Studies on automatic scoring systems in writing assessments have also evaluated the relationship between human and machine scores for the reliability of automated essay scoring systems. This study investigated the magnitudes of indices for inter-rater agreement and discrepancy, especially regarding human and machine scoring, in writing assessment. The mean of the overall population correlation between automated and human scoring in essay writing was .78. The overall common d effect size was 0.001. Results from this meta-analysis indicated a strong relationship with no discrepancies between automated and human scoring. Both the I2 and Q values suggested that the population correlation values studied seemed to be heterogeneous, in contrast to homogenous d effect sizes. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the sources of the between-studies variations for r correlations. Practical implications for ways of reporting results of automatic-scoring systems research and limitations of the study are also discussed.

This study investigated how student-centered learning affects first-year college students’ perceptions of and construction of investment in English learning. After finishing two reading assignments using a student-centered approach, 50 students completed open-ended written surveys, and 15 students participated in open-ended interviews. Thematic analysis of the data, which consisted primarily of the translated interview transcripts and secondarily of the survey responses, showed that initially the students recognized the importance of learning English but had ambivalent attitudes towards the language. However, after completing the student-centered reading assignments, they expressed self-confidence, a sense of accomplishment, and a will to learn, which helped them to concretely construct their investment in English learning. These findings indicate the positive impact of student-centered learning on students’ perceptions of English and their construction of investment in learning the language, highlighting its importance in helping students, particularly as an alternative to exam-driven instructional approaches common in Korea’s environment of English fever and similar contexts.

Using a conversation analysis (CA) framework, this study investigated how kindergarten-aged learners took initiative during classroom interactions through multimodal communication resources. Over a thirteen-week period, data was collected from kindergarten English classroom interactions between two male native Englishspeaking teachers (NESTs) and 125 children divided into six classes. The analysis revealed that learners deployed several multimodal communication resources in teacherinitiated sequences, such as finger-folding gestures, hand-raising, and gaze direction. These multimodal resources were employed to retrieve words, acquire turns, provide answers, and impart other kinds of information. The study also showed how very young learners, with limited linguistic resources, were able to attract the teacher’s attention, draw on embodied resources to access a turn, and become active agents influencing the trajectory of both teacher talk and classroom learning. The study concludes with a discussion of learner initiative and multimodal communication resources, and the pedagogical implications carried by the results of the study for classroom interaction with very young learners.

This study aimed to find out the direction of reinforcing the subject special description as English records. The study analyzed the English subject description data published in 2017 and 2020 by the Ministry of Education. Focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 18 teachers, 6 each for elementary, middle, and high school. Analysis results of the 2017 data showed that the elementary data had a weak link with the curriculum, middle school data focused on functional areas rather than knowledge or attitudes, and high school data only presented examples of students with high achievement levels. On the other hand, the 2020 data includes not only subject special description but also teachers' content of teaching and evaluation materials according to achievement standards. Based on the results, the introduction of Likert scales and the creation of vocabulary groups by achievement standards are suggested.

This study compared research trends in universities general English program before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. After analyzing 248 articles from KCI using frequency analysis, centrality analysis, and topic modeling, this study found consistent keywords indicating a focus on learning objectives, effectiveness analysis, satisfaction surveys, and level-based learning before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Centrality analysis revealed keywords like “teaching, research, analysis” before COVID-19 and “satisfaction, study, level, activity, effect” after COVID-19, indicating a shift towards learner satisfaction, level-based learning, and effectiveness analysis due to the transition to online learning. Topic modeling revealed shifts in research trends: Pre-COVID-19 focused on effective teaching methods, evaluation techniques, and cultural content, while Post-COVID-19 prioritized online teaching methods, web-based platforms, and selfdirected learning. Future research should address self-directed learning, attitudes and goal setting, closing learning gaps in online/blended learning, and developing effective online assessment tools and evaluation strategies. This study provides valuable insights and directions for further research in general English programs.

