2011, Vol.12, No.1

Modern English Education 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.55

pISSN : 1598-0782 / eISSN : 2586-6141
https://journal.kci.go.kr/meeso

The present study examines the college English Reading Class (ERC) to cultivate Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), which enables learners to read for enjoyment and acquire reading competence spontaneously. Seventy participants were recruited and divided into two groups: traditional ERC only and traditional ERC with FVR. FVR was conducted on the basis of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Self-selected Reading (SR),a book presentation, and making reading notes for one semester. For proposing the effect of FVR on ERC, the study adopted pre- and post tests designed to measure learners’ reading competence and affective variables in English learning. In the reading competence test, the questions were extracted from a TOEIC reading comprehension test, which consists of vocabulary finding, grammar use, and text comprehension. In addition, estimating reading speed was appended. In the surveys on affective variables in English learning, the scales of AMTB (Attitudes and Motivation Test Battery) and WTC (Willingness to Communicate) were utilized. In the results, the study suggests that implementing FVR into college ERC proves to be effective in developing reading competence in the aspects of reading comprehension and attitudes/ motivation in English learning, but not in the aspects of reading speed and willingness to communicate in English. (199words)

This paper reported the declination slopes of English intonation of Korean learners of English in both declarative and interrogative sentences, comparing them with those of native English speakers. Twenty native English speakers and Korean learners of English in a university took part in the experiments. The findings were that Korean learners of English showed a slower declination tilt in declarative sentences: a narrower range in fundamental frequency, slower speech rate, and shorter duration and higher F0in the final syllable. In the interrogative sentences, they showed a positive declination tilt: a higher pitch level in the initial segment than in the final segment. On the contrary,native English speakers showed steeper declination tilt in declarative sentences: a wider range in fundamental frequency, faster speech rate, and longer duration and lower F0 in the final syllable. In case of interrogative sentences, they showed a negative declination slope: a higher pitch level in the final segment than in the initial segment. This incorrect production of intonation by Korean learners of English might lead to foreign-accent to some degree.

This paper aims to reveal what types of English tense and aspect Korean translators misuse in their Korean-English translations. Korean source texts make an internal structure of VPs as simple as possible by avoiding using aspect markers. This simple VP structure in Korean texts induce Korean translators to commit tense and aspect errors in Korean-English translation because the structure may allow Korean tense and aspect expressed in VPs to be reinterpreted subjectively on the basis of time adverbial and contextual information. Korean translators made more errors in order of the past tense, the present tense and the present perfect aspect. The present and past tense were overused in their translations while the use of aspect was avoided. The past tense was variously utilized to replace different tense and aspect, and its diverse use resulted in its more errors. This error type analysis in the use of English tense and aspect demonstrates that translation errors may come from lack of knowledge about Korean as well as English, and indicates that translators need to know more about both their source and target languages.