• Educational Technology International
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.71-94
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• 2011

How can an automated essay scoring (AES) program, which provides feedback for essays, be a formative tool for improving ESL writing? In spite of the increasing demands for English writing proficiency, English writing instruction has not been effective for teaching and learning because of a lack of timely and accurate feedback. In this context, AES as a possible solution has been gaining the attention of educators and scholars in ESL/EFL writing education because it can provide consistent and prompt feedback for student writers. This experimental study examined the impact of different types of feedback for a college ESL writing program using the Criterion AES system. The results reveal the positive impact of AES in a college-level ESL course and differences between the teacher's feedback and the AES feedback. The findings suggest that AES can be effectively integrated into ESL writing instruction as a formative assessment tool.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-32
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• 2007

This study took a cross-sectional, quantitative approach and profiled EFL students' awareness of the writing process and of teacher feedback. The subjects were 113 college students aged 19-26 years from non-English majors, who were enrolled in three sections of a required English course. According to the scores gained from the essay writing assignment, they were divided into two groups (proficient and less-proficient writers) and responded to an in-class survey. Major findings were that: (1) the vast majority of both groups did not find English writing enjoyable; (2) longer comments gave rise to substantial changes to the students' revisions; (3) the less-proficient writers were shown to benefit from revision significantly more than the proficient writers; (4) Both groups of writers utilized multiple strategies to process teacher feedback and preferred to receive teacher comments using complete sentences rather than phrases or single words; and (5) teacher's marks on grammar and vocabulary claimed to be most conducive to EFL writing development. Several important implications for EFL writing instruction and for future studies are suggested.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.121-127
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• 2023

The purpose of this pilot study is to examine the responses of middle school students to English learning after conducting English writing activities using DALL-E2, an image-generating artificial intelligence tool. To this end, an experimental class was conducted for 3 weeks for 15 middle school English learners, and the results are summarized as follows. First, as a result of a survey on English writing activities using DALL-E2, it was found that confidence, interest, and awareness of writing using artificial intelligence-based tools changed positively. In addition, it was confirmed that there was a statistically significant difference, which meant that learning using artificial intelligence had a positive effect on English writing and overall English learning. Second, as a result of analyzing the English writing activities using DALL-E2, core themes could be extracted into three (cognitive, affective, and psychodynamic characteristics), and the use and implementation of artificial intelligence-based DALL-E2 in English learning showed potential to increase learning interest, challenge, will, and desire in learning and ultimately contribute to enhancing productive skill.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.267-290
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the writing tasks included in the newly developed high school English textbooks in the aspects of genre, rhetorical structure, task type, and authenticity in order to find out whether these tasks could contribute to improving Korean EFL students' writing skills. A total of nine textbooks were selected for the study and every writing task in each textbook was analyzed. The results show that various types of genres were incorporated in the tasks, but very few opportunities were provided for students to acquire characteristics of specific genres. In terms of rhetorical structure of text, narration, illustration, and transaction were required most, whereas not a single writing task asked students to use classification or cause and effect. Many of the writing tasks analyzed offered linguistic and/or content support through the use of models, which displays traces of the product-based approach to teaching writing. Lastly, most of the tasks lacked authenticity represented by explicit discussion of purpose and audience. Implications for L2 writing task development and writing instruction in the Korean EFL context are discussed.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-149
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• 2003

As the world becomes a global village, national conferences become more frequent, and the language of choice to mediate the exchange of information is English. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to find several methods to prepare L2 students for English communication at conferences. Various studies about discourse markers can be found in this study. Discourse markers are indicators of fluency in spoken language, and indicators of improvement from features of spoken English to more typical forms of formal writing. In this study the presentation styles of native speakers and Asian non-native speakers are compared, and the difference between efficient and non-efficient speakers at conferences are discussed. As a study of conference English teaching and learning method, this research targets suggestion and application of discourse markers for L2 speakers. As a result, the fact that discourse markers are very important in effective writing and conference English is found and accordingly we can see that developing the ability to use discourse markers in writing and speaking are essential for L2 speakers.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-76
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to explore the use of Google Classroom as a learning management system for College English. The study targeted 34 university students. They took part in various activities, such as writing reactions to video lectures, peer-editing essays, and recording video presentations, et cetera. For the study, a t-test was conducted to evaluate the English development of the students. The two essays that each student wrote were used as the data sources. The result (t=-5.854, p=.000) indicated an improvement in their English writing proficiency. In addition, a survey was conducted to gather students' feedback regarding their perceptions towards the course. The study covered five aspects of their experience: Google Classroom, language development, Quizlet, classroom experience, and essay-writing experience. From the results, students indicated a positive response to the program. The use of Google Classroom in an online learning setting accomplishes two things; it helped the students in the development of their English proficiency, and provided activities that students find interesting, which in turn stimulates their self-learning spirit.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.235-259
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• 2007

