Earticle

This article examines Gerard Manley Hopkins’ psychological struggles, as reflected in his Dark Sonnets, focusing the impact of job stress during his time in Ireland. Hopkins’ overwhelming responsibilities at the university, coupled with perfectionism and a sense of rejection, led to isolation and despair. His efforts to reconcile his work with his Jesuit identity, compounded by intense guilt and a lack of control, intensified his psychological distress. Using modern concepts like job involvement and stress, this analysis shows how these pressures contributed to his depression and possibly suicidal thoughts, as seen in “No Worst, There is None.” Beginning in 1886, positive relationships with members of the local community began to ease his suffering by providing social connection and respect, which are key factors in psychological well-being. Hopkins also set greater ambitions and sought to demonstrate his competence, which deepened his job involvement. This shift is reflected in his later works, such as “On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People” and “That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection,” where he reclaims his priestly identity and integrates his roles as both a scholar and priest, finding renewed purpose despite ongoing stress.

This paper examines the socioeconomic, racial, religious, and familial factors that have constrained Korean Hawaiians’ ability to live free and creative lives, as portrayed in Gary Pak’s Brothers under a Same Sky: A Novel. As a third generation Korean Hawaiian whose grandmother came from Korea as a picture bride, Pak is a socioeconomic outsider though he belongs to the diaspora. This socioeconomic status enables him to describe the diasporic reality in more detail. Pak also examines the diaspora’s reality from various perspective, shifting the main narrator from the elder brother Nam Kun, Nam Ki, to Nam Kun’s daughter Shelly. This shift adds objectivity to the story of sugarcane farmers’ descendants in the Hawaiian diaspora, highlighting their socioeconomically marginalized positions and the hardships they endured as ‘outsiders-within.’ Even family ties and religious bonds are not enough to hold together the fractured diaspora, as made clear through the tragic story of Nam Ki, the protagonist, who ends his life in separation from his familial and religious roots. Pak’s message is that Korean Hawaiians must move beyond their socioeconomic disadvantages and experiences with racism and unite together through family and religion.

This paper is to read Claire Keegan’s short story, Foster (2010), which is displayed in a timeless rural Ireland from a daughter’s perspective. Unlike contemporary Irish women writers who directly disclose women’s plight and inferiority in the family, Keegan only shows women and girls as they are, focusing on the quality of seeing rather than on criticizing a gendered and patriarchal society. To do this, Keegan uses the first-person present tense or the simultaneous narration which has the first-person narrator relate the events as they happen without any judgment and criticism. This narrative mode highlights the moment of change or realization, which is considered as an epiphany whose meaning in Keegan’s Foster is secularized by describing the narrator’s normal life, instead of the meaning of the “spiritual manifestation.” For instance, the well the narrator visits symbolizes her growth by drinking clean water and deciding not to say anything about her drowning. This moment of change leads the narrator to learn how to behave, what to do, and furthermore to cut across the gender divide. Also, the effect of the open-ending in Foster underscores the narrator’s development, after learning the virtues of respect and resistance from the foster family, the Kinsellas.

In Landscape, Harold Pinter shows audience a play with the theme of loneliness. The content of human isolation and separation is dramatized through the form of isolation in two ways. One way is to use visual image and stage setting. As a static drama, action and movement on the stage is kept to a minimum and stage settings also contribute to hinting the loneliness and isolation between characters. Pinter uses non-verbal language pattern in order to separate two characters, Duff and Beth. It is the landscape seen on the stage. The other way is to make two characters tell their own monologues, which are mostly past memories. In the operation of memory, the past can be represented in the present and at that time Pinter’s characters create their own desirable self-image. With the purpose of escaping from the present fear and dissatisfaction and getting better identity, they manipulate stories and find refuges of the self from the real life. It is the landscape heard in stories. While observing two characters giving alternating monologues, audience can realize the real human condition by active participation. At last, we can realize that the form of the play is good for conveying the theme of the play, i.e. loneliness, unability to communicate, and solitude.

