한국인 EFL 학습자의 결정적 시기와 보편문법

한혜령 한국영어어문교육학회 2000 영어어문교육 Vol.6 No.-

There has been a growing enthusiasm in Korea for the early education of English as a foreign language (EFL). The present study examined the validity of the Critical Period Hypothesis in terms of the Universal Grammar (UG), in three different types of learning contexts - first language (L1), second language (SL), and foreign language (FL) learning contexts. While previous research findings in L1 and SL learning contexts suggest that UG principles and parameters are accessible to language leamers only for the early years of lifetime, this article argues that their results - and even the methods - cannot be applied to EFL settings and that independent studies on the EFL context are required. It also proposes the recent UG notion of functional categories as the most appropriate subject in the discussion of Korean EFL learners' access to UG. Findings on foreign language contexts, including the author's own, strongly indicate that UG is not sensitive to learners' starting ages in FL settings. If young children in FL contexts cannot develop their interlanguage grammar based on UG, the existing teaching methods for young children should be revised.

Are We Being Globalized? : A Contrastive Analysis of Application Essays

Hye-ryeong Hahn 한국영어어문교육학회 2004 영어어문교육 Vol.10 No.3

The findings in contrastive rhetoric research of the twentieth century have shown that different cultures have different conventions in organizing written texts. These culture-related conventions were claimed to influence English texts written by L2 learners, including Asian learners of English. However, due to the massive inflow of the American culture into Asia as well as increased exposure to English in the midst of globalization of the last decade, it is quite probable that the textual gap between the native English writers and Asian EFL writers have been reduced. The present study investigates the changes that have taken place in EFL writer's knowledge of genre-specific writing over the past decade. To this aim, this study compared four sets of application essays written by four groups of applicants (1) native American applicants in 1993, (2) Korean EFL applicants in 1993, (3) native American applicants in 2003, and (4) Korean EFL applicants in 2003 The results suggested that the disparity between the Korean EFL writers' and the native English wnters' texts were becoming less noticeable at the macro-level, possibly due to Korean EFL writers' enhanced textual awareness of English genre structures Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Topic Management in Email Exchanges Between Non-native Speakers of English

Hahn, Hye-Ryeong,Jiang, Yong-Hong 한국영어교육학회 2006 ENGLISH TEACHING(영어교육) Vol.61 No.4

Processing Scrambled Wh-Constructions in Head-Final Languages: Dependency Resolution and Feature Checking

( Hye Ryeong Hahn ),( Seung Jin Hong ) 한국언어정보학회 2014 언어와 정보 Vol.18 No.2

This paper aims at exploring the processing mechanism of filler-gap dependency resolution and feature checking in Korean wh-constructions. Based on their findings on Japanese sentence processing, Aoshima et al. (2004) have argued that the parser posits a gap in the embedded clause in head-final languages, unlike in head-initial languages, where the parser posits a gap in the matrix clause. In order to verify their findings in the Korean context, and to further explore the mechanisms involved in processing Korean wh-constructions, the present study replicated the study done by Aoshima et al., with some modifications of problematic areas in their original design. Sixty-four Korean native speakers were presented Korean sentences containing a wh-phrase in four conditions, with word order and complementizer type as the two main factors. The participants read sentences segment-by-segment, and the reading times at each segment were measured. The reading time analysis showed that there was no such slowdown at the embedded verb in the scrambled conditions as observed in Aoshima et al. Instead, there was a clear indication of the wh-feature checking process in terms of a major slowdown at the relevant region. (Seowon University & University at Bu_alo, SUNY)

The Role of Non-Negotiated Input and Output: A Case Study of L2 Development via Web Chat

Hahn, Hye-Ryeong The English Teachers Association in Korea 2011 영어어문교육 Vol.17 No.4

The present paper aims to explore the role of non-negotiated input and output in language acquisition in the context of free Web chat. In order to examine how input and output contribute to language acquisition, with or without meaning negotiation, the present study examined a Korean EFL learner's chat data collected over 6 months. Chat texts across 43 chat sessions were analyzed, along with her comment notes and interviews. The input and output negotiated for meaning were traced throughout all sessions to find evidence that they were linked to acquisition. Other input and output in the interaction were also traced to ascertain if they contributed to acquisition. The chat text analysis, comment notes, and the interviews revealed that the opportunities of meaning negotiation in a free Web chat context was quite limited and that the learner acquired language even in the absence of meaning negotiation. The findings suggest that input and output via Web chat, whether negotiated or non-negotiated, play their respective roles, contributing to different aspects of acquisition.

