Speech Intelligibility of Korean EFL Learners : Role of Proficiency, Text Type and Text Length

Abstract This study aimed to determine as to whether or not the text type and strategy usage affect the EFL learners’ lexical inferencing performance. The participants were comprised of 87 first-year English majors at a technical university. Data were collected from (1) a lexical inferencing test with excerpts of narrative and expository texts, for which both multiple-choice and definition tasks were designed, respectively, and then (2) the responses from the learners’ self-reported strategy usage. The quantitative analyses demonstrated that the text types significantly affected the EFL learners’ lexical inferencing performance, in which the EFL learners performed better for the narrative excerpt than for the expository texts. However, significant coefficients between the strategy use and the lexical inferencing performance were not found in this study. The results further implied that the text structure and the lexical inferencing strategies should be explicitly taught to the EFL learners.

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The Role of Learners’ Attitudes Toward Parental Involvement in L2 English Learning

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v12n1p18 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Jung-Tae Kim ◽

Rusty Barrett

Keyword(s):

Parental Involvement ◽

South Korea ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Positive Influence ◽

English Learning ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Korean Efl Learners

This paper seeks to examine Korean EFL learners’ perceptions of parental involvement and how their attitudes toward parental involvement are associated with the success of parental involvement. Two hundred fifty four EFL children in South Korea participated in a survey asking the degree of their parent’s involvement in seven involvement types and their attitudes towards parental involvement. The results showed that while all types of parental involvement were positively correlated with English proficiency for the group of children with positive attitudes towards parental involvement, no such correlations were found for the group of children with highly negative attitudes. In addition, for the group of children with moderately negative attitudes toward parental involvement, only less direct, autonomy-supportive parental involvement was found to be related to their achievement. These results suggest that learners’ attitudes toward parental involvement may be a factor that delimits the positive influence of parental involvement on EFL learners’ achievement.

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Role of Input and Output Task-induced Involvement in Korean EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Learning

Foreign Languages Education ◽

10.15334/fle.2020.27.1.23 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 23-43

Author(s):

Dongho Kang ◽

◽

Tae-Il Pae

Keyword(s):

Vocabulary Learning ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Input And Output ◽

Korean Efl Learners

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Tertiary English-majored Students’ Perceptions toward the Role of Pronunciation in English Language Learning and their Practicing Strategies

Tập chí Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn ◽

10.33100/jossh6.2.phangiathinh-tranquocthao ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 264-279

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Vital Role ◽

English Language Learning ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Efl Learners ◽

The University

Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020

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