The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of input- and output-based planning (reading a sample passage vs. writing a draft) on the oral performance of L2 learners with low-proficiency. In this study, 16 Korean female junior college students of low English proficiency were divided into two different planning groups. The reading group was required to read a sample passage of the given topic, designed to encourage “noticing” and “focus on form” using input enhancement, while the writing group was asked to write a draft of their speech, using only their own L2 knowledge. After such planning activities, both groups recorded their assigned speaking tasks using Kakao Talk. Eight planning activities and oral performances were completed over the period of the semester. In order to compare the effects of input- and output-based planning on the improvement of overall proficiency, pre- and post-tests, in which the students produced the same narratives, were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Furthermore, this study explored any difference in speaking performance after each type of planning and what the learners were actually doing during planning time. The results showed that output-based planning had positive effects on speaking performance and its repeated practice led to the improvement of overall proficiency.
This study aims to analyze the types of cognitive process required to perform vocabulary learning activities in Middle School English textbooks. For this purpose, 26 middle school English textbooks were examined, including 13 for the first year and another 13 for the second year of middle school. The results indicated that vocabulary learning activities emerged in the phase of reading, and then were categorized into pre-reading vocabulary activities and post-reading ones. Eight types of cognitive process emerged in the pre-reading phase and three types in the post-reading phase. That is, the number of vocabulary activities in pre-reading phase was larger than that in the post-reading phase. In addition, the diversity of vocabulary activities in the pre-reading phase was higher than that in the post-reading phase. Based on these results, this study suggests a new model of vocabulary learning activity in middle school English textbooks. A few implications on how to teach new words in English classrooms are discussed.
This study investigates the claim that task-induced involvement load has an effect on vocabulary learning and examines the effect of task types and word concreteness on intentional vocabulary learning in the Korean EFL context. This study aims at testing whether productive word-focused tasks lead to equally effective vocabulary learning when the total involvement load index is equal but the distribution of index levels of each component (need, search, and evaluation) is different. The three productive word-focused task types are gap-fillig, sentence writing, and gap-filling through word transformation. In addition, in order to investigate the effect of word concreteness on vocabulary learning, two groups of target words were selected based on the level of word concreteness. In sum, the results of this study generally supported involvement load hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijin, 2001) and test types and proficiency levels proved to be important variables that affect vocabulary learning. Moreover, the findings also indicated that word concreteness was not a major factor in vocabulary learning. The pedagogical implications and further suggestions are discussed.
Based on the multilingual perspective that emphasizes that non-native variants of English need to be recognized as having values equivalent to the native speakers’ English, this study aimed at discovering elementary school teachers’ perceptions and beliefs of native-speakerism, multilingualism, and monolingualism in English education, and the contradictions and questions they had as they reflected on the language ideologies. Nine elementary teachers participated in the study, and two written reflections on language ideologies and two follow-up group interviews were used as the data source. The findings were as follows. First, the teachers confirmed, consolidated, or realized how native speakerism and monolingualism were deeply rooted in English teaching and learning. However, they showed that they had agency in their own teaching, and also showed changes in their perception through reflecting on their experiences. Last, the teachers had questions and contradictions about implementing a multilingual approach in teaching English, which provides the issues and challenges to be solved for the transformation of English education in the multilingual world. This study has implications for primary English education.
For nearly two years, virtual learning has been employed by most Korean university instructors and students in online teaching environment. A major negative result of prior research on this issue has been a feeling of isolation and desire for more interactions by students. Therefore, this study was conducted to elicit student insights and feelings related to their satisfaction, self-ratings, and advantages and disadvantages of online Teacher-led (TL) versus Student-led (SL) team activities in their online learning environment. A total of 53 freshman students in two general English classes took part in four Zoom group meetings. The surveys and reflection essay were analyzed through qualitative methods. Major findings included: students from both the TL and SL groups reported relatively higher satisfaction and self-ratings of English skills through the four team activities. However, the TL group indicated that there was a lack of emphasis on reading skills, and an overreliance on teacher interventions led to a lack of team cooperation. While the SL group reported that a lack of teacher interaction led to confusion, poor time management, increased Korean use, and fewer listening comprehension opportunities. Implications and a discussion of team activity use in general English programs are included.
