The purpose of this study is to examine learners’ perceptions of AI-based machine translation (MT) in high school ‘Reading British and American Literature’ classes. This research explored how students perceived the impact of MT on their class participation, learning motivation, confidence in English use, and improvement in English ability. The study also examined how the effectiveness of MT use differed according to students’ English proficiency levels. A total of 153 third-year students participated in a nine-week English literature course. Data were collected through an online survey and statistically analyzed. The findings reveal that students showed positive perceptions regarding class participation, learning motivation, confidence in English use, and improvement in English ability. Notably, participation in the English literature classes using AI-based MT was significantly higher than that in other English classes. Analysis by English proficiency levels showed no significant differences in class participation and affective factors (learning motivation and confidence). However, lower-proficiency learners perceived greater improvement in English proficiency compared to higher-proficiency learners. These results suggest that incorporating AI-based MT in English literature classes can create an inclusive learning environment that supports learners across different proficiency levels, particularly benefiting lower-proficiency students in terms of improvement in English ability.

The purpose of this study was to analyze English subject-specific descriptions through text mining, examine their alignment to the curriculum achievement standards, and ultimately support students’ educational growth. We collected English subject-specific descriptions for 1,030 tenth-graders from general high schools in City A, and keywords and contexts were extracted using TF, TF-IDF, phi coefficient analysis, and trigram analysis. The results revealed that the subject-specific descriptions frequently neglected the following aspects of learning and instruction in curriculum achievement standards: familiar and general themes, conversation and listening skills, language use across different types of information, and proper email writing. Although descriptions are intended to reflect students’ actual achievement levels, those for lower achievement levels (i.e., D and E) were often overstated. Improvements are necessary to ensure closer alignment between the descriptions and the curriculum achievement standards, with particular emphasis on the accurate representation of lower achievement levels. Based on the findings, we discussed potential improvement strategies for educational authorities to consider and implement.

This study examined the effects of creating English picture books using generative artificial intelligence (AI) on Korean high school students’ reading and writing skills, AI literacy, and self-efficacy. Forty-five students were divided into two groups and participated in tasks that included selecting a character from English-speaking cultures, generating images using Bing Image Creator, drafting and revising stories with ChatGPT, and creating audiobooks with ClovaDubbing. Reading and writing skills were evaluated using pre- and post-tests, and AI literacy as well as affective factors, including selfefficacy, were measured through surveys. The results indicated a significant improvement in students’ writing skills and self-efficacy, whereas reading skills did not demonstrate statistically significant progress. The study underscores the potential of generative AI as a tool for enhancing writing skills, AI literacy, and self-efficacy in language learning. However, it also emphasizes the need for further pedagogical efforts to design instructional strategies that effectively improve reading skills. These findings offer practical guidance for integrating generative AI into EFL education to enhance language learning and AI literacy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the English speaking ability of Korean EFL college students was affected by their interactions with Talk-to-ChatGPT while taking an ‘English Interview’ class. Thirty pieces of English conversation scripts with thirty chatbot conversations created by five students were collected for analysis. Two online text analysis programs, Quillbot including word counter and grammar checker and T.E.R.A.(Text Ease and Readability Assessor), were used for data analysis. The findings of data analysis revealed that 1) The average length of the sentences and words spoken by the participants has increased through English speaking practice using Talk-to-ChatGPT, and 2) There was no significant change in text ease and readability, and coherence of students’ utterances through English speaking practice using a chatbot while there were differences depending on their English proficiency levels. 3) Students A, B, and D, who had relatively low levels of English proficiency, showed a slight increase in syntactic accuracy and semantic clarity in their English interview practice. Based on the study findings, pedagogical implications for the effective use of AI-based apps or programs in English speaking classes were presented.

