• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.35-50
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• 2005

Thirty six EFL freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were given a dictation, a listening comprehension test and a decoding test. The purpose of the study was to find out whether EFL freshmen students' spelling ability correlates with their listening comprehension and decoding skills. Data analysis showed that the typical EFL freshman student misspelled 41.5% of the words on the dictation, gave 49.5% correct responses on the listening comprehension test, and 52% correct responses on the decoding test. The median and mean scores showed that the subjects' spelling, listening and decoding achievement is low, which implied that the subjects were having spelling, listening comprehension and decoding difficulties. The students' spelling errors and correct listening comprehension and decoding responses revealed strong correlations between spelling ability, listening comprehension and decoding skills. This means that good spelling ability in EFL is related to good listening comprehension and good decoding skills. The better the listening comprehension and decoding abilities, the fewer the spelling errors. When listening comprehension and decoding skills are poor, spelling ability is also poor. Recommendations for spelling, listening and decoding instruction are given.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2005

This study investigated 2- and 3-year-olds' story comprehension by story structure, Sixty-eight children from day-care centers in Seoul and Kyunggi province were tested story comprehension about causal, noncausal, discontinuous story presented by pictures. Story comprehension included literal, inferential, & empathic comprehension, Data were analysed by ANOVA(repeated measure) and t-test. The result showed that 3-year-olds scored higher in literal and inferential comprehension than 2-year-olds. Children's story comprehension(literal, inferential, & empathic) scores were higher in causal structure than discontinuous and noncausal structure.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2012

This study investigates the effects of three different types of instruction, namely form-based, comprehension-based, and production-based on the development of Korean university students' (n=137) comprehension and production of English relative clauses (RCs). The extent of improvements was analyzed by administering pre-and post-tests consisting of two comprehension tests (selecting the right form of RCs and the right picture descriptions) and one production test (combining two sentences). Findings of this study suggest that all three types of instruction increased participants' comprehension and productions of RCs. However, there appeared differential effects by the instruction type. It was found production-based instruction was most effective in promoting comprehension, followed by comprehension-based instruction. Comprehension-based instruction worked best with the development of production, suggesting that the effects of comprehension training did not only work for increasing comprehension skills, but also transfer to production skills. The type or level of tasks employed for each instruction appeared to play an important role in causing such results. Form-based instruction displayed the lowest improvements in both comprehension and production of RCs. A sentence-combination task employed for form-based instruction appear to result in mere explicit rule explanations without chances to notice rules in context or use their knowledge in practice.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-80
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• 2009

This study investigates the effects of different types of genre and tasks on college students' English listening comprehension. 104 college students were assigned to Argumentative (AG), Causal and Evaluation (CE), and Narrative (NA) group. They report their listening comprehension through gap-filling (GF), summary (ST), and multiple-choice comprehension task (MC). Results showed that different genre groups were significantly different on overall tasks. Moreover, results from each group also presented that different mean scores on each task indicated a statistical significance. Proficiency levels, higher and lower level group, showed a significant effect for the task on listening comprehension. The results of the statistical analysis, using One-way ANOVA indicated that genre significantly affects Korean college students' listening comprehension, and implied that listening comprehension sores for each genre were also substantially different. Different genre groups resented significant different in overall listening comprehension tasks.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.15-26
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• 2003

In this study of children's story comprehension, 157 first grade students were randomly selected from 2 elementary schools. Based on their test scores on standardized reading comprehension test, 36 children in the upper and in the lower 25th percentiles were assigned to either a high or a low reading group. Children of both groups read the same story presented either by CD-ROM or by printed-book. Story comprehension was measured by retelling the story and by questions on comprehension. Data were analyzed by 2-way ANOVA. Results showed significantly higher comprehension scores in CD-Rom compared with the printed-book group. The difference in comprehension scores between the CD-ROM and the printed-book groups was greater than in the low reading group compared with the high reading group.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.163-185
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• 2001

