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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 24, No. 0, pp.895-912
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2024
Received 25 Mar 2024 Revised 03 Aug 2024 Accepted 12 Aug 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.24..202409.895

Text-based Comparison between Chinese and Korean English Textbooks for Middle School Students: Sentence Structure Distribution, Sentence Type Distribution, and Readability

Jing Peng ; Hyunsun Im
(First Author) Doctoral Student, Department of English Language and Literature Cheongju University 298 Daeseong-ro Cheongwon-gu Cheongju 280503 Chungcheongbuk-do Korea pengjin19880906@126.com
(Corresponding Author) Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature Cheongju University 298 Daeseong-ro Cheongwon-gu Cheongju, 280503 Chungcheongbuk-do Korea, Tel: 043) 229-8359 imbolt@gmail.com


© 2024 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the sentence structure distribution, sentence type distribution, and readability of the reading passages in middle school (Grades 7–9) English textbooks published in China and Korea. The two data sets consist of 55 reading passages from Chinese textbooks, and 24 reading passages from Korean textbooks. Quantitative analysis finds remarkable similarities between the two sets of texts. First, the distribution of sentence structures is similar. Second, simple sentences make up the largest proportion of sentence types and compound-complex sentences the smallest in both sets. Third, the textbooks in the two sets are almost identical in terms of their Coh-Metrix L2 readability values. It is hoped that the findings of this study will promote mutual understanding, learning, and cooperation between the involved parties in both countries, helping them to learn from each other and work together with the shared goal of improving their respective middle school English textbooks, and, ultimately, to nurture their globally competitive talents with morality, honesty, and love.

Keywords:

Korea, China, middle school English textbooks, reading texts, sentence structure, sentence type, readability

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