The purpose of the present study is to develop a prototype automated scoring system for English writing. The system was developed for scoring writings of Korean middle school students. In order to develop the automated scoring system, following procedures have been applied. First, review and analysis of established automated essay scoring systems in other countries have been accomplished. By doing so, we could get the guidance for development of a new sentence-level automated scoring system for Korean EFL students. Second, knowledge base such as lexicon, grammar and WordNet for natural language processing and error corpus of English writing of Korean middle school students were established. Error corpus was established through the paper and pencil test with 589 third year middle school students. This study provided suggestions for the successful introduction of an automated scoring system in Korea. The automated scoring system developed in this study should be continuously upgraded to improve the accuracy of the scoring system. Also, it is suggested to develop an automated scoring system being able to carry out evaluation of English essay, not only sentence-level evaluation. The system needs to be upgraded for the improved precision, but, it was a successful introduction of an sentence-level automated scoring system for English writing in Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.51-66
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• 2005

This study investigates the feasibility of incorporating student evaluations of peer review interactions into the course grade for an EFL writing course. The use of such evaluations offers a way to grade the process of writing more directly than using writing portfolios alone. Moreover, evaluating peer review interactions highlights the social aspect of writing, which is valuable in the current post-process climate in writing instruction. The 18 members of a semester-long EFL writing course at a Korean university were trained in peer response for one half of a semester; then performed evaluations of peer review interactions during the second half of the semester as part of their writing course. Student evaluations were examined to reveal whether any bias occurred due to relative age, gender, major, or question type. The results revealed no such biases. Therefore, it is suggested that students are capable of providing fair evaluations of peers, which means the evaluations can be factored into the course grade in order to evaluate the social aspect of the writing process.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.123-142
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• 2009

The present study used multi-faceted Rasch measurement to explore the characteristics and bias patterns of non-native raters when they scored L2 writing tasks. Three raters scored 254 writing tasks written by Korean university students on two topics adapted from the TOEFL Test of Written English (TWE). The written products were assessed using a five-category rating scale (Content, Organization, Language in Use, Grammar, and Mechanics). The raters only showed a difference in severity with regard to rating categories but not in task types. Overall, the raters scored Grammar most harshly and Organization most leniently. The results also indicated several bias patterns of ratings with regard to the rating categories and task types. In rater-task bias interactions, each rater showed recurring bias patterns in their rating between two writing tasks. Analysis of rater-category bias interaction showed that the three raters revealed biased patterns across all the rating categories though they were relatively consistent in their rating. The study has implications for the importance of rater training and task selection in L2 writing assessment.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.67-89
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• 2005

Writing is a difficult skill for many people, both for children and adult alike and generally most people find it difficult to write down their thoughts effectively. Numerous studies have revealed that teachers find it frustrating to teach writing and many failed to help ESL students develop their writing ability. The theoretical emphasis on process oriented writing instruction has, in general brought about positive changes in the way writing is taught and has become widely accepted in the teaching of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Although the interpretation and implementation of the process approach varies considerably from instructor to instructor, nevertheless, the emphasis on process writing has brought about significant and beneficial changes in teachers' orientations to writing. Despite the theoretical recognition of writing as a recursive process, many ESL/EFL classrooms continue to teach writing as a linear sequence of planning, pre-writing, writing, revising and editing and has not enhanced ESL/EFL students writing ability to the desired level. There appears to be a missing link in helping students to crystallize their thoughts before writing. Studies have shown that incorporating visual thinking tools into the process approach of ESL writing can enhance students' ability to write. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study on the effects of using visual thinking tools in enhancing ESL students writing.