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The current study aims to investigate how pair work influences language learning in EFL lessons, in particular in a South Korean college. Specifically, the study addresses: (i) how learners interact with their partner in language learning activities, (ii) how they perceive their peer interaction, and (iii) how the interactive process of accomplishing the activities relates to language learning opportunities. Therefore, the study plan was to explore the type of peer interaction, learners' perception of the interaction, and the relationship between the interaction and language learning opportunities. This study was classroom-based. Research was conducted in three EFL classroom settings in a Korean college where my own English courses were held for a period of seven weeks. Twelve learners (i.e. six pairs) participated in the study. Seven different activities related to the course syllabus were used as the main data collection instrument to record the processes of peer interaction undergone by learners while accomplishing the activities. Data for the study came from transcripts of audio-recorded pair talk as the participants completed seven different activities, from observation notes, and from a series of interviews such as individual post-activity interviews including stimulated recall and final interviews. What the findings of this study suggest is that learners need to have a willingness to collaboratively engage with their partner because language development seen as the internalisation of socially co-constructed or mutually accepted knowledge has more opportunities to occur in pair interaction with a collaborative orientation such as collaborative type and expert/novice type. Therefore, the important element that influences language learning is not pair work per se but engaging with a partner in collaborative type and expert/novice types of pair interaction that embody a collaborative orientation. These are more likely to lead to the development of socially co-constructed and mutually accepted language knowledge.

The paper will examine the use of eco-design tools within the Korean electronics industry, with particular reference to mobile phone design & manufacture. Economic growth in Korea has been driven by aggressively exporting products, primarily to the US & China. Industries - such as semiconductor fabrication & electronic products - have been at the forefront of this export strategy. With impending environmental legislation threatening many of Korea’s global export markets, this study represents a timely appraisal of the industry’s ability to respond. The paper goes on to consider the extent to which eco-design tools are implemented within the Korean electronics industry, & which are most appropriate in environmental and business perspective. Whilst a simple question, this demands a non-trivial set of answers, each step posing significant problems. This is conditional on both the relevant environmental protocol for each market region, & the development of a means of cross-comparing what are very different metrics of environmental damage. In resolving this, the paper adopts Eco (or Fussler’s) Compass as a graphical representation, & uses this to evaluate the impact of a range of concepts, developed using each of the identified design tools, & based on Lifecycle Analysis (LCA- environmental quantitative evaluations method). The paper concludes by presenting cross comparing in environmental effectiveness against business and major international environmental legislations, ranking each of the tools against eco-benefit, relevance to a particular region/market & cost to the organisation, the latter being measured in times of: current capability; required investment in process; requisite developments in technology (R&D investment &/or licensing); & anticipated problems in cultural adaptation.

Korean nasals /m/ and /n/ are generally considered by Korean phoneticians to be hardly different from the corresponding English sounds, but those in word-initial position are often perceived as plosives by native speakers of English. This had been noted by only a few previous observers, and investigated on a very limited scale. In this study, various experimental methods were employed in systematic analyses of the production and acoustic form of word-initial /m/ and /n/ from fluent connected speech collected from a relatively large number of informants, and corresponding perception tests were conducted with groups of Korean and English listeners. Auditory and spectrographic analyses confirmed that the segments were commonly “denasalized”. They display characteristics widely different from those of sonorant nasals, lacking the nasal formants commonly seen in spectrograms; in most cases they were more similar to voiced plosives, many tokens even showing plosive-like release bursts. Spectral analyses confirmed that denasalized nasals are significantly different from sonorant nasals throughout the whole frequency range but remain somewhat different from voiced plosives in the low and high frequency regions. Aerodynamic and accelerometer studies, which examined the consonants in CV combinations, indicated that the denasalized sounds are evidently produced with a pattern of velopharyngeal control which is different from those of sonorant nasals or of plosives. Perception tests showed overwhelmingly that the word-initial denasalized sounds are categorized as nasals by Korean listeners but as plosives by English listeners. When real voiced plosive tokens from another context are artificially moved to word-initial position, Koreans perceive these too as nasals, while English listeners’ responses are not sensitive to the context. The study shows that denasalization needs to be acknowledged as a major regular feature of spoken Korean, even though it has been largely ignored up to now. Directions for further research are outlined.

An economic crisis broke out in Asian region in 1997. Korea severely suffered from the economic crisis. This thesis examined the impact of the 1997 economic crisis on the Korean economy. The analysis focused on the impact of economic crisis on labour market, household economy, and social welfare. The analysis on labour market impact focused on both female labour force participation and male unemployment duration. The analysis on household economy impact focused on both household income and consumer behaviour. The analysis on social welfare impact focused on both inequality and social welfare. The analysis is an empirical research using econometric methods based on two micro level datasets: the 1998 Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) and the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of Korea from 1991 to 1999. The probit model, the cox proportional hazard model, the cohort analysis and its decomposition method, the nonparametric kernel regression method, the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QAIDS), the second order approximation of welfare measure, and the input- output methodology were employed to estimate the impact of economic crisis. Major findings are as follows. The predicted probability of female labour force participation decreased by 12.8 percent. The conditional probability of being employed decreased by 36.6 percent for male unemployed. Younger generation was more severely affected in the labour market. Household median income in 1998 decreased by 15.9 percent to that in 1994. Income of younger cohorts, households in Seoul, and wage earners group were more heavily affected. The Korean consumers increased food, fuel, and transport expenditure shares and decreased clothing and service shares in the face of economic hardship. Income inequality and poverty severely worsened. Inequality differences among age cohorts, regional, and occupational groups dramatically increased. The social welfare based on indirect utility level decreased by 11.3 percent at -1.5 inequality aversion parameter after the economic crisis.

