• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.365-395
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• 2010

This study explores the effect of extensive reading(ER) implemented in middle and high schools in Korean EFL context. Two middle school English teachers and two high school English teachers participated in implementing ER in their classes. Six middle school classes of 239 students and seven high school classes of 268 students participated in ER program guided by the above four teachers. To implement ER, participating teachers had continuously been guided by the researcher about the theoretic reasoning of ER and practical methods for efficient ER in class. The study lasted for two semesters and the teachers and students were surveyed and interviewed during and after the classes. The result showed pretty positive improvement of students' self-confidence, interest and motivation about English through ER implemented in this study. It is hoped that this study would show the possibility of implementing ER in Korean EFL secondary school context and a model for ER and cooperation between university researchers and in-service English teachers.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.53
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• pp.251-277
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to improve the effect of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Korean universities by comparing EMI lectures in two Korean universities with those in a Japanese university. Some universities run all courses in English while others do so for only part of them. This study comparatively investigated how EMI courses were run by these two groups of universities. For the purpose of this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with EMI instructors and students to find out what merits and problems that such EMI programs had in EFL environment of Korea and Japan. Another important goal was to correct problems and improve the Korean programs. The result showed that the most important issue of EMI programs in Korean universities was students' low English proficiency. It also demonstrated that English for Academic Purposes (EAP) was necessary to overcome this problem. It is a key to the success of MI programs. Hopefully, this study will stimulate continuous discussions on limitations and ways to improve EMI in Korean universities in various aspects.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.53-61
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to test whether or not the AI chatbot is effective in acquiring target grammar for Korean EFL college students: prepositions and articles. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 46 first-year students taking part in a required English course. They were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental and control groups (23 students for each, respectively). The experimental group was engaged in six chat sessions with a chatbot over 6 weeks. A pretest and a posttest were used to examine the effectiveness of the chatbot by comparing any changes made in error frequencies of the target grammar in participants' English compositions. The results show that after a conversation with the chatbot, the experimental group significantly reduced the mean of omission errors in both prepositions and articles. To have a great effect in other error categories, chatbot feedback needs to be improved to reduce short responses or inaccurate utterances of students and induce them to actively participate in the conversation.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-76
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• 2005

This study provides a rationale for using project-based learning with Korean students of English in Korea; in addition, it describes the process of creating and implementing project-based learning in the classroom and gives examples of how this unique teaching and learning method has been used successfully to teach learners with different levels of English proficiency. The first two chapters of the study examine the nature of project-based learning by comparing it with related fields of study, such as language teaching syllabi and methods, cognitive psychology, constructivists' views and interaction theory. The latter part of the study deals with issues related to applying project-based learning in Korean English classes. It emphasizes the importance not only of motivating active group effort and participation, but also in creating a trusting, cooperative relationship between group members in order to have a successful accomplishment of a project. The study concludes with implications for future studies.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.365-370
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• 2021

The current study aims to investigate the relationship between working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and listening competence of Korean EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. 30 English education majors from a university in Korea were recruited. The backward digit span and the operation span tasks were used to measure the participants' working memory capacity, while the Listening Vocabulary Level Test (LVLT) and the Michigan English Test (MET) were employed to measure their vocabulary size and listening proficiency in English, respectively. The correlational analyses revealed that the bigger one's working memory storage was, the better the person processed incoming input. However, no statistically significant correlation was found between working memory capacity, English vocabulary size, and listening proficiency, possibly due to the small sample size and the homogeneous subjects.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2017

This study investigates non-native speakers(NNS) of English use of backchannels with beginner-intermediate learners' use of 'uh', 'um(uhm)', 'and' and 'hm' suggesting a view as a possible pedagogical implication. The initial aim of this study was to learn this phenomenon and observe their conversation patterns to compare with previous studies. Based on the previous findings, the analyzed data using conventional Conversation Analysis (CA) methods indicate the possible presence of L1 topic markers, '-un' and '-nun' in the form of L2 backchannel tokens when uttered by beginning and intermediate level speakers of English and the presences of L2 backchannel tokens appear only in front of noun phrases. Additionally, these same words with these tokens and when translated back to Korean also require topic markers of '-un' and '-nun.' Finally, This study discusses possible pedagogical implications with the initial analysis of backchannel tokens for Korean EFL learners. In addition, the ultimate goal of this study is to refine this analysis with follow up experiments to validate this investigation into a working hypothesis generating discussions of this backchannel phenomenon from being viewed as a hindrance to as an positive influence that needs to be understood.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.193-203
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• 2022

The present study aims to investigate how general education EFL instructors who teach in a higher education institution in Korea perceive mixed-ability classes and the teaching strategies that they utilized to teach learners who have varying English proficiency levels and may have different instructional needs. Twenty instructors at a higher education institution in Korea who teach general education EFL courses participated in a questionnaire and three of the twenty instructors participated in follow-up interviews. The findings from the questionnaire and interviews showed that instructors' experiences teaching mixed-ability classes were positive. They offered clear guidelines for participation to help motivate learners and found that higher level students helped lower level students through group work. The instructors also felt that ESP could be a possibility in mixed-ability classes to meet the learners educational needs.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2020

This study aims to examine the efficacy of online lectures conducted by most universities in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Furthermore, this study analyzes students' opinions regarding online lectures, thereby assessing the possible direction that future online lectures could take. This study's results indicate that online lectures can have a positive effect on learners' reading comprehension. Also, student satisfaction with online lectures was found to be quite high. Among the reasons students cited for favoring the online format were: (1) the fun presentation of class information; (2) the diversity of subjects covered; and (3) the ease of using the Internet. Among the improvements made for enhancing online lectures were technical enhancements (such as fixing attendance check authentication errors) and stabilizing the playback of lecture videos. By way of concluding, this study claims that professors who are familiar with giving lectures in person should come to recognize that online lectures are not simply another option, but are essential for the future. As such, the academic community must focus on developing online content as a way to further higher education's development in meeting the academic demands of both the present and the future.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.159-175
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• 2004

This paper investigated the types of errors on English pronunciation and intelligibility of Korean EFL students, and the relationship between the pronunciation accuracy and intelligibility. Thirty one students were evaluated by six English native speakers in terms of overall intelligibility and accuracy In five areas such as nuclear stress, word stress, syllable structure, consonants and vowels. According to the findings of the study, pronunciation errors were made by the subjects more frequently In word stress than any other area of pronunciation accuracy. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that intelligibility was related with word stress, syllable structure, consonants and vowels, and the stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that, among the above five areas of pronunciation accuracy, word stress best accounted for the intelligibility of a given sentence. In the conclusion, the importance of teaching pronunciation of in those five areas with a special focus on word stress was emphasized m terms of intelligibility.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.183-189
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• 2020

This study was carried out to find out the acquisition effect by measurement periods of adult learners learning through English pattern practice. The subjects of this study were divided into adult learner groups including the learners in their 40s and those who were over 65 and the child group who were 8 years old as a comparative group. After the subjects had a pre-test at first, person agreement and tense were instructed though English pattern practice and right after that, they had a post-test. Then 4 weeks later, they had a delayed test. As a result, the acquisition result of adult learners learning though English pattern practice showed the largest rise by those in their 40s and the learners of those over 65. However the adult learners aged over 65 showed the largest drop in delayed test of the reading comprehension. Based on these results, it is necessary to develop teaching method for adult learners in consideration of their characters and weak points.