The present study aimed to validate a 70-item Korean bilingual version of the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) using Rasch modeling. The goal was to assess the applicability of this Korean version of the VST for Korean learners of English in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context by examining validity evidence based on Messick’s framework. Specifically, the study focused on the content, substantive, and external aspects of construct validity. However, the findings provided weak evidence supporting the utility of the VST as a measure of receptive vocabulary for Korean EFL learners. The test was deemed too easy and lacked the ability to effectively differentiate among varying levels of second language proficiency, with many test items exhibiting unexpected behavior. Additionally, the VST showed a weak correlation with another measure of second language proficiency. In light of these findings, the study offers specific recommendations for improving the test's validity and usefulness.

This study investigated the effects of multisensory memory strategies of pairing visual and aural learning strategies of aural lexical advance organizers (LAO) and read-alouds on 146 Korean high school students learning the meaning and pronunciation of 18 unfamiliar English words. In this quasi-experimental design, the control group learned the words on a single mode of written LAO and silent reading as opposed to two treatment groups of aural LAO and silent reading, and of aural LAO and read-alouds, respectively. The effects were tested three times via pre-, post-(immediately after learning), and delayed (30 days later) tests. The immediate and long-term effects were examined by detecting the differences across the three groups in post- and delayed-tests by one-way ANOVA, and the retention of effects was examined by paired t-tests in each group across the three tests. The results indicated that pairing aural LAO and read-aloud strategies was most effective in learning and retention of both vocabulary meaning and pronunciation.

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.

The research aims to identify vocabulary meaning of “resentment” in Chinese and Korean language. For this, words were extracted, meaning “resentment” in 『A Dictionary of Modern Chinese Usage』, 『A Dictionary of Modern Reverse Chinese Usage』, and 『The Korean Standard Unabridged Dictionary』 published by The National Institute of the Korean Language. Through analysis of these words, distributions by parts of speech and types of word formation were analyzed. The results are as follows: in Chinese, the meaning of “resentment” are the most common in verbs, followed by nouns and adjectives. On the other hand, nouns includes the most “resentments” words, followed by verbs and adjectives. In terms of word formation, most of the Chinese “resentment” vocabulary are compound words; their internal structure mainly consist of verbs and objectives, or modifier and nouns. On the contrary, in case of Korean language, compound nouns and derivative verbs are the most common. Finally, in respect of representative vocabulary of “resentment”, metaphor concept for “resentment” in Chinese and Korean language are in the following: both Chinese and Korean words conceptualize the meaning of “water, red, fire (or heat or hot vapor), thing, food, climate, and weapon.” However, conceptualizing as “plant” appears in only Korean language, and as “letter” and “dangerous animal” in only Chinese language.

The Hallyu (Korean Wave) boom that started with TV dramas in the 2000s expanded to various cultural areas, including food and music. As Korean culture gained popularity, Hallyu fans in Japan began to adopt Korean vocabulary like loan words. To study this phenomenon, the author collected vocabulary used by K-pop fans of native Japanese speakers and classified them by type. It was found that most of these words were currently being borrowed and used in their original Korean form; however, there were also words created by combining Korean words with Japanese words or newly coined by combining Korean words. Once Korean K-pop vocabulary becomes more established in Japan, it is expected that more words will emerge that originate from Korean but are independently created and used exclusively by Japanese speakers.

This study compares the results of a survey of vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) use and perceived helpfulness by Korean university students to the taxonomy of VLS first presented by Schmitt. VLS suggested by previous research by the author and changes in technology since the original taxonomy was compiled were added to Schmitt’s list. The survey was administered online to 135 university students in Korea, primarily of Korean nationality. The results show that reported VLS use is up across the board, and the perceived helpfulness of the majority of VLS is up as well. Technological VLS are widely used for meaning discovery, but used moderately for vocabulary consolidation. Trends in the results are discussed, which suggest that learners rely on a range of VLS rather than a few core VLS. Technological VLS are common among Korean university students, though most still prefer traditional methods. Ramifications for vocabulary teaching and strategy instruction are also discussed, as well as suggestions for further research.

The study aims to identify significant features and cultural differences of fear-related vocabulary in Chinese and Korean language through contrastive analysis. As a consequence, it is revealed that words for fear are mainly included in psychological verbs, and that there is a great deal of replacing members in the semantic field. Also, these types show clear tendencies towards bisyllabification. In Korean, by contrast, most of the words denoting fear fall into the category of verb, the rest of which, on the other hand, consist of nouns or adjectives. Their members are included in either Korean native words or hybrid ones formed as ‘Chinese character and Korean language’. Then, fear-related idioms, too, are contrastively analyzed in Chinese and Korean, and the analytic outcomes are as follows: there are innumerable idioms based on metonymy and metaphor, and meanwhile, they have a great deal in common, yet with several differences in both languages.

