Earticle

Teachers must be able to comprehend their textbooks in order to fully benefit from their preparation programs. However, it is yet unclear whether textbooks used to teach challenging content to preservice non-native speaking English teachers might be beyond their ability. To investigate this question, a textbook readability analysis was performed with the Coh-Metrix text analysis tool. Textbook understandability was also assessed by means of maze passages given to teacher candidates in a pre-service English teacher education program. Readability analyses results indicated that the majority of the texts are excessively challenging for L2 readers at the level of the participants. Understandability findings revealed that many texts were able to be read independently but that all texts could be understood with scaffolding. Contrary to prior understandability research findings that showed that these textbooks were too difficult, this study found them to be suitable for their audience. However, a correlation between text understandability and course grades indicates that ability to comprehend the text could relate to course performance. Implications are that EFL teacher educators must recognize the importance of readability for textbook selection criteria and provide learners with access to other supplementary materials to scaffold their learning.

이 논문은 번역자의 성(性)이 번역물의 가독성에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 가독성은 Flesch의 가독성 공식을 이용하여 측정하였다. 보다 구체적으로, 본 논문은 기업 홈페이지에 게시된 남녀별 최고경영자(CEO) 인사말의 영어 번역문의 가독성을 비교하였다. 본 연구는 CEO가, 스스로가 자신의 CEO 인사말의 번역자가 아닐지라도, 인사말 번역문에 서명을 추가하거나, 또는 타인의 번역에 대해 수정을 가함으로써 일정 부분 번역과정에 개입하는 것으로 전제하였다. 성과 언어에 대한 선행연구는 대부분 성과 언어 학습, 그리고 성과 언어사용에 초점을 맞추어왔다. 선행연구는 남자와 여자가 서로 다른 언어 사용 행태를 보인다고 보고하고 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 남성 CEO의 인사말 번역문의 가독성과 여성 CEO 인사말 번역문의 가독성은 서로 다르다고 가설을 설정하였다. 연구 결과, 남성 CEO 기업 50개와 여성 CEO 기업 50개의 CEO 인사말 번역문의 가독성이 다르다는 가설은 지지되는 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로, 여성 CEO의 인사말 번역문의 가독성이 남성의 그것보다 유의하게 더 높은 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구가 시사하는 바는, 가독성 측면에서 볼 때, 여성 CEO가 남성 CEO 보다 기업 외부 정보이용자와의 커뮤니케이션에서 보다 효과적인 전략을 채택하고 있음을 보여준다.

Background: Elements of informed consent including capacity, disclosure, understanding, voluntariness, and permission of the participant, are all crucial for clinical trials to be legally and ethically valid. During the informed consent process, the patient information leaflet is an important information source which prospective research subjects can utilize in their decision- making. In the adequate provision of information, KGCP guideline necessitate 20 specific items, as well as the use language that individuals can understand. This study measures the vocabulary level of patient information leaflets in an effort to provide an objective evaluation on the readability of such material. Methods: The word difficulty of 13 leaflets was quantitatively evaluated using Kim kwang Hae’s vocabulary grading framework, which was compared to the difficulty level of words found in the 6th grade Korean textbook. The quantitative outcomes were statistically analyzed using chi-squared tests and linear by linear association for ordinal data. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the vocabulary level and frequency of words in leaflets and the 6th Korean textbook. The leaflets were on average 260 sentences and about roughly 15 pages long, including lay language (easier or equal to language used in primary school) of around 12% less; technical language of around 4.5% more. As the vocabulary grades increase, there was a distinct difference in vocabulary level between Korean textbook and each information leaflet (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Patient information leaflets may fail to provide appropriate information for self-determination by clinical trial subject through the difficulty level of its wording. Improvements in the degree of patients’ understanding and appropriate use of information leaflets are collaboratively equipped to strengthen patient’s autonomy and therefore guaranteeing participant’s rights.

Background: Since November 2012, some of over-the-counter (OTC) medications have been sold in convenience store without pharmacist' s supervision. We purposed to examine if the product labels of OTCs provide sufficient information that is appropriate for consumers who may have low health literacy. Methods: We compared the difficulty of words that are utilized in pharmaceutical product labels of interest (intervention) with those in the 6th grade textbook (control). Pharmaceutical products of interest were comprised of 13 OTCs which have been sold currently in convenience stores. We grouped words into the 4 levels of difficulty based on the Korean Vocabulary Classification for Education, and statistically tested words frequency in each level between OTCs and control. Results: The 13 OTC labels included lay language (easier or equal to language used in primary school) about 10% less; professional language about 10% more (p < 0.001 in all). Labels for analgesics had the longest and most difficult information, followed by common cold preparations, muscle pain relievers as plaster or cataplasma and digestives. Conclusion: The 13 OTC labels might fail to provide appropriate information for safety use by consumers in terms of the difficulty level of words. The improvement of labels of OTC medications and consumer education strategies are called for safety use of OTC medications sold in convenience stores.

