• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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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.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.15-24
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the use of video resources on improving listening comprehension. 86 students enrolled in a summer session at a Korean university participated in the study. They were assigned to one of three groups based on the results of their TOEIC test scores: 29 students were assigned to the low group, 29 students to the intermediate group, and 28 students to the advanced group. Each group studied the same lessons using authentic video materials. They were taught for 10 sessions over three weeks. The pre- and post-test design helped to determine whether authentic videos were effective in improving listening skills for all proficiency levels. In addition, a questionnaire investigated students' perceptions toward using video resources. Paired sample t-tests, ANOVAs, and an ANCOVA were utilized to identify significant differences. It was concluded that in the intermediate and advanced proficiency groups, the students' listening skills increased significantly after learning with videos. In addition, listening improvements among the intermediate and advanced students were much greater than those of the low proficiency group. As for students' perceptions toward using video resources for improving their English listening skills, they responded positively. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications are suggested, and future studies will be discussed.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.597-610
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to inquiry of influence of Meister high school and specialized vocational high school' students on career maturity in problem solving ability domain of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency. Research subjects and region were sophomore students of each one of Meister high schools and specialized vocational high schools in Gwangju region. The sample(N=481) was drawn from 2 high schools and collected data were analyzed with SPSS using t-test, Pearson correlation and Levene's test. Items of problem solving ability domain of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency were used test items developed in 2012. Career maturity test in Careernet site was used test items developed in 2001 which was made up 3 domains such as attitude, ability and action and 8 sub-regions such as planning, attitude on the vocation, independence, self-understanding, rational decision-making, explore of information, knowledge of hope vocation and career exploration and preparation of action, and constituted 64 items. The results were as follows. Findings of the analysis in specialized vocational high school students demonstrated the positive results of rational decision-making and explore of information in problem solving ability test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency. Comparing career maturity influence on Meister high school with specialized vocational high school students about problem solving ability domain of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency, Meister high school students' score were more high grade than specialized vocational high school students grade.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.101-124
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• 2011

This paper investigated the relationships among Korean EFL learners' listening anxiety, listening strategy use, and listening proficiency. One hundred and forty four Korean college students who were enrolled in the required practical English classes participated in this study. Questionnaires related to students' listening strategy use and listening anxiety were administered and a TOEIC listening comprehension test was given to measure the students' listening proficiency. The one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study are that the students' listening performance is positively correlated with their strategy use and negatively correlated with their anxiety level, and their strategy use is negatively correlated with their anxiety level. The results suggest that successful learning will occur when anxiety is reduced and when the use of strategies is encouraged more often. The pedagogical implications for EFL educators and teachers are described.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.59-85
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• 2007

This study examined patterns of engaging in "reading in connection to writing" (hereafter reading-writing practices) in the context of two ESL college composition classrooms. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the L2 proficiency level could be a key construct in explaining similarities and differences in reading-writing practices which students engaged in during the composing process. Multiple sources of data collected over the semester included interview protocols, written products, and observational notes. The results showed that the three proficiency groups under examination differed widely in the ways reading was connected to writing and in the types of intermediate texts produced during the composing process. The students in the high proficiency group produced more intermediate texts through an engagement in reading-writing practices connected to each other. On the contrary, the students in lower proficiency groups engaged in a limited range of reading-writing practices without support of intermediate texts. This study provides insight into the different ways ESL college students coordinate reading and writing while composing essays.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.770-782
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to inquiry of perception of Meister high school and specialized vocational high school' teachers and students on problem solving ability domain of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency. Research subjects and region were teachers and sophomore students of each one of Meister high schools and specialized vocational high schools in Gyeongsangnamdo and Gwangju region. The questionnaire was composed of 4 research areas. Research areas were demographic characteristics, questions aspects, operational and enforcement aspects and side support for the development of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency. Teachers questionnaire were composed of 15 items and students questionnaire were composed of 8 items. Further the research were interviewed research and targets were teachers and students of Meister high school and specialized vocational high school. The samples(N=719) of teachers and students were drawn from 2 high schools and collected data were analyzed with SPSS. The results were as follows. Perception of Meister high school students regarded more items of test for enhanced employ ability & upgraded proficiency as appropriate than specialized vocational high school students. Perception of Meister high school students regarded more CBT system as appropriate than specialized vocational high school students. Perception of specialized vocational high school teachers regarded more items of level of difficulty, degree of completion, validity than Meister high school teachers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze which factors affect safety awareness of foreign workers and international students. In the correlation analysis, individual characteristics related to the safety awareness of foreign workers were nationality, status of stay(visa types), place of work, educational background, and Korean proficiency while international students were relevant with only the types of residence. There were significant differences in the safety awareness of foreign workers in nationality, status of stay(visa types), region of residence, educational background, place of work, and Korean proficiency. However, there was a significant difference only in the types of residence for the international students. In the regression analysis of factors affecting safety awareness, there were significant differences in nationality, status of stay(visa types), place of work, and Korean proficiency in the case of foreign workers. It was analyzed that nationality and status of stay had a negative (-) effect, and the place of work and Korean proficiency had a positive (+) effect. In the case of international students, it was analyzed that only the types of residence had a negative (-) effect on safety awareness.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.75-94
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• 2009