The study investigated the individual coaching effect on TOEIC learning among college students. The participants were the 145 college students in Incheon who had taken TOEIC reading comprehension classes for two semesters. Two series of simple TOEIC tests were executed to measure the students’ English proficiency on the first day of each semester. Individual coaching was conducted through counseling and learning guidance for 25 students with the lower scores (3~7 points out of 25 based on the first simple TOEIC test). Among them, eight students participated in the in-depth interview at the beginning of each semester. When comparing the simple TOEIC test results of the two groups, the difference between the averages of the two groups was clear only with regard to the first semester. The t-test showed no proven statistical differences in the second semester outcomes. The results of paired-sample t-test on the change in the simple TOEIC scores before and after individual coaching in the individual and class coaching mixed group was also statistically verified. Individual coaching in this study was to find an appropriate learning process for the students with low language fluency, and it took place for a relatively long time. The interaction between the students and the professor in individual coaching created a special rapport between them.
This study aims to investigate how multicultural aspects are dealt with in current elementary English textbooks. The cover pages, dialogues, main readings, and culture sections of a total of 10 elementary English textbooks for 5th and 6th graders were closely examined in terms of (1) the races and genders of the characters, (2) the cultural backgrounds of the contents, and (3) Bennett’s (2010) core values of multicultural education. The results revealed that each gender was equally represented and the textbooks present diverse cultural backgrounds in a balanced way. It was found, however, that there was an imbalance in terms of racial backgrounds. With respect to the core values of multicultural education, acceptance and appreciation of cultural diversity, and respect for human dignity and universal human rights were the top two values that appeared most frequently throughout the textbooks. Responsibility to a world community was the value that was comparatively hard to find in them. Detailed findings are discussed in greater depth, along with implications for elementary English education in Korea.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of English learning through social media on the perception and affective factors of college students. To this end, researchers examined whether the educational use of YouTube and KakaoTalk, popular among college students in Korea, differs according to English improvement, affective factors, and English level. The subjects of this study were 63 freshmen majoring in Medical Convergence, who were taking college English at C University located in Gangwon-do. An online questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using Jamovi, a statistical program. The results are as follows. First, the participants positively changed the perception that the use of social media had on the overall improvement of English. Second, the affective domains such as self-confidence, attitudes, values, beliefs, and interests of the participants also changed positively. Finally, it was confirmed that social media has educational value regardless of English level.
The English language textbook for classes XI-XII, currently in use nationwide in Bangladesh, has drawn numerous reactions from multiple corners of the country. Bangladeshi teachers, major stakeholders, have been noticeably concerned about the effectiveness of the design of the textbook based on their teaching experiences (Hani & Siddika, 2018). It is important to know their perceptions of the textbook, since their perceptions have a significant influence on students’ learning English through the textbook. The current study, therefore, seeks to provide information about the participant teachers and their teaching contexts in order to judge the value of the textbook design in terms of contents selection and organization. For that research purpose, interviews were conducted with 10 teachers who were, at the time of research, teaching the textbook at different colleges in a district of the country. Based on the data, the study discusses the teachers’ first-hand experience with the textbook, providing a revealing insight into how well it facilitates students’ learning in the classroom. Finally, implications are suggested that are expected to guide the design of the next applicable version of the textbook.
The purpose of the study is two-fold: (a) to investigate L2 learners’ receptive and productive collocational knowledge concerning the learners’ lexical proficiency levels, and (b) to explore the degree of their productive collocational knowledge. A total of 358 Korean university students participated in this study and completed a Vocabulary Size Test, two receptive collocation tests, and one productive collocation test. The results revealed that there was significance among the scores of three collocation tests. It is also observed that receptive and productive collocational competence tends to increase as L2 learners’ vocabulary size develops. Regarding productive collocational knowledge gains, significant differences were found among collocation combinations but no interaction effect was found between combination types and vocabulary levels. The findings indicated that L2 learners need to be aware of the importance of learning collocational knowledge while teachers need to attempt to help them notice high-frequency collocations that regularly occur in various contexts.