This paper analyzes the morality play elements in The Good Place, examining how these elements gain contemporary relevance through philosophical frameworks and the sitcom format. Instead of a single “Everyman” representing humanity, it presents four diverse main characters, reflecting a modern, multifaceted view of human nature. The show addresses moral conflict through a clear good-evil dichotomy, illustrating how ethical growth occurs through genuine relationships and community. Eleanor learns to choose “good” through her moral struggles, underscoring the importance of interpersonal connections in ethical decision-making. It uses philosophy to show the importance of relationships while replacing medieval morality plays’ religious beliefs with a modern moral allegory. While departing from medieval salvation via a supreme deity, The Good Place emphasizes redemption through efforts for each other, suggesting that being a “good” person relies on helping others develop morally. It incorporates T. M. Scanlon’s contractualism and Aristotle’s virtue ethics to portray the pursuit of goodness as both challenging and deeply rewarding. By prompting reflection on moral complexities and personal responsibility in modern society, The Good Place serves as a meaningful cultural commentary on morality today.

This study examines Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These as a contemporary reinterpretation of Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. Set in 1985 Ireland, the novel investigates the institutional violence of the Magdalene Laundries through protagonist Bill Furlong’s moral struggles with recognizing and responding to systematic injustice. The paper demonstrates that Keegan moves beyond Arendt’s focus on the absence of critical self-awareness by revealing how ordinary people can fully recognize institutional evil yet choose inaction due to complex socioeconomic pressures. Through Furlong’s sophisticated moral reasoning and eventual courageous action, Keegan suggests that the banality of evil paradoxically requires active moral imagination rather than simple ethical blindness. The temporal distance between the novel’s 1980s setting and its 2020s perspective enables a critical examination of how institutional evil persists even when individuals maintain their capacity for ethical judgment. This analysis argues that Keegan’s work compels a fundamental reconsideration of the banality of evil as arising from the tension between moral consciousness and structural constraints, offering crucial insights into contemporary manifestations of institutional violence and ethical challenges in modern society.

This paper explores two interface-based values (i.e. givenness and contrastiveness) of information structure, and presents a generalized syntactic structure to license all the discourse notions such as focus, sentence topic, discourse topic, and CT. Topic and focus can be easily identifiable in the sentence since they are phonetically and semantically distinguished from each other. A focused phrase bears a focal stress and is interpreted as discourse-new or exhaustive, while a topic phrase is usually destressed and is interpreted as discourse-given. Traditionally, contrastive topic (CT) has been analyzed as a single discourse phenomenon. In the paper, however, CT is a hybrid discourse notion that is composed of two independent semantic features; namely, givenness and contrastiveness. In particular, a topic phrase (sentence or discourse topic) is G-marked and must be merged to the edge of a strong phase in order to check off the uninterpretable givenness feature for its topic interpretation. Meanwhile, a focus phrase is syntactically unmarked and must remain in its default focus domain (i.e. VP or TP) to be properly interpreted as discourse-new. CT undergoes at least two independent scrambling operations to check off both givenness and contrastiveness features in the edge of a strong phase.

Since Abney’s (1987) Universal DP hypothesis, much research on a nominal structure has proliferated. For example, Bošković (2005) proposed a parameterized DP hypothesis by providing a list of diagnostics to distinguish DP and NP languages. A DP language (article language) has an article, while an NP language (an articleless language) does not have an article. This paper examines one particular diagnostics, namely adjectival LBE in light of data from Korean, an articleless language. Korean patterns with an article language, English, not allowing adjectival LBE. Nevertheless, it allows relative free word order of prenominal elements within a nominal phrase, similar to Serbo-Croatian, an articleless language. In Serbo-Croatian, adjectival LBE is allowed, and adjectives, demonstratives, and possessives show free word order. These facts are attributed to the lack of an article, and thus no DP projection in the language, in contrast to English that projects a DP. This paper shows that the absence of DP is not necessary in accounting for the free order of prenominal elements in Korean, contra Boskovic (2005). The consequence of this suggests that adjectival LBE may not be valid to distinguish DP and NP languages. This consequence is further supported by data from other articleless languages wherein the adjectival LBE is violated just like Korean.