The kinetics of sulphur transfer from carbon saturated iron to GaO - MgO - SiO2 slag was investigated at 1460° G under CO gas atmospheres. To elucidate the reaction mechanism the present experiments were carried out varying the following reaction conditions sulphur content of metal, slag composition, melt geometry, Si addition MnO and FeO addition, and ambient pressure. The observed experimental results indicate that the desulphurization reaction is not controlled by either diffusion of sulphur in the metal or the slag but by an electrochemical reaction. Desulphurization takes place in three reaction stages controlled by different reaction mechanisms; the initial fastest stage is dependent on anodic reactions of iron transfer and CO evolution, the second medium rate stage is controlled by CO evolution, and the final slowest stage controlled by silica reduction from the silicate slag. The reaction mechanism during the initial stage is dependent on the properties of slag; for acid slag with high viscosity and low oxygen ion activity, the anodic reaction of iron transfer seems to be predominant whilst for basic slag with low viscosity and high activity of oxygen ion carbon monoxide plays a significant role. The effects of silicon additions to metal, and MnO and FeO additions to slag, and decreasing the ambient pressure result in increased desulphurization rates and confirm the proposed mechanisms.

This study represents a new approach to the pricing decision of new issues. The past studies reveal two notable inadequacies, namely, the lack of prediction power and the failure to recognize the behavioral differences between individual issuing houses. Focusing on the market discount, Merrett, Howe and Newbould proposed the use of the tender method when pricing a new issue, thus avoiding the need for price prediction. Davis and Yeoman attempted to relate the market discounts to market conditions and financial ratios of the issuing company. The resulting low explanatory power precludes the application of the model to pricing decisions. Furthermore the use of only one model assumes an uniform pricing behaviour for all issuing houses; it is thus incapable of identifying individual pricing differences. In testing the market discounts of two issuing houses in the United States, McDonald and Fisher though recognizing the difference in their pricing behaviour, made no attempt to identify the variables leading to the pricing difference. The present study examines the actual pricing process of new issues during 1970 - 1974, taking into account individual behavioral differences. Pricing models have been constructed for nine issuing houses, of which six can be accepted unequivocally while the remaining three can be accepted with some qualifications. The results of the pricing models in terms of R2 are 0.55 for Wardley, 0.74 for Jardine Fleming, 0.79 for Schroders and Chartered, 0.69 for Hang Seng Bank, 0.81 for Oriental Financial Consultants, 0.94 for Union Bank, 0.92 for Hang Lung Bank, 0.67 for Overseas Trust Bank, and 0.50 for Bangkok Bank. All of them prove to have good predicting powers, even though the period of study included several volatile market conditions. In addition, individual pricing models were constructed for the four stock exchanges of the Hong Kong market, which yield satisfactory results. The R2 tests give 0.53 for Far East Exchange, 0.48 for Kam Ngan Stock Exchange, 0.52 for Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and 0.53 for Kowloon Stock Exchange. All in all, the models constructed in this study have demonstrated good explanatory and predicting power. In the Appendix, a supplementary approach has been used to construct models with a broad sample base but covering some unusual market conditions. The results obtained by using this approach, reveal that the approach adopted for this study is decidedly preferable in nine out of thirteen cases.

House flies are common pests on cattle feedlots and dairies, where they develop in and feed on animal waste. By contacting animal waste, house flies can acquire human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., in addition to other bacteria, viruses, or parasites that may infect humans and animals. The subsequent dispersal of house flies from animal facilities to nearby agricultural fields containing food crops may lead to pre-harvest food contamination with these pathogens. We hypothesized that odors from honeydew, the sugary excreta produced by sucking insects feeding on crops, or molds and fungi growing on honeydew, may attract house flies, thereby increasing the risk of food crop contamination. House fly attraction to honeydew-contaminated plant material was evaluated using a laboratory bioassay and attraction was evident for the following plant-pest-honeydew combinations: citrus mealybug on squash fruit, pea aphid on faba bean plants, whitefly on navel orange and grapefruit leaves, and combined citrus mealybug and cottony cushion scale on mandarin orange leaves. Two fungal species, Aureobasidium pullulans and Cladosporium cladosporioides, were repeatedly isolated from field-collected honeydew samples. House flies were attracted to odors from A. pullulans cultures but not to those of C. cladosporioides. Gas chromatography-electroantennogram detection (GC-EAD) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) identified possible active compounds from pea aphid on faba bean plants, whitefly on navel orange, and whitefly on grapefruit leaves. 10 different compounds were identified from honeydew aeration samples that elicited a house fly antennal response. 4 of these compounds were identified from honeydew produced by whiteflies on navel orange and whiteflies on Marsh grapefruit plants, while one compound was identified from these two whitefly honeydews samples as well as honeydew from a laboratory colony of pea aphids. Two of these compounds were attractive to house flies in a blend and individually. These compound blends and single compounds were compared to fermented vinegar compounds previously found to be attractive to house flies. This dissertation presents the first study of house fly attraction to honeydew and specific honeydew odors. It contributes materially to our understanding of house fly responses to honeydew volatiles and demonstrates that insect honeydew is attractive to house flies, supporting our hypothesis that honeydew production by sucking insects infesting food crops may contribute to attraction of house flies to food crops.