This study aims to investigate the effects of using AI chatbots in Korean English education from a macro perspective. For this purpose, 19 experimental studies are selected to conduct a meta-analysis, synthesizing the results of 51 individual study cases. The results of this study are as follows: First, it is found that the overall effect size of using chatbots is more than medium size meaning that a chatbot is an effective tool to learn English. Second, in the aspects of linguistic competence and affective categories, each shows over medium sizes like the overall effect size. In details of the dependent variables, vocabulary and speaking in linguistic competence and motivation in affective categories, large effect sizes are shown. Third, the effect sizes are getting larger, as the younger the students are, the longer the experiment period lasts, and the more purpose-built the chatbot is. But the differences in the effect sizes in terms of these moderators (e.g., school level, experiment period, and chatbot type) are not significant. Lastly, it is suggested that follow-up studies are needed to collect a sufficient number of experimental study cases and subdivide the variables for performing a more detailed meta-anlysis.

This study compares AI PengTalk’s assessments of Korean children’s pronunciation with the assessments of Korean teachers. Sixty Korean sixth-graders participated as assessees, and four Korean elementary teachers participated as assessors. Both PengTalk and the teachers rated the children’s production of 10 English sentences on a five-point scale. They focused on segmentals, stress-rhythm, intonation, and speech rate. The findings were as follows: Firstly, PengTalk evaluated the children’s pronunciation in the four elements significantly lower than the teachers across all English proficiency levels. Secondly, teachers’ ratings of the students aligned more closely with their pre-evaluated English proficiency levels than the AI PengTalk’s assessments. The teachers rated students at the upper level significantly higher than those at the intermediate level, who were, in turn, assessed significantly higher than those at the lower level in all four elements. Furthermore, AI PengTalk and the teachers differed in the mean order of the four elements, particularly in segmentals. Based on the results of this study, suggestions were made for the development and implementation of AI-based English programs.

Cho, Eun & Oh, Sun-Young. (2023). “Representation of Native English Teachers and Korean English Teachers in Korean English Newspapers: A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 31(2). 95-123. Native-speakerism, a pervasive issue in the field of English Language Teaching, is observed globally and prevalent in Korea. This ideology negatively affects both Native English Teachers (NETs) and Non-native English teachers like Korean English Teachers (KETs) for some reasons. This study utilizes corpus-based critical discourse analysis to examine the linguistic patterns and referential expressions used in Korean English newspapers to represent NETs and KETs. The analysis reveals significant disparities in their positions and authority within Korean English classrooms. Specifically, NETs are labeled as “assistants,” implying a subordinate role with limited authority, while KETs are referred to as “co-teachers,” signifying a more secure status. Moreover, the study highlights the challenges faced by KETs in demonstrating their English proficiency and sheds light on the discrimination faced by NETs who possess commodified linguistic capital and are of Caucasian descent. These findings emphasize the importance of raising awareness of native-speakerism in Korean newspapers.

While metadiscourse use has been well-attended in second language (L2) writing research, relatively less effort has been made in documenting changing patterns of metadiscourse use among L2 writers. The present study addressed this gap by probing a diachronic change of interactive metadiscourse in research articles published in English Teaching across a span of 40 years. Using the corpus of 931 articles written by Korean L2 writers, we examined whether, and to what extent, interactive metadiscourse use in academic writing had changed over time. Our findings revealed an overall increase in the frequency of interactive resources mainly driven by a significant increase of evidentials. The observed pattern of change in interactives suggests that academic discourse within the applied linguistics community in Korea is becoming more persuasive and reader-oriented over time, consistent with Hyland and Jiang (2018) who reported a dramatic rise in interactive metadiscourse in the global discourse community of applied linguistics.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the characteristics of Korean college students’ writings, which have been produced without or with the help of machine translation tool in the classroom. Specifically, this research attempted to investigate the linguistic characteristics of the students’ writings, and types of errors identified in the writings. Twelve pieces of writings from three college students were collected for analysis. Two online word analysis programs, Word Counter (2023) and LIWC-22 (2023), were employed for data analysis. The findings of data analysis found out that 1) The students’ drafts consisted of 22.8 sentences including 303.9 words in 3.6 paragraphs on average. 2) In the students’ drafts, ‘unique’ words (46.8%) were included a lot more than ‘difficult’ words (27%), and students tended to write their essay writings in an unfiltered or impromptu way rather than an analytical way regardless of their English language proficiency levels. 3) The highest frequency of errors was seen in grammatical errors (41.7%) followed by lexical errors (31.6%). Based on the research findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for the effective use of machine translation in English writing classes were presented.

