The study aims to investigate the effects of a ChatGPT-based speaking task on students’ strategic self-regulation for speaking (S2RS) and their satisfaction in a university-level English class. Thirty English majors participated in the study. The speaking task, which involved interacting with ChatGPT, was conducted over a six-week period. To measure the impact of this technology-enhanced task, students completed the S2RS questionnaire twice-once before and once after the intervention. Paired-samples t-tests were used to analyze changes in the S2RS domains, and frequency analysis was employed for the satisfaction data. The research findings are as follows. Firstly, the technology-utilized task had a statistically significant positive impact on the following domains: metacognitive (remembering and planning, assistance-seeking), social (interactional practice, environmental control), and motivational (anxiety control). However, some strategies did not reach statistical significance at the p＜0.05 level, including metacognitive (goal-based monitoring and evaluation, self-reflection), social (feedback management), and motivational (interest enhancement, motivational self-talk). Secondly, the students’ overall satisfaction with the ChatGPT-based speaking task was high. with scores ranging from three to five on the scale. For future research on the differentiated impact of the ChatGPT-mediated speaking task on speaking strategies, a mixed-methods study should be conducted.

To support English speaking instruction and assessment in Korean schools, this study developed a taxonomy of English speaking tasks by analyzing the 2022 Revised English Curriculum, reviewing standardized English speaking tests, and referring to task classifications in the CEFR and ACTFL. Three modes of English speaking were identified in response to different communication contexts and purposes: imitative, interactional, and presentational. Tasks designed to elicit each mode were further classified by task type. Imitative speaking comprised two task types: ‘listen and repeat’ and ‘read aloud’. Interactional and presentational speaking each included three task types, based on the macro functions of language use: interpersonal, transactional, and evaluative/problem-solving. Each task type was further subdivided into categories and subcategories. The resulting taxonomy can be aligned with school grade levels in the curriculum by excluding tasks that exceed the relevant achievement standards and by adjusting topics, vocabulary, language forms, and task complexity according to students’ grade levels.

The present study investigated students’ preferences for the types of tasks used to assess English speaking performance. It further examined whether students’ task type preferences affected their perceptions of test effectiveness. One hundred eighty-two high school students responded to a self-report questionnaire. A series of frequency analysis and paired samples t-tests were used for the analysis. The results showed that students’ most preferred task types and their least preferred ones overlapped with each other, suggesting that the task types of English-speaking performance tests used in schools are limited. The four key reasons determining students’ task type preferences were identified, including task difficulty, emotional comfort, practical value, and interest. In addition, the results indicated that students’ task type preferences could affect their perceptions of task effectiveness. Overall, the results suggest the need for developing more varied task types for English-speaking performance tests as well as helping students become familiar with English speaking performance tasks. Pedagogical implications were discussed along with study limitations.

This study investigated whether task complexity may affect L2 speaking performance as predicted by the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), and whether the effect of task complexity may interact with individual differences in working memory capacity. A total of twenty Korean advanced-level EFL learners performed two separate picture description tasks, which were different in task complexity along [+/- here and now] dimension. Their working memory was measured by an L1 version of a reading span task. The results showed that there was no significant difference between Here-and-Now task (i.e., a simple task) and There-and-Then task (i.e., a complex task) in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency of English speaking performance, rejecting the prediction of the Cognition Hypothesis. Yet, it found that working memory correlated with accuracy in L2 performance on the complex task, but not on the simple task. This indicates that the effect of individual learners’ working memory capacity is observable only when a task demands a high control of attentional resources. Conversely, when a task is simple, individual differences in working memory capacity do not result in significant differences in L2 speaking performance.

This study investigated how Korean EFL learners’ attentional allocation changes during task repetition with or without self-reflection and how this change affects their task performance. A total of 30 Korean high school students were divided into a task repetition only group, a task repetition with self-reflection group, and a comparison group. Each group repeated the same picture-based storytelling task according to its group condition and then performed a new task. Participants’ task performances were analyzed in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy and their retrospective interviews were categorized in order to explore their attentional allocation during task planning and performance. The results demonstrated that the learners placed most attention to conveying the message while planning and performing their first task. However, when repeating the same task, the learners paid more attention to structures and forms leading to improvement in complexity and accuracy. These learners were also more likely to employ strategies they had learned previously when doing a new task, which was helpful. Self-reflection raised learners’ awareness on the target form and positively influenced accuracy.

The present study explored a reading-based speaking task for its potential to develop EFL students' fluency. Based on an L1 speaking model by Levelt (1989, 1993), the task was developed in a way that students can maximize their fluency in a scaffolding-rich condition: one in the stage of message generation and the other in linguistic encoding. The use of reading texts for the development of speaking fluency was also hypothesized to induce authentic interaction among interlocutors. How the reading-based speaking task functions as hypothesized was tested with five Korean college students who participated in a 4-week reading-based speaking program. The analysis of the group activity transcripts and interviews revealed that scaffolding in message generation took place in three types of language episode: a personal experience episode, a vocabulary-related episode, and a contentclarification/ elaboration episode. Linguistic encoding in L2 speaking was scaffolded via shared context, which enabled the participants to develop and utilize a paraphrasing skill. Finally, the participants’ engagement in speaking activities increased, affecting their willingness to communicate and their motivation to improve speaking.

This study investigated the effects of pairing based on English proficiency and gender on high school students’ speaking task performance. A total of 16 high school students - 4 female advanced, 4 female intermediate, 4 male advanced, and 4 male intermediate learners - performed two information gap tasks spotting differences between two pictures, once with a same-level learner and once with a different-level learner. Their performance was analyzed in terms of degree of task completion, amount of utterances and fluency. The results showed (a) advanced level learners performed the task more accurately, more fluently, and in higher length when they were paired with advanced level learners than paired with lower level learners, although the differences were not significant; (b) For intermediate level learners, male students demonstrated a better performance when paired with higher level learners, but female students performed better when paired with the same level learners. The findings are discussed with regard to more feasible and more effective ways of grouping for pair work in high school English classes.