The purpose of this study is to examine if Japanese and Chinese language learners of Korean, whose native language has a CV syllable structure, can apply the liaison rule when C2 of Korean the CVC syllable structure is followed by a vowel, where the application of liaison rule is necessary. For this purpose, Japanese and Chinese learners of Korean were divided into two groups by their Korean proficiency levels: beginner and advanced learners. Then the study examined if these learners can apply the Korean liaison rule in the sentence reading task. The result showed that learners in their higher proficiency level were able to apply the liaison rule better. The degree of increased application was more drastic, especially in the cases of Japanese learners. The performance varied by their native languages, it appears that Japanese learners better apply the liaison rule than Chinese learners. In addition, the result also differed by the familarity of the vocabularies used in the reading task. The liaison rule was used more accurately in more familiar vocabularies than less familiar vocabularies.

This study examined whether learning context and language aptitude affected the use of pronunciation learning strategies and pronunciation proficiency. One hundred thirty-eight Chinese learners (88 KFL Ss & 50 KSL Ss) learners were investigated for the correlation between learning context(KSL, KFL), language aptitude (high/low), pronunciation learning strategy and pronunciation proficiency. Participants' sound discrimination ability was measured by PLAB and then they were divided into high group (upper 30%) and low group (lower 30%) by scores. SPLS and personal information survey were also conducted. The results showed that (i) a significant difference was found in pronunciation proficiency pursuant to learning context and language aptitude, (ii) use of pronunciation learning strategy differed significantly pursuant to learning context and language aptitude, and (ⅲ) use of pronunciation learning strategy could predict pronunciation proficiency. The findings suggest that effective pronunciation learning strategy should be investigated and taught in L2 Korean classroom.

Han, Song-Hwa. 2015. “The Language usage and Sociocultural image of Korea in 1960’s Korean language textbooks for foreign learners”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 23(1). 201~238. The purpose of this study is to describe the sociocultural reflection and language usage in 1960’s Korean textbooks for Korean learners as a foreign language. 1960’s is period of starting for modern Korean language education formally. The Korean textbooks in 1960’s based on audio-lingual method and focused on drills and repetitive practices. Their conversation consisted on vocabularies and grammar which are required in everyday situation. Therefore sociocultural image of those days are shown on vocabularies and conversations explicitly or implicitly. For exploring 1960’s Korean image in textbooks, I composed the corpus and investigated the frequency of use. Many vocabularies correlated with situations of those days that differed from recent Korean language textbooks. And many vocabularies underwent a change semantically. Lastly, Korean’s perception of West and Korea, the growth of Korean cities, economic difficulties and confucian thinking were shown on conversations in 1960’s Korean textbooks.

Despite the general understanding of the prominent role of basic reading sub-skills, such as decoding abilities and reading fluency, in the reading comprehension of younger and proficient first and second language readers, little is known about the role of these skills in older and less skilled readers in foreign language contexts. The present study was designed to investigate how decoding skills and reading fluency relate to the reading comprehension of such readers, and to identify the relative strengths between the two. Two hundred twenty two Korean high school students participated, and their performance on decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension tasks was analyzed. The results showed that both decoding skills and reading fluency were strongly correlated to reading comprehension. Moreover, between the two fundamental reading sub-skills, decoding skills outperformed reading fluency in explaining reading comprehension, making a unique contribution beyond the effects of reading fluency. These findings suggest that a basic skill like word decoding still deserves instructional attention even at the secondary schools in EFL contexts.

Based on dual coding theory, this study predicted that pictorial typography (PT), a device involving direct visual integration of a written word into a picture of its referent, is more effective for ESL children’s pre-literacy skills, than the non-integrated paring of word and picture on flashcards (FC). The two types of instruction were given to thirty-two Korean children aged six and seven, both embedded within the WordWorld (WW) episodes, an animated TV series developed by PBS. Results from the pre- and post-test design were as follows. PT was more beneficial than FC for the two upperlevel skills, vocabulary and reading fluency, while they were equally beneficial for the two lower-level skills, letter recognition and phonemic awareness. The two mediating variables, gender and age, were shown to have partial effects as well. Dual coding theory and the importance of instructional intervention have been supported by this study.

The present study explores the effects of peer intimacy on Korean primary English learners' collaborative group work in terms of writing achievement and peer interaction. Fifty six elementary school students engaged in small group work on English writing tasks. They were grouped in three different types: high intimacy level group, low intimacy level group, and random group. The study results indicated no significant group differences in the students' abilities and attitudes of English writing. However, the three groups differed in the quantity and quality of peer interaction. The high intimacy group produced the largest number of utterance and the most collaborative interactions. The low intimacy group, on the other hand, produced more utterances but less collaborative interactions than did the random group. Overall, the study results suggested that peer intimacy may have no immediate effect on students' learning through small group work but it possibly has delayed effects in prolonged group work by mediating the quantity and quality of peer interactions. Limitations of the study and pedagogical suggestions are provided.

