Earticle

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the variety of Japanese conditional sentences in a different contextual situations. Some analyses of conditional sentences have been made from a pragmatic points of view, suggesting that the surrounding discourse environments play an important role in the use of conditional sentences. Different forms of conditional sentences occur depending on the context. Counter-factual condition are based on the pragmatic inference, rhetorical conditions on the falsity of the main clause and alternative condition on the event time in which the same event might have the different consequence in different time-frame.

The current national primary English curriculum is based on communicative language teaching approach placing weight on the functional syllabus. In an effort to bring out better results of the Korean primary school English education, theme-based approach stands out as an alternative teaching/learning approach. The purpose of the present study is twofold. The first is to review the principles of theme-based approach. The second is to develop models for primary school theme-based English lessons which provide children with the opportunities for using English meaningfully and creatively. The lessons in the study are developed and implemented in the fifth grade English classroom. The results of this study suggests that theme-based English lessons can help and facilitate children's English language learning.

The purpose of this study is to see how the simple sentence writing practice helps students to improve English at the level-differentiated classes. For this purpose, students of two classes were tested on four areas of English, vocabulary, structure, grammar, and reading comprehension, before the semester began. Then, they were divided into two different levels of classes, higher level and lower level respectively depending on their scores of test. For a semester students were instructed under almost an identical study conditions; by the same instructor with the same teaching materials. In class, students were guided to write answers in English to simple yes-no or wh-questions right after reading a paragraph. To enhance students' grammar knowledge, the notion of subject, verb, tense and other important grammatical categories was also reminded. Most of all, studies of vocabularies and collocations were emphasized and sometimes individually checked. At the end of the semester, students in two different groups were tested on the same questions they have taken before. The result has shown that students in both groups showed a significant improvement of English skills in four different areas. More importantly, it reveals that studies of vocabularies and collocations played an important role in improving students' English skills in the lower level class.

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of reading strategies of Korean high school 1st grade students depending on their reading proficiency and to provide a useful reference for improving learners' reading ability and leading them to self-directed learners. Unlike most of existing theses on learner's strategies, which cover overall skills in English, this paper shows the exclusive use of reading strategies by learners. Based on the Survey of Reading Strategies(SORS) by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002), this paper mainly deals with the use of reading strategies and the correlation between the use of reading strategies and reading proficiency. In addition, this paper includes questionnaire and interview survey of general opinions on English and reading strategies so that we could get better understanding of learners' actual ideas and reflect their needs as English language learners.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relation in 1992, Korea and China have a very close relations in many areas such politics, economy, culture, and eduction. At the heart of such dramatic development is the Chinese language is to which a lot attention has been paid. The present paper mainly deals, among many other things, with the language proficiency of Chinese which has been ignored in research and education. Furthermore, some suggestions have been made to improve its proficiency. For this, the study looks over the educational materials including textbooks and teaching methodologies at the level of high school and university. The followings are the main areas to be considered: development of textbook, interactional aspects with native teachers, the ways how to improve the quality in education, team-teaching, etc.

We examine the history of foreign language education in China with focus on the current situation of Chinese language education. Following questions will be studied: First, when the foreign language education began in China; second, whether it has been determined by the national curriculum or by the local government or the local schools on their own; third, what languages are selected for it; fourth, if it begins from a primary school how does it connect to the secondary education; fifth, foreign language curriculum and its purpose and goals; sixth, what kinds of course books are developed and avaliable; seventh, what kinds of assessment system are adopted,; eighth, who is teaching foreign language courses, native speakers or non-native language teachers?; ninth, what aspect is emphasized; tenth, the roles of students and teachers; eleventh, what kind of special programs are offered for students; twelfth, the learners and their parents' attitude to the foreign language education; and thirteenth, what problems are issued in China. On reflection, to make our society more adaptable to the international one, more foreign languages should be provided for language education and Chinese education also should be expanded and strengthened to satisfy the needs of our society.