The purpose of this study is to gauge the opinions of parents and teachers of English for the primary and secondary schools. It seeks to discover the implications for English education and provide referential data necessary to run a better English policy in school. A survey was conducted on a total of 3,294 particpants including 2,040 parents of public schools and 1,254 English teachers in primary and secondary schools. The questionnaire consists of 12 questions about the policies of TEE (Teaching English in English) and the NEAT (National English Ability Test). We used the SPSS 20.0 software to perform chi-square and t-tests. The results showed that teachers and parents were in agreement about the necessity of both TEE and the NEAT. In particular, the majority of parents thought that teaching English in English is important, and that the NEAT should be used for practical English improvement.
This study was aimed at integrating English novels into a Korean high school English curriculum. To accomplish the objective, the study adopted diverse post-reading activities using an English novel, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Data were collected from diverse sources such as students’ worksheets, transcripts of students’ presentation, answers to survey questions, and the teacher’s field note. The results of the study are as follows: First, there were some educational effects when an English novel with diverse post-reading activities was used in high school English classrooms. Students showed a positive attitude toward the class and expressed satisfaction in terms of classroom management. Second, students responded to the novel through diverse post-reading activities. For example, students had opportunities to reflect on their lives, became active in solving problems, and deepened their thoughts through discussion. Based on the results of this study, suggestions for future studies are provided.
This study aimed to examine English oral reading fluency of 5th and 6th grade students. Twenty three 5th graders and 22 6th graders at an elementary school in Daejeon participated in the study. Four texts were prepared: a 5th grade equivalent dialog text, a 5th grade equivalent narrative text, a 6th grade equivalent dialog text, and a 6th grade equivalent narrative text. The students were asked to read them aloud at the end of the first semester and the second semester. Comprehension check-up questions were given immediately after they read the texts. Their reading rate was measured in the number of words they read correctly per minute (WCPM). At the end of the school year, the 5th graders read their grade level dialog text at 103 WCPM on average, and the narrative text at 97 WCPM on average. The 6th graders read the dialog text 111 WCPM on average, and the narrative text at 99 WPCM on average. The correlations between reading rates and comprehension were moderate; .60 at the first administration and .58 at the second administration.
The present study sought to examine the continuity of the English textbooks of the elementary school 6th grade and the middle school 1st grade by analyzing the readability and vocabulary difficulty of their reading passages. It investigated the continuity between textbooks of the two grades and among chapters of each textbook. For the analysis, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index was used to measure the readability of reading passages, whereas vocabulary difficulty was measured in terms of TTR (type-token ratio) and frequency by using VocabProfile. The results showed that the readability of middle school textbooks was one point higher than that of elementary school textbooks. Given that the readability index is based on the American school system, the increase in readability index between grades can be seen as large gap. In terms of vocabulary difficulty, the total amount of vocabulary in the middle school textbooks was three times as much as that of the elementary school textbooks. Second, readability index fluctuated across the chapters of each textbook, while the TTR was found to be higher in the former chapters than in the latter chapters in elementary school textbooks. All these could lead to learning difficulties for students. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
This study aims to develop an English writing model using pattern-based reading materials and to apply it to the elementary classroom. The meaning of “patterns” was searched for in the language learning and teaching methods, and their roles were examined in terms of language acquisition and learning. The writing class was connected to the reading class so that learners could properly model and transfer their forms and meanings of the patterns recognized in the reading class to what they want to write in the writing class. The experiment was conducted on one class of grade 6 elementary school students in which the reading and writing class was integrated into the regular English class during one semester. Six pattern-based reading materials were selected with a range of genres including stories and poems. The effect of the pattern-based reading materials on the writing class was examined through writing test and a questionnaire about the affective domain before and after the experiment. The result showed that writing scores were increased significantly in all the leveled-group learners. As for the affective domain, interest, participation, confidence, and adventure each had a significantly increased score. The sense of adventure increased the most. This is considered attributable to the feedback which ignored grammatically trivial errors and focused on how to properly express the contents learners wanted to write.
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between prosody and reading comprehension of elementary school students in Korea. To achieve the purpose of the study, 114 fifth and sixth graders were selected from three schools of Seoul city and Gyeonggi province, and their prosody, word recognition and comprehension were assessed. In order to measure their prosody, students were asked to read a reading text orally for one minute, and the teacher checked their reading rate, decoding accuracy, and prosody. Students’ prosody was measured through Clay and Imlach’s (1971) method. The results of this study showed that while most students gained higher score in word recognition and reading rate, their prosodic features was found comparatively weak. It also revealed a correlation between the three sub-categories of prosody and reading comprehension. Based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that prosodic reading features of Korean EFL students have co-relations with comprehension, even if their prosodic feature is weak. Finally some ideas for enhancing prosody in L2 students’ reading instruction were suggested.
