• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

The current study investigates whether artificially intelligent chatbots influence Korean EFL students' vocabulary learning. For eight weeks, 47 college students in Korea participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group. Participants in the experimental group engaged in chat with a chatbot during the eight-week experimental period. Before and after the experiment, pre- and post-tests were administered to see if their English vocabulary improved. Pre- and post- surveys were also performed to understand how the participants perceived chatbot-assisted vocabulary learning. Results show that the experimental group improved their vocabulary skills as a result of engaging in chat with the chatbot. Also, their perceptions of vocabulary learning positively changed, increasing their motivation, interest, and confidence in English. Given that there have been few empirical studies to investigate the effects of chatbots on vocabulary development, the present study can provide insights on the effectiveness of chatbots.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

It has long been shown that Korean EFL students have not practiced extensive reading in school curriculum. Their vocabulary knowledge is limited and a tool for measuring text readability for them has hardly been developed and used. The study aimed to check the current situations on the above issues and develop a reading framework appropriate for extensive reading within the national English curriculum, including the Readability Formula in Korean EFL contexts (KRF). The study consists of four steps. The study does a survey to check the current Korean EFL situations on the issues, suggests a new vocabulary learning size, develops a readability formula as a tool for measuring text difficulty based on the newly suggested vocabulary size, and finally validates the formula with various kinds of English books, including the primary and secondary school English textbooks. It is expected that this study will provide a model for the vocabulary size and the readability index for extensive reading in EFL contexts.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.37-54
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• 2009

This study investigated vocabulary learning strategies used by EFL middle school learners in Korea and examined the relationship between the middle school learners' vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) use and their vocabulary proficiency level. One hundred and forty-one students in a public middle school participated in the study and the data for this study were collected from a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire and a vocabulary proficiency test. Based on the result of the vocabulary proficiency test, the participants were divided into three proficiency groups: high-, mid- and low- level proficiency groups. The overall findings of the study revealed that the participants used cognitive strategies most frequently and social strategies least frequently. The most frequently used individual strategies were 'using a bilingual dictionary,' 'studying the sound of a word' and 'practicing words through verbal repetition.' The least frequently used ones were 'interacting with native speakers' and 'studying or practicing the meaning of a word in a group.' The research results also showed that the vocabulary proficiency level has a significant influence on the vocabulary strategy use. The more proficient learners used vocabulary learning strategies more actively. More specifically, the high proficiency level group used metacognitive strategies the most. The middle and low proficiency groups used cognitive strategies the most. It is suggested that language teachers should facilitate the vocabulary learning process by helping learners develop appropriate strategies.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.41-49
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• 2022

The average acoustic distribution of American English speakers was statistically compared with the English-speaking patterns of gifted students in a Science Academy in Korea. By analyzing speech recordings, the duration time of which is much longer than in previous studies, this research identified the degree of acoustic proximity between the two parties and the predictability of English academic achievement of gifted high school students. Long-term spectral acoustic power distribution vectors were obtained for 2,048 center frequencies in the range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz by applying an long-term average speech spectrum (LTASS) MATLAB code. Three more variables were statistically compared to discover additional indices that can predict future English academic achievement: the receptive vocabulary size test, the cumulative vocabulary scores of English formative assessment, and the English Speaking Proficiency Test scores. Linear regression and correlational analyses between the four variables showed that the receptive vocabulary size test and the low-frequency vocabulary formative assessments which require both lexical and domain-specific science background knowledge are relatively more significant variables than a basic suprasegmental level English fluency in the predictability of gifted students' academic achievement.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.943-949
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• 2015

A reader usually spends a lot of time browsing and searching word meaning in a dictionary, internet or smart applications in order to find the unknown words. In this paper, we propose a method to compensate this drawback. The proposed method introduces a vocabulary upon recognizing a word or group of words that was captured by a smart phone camera. Through this proposed method, organizing and editing words that were captured by smart phone, searching the dictionary data using bisection method, listening pronunciation with the use of speech synthesizer, building and editing of vocabulary stored in database are given as the features. A smart phone application for organizing English words was established. The proposed method significantly reduces the organizing time for unknown English words and increases the English learning efficiency.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2015

