• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.291-311
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the English reading strategies of Korean secondary EFL learners by their personality types. The study was conducted with 112 middle school students and 100 high school students in Korea. The instrument used for personality measurement was the MBTI test. A reading strategy questionnaire was used to see how frequently each reading strategy was used while students read passages in English. The collected data was analyzed using t-test and two-way ANOVA to see the differences between high school and middle school students in terms of personality types. The results of the study demonstrated that there were significant differences in strategies used by the two groups of students and high school students used more reading strategies than middle school students. It was also found that the students exhibited some differences in reading strategy use depending on their personality types, especially between the N(Intuition) and S(Sensing) types. For example, students with N(Intuition) types used more vocabulary-comprehension, guessing, and metacogntive strategies than S(Sensing) types. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for classroom English teachers are discussed based on the results of the current study.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.365-370
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• 2021

The current study aims to investigate the relationship between working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and listening competence of Korean EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. 30 English education majors from a university in Korea were recruited. The backward digit span and the operation span tasks were used to measure the participants' working memory capacity, while the Listening Vocabulary Level Test (LVLT) and the Michigan English Test (MET) were employed to measure their vocabulary size and listening proficiency in English, respectively. The correlational analyses revealed that the bigger one's working memory storage was, the better the person processed incoming input. However, no statistically significant correlation was found between working memory capacity, English vocabulary size, and listening proficiency, possibly due to the small sample size and the homogeneous subjects.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.77-98
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• 2005

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether focus-on-form instruction is effective in promoting accuracy in writing and to make some suggestions regarding education in business English writing. For this purpose, an experiment, of which the participants were 29 college sophomores taking a course in business English, was made. The learners received instruction in the English nouns followed by modificatory phrases or clauses through the focus-on-form techniques, feedback and explicit explanation. The results were as follows: First, the learners who received focus-on-form instruction improved accuracy in writing. Second, there was a correlation between the learners' English proficiency levels and the effects of focus-on-form instruction. Third, the high level learners showed more positive attitude toward focus-on-form instruction than the low level ones. To promote accuracy in written business communication, the following suggestions were made on the basis of the results: First, focus-on-form instruction should be incorporated into a content-based business English class. Second, repeated focus-on-form instruction is needed. Third, learners' English proficiency levels should be taken into account when focus-on-form instruction is given.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.223-248
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• 2009

Previous research on the impact of pretask planning on subsequent second language (L2) production has mainly focused on the linguistic quality of planned production, while learners' thought processes and perceptions about planning have been relatively less explored. In addition, few previous planning studies have examined whether the learners did in fact follow the pretask instructions, thus leaving the role of pretask instructions in the planning process unexplored. Therefore, the present study investigated whether pretask instructions affect attentional allocation as well as what cognitive operations planners engage in and what their perceptions about planning are. Forty-three Korean EFL classroom learners were divided into two groups: before having time to plan for an oral story retelling task, one group received general instructions, while the other group received specific instructions. The findings, based on both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, indicated no large effects of pretask instructions on the planners' attentional focus. Rather, the qualitative analysis identified a number of other factors that influenced learners' decision making as well as their general processes and approaches to planning and their perceptions about planning and thinking aloud while planning. Implications for L2 teaching as well as limitations of the study are discussed.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of real-time remote video instruction using zoom on learners' English reading achievement. The study also sought to identify the efficiency of zoom video lectures and consider supplementing them by surveying learners' opinions and satisfaction regarding zoom video lectures. To this end, control and experimental groups were set up, and two achievement tests and a questionnaire were conducted. The study's results demonstrated that zoom video lectures have a positive effect on learners' English reading achievement. The questionnaire found that learners are satisfied with zoom video lectures for the following reasons: 'increased interest in and motivation towards learning', 'self-directed learning', 'active interaction', 'ease of access', 'ease of information retrieval'. At the same time, the questionnaire also found that some learners are dissatisfied with zoom video lectures due to 'mechanical errors or defects', 'poor audio quality', and 'the need to add customized functions for efficient classes'. In practice, zoom video lectures must be supplemented with automatic attendance processing, convenient data upload and download, and more efficient video screen management. Given the recent increase in online classes, we, as instructors, must develop teaching activities and/or strategies for video lectures that can encourage active participation by learners.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.977-998
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate prospective teachers' perceptions of the peer review comments readily available to them during the writing process in a teacher training class. Given these needs, we employ a qualitative method of inquiry giving voice to the learner's own view of peer feedback. The data we wish to consider is first-person narratives elicited from four EFL college students, who are prospective teachers of English. With regard to the EFL students' narrative considered here, all were attentive to the feedback they received. Moreover, the way in which these EFL writers talk about peer response activity reflects that they still welcome peer feedback because of the benefits to be accrued from it. Although this study, covering only four EFL students in total, can hardly be considered conclusive, we attempt to offer a synthesis of their stories. First of all, students indicate that they received responses from "authentic readers" (Mittan 1989, 209). We do note, consequently, that students gain a clear understanding of readers' needs by receiving feedback on what they did well and on what seems unclear. Perhaps the greater effect of peer feedback claimed by these students is that they take active roles in utilizing peer comments. Since they feel uncertain about the validity of their classmates' responses, students feel that they have autonomy over their own text and can make their own decisions on whether they should accept their peer comments or not. This contrasts with their treatment of teacher comments that they accept begrudgingly even if they disagree with them. Four EFL writers talked a lot, typically in a positive way, about peer response to their writing, yet they have expressed reservations about the extent to which they should put any credence in comments offered by their fellow students. Perhaps this is because their fellow students are still developing writers and EFL learners. In turn, they were sometimes reluctant to accept the peers' comments. Thus, in EFL contexts, L1 use can be suggested during peer feedback sessions. In particular, we have come to feel that L1 use enables both reviewers and receivers to have more productive peer review experiences. Additionally, we need to train students not "to see peer feedback as potentially bad advice" (Silva et al. 2003, 111). Teachers should focus on training students to utilize their peers' comments. Without such training, students will either ignore feedback or fail to use it constructively.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.6
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• pp.1-24
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• 2000

Listening comprehension is an integrative and creative process of interaction through which listeners receive speakers' production of linguistic or non-linguistic knowledge. Compared with reading comprehension, it may arouse difficulties and thus impose more burdens on foreign learners. The Audio-Lingual Method focused primarily on speaking. Mimicry, repetition, rote memory, and transformation drills actually interfered with listening comprehension. So learners lost interest and were not highly motivated. Improving listening comprehension requires continual attentiveness and interest. Listening skill can be extended systematically only when students are frequently exposed to a wide range of listening materials with an affective, cultural, social, and psycholinguistic approach. Therefore, teachers should help students learn how to comprehend intactly the overall meaning of intended messages. The literature on teaching listening skill suggests various useful activities: TPR, dictation, role playing, singing, picture recognition, completion, prediction, seeking specific information, summarizing, labeling, humor, jokes, cartoons, media, and so on. Practical classroom teaching necessitates a systematic procedure in which students should take part in meaningful tasks/activities. In addition to this, learners must practice listening comprehension trough a self-study process.

• 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.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.25-42
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• 2023

The number of studies on data-driven learning (DDL) has increased in recent years, and DDL's overall effectiveness as an L2 (second language) teaching methodology has been reported to be high. However, the degree of its effectiveness in grammar instruction, particularly for the goal of correcting errors in L2 writing, is still unclear. To provide guidelines for focused grammar instruction with DDL in the Japanese classroom setting, we aimed to identify the typical grammatical errors made by Japanese learners in the Cambridge Learner Corpus First Certificate in English (CLC FCE) dataset. The results revealed that three error types (nouns, articles, and prepositions) should be addressed in DDL grammar instruction for Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. In light of the findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future DDL research and practice are discussed.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.189-215
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• 2008

This study proposes using children's literature as a means of teaching and learning English as a foreign language and suggests practical strategies on the basis of transactional theory of reading suggested by Rosenblatt (1994, 1995). This study suggests three novels written for children or young adults: On My Honor (1986) by Marion Dane Bauer, The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry and Hatchet (1987) by Gary Paulsen. These texts were selected because of their diverse topics, easy and comprehensible language, engaging stories, and authentic and rich expressions, making them effective materials for foreign language learners. This paper is organized as follows: First, it reviews research on teaching literature in English education and response-oriented language teaching to provide theoretical background of literature-based language teaching and learning. Second, it provides the background of the texts selected for the study. Third, it develops diverse, practical strategies for instructors who intend to use children's literature in EFL teaching. We expect to guide EFL instructors in adopting children's literature in their English class by connecting theory and practice and by providing diverse methods and strategies, and sample responses by EFL university students.