earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to investigate the university students’ perception of end-focus in English Wh-questions. The participants in this study consisted of 178 university students. These students were categorized into two groups according to their TOEIC scores: one group with the scores above 500 and the other group with the scores below 500. The participants were given Wh-questions and asked to select a more appropriate answer between two possible choices. The main findings are summarized as follows: First, the students’ scores from the test were considerably low. This may be because they are not aware of the principle of end-focus and thus, they don’t appreciate the difference in meaning between the two answers in the context.; and second, there was no statistical difference between their ability to perceive end-focus and their TOEIC scores. The findings suggest that the principle of end-focus should be integrated with teaching grammar regardless of students' English proficiency levels in order to communicate successfully.