This study was designed to assess demotivation factors and compare the factor between two secondary school student groups. It furthermore examined how the factors related to students' L2 proficiency. A 31-item questionnaire was completed by 407 junior (JH) and senior high school (SH) students. Five factors were extracted through the principal axis factoring: Teachers' competence and teaching styles, Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system, Difficulty of learning English, Lack of motivation and interest in learning English, and Inadequate learning contents. Although both JH and SH students did not perceive their English teacher as a strong attribution of demotivation, Difficulty of learning English and Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system were the two strongest demotivating factors. When compared the overall mean scores of each factor between JH and SH groups, significant differences were found in all factors except Factor 4, with SH students reporting stronger demotivation. JH students attributed their demotivation to Difficulty of learning English, while SH students attributed that to Dissatisfaction with English classes and grading system. Both groups tended to attribute their demotivation to external forces. The study also showed that several demotivation factors related negatively to L2 proficiency.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-75
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• 2002

The present study examined whether Kang's (1999) model of the relationships among language learning strategy use and language proficiency for the Asian students could be applied to a more heterogeneous group. In Kang's study, he collected information of language learning strategies of 957 foreign students learning English as a second language in American colleges through a questionnaire. He also measured the subjects' language proficiency with the Institutional Testing Program TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). This study analyzed the same data without the limitation of cultural identity. Structural equation modeling was used to model the relationships among strategy use and language proficiency. Then, the model of the present study was descriptively compared with Kang's (1999) model for the Asian students. The overall flow of the relationship paths appeared to vary very little across the two models, which would have indicated that the generalizability of Kang's (1999) model could be extended more than originally examined. (156)

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.33-37
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• 2018

Korean students with much exposure to the relatively slow and clear speech used in most English classes in Korea can be expected to have difficulty understanding the casual style that is common in the everyday speech of English speakers. This research attempted to investigate an effective way to utilize casual speech in English education, by exploring the way different speech styles (clear vs. casual) affect Korean learners' comprehension of spoken English. Twenty Korean university students and two native speakers of English participated in a listening session. The English utterances were produced in different speech styles (clear slow, casual slow, clear fast, and casual fast). The Korean students were divided into two groups by English proficiency level. The results showed that the Korean students achieved 69.4% comprehension accuracy, while the native speakers of English demonstrated almost perfect results. The Korean students (especially the low-proficiency group) had more problems perceiving function words than they did perceiving content words. Responding to the different speech styles, the high-proficiency group had more difficulty listening to utterances with phonological variation than they did listening to utterances produced at a faster speed. The low-proficiency group, however, struggled with utterances produced at a faster speed more than they did with utterances with phonological variation. The pedagogical implications of the results are discussed in the concluding section.