In this paper, we propose English word display interfaces to improve short-term memory: a basic display, a rotation change display, a size change display, and a color change display. Using these display interfaces, we apply the word recall memory test to users. Experimental results show that the users recall more English words in the rotation change display and the color change display, as compared with the basic display and the size change display. Also, the users think that the rotation change display and the color change display are more helpful for short-term memory than the basic display and the size change display. It describes that the word display interface can have an influence on short term memory.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to evaluate the effectiveness of an English program under a practical curriculum for English majors in college and to investigate the relationships among students' perceptions of the program, language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and their satisfaction with the program. To this end, the study followed the changes in college students' perceptions of the program and their learning of English for four semesters from their freshman to sophomore years. Questionnaires were administered four times to measure and trace the students' perceived utility of the program, affective attitude, use of language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and satisfaction with the program. The results showed a statistically significant increase every semester in actual improvement in the students' TOEIC scores. Compared to their high expectations for improvement, the students' perceived improvement was shown to be the lowest at the end of the first semester, after which it got slowly higher each semester during the 2-year period. However, their overall satisfaction with the program got lower each semester. Native speaker instructors and interactive activities in class were found to positively affect the students' perceptions of program utility and affective attitude, which, in turn, significantly affect the students' use of language learning styles and strategies.

Dictionaries are thought to be accurate and objective. In school, teachers often encourage learners to check up a Chinese dictionary to learn Han characters and their meanings. Unfortunately, dictionaries may not be as reliable as many of us expect. Not all Chinese dictionaries can provide consistent, unitary, neutral and universal definitions that stand outside of religion, politics, social changes, popular culture, etc. This is particularly obvious when it comes to Chinese words or/and terms that have been ‘hijacked’ by political propagandists. To illustrate our argument, in the poster, we collect and examine various word explanations and exemplary sentences of the Chinese term “解放” (Liberation) from several commonly used English-Chinese dictionaries. Comparisons are drawn between (1) printed and online English-Chinese dictionaries; (2) old and new English-Chinese dictionaries, and (3) English-Chinese dictionaries published in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. As predicted, the Chinese term “解放” (Liberation) is interpreted and shaped differently, if not contradictorily across different dictionaries. The shifts in meaning are found to be most noticeable in the comparisons of dictionaries written and published in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan. We believe that such shifts in meaning suggest not only cultural diversity, but also manipulations of Han characters and Chinese vocabulary. Despite the small scale of the comparative study, our research results reflect that dictionaries can be utilized as a tool for ideological purposes. It is strongly recommended that teachers and learners of Han characters use at least two dictionaries as reference, so that they can be more aware of hidden ideology, stereotypes, and cultural differences among different Chinese-speaking societies, which are crucial in understanding the culture and historical background while learning the language. Learning the language, after all, is a way to shed light on understanding cultures and the way of thinking behind the text.

This study is a follow-up of Hwang's (2007) empirical study, which investigated the role of awareness in Korean high school students' subsequent learning of the English passive. Hwang (2007) found the positive relationship between awareness and subsequent processing of the target structure and claimed the crucial role of awareness in successful second language learning. The present study explores whether the effects of awareness retain six months after the first post-exposure task of Hwang (2007), which was performed one day after the instruction. The results of the present study revealed the retention of the effects of awareness in the written production task as well as in the multiple-choice recognition task. However, no significant differences were found between the passive group, who were consciously aware of the target structure through a reading text and brief explanation about the English passive, and the preposition group whose attention could be implicitly drawn to the target structure through the reading text only. The results cannot fully support Schmidt's noticing hypothesis and can also be interpreted as providing evidence for the dissociation claim that L2 learning can take place implicitly without conscious awareness.

This study aims at investigating the effects of phonological short-term memory (PSTM), learning styles, and oral repetition on middle school students" learning of English vocabulary. Two groups had different treatments (semantic learning and oral repetition) and vocabulary learning was assessed in spelling, meaning, and production twice, immediately after the learning sessions and two weeks thereafter. The results reveal that oral repetition and the PSTM capacity affected the vocabulary learning significantly, but not learning styles. The students with a higher PSTM capacity learned significantly more words but didn"t remember them better for a longer period than those with a lower PSTM capacity. No clear effects of learning styles were noted, while the PSTM capacity of auditory learners was higher than that of visual learners. The oral repetition group learned significantly more words than those who did only semantic learning, which suggests the usefulness of oral repetition in learning new vocabulary.