• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.148-155
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• 2020

This study investigated learners' perceptions of using self-generated listening materials based on Text to Speech. After taking an online training session to learn how to make listening materials for extensive listening practice outside the classroom, the learners were engaged in practice with self-generated listening materials for 10 weeks in a self-directed way. The results show that a majority of the learners found the TTS-based listening materials helpful to reduce anxiety toward listening and enhance self-confidence and motivation, with a positive effect on improving their listening ability. The learners' general satisfaction can be attributed to some beneficial features of TTS-based listening material, including freedom to choose what they want to learn, convenient accessibility to the material, availability of various native speakers' voices, and novelty of digital tools. This suggests that TTS-based digital listening materials can be a useful educational tool to support learners' self-directed listening practice outside the classroom in EFL settings.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.177-182
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• 2020

In the age of technology and information, communicating with people from different cultures is significantly important. Regarding this perspective, communicative competence has been the focus in the EFL educational context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using movies in a culture-integrated English reading course at the college level. In order to achieve this purpose, pre- and post-reading comprehension tests, pre- and post-surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted. The results of data analysis showed that using movies in the culture-integrated English reading class positively affected students' interest and confidence towards English reading as well as their reading achievement. In this respect, we suggest that cultural teaching through movies in English classes should be learner-centered so that learners can proactively analyze and understand different cultural backgrounds shown in the movies and build schemas which can be used in their learning process.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2022

With recent scientific advances and growing interest in AI technologies, AI-based chatbots have been viewed as a practical learning aid for English language development. The purpose of this study is to examine preservice teachers' perceptions on the potential benefits of employing AI chatbots in English instruction and its pedagogical aspects. 28 preservice teachers majoring in English education were asked to use Kuki chatbots for a week with a guidance of a researcher and then report on their perceptions of AI chatbots in terms of perceived usefulness after use, applicability, and educational benefits and drawbacks. Emerging codes and themes were identified and evaluated using Thematic Analysis(TA) based on qualitative data from surveys and interviews. The findings show that six emerging themes were identified, encompassing perspectives on teacher, learner, communication, linguistic, affective, and assessment. The overall findings of this study revealed that AI-based chatbots can play a significant role as learning tools for stimulating interactive communication in a target language. Most preservice primary teachers acknowledge that AI chatbots can be useful as teaching and learning aids for both teachers and students. Furthermore, when applying various learner data to chatbot technology, such as learner assessment and diagnosis, a guided approach is necessary to perform a conversation appropriate for the learner's level and characteristics. Finally, as chatbots have a variety of benefits in terms of affective aspects, they may improve EFL learners' confidence in speaking English and learning motivation.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.171-188
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of ongoing feedback from the professor in students' processes of learning and developing writing skills. Specifically, the researcher was concerned with how ongoing feedback affected students' attitudes towards writing because in EFL contexts, motivating students to write is a first step to engage them in a challenging journey of academic writing. 20 freshmen taking a writing course, "Paragraph & Essay Writing", at A university participated in this study and they were asked to complete the questionnaire at the end of the spring semester 2009. The results revealed that receiving ongoing feedback from the professor had a positive influence on affective domain, was helpful to develop learning strategies, and was valuable in learning outcomes. However, they also expressed negative opinions: feeling a burden, focusing on forms, and feeling confused. To reflect their opinions, the following four suggestions were made to create a more effective learning environment: promoting learner autonomy, facilitating individual writing conferences, giving balanced feedback in between form and content, and using judicious feedback through careful streaming.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.49-74
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• 2011

The present paper aims to explore the role of non-negotiated input and output in language acquisition in the context of free Web chat. In order to examine how input and output contribute to language acquisition, with or without meaning negotiation, the present study examined a Korean EFL learner's chat data collected over 6 months. Chat texts across 43 chat sessions were analyzed, along with her comment notes and interviews. The input and output negotiated for meaning were traced throughout all sessions to find evidence that they were linked to acquisition. Other input and output in the interaction were also traced to ascertain if they contributed to acquisition. The chat text analysis, comment notes, and the interviews revealed that the opportunities of meaning negotiation in a free Web chat context was quite limited and that the learner acquired language even in the absence of meaning negotiation. The findings suggest that input and output via Web chat, whether negotiated or non-negotiated, play their respective roles, contributing to different aspects of acquisition.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.339-356
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• 2011

