• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.33-37
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• 2018

Korean students with much exposure to the relatively slow and clear speech used in most English classes in Korea can be expected to have difficulty understanding the casual style that is common in the everyday speech of English speakers. This research attempted to investigate an effective way to utilize casual speech in English education, by exploring the way different speech styles (clear vs. casual) affect Korean learners' comprehension of spoken English. Twenty Korean university students and two native speakers of English participated in a listening session. The English utterances were produced in different speech styles (clear slow, casual slow, clear fast, and casual fast). The Korean students were divided into two groups by English proficiency level. The results showed that the Korean students achieved 69.4% comprehension accuracy, while the native speakers of English demonstrated almost perfect results. The Korean students (especially the low-proficiency group) had more problems perceiving function words than they did perceiving content words. Responding to the different speech styles, the high-proficiency group had more difficulty listening to utterances with phonological variation than they did listening to utterances produced at a faster speed. The low-proficiency group, however, struggled with utterances produced at a faster speed more than they did with utterances with phonological variation. The pedagogical implications of the results are discussed in the concluding section.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.582-590
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• 2020

This paper aims to analyze and introduce the primary English curriculum of North Korea reformulated according to the New Educational Program. Sources for analysis are the 4th and 5th primary school English syllabus based on the New Educational Program, explanations of the New Educational Program appeared in People's Education and Kim, Jeong-Il's selected writings. The analytical sources are classified into characteristics, objectives, contents, methods and evaluation. The findings are as follows: The primary English education aims to reach to the basis of middle school English by learning English alphabets and basic English expressions. 4th graders learn basic oral English such as pronunciation, stress and intonation for the first semester and learn English alphabets and their sounds for the second semester. 5th graders learn familiar topics in English and repeatedly practice the important components of English such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The method is to maintain students' interests in English and encourage students to use classroom English. Also, structural practice is an important part of the method. Evaluation is primarily process-oriented and must motivate students to excel in English rather than fail in English.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.32
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• pp.383-409
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• 2013

This research comes from the premise that a student-oriented English digital textbook's design should be age appropriate. Our study is intended for third-year elementary students, since that age is the onset of English education within the Korean national curriculum. Our proposal focuses on this age's need for concrete information. Three popular textbooks' designs were analyzed using Cress's "Grammar Flame of Visual Design [Cress 2006]," and the results reflected in our modified book design. Via two case studies, a focus group interview, questionnaire, and observation analysis, we learned that the design of an age-appropriate digital English textbook changes the effectiveness of the education. An age-appropriate modified digital English textbook improves student satisfaction and interest. Our research proposes a systematic textbook design guide for age-specific preferences and characteristics.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.480-486
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• 2014

This study aims to assure the positive influence of publishing English newspapers on improving English communicative ability and explores possibilities of enforcing an explicitly collaborative and independent learning atmosphere through a cooperative project-based publishing process. The project of publishing first KSA English newspapers has completed with a series of processes adopted from project-based learning and teaching strategies. The project involves the initiative process of selecting student editors based on their English abilities and commitment levels followed by planning subjects, themes and materials, distributing tasks and articles, and integrating and editing the outcome. Throughout the whole process volunteers participated independently and collaboratively with minimum supervision. The survey shows that the successfully published English Newspaper resulted in facilitating volunteers' positive self awareness and independent learning attitude as well as improving general English ability. The study discusses possibilities and advantages of publishing newspapers and magazines not for limited language education only, but for integrated project-based learning and teaching with suggestions for further related studies.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.11-17
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• 2022

English vowels play an important role in verbal communication. However, Korean students tend to experience difficulty pronouncing a certain set of vowels despite extensive education in English. The aim of this study is to apply speech recognition software to evaluate Korean students' pronunciation of English vowels in minimal pair words and then to examine acoustic characteristics of the pairs in order to check their pronunciation problems. Thirty female Korean college students participated in the recording. Speech recognition rates were obtained to examine which English vowels were correctly pronounced. To compare and verify the recognition results, such acoustic analyses as the first and second formant trajectories and durations were also collected using Praat. The results showed an overall recognition rate of 54.7%. Some students incorrectly switched the tense and lax counterparts and produced the same vowel sounds for qualitatively different English vowels. From the acoustic analyses of the vowel formant trajectories, some of these vowel pairs were almost overlapped or exhibited slight acoustic differences at the majority of the measurement points. On the other hand, statistical analyses on the first formant trajectories of the three vowel pairs revealed significant differences throughout the measurement points, a finding that requires further investigation. Durational comparisons revealed a consistent pattern among the vowel pairs. The author concludes that speech recognition and analysis software can be useful to diagnose pronunciation problems of English-language learners.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2009

This experiment, on the method of teaching English for left brain dominated engineering college students, was carried out through two groups, the experimental group which was composed of the engineering college students and the controlled group. The experimental group undertook dictogloss tasks in English class during the period of eight weeks from July to August, 2008. As a result, the effect of learning on experimental group showed significantly being high compared to that of the controlled group in the TOEIC test, an English ability test. This means that dictogloss is an effective learning activity which can be used in English class for left brain dominated engineering college students, and more improvement in English ability can be expected when appropriate levels and durations to learners are applied.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.149-174
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• 2012