외국어로서의 한국어 쓰기 교육을 실시함에 있어 학습자들에게 효과적인 텍스트를 제공하는 것은 매우 중요하다. 왜냐하면 그들의 스키마를 계발하고 글에 대한 이해력을 증진시켜 의사소통 능력을 향상시키는 데 효과적인 텍스트는 그 무엇보다 중요하기 때문이다. 이런 점에서 텍스트를 활용한 쓰기 교육 방안을 정립하는 일의 중요성은 매우 커지고 있다. 이에 본 연구는 사전연구의 일환으로 ‘어떤 텍스트들이 학습자들의 쓰기 능률에 영향을 미치는지’ 조사하였다. 본 연구는 향후 한국어 쓰기 교육의 올바른 텍스트 선정 상을 정립하는 데 그 목적이 있으며, 아울러 쓰기 교육을 위한 텍스트를 선정하거나 제작할 때 어떤 요소들이 고려되어야 하는지 그 방향을 제시하는 데에도 그 목적이 있다. 이 같은 연구는 쓰기 자료로서 텍스트가 갖는 중요성을 환기시킴은 물론 학습자들의 스키마를 계발하는 데 필요한 ‘교육용 텍스트’ 개발에 참고가 될 것이다.

The purpose of this study is to examine cohesive devices in English writing textbooks and Korean college students’ writings through text and corpus analyses. An analysis of three writing textbooks used in one college English program in Seoul showed that the textbooks did not cover a full range of cohesive devices; instead, they focused on sentence transitions and conjunctions, which L2 writers often overuse or misuse. Other cohesive devices such as demonstratives and lexical cohesive devices such as synonyms, paraphrasing, or collocations, however, were rarely covered. To understand how Korean college students actually use cohesive devices in writing, this study also analyzed the frequencies of sentence transitions and demonstratives in learner and native speaker corpora. The results revealed L2 learners’ tendency to overuse sentence transitions and demonstrative pronouns compared to native speakers. However, the results also showed that as proficiency increases, learners tend to use fewer sentence transitions.

This paper investigates whether there is a correlation between the development of agreement and the unlearning of null subjects and also how the null subjects of Korean EFL learners’ interlanguage are represented in topic-bound positions. The results of this study show that the unlearning of null subjects does not necessarily help the development of the third person singular morpheme like previously put forth by pro-drop analysis, which disconfirms the long-lived belief, MUH (Morphological Uniformity Hypothesis). On the contrary, the results also show that the positions of null arguments actually conform to the positions of topic-bound positions, which leads to the suggestion of the topic-drop analysis of null subjects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Korean learners' request strategies. To this end, 30 Korean French learners participated in this study. For data collecting method, the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was used and twelve DCT situations on request were provided for the learners. They were asked to read the description and write down the answers in each situation. Modified CCSARP(Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns) coding scheme was used for the written responses of request sequences. This study analyzed the use of request head act, supportive moves, downgraders, alerters and perspectives of speaker. Learners dominated in 'query preparatory', 'mood derivable' and 'want statement' for head act. The frequency of the rate, however, is quite different in head acts. They used downgraders far less frequently and this made their request formulas more direct and less polite than ones used by native speakers. As for supportive moves, learners dominated in 'justification' and 'recognition of load'. In types of alerter, most of learners are heavily skewed to the 'attention getter' and 'term of honor' as main strategies, which may lead learners to lack of pragmatic competence. In these three perspectives, hearer-oriented is much stronger than other two perspectives. These results imply that teachers and textbook developers should consider various pragmatic factors in teaching French language

This study investigates how input modes and text types influence Korean college learners’ CALL listening and their perception of their concentration, comprehension and anxiety. The current study employed three input modes (listening-only, listening-with-subtitles, and listening-with-transcripts) and two text types (lectures and dialogues). The major findings are as follows: 1) subtitles or a transcript enhanced learner’s listening comprehension; 2) subtitles were the most helpful input mode whereas transcripts may have imposed more cognitive load to decode the reading; 3) the text types influenced CALL listening comprehension, but the familiarity effect may have been more dominant for more literate text types such as lectures; 4) apart from the higher English proficiency student’s perceived concentration, the two written input modes were perceived as beneficial tools for their concentration, comprehension, and reduced anxiety; 5) in particular, the lower English proficiency students tended to perceive the transcript as advantageous although they did not actually benefit from the transcript for their listening comprehension as much as they perceived. The pedagogical implications of the present study is subtitles and transcripts can be efficient pedagogical tools to draw learners’ attention to linguistic features or organization of the content to foster language ability. When designing CALL listening classes or applications, individual learners’ differences should be taken into account as well.

