• 비교문화연구
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• 제20권
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• pp.29-66
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• 2010

This paper is a qualitative study of the experiences of Korean heritage language learners (KHLLs) with literacy (reading and writing), particularly before they enter the college-level heritage language classroom. Previous research, both qualitative and quantitative, has addressed the overall language background of KHLLs, including oral and aural proficiency and writing and reading ability, as well as demographic information (such as when the student immigrated to the United States) in relation to language test scores. This study addresses KHLL experiences in the following six areas as they relate to student perceptions and attitudes toward their own heritage language literacy: language proficiency, motivation for learning, academic preparedness, cultural connectedness, emotional factors, and social factors. Fourteen undergraduate students at a university in the western United States participated in a convenience sample by responding to a 10-question survey. Trends in responses indicated that KHLLs entered the classroom with high integrational motivation and experienced great satisfaction with perceived progress in literacy, but students also expressed regret for having missed childhood learning experiences that would likely have resulted in higher proficiency. These experiences include informal and formal instruction in the home and formal instruction outside of the home.

• 영어영문학
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1193-1220
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• 2009

This study examined the impact of sonority profiles, positional differences and L2 proficiency on Korean EFL learners' perception of English biconsonantal clusters, using nonce words. The overall results showed that major predictions of the sonority-based typological markedness on consonant clusters were supported, as obstruent plus sonorant and sonorant plus obstruent sequences were better perceived than obstruent only or sonorant only sequences. Yet, some consonant clusters did not show a preference for sonority profiles. Positional effects were also confirmed, as word-initial biconsonantal clusters were better perceived than wordfinal ones across all the participant groups. Participants' English proficiency turned out to be also important in the perception of consonant clusters, since university students' mean rate of accuracy was highest, followed by that of high school students, which in turn followed by that of middle school students. Further, the effects of other factors like frequency and stimuli on speech perception were also addressed, along with some implications for future research.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.11-17
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• 2024

The goal of the current study is to investigate whether L2 learners' perceptual ability regarding epenthetic vowels is interconnected with other aspects of speech recognition, such as lexical stress, sentence focus, and vowel recognition. Twenty-five Korean L2 learners of English participated in perception experiments assessing vowel epenthesis oddity, lexical stress oddity, sentence focus oddity, and vowel identification. Results indicate that accuracy on the vowel epenthesis oddity test is influenced by both lexical stress and sentence focus, suggesting that perceptual ability regarding epenthetic vowels is influenced by the acquisition of L2 rhythmic structure at both word and sentence levels. Additionally, this study identifies a proficiency effect on vowel epenthesis recognition, implying that the influence of L1 phonotactics diminishes as L2 proficiency increases. Taken together, this study illustrates the interaction between perceptual abilities in vowel epenthesis and prosodic stress in the field of L2 speech perception.

• 아시아태평양코퍼스연구
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.35-49
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• 2022

This study examines crosslinguistic influence on the use of concessive conditionals by Japanese EFL learners. Contrastive analysis suggests that Japanese native speakers may overuse the concessive conditional even if due to partial similarities to Japanese concessive conditionals, whose formal and semantic restrictions are fewer than those of English concessive conditionals. This hypothesis is tested using data from the written module of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). Comparison of Japanese native speakers with English native speakers and Chinese native speakers reveals the following trends. First, Japanese native speakers tend to overuse concessive conditionals compared to native speakers, while similar overuse is not observed in Chinese native speaker data. Second, non-nativelike uses of even if appear in contexts allowing the use of concessive conditionals in Japanese. Third, while overuse and infelicitous use of even if is observed at all proficiency levels, formal errors are restricted to learners at lower proficiency levels. These findings suggest that crosslinguistic influence does occur in the use of concessive conditionals, and that its particular realization is affected by L2 proficiency, with formal crosslinguistic influence mediated at an earlier stage than semantic cross-linguistic influence.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.156-162
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer scaffolding on the writing fluency of English language learners. This study was intended to confirm that peer scaffolding in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing classes can improve students' English proficiency. An analysis of 20 EFL learners studying at a university in Gyeonggi Province was conducted based on the English Proficiency Test. In this study, 20 intermediate learners with similar proficiency levels were included in the sample. Randomly, 10 students were designated as members of the control group, and 10 students were designated as members of the experimental group. In the experimental group, students practiced essay writing, while a skilled student provided scaffolding for a less skilled student. A variety of tools were used to gather data, including tests, questionnaires, and interviews Statistical analyses of quantitative data were conducted using t-tests for independent samples, whereas analyses of qualitative data were conducted based on themes. Pre-test results indicated a significant value of sig. =0.87, which was higher than α = 0.05. According to the results of this study, the writing performance of both experimental and control groups of students was equal and homogeneous prior to treatment. However, there were significant differences between the writing of students in the two groups after the completion of the program. Due to the post-test analysis of the writing test, the test resulted in a sig. =0 .043, a value lower than α = 0.05. As a result, the experimental group participants showed a marked improvement in their writing abilities after treatment.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.309-326
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• 2011

