담화구조 표시어가 영어독해에 미치는 영향

The effects of discourse markers on Korean learners’ English reading comprehension

  The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of discourse markers on Korean high school students’ English reading comprehension. To this end, two classes in the second grade of a girls’ high school were chosen as subjects. One class was assigned to experimental group and the other to control group. The experimental group was divided into two proficiency levels(a higher and a lower level group) by a pretest. This group had been taught the functions of discourse markers in English texts and the control one had not. The training lasted for five months, three times a week for about fifteen minutes each. The findings were as follows: ⑴ The experimental group showed higher reading comprehension than the control group. ⑵ Among the experimental group, it was more effective to the lower level group than the higher one. ⑶ In the experimental group, students’ attitude toward English reading had been desirably changed and positive effects on their interest in English had been led to. The conclusion from the findings was that the effect of the training for the use of discourse markers was closely related to the EFL learners’ reading comprehension, level of language proficiency, and affective attitude toward English.