• ETRI Journal
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.89-99
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• 2013

The problem of the sentence-based pronunciation evaluation task is defined in the context of subjective criteria. Three subjective criteria (that is, the minimum subjective word score, the mean subjective word score, and first impression) are proposed and modeled with the combination of word-based assessment. Then, the subjective criteria are approximated with objective sentence pronunciation scores obtained with the combination of word-based metrics. No a priori studies of common mistakes are required, and class-based language models are used to incorporate incorrect and correct pronunciations. Incorrect pronunciations are automatically incorporated by making use of a competitive lexicon and the phonetic rules of students' mother and target languages. This procedure is applicable to any second language learning context, and subjective-objective sentence score correlations greater than or equal to 0.5 can be achieved when the proposed sentence-based pronunciation criteria are approximated with combinations of word-based scores. Finally, the subjective-objective sentence score correlations reported here are very comparable with those published elsewhere resulting from methods that require a priori studies of pronunciation errors.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.219-228
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• 2015

This study evaluated the content of Korean vocabulary learning applications with a focus on tablet PC applications. We analyzed 51 Korean vocabulary learning applications. The instruments in this study were developed based on Yoo et al. (2012)' Vocabulary Learning Game Application Evaluation Criteria and Hyun et al. (2013)' Educational Application Evaluation Criteria. Data were analyzed using a t-test and one-way analysis of variance. The main results are as follows. First, each criteria's score was fairly good; the ease of use had the highest scores and the amusement had the lowest scores. Second, there was a significant difference in the interaction by vocabulary teaching approach. Applications based on a whole language-teaching method had higher scores than applications based on a phonics instructional teaching method inducing more operation and with immediate feedback. Third, there was significant difference in the sum of score and each criteria of developmental appropriateness, educational values, amusement, function and interaction by type of learning. Applications of combining type had higher scores in every criteria except for ease of use than applications of description type. These findings provide a preliminary evidence that the systematic Korean vocabulary learning application facilitates preschoolers' vocabulary learning.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.153-171
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• 2003

The scores of TOEFL, TOEIC, and TEPS have been increasingly used for many purposes in Korea. In particular, these test scores are being used as a predictor for determining readiness for and success in college work, or as a measure of the testees' overall English proficiency. Nonetheless, studies have rarely proposed that the validity of the test scores is used for either purpose. As a preliminary step to explore the predictive validity of the test scores, we collected the scores of TOEFL, TOEIC, and TEPS from thirty students of a university as well as their cumulative grade point averages (GPAs). The correlations between the test scores and GPAs show that TOEFL will be most likely to have the highest validity coefficient as a predictor for determining success in college work as well as a measure of overall English proficiency. Although this study has a few limitations such as the small number of participants, their homogeneousness as a group, etc., it provides some insight into the use of the three tests for college admissions and measurement of overall English proficiency and suggests need for conducting further validation studies in these areas.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.291-315
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• 2010

The present study examined the role of dialogue journaling in Korean students' English writing development. Thirteen Korean middle school students participated in a five-week dialogue journal writing program. The participants' English writing skills before and after their dialogue journaling were compared in terms of holistic and analytical scores of their English essays. The study also examined the changes in the participants' language use, as manifested in their dialogue journals. The results indicated the positive influence of dialogue journal writing on the participants' English writing skills in the areas of content and lexical fluency. As for the linguistic evidence that related dialogue journaling to English writing development, the three patterns of change in language use emerged from the participants' dialogue journals: a) raised awareness on grammar conventions, b) raised awareness on discourse conventions, and c) increased depth and richness in idea development. There were also three unhelpful factors associated with little improvement of English writing: a) lack in basic writing skills, b) repetitive use of identical sentence patterns, and c) lack in grammatical and lexical awareness. Overall, the results suggested that dialogue journaling could facilitate Korean students' English writing development when it creates authentic communicative interactions between the teacher and students.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.19-36
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• 2007

This study explored proverb comprehension and use in elementary school children by familarity and concreteness of proverbs and children's age, sex, experience of living with grandparents. The 529 fourth and sixth grade participants completed a questionnaire probing knowledge of 16 proverbs; 4 each in four categories(familiar-concrete, familiar-abstract, unfamiliar-concrete, and unfamiliar-abstract). Results showed highest comprehension scores for familiar-concrete proverbs. Sixth graders obtained higher comprehension score than fourth graders in all four proverb categories. There was no difference between grades in frequency of proverb usage. An interaction effect between grade and sex showed that female sixth graders had the highest comprehension score. These results suggest a possibility of relationship between figurative language and cognitive development related to abstract thinking in late school-age children.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.35-43
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• 2024

During the post-pandemic period, the interest in foreign language learning surged, leading to increased usage of language-learning apps. With the rising demand for these apps, analyzing app reviews becomes essential, as they provide valuable insights into user experiences and suggestions for improvement. This research focuses on extracting insights into users' opinions, sentiments, and overall satisfaction from reviews of HelloTalk, one of the most renowned language-learning apps. We employed topic modeling and emotion analysis approaches to analyze reviews collected from the Google Play Store. Several experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of sentiment classification models with different settings. In addition, we identified dominant emotions and topics within the app reviews using feature importance analysis. The experimental results show that the Random Forest model with topics and emotions outperforms other approaches in accuracy, recall, and F1 score. The findings reveal that topics emphasizing language learning and community interactions, as well as the use of language learning tools and the learning experience, are prominent. Moreover, the emotions of 'admiration' and 'annoyance' emerge as significant factors across all models. This research highlights that incorporating emotion scores into the model and utilizing a broader range of emotion labels enhances model performance.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.109-127
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• 1995

