• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.477-490
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• 2024

This study identifies the vocabulary usage patterns of Korean heritage language learners. We analyzed the interlanguage of the Korean heritage language learners and examined their vocabulary usage patterns, especially the major content keywords being used at their respective proficiency levels. The Korean Learner's Corpus from the National Institute of Korean Language is used for the data analysis. We found that as the heritage language learners' proficiency increases, low-frequency (high-level) vocabulary is often used as the keywords and the semantic vocabulary areas expand from daily to social to specialized fields. It is therefore confirmed that the vocabulary use of Korean heritage language learners develops as their proficiency increases. This study confirms the development of Korean vocabulary in Korean heritage language learners and exemplifies how corpus-based applied linguistic research and computer science can be integrated using a keyword extraction algorithm.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.221-250
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• 2017

This study aims to discuss the basic foundations to set levels and language skills for developing a Korean Proficiency Test for young and adolescent learners. Recently, there has been an increase in demand regarding young and adolescent learners from multicultural and overseas backgrounds. However, the current Korean Proficiency Test lacks the appropriate means to determine the Korean proficiency of young and adolescent learners with general purposes of language learning. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing a specialized and new form of language assessment for young and adolescent learners who are exposed to a foreign language or a second language learning environment. The study examines and analyzes cases of foreign language examinations for young & adolescent learners; furthermore, the objectives and target were set based on the results of a needs analysis and in-depth interviews conducted among teachers and education officials in overseas Korean Hangeul Schools, international schools, elementary and secondary schools. Finally, the levels and language skills appropriate for the objectives of a proficiency test and target learners have been suggested.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.139-161
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate factors that are important for Korean language faculty and learners in Thai universities with focus on factors that constitute characteristics of desirable Korean language teachers. This study also analyzes the difference in perception between the faculty and learners to enhance the qualities of Korean language teachers in Thailand. The demand for Korean language learners is explosive in Thailand as Korean language has been adopted as a college entrance examination subject since the 2018 school year. As a result, the Thai government has increased the number of Korean language education institutions to reflect the rapidly increasing demand of Korean language learners, but Korean language education in Thailand has only achieved quantitative growth and has made little in the way of qualitative growth. In this respect, it is meaningful to compare the qualities of the Korean language teachers in the Korean language faculty of Thai universities with the qualities that learners perceive Korean language teachers should have, which ultimately can enhance the quality of Thai Korean language teachers and help the learners to learn more effectively.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.137-156
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• 2009

This case study examines language learners' oral interactive practices and what they learn along with these practices. Language learners who study abroad take on the challenge of living in a foreign place and undergo difficulties in communicating and interacting with people in their new country. These difficulties, caused by cultural differences, are experienced most particularly in their daily interactions. Language learners' trials and efforts to learn English while dealing with a different culture and the difficulties are mainly observed for this paper. The process of learning a second culture is closely related to the process of learning a second language. Oral interactive practices can give the study abroad language learners opportunities to learn their target culture. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how participating in interactive practices assists the learners in understanding their target culture while they deal with their difficulties inherent in studying abroad. This study adds weight to the notion that culture is an essential and major factor in learning a language, and that only active participation in interactions can be effective in learning both a language and its culture.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.89-112
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• 2017

Grammar has long been regarded as an important element in foreign language learning and has received a lot of attention from foreign language learners and researchers. However, in the process of learning, learners will confront an increasing number of words some of which may have multiple meanings. It is not easy for language learners to memorize and master the correct use of these words, especially in terms of pragmatics. Some learners may use the grammar correctly, but their writing or utterance may feel unnatural in discourse. In Korean, '나다, 들다' are two basic verbs, but they have many different meanings which cause a lot of confusion among learners of Korean as a foreign language. In this article, the writer attempts to make a distinction between the collocations of the two verbs '나다, 들다' and provides an effective method for teaching the learners of Korean in China.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