This study explores the parallel and serial relations among linguistic categories and their cognitive interface patterns. By analyzing the proximity between categories as well as serial and parallel propositions, the research reveals the interface mechanisms between different cognitive domains. It finds that categories within the same cognitive domain form complex networks through cross-connections, while metaphorical and metonymic interfaces extend the semantic boundaries of categories. The innovation of this study lies in proposing the concept of the “interface domain,” deepening the understanding of the mechanisms behind linguistic categorization and revealing category relations across multiple languages. Furthermore, the study identifies two primary types of interface relations: metaphorical and metonymic, highlighting their distinct roles in category formation and cross-domain mappings. Through an analysis of the Chinese character “大”(big), the research illustrates how categories interface across dimesions such as space, intensity, status, and degree. It also compares these patterns with English equivalents, revealing significant cultural and cognitive differences in categorization paths.

Hyperraising has been extensively studied in literature. However, a majority of studies on this topic have focused on Brazilian Portuguese and other languages. In this study, we argue that Korean also exhibits hyperraising phenomenon, especially in constructions involving communication matrix verbs. We also argue that there is an interface between syntax and semantics in Korean hyperraising, which is syntactically comparable to English raising. Comparative analyses of data collected from Korean and Brazillian Portuguese (Pesetsky, 2017) reveal that hyperraising in Korean is, in nature, analogous to hyperraising in Brazilian Portuguese. Following Pesetsky (2017) and Park(2023), we argue that in Korean as well as Brazillian Portuguese, the presence of communicative verbs in a matrix clause provides an ideal syntactic environment in which hyperraising or raising can occur. To support this argument, we illustrate that embedded constructions involving non-communication matrix verbs do not allow the drop of the embedded clause subject. To address this phenomenon, we hypothesize that the presence of communication matrix verbs presupposes the licensing between the matrix subject and the trace of the embedded subject when the embedded subject moves to the matrix specTP.

This paper takes up the topic of NPI-contained replacement in modal constructions and discusses its theoretical implications. It is well-known that an NPI contained within a replacement site cannot be licensed by negation outside of it. But, surprisingly, such NPI-contained replacement is allowed in the Korean li eps- modal construction. Thus, we have two conflicting sets of data regarding NPI-contained replacement. We examine Chung’s (2007, 2017) and Kim’s (2014, 2015. 2018, etc.) analyses to see whether they can account for these seemingly conflicting sets of data. As it turns out that Chung and Kim cannot give a satisfactory account for the relevant data, an alternative account is proposed. The proposal is based on the following two main ideas: (i) li in li eps- construction is a negative complementizer and (ii) the selection of a category is based on a head-to-head relation. With these two assumptions, we can account for the seemingly contradictory the state of facts regarding NPI-contained replacement and the subject-object NPI asymmetry in the relevant replacement phenomena. The proposed analysis gains support as it can be extended to the canonical negative complementizer contexts in Korean.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between nonverbal cues and tense-aspect choice. It also investigated whether patterns in the appearance of nonverbal cues influence tense-aspect selection in interactive communication. In interactive communication, the correct choice of tense-aspect is essential. It plays a key role in understanding a speaker’s mood and attitude. Nonverbal cues help interpret speakers’ intentions that are not revealed verbally. To explore this, the study focused on types of nonverbal cues used naturally in L1. These cues are relevant for understanding the transition from L1 to L2. Nonverbal cues were categorized into four main types: visual, touch, auditory, and intangible cues. Each category was further divided into subtypes. The study examined the types and frequencies of nonverbal cues with the present perfect and past tense. The results showed that nonverbal cues are more complex in the present perfect tense. In contrast, the past tense involves less complex nonverbal cues. Nonverbal cues in interactive communication are not just supplementary. They function as alternative indicators for tense-aspect interpretation. From a pragmatic perspective, nonverbal cues assist in selecting tense-aspect that aligns with the discourse context. However, there are limitations in measuring the strength of nonverbal cues.