This study examines the relationship between second language use outside of class and oral proficiency development. It first identifies out-of-class activities of international graduate students in the U.S. and the average time spent speaking English in those out-of-class activities. Interviews and student self-measurements of time spent speaking English each day were used to investigate the types and quantities of out-of-class activities. In addition, two sets of student oral proficiency test scores were collected. Correlation analysis is used to find out the relationship of the variables between the most salient out-of-class activities and oral proficiency gains. The findings indicate that second language use outside of class is important for international graduate students to improve their oral proficiency. This is especially true with regularized interaction such as talking at work and the average time spent speaking in English a day outside of class. This study suggests that learners of English in an ESL environment should be encouraged to take part in out-of-class activities in addition to English use in the classroom in order for them to improve their oral proficiency.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.49-56
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• 2017

Much research attention has been directed to identify how native speakers perceive non-native speakers' oral proficiency. To investigate the generalizability of previous findings, this study examined segmental, phonological, accentual, and temporal correlates of native speakers' evaluation of L2 Korean proficiency produced by learners with various levels and nationalities. Our experiment results show that proficiency ratings by native speakers significantly correlate not only with rate of speech, but also with the segmental accuracies. The influence of segmental errors has the highest correlation with the proficiency of L2 Korean speech. We further verified this finding within substitution, deletion, insertion error rates. Although phonological accuracy was expected to be highly correlated with the proficiency score, it was the least influential measure. Another new finding in this study is that the role of pitch and accent has been underemphasized so far in the non-native Korean speech perception studies. This work will serve as the groundwork for the development of automatic assessment module in Korean CAPT system.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.149-155
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• 2023

Since developing digital technology requires new skills in digital literacy, digital competence also has become a keystone in English classes. This study explores three aspects of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' digital confidence: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, and digital content creation, based on the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp). The participants were 150 Korean college students enrolled in two general English classes, and their English proficiency levels were from basic to advanced; each level consisted of 30 participants. In order to assess their digital confidence, I designed a Google survey form and collected data during two semesters. The survey results revealed that the participants had highest digital confidence in information and data literacy and overall, the female participants showed higher digital confidence than their male counterparts. It also showed that the learners' English proficiency and computer skills are important factors.

• 비교문화연구
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• 제30권
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• pp.125-165
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to find methods that allow learners to improve their listening comprehension skills. To do this, we have divided this article into three parts. In the first part, we analyzed studies focus on the skill of listening. In the second part, we are dedicated to the process steps in the study of listening comprehension. In the last part, we tried to demonstrate this by examples according to the difference in levels of learners. More specifically, we applied the questionnaires according to a typological difference. Most teachers recognize the importance of listening to complete the language proficiency of learners. Nevertheless, there are many difficulties in implementing effective methods for improving listening comprehension skills. In addition, there is a strong tendency not to consider listening as an autonomous field, but as a part of oral proficiency. In addition, we can not ignore the importance of the method of application, because it can motivate learners to both concentrate on their studies and to voluntarily participate in the course. In this sense, the Professors and teaching staff can use the examples of DELF to establish concrete goals for the course of listening. It is difficult to confirm that this study is the most effective way with regard to the methodology, but we hope it may be useful to improve the skills of listening comprehension French learners.

• 아시아태평양코퍼스연구
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.35-45
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• 2021

With the wide spread of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) scales, many studies attempt to apply them in routine teaching and rater training, while more evidence regarding criterial features at different CEFR levels are still urgently needed. The current study aims to explore complexity features that distinguish and predict CEFR proficiency levels in oral performance. Using a quantitative/corpus-based approach, this research analyzed lexical and syntactic complexity features over 80 transcriptions (includes A1, A2, B1 CEFR levels, and native speakers), based on an interview test, Standard Speaking Test (SST). ANOVA and correlation analysis were conducted to exclude insignificant complexity indices before the discriminant analysis. In the result, distinctive differences in complexity between CEFR speaking levels were observed, and with a combination of six major complexity features as predictors, 78.8% of the oral transcriptions were classified into the appropriate CEFR proficiency levels. It further confirms the possibility of predicting CEFR level of L2 learners based on their objective linguistic features. This study can be helpful as an empirical reference in language pedagogy, especially for L2 learners' self-assessment and teachers' prediction of students' proficiency levels. Also, it offers implications for the validation of the rating criteria, and improvement of rating system.