Many games for English vocabulary learning, such as hangman, cross puzzle, matching, etc, have been developed which are of board-type or computer game-type. Most of these computer games are adapting strategy-style game plays so that there is a limit on giving the fun, a nature of games, to learners who do not like games of this style. In this paper, a system for memorizing new English words is proposed which is based on a single-player car racing game targeting youths and adults. In the game, the core of our system, a learner drives a car and obtains game points by colliding with English word texts like game items appearing on the track. The learner keeps on viewing English words being exposed on the track while driving, resulting in memorizing those words according to a learning principle stating viewing is memorization. To our experiment, the effect of memorizing English words by our car racing game is good, and the degree of satisfaction with our system as a English vocabulary learning tool is reasonably high. Also, previous word games are suitable for the memory enforcement of English words but our game can be used for the memorization of new words.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.123-145
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to propose an efficient vocabulary assessment model in task-based language learning and to verify the viability of this assessment model. Bachman and Palmer (1996) pointed out the fact that many language tests focus on just one of the areas of language knowledge. However, researchers suggested that it is necessary to acknowledge the needs of several analytic scales, which can provide separate ratings for different components of the language ability to be tested. Although there were many studies which tried to evaluate the various aspects of vocabulary ability, most of them measured only one or two factors. Based on previous research, this study proposed an assessment model of general construct of vocabulary ability and tried to measure vocabulary ability in four separate areas. The subjects were two classes of university level Korean EFL students. They participated in small group discussion via synchronous CMC. One class used a lexically focused task, which was proposed by Kim and Jeong (2006) and the other class used a non-lexically focused task. The results showed that the students with a lexically focused task significantly outperformed those with a non-lexically focused task in overall vocabulary ability as well as four subdivisions of vocabulary ability. In conclusion, the assessment model of separate ratings is a viable measure of vocabulary ability and this can provide elaborate interpretation of vocabulary ability.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.89-112
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• 2005

This study investigated the effects of collocation-based vocabulary instruction for the experimental group (G2). It was compared to the traditional wordlist-based vocabulary instruction for the control group (G1). This results reflect the development of low level high school EFL learners' vocabulary learning strategy use and the positive change in the affective domain. In the analysis of the survey responses, G1 and G2 did not differ significantly on the first questionnaire. They did, however, differ significantly on the second questionnaire. G2 used more strategies to discover and to consolidate the meaning of the words by means of combining words. In terms of the affective domain, G2 participated more actively in the learning activities, which had a significant effect on vocabulary growth, memory, self-confidence, motivation, and cooperative learning. This is attributable to the fact that G2 was more inquisitive, interested, challenged, participatory, cooperative, and attentive than G1 in performing the vocabulary task activities. Moreover, the data collected from the questionnaire showed that G2 performed more interactive and dynamic activities in solving the given tasks.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.143-170
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• 2009

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of repeating vocabulary exercises on learning and retaining the meaning, the form, and the use of L2 words. To achieve this purpose, the data from the 87 participants who performed the assigned vocabulary exercises were collected immediately and two weeks later on their learning and retention of the target words. In addition, their attitudes toward the given vocabulary exercises were examined. The results show that the participants repeating exercises showed significantly better results in the immediate posttest, whereas no significant differences were found in the delayed posttest. Consequently, although the repetition effect influence positively on the learning of the target words, these effects are not maintained if they are not reinforced subsequently after the initial introduction to them. Most of the participants in this study identified the importance of repetition in learning new words and also noted that only one encounter with words was not enough for them to acquire the words fully.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.61-94
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• 2020

The present study examined vocabulary usage in elementary English classrooms in Japan using elementary school corpus. The authors used three wordlists to benchmark the lexical items for four classes in the corpus: the CEFR-J, the General Service List (GSL), and Academic Word List (AWL). The percentage of vocabulary usage belonging to the Level A1 in the CEFR-J was below 15% (Class A: 12.1%, Class B: 12.6%, Class C: 8.9%, and Class D: 13.6%) with no statistical difference between levels. The mean ratio of Level A2 vocabulary items was below 10%, and all classes showed less than 1% of vocabulary usage for the Levels B1 and B2. Over 70% of all vocabulary items in the corpus belonged to the most frequent 1,000-word band (level 1) of the GSL, while the next most frequent word band (level 2 of the GSL and AWL) accounted for less than 10%. The results suggest that elementary school English teachers should use more vocabulary items in the CEFR-J Level A1. The findings demonstrate that elementary school teachers are less likely to expose their pupils to grammatically well-structured sentences with an abundance of lexical items since the teachers repeatedly use the same lexemes in each class.