Earticle

This study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of tourism workers’ English use, English ability, perception of the impact of English ability on work efficiency, client satisfaction, and stress caused by English and to suggest efficient English learning methods for tourism workers by examining their English educational methods. The main study results are as follows : 1. Tourism workers recognized the importance of English ability and speaking ability had a great influence on work efficiency and customer satisfaction. 2. Tourism workers were stressed by a lack of English ability and they recognized that improving English ability can help relieve stress. 3. Tourism workers found it difficult to learn English in parallel with their work lives and the company’s English education programs and support were insufficient. 4. Tourism workers are improving their English ability by using various learning methods. As the tourism industry grows, the demand for professionals with English ability is expected to increase, and the study of effective English education methods is needed to strengthen practical English education and expand personalized education programs and support.

This study investigated the possibility of phonological recoding in Korean word recognition using two types of the phonological priming tasks (e.g., 동닙[prime] -> 독립[target]; INJI -> 인지). The composition of stimuli in the priming tasks are similar to those used in the previous priming tasks of the alphabetic orthographies including English. Experiment 1a and 1b used the traditional phonological priming task in which the phonological condition (e.g., 동닙 -> 독립) is compared with other conditions (e.g., 동님 -> 독립, the orthographic condition; 명정 -> 독립, the control condition) across different prime durations. Experiment 2a and 2b used the phonological priming task developed by Wijnendaele and Brysbaert (2002) in which the English nonword phonological condition (e.g., INJI -> 인지) is compared with the control condition (e.g., SALO -> 인지) across different prime durations. There were no indication of the phonological priming effect at all in any experiment, indicating slim possibility of the phonological recoding in Korean word recognition. The possible cognitive mechanisms on why there was no phonological recoding in Korean word processing are discussed.

It is recognized that word frequency is a significant factor influencing voice onset time (VOT). Nevertheless, the effects of word frequency factor on VOT have scarcely been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the VOT of the English voiceless stops in word-initial position is differently realized in high frequency words and low frequency words in terms of gender, age, place of articulation (POA) and vowel height. The results of the current study showed that in high frequency words the factors of age, POA and vowel height had a significant influence on VOT values, with longer VOT for younger people, for the alveolar stop /t/ and for the high vowels. In low frequency words only POA significantly affected VOT values, with longer VOT for the velar stop /k/. The interactions between POA and vowel height, and between age and vowel height were statistically different, although no interaction was found in the high frequency words.

This study examined the syntactic and semantic functions of the ‘[object of comparison]－이 [criterion of comparison]－이  다 ’ and ‘[object of comparison] －이 [criterion of comparison]－과  다 ’ constructions through the analysis of specific examples in Middle Korean and discussed the form differences between the two comparison constructions derived from the perceptions of people using the language to distinguish the degree of equality linguistically. The study first demonstrated that the ‘[object of comparison]－이 [criterion of comparison]－이  다 ’ construction unique to Middle Korean was a linguistic form to show the partial(conditional) agreement of comparison criteria for the object of comparison. The semantic function of "figure of speech" is a subordinate concept of "comparison," expressing an object of comparison by alluding to the partial attributes of comparison criteria. The study thus estimated that the ‘[object of comparison]－이 [criterion of comparison]－이  다 ’ construction settled down as the most proper form for figure of speech. The study also demonstrated through the analysis of various examples that the ‘[object of comparison]－이 [criterion of comparison]－과  다 ’ construction showed the typical characteristics of complete agreement between on object of comparison and a criterion of comparison.

This study comprehensively and statistically compares the use of Korean intensifying degree adverbs - “neomu”, “aju”, “maeu”, and “gajang”. It examines their distributional characteristics in terms of register, collexemes, and parts of speech of collexemes, using both corresponding and distinctive collexeme analysis methods. The corresponding analysis categorizes the four adverbs into three groups, pairing “gajang” and “maeu”. “Neomu” is preferred in private spoken contexts, “aju” in public spoken ones, and both “gajang” and “maeu” in written contexts. Adjective is the most common part of speech in the collexemes of these adverbs. However, the second most common part of speech varies: verbs for “neomu”, adverbs for “aju”, and copular phrases for both “gajang” and “maeu”. These three group distinctions are also observed among the collexemes themselves. Distinctive collexeme analysis reveals specific collexeme associations: “neomu” with psychological and physical states; “aju” with other intensifying adverbs and size; “gajang” with size and quantifiers; and “maeu” with height; “gajang” and “maeu” share similarities, as both have distinctive collexemes associated with logical or academic concepts.

Recently various specific and general cognitive diagnostic models(CDM) have been used in modeling data from language tests. CDMs have huge potential to provide learners and teachers with fine-grained diagnostic information about their learning and teaching beyond traditional total scores. Despite its advantages, current CDM applications in language testing are confined to analyses of large-sample data from national or testing agencies for educational decision making. For CDMs to be useful in practical classroom assessment contexts, they should be able to overcome constraints due to small sample conditions. Meanwhile the bayesian estimation procedures open a new path for modeling complex entities over the frequentist approaches: It does not depend on large-sample theory; it is flexible and robust in handling complicated models; it can incorporate extra information about the model into processing data; and it provides reasonable model-data fit statistics. However, bayesian approaches to CDMs are not well known to researchers in language testing as well as in SLA. This study introduces the bayesian approach to cognitive diagnostic modeling by applying the new method to a set of data from a listening comprehension test developed for measuring high school students’ listening ability. The study then compares the results with those from the conventional method and discusses its implications in modeling CDMs in language testing.

Previously, the Korean focus particle -lato has been studied predominantly with respect to its uses in irrealis sentences. This paper focuses on its uses in realis sentences and claims that its scope can vary depending on the context. Specifically, the particle’s scope can be either the clause containing it, which is how it has been viewed in previous research, or a verb phrase. The paper argues that when its scope is over the verb phrase, the speaker compares two properties, rather than situations or events, which belong to different persons. The paper shows that this scopal variation is not limited to realis sentences, but also found in irrealis sentences. Hence, the subclausal scope cannot be treated as an exceptional phenomenon reserved for marginal cases. The current study also finds that contrast marking of -nun plays a significant role in the cases of subclausal scope.

In this paper, we will consider the properties of the parasitic gap construction and the previous analysis of it, especially focusing on the null operator movement analysis with anti-locality in Colin (2023) and its problem. To solve this problem, we will show that the parasitic gap construction has the same pattern with Across-the-Board (ATB), in which two constructions involve a single visible wh-operator and two variables. To explain the same pattern of two constructions, we will introduce Form Sequence in Chomsky (2019, 2021). Given this, we will propose that the first clause and the second clause of ATB are combined with the invisible conjunct (&) by Form Sequence and the main clause and the adjunct clause of the parasitic gap construction are also combined with the invisible conjunct (&) by Form Sequence. Therefore, we will argue that Form Sequence with the invisible conjunct (&) can explain the same pattern of the parasitic gap and ATB.