With the wide availability of mobile devices, efforts to accommodate these technological devices have been made in pronunciation training. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mobile apps in improving the perception and production of the English vowels, /o/ and /ɔ/, which are difficult to discriminate and produce for Korean learners of English. The participants were 24 college freshmen enrolled in a general English course. They shadowed the model pronunciation from the application and corrected their production after instant feedback from the automatic speech recognition application. Their perception was evaluated in the preand post-tests, and the production was visually examined on the formant chart. The training was held for 5 minutes each day, for a month. The results showed that the training made positive effects on improving students’ perception of the target vowels. There was also some progress in their production although the improvement was not as noticeable as in perception. A discrepancy in the production was discovered between male and female participants with the latter performing better.
The purpose of this research is to examine the significance of peer-peer interactions on L1 discussions for L2 reading tasks. This research was designed to see how college EFL students interact during a L1 group discussion assigned as part of an L2 reading task by a means of CA (conversation analysis). Five college EFL students engaged in an L1 group discussion on L2 reading comprehension questions and their conversations were video-recorded for transcription. The peer-peer interaction CA analyzed discussions through a turn-taking system and contextualization cues and has provided pedagogical implications. Observed interactions among students showed that a team leader playing a role as a mediator attempted to focus on the issues arising during the discussion to solve and foster the engagement from other team members. The findings of this study suggest that students effectively find the best ways of reaching desirable conclusions through negotiation-driven interactions. Group discussions with L1 can encourage students to use their linguistic resources to perform the L2 task effectively, which leads to successful completion of the given tasks.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the mediating effects of mentoring functions in college students and motivation levels in virtual, web-based, constructivist English classes. It is also intended to analyze the effects of web-based interactions on constructivist learning. For this, a survey was conducted on 210 college students all of who participated in a ‘Media English’ class. Correlation analysis, simple regression analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were conducted to verify three research hypotheses. This statistical analyses showed the results that 1) the mentoring function turned out to influence interactions in the virtual constructivism learning framework; 2) the mentoring function turned out to influence learning motivation in the virtual web-based constructivism learning framework; 3) mentoring function as an independent variable in the virtual web-based constructivism learning turned out to influence learning motivation as a dependent variable of college students through the media of interaction as a parameter. Therefore, the results indicated that the mentoring function influenced learning motivation levels of college students through interaction in the virtual web-based constructivist English learning framework.
This study provides step-by-step suggestions for expanding the foundation of Korean language education and the systematic teaching and learning of the Korean language in New Northern Policy countries. To this end, a literature review was undertaken to explore the existing knowledge in the field, and surveys and online interviews were conducted with local experts. According to the surveys, the New Northern Policy countries were highly accepting of multilingualism and multiculturalism, currently using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to accommodate the global standard education model and seeking to strengthen English education in accordance with the de-Russian trend. Also based on CEFR, achievement standards are systematically presented. Korean language education is divided into curricular and extra-curricular, with the Korean language curriculum further subdivided according to the development of the Korean language curriculum. The extra-curricular stream is mainly conducted in after-school programs. The proposed development phase of the Korean pro-language curriculum should establish a reference system including goals and grades that connects with the CEFR. Moreover, to develop the Korean language curriculum further, it is necessary to establish and analyze the Korean language profiles of Korean learners.
This paper analyzes the Korean conjunctives –ko and –ese, and the Turkish converb –Ip, which have various meanings, and reveals their similarities and differences visually using the semantic map model. –ko and –ese are learned at the beginner level but Turkish learners have shown many errors. Those two Korean conjunctives express different temporal meanings, however, the corresponding Turkish converb expressed them in a single form. Korean textbooks have introduced the meanings of –ko and –ese as [sequential] and [continuous], but it can be made more confusing for learners by presenting the meaning using the same term. Therefore, it is necessary to teach the meanings of the two connectives in more detail according to their syntactic characteristics. Since most textbooks of Korean do not clearly present the differences between the –ko and –ese, effective teaching methods for Turkish-speaking learners based on the Focus-on-Form approach are proposed. To teach the conjunctives –ko and –ese, distinguishing between features of different meanings and to recognize those differences is encouraged.