This paper investigates readability strategies used in subtitle translations and, in particular, focuses on analyzing condensing and information structure alteration. Subtitling is governed by various constraints. In the audio-visual medium translation, especially movie, character’s dialogue or utterance is the main part in addressing story and plot development. And synchronizing between subtitle’s appearance on screen and the onset of speech is needed timely. Therefore, readability is the most essential factor in subtitling translation with time and space constraint. Under the temporal and spatial restrictions of subtitling, these restrictions cause target text to reduce the length of utterances. In addition, readability of subtitling could be achieved through the condensing with colloquial style, liberal translation. Alteration of information structure has three processes: the focus of new information, simplicity of meaning, the reduction of politeness. These information alteration is a kind of high readability strategy and choice of subtitling translators, including the balance between movie genre, audience level, foreignization and domestication and so on. This study concludes that readability strategy combined with condensing and information structure alteration is considered as an effective method in subtitling translation.

This paper explores the readability of Internet websites owned and operated by small and medium sized Korean enterprises (SMEs). SMEsplay an important role in the Korean economy because of theirabundance and the employment opportunities they provide. In anexport-driven economy like Korea’s, many SMEs target overseasbuyers, and thus often operate their own English-language websites tomarket products and communicate with customers. Acknowledging thatcompany websites must present information in an accurate, attractive,and concise manner and that translation of these websites also have todeliver the same function as their originals do, this paper examines 20sites to identify elements that could potentially hamper their readability. At the word, sentence, and textual levels, many cases confirm thatthese websites are flawed semantically and grammatically, unnatural,and in some cases incomprehensible. These issues not only affect thereadability of a company’s website, but can also undermine thebusiness’ credibility and image. Systemized editing and proofreadingsupport and further research on text convention of the websites are required.

It is said that Japanese-Korean translation is easier than other language combination. However, the closeness of two languages often results in translationese phenomena, which could affect the reduction of the readability of TT. This paper aims to find out how professional translators are sensitive to the interference and translationese problems through his/her translating process. Also, we could get the implication about the relation of translationese phenomena and readability too, by using TAPs (Think-Aloud Protocols) and readability test. TAPs is thought to be the only method to investigate the process of the translating and the translators’ ‘black box’. The result of the test is that whether translators are aware the possibility of the interference and their mother tongue abilities affect the readability of TT. We found that Japanese-Korean translation have the problems of interference and translationese phenomenon, which could reduce the readers’ readabilities.

이 논문은 인문학 연구 분야가 다양함에도 불구하고 ‘글쓰기’라는 공통 분모로 묶이는 것에 문제의식을 갖고 인문학 연구 분야 간 학술 논문의 이 독성 차이를 어휘와 문장 복잡도로 나누어 분석하고 그 요인을 검토하였다. 먼저 국어교육 논의에서 이독성 공식 개발에 관한 연구를 검토하고 이를 토대로 어휘 이독성은 Dale-Chall 공식을 적용하였고, 문장 복잡도는 서혁 (2013)의 체계를 바탕으로 분석하였다. Dale-Chall 공식을 적용하여 분석한 결과에 따라 첫째, 이독성이 낮은 역 사학에 작용하는 이독성 요인과 둘째, 연구 분야 내에 이독성 차이 요인, 셋째, 문학과 언어학의 이독성 차이를 가져오는 요인, 넷째, 외국어와 문학 논문의 이독성 요인’을 파악하였다. 이를 토대로 논문 이독성에 영향을 미치는 요인은 ‘구체적 지식을 요구 하는 고유 명사 요인, 띄어쓰기 요인-개인의 글쓰기 습관, 문학과 언어학- 주제의 차이, 외국어 사용과 학문의 관례’로 제시하였다. 문장 복잡도는 ‘꼬꼬마 한글 형태소 분석기’를 이용하여 분석하였다. 먼 저 문장 복잡도와 Dale-Chall 공식의 서론․본론․결론 분석 결과를 중심으 로 비교하였다. 그 후 인문학 연구 분야 간 문장 복잡도의 차이를 살펴보았 다. 그 결과 어휘의 난도와 문장 복잡도, 문장의 길이 간에 유의미한 관계 가 있었다. 끝으로 이독성은 단순히 양적 측정으로 결정할 수 있는 것이 아니지만, 양적 측정을 통해 글을 구성하는 기본 요소를 파악할 수 있고, 글쓰기에 영향을 주는 요인을 알 수 있으므로 중요하다. 국어교육에서 이독성을 연구하 는 것은 학습자의 발달에 따른 텍스트를 제시하는 데 중요한 기준을 제시 할 수 있기 때문에 반드시 필요한 작업 중 하나이다.

