• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.51-66
• /
• 2001

This paper compares different uses of downgraders by Korean English speakers (KES) with those by American English native speakers (AENS) in their requestive e-mail. Three different situations in which social power and distance were controlled were set up to examine and compare the participants' politeness strategies in requestive e-mail. It was found that the KESs' use of downgraders appeared differently from the AENSs' use qualitatively and quantitatively across three situations. The AENSs used downgraders almost three times as more, resulting in a much more mitigated and polite effect in requests. The AENSs' requests were mostly modified by syntactic modifiers, such as aspect, tense, conditional, and consultative devices. On the other hand, the KESs' requests were modified mostly by politeness markers and conditionals in a limited number of requests.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.161-178
• /
• 2001

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the expletives and EPP in Chomsky's(1998, 1999) Minimalism. Generalized EPP is suggested in Chomsky(1998): every functional head may have an uninterpretable selectional feature for its specifier position to be filled by a proper element. After briefly examining the properties of EPP and ${\Phi}$- features in Chomsky (1998, 1999), there-constructions are examined in terms of Agree. EPP features are satisfied by there-Merge or Move of an associate NP. Case feature is regarded as a reflex of ${\Phi}$-feature. Hence, it is suggested that there is a pure expletive with a [person] feature. It has shown that the uninterpretable [person] feature of there is not erased by the nonfinite T($T_{def}$) in terms of Agree in the Raising and ECM constructions. Again the uninterpretable [person] feature of there Agrees with finite T and moves to SPEC-T to satisfy the EPP feature, and finally the uninterpretable [person] feature of there is erased. PRT(=-en) is also regarded as a defective probe with a [number] feature and a [gender] feature.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.77-92
• /
• 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
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.121-134
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the optimal conditions for designing tasks appropriate to the elementary classroom based on the correspondence with the national curriculum, integration among four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), authenticity, and interactivity. For this study, two primary English teachers volunteered to participate in the case study conducted in the spring semester of the 2012 school year. Each class observed was composed of 29 and 30 sixth graders (12-year-old learners). Data were collected through classroom observation and lesson plans. Optimality theory was used to analyze data from the lessons. From the findings, the overall ranking of constraints is Curriculum ${\gg}$ Integration ${\gg}$ Authenticity ${\gg}$ Interactivity. It is also shown that for teacher 'L', the tasks such as 'guessing game', 'photo of me', and 'role play' were appropriate to help students ask questions and give reasons for their choices. As for teacher 'C', the tasks such as 'hand spans', 'transport survey', and 'picture telling' needed to be considered in order to help students understand and write comparative sentences.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.365-395
• /
• 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
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 2009

This case study aimed to explore proficient EFL readers' perceptions and experiences about reading tasks and how those perceptions and experiences influence their reading processing behaviors, and to examine how the cultural background of a text affects their reading strategies and comprehension. Three college students who were non-English majors participated in this study. Three data sources were employed: questionnaires, interviews, and think-alouds. The results showed that: (1) the participants emphasized comprehension as the goal of reading and considered themselves good EFL readers; (2) their reading purposes were closely associated with personal pursuits; (3) they preferred to read materials that deal with areas of interest but did not try to take a risk in terms of level of difficulty and/or length; (4) they implemented a multistrategic approach to reading in that the majority of their strategy use was in conjunction with their concern about meaning construction; (5) they were able to develop useful understandings of unknown vocabulary; and (6) their clear awareness of the cultural background presupposed in the text helped them invoke prior knowledge and reduce unknown vocabulary hindrances which contributed to comprehension. Pedagogical implications for EFL reading instruction are provided.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.23-36
• /
• 2009

This paper aims to investigate the use of reference and substitution as cohesion devices by advanced Korean EFL writers and English native writers. Twelve research articles (totaling 218 pages, 93,033 words) written in English were collected in academic journals. Half of the research articles were prepared by Koreans and the other half were written by native writers. Several demonstrative pronouns, personal pronouns and demonstrative adverbs were selected as referential cohesion devices for this study. Three substitutional cohesion devices were also chosen. Their frequency was investigated at first, after which their preference was analyzed. There was not much difference in the overall use of cohesion devices between the two groups. Some devices were used by Korean writers more often than native ones. Reasons for this could be high English proficiency of Korean writers, their hyper-correction or the influence of Korean culture. Other more distinctive cohesion features such as conjunctions are recommended for analysis of cohesion in future research.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.119-139
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this paper was to examine various aspects of meaning negotiation process in online chatting. Korean college students were asked to engage in chatting on the Internet over the course of a semester-long period, and chatting transcripts were analyzed in terms of sources of communication breakdown, signals to indicate communication breakdown, strategies to overcome communication breakdown, and ways of closing meaning negotiation. According to the findings of the study, lack of background knowledge and incoherent string of sentences in text were two major barriers creating communication problems. Subjects were able to use signals to indicate their communication difficulties, and overcome them by using different strategies. In doing so, however, they were found to suffer a narrow range of signals and strategies, which showed their limited communicative ability in the management of interaction, and indicated a clear, strong need for an extension of discourse and strategic competences of Korean students for more effective and smoother transition of message in everyday interaction.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.95-108
• /
• 2009

One of the learning difficulties for Korean learners of English is the intonation of English focused yes/no questions. Focused words in English yes/no questions are realized as low pitch accents which contrast with high pitch accents in Korean counterparts. In order to improve Korean students' intonation, direct and metalinguistic explanations on the intonation of English focused yes/no questions were given to Korean learners of English. In pre-tests and post-tests, students' perceptions on the target items were measured. The study results showed that phonetic explanation using intonation contour enhanced students' perception on English intonation. With respect to the position of focused words, sentence initial and medial focused questions were more difficult than sentence final focused questions. The perception was most improved in sentence initial focused questions. The study showed the immediate effects of the explicit instruction on perceptions of English intonation.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.331-344
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to explore sorts and roles of Afro-American music genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, and swing which were shown in post-structural Afro-American literary works: Toni Morrison's novel Jazz, Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple, and August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson. It has been phenomenal for several important Afro-American writers to create their works in which they invite traditional Afro-American music genres. This has made significant effects to depict a wide range of episodes in their works, which are historically and culturally associated with such music genres. This paper analyzes varied ways in which the writers combine these two artistic fields, which are all Afro-American, and express their authenticity and identity as being blackness.