Background: Child care center teachers are exposed to musculoskeletal injuries caused by repetitive movements at low heights due to the nature of their jobs. Self-myofascial release (SMFR) improves flexibility, pain, and functional performance. Pectoralis minor self-stretching (PMSS) improves muscle flexibility and postural alignment. PMSS has been commonly used to correct a rounded shoulder posture (RSP). Objectives: To examine the shoulder height, muscle tone, muscle stiffness, and muscle elasticity for women child care center teachers with RSP. Design: Randomized study. Methods: The participants were 20 women child care center teachers with RSP. They were randomly assigned two groups: SMFR group (n=10) and PMSS group (n=10). They performed each exercise for 20 min, 3 times a week for 4 weeks. They measured shoulder height, muscle tone, stiffness, and elasticity of upper trapezius before and after exercise. Results: In the shoulder height, there was no significant difference between two groups. There were significant decreases within both groups. In the muscle tone, stiffness, and elasticity, there was no significant difference between two groups and within two groups. Conclusion: SMFR using a hard massage ball and PMSS have a positive effect on posture correction for child care center teacher with RSP.

Background: Most patients with chronic stroke have difficulty walking, and various exercise methods are used clinically to improve the disability. Among them, various methods are being applied to improve walking through torso movement. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the effect of Maitland vertebra joint mobilization exercise and Evjenth trunk muscle stretching exercise on the walking ability of patients with hemiparesis due to chronic stroke. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Methods: In this study, 30 chronic stroke patients with hemiplegia were divided into 15 patients in the Maitland vertebra joint mobilization group (MVJMG) and 15 in the Evjenth trunk muscle stretching exercise group (ETMSEG), and the intervention was conducted for 3 weeks, 5 times a week, 30 minutes a day. After the intervention, walking ability was measured using a gait analyzer. Results: In terms of walking ability, there was a significant increase in walking rate, walking speed, and stride length following the intervention in both the MVJMG and ETMSEG groups (P<.05). When comparing the difference in walking ability between the two groups, there was no significant difference in walking rate. Conclusion: The study found that both Maitland vertebra joint mobilization and Evjenth trunk muscle stretching exercises were effective for improving walking function in chronic stroke patients. However, there was no significant difference in effectiveness between the two interventions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the continuity of reading passages of Korean high school English textbooks with the 2015 Revised National Curriculum using Coh-Metrix, a software that analyzes English texts in a range of linguistic features. Twenty-one English textbooks were analyzed: 11 High School English, five High School English I, and five High School English II. Only reading passages in textbooks were analyzed. Coh-Metrix indices related to basic counts, lexical features, syntactic features, cohesion, and readability were analyzed. Results revealed significant differences between High School English and High School English I and II, but no such differences exist between High School English I and II. This study implies that continuity of reading difficulty in terms of lexical, syntactic, and readability characteristics among High School English, English I, and English II textbooks should be considered.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the function of stroke patients could be improved by simultaneously performing bridging and masticating exercises. And, this was tested by examining whether the effects of arousal and cognitive improvement due to mastication muscle activity could affect exercise ability. Objectives: To compare the effects, the movement of the center of pressure and the stability limit change were measured using a balance analysis platform (BT4). Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: In this study, 36 chronic stroke patients were randomly assigned to either single training group of the bridging exercise or combined training group that performed both the bridging exercise and the mastication exercise. The exercise was performed for thirty minutes a day, three times a week, for eight weeks. Results: In both groups, the static balance ability improved after exercise, but the dual-task training group had a better improving effect on the distance and area of the center of pressure while the eyes was open. The dynamic balance ability also improved after exercise, and the dual-task training was more effective in reducing forward, left, and right movements, but not in backward movement. Conclusion: The importance of mastication was recognized in the rehabilitation of chronic stroke patients, and it can be expected to use mastication to improve balance in stroke patients in the future.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effects of reading global literature on students’ literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity in regard to students’ gender and grade levels, with the same data as in Bae’s (2013) study. This study is a onegroup pretest-posttest design. Participants were 131 Korean students from the 5th to 8th grades, and they read and studied picture books of global literature for 15 weeks. There was no gender difference in the effects of reading global literature on L2 literacy achievement and intercultural sensitivity development, as demonstrated by latent mean analyses. On the other hand, there were some differences in intercultural sensitivity achievement for different grade levels. Only 7th grade students did not show a significant improvement in intercultural sensitivity, especially the sections on respect for cultural differences, interaction confidence, and interaction attentiveness. Furthermore, the interaction attentiveness measure of intercultural sensitivity saw statistically significant improvement in the other three grade levels.

This study examined the effects of reading global literature in literature-based instruction on overall L2 literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity development. One hundred twenty-two 5th and 6th grade elementary students and one hundred forty 7th and 8th graders in middle school in Korea participated in this study. Among the 262 participants, 131 students from each grade were assigned to the treatment groups,and remaining 131 participants were in the control groups. The treatment group received 39 sessions of reading global literature in thirteen weeks; the control group did not receive any treatment in this study. The latent mean analysis with the measurement model between literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity across control and treatment groups shows positive effects of reading global literature on L2 learners’ development of literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity. The study results provided support for reading global literature as an effective and powerful instructional method to improve L2 learners’ literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity. The students in the treatment group were more interculturally sensitive and outperformed the control group in L2 literacy achievement. The findings of this study have educational implications for teaching L2 with global literature to enhance L2 learners’ intercultural sensitivity and literacy ability in their L2 learning.