Earticle

This study aimed at investigating the effects of Task-Supported Language Instruction (TSLI) and two oral corrective feedbacks i.e., situated recast (SR) and negotiated feedback (NF) on the learners’ development of grammatical features: be-passive voice. We utilized a quasi-experimental design on four intact-class encompassing 127 third-semester EFL learners assigned to one control group and three experimental groups. A mixed-design repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was applied to gauge the development of both individuals within the groups and the comparisons between groups. The finding reveals that there is no significant development between pre and post-test depicted in the control group. By contrast, there is a significant development from pre to post-test in the experimental groups in which TSLI + NF has the largest effect sizes of TSLI + SR as well as TSLI-only group. Furthermore, TSLI + SR and TSLI + NF provided a longer-term effect than TSLI group on both tests explicated in the delayed test. We interpret these findings as showing that a dynamic explicit-implicit oral corrective feedback embedded in the explicit instruction provide more potent than those task only and control group on the learners’ development of be-passive voice.

The present study compares the effects of two types of instruction on text comprehension and the learning of the form, meaning, and grammar of English nouns and verbs in a text: affective input enhancement (Affective IE), which enhances the affective processing of the topic of a second language (L2) text before it is read, without focusing on the linguistic aspects of the text (n = 40); and conceptual input enhancement (Conceptual IE), which enhances the conceptual processing of content words in an L2 text before it is read (n = 43). The results showed that (1) the Affective IE group evaluated the text topic more positively than the Conceptual IE group, (2) the Affective IE group outperformed the Conceptual IE group in the free-recall task as an index of text comprehension, (3) the Conceptual IE group outperformed the Affective IE group in the learning of the meaning of nouns in the text, and (4) the Affective IE and Conceptual IE groups were equally effective in facilitating the learning of the noun forms and the form, meaning, and grammar of verbs in the text. These findings suggest that Affective IE facilitates text comprehension and L2 learning.

본 논문은 뇌에서 발생하는 언어와 관련된 현상들을 모델링하여 외국어 능숙도 측정 방법을 설계 및 개발하였다. 이 방법은 인지 심리학에서 인지능력을 측정하는 방법에 기반하며, 어휘 판단 과제, 언어 점화 과제, 구어 작업 기억 능력 측정 과제로 나뉜다. 어휘 판단 과제는 자극에 대해 단어인지 비 단어인지를 얼마나 빠르게 판단하는 지를 측정한다. 어휘 판단 과제는 세부적으로 자극의 형태에 따라 읽기와 듣기로 나뉜다. 언어 점화 과제는 언어의 산출 능력을 측정한다. 언어 점화 과제는 자극에 따라 의미적 점화 과제, 번역 점화 과제로 나뉜다. 구어 작업 기억 능력은 학습자의 단기 기억력을 측정한다. 본 논문에서는 제2외국어에 대한 학습자의 언어 인지능력을 사용하여 외국어 능숙도를 측정하는 방법을 제안한다.

In this paper, the modeling of phenomena that occurs in the brain related language was designed and developed the second language proficiency method. This method based on cognitive ability test in cognitive psychology that is the lexical decision task, the priming task and the verbal span task. The lexical decision task involves measuring how quickly decide stimuli as words or nonwords. This task is divided reading and listening according to stimulus type to the details. The priming task finds the output of the language. This task is divided the translation-priming and the semantic-priming according to stimulus type. The verbal span task finds the short term memory. In this paper, we propose the second language proficiency measurement method using the linguistics cognitive ability of the learner about the second language.

The role of L2 learners’ uptake of recast has been controversial according to two aspects; (1) what motivates the production of uptake, especially the successfully repaired ones and (2) whether such uptake makes contribution to L2 acquisition (Goo & Gass, 2013). Literature on recasts suggested the explicit knowledge seeking mind and the explicit knowledge of the target form in the learners’ current L2 knowledge as the motivation for uptake because recasts are meaningfully redundant (Ellis and Sheen, 2006; Lyster & Ranta, 1997, 2013). Based on this suggestion, the present study hypothesized that the benefit of uptake might be the increase of explicit knowledge rather than that of the implicit knowledge, thus, forming an explicit learning route. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 33 Korean adult learners whose knowledge of the target form was assessed in two types, implicit and explicit. Recasts were provided to the incorrect productions of verb forms during the four sessions of information-gap tasks. Results showed (1) uptake was not affected by one type of knowledge over the other and (2) uptake did not improve one type of knowledge over the other, though both types of knowledge have increased significantly.