Listening comprehension is an integrative and creative process of interaction through which listeners receive speakers' production of linguistic or non-linguistic knowledge. Improving listening comprehension requires continual attentiveness and interest. .Listening skill can be extended systematically only when students are frequently exposed to a wide range of listening materials with an affective, cultural, social, and psycholinguistic approach. Therefore, teachers should help students learn how to comprehend intactly the overall meaning of intended messages. Practical classroom teaching necessitates a systematic procedure in which students should take part in meaningful tasks and activities. This study purposes to investigate the effects of task-based listening comprehension instruction on improvement of EFL learners' listening comprehension and their attitude and interest. 74 freshmen who enrolled in College English conversation classes in Kongju National University participated in this study. The participants were administered listening comprehension tests and questionnaires. The results show that the listening comprehension instruction through tasks and activities has a positive impact on EFL learners' improvement of listening comprehension and their attitude and interest toward the target language as well.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.18-26
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• 1995

To quantify a mental workload for office workers, nine element tasks were classified for office work. There were oral comprehension, written comprehension, oral expression, written expression, calculation, memorization, thinking, and classification materials. Among nine element tasks, oral comprehension, written comprehension, written expression, and thinking were selected and the degrees of conflicts between concurrently performed element tasks were measured and analyzed through the experiment. The measures were performance and subjective rating. The results were as follows. The written comprehension- written expression pair was showed the highest conflict value in terms of performance and subjective rating. The written comprehension-thinking pair was the lowest conflict value in terms of performance, while the oral comprehension-thinking pair was the lowest condlict value in terms of performance, while the oral comprehension- written expression pair was the lowest conflict value in terms of subjective rating. The findings are expected to be used for assessing workload for the office work.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.59-75
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to verify the validity and reliability for the Test of Oral Reading and Comprehension Skill (Gardner, 2000) for Korean lower level elementary school children. Subjects were 122 first to third grade students, tested individually. The vocabulary and comprehension sub-tests of K-WISC III and the reading comprehension test of Basic Academic Skills Assessment (Kim, 2000) were used to verify concurrent validity. Internal reliability was determined by internal consistency coefficients. Results verified concurrent validity. Test scores differed significantly by grade level. Test reliability was also confirmed. In conclusion, the Oral Reading and Comprehension Skill Test (Gardner, 2000) is reliable and valid for examination of reading comprehension skills for Korean lower level elementary school children.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.227-240
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• 2001

This review examined trends in research on the assessment of Korean children's story comprehension. Specific areas that were analyzed included types of questions asked in the assessment and variables treated as relevant to the assessment of story comprehension. Literal, inferential, and critical questions were identified. Among the 33 studies reviewed, 20 used all 3 types of questions, the other 13 used only literal questions. The studies using only literal questions interpreted comprehension of a story as "comprehension of letters and/or components of a story." The other studies interpreted it as "comprehension of implied meaning of a story." Other relevant variables were "teaching strategies" (29 studies) and "structural components" (4 studies). None of the studies treated "children's internal variables related to story comprehension."

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.69-108
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• 1995

Listening comprehension can be defined as a process of an integrative, positive and creative activity through which listeners get the message of speakers' production using linguistic or non-linguistic redundancy as well as linguistic or non-linguistic knowledge. Compared with reading comprehension, it has many difficulties especially for foreigners. while it can be transferred to the other skills: speaking, reading, writing. With this said, listening comprehension can be taught effectively using the following teaching strategies. First. systematic and intensive instruction of segmental phonemes, suprasegmental phonemes and sound changes must be given to remove the difficulties of listening comprehension concerned with the identification of sounds. Second, vocabulary drill through various games and other activities is absolutely needed until words can be unconsciously recognized. Without this, comprehension is almost impossible. Third, instruction of sentence structures is thought to be essential considering grammar is supplementary to listening comprehension and reading comprehension for academic purpose. So grammar translation drills, mechanical drills, meaningful drills and communicative drills should be performed in succession with common or frequently used structures. Fourth, listening activities for overall comprehension should teach how to receive overall meaning of intended messages intact. Linguists and literatures have listed some specific activities as follows: Total Physical Response, dictation, role playing, singing songs, selective listening, picture recognition, list activities, completion, prediction, true or false choice, multiple choice, seeking of specific information, summarizing, problem-solving and decision-making, recognization of relationships between speakers, recognition of mood, attitude and behavior of speakers.