Flipped learning has now been implemented to all levels of education across the world in popularity. This paper aimed at investigating the effects of flipped learning on college learners’ self-efficacy and classroom community, comparing the difference between experimental group and controlled group. Data were collected from a total of 70 college students completing pre- and post-surveys, which were the modified version of Sherer and Maddux’s (1982) Self-efficacy scale consisting of ‘Self-regulated Efficacy’ and ‘Confidence’ and Rovai’s (2002) Classroom Community Scale consisting of Connectedness and Learning. In addition, the in-depth interviews in person were carried out with seven students. ANCOVA was used for data analyzed. The findings showed that flipped learning model has no significant impact on all subcategories of two sections. Instead, some of students realized that Flipped learning was helpful for them to cultivate the well-organized and self-regulated learning attitude and habit. They also said that the preparations in group were very helpful to make good relationships among peers, which enabled them to concentrate on their study. From these findings, pedagogical implications to enhance learners’ Self-regulated Efficacy and Connectedness and Learning are suggested.

This study explores the validity of one-on-one pro and con debate assessments when EFL learners engage in self assessment and peer assessment, using quantitative methods. It also investigates learners’ perceptions of the debate activities and factors that affect assessment reliability from the perspective of misfitting learners or those who faced difficulties. Fifty English learners participated in debates on two pedagogical topics(“Should writing and speaking test sessions be included in the current National College Entrance Exam?” and “Should Office of Education allow more foreign language high schools than now?”), completing peer and self assessments across language aspects (pronunciation/grammar, fluency), interaction skills (voice, attitude), and content/organization (argument, rebuttal, counter-rebuttal, summary), along with a survey. FACETS analysis showed that only a few learners were classified as misfitting, with no misfitting cases related to topic, assessment area, or rater variables, indicating robust reliability of the debate assessment. Survey results revealed that most learners had a positive view of the activities, while some misfitting learners noted challenges due to limited English skills. The study concludes that to enhance metacognitive strategies, learners should have opportunities to engage in various assessment activities.

The purpose of this study was to analyze teacher-student discourse structures and content in the 5th and 6th-grade English teachers’ guides from the 2015 revised national curriculum. Discourse structures were analyzed using the I (Initiation), IR (Initiation-Response), IRE (Initiation-Response-Evaluation), and IRF (Initiation-Response- Feedback) structures from previous studies. For discourse content, IRF structures were examined based on class activities and types of teacher feedback. The findings are as follows. Regarding discourse structures, first, IR and I structures were the most frequent, comprising 88% of the discourse. Second, within the IR structure, two subtypes were identified: IR (productive) and IR (receptive). Although IR (productive) was much more frequent, IR (receptive) appeared to offer lower-proficiency students easier ways to response to teachers. Third, the IRE structure was less frequent, while the IRF structure was the least common. For IRF discourse content, the IRF structure appeared most frequently in motivational activities with referential questions. Additionally, two types of teacher feedback, ‘Comment’ and ‘Tell,’ which mostly focus on discourse topics or content, were associated with the IRF structure. Based on the findings, some implications were suggested for elementary English teachers’ guides.

This study attempted to explore how two EFL college instructors incorporate ChatGPT into their English-speaking classes. It specifically aims to investigate the use of ChatGPT prompts and its feedback. To accomplish these research aims, two instructors implemented ChatGPT in their English speaking classes with the total of 105 university students throughout the semester. Two instructors’ lesson plans, class materials, and recorded conversations through Zoom were collected and analyed with the content analysis approach and then categorized to recurrent themes. The findings showed that the instructors effectively integrated ChatGPT into their in-class activities and offered well-organized prompts for students’ speaking practice with ChatGPT. Reflecting on ChatGPT’s feedback with human teachers was also educationally significant, linking in-class and out-of-class activities. While ChatGPT’s educational potentials are beginning to be reported as add-on activities to the traditional English teaching approach, instructors’ experiences and perceptions of using it as a connecting factor in and out of their English speaking classes need further investigation. Based on the research findings, educational implications on the potentials of implementing AI technologies in speaking classes are discussed.