Task-based language instruction has been increasingly promoted in second language (L2) classrooms under the assumption that it can provide an ultimate condition for L2 learning when combined with form-focused interventions such as teacher corrective feedback (CF). The present research investigated the amount, type, and learner uptake of teacher CF in relation to the following task-related variables: (1) task vs. nontask work, (2) focused vs. unfocused tasks, and (3) open vs. closed tasks. Data were collected from 8 intermediate adult EFL classrooms. It was found that the amount of teacher CF provided during tasks versus nontasks and focused versus unfocused tasks was not significantly different. However, the teachers used different strategies depending on the focus of tasks. The study did not relate the matter of open versus closed tasks to the amount and types of teacher CF. When considering learner uptake, the study found that the teachers tended to offer more uptake opportunities during relatively form-oriented activities, and the learners’ uptake was more successful when they were working in relatively form-oriented activities compared to the cases where they were in meaning-based activities. Learner uptake was not associated with whether or not tasks were open and closed.
This study investigated the influence of L1-specific constraints on L2 perception. In particular, we examined the effect of the unreleased coda constraint in L1 on Korean learners’ perception of word final palatal sibilants across two proficiency levels, i.e., low vs. high. Our findings from a perception experiment showed that Korean learners, especially the low group learners, tended to hear the illusory vowel /i/ after a word final palatal sibilant. Thus, the low group learners had a difficulty in discriminating the contrasts of /ʃ/ vs. /ʃi/, /ʧ/ vs. /ʧi/, and /ʤ/ vs. /ʤi/. According to the perception experiment, the low group learners’ illusory vowel perception rates increased as frication noise of the word final palatal sibilant got longer. Additionally, the low group learners were not influenced by the relative duration of the vowel /i/ in perceiving the vowel. Rather, their vowel responses were more likely to be influenced by the frication duration of a word final palatal sibilant. The study revealed that L1 constraints are significant factors influencing L2 perception.
This study examined how L2 learners of English process morphologically complex words (e.g., bareness) and psuedowords (e.g.,*boilness) to investigate if the L2 processing of derivational morphology is subject to critical period effects. It has been claimed that native speakers rely on procedural memory to process morphologically complex words, while L2 learners tend to utilize declarative memory to process them (Ullman, 2001, 2004, 2005). According to Ullman, L2 learners’ reliance on declarative memory for processing morphologically complex words is due to maturational changes in procedural memory. Two related experiments with a masked priming lexical decision task were conducted with two groups of Korean learners: early and late L2 learners. With regard to the results, early L2 learners showed stem priming effects for morphologically related prime-target pairs, which is indicative of morphological decomposition. On the other hand, late L2 learners did not provide any evidence of stem priming, indicating that they might have processed the morphologically complex word/pseudoword as a whole unit. These data suggest that the L2 processing of late learners is different from that of early learners.
The purpose of this paper is to compare between Korean and Arabic in terms of phonology and seek effective ways of teaching Arabic for Korean students. Arabic as a Semitic language has 28 consonants and 3 basic vowels (each of which is short and long, and 2 diphthongs). Meanwhile, Korean has 19 consonants and 22 vowels. Due to the phonological differences between Korean and Arabic, it is somewhat difficult for Korean students to learn the correct Arabic consonant phonemes. In this paper, firstly, the consonants are grouped into two: one group common to both languages, and another unique to Arabic consonants. They are explained by phonological and phonetic methods to teach the correct pronunciation of Arabic consonants. Secondly, the Arabic vowels are explained through the examination of allophones in comparison with Korean. Thirdly, the syllables are explained by the structure, sorts, and characteristics. Lastly, it is suggested that professional training in phonology and phonetics fields be provided to instructors so that they can teach correct Arabic pronunciation.
This paper suggests a new pedagogical method, namely ‘applied Korean and Chinese language education’. It argues that the previous teaching method, which focuses exclusively on Korean students, should be changed to help Korean and Chinese students study together. By setting the goal of teaching practical abilities demanded by society, the paper explicitly considers six different levels of teaching processes: 1) pronouncing and listening, 2) expressing ideas, 3) understanding cultures, 4) reading and writing, 5) presiding and giving speeches, and finally 6) experiencing internship and preparing for interviews. This paper emphasizes that the skills of translation and interpretation should be applied to all of the six levels. In addition, a special evaluation method is suggested in order to encourage student motivation, thus ultimately improve their adaptive abilities in the society.
The purpose of this study is to provide compared evidences on the definition and variables of intrinsic motivation of French and English learners. In spite of its prevalence and importance, intrinsic motivation in learning has been underestimated and ill-defined. This study highlights the limitations of contemporary studies and suggests implications for further research. In this article, studies on intrinsic motivation in learning are reviewed around two main issues: First, the types and characteristics of student’s motivation; then, the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation to learn. The findings showed that, set aside intrinsic values, all the variables for learning English are significantly higher than those for learning French. However, the results indicated that the intrinsic motivation for learning French is significantly higher than that for learning English.
