• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.213-246
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• 2012

This study aims to investigate how the EBS English (EBSe) After-School program has been implemented in after-school classrooms. It also aims to examine the needs of the teachers and the students involved in the program, as well as their evaluation of the program itself to date. The EBSe After-School program has recently been launched and used in public school contexts less than a year. Thus, it is necessary to examine ways how the EBSe After-School program has been applied in real after-schools; and how the program has been perceived by the people engaged. The study was conducted in 19 elementary schools and 12 middle schools, which ran their after-school classes utilizing the EBSe program. Questionnaires were given to the 52 teachers and 1,258 students using the program. In addition to the questionnaires, syllabi and lesson plans of the after-school classes have also been inspected. The study finds that, despite overall satisfaction with the program, only a small portion of students participated in the after-school classes. Another finding of the study is that there was much difference in the way of implementing the program between the elementary and middle schools. Finally, the study makes some suggestions for improving the program.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.753-772
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• 2010

The purpose of this work is to examine the viability of employing the prosody cloning technique in teaching English prosody. Ten native speakers of Korean high school students with similar level of English proficiency participated in the poem self-study experiment. Five of them were grouped into the experimental group and the remaining five into the control group. One popular English poem from a high school textbook was selected and its recording by a professional native speaker of English was used in the experiment. The members of the two groups made a recording of the poem both before and after the experiment. For the study material, the experimental group used their own recorded utterances with their prosody cloned from the professional English speaker, while the control group used the utterances of the professional speaker alone. The acoustic analysis of the recordings by the prosodic foot both before and after the experiment showed that the experimental group performed slightly better than the control group in the realization of the intensity contour of the poem. There were no significant differences in the realization of the intonation contour and segmental durations between the two groups. The recording after the experiment was also subjectively evaluated by a native speaker of English and the scores for the experimental group were slightly higher than the control group. These findings suggest that the use of English poems with the help of the prosody cloning technique is a potentially viable approach to teaching English intonation to high school students. A long-term study with more students is necessary.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.3
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• pp.71-93
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• 1997

Teachers' beliefs about teaching English are reflected in their practices in the classroom. They influence on the students' attitude to English learning. Any teacher training program expects the trainees to change or modify their existing beliefs and attitude through the new ideas and information introduced by the program toward a desired direction. The present study describes a teacher training program for elementary school English teachers and compares the beliefs of the teachers about teaching English before and after the training. The subjects are the elementary school English teachers around Chungnam area who get a special training of 120 hours during January 1997. The investigation of the subjects' beliefs on English teaching is conducted through examining two journals of each subject before and after the training. The journals show the teachers' inner flow of thought, so teacher trainers are expected to get insight on their general instructional considerations and have implications on the future teacher training program through examining these journals. In addition, the journal writing itself gives the teachers opportunity to reflect their practice and rethink about their beliefs, and develop themselves as professional English teachers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.317-337
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• 2010

The present study has a dual purpose to investigate the current state of school English library and needs required for its effective use, and to propose a reading program at the school library. The literature on school library was reviewed. A questionnaire survey was done to find out the current situation of English library at the secondary school. The analysis of 26 secondary English teachers' responses reveals that there was the absence of librarians or reading specialists at the school English library. It was also found that the uses of the English library were limited due to the absence of the specialists, no guidelines, and no link between the curriculum and the library use. A case study on a 2-week special reading program at the school English library was conducted and 15 middle school students took part in the project. The participants took pre- and post-tests to identify their reading level using a software and did a variety of reading activities using the books selected according to their level. The comparison of the tests shows that most of the students' reading level improved after the reading program. The analysis of their views on the program and its effects reveals that they gained confidence in reading and their vocabulary understanding was improved. Some suggestions are made for the effective management of the school English library.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.183-186
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• 2007

This study analyzes Korean high school students' pronunciation errors in word-initial onglides in English. For this study, 24 Korean high school students read 34 English words including glide-vowel sequences in word-initial positions and vowel-initial words in a frame sentence. The results showed 2 different error types: glide deletion and vowel distortion. After the analysis of the first recording, the subjects were taught how to pronounce glide-vowel sequences properly in a 60-minute class. Comparison of the analyses of the first and second recordings showed that the subjects improved on the pronunciation of glide-vowel sequences. After the training, the pronunciation errors of diphthongs unique to English, [$j_I$], decreased substantially. However, most subjects still had difficulties in pronouncing [$w{\mho}$], [wu], and [wo]. There was no significant correlation between English course grade and error reduction.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.365-395
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• 2010

