중학생들의 담화표지어 능력과 영어 읽기 이해 간의 관계 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean middle school students’ competence of English discourse markers is related with their English reading comprehension. The relationship was further explored in relation to students’ reading proficiency. A total of 132 middle school students participated in this study. Their discourse marker competence was measured by both comprehension and use of five types of discourse markers (listing, sequence, cause & effect, comparison, and contrast). They also took an English reading comprehension test, based on which they were divided into advanced-reader group or low-reader group. The results revealed that the learners’ scores on both types of discourse marker tests have high correlations with their reading comprehension scores. The relationship was stronger for the discourse marker use test than the discourse marker comprehension test, and in the low-reader group than the advanced-reader group. The detailed comparison of the two groups further revealed both similarities and differences in discourse marker comprehension and use. While the advanced-reader group outperformed the low-reader group in every type of discourse markers, both groups showed difficulty in comprehending and using listing and contrast types of discourse markers.