This study investigated spelling errors in English stories written by 206 students in an elementary school implementing Korean/English immersion education. Errors were analyzed using crosstab and MANCOVA. Findings are as follows. Spelling errors occurred in 4 categories in order from the most frequent to the least: substitution, omission, addition, and transposition. The error occurrences differed depending on grade level changes: lower grades (Grades 1-3) vs. higher grades (Grades 4-6). The students in both grade levels made more errors in substitution and omission: these error types were significantly decreased as they progressed to the higher grade levels. Errors in addition and transposition showed much fewer occurrences for both grade levels, and these errors did not show a significant decrease because of their rarer occurrences. Overall, the students’ spelling ability increased remarkably as they progressed in grade levels in the immersion environment.
The present study explores the relationship between teacher-efficacy and selected teacher variables, such as teachers’ demographic variables, self-efficacy, English proficiency, and teacher training experiences, of Korean English teachers. The study employed four questionnaires including Sherer et al.’s (1982) General Self-Efficacy Scale, Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy’s (2001) Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale, Chacon’s (2002) Self-Reported English Proficiency Scale, and background information. The participants of the study were 120 Korean English teachers. The main findings of the study indicate that the participants’ standardized English proficiency scores exerted no significant influence on their teacher-efficacy. Yet, the teachers’ self-assessed English proficiency levels accounted for a significant amount of additional variance of their teacher-efficacy after controlling the variance explained by their self-efficacy, suggesting the significant impact of teachers’ positive assessment of their own English proficiency on their teacher-efficacy, regardless of their actual English proficiency. The study results also suggest that teachers’ professional training experiences generally contribute to their teacher-efficacy. Discussions and suggestions for future research are provided.
The purpose of the study is to compare the nature of teacher talk between the native and non-native speaking professors with its focus on language functions and interaction modifications in English-mediated writing instruction. The study analyzed the classroom languages of two professors who were teaching college-level composition courses using the same textbook and syllabus. The classes taught by the two professors were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed based on the AS-unit. The results showed both professors used all of the five functions in the order of information, suasion, opinion, future plans, and checking. The NS professor, on the other hand, used the information function more often, while the NNS professor relied more on the suasion function. The data also displayed that the NS professor gave more feedback responses, whereas the NNS professor asked more clarification requests and repeated their own utterances. The findings implied that the types and distribution of the teacher talk may be influenced by the subject-matter and the instructional foci of each professor.
This study investigates the effect of strategies-based English reading programs on reading proficiency and affective domains of underachieving elementary school students. Eight fifth-grade students were selected and assigned to either the phonics/vocabulary learning group or the vocabulary/sentence learning group for two hours a week for 16 weeks. To address the research questions, data were collected from four main sources: English reading tests, questionnaire surveys, students’ learning logs and in-depth interviews with the students. The results of the study revealed that the English reading programs had positive impact on the students’ understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, word recognition ability, and sentence reading. As students accumulated successful reading experiences, their self-confidence, interest in reading, and class participation increased while anxiety decreased. The study also revealed that there were differences in using strategies among students in each group, with higher level students tending to use higher-dimensional strategies with more variety than less able students. In conclusion, the leveled English reading programs customized for underachievers appear to be effective in assisting underachievers in their English reading skills.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of vocabulary learning activity types via smart-phones on vocabulary learning and the attitude of Korean college students. The participants were 56 college students, who were divided into 4 groups: a competitive and self-paced group (Group 1), a competitive and controlled-paced group (Group 2), an individual and self-paced group (Group 3), and an individual and controlled-paced group (Group 4). Vocabulary tests were administered before and after the experiment. The analyses of the post-test results showed that Group 3 had improved most and Group 1 earned the second highest score, indicating that competition can make a positive effect on vocabulary learning via smart-phone applications. The results also revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the post-test scores between self-paced and controlled-paced groups. In addition, vocabulary learning via smart-phone applications improved the participants’ attitudes toward vocabulary learning.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical backgroud of a phraseo-didactics in French as Foreign Language and to present concrete ways to develop it in an effective way. The teaching methodology for french phraseolgy is very critical to improve one’s communicative competence among Korean learners. In this regard, this article raised the following 4 issues: 1) To distinguish the type of french phraseology. 2) To examine the status of phraseology in Common European Framework of Reference. 3) To investigate components of phraseology which are divided into three parts: sociocultural component, linguistic component, pragmatic component. 4) To set up some issues for the teaching of french phraseology in Korean context. For an effective teaching, this paper need to more carefully consider the teaching lists, rages, time and various methods of french phraseological expressions.
This article presents the didactic possibility of using movies in the university teaching, most of all in the faculties of german studies. As like other forms of arts, films can be used as a serious object for learning and teaching. In this article I want to present a case study of film didactics, or a sustained image of a teaching situation with films - a set of circumstances that produces significant learning in students. The purpose of this article lies also in the transformation of the image of good teaching. It is argued that student-centered learning and discussion-based teaching with movies are possible and necessary.