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The effects of extensive reading on young Korean students’ construction development

  • Eunseok Ro ORCID logo and Hyunwoo Kim ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: January 28, 2021

Abstract

This study explores how input-focused implicit learning through extensive reading (ER) facilitates construction development in Korean-speaking young EFL students. Twenty-four EFL students, 10–13 years old, participated in ER as an after-school activity for four weeks (ER group). Their construction development in writing was assessed using seven argument structure constructions. The ER group’s performance preceding and following ER activities was compared to 24 young EFL students who did not engage in ER (baseline group). The results showed that the ER group improved their production of ditransitive and caused-motion constructions. Compared to the baseline group, the ER group not only produced a greater number of these constructions, but also used a wider variety of verbs not observed prior to the ER experiences, indicating an expansion of their linguistic knowledge with the target constructions. We conclude by addressing the pedagogical implications for using ER with young EFL students.


Corresponding author: Hyunwoo Kim, English Language and Literature, Yonsei University, Seodaemun-gu, South Korea, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Yonsei University Research Fund of 2020 to the corresponding author (2020-22-0525). We thank the editor of IRAL and anonymous reviewers for their very useful feedback and suggestions, which have greatly improved the final version of this article.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2019-0076).


Received: 2019-06-19
Accepted: 2021-01-13
Published Online: 2021-01-28
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

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