This study analyzed the patterns of relative clauses (RCs) used on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a standardized test for college admissions in Korea. The researchers investigated the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and the impact of the antecedent’s animacy on RCs. Also, it was explored how NPs in the subject position of object RCs affected language processing, specifically, the condition where relativizers were omitted and the reasons for producing passive subject RCs. Data were collected from the CSAT and mock tests from 2019 to 2023. The analysis of 622 RCs yielded the following results: First, the frequency of RCs appeared in the following order: subject RCs, object RCs, then OBL. Second, the object RCs showed a preference for inanimate antecedents whereas the subject RCs used did not show a preference for animate antecedents. Third, NPs in the subject position with sentences containing object RCs predominantly took the form of pronouns, with common nouns used less frequently.

본 연구는 챗GPT를 대학 교양영어 수업의 학습 도구로 활용하는 효과 적인 수업구성을 하는 것을 목표로 하고 있다. 구체적인 논의는 다음의 네 가지이다. 첫째, 교육계에서 챗GPT 사용에 관해 찬반 논쟁이 있음에 도 불구하고 생성형 AI가 교육계에 큰 변화를 가져올 것이라는 점에는 거의 이견이 없다. 둘째, 챗GPT를 사용함에 있어서 발생 가능한 문제점 을 팩트 체크의 부재, 지적 재산권의 문제, 문해력 저하로 정리하였다. 학습에서 챗GPT를 도구로 사용하기에 앞서서 이러한 문제점들을 학습자 들에게 반드시 인식시키는 교과과정을 만들어야 할 것이다. 셋째, 교육현 장에서 챗GPT를 사용하기 위해서 학습자에게 선제적으로 인식시켜야 할 점은 생성형 AI가 학습의 도구로서의 역할을 하며, 학습자가 인공지능에 의존하는 것이 아니라 인공지능과 협업을 한다는 것이다. 넷째, 학습능력 이 매우 상이한 학생집단을 대상으로 챗GPT를 학습도구로 사용하기 위 해서는 그룹별 협업을 통한 활동이 중요하다. 그룹원들의 다양한 질문을 인공지능에 주입하여 다채로운 결괏값을 얻어 지식을 창조적으로 (재)생 산할 수 있기 때문이다. 본 연구의 의의는 연구에서 제시하는 수업구성 을 실제 수업에 적용하여 또 다른 연구물을 도출할 수 있다는 점이다.

The present study aimed to explore how pre-service teacher’s individual regulatory focus orientation, currently emerging as an interesting learner variable for language learning, could influence their Englishspeaking abilities. English teaching demonstration videos of 67 pre-service teachers were analyzed in terms of pronunciation, accuracy, and fluency. The regulatory focus orientations of participants were evaluated using a questionnaire. The results of data analysis, using multiple regression analysis, indicated that promotion-focus orientation was a significant positive predictor for pronunciation, fluency (words per minute, ratio of dysfluency), and accuracy (lexical errors, ratio of error-free AS-units). On the other hand, prevention-focus orientation did not emerge as a statistically significant factor affecting accuracy. However, it was observed to have a negative influence on both pronunciation and fluency. In light of the research findings that highlight the favorable impact of a promotion-focus orientation, suggestions were made for future teacher training programs aimed at enhancing the English proficiency of pre-service teachers.

This study explored if and to what extent foreign language high school students would benefit from participating in a school English drama contest in terms of English proficiency, affective attitudes, and collaborative competence. For this purpose, questionnaires were constructed to measure students’ perception of their growth in those areas after participating in the contest. Pre- and post-questionnaires were administered to 85 students, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 of the survey respondents. In a comparison of the pre- and post-test measures, the study found that the drama contest contributed to reducing students’ anxiety and enhancing their intrinsic motivation. Although pre- and post-test differences in language proficiency and collaborative competence were found to be non-significant, the participants addressed positive aspects of their experience in the contest. For example, they reported that they improved their pronunciation, speaking, and writing skills and that they collaborated and learned from one another by sharing ideas, providing feedback, and exchanging opinions.

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.

