• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.209-216
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• 2005

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of web-based cyber instruction on EFL learning from the viewpoint of learners` perceptions and needs. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey that was carried out with 709 undergraduate student enrolled in three cyber English courses offered at N university during the secind semester in 2004. The results of the study indicated that the learners exhibited a positive attitude towards web-based cyber instruction and considered it a paper educational method in the cyber age. However, the students perceived that web-based cyber instruction was not greatly satisfactory in terms of cultivating their English communicative competence or improving the language skills they needed. It was also found that cyber instruction was still teacher-dominant, lacking in interaction, which made the students passive recipients of informaton presented. In comparison with off-line instruction, cyber instruction was not particularly better in enhancing their motivation interest or concentration on class. To be more effective, cyber instruction needs to be equipped not only with a large variety of contents and class activities, but also with more exposure to authentic language by native English speakers. The finding of the investigation yield some implications for the design and development of web-based cyber EFL programs.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.158-165
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• 2019

Through the use of speech software technology, this paper examines the effects of voice interactions within the inner circle of English. The fundamental frequency (F0) was obtained by analyzing native speakers (aged 30-55) speech effects based on nationality, age, and gender. The findings within this study reveal that the Caucasian British female (age 33) and the Caucasian American male (age 55) produced the most interactive speech. The contributing factor is the students' experience with various language styles throughout their language acquisition studies. The results of this study are compatible with $Traunm{\ddot{u}}eller$ & Eriksson (1995) and previous studies which agree that continuous speech above average is paramount towards student engagement and interactions.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2016

An appropriate evaluation on learner's pronunciation has been an important part of foreign language education. The learners should be evaluated and receive proper feedback for pronunciation improvement. Due to the cost and consistency problem of human evaluation, automatic pronunciation evaluation system has been studied. The most of the current automatic evaluation systems utilizes underlying Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. We suggest in this work to evaluate learner's pronunciation accuracy and fluency in word-level using the ASR and non-native teacher's speech model. Through the performance evaluation on our system, we confirm the overall evaluation result of pronunciation accuracy and fluency actually represents the learner's English skill level quite accurately.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.181-200
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• 2013

This study aimed at exploring how an instructor constructs meanings through content-based instruction (CBI) offered to pre-service teachers majoring in early childhood education. The course, early childhood mathematics education, was conducted during the spring semester in 2011. This study adopted a narrative inquiry, and data were collected through observations, interviews, and work samples. This study found that during the whole process from the preparation phase to the end-of-program evaluation, the instructor captured diverse challenging moments. During the preparation phase, she needed to have careful orchestration in designing lessons in order to overcome her feeling of pressure as a non-native speaker of English and design the integration of contents and English language learning to be truly powerful. In the phase of implementation, the lack of student motivation and building a good rapport between the instructor and the students were certainly challenges. The result of the student evaluations weakened her desire to implement CBI. The instructor incorporated diverse instructional strategies to overcome the obstacles. The instructor's experiences in this study will positively shape future educators' thinking and learning about meaningful and appropriate academic English instruction for content-area teaching of college students who were majoring in early childhood education.