The study investigated how task types such as input or output could affect Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary learning at both short- and long-term periods after treatment. Forty two college students in Korea were randomly assigned to one of the four tasks. Based on Involvement Load Hypothesis, each task induced the same or different involvement loads: Read without glossary (Input), Gap with glossary (Input & Output), Gap without glossary (Input & Output), and Sentence and write (Output). Receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge was measured right after the treatment and a month later. The output-oriented tasks were found to be more effective than the input-oriented tasks regardless of type of vocabulary knowledge. The current study concluded that modalities such as input or output other than task-induced involvement load can contribute to Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. The pedagogical discussion will be made at the conclusion.

This paper examined factors affecting Korean EFL learners’ word association types in their L2 mental lexicon. Specifically, vocabulary size of the learners was examined to see if it had any significant relationship with word association types. To this end, experiment procedures that included vocabulary size test and the lexical decision task as well as the word association task were conducted on 40 Korean EFL learners. Reaction time and accuracy of responding to word associations in the lexical decision task were measured. Subsequently, a correlation analysis was conducted with their vocabulary size. Additionally, learners’ word association types were analyzed based on the results of word association task. The results showed that Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary size had significant correlations with their accuracy in identifying syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations, but not in the phonological association. However, their accuracy was not correlated with reaction times. The results indicate that L2 learners’ mental lexicon is partially dependent on their vocabulary size of the target language, and it is variable depending on word association types.

Despite the recognized importance of morphological knowledge to literacy outcomes such as vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, two of its subconstructs— morphological awareness and morphological processing—have received comparatively little attention. In response, the aim of the study reported here was to examine how the relationships between morphological awareness and morphological processing, especially in terms of morphological transparency and morphological frequency, contribute to the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of 62 native Korean-speaking secondary school students—27 eighth-graders and 35 tenth-graders— learning English as a foreign language. The students’ performance on the Test of Morphological Structure and the Word Reading Test was assessed to gauge their compounding awareness, inflectional awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension. The results indicated that the students’ performance was varied depending on morphological transparency and frequency. In addition, it was not morphological processing, but rather morphological awareness that explained variances in vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, when compounding awareness and inflectional awareness were controlled for. This paper discusses what such findings imply for teaching English as a foreign language to Korean learners.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the sentence-writing task on English vocabulary learning of Korean high school students. The effectiveness of the sentence-writing task can be explained based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001); yet, there has been no consistency in the results of the previous studies on this hypothesis. In the present study, the effects of the sentence-writing task on vocabulary learning were re-examined in comparison with the gap-filling task. In addition, considering that there have been no studies addressing the effects of autobiographical elaboration (relating the meaning of a certain word to one’s own experience) on memory, the effects of the autobiographical sentence-writing task were compared to those of the imaginary sentence-writing task. Forty high proficiency and 40 low proficiency learners were randomly assigned either of the sentence-writing or the gap-filling task. The results demonstrated that the sentence-writing task is more effective in vocabulary learning than the gap-filling task, regardless of the learners’ proficiency levels. However, no significant difference was found between the effects of the autobiographical sentence-writing task and the imaginary sentence-writing task. Based on the results, the pedagogical implications were discussed in the conclusion chapter.

This study is to investigate the correlation between language aptitude and vocabulary levels of 5th graders of a Korean elementary school. The participants of the study were 39 elementary school students in Daejeon Metropolitan City. Language aptitude was elicited using LLAMA B, D, E and F classified respectively into memory retention, sound recognition, sound-symbol correspondence, and inference and application. A vocabulary size test modified from the vocabulary size test (Nation, 1990) was injected to the students to investigate their vocabulary levels. A correlation between each LLAMA score and vocabulary size of students was tabulated for their correlationship along with their statistical significance of 95% probability rate. The findings are: Positive correlations were found between each language aptitude ability and vocabulary ability. Among them, the correlation between memory retention and vocabulary ability is only statistically significant. This finding implicates that memory retention is an important factor to learn and retain new words, and learning vocabulary with pictures is recommended to reinforce the connection between meanings and forms of new words.

This study investigated Korean college students’ performance as measured by two different vocabulary assessment tools (the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (PVLT) and the Productive Vocabulary Use Task (PVUT)) and the relationship these assessments have with students’ writing proficiency. A total of 72 students participated in the study. The students were asked to take the PVLT and the PVUT and write an essay. They were also asked to write a reflection paper to assist in examining what kinds of processes they go through in vocabulary production for both tests. The results of the study indicated that the students’ ability to produce vocabulary and the number of lexical errors displayed in the results of the two different assessment tools were highly contingent on the test format. The students produced more target words in the PVLT since they were helped by clues of a few given initial letters of the target items. On the other hand, the students produced more alternatives than target words when allowed to choose words freely in the PVUT. As for the relationship between the students’ performance on the assessment tests and their writing proficiency, the results of the study showed that the students with a higher proficiency produced a higher number of correct target items and left fewer words unanswered in both tests. This study explores the possibility of using an alternative assessment tool and suggests that careful interpretation of the results of the different tests should be associated with assessment purposes.

