual) Acquisition in order to employ more efficient teaching methods for multilingual learners. After conducting a Japanese-teaching experiment on two groups of learners with mono-lingual and bilingual backgrounds, it has been found that there is a positive transfer between different languages. In this paper, following the recent research findings on Language teaching for multilingual learners, I try to show with further supports that when it comes to language education for learners with multilingual backgrounds, we should focus on the advantages they may earn in order to conduct more effective language acquisition.

• 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.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.81-87
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• 2019

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the realization of speech rhythm in English as spoken by Korean learners of English. The study particularly aims to examine the rhythm metrics of English read speech by learners who speak Busan or the South Kyungsang dialect of Korean. Twenty-four learners whose L1 is Busan Korean and eight native speakers of English read a passage wherein five sentences were segmented and labeled as vocalic and intervocalic intervals. Various rhythm metrics such as %V, Varcos, and Pairwise Variability Indexes (PVIs) were calculated. The results show that Korean learners read English sentences with significantly more vocalic and consonantal intervals at a slower speech rate than native English speakers. The analyses of rhythm metrics revealed that when the speech rate was not normalized, Korean learners' English showed more variability in the length of consonantal and vocalic intervals. However, speech-rate-normalized rhythm metrics for vocalic intervals indicated that Korean learners transferred their L1 rhythmic structures (a syllable-timed language) into their L2 speech (a stress-timed language). Overall, the results suggest that Korean learners' English reflects the rhythmic characteristics of their L1. The effect of the learners' L1 dialect on the realization of L2 speech rhythm is also speculated.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.6
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• pp.219-239
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• 2000

There has been a growing enthusiasm in Korea for the early education of English as a foreign language (EFL). The present study examined the validity of the Critical Period Hypothesis in terms of the Universal Grammar (UG), in three different types of learning contexts - first language (L1), second language (SL), and foreign language (FL) learning contexts. While previous research findings in L1 and SL learning contexts suggest that UG principles and parameters are accessible to language learners only for the early years of lifetime, this article argues that their results - and even the methods - cannot be applied to EFL settings and that independent studies on the EFL context are, required. It also proposes the recent UG notion of functional categories as the most appropriate subject in the discussion of Korean EFL learners' access to UG. Findings on foreign language contexts, including the author's own, strongly indicate that UG is not sensitive to learners' starting ages in FL settings. If young children in FL contexts cannot develop their interlanguage grammar based on UG, the existing teaching methods for young children should be revised.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.29-33
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• 2005

This study aims to establish a speech corpus for Korean as a foreign language (L2 Korean Speech Corpus, L2KSC) and to examine the aspects of the foreign learners acquisition of the phonetic and phonological systems in the Korean Language. In the first year of this project, L2KSC will be established through the process of reading list organizing, recording, and slicing, and the second year includes an in-depth study of the aspects of foreign learners Korean acquisition and a contrastive analysis of phonetic and phonological systems. The expectation is that this project will provide significant bases for a variety of fields such as Korean education, academic research, and technological development of phonetic information.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.27-36
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• 2014

This study provided longitudinal examination of the Chinese learners' acquisition of Korean vowels. Specifically, I examined the Chinese learners' Korean monophthongs /i, e, ɨ, ${\Lambda}$, a, u, o/ that were created at the time of 1 month and 12 months, tried to verify empirically how they learn by dealing with their mother tongue, and Korean vowels through dealing with pattern of the Perceptual Assimilation Model (henceforth PAM) of Best (Best, 1993; 1994; Best & Tyler, 2007) and the Speech Learning Model (henceforth SLM) of Flege (Flege, 1987; Bohn & Flege, 1992, Flege, 1995). As a result, most of the present results are shown to be similarly explained by the PAM and SLM, and the only discrepancy between these two models is found in the 'similar' category of sounds between the learners' native language and the target language. Specifically, the acquisition pattern of /u/ and /o/ in Korean is well accounted for the PAM, but not in the SLM. The SLM did not explain why the Chinese learners had difficulty in acquiring the Korean vowel /u/, because according to the SLM, the vowel /u/ in Chinese (the native language) is matched either to the vowel /u/ or /o/ in Korean (the target language). Namely, there is only a one-to-one matching relationship between the native language and the target language. In contrast, the Chinese learners' difficulty for the Korean vowel /u/ is well accounted for in the PAM in that the Chinese vowel /u/ is matched to the vowel pair /o, u/ in Korean, not the single vowel, /o/ or /u/.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2001

One of the areas of second language acquisition that enjoyed popularity in recent years is interlanguage pragmatics. The main reason for this popularity lies in the critical role of pragmatic competence in appropriate use of a target language. The aim of this paper was to examine L2 learners' pragmatic behavior in their speech act performance and determine main sources causing pragmatic difficulty. Four major sources of pragmatic errors were identified: linguistic proficiency, L1 transfer, waffling and teaching activities. Each source was discussed with empirical evidence in some detail, and teaching suggestions were provided for developing learners' pragmatic competence in EFL classrooms.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.111-116
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• 2013

Instructive lessons in the language classrooms are extremely constrictive to language learners in improving their English skills, thus, the use of technology in education plays an important role in a language classroom. Results of language proficiency improvement of the learners vary depending on the extent of supplementary materials offered by the internet delivered to the learners. The purpose of the present study is to explore and propose a new approach of language acquisition offered by the internet. This study presents effective methods of using the internet in carrying out the written work. In this paper, we show that the relationship between participation of the learners in the class activities and improvement of English writing skills are mutually proportional.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.375-393
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• 2011

Many aspects of e-러닝 and m-러닝 have been conducted in language learning settings while few studies have examined learners'psychological attitudes in both Internet-based languages learning environment. Althoughe-Learning and m-Learningin the content of language learningshares many common aspects, the study that particularly examinesEnglish learners' psychological attitudes from both learning environments has not been conducted. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate group difference between e-러닝 and m-러닝 in terms of characteristics of both learning environments, including Contextual Offer, Interactivity, Enjoyment, Usefulness, Easiness, Variety, Connectivity, Satisfaction, and Learning Performance. Results showed that even if there was little difference within and among groups in English learners' feelings, learners have different attitude on Enjoyment, Easiness, and Connectivity.