• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.221-238
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• 2006

This study investigates the reliability of plagiarism measurement in the ESL essay writing context. The current study aims to address the answers to the following research questions: 1) How does plagiarism measurement affect test reliability in a psychometric view? and 2) how do raters conceive the plagiarism in their analytic scoring? This study uses the mixed-methodology that crosses quantitative-qualitative techniques. Thirty eight international students took an ESL placement writing test offered by the University of Illinois. Two native expert raters rated students' essays in terms of 5 analytic features (organization, content, language use, source use, plagiarism) and made a holistic score using a scoring benchmark. For research question 1, the current study, using G-theory and Multi-facet Rasch model, found that plagiarism measurement threatened test reliability. For research question 2, two native raters and one non-native rater in their email correspondences responded that plagiarism was not a valid analytic area to be measured in a large-scale writing test. They viewed the plagiarism as a difficult measurement are. In conclusion, this study proposes that a systematic training program for avoiding plagiarism should be given to students. In addition, this study suggested that plagiarism is measured reliably in the small-scale classroom test.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.53-76
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• 2004

This paper introduces a class model based on a course, Internet English, offered by an English department at a university. The course has dual purposes of developing students I English skills and Internet using skills at the same time. In support of using the Internet for language learning, the advantages of project-based language learning and constructivist learning in relation to CALL are explored. The activities in this course, which are basically project-based under the paradigm of constructivist learning perspective, are explained in detail to show the relationship between second language learning theory and teaching application. The way how the four language skills - speaking, listening, reading, and writing - are integrated in this class is described as well. Finally, judgmental evaluation of the course by the students is noted. The results show that a project-based CALL class could be a promising class model to realize an integrative, constructivist, and authentic learning.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.61-71
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• 2023

This study examines the effects of data-driven learning (DDL)-an approach employing corpora for inductive language pattern learning-on error identification in second language (L2) writing. The data consists of error identification instances from fifty-five participants, compared across different reference materials: the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), dictionaries, and no use of reference materials. There are three significant findings. First, the use of COCA effectively identified collocational and form-related errors due to inductive inference drawn from multiple example sentences. Secondly, dictionaries were beneficial for identifying lexical errors, where providing meaning information was helpful. Finally, the participants often employed a strategic approach, identifying many simple errors without reference materials. However, while maximizing error identification, this strategy also led to mislabeling correct expressions as errors. The author has concluded that the strategic selection of reference materials can significantly enhance the effectiveness of error identification in L2 writing. The use of a corpus offers advantages such as easy access to target phrases and frequency information-features especially useful given that most errors were collocational and form-related. The findings suggest that teachers should guide learners to effectively use appropriate reference materials to identify errors based on error types.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.139-164
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to analyze the writing activity materials presented in the thirteen middle school textbooks and determine if the writing activity materials are appropriate for the goals and contents of the 7th national curriculum. The writing activity materials are analyzed based on three criteria. First, the writing activity materials are analyzed based on Rivers'(1981) five writing guidances, which are specified with detailed writing activity materials. The first criterion was suggested by Young-Ran Lee(2004). Second, the writing activity materials in the textbooks are analyzed according to the criterion prescribed by the 7th national curriculum, which are specified with writing activities presented by Rivers(1981), Raimes(1983), Hedge(1988), and Beverly and Carol(1988). Third, the writing activity materials related to other skills, such as listening, speaking, and reading, in the textbooks are selected and analyzed according to the proportion of the integration of skills. The results are as follows: First, writing activity materials in the textbooks belong to the type of 'reproduction', ie. the second stage of Rivers' writing guidance, 'recombination, which is the third stage of Rivers' writing guidance, and the type of 'guided writing', noted on the fourth stage of the guidance. Second, the writing activity materials satisfy the criterion in the 7th national curriculum, as for the proportions, but they are not balanced. Third, most of the writing activity materials contain writing activities that involve non-writing skills such as listening, speaking and reading, but they are not balanced. Particularly, writing activity materials related to reading activities are common.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.235-259
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• 2007

The purpose of the present study is to develop a prototype automated scoring system for English writing. The system was developed for scoring writings of Korean middle school students. In order to develop the automated scoring system, following procedures have been applied. First, review and analysis of established automated essay scoring systems in other countries have been accomplished. By doing so, we could get the guidance for development of a new sentence-level automated scoring system for Korean EFL students. Second, knowledge base such as lexicon, grammar and WordNet for natural language processing and error corpus of English writing of Korean middle school students were established. Error corpus was established through the paper and pencil test with 589 third year middle school students. This study provided suggestions for the successful introduction of an automated scoring system in Korea. The automated scoring system developed in this study should be continuously upgraded to improve the accuracy of the scoring system. Also, it is suggested to develop an automated scoring system being able to carry out evaluation of English essay, not only sentence-level evaluation. The system needs to be upgraded for the improved precision, but, it was a successful introduction of an sentence-level automated scoring system for English writing in Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.107-126
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• 2004