본 연구는 대학 중국어 교육에 필요한 어휘 선정의 기준이 되는 『詞彙等級大綱』와 『신HS K 어휘』를 비교하고, 이를 바탕으로 대학 중국어 기본 어휘 선정에 적용할 수 있는 기준과 이를 위한 설계 방안을 마련하고, 이와 관련하여 어휘 교육에 활용 가능한 교육방법들을 모 색해 보았다. 또한 여기서 제안한 방안을 토대로 대학 중국어 교육에서 활용할 수 있는 중국 어 어휘 교육과 관련된 활동들을 제시하고자 한다.

The current study investigated the usage of the bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) within Korean EFL environment. Thirty-two university students with an intermediate to high proficiency participated in this study. The students were given a Korean bilingual version of VST and reported their official English scores. The findings of this study are as following: (1) The VST scores showed a significant relationship with students’ proficiency scores which indicates that students with a bigger size of vocabulary had a higher proficiency of English. (2) When VST scores were divided into each frequency level, no particular frequency band demonstrated a significant relationship with English proficiency. Also, the difficulty of each level did not show a consistent pattern. Based on the results of VST, the influence of Korean EFL environment such as loanwords and the test-oriented education system was discovered. This study provides implications for teaching vocabulary in EFL environment and suggests the need for developing of a vocabulary size test for Korean context.

漢字語는 한국으로 도입되는 과정에서 원래의 형태와 의미가 통째로 차용되는 한편, 한국 어 어휘 체계의 내부적 특성과 제약 및 고유의 언어 관습에 따라 적절히 수정되어, 형태·기 능·의미 등 여러 면에서 변화를 가져왔다. 하지만 한국어 漢字語와 중국어 어휘의 관계는 여 전히 일정한 대응관계를 이루고 있다. 본 논문은 한국어 漢字語와 현재 중국에서 사용되고 있는 어휘의 유래와 특징 및 對應과 非對應관계를 비교했다. 또한 이를 통해 중국어 어휘와 동일하거나 유사 혹은 반대되는 의미로 사용되는 한자어의 특성 및 용법의 공통점과 차이점 을 찾고자 했다.

The present study was designed to examine the effects of a variety of factors on English vocabulary achievement. To this end, a total of seven hypotheses were posed in light of previous research on vocabulary learning. To test these hypotheses, an SEM procedure was performed for a sample of 368 Korean university students. The effects of gender and academic specialization on English vocabulary achievement were also examined through multi-sample analyses. Results of the present study demonstrate that Korean university EFL learners’ English vocabulary achievement was a direct function of motivation and vocabulary strategy. The effects of confidence, learner beliefs, and vocabulary learning methods, however, were found to be only indirectly connected to vocabulary achievement through motivation and strategy use. The results of multisample analyses for learners of different gender and academic major groups identified a total of four path coefficients whose effects functioned differentially across different learner groups. Implications of the present are also discussed.

This study investigated the effects of using comic strips and context on the vocabulary learning of Korean high school students. Ninety high school students participated in the study and they were divided into three groups: a control group and two experimental groups using comic strips and using context, respectively. In addition, questionnaires were used to investigate students’ attitudes toward English vocabulary learning. The results of the study revealed that there were statistically significant differences in productive vocabulary retention among three groups in terms of short-term memory. In particular, the experimental groups showed high short-term memory rate compared with the control group, which may mean that the use of comic strips and context in English vocabulary learning is effective in improving learners’ productive vocabulary retention. Also there was a statistically significant difference in productive vocabulary retention among three groups in terms of long-term memory. The experimental groups showed a high long-term memory rate compared with the control group. The results of the questionnaire revealed that the two experimental groups showed more positive attitudes towards English vocabulary learning. This may suggest that teaching vocabulary with comic strips and context could be effective for students in English classes, and it is very helpful to develop various activities using comic strips and context.

This study investigates the effects of working memory capacity (WMC) and the types of vocabulary learning, i.e., explicit vs. implicit, on the acquisition of English multi-word verbs. For this purpose, a total of 60 middle school students, divided into two groups (control and experimental), participated in the study. The participants in the control group were taught multi-word verbs in a traditional and explicit manner, whereas the participants in the experimental group were exposed to multi-word verbs with short passages. The results manifested that both of the instructional styles had positive effects on the learners’ acquisition of multi-word verbs in the short-term. Although there was not a significant interaction between WMC and the overall scores on the immediate post-test, according to the scores on the gap-fill tasks which tested learners’ productive knowledge, there were significant differences between the low-WMC and high-WMC groups. High-WMC students learned more target multi-word verbs than low-WMC students on average. The results also showed that WMC and the two different learning types did not affect the students’ acquisition of multi-word verbs in the long-term. Further, the interaction effect between WMC and learning type in the long-term was not significant.