The Viability of the Input Phase and the Output Phase in NS-NNS Interaction

Hye-ryeong Hahn 한국응용언어학회 2008 응용 언어학 Vol.24 No.3

This paper aims at exploring the relative effects of the input phase and the output phase on L2 acquisition in the context of meaning negotiation through NS-NNS dyadic interaction. In order to answer the questions of whether there exist qualitative, quantitative, shore-term, and long-term differences between the two phases, this study analyzed the data collected from twenty-two dyads who engaged in a storytelling-and-picture-ordering task. Analysis of the data revealed that the output phase promoted more opportunities of negotiation for meaning. Also, the input phases and the output phases showed difference in the distribution of negotiation strategies. The output phase in terms of its immediate impact, but no advantage was found in long-term retention. From these findings, it is cautiously suggested that the output phase of interaction is more effective in enhancing interlanguage development, at least in the NS-NNS interaction.

Korean EFL Learners’ Underpassivization and Overpassivization : Psych Verbs and Unaccusatives

Hye-ryeong Hahn 서울대학교 2011 외국어교육연구 Vol.14 No.-

The present paper addresses Korean EFL learners’ acquisition of psych-verb and unaccusative constructions from a processing point of view. Korean learners’ interlanguage psych-verb constructions and unaccusative constructions are marked by underpassivization and overpassivization, respectively. While both kinds of errors are observed in Korean learners’ data, the processing account of language acquisition predicts that learners will commit underpassivization errors more frequently than overpassivization errors because passivization requires more processing. In order to see if the acquisition of psych-verb and unaccusative constructions is affected by the processing complexity of passivization, the present study compared learners’ performance on psych-verb and unaccusative constructions. Ninety six university students performed a timed grammaticality judgment task on the two types of constructions. The comparison of the learner performances between psych-verb and unaccusative constructions revealed that the learners were more accurate with psych-verb constructions than with unaccusative constructions. The learners’ accuracy with psych-verb constructions increased faster than unaccusative constructions, with the increase of the overall proficiency. The findings suggest that while processibility might be a major issue for low-level learners, there are other factors such as L1 transfer that exert a pervasive influence on the acquisition of psych-verb and unaccusative constructions.

The Initial State of Korean EFL Learner Grammar : A Study of UG Accessibility in a Foreign Language Setting

Hahn, Hye-ryeong 서울대학교 어학연구소 1999 語學硏究 Vol.35 No.4

The present study investigates the earliest L2 grammar of Korean English learners. Within the minimalist approach, L1 children's early language acquisition process is understood as a gradual acquisition of functional categories such as IP and CP. Native English children's data show that their earliest sentences are bare projections of VP. Functional categories IP and CP emerge at later stages based on the interaction of UG and L1 input. The present study longitudinally observed the syntactic development of nine Korean learners belonging to three age groups: a preschooler group, a primary schooler group, and a middle schooler group. Irrespective of the learners' starting ages, the earliest multi-word utterances had S-be-X construction. Later, VP (or SVO) was activated. This earliest S-be-X was analyzed as having a topic-comment framework, which was attributable to the topic-prominence of the learners' L1 Korean. These findings implicate that early language teaching cannot guarantee learning a foreign language in an L1-like way, purely based on the interaction of UG and the target language input.

The Resolution of Wh-Scope Ambiguity in Korean and Locality Bias

Hye-ryeong Hahn 서울대학교 언어교육원 2015 語學硏究 Vol.51 No.1

The interpretation of a wh-phrase in Korean is structurally dependent on the position of a question particle in the sentence. In order to investigate how native speakers of Korean resolve the dependency between a wh-phrase and a question particle, this study administered a sentence fragment completion test to 76 adult native speakers of Korean. The participants were presented with sentence fragments containing a wh-phrase in three conditions, which varied by the position of the wh-phrase, and then were asked to provide their own words to complete the sentences. The analysis of the responses revealed that the participants strongly preferred to fix the scope for a wh-phrase as early as possible, after the argument position of a wh-phrase. The findings confirm previous findings on a locality bias in the processing of in-situ wh-constructions, and further provide evidence for the bias in the processing of scrambled-wh constructions.

Discourse Markers in EFL Learners' Turn-Taking through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

Hahn, Hye-Ryeong The English Teachers Association in Korea 2007 영어어문교육 Vol.13 No.4

The present paper aims at comparing the two modes of CMC - synchronous and asynchronous - in terms of discourse markers used in turn-initial positions. It further attempts to examine the viability and limitations of these two modes of CMC in fostering EFL learners' face-to-face conversation skills. For these purposes, the present study analyzed 33 Korean EFL learners' Web chat and E-mail exchange data. Discourse markers in the participants' Web chat transcripts and those in their E-mail transcripts were identified and then compared in terms of their frequency and functions. The analysis revealed that the participants show difference in their preference for discourse markers depending on the modes of CMC. Also, the functions of discourse markers used for Web chat showed were strikingly different from those for e-mail. Especially, e-mail discourse markers revealed greater discrepancy from the markers in face-to-face conversation. The differences were found to be attributable to the time factor involved with the turn-taking systems of the two modes of CMC, especially the degree of instantaneousness in their turn-taking. Findings suggest that the turn taking skills and discourse marker use in CMC is not applicable to face-to-face conversation contexts. Pedagogical implications are discussed.