This research aimed at analyzing readability of academic theses among the liberal arts research fields based on the critical mind that liberal arts research fields are combined as a common ground of ‘writing’, and evaluated the factors therein. Firstly, this research reviewed the research on misreading formulation development in Korean language education discussion, based on this, applied Dale-Chall formulation for language misreading, and analyzed sentence complexity based on Seo, hyuk(2013)’s system. As the analysis result by applying Dale-Chall formulation, this research comprehended as follows. First, misreading factors applied to the historical studies with low readability, second, difference factors of readability in the research field, third, factors that bring misreading difference between literature and linguistics, fourth, ‘readability factors of foreign language and literature thesis’. Based on this, this research suggested ‘proper noun factor, spacing factor that require concrete knowledge - individual writing habit, literature and linguistics - difference in theme, custom of using foreign language and study’ as the factors that influence thesis misreading. This research analyzed sentence complexity using ‘Kkokkoma hangul morpheme analyzer’. Firstly, compared based on sentence complexity and introduction․body․conclusion analysis result of Dale-Chall formulation. Then investigated difference of sentence complexity between liberal arts research fields. Accordingly, a significance relation appeared among lexical difficulty level, sentence complexity, and sentence length. In conclusion, readability is not a factor that could be determined by a mere quantitative measurement, however it is significant since it can determine the factor that influences writing by comprehending basic factors that compose writing. Accordingly, research on misreading in Korean language education is an essential task, since it can suggest an important standard to suggest a text along with the learners’ development.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between translationese andreadability. Translationese has been deemed as negative because ithampers the authenticity of target language culture and lowers thereadability of target text. While this paper agrees with such criticism, itquestions whether readers can actually recognize translationese in agiven text, and therefore, experience low readability. In order to answerthe question, a survey was conducted with 31 college students. Thesurvey provided 27 sentences and one passage that involvetranslationese and asked the students to check if they felt the givensentence read clear, natural or unnatural. The responses showed thatthe students did not necessarily evaluate readability lower fortranslationese. While many of them recognized translationese thatreflects syntactic differences between the source and the targetlanguages, they, at an individual level, did not show consistency inevaluating readability for translationese. The results of this study implythat the relationship between translationese and readability needs to beexamined from the reader's point of view, and specific types orcategories of translationese that harm readability more than others needto be further identified in order to improve the translation quality.

Screen translation is carried out by the conveying meaning system through multiplex channels. Therefore it needs some translating methods to overcome the spatio-temporal restrictions and to lighten the cognitive load of the audience. The purpose of this research is to explore the effective switching strategies for translating movies and TV dramas from English into Korean. To begin with, we briefly review the main notions – readability, reduced translation, dynamic equivalence, shift – which provide a conceptual background for the systematic study of switching translation. Then, we study switching translation cases dividing into structural switching and conceptual switching. And in the latter case, various translations tactics such as generalization, specialization, substitution are introduced. Lastly, content relevant substitution, situational substitution and functional substitution are shown separately as substitution examples.

This paper analyzes complexity of sentence structures in Korean and Japanese newspaper articles, from the perspective of readability. The analysis shows that Korean newspaper articles have more complex sentence structure than that of Japanese newspaper articles, particularly in the society section. Specifically, Korean articles use more verbs per sentence than Japanese articles.In translating newspaper articles from Korean into Japanese, therefore, translators may need to make a conscious efforts to increase the readability of their translation by selectively employing a strategy of simplifying sentence structure. This strategy also needs to be taught to students in graduate schools of interpretation and translation.