The study investigates the effects of corpus-based formulaic sequences learning on developing learners’ writing skills and attitudes. For this purpose, fifty-four high school students participated in the study and were divided into two groups. The experimental group learned formulaic sequences with the corpus-based method, while the control group learned the target items through the definition-centered method. The results of the study showed that no significant difference in writing ability was found between corpus-based formulaic sequences learning and traditional formulaic sequences learning. The corpus-based formulaic sequences learning showed a greater effect on improving grammatical accuracy of writing. The traditional formulaic sequences learning was effective in the acquisition of productive knowledge of formulaic sequences. The results of the survey questionnaire showed that the students showed a positive attitude toward corpus-based formulaic sequences learning, which may mean corpus-based learning can play an important role in increasing students’ motivation. These results may suggest that various corpus-based activities for EFL class need to be developed.

With the advent of mobile technology, teaching and learning have been more effective with the help of smartphone education applications. This study investigates the effects of vocabulary learning using the smartphone education applications on Korean elementary school learners’ English vocabulary learning and attitudes. A total of fifty-seven elementary school students in the 5th grade participated in the study and were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. The results of the study manifested that both the experimental and control group showed an increase in the comprehension and production score from pre- to post-tests. The effects of the long-term vocabulary learning, however, were not found to be statistically significant. The average score in the delayed test for both groups slightly increased, which indicated that the treatment was beneficial for learners’ long-term memory enhancement. In the affective domain, interests and confidence ratings were significant for the upper-level experimental and lower-level control group. The results of the survey questionnaire showed that the vocabulary learning using direct examples and pictures for both groups was helpful to improve learners’ lexical competence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate paths of the effects of L2 motivational self system and self-efficacy on Korean EFL learners’ English ability. For this purpose, questionnaires were conducted and 580 Korean elementary school students in Gyeonggido participated in this survey. Correlation and path analysis were used to analyze the data. The major results of the study are as follows: (1) Self-efficacy is correlated with all constructs of motivation. It has the highest correlation with ideal L2 self and the lowest correlation with ought-to L2 self; (2) self-efficacy has a direct effect on ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self whereas it has direct and indirect effects on elementary students’ English proficiency; and (3) ought-to L2 self has a positive direct effect and L2 learning experience has a negative direct effect on elementary students’ English proficiency. However, ideal L2 self has no effect on elementary students’ English proficiency. At the end of the paper, pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.

Choi, Jin-sook. 2017. “International Students' Attitude Changes towards English as per their Korean skills”. The Sociolinguistics of Korea Journal 25(3). 327~349. This study aims at identifying the international students' attitudes towards English change as per their Korean skills after learning English over one semester. Sixty international students, who consisted of three groups as per their Korean skills, participated in the questionnaire survey at the beginning stage of the class. After one semester, the same questionnaire was given to the participants. Two questionnaire surveys showed similar results: the participants with a higher level of Korean skills demonstrated more favorable attitudes towards English and were less fearful in learning English, compared to those with a lower level of Korean skills. The attitude changes were also different as per the Korean skills: when compared to the attitudes at the beginning, while the participants with a higher level of Korean skills changed more favorably towards learning English, the participants with a lower level of Korean skills showed no attitude changes or picked up less favorable attitudes, and their fear about learning English rather increased. This study implies that English learning may improve English skills for the international students with a higher level of Korean skills but does not affect those with a lower level of Korean skills.

Kim, KaHyun & Shin, Dongil. 2016. “A Critical Discourse Analysis on Global Talents and Their English Competence”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 24(3). 249~280. The purpose of this study is to examine the media discourse on global talents and their English competence through critical discourse analysis. The special feature articles of the JoongAng daily newspaper on ‘global talent’ were traced and analyzed. The articles of JoongAng Sunday magazine on the global talent, which were published between January 2008 and March 2016, were also examined. The analysis drew upon the van Dijk’s (2009b) sociocognitive approach. By understanding how social cognition played its role in formative process of the discourse with linguistic features, the dialectical relationship of the dicourse and the society was inferred. Findings revealed the schema of the global companies, which counted human resources as the goal of management and essential part of their success, empathized individuals’ role and led them to make efforts. Microscopic linguistic features formed global talent discourses with being influenced and affecting the macroscopic structure. The media discourse often valued self-improvement, which involved neoliberalistic orientation of global companies.