This study is aimed at investigating the aspects of peer correction and responses of English composition in the web-based class. The participants for this study are students enrolled in the 'preparatory college cyber study center'. Two assignments were given--composition with no feedback and composition followed by student feedback. The participants' feedbacks, responses, and attitudes in peer interaction were analysed. The processes of these two assignments were also compared. The results were as follows: First, students' competitive attitude changed into cooperative attitude when peer-revision was followed. Second, both formal and content feedback were shown in the cyber composition class just as in the classroom composition class, but under no specific guidance, the majority of students' feedbacks were formal feedbacks. Third, some characteristics of web-based writing were found. In the web-based writing class where around a hundred students are enrolled. students' feedbacks were inevitable. The results of this study supported the use of students feedback.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not the use of the Korean alphabet increased the accuracy of English sentences Korean university students produced in dictation. The students were divided into three categories, beginning, intermediate, and advanced, based on the listening comprehension scores of a practice TOEIC test. The total population of 120 students were divided into two groups, control and experiment. In the first testing, the experiment group transcribed the English utterances on a practice TOEIC tape into phonological writing in Korean and then later changed the Korean writing into English words and sentences. In the second testing, the control group became the experiment group and used the Korean alphabet in transcribing the English sounds. Statistically significant differences were found in the improvement of accuracy in dictation when the Korean alphabet was used, especially for the beginning and intermediate students. By using the Korean alphabet as the phonological representation of the sounds, the students in the experiment group produced more accurate English words than the control group who went directly from the English utterances to writing in English. Statistically significant results were not produced for the advanced students. The significance of the present study relates to the need to add to the paucity of available data on the use of the Korean alphabet in teaching listening comprehension.

• Annual Conference on Human and Language Technology
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.281-284
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• 2017

On the basis of studies that show multi-word combinations, that is the field of phraseology, this study aims to examine relationship between the quality of text and phraseological competence in L2 English writing, following Yves Bestegen et al. (2014). Using two different association scores, t-score and Mutual Information(MI), which are opposite ways of measuring phraseological competence, in terms of scoring frequency and infrequency, bigrams from L2 writers' text scored based on a reference corpus, GloWbE (Corpus of Global Web based English). On a cross-sectional approach, we propose that the quality of the essays and the mean MI score of the bigram extracted from YELC, Yonsei English Learner Corpus, correlated to each other. The negative scores of bigrams are also correlated with the quality of the essays in the way that these bigrams are absent from the reference corpus, that is mostly ungrammatical. It indicates that increase in the proportion of the negative scored bigrams debases the quality of essays. The conclusion shows the quality of the essays scored by MI and t-score on cross-sectional approach, and application to teaching method and assessment for second language writing proficiency.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.189-208
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge and use of English collocations in their relation to Korean college students' general English proficiency and writing abilities. Participants in the present study were 203 Korean college students. Their knowledge and use of English collocations were measured by a self-designed collocation test and an essay writing test. The findings were as follows: First, there was a significant difference in students' knowledge of collocations according to their general English proficiency. Students' performance in the collocation test increased as their level of proficiency increased. Second, there was a significant difference in students' knowledge of collocations according to their writing abilities. Students showed better performance in the collocation test as their level of writing abilities increased. Third, there was a significant difference in students' use of collocations according to their writing abilities. Students' collocation use in the writing test increased as their level of writing abilities increased. Fourth, there was a strong relationship between the students' knowledge of collocations and their general English proficiency and between the students' use of collocations and their writing abilities. Pedagogical implications of the study and suggestions for further research were discussed on the basis of the research findings.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.45-66
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of two different SNS-based tasks on university students' English writing performance. To address our primary research question, Me2day, microblogging and Social Networking Service, was employed. 43 university students were divided into two experimental groups depending on the task types: a comparison task group and a sharing personal experiences task group. The main findings of the study were as follows: first, two different types of SNS-based tasks, 'spot the differences' and 'writing diaries', had a positive effect on learners' writing performance. The reason for this was that the succinct messages limited to 150 characters made it easier for the students to try writing in English without burden; and they may benefit from their peers by seeing their posts and interacting with each other. Yet there were no significant differences between the two groups when it came to the degree of improvement. Second, two different types of SNS-based tasks differently fostered certain aspects of the writing performance; 'contents knowledge' was supported by the 'writing diaries' task and range was supported by the 'spot the differences' task. Third, learners in the two experimental groups mostly had positive impressions regarding usage of Me2day as a new learning tool.