The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of using films on students’ reading comprehension and attitude toward their English study in the context of a college English class. Specifically, it attempted to examine how a film-based English reading class affected students’ reading comprehension and attitudes toward their study, and how they recognized the film-based English reading class. Thirty-one college students were asked to take pre- and post-tests in English reading, and to respond pre- and post-questionnaires regarding their affective domain, and a focus group of four students was voluntarily interviewed with one of two researchers. Quantitatively, a paired t-test was employed to compare the statistical means from those two samples, and qualitatively, the framework developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) was adopted to describe the major phases of data analysis. The results of data analysis indicated that 1) Using films in the college English reading was helpful for students to comprehend the given text, and to understand other cultures; 2) Also this film-based reading class optimally contributed to the affective domain such as students’ attitudes, interests, and confidence levels. Based on these results, pedagogical implications for effective English reading classes were suggested.

Despite the recognized importance of morphological knowledge to literacy outcomes such as vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, two of its subconstructs— morphological awareness and morphological processing—have received comparatively little attention. In response, the aim of the study reported here was to examine how the relationships between morphological awareness and morphological processing, especially in terms of morphological transparency and morphological frequency, contribute to the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of 62 native Korean-speaking secondary school students—27 eighth-graders and 35 tenth-graders— learning English as a foreign language. The students’ performance on the Test of Morphological Structure and the Word Reading Test was assessed to gauge their compounding awareness, inflectional awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension. The results indicated that the students’ performance was varied depending on morphological transparency and frequency. In addition, it was not morphological processing, but rather morphological awareness that explained variances in vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, when compounding awareness and inflectional awareness were controlled for. This paper discusses what such findings imply for teaching English as a foreign language to Korean learners.

This study investigated predictors of reading comprehension in elementary school English learners. The study specifically examined the role of word recognition and oral language skills in their reading comprehension levels. Participants were 206 students in grades four, five, and six, and they completed measures of letter naming, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, correlation, and multiple regression. Findings showed that there were significant differences between performances of the 4th graders and the other two grade groups on all measures, indicating a possible ceiling effect in the acquisition of basic reading skills by upper-grade students. Oral language, indexed by oral vocabulary and listening comprehension, emerged as the more powerful predictor of reading comprehension as compared to word recognition skills. In addition, the contribution of word decoding tended to decrease across grade levels; whereas oral vocabulary explained more variance in upper grades.

The aim of the present study was to examine factors affecting Korean university EFL learners' English reading comprehension across two reading tasks (i.e., literal vs. inferential reading). To this end, five latent factors (linguistic, cognitive, affective, social, and English reading) were targeted, and the structural relationships among these five factors were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Results of the present study demonstrate that for literal reading comprehension task, linguistic, cognitive, and social factors made a significant and direct impact on Korean university students' English reading performances, whereas the effect of affective factor was not significant. Regarding the inferential reading task, only linguistic and cognitive factors were significantly and positively associated with Korean university students' English reading comprehension. Implications for pedagogy as well as for future research directions were also provided.

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of background knowledge, time pressure, and involvement on reading comprehension. One hundred and twenty college students read three passages and answered comprehension questions in eight different experimental conditions: activated vs inactivated background knowledge, with vs without time pressure, and high vs low involvement. The results showed main effects of background knowledge and involvement on reading comprehension, indicating essential roles of background knowledge in facilitating the processes of reading comprehension in Korea’s EFL educational contexts. In addition, the study found an interaction effect of background knowledge and time pressure on reading comprehension. Pedagogical implications are suggested.

This study investigated whether the simple view of reading framework is supported among Upper elementary Korean EFL learners. Specifically, the relative contributive power of two emergent literacy factors, word decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities, which have been identified as the main determinants of successful reading comprehension, was examined. Ninety nine fifth grade students in Korean elementary school participated in this research, and their decoding skills, listening comprehension abilities, and reading comprehension in English were measured. The findings revealed that both English decoding skills and linguistic comprehension ability were significant predictors of their English reading comprehension, which supports the simple view of reading within the Korean EFL context. Specifically, decoding skill explained more of the variance, compared to linguistic comprehension, in reading comprehension when controlling for each other. The result is discussed in terms of the overall development of L2 proficiency and the role of L2 exposure in L2 reading comprehension development.

본 연구는 수능 영어 독해력 향상을 위한 다독 프로그램에 대해 교사와 학생들이 가지는 의식과 다독 프로그램에 대한 요구를 조사 및 분석하였다. 이를 위해 서울특별시와 경기도, 강원도, 충청도 소재 국·공립 고등학교 2학년과 3학년에 재학 중인 남녀 고등학생 309명과 동일 학교에서 근무 중인 영어교사 32명을 대상으로 요구조사를 진행하였다. 교사와 학생에게 주어진 설문 문항은 기초 설문 항목, 학교 수업 실태 조사 항목과 다독 실태 조사 항목 및 영어 다독 수업 모형에 대한 요구도 조사 항목으로 구성하였다. 교사의 요구 분석 결과를 종합하면, 교사들은 교과서를 제외한 영어 읽기 텍스트 부족과 읽기 교육 내용의 체계적 구성 결핍을 현재 영어 읽기 교육의 주된 문제점으로 인식했다. 다독을 통해 영어 읽기 능력을 향상할 수 있기 때문에 대다수의 교사들은 교육 여건이 충분하지 못한 상황에도 불구하고 다독 교육이 필요하다는 의견을 보여주었다. 학생 설문 분석의 경우, 지나치게 난해한 표현들이 수능 영어 지문과 EBS 교재에 다수 포함되어 학생들은 영어 읽기 문제 해결에 많은 어려움을 겪고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 대부분의 학생들은 현재 다루고 있는 수능 지문과 EBS 교재 이외에도 읽기 능력 향상과 수능 영어 시험에서 높은 점수를 획득하 기 위해 추가적인 읽기 자료를 원하고 있으며 이러한 교사와 학생의 의식 조사를 통해 수능 영어 독해력 향상을 위한 다독 프로그램의 요구를 확인하였다.