Despite the growing interest in the use of telecollaboration in higher education, little has been documented concerning the effects of interaction in video-based telecollaboration on L2 development in comparison with interaction in the traditional face-to-face (FTF) environment. In addition, very few studies have succeeded in situating the research designs within the language curriculum for robust pedagogical ramifications in addition to addressing statistically performances obtained on different types of assessment tasks. As part of a larger research project on telecollaboration, this study investigated the relative effects of interaction in video-based telecollaboration (Teletandem) and FTF environments, embedded within language curriculum, on L2 oral accuracy development together with the possible role of the type of oral production assessment task in L2 accuracy development across time. Advanced-level learners of Spanish as a foreign language engaged in oral interaction either in Teletandem (with native speakers of Spanish) or in FTF (with nonnative speaker learners) environments six times during the course of one semester. L2 development was measured by a picture-description task and an opinion-stating task. Results showed that interaction both in Teletandem and FTF modes promoted L2 accuracy development over the six sessions, and the type of medium (and their inherent differences of interlocutor type) did not significantly affect L2 development. Furthermore, results indicated that learners achieved greater improvements on the opinion-stating task than on the picture-description task. These findings are discussed in light of research design issues, previous findings, and the need to seriously address the context of learning from a curricular perspective.

While much research posits that reading development in a second language (L2) is similar to that of a first language (L1), some scholars have argued that L2 reading development is more complicated by a variety of factors, one being L1-L2 orthographic distance (Akamatsu, 1999; Geva, Wade-Whooley, & Shany, 1997). Because of the orthographic distance between Korean and English, this study aimed to examine how Korean elementary students acquire reading skills in English, in particular, how their decoding skills vary depending on their grade level and how their decoding skills affect reading comprehension. For this purpose, 48 students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade?16 students of each?first read aloud three different texts that each exhibited varying degrees of decoding difficulty. Then, they answered comprehension questions about each text. The results revealed that decoding difficulty seems to affect reading comprehension irrespective of grade level. However, each grade level exhibited a unique pattern of decoding difficulty, which indicates that each grade represents a different stage of word reading development. The study findings suggest that Korean elementary students should be instructed to practice English decoding skills.

The study was conducted from a programmatic need to investigate the effects of the instruction of comprehension strategy coupled with cooperative learning (cooperative strategic reading) as compared to the conventional type of explicit teaching of reading comprehension on the development of second language (L2) reading comprehension by low proficiency learners. Two intact remedial classes were randomly assigned to either cooperative strategic reading or explicit teaching of reading comprehension conditions. Results showed that the two types of instruction had different effects on the development of L2 reading comprehension. Cooperative strategic reading comprehension led to a statistically significant improvement at the levels of global understanding of text, but not at the sentence-level understanding. In contrast, explicit teaching of reading comprehension failed to make any significant improvement in L2 reading comprehension at both the local and global understanding of text. This result can be interpreted as evidence that cooperative strategic reading comprehension helped students to engage in deeper processing of the text.

This paper constitutes an initial part of the research agenda that aims to explore the relationship between individuals’ multicultural sensitivity and their acquisition of a second language (L2). In order to lay the groundwork for a systematic inquiry into this complex problem, the present study first reviews previous works on theoretical and empirical validation of the construct of cultural sensitivity. The affective, cognitive, and behavioral correlates of cultural sensitivity that have been identified and discussed in the literature are recapitulated from a perspective of L2 research. Secondly, drawing on a pool of extant instruments to measure individuals’ cultural sensitivity, we develop an alternative scale that better fits the goal of subsequent research efforts to investigate the role of cultural sensitivity in L2 acquisition. Lastly, we put forward some research questions that can be tackled effectively by means of the instrument developed here in the context of learning and teaching English as a foreign language.

Central to language proficiency is the development of vocabulary knowledge and use (Qian & Lin, 2020). Advanced learners are expected to deploy a wide range of vocabulary accurately, quickly, and appropriately. The current study set out to explore Korean EFL learners’ development of oral English vocabulary knowledge by inspecting part of the Korean English Learners’ Spoken Corpus (KELSC) published in Jung (2021). The purpose of the study was to answer what lexical feature(s) predict Korean EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. KELSC is the collection of 237 Korean university students’ oral outputs transcribed, resulting from the completion of two listen-to-speak tasks. The 237 text files were entered into the AntWordprofiler (Anthony, 2022) to calculate the lexical profile with reference to the new general word list (NGSL). The subsequent regression analyses revealed that 1) as Korean EFL learners advance to higher-proficiency level, they could use more different and unique words, 2) that they could use vocabulary more fluently during speaking, but 3) the high-level learners did not necessarily produce more lower-frequency words. Possible reasons, pedagogical implications, and limitations are further discussed.

