• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.541-554
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• 2012

This study suggests the effectiveness of G-learning English afterschool classes implemented to elementary school students at low achievement level in English. These days, the use of games in teaching and learning, known as G-learning, has gradually expanded, so it is necessary to consider how to adapt G-learning generally in English education. A G-learning afterschool English class was implemented to 23 low-level 5th grade students in an elementary school located in Daejon for 12 weeks. This study set two hypotheses aiming to determine the effectiveness in achievement and affectiveness of the participants. Pre and post achievement tests were conducted. Also, survey and FGI (focused group interview) were carried out twice with the participants. The study found that students' spelling awareness, vocabulary recognition and dialogue comprehension ability (hypothesis 1) were all improved with statistical significance. Moreover, after the class, participants' confidence and interest toward English study showed meaningful increases.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2012

This study explores the effects of phonological awareness instruction with phonetics on listening comprehension and speaking. For the test of measuring the improvement of listening comprehension, two nationwide listening comprehension tests were used for pre-test and post-test. To find out the improvement of speaking ability, students were required to take the Level-3 NEAT speaking tests. There was a notable correlation between phonological awareness instruction with phonetics and listening ability. Also a significant correlation between phonological awareness instruction with phonetics and speaking ability was found. The group with phonological awareness class with phonetics received higher scores in listening and speaking test than the group without phonological awareness class with phonetics in the post-test. This study implies that phonological awareness class with phonetics is helpful for the improvement of listening and speaking ability. With this research, we can also say that students' communicative competence increased.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.57-75
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• 2007

This small-scale research project attempts to describe and explore the Korean students' perspectives on oral classroom interaction in a second language classroom in a graduate course in America. Based on the interpretist paradigm, this study employed the qualitative research methodology, triangulating the following methods: class observation, interviews, and document analysis. The findings are that the Korean participants perceived the importance of oral classroom interaction in an American classroom, and that there were shared several factors which influence their participation such as socio-cultural differences, course content, English skills, course requirement, and classroom activity types. Based upon the findings, pedagogical implications are provided for the teachers to help Korean students achieve academic success in American universities.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.67-84
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• 2012

The present study investigated the effect of sentence translation as a production task on short-term and long-term retention of foreign vocabulary. 87 EFL university students at a beginning level, enrolled in reading class participated in the study. The study compared the performance of three groups on vocabulary recall: (1) Control group, (2) Translation group, and (3) Copy group. During the treatment sessions, translation group translated L1 sentences into English, while copy group simply copied given English sentences with each target word. Results of the immediate test were collected each week from week 2 to week 5 and analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Results revealed that regarding short-term vocabulary retention, participants in rote-copy condition outperformed those in translation group. Four weeks later a delayed test was administered to measure long-term vocabulary retention. In contrast, the results of two-way repeated measures ANOVA showed that long-term vocabulary retention of translation group was significantly greater than copy group. The findings suggest that although sentence translation is rather challenging to low-level learners, it may facilitate long-term retention of new vocabulary given the more elaborate and deeper processing the task entails.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.65-71
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• 2018

Using mobile technology in educational and learning environments has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. In this mobile environment, mobile phones have been used to enhance the effectiveness of education in the field, which has been recognized through numerous experimental studies so far. The study was proposed and conducted to find out how much the use of mobile phones can have to improve the grammatical knowledge of EFL students. Introduction of 95 intermediate courses to Chungnam area The second grade students of 4-year college participated in this study. Everyone in the experimental and control groups was given the opportunity to review and recur to use the six grammar formats, including the current complete tense, simple past tense, direct and indirect question sentences, and comparative and superative-based methods. During the class discussion, the participants of the group record their voice on their cell phones, analyze the mistakes in the expressions recorded as a task after the class, and explain the results in the next session. However, in the class of the control group participants, this recording process is omitted. Participants benefited from mobile learning were much more positive in multidimensional grammar tests than those in control groups.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.185-210
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• 2006

This study has two purposes. First, it aims to suggest an appropriate approach to English writing education for Korean high school students in a cooperative learning situation. It also aims to suggest what type of learner grouping, either homogeneous or heterogeneous, is appropriate by comparing the learners' writing abilities and the changes of their affective factors after being exposed to cooperative EFL writing instruction. Two homogeneous classes were selected and instructed to write in English for 11 weeks. One was composed of homogeneous small groups based on the students' writing scores, and the other was composed of heterogeneous small groups, again based on the students' writing scores. The results showed that the improvement between the two class types was quite different across different proficiency levels. For example, although there is little difference between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes of low and intermediate-level learners in writing ability improvement, high-level students showed a significant difference between the classes. In addition, it was found that class participation correlated significantly to writing ability improvement. Cooperative learning was proved to be an effective writing instructional approach to encourage learners' interest and increase their self-confidence; however, the results did not show any significant differences in learners' affective domain between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes. Similarly, the learners' grouping preference was not affected by the grouping method.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.4
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• pp.85-116
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• 1998

Since the 1980's language teachers have been urged to take more communicatively oriented practice instead of traditional audio-lingual and grammar-translation instruction. However, there are many reasons why communication-centered teaching approaches haven't been easily adopted in Korea. First of all many English teachers haven't been prepared for communicative language teaching. And class size is very large. Another reason is that students' reading and writing skills are more important than their speaking and listening skills to enter colleges. But the world has been changing rapidly. We have many chances to meet foreigners and to talk to them. So many students want to improve their communicative proficiency. The purpose of this study is how to improve their communicative proficiency by performing games in English classes. There are many advantages of using games and songs in the classroom. First, games are motivating and challenging. Second, students can improve their four skills(speaking, writing, listening and reading skills) by using games and songs. Thirdly, games and songs help students to study English without their conscious efforts and to practice English repeatedly because they are interested in them. Fourthly, games and songs create a meaningful context for language use. Lastly, students can learn English with less tension and anxiety. Therefore, English games and songs are worthy of using in classes. To use English games and song more effectively, more various and useful materials have to be developed for English teachers and have to be introduced pertinently into classes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.69-89
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• 2012

This paper explored the effects of extensive reading (ER) on Korean university students' L2 reading proficiency and reading rates. This study also illustrated how ER can be integrated into a university English reading class. Seventeen students who took a summer reading course participated in this study. Data were gathered through pre- and post- tests in terms of participants' reading comprehension proficiency and reading rates and post- questionnaire with regard to their attitudes toward L2 storybook reading after they have experienced it. The analysis was carried out using the Paired Samples t-test. It was revealed that ER has a positive effect on the enhancement of the participants' reading comprehension and reading rates. The participants showed their continued intention to read in English and a strong belief that persistent reading in English in the long run will help improve their English. The results of this study confirm the educational values of incorporating ER into university English reading classes. The pedagogical implications for EFL instructors are described.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

The advancement of Internet technologies has provided a new and effective way to cultivate international talents. To investigate the effect of native English teachers' online synchronous classes on Chinese primary school students' oral English improvement, an 18-month quasi-experimental study was conducted on 300 primary school students in China. The experiment and control groups were provided biweekly synchronous online classes with native and non-native English teachers. SPSS was used to conduct Paired Sample T-Tests and analyze performance differentials. The results showed that online classes taught by native English teachers perform better than non-native English teachers in three areas: vocabulary accuracy, average sentence length, and phonological intonation.