This research aims at exploring what Korean teachers of English need for their effective professional development, particularly from the perspectives of peer trainers who are school teachers as well as teacher trainers. The research is based on an assumption that despite the critical roles of peer trainers in the changing process of English education, very little attention has been paid to listening to their voices. Having an awareness of the meaningfulness of their voices in teacher education, the researcher collected and analyzed the data, employing a questionnaire responded by 32 peer trainers and in-depth group interview with 6 peer trainers who responded the questionnaire. The research findings suggest that the majority of peer trainers believe that the priority should be put on teaching practice rather than language competence for Korean English language teacher development. It has been found that they believe that teacher learning within the workplace with some support from outside experts is the most effective way of making classroom change possible and keeping teachers' professional development sustainable. Finally, the research suggests school-based professional development as an alternative strategy to satisfy their needs on effective and sustainable professional development.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.165-198
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• 2002

The purpose of this research is to improve the writing ability of students by an ideal test model of English writing based on strategies of procedural learning stages enhancing the level of students' writing ability. Assessment of writing in the field of English education has been limited so far to very restricted areas with no appropriate scientific scrutiny. Assessment is really meaningful only when it exactly estimates the ability of students. Since English writing competence has become indispensable in this era of global village, writing instruction should be most emphasized. The most forceful method of busting writing instruction is to utilize the so-called washback effect of testing. So, to develop a good test model of writing, the first thing that is required is to inspect writing strategy in steps and, then, testing itself. First of all, analyzed with a special reference to the 6th high school English curriculum were the goals and contents of the syllabus reflected in one kind of junior high textbook and eight different kinds of senior high textbooks. Then questionnaires on the whole area of writing and tendencies of English writing classes were given to 100 English teachers, 300 students. The results of questionnaires were statistically analyzed. Then, some suggestions and opinions about the questioning method were made: the procedural strategy in steps, English writing instruction and test model of assessment were applied to the syllabus referring to teaching plans. On the bases of the results of the questionnaires, three pretests and a final test of English writing were administered to verify the effect of enhanced English writing competence which had been gradually promoted and, through the promotion, produced the test criteria of English writing. In conclusion, guidance and evaluation of English writing through in steps are really indispensable to increase student's practical ability and, accordingly, we are in need of the development of a testing method of useful writing practiced in school class above anything else. So, it is necessary to further the study on methods to assess writing ability on the bases of participation and fluency of students with their keen interest in English. Also, to intensify the effect of the test model, more accommodating reorganization of syllabus is required in our education. For instance, we need a flexible operation in organizing time units from the current 50 minutes to 100-130 minutes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.25-51
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• 2012

The study explores the way professors working in a private university in Korea perceive the recent English-medium instruction (EMI) frenzy in Korean higher education (HE) and the way they respond to its manifestation at their institution. Working within a qualitative research paradigm (Merriam, 2009), I gathered data primarily via one-time semi-structured interviews with ten participants who have offered or are offering EMI at the time of data collection and used a qualitative data analysis method. The findings illustrate that the professors view external factors residing outside individual universities, such as the college rankings and the university evaluation parameters, as the principal drive behind the current EMI boom in Korean tertiary education. Acknowledging the importance of strengthening the international competitive edge of Korean HE in the global era, the professors perceive the EMI policy positively expecting it to be beneficial for both students and institutions. They, however, problematize the blind acceptance of EMI policy and externally forced EMI expansion movement in Korean HE, which they believe will lower the standard of the academic experience of students. Experiencing first-hand the inadequate manifestation of the EMI policy at their university, the professors claim that a systematic long-term implementation plan and context-suitable approaches should be taken at both the national and institutional level for successful future EMI implementation and expansion efforts.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.57-69
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• 2007

The advantages of the Internet enable teachers in the world to break the communication barriers between their schools and collaborate with each other, giving them opportunities for richer educational practices than ever accomplished. I assume that collaborative learning like an international exchange naturally lead the students to acquire the knowledge to communicate with their peers using ICT skills. In this paper, two international exchange projects that have years of practice are reported, i.e., new types of collaborative education projects that the development of the Internet has enabled us to carry out. The international exchanges reported here have been possible because both students and teachers have effectively used the various functions of the Internet. To use English as a "common international communication language" is particularly important for the youth in Asia, and the students have come to realize the importance of English as a communication language through these projects. Also, since these practices are based on the infrastructure of the Internet, they have elucidated what kind of Internet use produces richer educational results .At the final stage of the exchanges, "joint presentation in English" is designed. Students communicate and collaborate over the network, and finally meet with each other and try to give a presentation as a product of their collaborative work. The files and scenes of their presentations are stored on the network and used as educational materials in Asia as well as models for the activities in the following years. We will report how to design international exchange education in this Internet age.