Objective of the present study is to analyze how the SSCCS(Same Shaped Chinese Characters of Synonym)-words with the same shape and meaning in both Japanese and Korean-are translated into Korean, with consideration of their readability. For analysis of translation of the SSCCS, a comparative analysis was conducted in parallel for the translated text . In other words, with consideration of the same source text(ST), the two target texts(TT) were comparatively analyzed. For the analyzed texts, six TTs were compared with three STs. With one ST, a minimum of as many as 1500 same shaped Sino-Japanese words with synonym for Korean words were extracted and data for comparison of ST and TT were typed in Excel 2003 to be classified according to translation strategies. According to this, translation strategies for the SSCCS were classified into 1) translation in same form, 2) partial alteration into an equivalent form 3) translation into a different form, and 4) omission. The analysis results indicated that regardless of original text, time period, and translator, “translation in the same form” was the dominant strategy, followed by “translation into a different form”, “partial alteration into an equivalent form”, and “omission”. With this as a main subject, a survey was conducted to investigate its readability. As a result of survey, a high ratio of translation in the same form as the original was shown to have an adverse effect on the readability.

Currently, into-Korean-translations of foreign literary works are assessed in many books, articles and journals. This study investigates two categories of faithfulness & readability. These two standpoints have been factors in determining whether it is a good translation or a bad translation. In terms of translator's attitude and strategy, he or she could choose to be faithful or to be readable in translating. The most challenging problem for translators is to satisfy both demands simultaneously. So far the translation criticism has been with moral view of finding translation errors, failures and excessive faithfulness to the original. It is wrong attitude that the best translation should be the only one. In other words, this study indicates that there could exist various translations depending on purpose, object, necessity of translation.

본 연구에서는 한일문학번역을 학습하는 수강생들이 한국어 시간 부사 「이제」를 일본어로 어떻게 번역하는지를 암시화･비암시화･어휘적 전이의 관점에서 고찰하였다. 표준국어대사전에서 「이제」는 「바로 이때에, 지나간 때와 단절된 느낌을 준다」라는 단일 정의로 기술되어 있다. 그러나 실제 번역에서는 「もう･今･今となっては･これから･やっと」등 의미적으로 서로 다른 여러 일본어 어휘로의 전이가 요구된다. 이러한 사전 기술과 번역 실태 사이의 괴리가 수강생들이 「이제」의 번역에서 어려움을 느끼는 근본적인 원인이라 할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 한국 단편소설 5편에서 추출한 「이제」의 용례 51건을 대상으로, ①현시점 기준, ②단절･완료, ③미래 기점, ④도달･실현, ⑤담화 표지의 다섯 가지 기능으로 분류하여 고찰을 진행하였다. 그 결과, 「이제」는 대부분의 용례에서 어떠한 형태로든 명시적으로 번역 되어 전체적인 암시화율이 비교적 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 기능 ③(미래 기점)에서는 「これから/今から」로의 안정적인 대응이 확인된 반면, 기능 ⑤(담화 표지)에서는 해당 기능에 대응하는 일본어 어휘의 공백으로 인해 암시화율이 가장 높게 나타났다. 이상의 결과를 통해, 「이제」는 사전상으로는 단의어에 가깝게 기술되어 있으나, 번역 실천에서는 시간적 방향성과 단절감의 성격이라는 두 가지 의미적 차원에 의해 목표 언어에서의 실현이 결정되는 다의적 어휘로 기능함이 확인되었다.

This study examines how students of Korean–Japanese literary translation render the Korean temporal adverb 이제(ije) in Japanese, focusing on implicitation, explicitation, and lexical shift. Although the Standard Korean Dictionary defines 이제 under a single entry — “at this very moment, conveying a sense of rupture from the past” — translation practice requires transfer into semantically distinct Japanese equivalents such as mō, ima, ima to natte wa, korekara, and yatto. This gap between dictionary definition and translational reality is identified as the core source of difficulty for student translators. Drawing on 51 instances of 이제 extracted from five Korean short stories, the study classifies each occurrence into five functional categories: present–moment reference, rupture/completion, future starting point, attainment/realization, and discourse marker. Results show that 이제 tends to be rendered explicitly in most cases, with the overall implicitation rate remaining relatively low. Category ③ (future starting point) yielded stable correspondence to korekara/ima kara, while category ⑤ (discourse marker) showed the highest implicitation rate, attributable to a lexical gap in Japanese for this particular function. The findings confirm that while 이제 appears near– monosemous in the dictionary, it functions as a polysemous item in translational practice, its realization determined by two intersecting dimensions: temporal directionality and the character of the rupture it encodes.

