• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1019-1029
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• 2014

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the creation and pedagogical use of English learner corpora. Many studies have shown that learner corpora can not only make a significant contribution to second language acquisition research but also contribute to the construction and evaluation of language tests by advancing our understanding of English learners. So far, however, little attention has been paid to the Korean EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' corpus. The Yonsei English Learner Corpus (YELC 2011) is a specialized, monolingual, and synchronic Korean EFL learner corpus that was developed by Yonsei University from 2011 to 2012. Over 3,000 Korean high school graduates (or equivalents) who were accepted by Yonsei University for their further studies participated in this project. It consists of 6,572 written texts (1,085,828 words) at nine different English proficiency levels. In this paper, we describe its compilation, and more specifically, how we have corpusized from a text archive to a corpus. After introducing the process of corpusization, we report arresting insights into the specific linguistic features that different proficiency levels of Korean learners of English have. This study also discusses the potential use of the YELC 2011 which is now freely available for research purposes.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1-18
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• 2013

Self-theories regarding general intelligence and English ability were measured from two countries (Korea and Pakistan) and their relationships with self-reported overall academic achievement and English language achievement were examined. No significant mean differences between the two countries were found regarding college students' self-theories. There were significant mean differences in overall academic achievement and English achievement between the two countries. Both the overall academic achievement and English achievement were significantly correlated with various self-theories while taking both samples together. Achievement measures were predicted by self-theories of general intelligence and English language ability. The current study highlighted the relationship between self-theories about general intelligence and English language ability and their relationship with self-reported achievement in two cultural contexts. This research also introduced new instruments to measure self-theories that can be used in studying self-theories in different domains.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.53-61
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• 2016

This study aims to examine English learning beliefs of Korean college students enrolled in e-learning courses and to investigate the relationship between their beliefs and L2 achievement. Horwitz's Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory was used to elicit students' beliefs about English learning and their grades in a final exam were employed for the English achievement measure. The data from one hundred sixteen respondents were analyzed through a factor analysis and the analysis revealed 5 factors: Motivation, learning strategies, English aptitude, foreign language aptitude, and communication strategies. The results showed that the most of the e-learning students had a high level of motivation and expectation in learning English but they believed that they had a low language aptitude. Statistically significant correlation was found between students' beliefs in motivation and their L2 attainment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.53-61
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to test whether or not the AI chatbot is effective in acquiring target grammar for Korean EFL college students: prepositions and articles. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 46 first-year students taking part in a required English course. They were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental and control groups (23 students for each, respectively). The experimental group was engaged in six chat sessions with a chatbot over 6 weeks. A pretest and a posttest were used to examine the effectiveness of the chatbot by comparing any changes made in error frequencies of the target grammar in participants' English compositions. The results show that after a conversation with the chatbot, the experimental group significantly reduced the mean of omission errors in both prepositions and articles. To have a great effect in other error categories, chatbot feedback needs to be improved to reduce short responses or inaccurate utterances of students and induce them to actively participate in the conversation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.359-367
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception of college students about English classes using TED talks and to examine whether TED talks are appropriate as a learning material for college English. As a college English subject, 50-60 minutes of online classes were conducted for one semester where TED talks were used, and the data collected by conducting a survey on learners' English learning motivation, interest, attitude, satisfaction, and learning effect were analyzed utilized SMART PLS 3. The results are as follows. First, English learning motivation had a statistically significant effect on learning attitude while it did not affect the learning satisfaction. Second, the level of interest in the TED Talk-using class had a positive effect on the learning attitude and satisfaction. Third, the learning attitude positively affected the learning effect perception. Fourth, satisfaction with the TED Talk class had a positive effect on the learning effect perception. In conclusion, English classes using TED talk can increase the interest and satisfaction of learners, and induce active class participation, which lead to a positive perception in learners' learning effects. Therefore, this study implies that TED talks are valuable and significant enough as materials in college English classes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

The current study investigates whether artificially intelligent chatbots influence Korean EFL students' vocabulary learning. For eight weeks, 47 college students in Korea participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group. Participants in the experimental group engaged in chat with a chatbot during the eight-week experimental period. Before and after the experiment, pre- and post-tests were administered to see if their English vocabulary improved. Pre- and post- surveys were also performed to understand how the participants perceived chatbot-assisted vocabulary learning. Results show that the experimental group improved their vocabulary skills as a result of engaging in chat with the chatbot. Also, their perceptions of vocabulary learning positively changed, increasing their motivation, interest, and confidence in English. Given that there have been few empirical studies to investigate the effects of chatbots on vocabulary development, the present study can provide insights on the effectiveness of chatbots.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.188-194
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• 2010

This paper deals with a teaching method in EMI(English Medium Instructor) Education for engineering major subjects which is accomplished between non-native english speaking professors and students. Goals of EMI in non-english speaking countries will be both a improvement of communication ability and understanding of the major subjects. However, when students who have a low level-english ability participate in english class, it is necessary to analyze whether they can obtain above goals or not and to study on a teaching method for them. The english classes were aimed at students at the college of engineering who have 200-420 TOEIC average score. The research was proceeded by course evaluations to three direct EMI and surveys that were performed targeting all students participated in english class. The proposed research results may lead to development of EMI for students who have a low level- english ability and give them a better understanding and interest of major subjects.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.436-443
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in three attitudes-attitudes toward English learning, attitudes toward American, and attitudes toward American culture between Korean and Chinese university students learning Korean in Korea. The subjects are 211 students, who are 101 Korean and 110 Chinese. Gardner(1985)'s AMTB questionnaire was administered to measure the learners' attitudes. And the collected data were analyzed by t-test to examine the differences between two groups. The results of this study showed that there were statistically very significant differences in attitudes toward English learning and there were significant differences in attitudes toward American between two groups. But there were no differences statistically in attitudes toward American culture between two groups. To make better learning environment for English learners, the differences in other affective variables between two groups need to be studied.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.123-130
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• 2018

The present study aims to investigate how Korean EFL learners' views of form-focused instruction, integrated and isolated FFI (form-focused instruction), are related to their beliefs about grammar and attention and how different these relationships are between high and low proficiency levels and between males and females in Korean college contexts. The findings indicated the participants' strong preference for integrated FFI, which was significantly correlated with two factors, attention in English class and English proficiency. On the other hand, the isolated FFI was strongly correlated with their beliefs about grammar learning, that is, independent learning of grammar and importance of learning grammar rules. In conclusion, the integrated FFI was associated with students' proficiency and attention, while the isolated FFI was related to their views of grammar learning. In conclusion, it is suggested that we need to use integrated FFI in Korean EFL contexts considering students' levels of proficiency and attention.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.37-45
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to understand language learning strategies use, language learning beliefs, and listening achievement of Korean EFL learners. The participants was sixty-nine university students who enrolled in blended learning classes for English listening. Data was collected and analyzed to see if there were any differences in strategies and beliefs between students who improved their listening test score and those who did not. The results showed that students showing improvement at the post-test used more language learning strategies and had a high level of motivation. Statistically significant correlation was found between motivation and strategies such as cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies.