• 영어어문교육
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.27-46
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• 2007

Teachers can maximize students' L2 learning by knowing preferred learning styles. This paper presents the results of a survey that asked 309 English learners to identify their perceptual learning style preferences. It further compared students' favored learning styles in terms of their gender and major field of study and explored a possible link between learning styles and English achievement. Collected data using Reid's (1995) questionnaire were analyzed by descriptive statistics, MANOVA, ANOVA, correlations, multiple regressions including squared partial correlations, and Cronbach's alpha. The results indicated that Korean students favored English learning in group regardless of gender, while their preferred mode of learning was significantly different in regard to their major field of study. Certain learning styles might be profitable for English achievement. Multiple regression analyses revealed that individual mode of learning was the best predictor of students' English achievement. It furthermore showed significant relationships between visual and individual styles of learning and English performance. The findings of the study reflected students' English learning context in which English native-speaking teachers frequently used communicative pair and small group activities for speaking practices that were consonant with students' learning styles.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.1-24
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• 2006

This study investigated differences in beliefs about English learning of 286 EFL college students and 52 English teachers in Korea. Data was collected using Horwitz's Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory and compared between students and teachers in beliefs. To address the research questions, the data were analyzed through descriptive statistics including frequencies, factor analysis, MANOVA, ANOVA, t-test, and reliability coefficients. The results showed four factors in student beliefs: Difficulty of learning English, nature of learning English, importance of correctness in learning English, and motivation and perceived importance of learning English. Clear differences were found in students and teachers' beliefs in English learning aptitude and importance of translation, error correction, and grammar rules. A few belief differences were also identified between Koreans and native-speaking English teachers related to the importance of vocabulary learning, pronunciation, and cultural knowledge. The findings of the study indicated that background variables such as gender and major field of study have an effect on student beliefs about L2 learning. The present study also provided pedagogical considerations to reduce mismatch between students and teachers beliefs and to improve the L2 planning and instruction.

• 영어영문학
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1057-1085
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• 2009

This paper addresses the question of why prepositions are particularly difficult forEFL learners. The first reason for such difficulty lies in the distinction between seemingly equivalent prepositions such as to and with, as in compared to and compared with. Most monolingual learners' dictionaries regard these two phrases as virtually synonymous. Yet, the results of the corpus analysis conducted in this study indicate that there are differences between the two. A second reason why EFL learners have problems with prepositions is that there are often variations in the inputdata. For example, although from generally follows different, in American English different than is also used. On the other hand, in British English, different to is the second most commonly used construction. This type of regional variation, confirmed in the corpus findings of the present paper, causes confusion in students of English. A learner who is not accustomed to British English may be puzzled by the expression different to. Finally, L1 negative transfer is responsible for the incorrect use of expressions such as discuss about. An error of this sort is the result of interference from the learner's mother tongue. The English verb discuss is not subcategorized for a preposition, whereas the equivalent Korean verb, for example, requires a noun phrase combined with the postposition.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.39-69
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• 2010

This study aims to identify how participants in online-incorporated English learning perceive interaction between achievement and factors of learning and personality. Using grounded theory analysis, this study attempts to generate a theoretical model depicting how the factors work with the L2 learners situated in the learning setting. A total of 231 college freshmen participated in online and offline EFL learning programs for the duration of one semester. In addition, all respondents completed a survey questionnaire on their learning experiences. In the investigation of the differences between low- and high-proficiency groups, audio-taped interviews with 20 selected students, 10 from each group, have revealed differences not only in the types of personal and instructional factors, but also, more importantly, in the interrelationship between these factors in each group's learning model. These models effectively explained the statistically significant differences in four questionnaire items, such as online learning and contributions of offline class sections to their L2 achievement. These findings entail L2 practitioners' shared understandings of their students' perspectives of learning in the specific L2 learning context.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.91-115
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• 2006

English immersion has emerged in Korea only recently as an innovative approach to learning and teaching English. Lack of real life experience of using English has been one of the biggest obstacles for Korean learners of English and has resulted in an increasing number of children being sent to English-speaking countries and a huge amount of dollar outflow. This recent innovation is expected to be the magic wand to resolve all these problems. However, setting up an immersion program in a typical EFL context like Korea has brought in another set of issues and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a short-term immersion English program in Korea and provide some empirical data to develop programs that can better cater to the needs of EFL learners. A two-week English immersion program was developed and implemented with 57 Korean and Japanese students whose grade level ranged from 4 to 12. The study results show that the program was successful in terms of changing the participants' attitude toward learning English, improving their English skills, enhancing intercultural understanding and competence, and motivating them for further studies of English and other foreign languages and cultures.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.211-231
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• 2007