The paper observes that grammatical competence has been interpreted as the ability to judge grammaticality ever since the employment of communicative competence as the core basis of curriculum design in the 6th national English curriculum of Korea. It contends that this interpretation is different from what has been widely accepted in the literature on grammatical competence, that is, the ability to understand and express propositional meaning of utterances. The study suggests that a new and fresh look at grammatical competence needs to be taken in developing and implementing the national English curriculum which is to provide English learners in Korea with more potential opportunities for success in acquiring communicative competence.

This study explores the morphological awareness of different graders with different vocabulary levels. A total of 275 elementary students (148 5th graders and 127 6th graders) across small, midium and large cities are selected to test their morphological awareness. First, they were divided into 30%, 40% and 30% of students according to their vocabulary levels. Second, they were tested on the recognition tests, the production tests and the distributional tests of English derivational morphemes divided by the prefixes and the suffixes appeared in the English textbooks. The results are: The recognition and production tests show significant differences for both vocabulary levels and different English levels across different grades. However, the distributional test shows no clear difference like the other two tests. Based on the results, the study draws the conclusion that morphological awareness is developing in the order of recognition, production and distribution of morphologized words in sentences. In other words, recognition of forms precedes the production of forms, and the production is followed by the functional awareness of morphologized words.

In Korea, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was introduced in 1993 as the official national college entrance examination. Over the 22 years since its inception, the CSAT has gone through numerous changes in its policies regarding the test structure, test administration, test writers, item bank, item difficulty, test materials, score reporting, and the use of test scores. The present study reviewed these policies and policy changes regarding the CSAT, with a focus on the English section ofthe test. The study found that while some of the policies were laudable for beneficial effects on students and the society, some other policies had detrimental effects on the quality of the test and for stakeholders including students, teachers, and parents. More active involvement of testing professionals is suggested for the improvement of policymaking processes and the policies themselves.

This study investigated the effects of different gloss locations in extensive reading readers on English reading abilities of elementary students. It examined four groups of sixth graders in an elementary school and an extensive reading class was conducted over sixteen weeks. The four groups were given graded readers with four different types of glosses, such as non-gloss, marginal gloss, footnote gloss, and endnote gloss. To verify the effects of this experiment, pre- and post-reading ability test for the cognitive domain and pre- and post-questionnaire for the affective domain were administered to see if there were any achievement in reading ability and affective domain. The findings were as follows: (1) The four groups showed improvement in the reading ability tests. This result indicates that extensive reading was effective in improving students' reading ability; (2) The footnote gloss group showed the greatest change. This result indicates that footnote glosses influenced the most in improving students' reading ability; (3) All the groups showed positive results in the affective domain including attitude, self-confidence, interest, expectation, and value. In conclusion, extensive reading made a positive effect on all four groups and footnote glosses proved to be the most effective in both cognitive and affective domain.

The goal of the present study is to examine EFL English teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and its relation to their English language proficiency (LP). Data was collected from 81 in-service and pre-service Korean English teachers (N=81) who participated in an one-month overseas training program in the U.S.A. The participants were asked to diagnose their own levels of ICC and LP through the questionnaires whose reliability and validity were confirmed by the factor analysis. The major findings from analyses were as follows: 1) in general, participants appeared to consider themselves possessing a high level of ICC, showing an average score of 3.99 out of 5.0 on the ICC questions, 2) participants' willingness and readiness to engage in different cultures/speakers were found to be in a higher level than the other four factors of ICC, such as an ability to interact in intercultural situations, an ability to identify an importance of ICC, a degree of acceptance by other cultures/speakers, and a degree of contribution to mediating intercultural situations, and 3) chi-square, correlational, and regression analyses showed significant associations between ICC and LP of the participants. Pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.