The Learnability of English Dative Alternation by Intermediate Korean University Students

SiYeon Pyo 한국영어어문교육학회 2017 영어어문교육 Vol.23 No.1

This study explores the learnability of English dative alternation by Korean EFL learners at intermediate levels by examining whether they are aware of the syntax and semantic constraints on English ditransitive verbs. Analysis of essays revealed the students’ strong propensity to use prepositional dative constructions more often than double object forms. Such a finding can be interpreted due to Korean postpositions, -eykey and –ulwihay, as counterparts of to and for in English respectively. The results of the AJT to examine the participants’ sensitivity to semantic constraint were obviously contrasted between licit and illicit forms. As for licit forms, the accuracy in goal verbs was much higher than that in benefactive ones; however, in terms of illicit forms, the result was completely opposite. Different semantic properties between L1 and L2 on ditransitive verb types are assumed to make L2 learners have difficulties in narrowing down the semantic value scope by positive evidence only, especially in benefactive ones. Based on the Subset Principle (Berwick, 1985) and the Tolerance Principle (Yang, 2005, 2016), such results suggest providing L2 learners with more opportunities to encounter L2 input in consideration of distributional properties of it to make them gradually retreat from overgeneralization on English dative alternation.

Developmental Features of Stance That Constructions: In Korean EFL Learners Academic Writing

Pyo SiYeon 한국사회언어학회 2019 사회언어학 Vol.27 No.2

The present study examines the usage patterns of stance that constructions in Korean EFL learners written corpora by two different proficiency groups (KEFL 1, KEFL 2) to figure out some developmental features of marking stance in L2 academic prose. Focusing on three main categories (stance verbs, adjectives, and nouns) controlling stance that clauses, the study compares the frequency of each feature by the categories and their subcategories across the corpora. Employing both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study found a marked developmental path across the corpora as a cross-sectional study. Indeed, less proficient L2 learners tended to use spoken involvement features as ‘a subjective transmitter’, emphasizing the writer s view only with a private authorial voice. However, more advanced learners showed remarkable features as ‘an objective interpreter’ with more implicitly detached stances. Despite a few chunk expressions considered as being memorized, more complex grammatical resources appropriate for academic discourse were observed. Finally, as the final stage, this study suggests ‘a refined stance-taker’ referring to an expert writer in the academic discourse community, which may be devoid in untrained native speakers writing. In accordance with the need for university students to transition into more advanced academic discourse sooner, this study provides some practical insights into teaching and learning of stance patterns in using that complement clauses in English academic discourse.

Structural Analyses of Lexical Bundles Used in Korean EFL Academic Writing

SiYeon Pyo 한국응용언어학회 2021 응용 언어학 Vol.37 No.4

The current study investigates the use of lexical bundles in L2 academic writing and L2 learners’ awareness of academic registers. Employing both quantitative and qualitative analyses, all four-word lexical bundles identified from Korean EFL students’ corpora by two different proficiency groups (KEF 1, KEFL2), and native students’ corpus (LOCNESS) were analyzed by VP-, NP-, and PP-based categories using a text analysis tool, AntConc 3.4.4. Although the percentages of VP-based bundles dropped as English proficiency increased, the strong preference for VP-based bundles across the corpora may be attributed to academic expertise rather than nativeness or English proficiency. It also seems to be closely related to L2 students’ prominent dependence on the “You or I + lexical VP” frame with a typical pattern to give their personal opinions using double 1<SUP>st</SUP> person pronouns (e.g. in my opinion, I think). The frequent use of fixed frames such as “anticipatory it” constructions and existential “there” constructions with a lot of/lots of/many implies that L2 learners are in an ongoing process of raising awareness on academic formulaic expressions while trying mixture features of formal and colloquial registers at the same time. As markers of formulaic competence to develop appropriateness and fluency in L2 academic prose, academic bundles seem to be required from early stages of academic writing to raise L2 learners’ awareness of academic registers. Finally, this study suggests instruction based on academic bundles and using concordance data as authentic examples in academic writing courses at all proficiency levels.

Does Missing Verbal Inflection Reflect the Absence of TP in L2 Grammar?

Siyeon Pyo 한국응용언어학회 2010 응용 언어학 Vol.26 No.4

This article reports on an experiment which investigated L2 syntactic knowledge of the Tense Phrase (TP) projection by Korean adult learners of English. The results from cross-sectional data obtained by 183 Korean college students provide compelling evidence for the presence of the TP projection. With their frequent use of uninflected verbs, they produced various substitute forms for finite inflected verbs as defective ones. Also, the errors regarding V-raising, ellipsis of subject or verb and the nominative case were close to zero in all groups although the errors regarding tense or agreement inflection were much more. Finally, both inflected and uninflected forms were used in the same context. These findings provide evidence for extended phrase structure of functional categories despite deficient morphological production caused by difficulties in realizing overt inflectional morphology.

L2 Learners’ Awareness of Transitivity Bias of English Lexical Verbs: A Corpus-based Comparative Study

SiYeon Pyo 한국언어학회 2021 언어 Vol.46 No.3

Verb biases have received significant attention in the field of psycholinguistics due to their important role in sentence processing and as facilitators in comprehension. Thjs study seeks to identify advanced L2 learners’ awareness of the transitivity bias of English lexical verbs in L2 English essays produced by-bidding 202 Korean university students. The study compares corresponding data from a corpus of native students. In addition to investigating the usage frequency of lexical verbs and conducting a transitivity error analysis, the distributions of three types of verbs by different transitivity biases-high-transitive (HT), mid-transitive (MT), and no-transitive (NT) verbs-, were examined qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results revealed similar distributions of frequent lexical verbs and verb types by transitivity bias with a significantly higher frequency of HT across the two corpora, despite some minor variables between them. The usage patterns of the three verb types in transitive constructions were similar between L2 learners and native college students. Second, Korean learners’ incorrect use of transitivity bias accounted for 2.21% of all errors, with 12 errors for the NT category and 6 errors for the HT category. However, no errors were observed in the top 50 most frequent verbs. These results verify that the more frequently L2 verbs are used, the higher sensitivity to transitivity learners obtain; this confirms the prediction derived from the Entrenchment Hypothesis. The study also showed that L2 learners have an awareness of obligatory prepositions in intransitive constructions despite having difficulty in realizing a specific preposition in production. From a developmental perspective, greater opportunities of exposure to negative as well as positive evidence of less frequently used verbs need to be provided for advanced L2 learners to reinforce their awareness of the transitivity bias.

2015 개정 중학교 영어 교과서의 문화 교육 양상 분석

표시연(Pyo, SiYeon) 한국사회언어학회 2021 사회언어학 Vol.29 No.1

This study probes how cultural contents are represented in middle school English textbooks based on the 2015 revised national curriculum. To this end, culture-related sections of 15 textbooks were analyzed in terms of five aspects: cultural subject matters, cultural types, backgrounds, activities for cultural learning, and language integration. The results reveal that the middle school textbooks deal with everyday life of various cultures, including tasks for introducing Korean culture. The three culture types are provided at a relatively balanced ratio, but as the grade goes up, the portion of spiritual culture increases whereas that of material culture decreases. As for cultural background, non-English cultures in the outer and expanding circle are the most frequently presented. In the analysis of cultural learning activities, searching and communication activities connected to speaking and writing have a large portion, but experiential activities are rare. 45.5% of cultural activities are presented in a single communication skill and 54.5% of them are integrated into two or more skills. Finally, based on the study results, some suggestions for effective culture education to attract students spontaneous participation in middle school English classes are presented.