• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.39-48
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• 2024

Reading fluency refers to the ability to read sentences or paragraphs accurately, quickly, and with appropriate prosodic expression. Most reading fluency assessments exclude expressive ability because it is difficult to objectively measure. Therefore, in this study, we examined all elements of reading fluency by analyzing prosodic characteristics of reading scenario texts to maximize expressive reading. The subjects were 30 male students in the first and second grades of middle school (15 normal and 15 poor readers). To analyze the accuracy aspect, error types at the syllable level were analyzed for each group, and related acoustic variables were measured and examined in terms of prosodic aspects. The reading accuracy analysis showed that the poor reading group had a higher error rate than the normal. In terms of error types, the normal group showed the order of 'substitution>omission>correction>insertion>repetition', whereas the poor reading group was in the order of 'correction>substitution>repetition/insertion>omission'. For the speech tempo, the dyslexic students were slower than the typical students for all sentence types. The prosodic variables also showed a high frequency of accentual phrases (AP) and intonation phrases (IP) in sentences along with a wide intensity range.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.26-35
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• 2021

Objective : The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Interactive Metronome (IM) training on the reading fluency of an elementary school student. Methods : This study followed the ABA design, a single-case research method, and was conducted on one elementary school student. From October 2019 to December 2019, a three-session baseline phase (A), twelve-session intervention phase (B), and three-session post-baseline phase (A') were conducted. The intervention was IM training, and long-form assessment (LFA) of IM and BASA:R were performed for each session. In addition, BASA:R was conducted three times at baseline and post-baseline. Result : Compared with baseline, there was a significant improvement in reading fluency after the IM training intervention. Conclusions : IM training can be useful for increasing reading fluency. The results of this work demonstrate the efficacy of IM training as a clinical intervention to improve reading fluency in elementary school students.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to assess the speech rate, fluency and the type of dysfluencies of normal adults in order to provide a basic data of normal speaking. The number of subjects of this study were 30(14 females and 16 males), and their ages ranged 17 to 36. The rate was measured as syllables per minute (SPM). The speech rates in reading ranged 273-426 with a mean of 348 SPM and in speaking ranges 118-409 (mean=265). The average of their fluencies was 99.1% in reading and 96.9% in speaking. The rater reliability of speech rate in the data assessed by video was very high (r=0.98) and the rater reliability of speech fluency was moderately high (r=0.67). The disfluency types were also analysed from 150 disfluency episodes. Syllable repetition and word interjection were the most common disfluent types.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.201-223
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of text modification by comparing differences in Korean reading comprehension levels that arise from differences in vocabulary levels in texts. This study intends to use simplified texts with the vocabulary difficulty adjusted differently from the original text to measure reading comprehension levels of Korean learners and analyze the result. To measure reading comprehension, the researcher divided 55 Korean learners of intermediate to advanced level of fluency into two groups; the control group read the original text and the treatment group read a simplified text in which complex vocabulary were substituted with easier words of medium difficulty. Then the two groups were tested with the same questionnaire to measure comprehension levels of each group. The result showed that the groups that read simplified texts scored higher than the control group; this suggests that the reading comprehension level was increased in the treatment group. The experiment confirmed that unknown vocabulary density has direct impact on Korean reading comprehension. The result shows that the proportion of unknown vocabulary should be reduced for meaning-focused reading. It also demonstrates that comprehension of the learner was enhanced with lexical simplification rather than structural simplification i.e. simplification of grammar or sentences. Thus, diverse reading materials adjusted to the learners' level of fluency should be developed to enable reading for learning Korean. By reducing the burden of understanding the meaning of each vocabulary, learners will be able to achieve the initial goal of reading.

• (The) Korean Journal of Educational Psychology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.265-282
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to applicate systematic RTI educational service by providing reading fluency program to identify high-risk students with dyslexia of a shadow zone based on their growth rate. Twenty-two students of 1st to 5th graders were selected as study subjects through "2016 Kyungi-Do Project of the Dyslexia Excellence Program". An individualized reading fluency program was provided through 8-10 sessions over a period of 3 months. The program was developed based on evidence-based reading strategies with the consideration of each student's educational needs. As results, three groups were identified with their learning growth rates: concerned, improving, and discrepancy groups. The study identified three students in a discrepancy group as students with dyslexia. Based on these results, implications and suggestions for further educational identification process along with effect programs were discussed.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.31-52
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• 2013

