• 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.16 no.1
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• pp.81-100
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• 2009

The current study reported on the continuing relevance of the schema theory for reading as it relates to the field of teaching and SLA, whilst highlighting the inherent limitations affecting individual learners. A relevant study was conducted for this article focusing on the extent to which university teacher trainees of English Education are exposed to second language readings with an adherence towards utilizing prior knowledge and drawing upon schemata to support their comprehension. Results from quantitative and qualitative data measured and collected from two groups of university students respectively, indicated certain advantages to this strategy use in respect of increased understanding, familiarity, and comfort level in SL reading. However, those same results identified existing limitations associated with cultural bias, stereotyping and a tendency to focus on wrong information when activating said schemata. As such, the purpose of this study is to promote awareness of the schema theory as an effective strategy option whilst reinforcing a need to pay heed to the concerns associated with strict reliance upon such theory to aid reading skills. Further discussion of these issues and pedagogical implications has been provided along with both suggested considerations regarding teaching for EFL teachers and evaluators.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.193-206
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• 2002

The aim of this study is to find out how the labiovelar onglide /w/ in English kwV sequences that have minimal pairs with kV sequences is pronounced differently among Korean EFL learners based on acoustic evidence. This study tries to identify /w/ sound in English kwV sequences through spectrograms and to examine the duration ratios of each segment in kwV words to compare the patterns of an English native speaker with those of Korean speakers of English. In spectrographic analyses, the complete deletion of /w/ and partial pronunciation of /w/ dubbed [$k^{w}$] were identified as well as the targetappropriate production of /w/. The general production patterns with respect to the duration ratios in English [kw] sequence words showed that the subjects who produced /w/ had similar ratio patterns that the native speaker had in that the vowel duration ratio in kwV sequences was shorter than that in kV sequences. By contrast, the subjects who deleted [w] had a long ratio of the onset [$k^{h}$] while the speaker with a partial pronunciation of /w/ had a long ratio of the following vowel.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.157-165
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of general use of English literary works. It will be helpful for both general English learners and college students majoring English Education in ESL or EFL context. English literature is very useful pedagogical tool in the language class due to its unique valuable characteristics including authenticity, cultural and linguistic value, and personal enrichment, which impact on fostering English ability of EFL students. For this reason, it is unavoidable to develop a theory and practice regarding using English literature as an educational resource for college students in Korea. In this study several considerations will be discussed in terms of selection of the literary works to be applied for language learning purpose in the classrooms of universities in Korea. Such attentions will include fours skills of English such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. Finally, some effects and implications of using literary text as a pedagogical tool in the EFL language classrooms will be discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2017

This study investigates non-native speakers(NNS) of English use of backchannels with beginner-intermediate learners' use of 'uh', 'um(uhm)', 'and' and 'hm' suggesting a view as a possible pedagogical implication. The initial aim of this study was to learn this phenomenon and observe their conversation patterns to compare with previous studies. Based on the previous findings, the analyzed data using conventional Conversation Analysis (CA) methods indicate the possible presence of L1 topic markers, '-un' and '-nun' in the form of L2 backchannel tokens when uttered by beginning and intermediate level speakers of English and the presences of L2 backchannel tokens appear only in front of noun phrases. Additionally, these same words with these tokens and when translated back to Korean also require topic markers of '-un' and '-nun.' Finally, This study discusses possible pedagogical implications with the initial analysis of backchannel tokens for Korean EFL learners. In addition, the ultimate goal of this study is to refine this analysis with follow up experiments to validate this investigation into a working hypothesis generating discussions of this backchannel phenomenon from being viewed as a hindrance to as an positive influence that needs to be understood.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.209-233
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• 2009

Many difficult literary texts have been disregarded by the teachers as well as the students in the EFL context. The abridged version, however, has its pedagogical usability when viewed as an extension of the literary text like movies and comic strips. Legible abridgments boost up the critical mind among the learners by enhancing their involvement in responding more actively to each class. In addition, to study an abridged version makes the future teachers accustomed to use it as a usable material. Abridgment has its efficacy in the literary study, too: reader-response criticism and narrative scholarship. First, the learners' creative engagement to the text encourages them to draw their personal experiences which are made up of the basic storyline. Second, a personal experience linked to the story has a relationship to narrative scholarship proposed in contemporary ecocriticism. Narrative scholarship is a new academic trend that merges the writer's personal experience in physical surroundings with the text which describes the same or similar natural environment. The role of teachers is a key to succeed in the abridged version pedagogy. They can facilitate a web of learner, text, and social context by providing a friendly atmosphere to encourage students' active participation, as well as supplementary materials of the original text.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2018

