• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.49-58
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to compare learners' perceptions regarding the processes and the educational effects of fostering learner-generated questions in engineering education according to the questioning attitude of engineering learners. For this, after developing and implementing the appropriate strategies for fostering learner-generated questions in an engineering statistics course, this study analyzed 56 learners' survey responses and used ANOVA to investigate the group differences. The results showed that the educational effects and implications of fostering learner-generated questions were different according to the learners' questioning attitude. The study also confirmed that learners' questioning attitude should be considered as one of the important learner's characteristics in developing and implementing the strategies of fostering learner-generated questions in engineering education. Especially, fostering learner-generated questions produced positive effects on the passive questioning learners but not particularly on the learners who were asking no questions at all in other courses. Learners who asked no questions still have difficulty in generating deep meaningful questions and presenting them and thus require more instructors' strategies and active support for them.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.27-39
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• 2020

This paper examines the frequency and distribution of the so-called "non-discourse marker functions" of so in essay writings produced by 200 L1 English speakers and 1,300 EFL learners in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Based on the data drawn from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English, this study compares EFL learners and L1 English speakers' uses of so, identifying four grammatical uses, as (1) an adverb, (2) part of a fixed phrase, (3) a pro-form, and (4) a conjunction phrase specifying purpose. This study aims to show the wide variability among EFL learners with different L1s, identifying the tendency of usage both common among and specific to the sub-groups of EFL learners. The findings suggest that the learners demonstrate patterns distinctively different from those of L1 English speakers, indicating an underuse of so as a marker expressing "purpose" and an overuse as part of fixed phrases. Compared to L1 English speakers, the learners also tend to overuse so in the discourse marker functions, regardless of their L1s. The study proposes pedagogical implications focusing on discourse flow and diachronic aspects of so in order to understand its multifunctionality, although the latter is primarily suggested for advanced learners.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.19-28
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• 2022

The current study was designed to explore whether taking English pronunciation classes could improve the realization of English rhythm by Korean learners of English. Specifically, this study used various rhythm metrics to examine the extent to which the learners' speech became rhythmically similar to the target language after taking classes that focused on English pronunciation. Sixteen learners who took a 15-week English pronunciation course at a university read an English passage twice (at the beginning and the end of the semester). The rhythm metrics such as Deltas, Varcos, and Pairwise Variability Indices were calculated for the learners' speech, as well as that of 8 native speakers of English. The results demonstrated that the learners' speech was slower, and they put more frequent within-sentence pauses than the native speakers even after the classes. The analyses also indicated that the speech recorded at the beginning of the semester was rhythmically much more different from the target language than at the end of the semester. After the classes, however, the learners' consonantal intervals became much more target-like, while the vocalic intervals were rhythmically even further from those in the target language. Overall, the findings suggested that the pronunciation classes helped the learners to produce English speech that was rhythmically similar to the native speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2023

This study investigates perceptual confusions of English fricatives among 121 Korean elementary school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with shorter periods of learning English. The objective is to examine how they perceive English fricative consonants and to provide educational guidelines. Two sets of English fricative identification tasks-voiceless fricatives and voiced fricatives-were administered to participants in a High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) setting. Their phonemic awareness of the fricatives was visualized in perceptual confusion maps via multidimensional scaling analysis. The findings are explored in terms of the impacts of Korean EFL learners' L1 linguistic aspects and a comparison with L1 learners. Learners' phonemic awareness patterns are then compared with their relative importance in speech intelligibility based on a functional load hierarchy. The results indicated that Korean elementary EFL learners recognized English fricatives in a manner largely akin to L1 learners, suggesting their ongoing acquisition progress. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that the young EFL learners possess sufficient phonemic awareness for most high functional load segments but encounter some difficulties with one high and one low functional pair. The findings of this study offer suggestions for diagnosing language learners' phonemic awareness abilities, thereby aiding in the development of practical guidelines for language instructional design and helping educators make informed decisions regarding teaching priority in L2 classes.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.37-42
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• 1996

This study aims to see some prosodic features of English spoken by Japanese learners of English. It focuses on speech rates, pauses, and intonation when the learners read an English passage. Three Japanese learners of English, who are all male university students, were asked to read the speech material, an English passage of 110 word length, at their normal reading speed. Then a native speaker of English, a male American English teacher. was asked to read the same passage. The Japanese speakers were also asked to read a Japanese passage of 286 letters (Japanese Kana) to compare the reading of English with that of japanese. Their speech was analyzed on a computerized system (KAY Computerized Speech Lab). Wave forms, spectrograms, and F0 contours were shown on the screen to measure the duration of pauses, phrases and sentences and to observe intonation contours. One finding of the experiment was that the movement of the low speakers' speech rates showed a similar tendency in their reading of the English passage. Reading of the Japanese passage by the three learners also had a similar tendency in the movement of speech rates. Another finding was that the frequency of pauses in the learners speech was greater than that in the speech of the native speaker, but that the ration of the total pause length to the whole utterance length was about tile same in both the learners' and the native speaker's speech. A similar tendency was observed about the learners' reading of the Japanese passage except that they used shorter pauses in the mid-sentence position. As to intonation contours, we found that the learners used a narrower pitch range than the native speaker in their reading of the English passage while they used a wider pitch range as they read the Japanese passage. It was found that the learners tended to use falling intonation before pauses whereas the native speaker used different intonation patterns. These findings are applicable to the teaching of English pronunciation at the passage level in the sense that they can show the learners. Japanese here, what their problems are and how they could be solved.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.53-82
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• 2014