This study explored the impact of various factors on the linguistic features of CEO messages in sustainability reports, based on data from 154 listed Korean companies and 339 firm-year observations. Utilizing correlation analysis, univariate analysis, and panel regression analysis, the results indicated that higher ESG performance is generally linked to improved readability and longer CEO messages. However, higher ESG performance did not significantly affect the use of positive or future-oriented language in the messages. The analysis further revealed that large enterprises typically produce more readable messages than small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). Notably, the positive effect of ESG performance on readability was stronger in SMEs than in large enterprises. Additionally, no significant differences in readability were found across different industries. This study provides important insights into how corporate social responsibility activities, reflected in ESG performance, are communicated to external stakeholders in listed Korean companies. The findings imply that higher ESG performance is associated with clearer and more informative CEO messages, which could enhance stakeholder perceptions of transparency. The fact that ESG improvements have a more pronounced effect on readability in SMEs indicates that these firms, often with limited resources, aim to maximize the impact of their ESG activities and enhance their public image.

2013년에 번역가 천일(千日)이 번역한 한강의 채식주의자(素食主义者)의 중국어 번역 본은 처음으로 충칭출판사(重庆出版社)에 의해 출판되었다. 이후 2021년에 사천문예출판사 (四川文艺出版社)는 이 작품을 채식자(素食者)라는 제목으로 재출판하였으며 번역가가 후 추통(胡椒筒)으로 변경된 것으로 확인되었다. 이처럼 채식주의자가 중국어로 번역 및 출판 된 지 10년도 채 되지 않아 재출판된 것은 이례적인 사건으로 간주될 수 있다. 현재까지 제출된 연구는 대부분 2013년판에 집중되어 있으며, 두 중국어 번역본을 비교한 연구는 단 한 편에 불과하다. 본 논문은 두 번역본을 연구 대상으로 삼아 번역의 충실성과 가독성을 넘어서는 새로운 번역 비평의 가능성을 탐구하였다. 이를 위해 우선 베르만의 긍정 적인 번역 비평 이론을 적용하여 전통적인 번역 평가 기준에 대한 대안을 모색하였고, 두 번 역가의 번역 세계와 입장을 면밀히 검토하였다. 이어서 두 번역가가 이 작품을 어떻게 이해하 고 번역했는지를 분석함으로써 각각의 번역 전략과 번역 작품의 효과를 살펴보았다. 마지막 으로 문단의 배치, 문장의 구성, 단어의 선택 문제를 분석하여 두 번역가 각자의 번역 문체를 검토하였다. 본 연구에서 두 번역본을 비교하는 것은 우열을 가리기보다는 두 번역가의 번역 철학과 번역 방법을 밝히는 데 초점을 맞추고 있다. 단순히 번역의 차이를 인식하는 것을 넘어서, 이러한 차이가 독자에게 미치는 영향을 분석하는 사고의 중요성을 강조한다.

In 2013, the first Chinese translation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian (素食主义者), translated by Qian Ri (千日), was published by Chongqing Publishing (重庆出版社). Subsequently, in 2021, Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing (四川文艺出版社) re-published the work under the title The Vegetarian (素食者), with the translator changed to Hu Jiao Tong (胡椒筒). The fact that The Vegetarian was re-published within less than a decade after its first translation into Chinese can be considered an unusual occurrence. Up to now, most of the research has focused on the 2013 edition, with only one study comparing the two Chinese translations. This thesis explores the potential for a new approach to translation criticism that goes beyond fidelity and readability by taking the two Chinese translations as its subject. To achieve this, Berman's positive translation criticism theory was first applied to seek alternatives to traditional translation evaluation criteria, and the translation philosophies and positions of the two translators were thoroughly examined. Subsequently, by analyzing how each translator understood and translated the work, the study examined their respective translation strategies and the effects of their translations. Finally, the study reviewed the translators' individual styles by analyzing the issues of paragraph arrangement, sentence structure, and word choice. The comparison of the two translations in this study focuses on revealing the translation philosophies and methods of the two translators rather than on determining which is superior. It emphasizes the importance of not only recognizing the differences between the translations but also analyzing how these differences affect readers.

In the context of bilingual books, one language may assume a more prominent position. This study examines the translation of nonce names in two bilingual editions of Dr. Seuss nursery rhymes published in China. It considers the language privilege of each edition and proceeds to explore the correlation of language privilege and translation strategies. Additionally, the study establishes criteria for assessing the readability of translated nonce names across various dimensions and examines the differences between the two editions. The findings indicate that language privilege, discernible through formatting and dictated by the purpose of translated texts, influences the choice of foreignization/ domestication strategy in both editions. The readability analysis reveals variations between the two editions, suggesting a connection to the language privilege. Notably, despite its primary focus on the English language, the English-privileged edition offers a higher level of readability.