Stressed vowels in English are usually produced using longer duration, higher pitch, and greater intensity than unstressed vowels. However, many English as a foreign language (EFL) learners have difficulty producing English lexical stress because their mother tongues do not have such features. In order to investigate if certain non-native English speakers (Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese-Chinese native speakers) are able to produce English lexical stress in a native-like manner, speech samples were extracted from the L2 learners' corpus known as AESOP (the Asian English Speech cOrpus Project). Sixteen disyllabic words were analyzed in terms of the ratio of duration, pitch, and intensity. The results demonstrate that non-native English speakers are able to produce English stress in a similar way to native English speakers, and all speakers (both native and non-native) show a tendency to use duration as the strongest cue in producing stress. The results also show that the duration ratio of native English speakers was significantly higher than that of non-native speakers, indicating that native speakers produce a bigger difference in duration between stressed and unstressed vowels.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.59-80
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• 2010

The present study investigated what kind of form-focused instruction would yield better results for incidental learning of English verb patterns in two experiments. Experiment 1 compared the effectiveness of focus on form (reading + translation) and focus on forms (verb pattern list + translation) tasks in learning new English verb patterns incidentally in Korean EFL college classrooms. The results of Experiment 1 showed significantly higher results for the focus on forms group. Since it was revealed by Experiment 1 that the learners did not notice unknown target verb patterns, Experiment 2 was undertaken to examine whether the difference between the focus on form and focus on forms conditions found in Experiment 1 would be retained even after the isolated form-focused instruction or focus on forms aiming at teaching students how to recognize verb patterns was provided for the learners before the focus on form and focus on forms tasks were carried out. The results showed that the focus on form group yielded significantly higher incidental learning scores than the focus on forms group. The effectiveness rates of the focus on form in Experiment 2 were statistically higher than those of the focus on forms in Experiment 1. The results of the two experiments indicated that the combination of the isolated form-focused instruction and focus on form was significantly more effective in learning English verb patterns incidentally. In conclusion, form-focused instruction including both isolated form-focused instruction and focus on form is an effective way to incidental learning of English verb patterns.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.50-67
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• 2020

This study investigated whether writing weekly listening logs could influence college English learners' metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency. In addition, the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) was applied to examine the learners' knowledge of their listening process. It is process-oriented research conducted by analyzing the MALQ and students' listening logs as to how their metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency have changed during the semester. Eighty-nine students who took an English listening practice course at a university participated in this study. The research findings are as follows. First, it turned out that there was a significant relationship between EFL university students' listening comprehension and some subscales of metacognitive awareness. Second, the students had an opportunity to reflect on learning through regular listening activities, and weekly listening logs, which included important information about listening process and practice. Third, as the students' listening proficiency increased at the end of the semester, it was found that introducing listening logs along with classroom lessons helped the students improve their listening ability. Finally, the high proficiency group students used multiple strategies simultaneously, regardless of the type of listening strategies, while the low proficiency group students used one or two limited listening strategies. However, the low proficiency group students may have had trouble expressing their ideas in English or recognizing the listening strategies they used, not because they did not use a lot of listening strategies. Therefore, teachers should regularly check if students are following their instructions and help them use appropriate strategies for better understanding.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.435-444
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• 2014

As vocabulary acquisition has become one of the emerging key issues in the foreign language education field, interest in vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) has also increased. However, little has been done to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies of young learners. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate VLS use in elementary school English language textbooks. A total of three fifth grade English textbooks and teachers' guidebooks were chosen and analyzed with the vocabulary learning strategies taxonomy suggested by Scbmitt (1997). The researcher identified there were only a limited number of vocabulary learning strategies in the textbooks and most of them were consolidation strategies. It was concluded that a variety of VLS should be introduced in multiple ways in consideration of learner preference, styles, culture and level of English proficiency. Some implications for the teaching and learning of vocabulary for EFL instruction amongst young learners are discussed.