This study investigated the feasibility of adopting an automatic scoring system (ASS) in a domestic English-speaking education context. Scope, test items, assessment criteria, scoring methods, and reporting strategies of six overseas English-speaking tests utilizing ASSs were examined. Moreover, a comparative analysis was conducted to identify disparities between ASS-based and non-ASS-based speaking tests. Findings were: 1) some ASS-based tests utilized ASS technology throughout the assessment, while others adopted a hybrid scoring system involving human raters; 2) compared to non-ASS-based tests, ASS-based tests used more test items targeting low-level skills such as sound and forms but fewer test items targeting conversation and discourse level skills; 3) pronunciation, fluency, and vocabulary were widely employed as evaluation criteria with sparse use of organization, content, and task completion in most ASS-based tests; 4) differences were minimal in assessment criteria application and score calculation between ASS-based and non-ASS-based tests; and 5) some ASS-based tests provided criteria-specific results and feedback with total scores and proficiency levels.

This paper systematically analyzed research trends of North Korean defectors’ English education in South Korea using the scoping literature review method. From 2001 to 2022, research on this topic was categorized into three phases: 1) Phase 1 (2000-2011), 2) Phase 2 (2012-2019), and 3) Phase 3 (2020-Present). Each phase was analyzed using school levels, themes, and research methods. Approximately a quarter of previous research investigated alternative schools for North Korean defectors, with students having difficulties with their limited English learning experiences. Research themes mainly concentrated on learner factors (48 papers), followed by educational contexts and teaching methods (21 papers). Most studies on appropriate teaching methods for North Korean defectors adopted qualitative methods focusing on a small number of participants. Regarding research methods, studies adopting qualitative methods accounted for 48.0%, whereas studies using quantitative ones accounted for 10.4%, reflecting the limited research opportunities to collect a large set of data from various North Korean participants in South Korea.

Conventional flipped learning instructional models are operated in a blended learning environment online and offline. In contrast, this study moved onto fully online systems and explored how a sense of presence worked for students’ learning outcomes at university English writing courses. The two research questions for this study are: 1) What is the relationship between a sense of presence (teaching, cognitive, social presence) and learning outcomes (group cohesion, class satisfaction)? and 2) What are the variables among a sense of presence that affect group cohesion and class satisfaction? For the purposes of this study, 46 university students from English composition courses answered student questionnaires in the spring of 2021. Correlation and multiple-regression analyses were conducted to look into the relationships among the variables. Additionally, focus-group interviews were conducted and teaching journals were analyzed. The major findings were revealed as follows: Firstly, a sense of presence was significantly related to group cohesion and satisfaction. Secondly, social presence and cognitive presence only had a predictive power of group cohesion. Thirdly, cognitive presence and teaching presence were significant predictors of class satisfaction. Pedagogical implications are discussed for those interested in applying flipped learning in a fully online setting.

This paper aims to investigate Korean EFL learners’ pragmatic performance in request speech acts in comparison with native speakers of English. Written discourse completion tasks (WDCT) are used to examine how native and non-native speakers request in terms of request strategies, internal modifications, and external modifications. The results show that first, Korean learners had a higher frequency of inappropriate strategies than native speakers. Second, they lacked the quantity and variety of internal modifications both lexically and syntactically. However, regarding external modifications, their use of supportive moves was similar to that of natives in frequency and order. In addition, this study identified newly emergent supportive moves that are Korean-specific and detrimental to communication goals. The findings shed light on pragmatic instruction in the Korean EFL situation by providing research-informed data. Several pedagogical implications are suggested for application in teaching.

