• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-25
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• 2011

This research primarily aimed to investigate proficient and less proficient EFL readers' awareness and experiences about learning to read and reading in English. The secondary purpose was to explore the participants' reading strategies, and to discover how the genres of English texts influence their reading processing behaviors. The participants consisted of four college students in engineering aged 21-25 years. Three data sources were employed: questionnaires, interviews, and think-alouds. The findings revealed that: (1) the proficient EFL readers judged themselves to be good readers, while the less proficient EFL readers judged themselves to be fair readers; (2) unknown vocabulary was perceived to be the major impediment to reading comprehension; the think-aloud data, however, demonstrated that unknown vocabulary did not significantly interfere with their reading comprehension; (3) regardless of the genre of the text, the participants employed similar reading strategies; (4) the participants were more likely to tolerate ambiguity and predict the content when reading the narrative text than the expository text; (5) there was no set of strategies that distinguished proficient EFL readers from less proficient EFL readers; and (6) when identifying problems, the proficient EFL readers used fix-up strategies more effectively and were better able to provide satisfactory solutions than their counterparts. Pedagogical implications for EFL reading instruction are discussed.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The study examined the effects of explicit derivational morphology instruction (henceforth DMI) on the incidental vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension of 132 Korean 1st-year high school students who responded to a battery of tests (two vocabulary tests and a reading comprehension test). Multiple statistical tools were used to analyze the data: Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Simple Regression Analysis, Tests of Simple Main Effects, and effect size computation using Cohen's d. The results indicated that (a) DMI enhanced students' ability to infer word meanings in context, (b) DMI promoted high proficiency students' reading comprehension, whereas it impeded intermediate proficiency students' reading comprehension, (c) vocabulary knowledge has a strong positive predictive value for reading comprehension, and (d) the gaps of vocabulary knowledge across proficiency levels were still substantial, despite the observation that DMI promoted students' vocabulary acquisition. These results have a bearing on English as Foreign Language (EFL) reading pedagogy.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-106
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• 2012

This paper examines the role of extensive reading in foreign language learning classrooms. The effects of extensive reading are shown both positive and negative as in Krashen (1999) and Spada (1997), particularly researches done in classroom setting. Extensive reading is hard to implement in foreign language classrooms due to the stringent school curricula despite its benefits in cognitive and affective domain of learners. This study searched 21 papers from research database on extensive reading researches in a classroom setting and synthesized 55 cognitive effects and 11 affective effects from these papers under investigation in a manner of quantifying their means and standard deviations to derive generalizations. Research synthesis in this manner has secured its own status of scientific investigation by providing secondary researchers with replicable methods that produce verifiable findings. The syntheses of researches show that extensive reading is effective in both literacy skills and other language skills such as listening and writing. It also shows positive effects across different age groups, but the effect sizes are different in that elementary and adults gained more positive effects than middle and high school students.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.419-428
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• 2017

This study investigates whether the use of smartphone and Facebook in the classroom induces students' active participation in their reading activities and what are the points to be considered when ICT-based English reading class is designed. Students in an English course, Practical English listening and reading, did their reading activities using their own smartphones and posted the results of the activities on Facebook. Smartphone was used primarily for web-browsing and Facebook as LMS. The pre-questionnaire was conducted to be referred to for designing activity tasks. The post-questionnaire and the interview with 10 students were conducted to identify how students perceive their class. The research results showed that the use of ICT induced students' active participation in their learning. As for the points to be considered, narrowing down the range of class activities, slowing down the pace of the class, explaining enough the goals and the steps of the activities, considering adopting campus LMS, and preparing solutions for cyberloafing were suggested.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 2021

This study is investigating the effectiveness of a blended learning for English listening and reading class by analyzing students' learning behavior. To this end, two surveys were conducted on a total of 75 students from the two different classes of Academic English Listening and Reading course. The research results showed that in the online class, the students built undesirable learning behavior such as solving listening quizzes by reading listening scripts or watching the instructor's lectures about the scripts and completing the assignment of summary of the scripts by referring to the Korean versions. In the offline class, the students' participation in group activities and attention to lectures was good. Therefore, it can be concluded that because of the students' poor online learning behavior, this blended learning was rather not effective. So the suggestions are discussed to enhance the effectiveness of the blended learning for English listening and reading.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.157-176
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• 2007