Due to frequent international exchanges, there has been much emphasis on communication proficiency in foreign language education. However, when we look back upon teaching English in Korea over past years, we find that English teaching has been dominated mainly by Grammar-Translation Method, which makes teachers and students pay little attention to listening skill that is regarded as the basis of communication proficiency. Recently many English teachers have shown their interest in listening skill, so they come to use the textbook record tapes to improve listening skill. But listening training by textbook record tapes seems to make students feel bored. So the purpose of this study is to suggest an effective way of improving listening skill by means of Pop Songs that the students are indulged in. The processes of this study consist of three stages : 1) listening to songs, 2) explanation about structures and vocabularies in songs, 3) filling in blanks while listening. The subjects in this study are freshmen 88 students in girls' High School They are grouped into two : one is experimental group and the other control group. Among the subjects, the former have been taught by the lesson plan using pop songs, while the latter by the lesson plan using textbook record tapes. The experiment lasts about 9 months (from March to November, l994) The data for analyzing the study results have been collected from two kinds of tests : one is listening test and the other comprehensive test. The hypothesises of this study areas follows : 1) Depending on hearing materials (experimental material vs traditional material), there will be a difference in scores of listening skills between EG (experimental group) and CG (control group), 2) Depending on the interest on pop songs, there will be a difference in scores of hearing skills in CG, 3) Depending on hearing material. there will be a difference in scores of overall English skills between EG and CG, 4) Improvement in listening skill will give influence on the overall English scores. The findings of this study indicate that pop songs are effective to improve students' listening skill, that students' interest in the hearing material is important, and that listening skill is closely related to other skills, especially reading skill. It can be concluded that English teachers should make efforts to find the suitable listening materials which will help students to improve their listening proficiency effectively.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.85-104
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of listening comprehension ability, self-efficacy, comprehension anxiety, and exposure time on Korean language understanding. In order to achieve our goal, listening examinations and surveys were conducted among 95 students from a university in Thailand, studying Korean language. As a result, it was revealed that the most influential factor on one's listening ability was self-efficacy. In addition, when the correlation between listening self-efficacy and other factors was examined, it was shown that there existed a statistically significant relationship. Particularly, listening comprehension anxiety had the most significant correlation with listening self-efficacy. Similarly, cognitive strategy demonstrated a significant correlation with listening self-efficacy. On the other hand, the effects of self-efficacy and other factors on listening scores such as the degree and types of strategy that students used were also studied. The findings revealed that, in most cases, strategy-intensive group's test results were influenced more by exposure time, while the less intensive group's scores were influenced more by their self-efficacy. Finally, after analyzing the effects of time spent on conversing with friends and watching Korean television on listening self-efficacy, it was discovered that both factors had statistically significant relationships with listening self-efficacy. Through this study, such results can be integrated and applied to education in various ways. The most important part for listening comprehension ability is enhancing self-efficacy and in order to do so, the appropriate education methods should be used to reduce listening comprehension anxiety, stimulate strategy use, and increase listening exposure time.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 1999

This paper is a study on the korean broadcasting speech recognition. Here we present the methods for the large vocabuary continuous speech recognition. Our main concerns are the language modeling and the search algorithm. The used acoustic model is the uni-phone semi-continuous hidden markov model and the used linguistic model is the N-gram model. The search algorithm consist of three phases in order to utilize all available acoustic and linguistic information. First, we use the forward Viterbi beam search to find word end frames and to estimate related scores. Second, we use the backword Viterbi beam search to find word begin frames and to estimate related scores. Finally, we use A/sup */ search to combine the above two results with the N-grams language model and to get recognition results. Using these methods maximum 96.0% word recognition rate and 99.2% syllable recognition rate are achieved for the speaker-independent continuous speech recognition problem with about 12,000 vocabulary size.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.41-55
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• 2023

In data-driven learning (DDL), learners explore a corpus to understand vocabulary and grammar. Although many studies have emphasized the role of DDL in second language (L2) acquisition, L2 light verbs have been largely under-explored. To bridge this gap, this study focused on the learning outcomes of L2 light verbs among 29 intermediate-level Japanese university students. The research zeroed in on six prevalent light verbs in English: "make," "do," "take," "have," "give," and "get." Over nine weeks, the participants engaged with verb-noun collocations using worksheets that juxtaposed Japanese translations of the target collocations with their English equivalents, with the verbs omitted. With the aid of Wordbanks Online, they filled in the blanks and constructed accurate sentences. Before this activity, a 20-minute tutorial was given to the participants on how to interpret the concordance lines. The effectiveness of the DDL method was evaluated using pre-tests, immediate post-tests, and delayed post-tests. The results showed that DDL significantly improved the participants' knowledge of the target collocations of light verbs and nouns; the post-test and delayed post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. The results showed that, overall, DDL contributed to memorizing the collocations of light verbs and nouns; however, DDL had different effects on the memorization of collocations across different light verbs. The extent of work on the worksheet is not the only factor in its retention, and observing concordance lines may promote learners' memorization of light-verb collocations.