• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.123-139
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• 2011

The purpose of the current study is to analyze a model of OPIc-based speaking test for Korea English classroom. The research questions were (1). What is the English teachers' opinion on the current speaking teaching and testing? (2). Is the OPIc speaking test appropriate in the Korea English class? and (3). What are the English education students' perceptions of the OPIc-based speaking test for English classes? To answer the first research question, a survey was conducted targeting one hundred and forty-seven teachers. The result of the survey shows that Korea English teachers' great concern on the English teaching and speaking test are "communicative competence," "scoring and criteria," and "condition and need." To answer the second research question, the OPIc speaking test for the class was analyzed and it was found that in terms of the communicative competence," "scoring and criteria," and "condition and need" issues, OPIc based speaking test is appropriate in Korea English class. For the third research question, Q methodology was used targeting English education students and the result shows that most English education students strongly agree to the statements that the OPIc-based speaking test has the advantage to improve communicative competence. This study may provide the information about creating and adopting tests for English classes and relating standardized test and the English classes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2012

This study explores the effects of phonological awareness instruction with phonetics on listening comprehension and speaking. For the test of measuring the improvement of listening comprehension, two nationwide listening comprehension tests were used for pre-test and post-test. To find out the improvement of speaking ability, students were required to take the Level-3 NEAT speaking tests. There was a notable correlation between phonological awareness instruction with phonetics and listening ability. Also a significant correlation between phonological awareness instruction with phonetics and speaking ability was found. The group with phonological awareness class with phonetics received higher scores in listening and speaking test than the group without phonological awareness class with phonetics in the post-test. This study implies that phonological awareness class with phonetics is helpful for the improvement of listening and speaking ability. With this research, we can also say that students' communicative competence increased.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations between phonetic differences among Korean learners' production of English front vowels, pronunciation intelligibility and speaking proficiency test score. To do so, thirty Korean university students were asked (1) to read English text book paragraphs and (2) describe a picture. Two English native raters and one Korean rater evaluated Korean subjects' English pronunciation intelligibility and speaking. In addition, subjects' English vowel productions were acoustically analyzed(F0, F1, F2, vowel duration, intensity). The results of the study show that the vowel quality and pitch of the unstressed vowels and lax vowel are related to the pronunciation intelligibility. In addition, the scores of pronunciation intelligibility and speaking are highly related.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.367-374
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• 2016

In this study, we proposed the development of smart application for English speaking effectively. First, to develop English learning application, we applied the TTS feature to record your own sounds and learning theory repeated listening and speaking that is the basis of English learning. To analyze the effectiveness of the application, we applied a lesson to elementary students for 4 months. In the test result, we found that all students have advanced to the English speaking ability and the test results of the affective factors showed a positive response to most students.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.25-31
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• 2016

In the study, a convergence model of a mobile-based English speaking test was developed. Based on the needs analysis from Korean college students, a speaking test App for iOS and Android mobile devices was developed and its test validity was examined. To develop the test, test items, scoring features and scales were developed. The result of the needs analysis survey showed that 69 out of 87 (79.3%) owned Android phones whereas only 17 (19.5%) held iPhones. Based on the result, an English speaking test App was developed. The technologies used for the test included HTML5, the Javasciript bridge technology, Node and Express, and Mongo DB. In the experiment, five examinees took the test. The test validity was obtained in that all the functions of the test were successfully operated and some feedback was gathered.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.305-333
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of teaching English through the techniques of storytelling with dramatization upon children's competence of English speaking and listening. These techniques are considered to enable children to have ample opportunity of use in and exposure to English, as well as interest. This study is sequenced as selecting stories by way of consulting literatures, developing a teaching model for practising classes through storytelling with dramatization, and analyzing the data resulting from the pre- and post-listening/speaking tests using the SPSS program. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: the experimental group shows better significance than the control one in the listening and speaking post-test. Therefore, literary units also need to be incorporated into English textbooks in order to improve children's aural-oral competence through the storytelling with dramatization.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2017

The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of utterance internal pause in English speaking evaluation. To avoid possible confusion with other errors caused by segmental and prosodic inaccuracy, stem utterances with two different length obtained from a native speaker were manipulated to make a set of stimuli tokens through insertion of pauses whose length and position vary. After a total of 90 participants classified into three proficiency groups rated the stimuli, the scored data set was statistically analyzed in terms of the mixed effects model. It was confirmed that predictors such as pause length, pause position and utterance length significantly influence raters' evaluation scores. Especially, a dominating effect was found in such a way that raters gradually deducted scores in accordance with the increase of pause duration. In another experiment, a tree-based statistical learning technique was utilized to check which of the significant predictors played a more influential role than others. The findings in this paper are expected to be practically informative for both the test takers who are preparing for an English speaking test and the raters who desire to develop more objective rubric of speaking evaluation.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.699-710
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• 2007

The study purposes to explore the effects of individual characteristics and home environments of children on their bilingual language aquisition, that is, to examine whether their English language competency is different from their Korean language competency depending on those variables. Thus English or Korean language competency of children who had had early exposure in English learning were studied in terms of child's individual characteristics such as age, gender, exposure period to English, intelligence, and experiences of visiting English-speaking countries, and home environments such as parental age, educational level, income level, their perceived English competency, their perceived significance of English and Korean language, and the frequency of using English at home. 72 children who went to English kindergarten were tested with Peabody Pictures Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) in Korean version and in English version respectively. The results show that child's intelligence and experiences of visiting English-speaking countries influence their Korean language competency. Also child's age, exposure period to English and experiences of visiting English-speaking countries influence their English language competency. Moreover their mother's educational background, father's English fluency, mothers' English fluency, and the frequency of using English at home influence child's English language competency, whereas any variables did not influence child's Korean language competency. Accordingly, child's English and Korean language competencies are related to each other.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.309-326
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• 2011

This study examines the relationship between second language use outside of class and oral proficiency development. It first identifies out-of-class activities of international graduate students in the U.S. and the average time spent speaking English in those out-of-class activities. Interviews and student self-measurements of time spent speaking English each day were used to investigate the types and quantities of out-of-class activities. In addition, two sets of student oral proficiency test scores were collected. Correlation analysis is used to find out the relationship of the variables between the most salient out-of-class activities and oral proficiency gains. The findings indicate that second language use outside of class is important for international graduate students to improve their oral proficiency. This is especially true with regularized interaction such as talking at work and the average time spent speaking in English a day outside of class. This study suggests that learners of English in an ESL environment should be encouraged to take part in out-of-class activities in addition to English use in the classroom in order for them to improve their oral proficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.114-118
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• 2019

EPTA(English Proficiency Test for Aviation) was not very aviation realistic test before 2019. Testee needed pass listening test first. Then testee could take speaking test. There were 20sets of speaking test. If the testee memorize well, he or she could pass the test easily even though he or she was not very good at English. So the pilot and the authority agreed to change the format of EPTA since 2016. Through development of new EPTA format, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority started new EPTA test since January, 2019. It has been one year since the new format of EPTA started. Now I try to survey satisfaction of new EPTA through questionnaire.