The purpose of this study was to investigate the university students’ perception of end-focus in English Wh-questions. The participants in this study consisted of 178 university students. These students were categorized into two groups according to their TOEIC scores: one group with the scores above 500 and the other group with the scores below 500. The participants were given Wh-questions and asked to select a more appropriate answer between two possible choices. The main findings are summarized as follows: First, the students’ scores from the test were considerably low. This may be because they are not aware of the principle of end-focus and thus, they don’t appreciate the difference in meaning between the two answers in the context.; and second, there was no statistical difference between their ability to perceive end-focus and their TOEIC scores. The findings suggest that the principle of end-focus should be integrated with teaching grammar regardless of students' English proficiency levels in order to communicate successfully.
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Abstract 1. 서론 2. 이론적 배경 및 선행 연구 2.1. 문미초점의 원리 2.2. 선행연구 3. 연구 방법 3.1. 연구 대상 3.2. 연구 도구 3.3. 자료 분석 4. 분석결과 및 논의 4.1. 의문사 의문문의 문미 초점에 대한 대학생들의 인식 4.2. 의문사 의문문의 문미초점에 대한 집단 간 인식의 차이 4.3. 문항별 분석 5. 결론 참고문헌