The metacognitive experience of the ease or difficulty with which new, external information can be processed, referred to as 'processing fluency,' has been shown to influence a wide range of human judgments including truth judgments, familiarity judgments, risk perception, evaluation, and preference (see Alter and Oppenheimer 2009 for a review). The current research explores the possibility of a consumer's product innovativeness judgment based on the difficulty of processing new information. In specific, this study examines if the inferential link between (dis)fluency-(un)familiarity can feed into the perception of innovativeness. This study also explores how a consumer's processing motivation can moderate the consumer's reliance on processing fluency in judgments and how the influence of fluency can vary depending on judgment task orders. In an experiment, participants rated a new product's innovativeness and then indicated their product attitude (or vice versa depending on the judgment task order condition) after reading a product review article that was printed in either an easy-to-read or a difficult-to-read font (for fluency manipulation). The findings show that low need for cognition individuals infer higher product innovativeness when processing product information is difficult rather than easy, consistent with the common assumption that 'new information is more difficult to process than familiar information.' The findings also suggest that once low fluency is attributed to innovativeness, it may no longer lead to a negative response to the product. High need for cognition individuals' judgments on product innovativeness are not affected by fluency. The findings also demonstrate a judgment task order effect on the use of fluency in judgments (e.g., Xu and Schwarz 2005). This study provides the first evidence that an individual's fluency experience can be used as a source of information in product innovativeness judgments especially under low processing motivation conditions. The findings can help marketers better understand the malleability of consumer judgments and perceptions of product characteristics (e.g., product innovativeness) by demonstrating an interesting interplay of processing fluency, processing motivation, and judgment task-related contextual factors.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.25-33
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• 2022

This study investigates the relationships between rhythm and fluency indices and listeners' ratings of the rhythm and fluency of Korean college students' English paragraph reading. 17 university students read and recorded a passage from "The North Wind and the Sun" twice before and after three months of English pronunciation instruction. Seven in-service and pre-service English teachers in graduate school assessed the rhythm and fluency of the utterances. In addition, the values of 14 indices of rhythm and fluency were extracted from each speech and the relationships between the indices and the listeners' ratings were analyzed. The rhythm indices of the speakers in this study did not differ significantly from those of native English speakers presented in previous studies in %V, VarcoV, and nPVIV, but were higher in ΔV, ΔC, and VarcoC and lower in speech rate. The level of rhythm and fluency demonstrated by Korean college students was comparable, at least in terms of objective values for certain indices. The fluency indices, such as percentage of pauses, articulation rate, and speech rate, significantly contributed more to predicting both rhythm and fluency ratings than the rhythm indices.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.21-32
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• 2021

The current study investigates how Malaysian ESL learners' L2 (English) speaking fluency is reflected in advanced L2 reading and what difficulties they encounter in reading comprehension. Nine Malaysian students attending a Korean university participated in qualitative research using in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The data revealed that L2 was a very familiar language, and their speaking fluency in L2 reduced the anxiety of L2 reading in general. However, it did not play a significant role in reading at an advanced level. Their difficulties in reading were mainly due to a lack of vocabulary knowledge. However, insufficient background knowledge and interest also frustrated their reading tasks. These factors lowered their reading comprehension, causing inaccurate interpretations or discouraging their endeavors to find messages from the given text. Thus, these findings should be carefully addressed in reading classes for Korean L2 learners as well as international students.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2004

This was a preliminary study for standardizing speech rate and fluency of normal adult Korean speakers and comparing speech rate and fluency of normal speakers with those of professional speakers. The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) the speech rates (the overall speech rate and the articulation rate) and the disfluency characteristics of normnal adult speakers and (b) the speech rates (the overall speech rate and the articulation rate) and the disfluency characteristics between normal adult speakers and professional speakers. The results were as follows: The most frequent disfluency type was 'interjection' in story-telling, 'revision' in text reading and announcing of professional speakers. The professional speakers had the fastest speech rates (overall speech rate and articulation rate) among the 3 groups.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 2005

This study was to examine the relationship between maternal interactive behaviors and stuttering behaviors in preschool children who stutter. Participants were twenty-four children who stutter and their mothers. For the purpose of the current study, 5$\sim$10 minutes of 50 minutes videotaped scenes originally collected to develop fluency assessment instrument were re-videotaped. They included mother-child interactions during playing with toys and reading book situations. Mothers-children interactive behaviors were assessed with Maternal Behavior Rating Sroles(MBRS) and Child Behavior Rating Scales (CBRS). And children's stuttering were assessed with Paradise-Fluency Assessment(P-FA). The results were as follows: 1) the maternal interactive behavior did not significantly differ depending on situations, but scores of maternal responsive factor were higher in the play situation than in the reading situation. 2) Maternal responsiveness might influence on promoting the children's pivotal behavior with children who stutter. And 3) the level of maternal responsiveness was the predictor of children's stuttering behaviors. The therapeutic implication of the results were discussed.