This study investigates the effects of English intonation on development of second language pronunciation in response to relations between form-meaning associations and access to meaning. Sixty-five Korean adult EFL learners read a vocabulary and sentence-level list and their recordings were analyzed via Praat (De Jong & Wempe, 2009). Two groups, that is, a beginning-level learner group and an intermediate-level learner group were instructed L2 pronunciation regarding intonation for four weeks. From the recorded data, the measurement of duration, intensity, and pitch (Beckman ＆ Pierrehumbert, 1986) were analyzed into a pretest and a posttest. Results showed that a beginning-level learner group and an intermediate-level learner group produced different aspects of duration, F0 range (i.e., intensity and pitch). The effects on L2 intonation revealed the contributions of L2 pronunciation by Korean adult learners of English.

The present study aims to examine how Korean learners of English produce English syllable structure and consonant clusters that are not permitted in the phonological system of their native language and investigates the effects of explicit pronunciation instruction in their development of the target syllable structure. In this study, 40 Korean college students were divided into two groups (experimental vs. control), and individual participants’ accuracy in producing L2 English consonant clusters was assessed based on the reading data collected through a pre-test, a post-test, and a delayed post-test. During the period between the pre-test and the post-test, the experimental group had six sessions of pronunciation instruction that focused on English consonant clusters, while the control group received no such explicit instruction on L2 pronunciation. Analyses of the accuracy score data revealed a positive effect of explicit pronunciation instruction on learners’ English syllable structure production, but the difference in accuracy between the two groups was not significant in the delayed post-test. The paper discusses what needs to be considered in implementing pronunciation instruction and methodological limitations of the study.

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has been developed for decades as the most reliable solution for English language learners to become communicatively competent. However, there have been numerous studies that show that many teachers in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context expressed frustration about not having an accurate understanding of CLT or how to conduct it effectively with fewer opportunities for students to be engaged in meaningful communication. In contrast to studies about the limitations and problems of CLT in Korean education environments, this study revealed that most Korean elementary school English teachers have a fairly accurate understanding of the method, which is sufficient for managing classes using CLT. This study is conducted using quantitative study methodology to investigate teacher perceptions and beliefs in CLT and see how they have been affected by their own CLT learning experiences provided in teacher training programs (TTP). To this end, this study discusses the characteristics of such programs by surveying 94 participants and then interviewing the teachers chosen. It is suggested that diverse venues for the teachers to establish networks should be offered to better implement CLT. Also, long-term and consistent TTPs need to be further developed.

This study investigates the relationships between syntactic complexity indices across different dimensions and proficiency levels in second language (L2) writing. Using the Complex Dynamic Systems Theory as a framework, the study analyzed 72 essays from six first-year non- English majors at a Chinese university. The analysis reveals a complex interplay between measures of syntactic complexity at the sentence, clausal, and phrasal levels. Higher proficiency learners show greater syntactic complexity, especially at the clause and phrase levels, while lower proficiency learners show more variability at the sentence level. The study also identifies non-linear and dynamic patterns of evolution of syntactic structures, highlighting significant fluctuations indicative of both progression and regression in learners' syntactic complexity over time. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of L2 development and suggest that a multidimensional approach is necessary for a better understanding of syntactic complexity in L2 writing.

The Vygotskian concepts of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) in small group learner interactions have gained extensive research interests in recent years. Scaffolding in the right ZPD has been claimed to facilitate second language development. The present study is an attempt to closely investigate the scaffolding mechanisms and ZPD in small group discussion activities. The detailed qualitative analysis of data shows that the learners engaged in varying patterns of scaffolding and the ZPD depending on the particular interactional mechanisms. Overall, the learners benefited from participating in scaffolding actions, particularly, in collective scaffolding instances when they collaboratively worked together as equally contributing participants. The learners also gained help when they focused attention on their language gaps in helping the other peers and relied on their own resources. On the other hand, some peer scaffolding actions in the expert-novice framework gave rather limited opportunities to the learners in that the scaffold help was not fully appropriated by the learners.

The development of communicative competence in a context of teaching a foreign language requires the realization of appropriate and authentic tasks. Through a qualitative-descriptive study we analyze the communicative strategies of written interactions that Korean students develop in the communication by email with native speakers, and we show the adequacy of the use of this digital medium as a continuous activity outside the classroom, especially within a non-immersion learning context.