Communication anxiety (CA) in L2 has been identified as one of the important predictors of determining success in the attainment of L2 communication competence. L2 professionals have attempted to explicate its nature in L2, but seemingly failed to achieve the goal. This is probably because they have tended to rely on studies dependent on the use of surveys, which are usually constructed on the basis of their own perspectives rather than L2 students' on CA. To solve this problem, some L2 professionals have utilized diverse research methods that can gather opinions directly from L2 students who are the main constituent in L2 learning; regretfully, they have barely listened to L2 students' voices about controlling CA in L2. This descriptive study explored the nature of CA and the way of controlling it by analyzing data from 57 Korean EFL undergraduates who voluntarily responded to the oral interview questions. The findings of this study pointed out that CA in L2 negatively influenced L2 performance. However, it seemed to have the potential to promote L2 learning. Provided are some important implications that can assist L2 teachers to help their students control CA by maximizing the positive nature of CA.

• 디지털콘텐츠학회 논문지
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• 제18권6호
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• pp.1101-1107
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• 2017

본 논문은 스마트폰의 플랫폼에 내장되어 있는 자동음성인식 기술을 활용하여 영어 학습자의 발음에 대한 즉각적인 문자 피드백을 제공하는 모바일 기반 발음 교수법이 영어 학습자의 자음 발음 (V-B, R-L, G-Z) 인식과 출력에 미치는 영향에 대해 연구했다. 특히, 자동음성인식 기술을 이용한 모바일 기반 발음 교수법을 사용한 그룹, 전통적인 교사 중심의 발음 교수법 그룹, 그리고 이 둘을 합친 하이브리드 교수법 그룹으로 나누어 영어 학습자의 발음 평가 결과를 (인지, 출력) 비교, 분석했다. ANCOVA를 이용한 분석 결과, 영어 학습자의 발음 출력에 있어 하이브리드 교수법 그룹이 (M=82.71, SD =3.3) 전통적인 교수법 그룹 (M=62.6, SD=4.05) 보다 유의미하게 높은 결과를 나타냈다 (p<.05).

• 영어어문교육
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.49-77
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• 2005

This paper has an aim to examine English native speakers' requests, and offer an instructional technique to develop EFL students' pragmatic ability. For this purpose, English-speaking native speakers' requests were collected in six different face-threatening situations, and analyzed in three ways: directness levels, internal modification and sequence of request. The analysis of requests showed that they were realized mainly through conventionally indirect level in most situations, were internally modified frequently through the use of downgraders, and had a certain sequence of utterances realizing a request. On the basis of these findings, two kinds of interactional activities (Jigsaw and pair work) were provided as sample activities to promote EFL students' pragmatic knowledge about the appropriate ways of making requests given the fact that pragmatic errors can be more serious and more problematic than grammatical errors in social interaction.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.91-108
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• 2007

This study investigates learners' perception on their engagement in rating activities in the EFL essay-writing context. The current study aims to address the answers to the following research questions: 1) What attitude do students show about their participation in the rating tasks? and 2) which of three aspects (e.g. the degree of rating experience, the exposure to English composition instruction and learning, and proficiency level) significantly influences learners' rating activities? 104 EFL learners participated in the rater training session. After participants finished rater training session, they rated three sample essays and peer essays using the given scoring guide. Based on the analysis of survey responses that students made, students showed positive attitude toward their engagement in rating tasks. For research question 2, only L2 writing proficiency seriously affected students' perception on the rating tasks. Advanced level of subjects did not feel stressed by a grade of peers as low level of subjects did. They were also critical about the benefits of self- and peer-assessment, suggesting that a peer's feedback on their own essay was not so useful and that a self-rating does not fully help learners identify their writing proficiency.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.118-125
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• 2021

This study's purpose is to examine the effects of mobile apps on learners' vocabulary acquisition and to analyze students' perceptions and opinions about the vocabulary app. To this end, this study set up a control group, which was given explicit instructions in the classroom by the instructor and an experimental group, which used a vocabulary app. The vocabulary acquisition test results suggested that the difference between the the two groups was insignificant. However, user satisfaction with regard to the mobile app was high, and the reasons given were the following: convenience, efficiency of memorizing, having fun while learning, and the app's interface. Based on these results, this study suggests that teachers should use mobile apps much more actively in classroom instruction, and encourge students to let apps play a more active role in their language studies.