Earticle

This study aimed to investigate the effects of voice recording as a speaking assignment on Korean EFL nursing students’ speaking confidence and perceptions of speaking assignment. The participants of the study were 22 nursing students who took college English course and were divided into two groups. One was an experimental group performing voice recording assignment for speaking practice during 5 weeks and the other was a control group that did not receive treatment by the researcher. Speaking confidence questionnaire and in-depth interview were used to collect the data in this study. The result of this study showed that there was some statistically significant achievement of the participants’ speaking confidence after speaking assignment of voice recording performed by them. In addition, the participants had positive reaction to the experience of the assignment. This suggests that voice recording assignment encourages students to have their speaking confidence and helps them to overcome speaking difficulties in EFL environment.

Lee, Jung-Eun·Jeong, Dong-Bin. “The effectiveness of recording assignments of university students’ speaking through mobile devices.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 38.1 (2012): 267-297. The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the efficacy of recording assignments utilizing mobile devices (i.e., cell phones, PDAs, and MP3players). The subjects were 16 EFL students, divided into 2 groups of 8 students each. Each group consisted of 8 students. This study examined students’ self-directed learning based on constructivism for 6 weeks utilizing mobile devices. The one strength of mobile learning is that it is easy to carry a mobile device and convenient to complete assignments anytime, anywhere. Students can send their work to a teacher by email after they have finished their assignments. After that, the teacher provides students with feedback regarding their assignments. Based on the teacher’s feedback, students can find out their problems. During class time, the teacher records students’ speaking when they are in the group discussion for ten minutes. Then through data which were typed from recording, the teacher analyses to examine the effectiveness of performing recording assignments utilizing mobile devices. The results are as follows: First, assignments completed using mobile devices were effective for speaking skills especially in fluency, pronunciation and vocabulary. Second, the majority of learners were interested in, and all were satisfied with, using mobile devices for recording assignments. Therefore, based on these findings, it seems that doing voice recording assignments through mobile devices, and getting feedback from the teacher by email, can help learners in developing English speaking. (Chung-Ang University)

사이버대학 온라인 강의는 녹화로 진행된다는 점에서 비동시적이며 일 방향적인 교사중심 수업이 되기 쉽기 때문에, 참여도가 높고 상호작용이 활발한 과제 학습을 고안하는 것이 중요하다. 과제학습을 수행하는데 있어서 사이버대학의 학생들은 자기주도 학습 역량을 갖추는 것이 필요하다. 이 연구는 온라인 교육에서 자기주도 학습을 활성화 할 수 있는 과제 개발이 중요하다는 것에 대한 이해에서부터 시작한다. 연구 목적은 자기주도 학습을 온라인 과제에 실제로 활용하는 방법을 토의하는 데 있다. 이를 위해 K 사이버대학의 교양영어 과목인 “팝송으로 배우는 영어”를 2015년부터 3년간 사례로 연구하였으며, 조사방법은 다음과 같다. 먼저, 이 과목에서 시행한 팝송 암기 녹음 과제와 녹음과정에 대해 성찰한 리포트를 연구 자료로 수집하여 분석하였다. 3년 동안 469개의 음성파일과 463개의 문서파일을 수집하였다. 그리고 이 기간 동안 설문조사를 실시하여 통계 분석하였다. 설문 결과를 통해 녹음과제는 학생들이 선호하고 학습 참여에 도움이 되는 활동이라는 것을 알 수 있었다. 결국 녹음 과제가 자기주도 학습에 도움이 되는 활동이라고 결론지을 수 있다. 성찰리포트 분석 결과, 곡 선택 이유는 감정적이며 인지적이고 전략적이었다. 노래 암기를 위해 다양한 전략을 적극적으로 사용하는 것도 알게 되었다. 이와 같은 결과를 통해 온라인 강의에서 자기주도 학습이 가능하도록 과제를 고안하고 잘 활용하면 학습효과가 높아진다는 것을 알게 되었다.

Online lectures at Cyber Universities are usually conducted with one-way interaction and teacher-centered instruction. To make learning more engaging and interactive, adult learners at Cyber Universities are required to prepared to be self-directed learners. The study begins from understanding the importance of creating and designing assignment that can activate self-directed learning especially in online education. The purpose of the study is to discuss ways of putting self-directed learning to work at online classrooms. A general selective class, “Pop Song English,” at K Cyber University is the case of the study for three years from 2015 to 2017. Students turned in the voice file of a self-recorded pop song and the word file of self-reflected report. This assignment were collected for 3 years with the volunteerly responses of the survey questionaries. Collected data of 469 voice files and 463 word files were analyzed qualitatively, and the survey responses were analyzed statistically. The result of survey research shows that recording was a preferred and participatory activity. In addition, the many survey respondents think it is a self-directed assignment. The students who turned in the assignment appealed in their reflection report that they chose the song because it seemed easy to memorize, easy to sing, and easy to understand. Also they selected the songs because they were emotionally affected, or the songs brought them good memories from the past. To memorize the song they actively use various strategies. Online classroom should carefully create and design assignment that can activate self-directed learning to meet students’ need to improve their competence.