초록 열기/닫기 버튼
The study examined the influence of first language (L1) on the awareness and use of colons and dashes among a sample (n=55) of Korean college freshman studying English as a foreign language (EFL). A questionnaire was employed to gauge participants' awareness and, for their use of the punctuation marks, a fill-in-the-blank task was included to provide obligatory contexts and a free writing task to capture non-obligatory context data. Errors were analyzed according to five categories of colon usage (listing, appositives, additional explanation, before a quotation, and other) and to three categories of dash usage (emphasis, appositives, and dramatic shift) and were coded as omission, addition, misuse, or misplacement. Misuse was the most observed error type. Evidence of probable L1 influence was more prominent with respect to the dash—a punctuation feature with high L1-L2 similarity—than the colon. Overall, the results suggest that learners' perceptions of L1-L2 (dis)similarity can be more relevant than actual L1-L2 distance. Based on this evidence and the literature reviewed, the author argues a need for more punctuation instruction in English education in Korea at both the secondary and tertiary levels, as well as for more attention to potential LT phenomena on the part of teachers and program designers.