본 연구는 러시아와 국제사회가 인식하고 있는 러시아 제2의 도시 상 트페테르부르크의 도시 이미지에 주목하고자 하며, 인터넷 동영상 플랫 폼인 유튜브를 통해 도시이미지를 비교해 볼 계획이다. 본 연구는 기존 의 연구와 차별을 두어 정량적 방법론 중 정성적 해석이 가능한 혼합적 방법론인 의미 연결망 분석법을 활용했다. 본 연구는 영어판과 러시아판 으로 제작된 상트페테르부르크 관련 동영상을 SNS 분석 도구인 노드엑 셀(Node XL)을 활용해 수집 및 분석을 진행하였다. 본 연구에서 러시아 와 국제사회가 인식하는 상트페테르부르크의 이미지는 상당히 유사했다. 본 연구에서 발견한 가장 명확한 차이점은 러시아는 상트페테르부르크를 삶의 공간으로 인식하고 있는 한편, 국제사회는 여행지로 인식하고 있다 는 점이다. 그러나 향후의 러시아와 우크라이나 전쟁의 전개에 따라 상 트페테르부르크가 국제사회로부터 고립될 수 있기에 러시아로서는 이를 극복하고자 하는 상당한 노력이 필요할 것이다.

Adopting a conversation analytic framework, this paper examined the delay and potential indeterminacy of teacher’s repetition as an other-initiated repair (OIR) strategy, which took place at the third turn of the Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) sequence in one-on-one tutoring sessions. Tutor-tutee interactions for a Korean secondary student were transcribed and analyzed along with notes used in the class. Data showed that when repetition was used as an OIR strategy, it was delayed and inaccurate. The learner was sometimes unsure whether the teacher’s repetition constituted a repair initiation regarding her prior turn. Furthermore, the learner could not successfully recognize which part of the repeated phrase should be repaired. Prior studies have confirmed that repetition can promote learners’ interactions rather than simply highlighting error while also giving learners an opportunity to correct their errors themselves. However, the analysis in this paper suggests a potential risk associated with using repetition as an OIR strategy at feedback turn in instructional discourse.

This study compared Korean adult learners’ English speech in dialogic and monologic tasks, measuring 57 college students’ oral proficiency in terms of holistic and analytic grades. The statistical analyses were focused on two questions: 1) how much do the holistic grades of oral proficiency and analytic grades of the four linguistic features function differently across the tasks? and 2) which linguistic feature has the strongest correlation with the holistic grades of English oral proficiency? The study found significant differences between the two tasks in five aspects (English oral proficiency, topic development, fluency, range, and accuracy). It also showed that a monologic task resulted in lower achievements in those five aspects. In the comparison of the correlations with English proficiency, the range reached the top in both tasks, followed by topic development. The study provides some helpful information regarding which types of speech tasks and linguistic features of EFL oral proficiency are more desirable for targeting in teaching and assessment.

This study examined effects of pronunciation training using automatic speech recognition technology on common pronunciation errors of Korean English learners. Participants were divided into two groups. One group was given instruction and training about the use of automatic speech recognition for pronunciation practice. The other group was not given such instruction or training as a control group. A pre- and post-test experimental design was used. The treatment period was four weeks. Participants who were taught about using automatic speech recognition for pronunciation practice showed small but significant improvements in pronunciation accuracy than those who did not. In addition, automatic speech recognition was found to assist in the diagnostic evaluation of common pronunciation errors, although it did not produce statistically significant improvements. Participants responded positively to the use of automatic speech recognition for pronunciation practice and testing, although there remain some concerns over technical aspects of the test.

This research investigated consistency of achievement levels stated in the 2015 revised national curriculum of English, high school English textbooks, and the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) according to CEFR Levels. Based on CEFR levels, this study compared levels of targeted achievement standards in the national curriculum, focusing on reading passages in High School EnglishⅡ and CSAT implemented for three consecutive years (2021-2023). Results indicated that the reading section of textbooks and CSAT included a considerable portion of passages whose text difficulty levels were higher than CEFR B2, exceeding the achievement standards required for high school graduates. These results suggest that difficulty levels in the national curriculum, textbooks, and CSAT should be adjusted according to target levels of language proficiency based on CEFR levels so that learning burden of students can be lessened and competency-based English teaching and learning finally can be performed.