This study explores the effect of extensive reading(ER) implemented in middle and high schools in Korean EFL context. Two middle school English teachers and two high school English teachers participated in implementing ER in their classes. Six middle school classes of 239 students and seven high school classes of 268 students participated in ER program guided by the above four teachers. To implement ER, participating teachers had continuously been guided by the researcher about the theoretic reasoning of ER and practical methods for efficient ER in class. The study lasted for two semesters and the teachers and students were surveyed and interviewed during and after the classes. The result showed pretty positive improvement of students' self-confidence, interest and motivation about English through ER implemented in this study. It is hoped that this study would show the possibility of implementing ER in Korean EFL secondary school context and a model for ER and cooperation between university researchers and in-service English teachers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.219-245
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• 2011

This case study aims to investigate how a primary English teacher's professional development was pursued through novice teacher mentoring after the six-month intensive in-service teacher training program(IIETTP). The teacher was involved in mentoring two novice teachers working at the same school. They observed each other's classes and exchanged their views on the classes, focusing on areas to be improved. The observation was done within a framework that consisted of pre-, during- and post-observation sessions. Data was gathered through retrospective entries kept after the post-observation meetings. The entries were categorized according to their saliency, frequency and recurring patterns identified. The findings reveal that learning from the training course could be applied professionally and could serve to bridge the gap between training and teaching. It is also shown that the mentee teachers' professional development was enhanced and the mentor teacher herself benefited from the collaborative learning process involved with working with the novice teachers. Some suggestions are made for the effective implementation of school-based teacher development programs after the IIETTP.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.183-206
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether using English newspapers as supplementary teaching materials for the present textbook could increase students' English reading ability, interest in class and their willingness to take an active part in activities. Schools in rural areas, compared to urban schools, did not have the appropriate resources to teach students effectively. Understanding the disadvantages of the students in rural areas, one idea was to use newspapers to inspire the students to reach outside their local community and incorporate new styles of English and cultural aspects into their lives. The participants were 2nd grade high school students in the rural area. The experimental group received reading lessons with the textbook and English newspapers. They were also encouraged to make their own portfolios. The control group received reading lessons with the textbook and other supplementary materials. Before and after the experiment, reading comprehension tests as well as the questionnaires of interest and self-directed learning were administered. The results of this study were as follows: First, students' English reading ability was significantly improved in the experimental class using English newspapers. Second, students' interest and self-directed learning were positively increased in the same class above.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.139-166
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of remedial instruction on self-efficacy improvement in elementary school students with low self-efficacy, which may have been formed through negative experience with learning such as poor performance and poor grades. Nine 6th grade students with low self-efficacy were selected for the present study. A remedial class was set up and instruction was given once a week for 14 weeks. The purpose of the remedial class was to give the students a positive experience with English learning and have students reflect on their achievement. The contents and class activities were adjusted to the subjects' English abilities and also closely related to those of the regular classes so that students could have more confidence during regular English classes. The data were collected from a test of self-efficacy in English learning, achievement tests given before and after the experiment, achievement tests after each lesson, a general self-efficacy test, a basic questionnaire, interviews, journals, and students' self-evaluation. The results showed that the remedial instruction was very successful in providing students with a sense of achievement and improving students' self-efficacy in English learning. However, this study failed to find significant improvement in general self-efficacy tests and achievement tests given before and after the experiments. A longer period of remedial instruction may have been necessary to obtain more concrete results from the variety of data collected.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.462-469
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• 2020

This study investigated high school students' perception of English extensive reading (ER) after introducing ER to general high school students in a metropolitan area. In addition, as the free semester system was expanded in high schools as well as middle schools, we developed a class model for English extensive reading. 91.4 percent of the students who participated in the study said that they wanted to try using the English extensive reading method. Also 35 high school students who experienced English extensive reading chose the 'Five Finger rule' and 'Graded Readers' Series' as the most helpful factors in their extensive reading experiences. In interviews with English teachers, teachers expressed their demand for the development of a model of English extensive reading suitable for free semesters in general high schools. This study proposes an English extensive reading class model utilizing library resources that can be used in the free semester system as well as a performance assessment-oriented English extensive reading class model.