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Kim, Ki-tae. 2018. An ethnographic study of intercultural health communication at a Korean international clinic: Focusing on in-depth interviews with patients. Language Information. Volume 26. 05-32. The present study ​investigates intercultural health communication at a Korean international clinic in a large-sized general hospital (Hospital A) by ethnographic field work and in-depth interviews with patients. The researcher participant-observed their consultations with a variety of doctors for more than 18 months, and six respondents were selected from the participating patients for in-depth interviews. The interview was semi-structured with nine open-ended questions in five fields. The findings illustrate that (1) personal referrals among acquaintances and initial encounter at the international clinic are the two most important triggers for the very first visits; (2) the respondents are very satisfied with the hospital and the clinic; (3) the patients are mostly content with their communication with the Korean doctors and the international clinic staff, but not so much with the nursing and administrative staff, particularly when the international clinic is closed or unavailable; (4) what the respondents regard as the hospital's strengths are actually what most large-sized general hospitals in Korea are commonly equipped with already such as interdisciplinary communication among various departments facilitated by shared medical records; on the other hands, the respondents find Hospital A somewhat insensitive to patients' confidentiality/privacy, cleanliness, and the patient's needs to interface with the doctors and the international clinic; (5) future visitors might find it helpful to be better informed of the existence of the international clinic itself, the features that large-sized general hospitals in Korea universally share, a simple map or floor plans of the hospital, and more informative English web pages. Overall, the in-depth interviews highlight what was not sufficiently brought to light during ethnographic observation by explicitly asking for the respondents' insights. Despite its limitations, the present study hopes to balance and complement research on intercultural health communication in Korea by bringing more light to skilled or professional international patients who visit large-sized general hospitals.

Kim, young ok. 2018. A study on o-row long vowels in Japanese language textbooks during the Chosun Dynasty. Language Information. Volume 26. 33-50. This study examines how students in the past learned and studied long vowel that has been relatively ignored in contemporary Japanese studies by focusing on o-row long vowels in Japanese textbooks between the 15th and the 18th century. The result compared with those of Chinese and Christian data. In the 15th century, open-mid vowel is written as ‘ou, au, oo', and 'o’, and close-mid vowel is written as ‘ou’. However, since the 17th century, open-mid vowel is written as only ‘ou’, which is the same as close-mid vowel is written. Since close-mid vowel is written as [oo]type, both ‘ou’ and ‘oo’ are used at the end of 18th century. Since Japanese textbook is aimed at teaching Japanese to interpreters at that time and helping them speak Japanese in trade and hospitality, I expect that o-row long vowels were supposed to be used strictly but there were no distinction between open-mid vowel and close-mid vowel of o-row long vowel throughout the data. This seems to reflect the actual phonology of that time, as seen in Chinese and Christian data. It seems to become a good example of contemporary Japanese language education. It is important to teach students to pronounce long vowel correctly. However, I think that it is the right way to pronounce naturally long vowel which changes according to the phonological environment.

Seohyun Penn. (2018). Native and Nonnative English speaking teachers’ feedback beliefs and practices. Language Information, Volume 26. 51-78. The present study investigates native and nonnative English teachers’ beliefs of teaching writing and giving feedback and how they give feedback to Korean EFL student writing. The data were collected from 74 English teachers (38 NESTs and 36 NNESTs) in order to examine their teaching methods of writing, feedback beliefs and their self-reported feedback practice. The survey responses were analyzed using a structured coding method (Saldana, 2009) and actual feedback points were analyzed using Analytic Model for Teacher Commentary (Ferris, 1995) and Error Categories (Ferris, 2012). The findings indicated that both groups of teachers considered teaching English writing and giving feedback to EFL students an integral part of students’writing and linguistic development. NESTs and NNESTs demonstrated comparable ways of giving feedback to student writing: 70% of their feedback was corrective feedback while 30% consisted of teacher commentaries. While teachers were cautious in giving content feedback avoiding teacher appropriation, they marked every error they saw on the students’ writing. The most salient differences emerged from the amounts of feedback they gave and the time spent on student writing. Based on the results obtained in this study, various instructional insights and implications for EFL teachers were discussed in the areas of teaching and giving more effective feedback. The current study warrants the necessity of implementing teacher training for both NESTs and NNESTs in Korean EFL settings.

Eugene Chung. 2018. Lexico-Syntactic Structures of Spatial Expressions. Language Information, Volume 26. 79-102. This work aims to model a lexico-syntactic structure for various spatial configurations. In English, spatial expressions are similar to transitive verbs in the pattern where prepositions take arguments to describe spatial relationships. The meaning expressed by a spatial preposition indicates how its arguments physically relate to each other in space. The spatial preposition has two arguments, a Figure and a Ground. This study adapts Pustejovsky's (1991, 1995) argument structure and co-composition from the Generative Lexicon Theory in order to represent multiple configurations. Various features are employed to describe spatial relations and spatial entities. Arrangement features and physical relationship features are for spatial relations. Region features, dimensionality, and orientation features are utilized to provide fine-grained specification of spatial entities. The values for arrangements are CONTACT, ADJACENCY, OVERLAP, INCLUSION, SURROUNDING. Region feature takes one of SURFACE, BOUNDARY, TOP, BOTTOM, INTERIOR, EXTERIOR. For the dimensionality, we have 1DIM, 2DIM, 3DIM values. HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL are the values for the orientation feature. A locus structure is introduced to encode various spatial features that are related with words about spatial entities and spatial relations. A spatial preposition and its arguments construct spatial expressions. They compose phrasal level meanings through co-specification with the locus values in the loci structure. The proposed framework can be utilized to represent the formal rules of encoding spatial expressions.

Chen Hui & You, Seok-Hoon. 2018. Korean Learner’s L2 Performance in Syntax-Semantics interface: Chinese Wh-words as Existential Polarity Words. Language Information. Volume 26. 103-128. This study aims to test applicability of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace & Tsimpli, 2006) in L2 through investigating L2 acquisition of Chinese Wh-Words as Existential Polarity Words (hence force EPWs) by L1 Korean speakers. The present study compares the results of the acceptability judgment test of Chinese EPWs between learner group and native speaker group to investigate 1. Are the interface properties concerning Chinese EPWs and their licensors acquirable by Korea-speaking learners of Chinese? 2. If not, what are the linguistic or non-linguistic effects which cause the interface breakdown? The results show that L2 Chinese learners are unable to establish a complete semantics-syntax relationship with the EPW embedded in the sentence, even at the final state of L2 acquisition. And the results also show that L2 Chinese acquisition is not linear development.

Duvernay, Nicholas Y. 2018. Learner Aptitude Variables in L2 Learners' Strategy Frame Shift: A Comparative Study on the Effects of Collaborative Group Discussion. Language Information 26. 129-152. This study expands upon the previous research (Duvernay & You, 2017) made to investigate the Collaborative Group Discussion** method and its effects on learning strategy use as described in the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, Oxford 1995). In the current study, additional factors in the form of learner types—including personality, gender and learner aptitude—have been included as variables that may affect L2 learners' Strategy Inventory Frame Shift*** after a semester of classroom CGD sessions. The study found that learner types have a significant impact on variations in CGD Strategy Frame Shift (SFS) results and that the three main factors indicate interconnected correlations. In particular, introverted personalities, females and language learners of lower language-learning aptitude all demonstrated SFS in the form of improvements in metacognitive, affective and social strategy use.