The current study investigated whether Korean learners' English-learning environments, especially target English accent (General American English (GAE) vs. Southern British English (SBE)) and English-language experience affected their production of English vowels. Thirty six EFL learners, 27 ESL-US learners, and 33 ESL-UK learners produced 8 English vowels with a bVt frame (beat, bit, bet, bat, bought, bot, boat, boot). The learners' productions were acoustically analyzed in terms of F1 and F2 frequencies. The overall results revealed that the learners' target accent had an effect on their production of some English vowels. The EFL and ESL-US learners' (especially, female learners') production of bought, bot, boat, and boot, which show characteristic differences between the GAE and SBE accents, was closer to that of the native American English (AE) speakers than the native British English (BE) speakers. In contrast, the ESL-UK learners' production of bought and bot demonstrated the opposite pattern. Thus, the impact of target accent was not demonstrated across the board. The effect of the learners' different English-language experience was also rather limited. This was because the EFL learners' production was not much different from the ESL-US learners' production, in spite of the ESL-US learners' residence in the US for more than 9 years. Furthermore, the Korean learners, irrespective of their different English-language experience, tended to produce bit and bat with lower F1 than the native AE and BE speakers, thus resulting in bit and bat to be produced similarly to beat and bet, respectively. This demonstrates the learners' persistent L1 effects on their English vowel production despite the learners' residence in the English speaking countries or their high English proficiency.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.197-225
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the difference in the interactions between beginning language learners and heritage learners on their forms based on the interaction hypothesis. In this study, three types of information gap activities were used to analyze Language Related Episodes (LREs) while investigating the interaction patterns in language use between four pairs (eight learners) of foreign learners and four pairs (eight learners) of English-speaking heritage learners. The result indicated that foreign learners had a high focus on form during interaction. In particular, they had a tendency to focus on vocabulary rather than grammar, and they conducted self-repair by examining and mostly adjusting their speech to postposition and tense. However, in the problem-solving process, they showed a limited ability in interaction, and thus directly asked others to settle the problem or resorted to using English due to their lack of ability to employ various communication strategies. However, heritage learners had a relatively low focus on form compared to foreign learners. Yet, they also focused more on vocabulary rather than grammar and conducted self-repair in interaction, especially for vocabulary. In addition, they were skillful at using various communication strategies such as indirect expressions, use of alternative words, evasion, and delaying, to expand speech and prevent communication breakdown. They focused less on grammar and mostly did not provide negative feedback in interaction.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.22
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• pp.303-327
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• 2011

This study aims to uncover the learner's language proficiency shown in the writing data of Chinese elementary/intermediate level learners. Language proficiency of the learners acquired by error analysis provides only partial information, and thus this study analyses the interlanguage of Korean learners in terms of 'Mean Length of Utterance, MLU' to discover the overall aspect of learner's language proficiency more symmetrically. The analysis of vocabulary area is to be enforced after generally studying the learner's language development aspect in accordance with MLU-m(orpheme) and MLU-(w)ord found in compositions by Chinese speaking Korean language learners. In terms of MLU, it has been slightly increased as the level of proficiency between elementary level and intermediate level learners; however, the morpheme seemed to be difficult to use, since the difference between Chinese learners and Korean university students has been notably shown. Vocabulary diversity, using aspect for each word class, and using aspect of the predicate are studied for vocabulary area; more various and numerous vocabulary tend to be used as the level of proficiency increases. In terms of predicate use, Chinese learners use less numerous vocabulary types.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2023

This study investigates perceptual confusions of English fricatives among 121 Korean elementary school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with shorter periods of learning English. The objective is to examine how they perceive English fricative consonants and to provide educational guidelines. Two sets of English fricative identification tasks-voiceless fricatives and voiced fricatives-were administered to participants in a High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) setting. Their phonemic awareness of the fricatives was visualized in perceptual confusion maps via multidimensional scaling analysis. The findings are explored in terms of the impacts of Korean EFL learners' L1 linguistic aspects and a comparison with L1 learners. Learners' phonemic awareness patterns are then compared with their relative importance in speech intelligibility based on a functional load hierarchy. The results indicated that Korean elementary EFL learners recognized English fricatives in a manner largely akin to L1 learners, suggesting their ongoing acquisition progress. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that the young EFL learners possess sufficient phonemic awareness for most high functional load segments but encounter some difficulties with one high and one low functional pair. The findings of this study offer suggestions for diagnosing language learners' phonemic awareness abilities, thereby aiding in the development of practical guidelines for language instructional design and helping educators make informed decisions regarding teaching priority in L2 classes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.99-118
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• 2011

Research on strategic Code-Switching (CS) of second language learners in teaching English in English (TEE) program provides an elaborate framework for analyzing how learners manage to express themselves in spite of their limited knowledge of the target language. This research presupposes that L2 learners' CS presents innovative solutions for communicative strategy, and that CS used as communicative strategy can promote L2 learners' language acquisition. The major questions of current research involve examining the significant patterns of different functions of CS in L2 learners' interaction and investigating L2 learners' CS styles according to the different functions of CS. The implication of CS utility is regarded as a teaching technique in the TEE program. Recorded transcript is analyzed to trace the same pattern and the categorization of CS as well as to recognize the functions of CS and their ratio. Hence, this leads to the conclusion that learners' negotiation between code selection and communication intention occurs in patterns. The learners' CS tends to be predictable, reproductive, and systematic, as one of the language acquisition phases. Therefore, the attention to the CS in the TEE program should be redirected in communication substantiality toward the principles of pragmatics. As an additional advantage of the CS analysis, this research elaborates on a conceptual acceptance of CS as a set of learners' strategies in the TEE program.