Based on the consensus that vocabulary plays an essential role in improving reading ability, the present study investigates the effects of two different methods of English vocabulary instruction - the traditional wordlist-based vocabulary instruction (G1) and the collocation-based vocabulary instruction (G2) - on improving English reading ability for high school learners. First, the results of the collocation test revealed that G1 and G2 groups attained similar mean scores on the pretests; however, G2 significantly outperformed G1 on the post-test administered at the end of the learning activity. The results proved that students who learned vocabulary in a collocation-oriented setting had better retention through the lexical-chunking achieved by the collection method. Second, in terms of reading comprehension achieved on nationwide academic trial tests, the result was, after considering more tests, that G2 gained a significantly higher mean score on the third and fourth than G1 did, although the two groups yielded a similar mean score on the first and second test. The implication of these results is that collocation-based vocabulary activities had a more significant influence on reading skills than wordlist-oriented ones.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.395-415
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• 2011

This research intends to evaluate the validity and suitability of English reading programs at public children's libraries and provide their effective administration strategies. For this, the study investigated the current operational practices of public children's library programs. Further, it conducted the survey for parents at 'S Children's Library' in Seoul on their perceptions and satisfaction of the English reading programs. In addition, the study performed the survey of the elementary school students participating in the programs as well as the observations of their studies. Based on the results, some suggestions have been made to improve administration strategies for English reading programs.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.207-221
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• 2012

This study examines the importance of learning language and cultural integration in general English class focused on TOEIC reading comprehension. The understanding of cultural learning and learners' cultural awareness has long been a subject of debate. This study was not only to analyze the improvement of students' interest and reading comprehension ability of TOEIC through cultural learning, but also to ensure students who learn American culture overcome cross-cultural miscommunication and improve their English reading comprehension skills. Pre-post surveys and the pre-post TOEIC tests were used to measure language proficiency and American cultural knowledge to two groups: the experimental and control group. The results from the study were as follows: First, students had better TOEIC scores with improved motivation after understanding American culture relevant to the lessons. Second, reading comprehension skills with regards to TOEIC also improved, compared with the students who were not exposed to American culture due to lack of opportunity.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.153-169
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• 2012

This study reviews an English enhancement course implemented for medical and nursing college students of 2011 to improve their standardized English test scores. A total of 117 first-year students underwent the pre-test and the post-TOEIC in November 2011. After the pre-test, lectures on listening enhancement strategies and problem solving tactics on reading comprehension were supplemented with 4 times of enhancement-tests. Their pre- and post-TOEIC results were compared to see if such enhancement strategies were effective to improve their TOEIC scores. It was further to investigate, through survey questionnaires, how the subjects felt about a number of pre-test-type TOEIC exercise with what-to-listen and how-to-infer listening strategies and pattern-drill practices for reading comprehension. It was found that the scores of listening comprehension improved significantly for both major students whereas reading scores showed slight decrease among nursing majors. It is concluded that administering numerous pre-test-type-TOEIC exercise is effective for students to improve their listening scores supplemented with listening strategies Also, students' response showed positive toward the enhancement course.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.181-210
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• 2007

This study is to suggest systematic and effective reading comprehension techniques or strategies to be used in EFL reading classes. According to the definition of reading and reading process, six essential elements of reading comprehension are categorized: 1) reading speed; 2) skimming and scanning; 3) logical organization; 4) pleasure reading; 5) vocabulary; 6) cultural background and world knowledge. To present a more effective teaching and learning approach to EFL reading comprehension than ever, an experiment was performed. The hypothesis of the experimental study was that there would be a difference in students' reading speed as well as reading comprehension and vocabulary between an experimental group and a control group depending upon the teaching approaches (experimental vs. traditional). The result of the study indicates that the experimental teaching approach which intensifies speed reading and pleasure reading techniques as well as 4 other essential techniques of reading comprehension is more effective than the traditional one in teaching and learning reading comprehension.