The purpose of this study is to develop guidelines for a Hindi A0 level evaluation test with its standardized Hindi curriculum. The development of a Hindi A0 level evaluation test is a basic requirement for ensuring internal stability of school education, because languages that uses special or unique characters that are not based on Roman alphabets, such as Hindi, Thai, and Persian, require a separate learning process or curriculum as well as their evaluation tests. This is not only in line with the purpose of the ‘Act on the Promotion of Education of Critical Foreign Languages’ enacted on August 2, 2016, but also because it can promote the substantiality of education in other critical foreign languages including Hindi, which had been conducted without a standardized curriculum. In other words, this study explores the concept of the A0 level that is not included in the CEFR, as a first step toward the realization of the ‘Common Asian Framework of Reference for languages’, the letters and pronunciations of which require a lot of time to learn. To this end, a guideline of an evaluation test for Asian languages is also proposed.
The present study attempts to analyze and classify errors in translations of Korean Mongolian language learners and to suggest educational implications based on the error analysis. Korea and Mongolia have had an established relationship since 1990 and held exchanges in various fields for a short period of time, and as a result the demand for professional translation is increasing. To meet this demand, undergraduate schools also require educational programs for professional translators, yet it is difficult to find any research or studies about the issue. In this study, Mongolian texts translated by Korean Mongolian learners were collected and analyzed, and the errors were classified into 1) grammar related errors, 2) translation skill related errors, and 3) meaning related errors. Based on the analysis, the following implications can be presented. First, it is necessary for students to recognize the differences between the use of punctuation marks in the two languages and to learn how those them appropriately in the target language. Second, there is the issue of transcribing Mongolian into Korean. Although precise common rules for transcribing have not yet been established, teachers should suggest a consistent transcription guide. Third, since many errors related to the source language appear, it is necessary to avoid literal translations and complete the translation suitable for the target language. Finally, students need to be exposed to various types of texts and practice the style of writing that fits to the text.
With the rise of the 4th Industrial Revolution, a paradigm shift is being demanded across society, and this change is seen in the rapid increase of learners who want online classes that can be taken relatively freely compared to traditional classes that are constrained by time and space. Cyber university’s learning method using an online platform has the advantage of overcoming the limitations of teaching-learning methods and university education in a limited space, and providing educational opportunities to people who need education anytime, anywhere. However, in cyber universities, issues have also been raised about the stability of the educational system, the quality of educational contents, and the appropriateness of educational services. Thus, in order to maximize the learning effect in cyber universities, a system that supports and manages learning participation activities of learners is required so that not only high-quality contents but also various interactions in the teaching-learning process are activated. In this thesis, based on the author’s own experience in subject development and operation, I would like to examine the effects that the interaction between instructor-tutor-learners through the role of a subject-dedicated tutor and the teaching-learning method using an online platform.
For the efficient teaching and learning of Vietnamese, the researcher paid attention to Project Based Learning and tried to apply it to the class. The researcher analyzed prior studies of PBL classes, including English and other foreign languages, and applied the theory of PBL to Vietnamese language education subjects, designed PBL classes, and utilized them in classes. In addition, the process in which the learners perform tasks (student presentation, peer-faculty evaluation, evaluation opinion reflection process), the results, and the questionnaire survey on learners were analyzed. As a result, it was found that PBL methods could also be applied in Vietnamese classes. The learners reorganized the learning contents into his or her own knowledge in the relationship between the learner’s own thoughts, experiences, knowledge, and understanding by referring to the instructor’s teaching plan and lecture. In addition, it was possible to achieve more useful and viable knowledge by listening to other people’s opinions and thoughts about their own knowledge, understanding, and interpretation, and through correction and supplementation processes. Also noteworthy is that through the PBL class, the level of knowledge of each student increased rapidly.
This study analyzed the translation strategies of Korean culture-specific items displayed on the Korea.net Arabic website, the government’s representative overseas PR media. 25 articles with a large number of culture-specific items were selected and analyzed among 74 articles published in the Culture section of the Korea.net Arabic website for a total of 7 months from August 2020 to February 2021. The themes of the selected 25 cultural articles were the contents of related cultural events according to the period, such as Chuseok and New Year’s Day, Kimchi-making Season, Lotus Lantern Festival, and Hangeul Day. Culture-specific items were classified into proper nouns such as country, administrative districts, place name, and building name, and other cultural elements such as food, clothing, holidays, according to the classification method of Lee Geun-hee(2008). As expected, a number of strategies to convey meaning along with transliteration appeared as part of an effort to inform Arab readers of Korean culture-specific items. However, it found the need to establish norms or unified standards for culture-specific items translation strategies, especially in transliteration.