This study explored pre-service English teachers' participation in the development of a rubric and examined evaluation of their own English poetry. The current study would investigate: 1) the pre-service English teachers' perception as a rubric developer and self-evaluator, 2) the number of analytic area that the participants included in their rubrics and the scoring scheme that they designed in their rubrics, and 3) the inter-rater differences between self-assessemnt and expert-assessment across analytic areas. Twenty-four EFL learners participated in the current study. The researchers analyzed the learners' own English poetry, their field notes which contained the process of their writing, their rubrics, scores of self-assessment, and expert raters' scores. The results revealed that learners showed positive responses on learner-directed assessment, that 'content' is the most important area, and that inter-rater difference is small across all analytic areas.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.185-210
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• 2006

This study has two purposes. First, it aims to suggest an appropriate approach to English writing education for Korean high school students in a cooperative learning situation. It also aims to suggest what type of learner grouping, either homogeneous or heterogeneous, is appropriate by comparing the learners' writing abilities and the changes of their affective factors after being exposed to cooperative EFL writing instruction. Two homogeneous classes were selected and instructed to write in English for 11 weeks. One was composed of homogeneous small groups based on the students' writing scores, and the other was composed of heterogeneous small groups, again based on the students' writing scores. The results showed that the improvement between the two class types was quite different across different proficiency levels. For example, although there is little difference between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes of low and intermediate-level learners in writing ability improvement, high-level students showed a significant difference between the classes. In addition, it was found that class participation correlated significantly to writing ability improvement. Cooperative learning was proved to be an effective writing instructional approach to encourage learners' interest and increase their self-confidence; however, the results did not show any significant differences in learners' affective domain between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes. Similarly, the learners' grouping preference was not affected by the grouping method.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.71-76
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of action learning methods and practices, which have a research focus on learner-centered teaching after training students to use collaborative learning practices from the viewpoint that the learners acquire English skills through peer correction activities based on sociocultural learning theory[1]. From March 1, 2018 to June 15, 2018, one control class and one experimental group were selected from the general freshman English courses. The experimental group attended classes centered on collaborative writing activities using action learning and cooperation techniques, and the control group attended classes lecture style and rote learning methods to teach writing. The result of study has shown that, for the experimental group, there have been statistically significant results in the production of writing, such as the number of words, the number of sentences, and sentence length. Learners could share the knowledge or ideas of others in their learning relationships with more regular basis.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.237-264
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• 2009

The present study explores patterns of teachers' corrective feedback and learners' uptake in Korean EFL undergraduate classroom setting. It also examines consistencies and discrepancies in the perception of corrective feedback by teachers and learners. Teachers' and learners' preferences and perception of corrective feedback are further analyzed to determine whether or not those differ from actual practices in English language learning classrooms. The results of the study are as follows. First of all, teachers' corrective feedback type varied according to the learners' error type and English proficiency level. There was a lack of consistency between the teachers' feedback practices and the learners' error types. Second, for the phonological errors, learners' data witnessed the most frequent uptake on recast. For the other error types, however, the learners' uptake rates were high for the explicit corrective feedback. Third, the teachers' explicit knowledge of corrective feedback was rather low and the preferences differed from teacher to teacher. The teachers' feedback perception and preferences did not consistently reflect their actual practices. Finally, patterns of the learners' expectations of corrective feedback varied according to learners' proficiency level. Teachers' and learners' expectations of corrective feedback were also compared and some mismatches were detected.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1017-1041
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• 2011

This study investigates Korean EFL learners' awareness and use of the English existential there-construction by examining data collected from 54 Korean EFL learners of English by means of a pragmalinguistic judgment task and a controlled discourse completion task. The results of the judgment task reveal that lower proficiency learners rated canonical sentences and existentials with a preposed locative best in the communicative situations where the use of existentials would have been most appropriate. A comparison of the ratings by more proficient learners and native speakers shows that existentials received highest ratings by both groups where they are the most natural option, while canonical sentences received significantly higher ratings by the learners. With regard to the production data, learners tended to avoid existentials, but rather relied on canonical sentences. Existentials were rarely used by lower proficiency learners and not used productively even by more proficient learners in the situations where existentials would have been the most natural option. These results suggest that Korean learners' difficulty with the use of existentials is not merely a product of performance limitations, but attributable to limited knowledge about existentials and their syntactic alternatives in terms of contextual appropriateness. Lower proficiency learners lack such knowledge, and more proficient learners, while showing better awareness of the use of existentials, have problems as to the placement of new information when engaging in writing tasks that place lower level of demands on attention to the information status of noun phrases compared to communicative, oral tasks.