This study aims to find the method to promote interaction in L2 classrooms. Active interaction between learner-to-learner and learner-to-teacher in L2 classroom plays an important role in language acquisition. In light of this, L2 classroom would benefit with the help of learning tools such as Clickers which helps learners to express their level of understanding during the process of learning itself. This is because the anonymity of Clickers allows learners to express their needs without the social risks associated with speaking up in the class. It allows for an evaluative feedback loop where both learners and teachers understand the level of progress of the learners, better enabling classrooms to adapt to the learners' needs. Eventually this tool promotes participation from learners, This is in turn, believed to be effective in fostering classroom interaction, allowing learning to take place in a more comfortable yet vibrant way. This study is finalized by presenting the result of an experiment conducted to verify the effectiveness of this approach when teaching pragmatic aspect of the Korean expressions with similar semantic functions. As a result of the research, the learning achievement of learners in the experimental group was found higher than the learners' in a control group. Analyzing the data collected from a questionnaire given to the learners, the study presented data suggesting that this approach increased the scope of interactivity in the classroom, thus enhancing more active participation among learners. This active participation in turn led to a marked improvement in their communicative abilities.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2021

This study aimed to understand and analyze the learners' class satisfaction and the effectiveness of synchronous online classes after COVID-19. A total of 188 learners participated in the survey conducted at the end of the Fall Semester 2020 at C University located Gyeongsangnam-do. Findings revealed that learners' satisfaction with the synchronous online classes was relatively low, and the learners had negative perception of that. Learning content have the biggest effect on the learners' class satisfaction. Next came class management and the online learning platform. Therefore, instructors need to organize learning content effectively and enhance learners' understanding considering the most influential variable, learning content so that learners are satisfied with the synchronous online classes. Also, instructors should make it possible for learners to get familiar with the online learning platform and use it without any problems through systematic and faithful class design for effective learning in unfamiliar online learning environment. In addition, instructors need to know learners' needs and difficulties and plan their synchronous online classes. This study has limitations in that it was conducted only at one college and the limited number of variables was measured.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.171-195
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• 2012

While noticing that there is insufficient interest in the assessment of EFL learners' vocabulary levels or sizes, the researchers developed two tests identical in form (Forms A and B) to assess the lexical knowledge of Korean university learners at the $1^{st}{\sim}10^{th}$ 1,000 word bands by adapting a pre-established vocabulary levels test (VLT). Of equal concern was to investigate if the VLT was equally a valid and reliable instrument to be used on measuring the lexical knowledge of EFL learners. The participants were 804 university freshmen enrolled in a General Education English Course from four different colleges. The learners were asked to respond to either Form A or B. While scores generally fell towards the lower frequency bands, multiple regression found the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to be a significant variable for predicting the learners' vocabulary sizes. From a methodological perspective, however, noticeable differences between Forms A and B could be found with item response theory analysis. The findings of the study provide suggestions on how future VLT for testing EFL learners may have to be redesigned.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.79-87
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• 2016

The purpose of this study aimed to examine the perceptual pattern of the Korean coda consonants by Chinese learners of Korean. Given that Mandarin allows only two nasals (/n, ŋ/) in the coda position, it was predicted that Chinese learners of Korean had difficulty in discriminating Korean coda consonants. In the experiment, the subjects were 21 beginner-level Chinese learners of Korean. They participated in the discrimination task four times a year in which they were asked to choose the right Korean coda consonants after listening the word from Korean native speakers. The results demonstrated that 1) Chinese learners of Korean improved their perception of the Korean coda consonants. 2) But Chinese learners of Korean performed differently according to the type of Korean coda consonants. Korean consonants /n, p, k, m/ showed significant differences, but /l, ŋ, t/ did not.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to analyze the structural relationships between adult educators' instructional leadership, learners' motivation and performance among those participants in education for urban-rural migration. The survey was conducted among 22 agricultural educational institutions in South Korea, and a total number of 1,109 learners responded to a questionnaire. In order to verify the hypothesized research model, the collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The major findings of this study were as follows. First, adult educators' instructional leadership had a direct effect and an indirect effect on learners' performance. Second, adult educators' instructional leadership had a direct effect on learners' motivation. Third, learners' motivation had a direct effect on learners' performance.