The purpose of this study is to examine effective ways to introduce creative thinking skills development in the English learning classroom, specifically, focusing on questioning techniques and creative thinking techniques. The study explores selected creative-thinking techniques which are in accordance with English teaching methods and goals in the Korean context. The techniques highlighted were deemed adequate for enhancing creative and analytical thinking skills of English language learners and include the following: Brainwriting, SCAMPER, Lotus Blossom Technique, Forced Relationships/Analogy, Wishful Thinking Technique, Six Thinking Hats, SWOT, PMI technique, Flat Stanley Project. The study attempts to outline examples of and procedures for implementing such techniques in English education. The study is intended to provide insights for both researchers and practitioners alike and shall thus contribute to the ongoing discussion of integrating creativity education with English learning and teaching.

The present study addresses a learnability problem in the acquisition of English progressive aspect by Korean learners of English. As Korean and English differ in the way that the lexical aspect of verbs interacts with progressive morphology, we predicted that Korean learners of English would be affected by their L1 aspectual system, accepting non-targetlike combinations of lexical aspect and aspectual morphology. Sixty Korean university students were presented with sentences containing different aspectual classes of verbs in two conditions—the progressive and the simple present—and were asked to judge the naturalness of the sentences. The results showed that the majority of the learners erroneously accepted progressive sentences containing stative verbs. It also showed that the learners accepted simple present constructions containing eventitive verbs for an ongoing interpretation,indicating the pervasiveness of L1 transfer. The findings strongly suggest that Korean EFL learners have difficulty ruling out erroneous form-meaning associations based on their L1 progressive morphology.

This study draws on recent corpus-based information to investigate the influence of frequency on Korean ESL learners’ acquisition of English verbs occurring with the double object construction (DC). Thirty low English proficiency Koreans (LPK), 30high English proficiency Koreans (HPK), and 30 native English speakers (NS)participated in an acceptability judgment test and an elicited production task featuring six high frequency (HF) verbs and six low frequency (LF) verbs. Results indicate that (a) both the LPK and the HPK more favorably accepted and more frequently produced DC sentences with HF verbs than with LF verbs and (b) the HPK more favorably accepted and more frequently produced DC sentences with both HF and LF verbs than the LPK. These results are interpreted as evidence for the significant role of frequency in Korean learners’ acquisition of English verbs occurring with the DC. The study ends with a discussion of theoretical and pedagogical implications.

The current study focused on acquisition of If-conditionals by L2 learners of English with two different native tongues, Spanish and Korean, and with two different proficiency levels, high and low. An experiment with two subparts, each focusing on production and comprehension respectively, was performed in order to explore which factor among input frequencies, grammatical complexities and L1 influence best explains the acquisition of If-conditionals by L2 learners. The results from both production and comprehension data suggest that If-conditionals with lower hypotheticality are acquired before than those with higher hypotheticality by L2learners, just as they are by children learning their L1, and hierarchies of input frequencies best explain the acquisition order of If-conditionals. At this point, it is not possible to distinguish between influences of input frequencies and typological universals, as they coincide. One thing for sure is that both L1 and L2 acquisitions seem to be influenced by them, suggesting the universality of language acquisition. Influence of instruction, on the other hand, was also found, especially in the production data of the higher-level L2 learners. Even though there were no differences in the acquisition order of If-conditionals between the two groups of learners with different L1 backgrounds, the influence of L1 was also found in the analysis of non-target forms produced by learner participants.

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.

The present study investigates and identifies the types of grammar errors that 84 Korean EFL (KEFL) learners made when they took the TOEIC Speaking test part five and compared the results with the previous studies. The 84 undergraduates participated and two native speakers of English analyzed the data. The data were classified into the taxonomy of four surface strategies: omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. Errors of omission were the highest consisting of 74.9%, followed by those of misformation at 19.9%, addition at 3.5%, and misordering at 1.7%. The findings had a difference from the previous studies adopted for comparison. The error frequencies were very different from those observed in writing, or interview tasks in the previous studies. Errors of misformation were the highest, followed by those of omission. This difference was considered to be caused by the short test taking time, and the task itself. The KEFL learners were unlikely to try to correct their errors within the limited time since very few self-corrections were observed in their spoken answers. This study suggests that explicit grammar instruction and correction are needed to teach speaking.