This study examines students’ perception of the use of ASR technology in the self-paced development of English pronunciation. Participants were composed of 80 Korean students from two English listening classes at a university in South Korea. After practicing shadow-reading of the learnt passage, they were required to have their speeches converted into text using ASR technology and submit it as homework every two weeks. At the end of the semester, students completed a survey using written questionnaires regarding their personal information as well as their perception of using ASR technology. The results show that while no salient effects were found with the all the participants as a whole, significant differences were found between students. Specifically, English listening and speaking proficiencies and risk-taking behavior are shown to be strong predictors for successful performance in the ASR-based activity. The results also show that device satisfaction was a significant factor in explaining students’ successful performance in recognizing pronunciation errors and developing English pronunciation proficiency. Based on student responses, both positive and negative aspects of using ASR technology for developing English pronunciation are discussed. The findings suggest that ASR technology can provide pedagogical benefits insofar as its limitations are recognized.

This study compared meaning-centered and form-centered instructions to explore which one could lead to greater incidental grammar development. We assumed that it is not limited to authentic L2-communication environments but may occur in classrooms. Two hundred fifty-six students in a college English course (113 from four basic-level classes and 143 from four intermediate-level classes) were divided into two meaning-centered and two form-centered classes for each level. The occurrence of incidental development was determined by measuring the difference between the pre- and post-test scores administered before and after four weeks of meaning- and form-centered activities. The tests examined the ability to use the present perfect and simple past appropriately in context. While the mean scores increased overall, only the meaning-centered basic-level group and form-centered intermediate-level group made statistically significant increments. An interaction effect existed between the instructional methods and learners’ levels. Within the meaning-centered classes, the basic-level learners’ development was greater than the intermediate group’s, particularly in the paragraph context. In the form-centered classes, the intermediate-level learners’ incidental development was statistically significant in the sentence and paragraph contexts. As this study covered only a small part of grammar, future studies are needed on incidental development for a wider scope.

The current study aims to capture the possible effects of using both text and audio on EFL learning. This study focuses on its redundancy effects on English listening and reading skills of students with different proficiency levels. The study was conducted during the 2020 academic year and lasted for 15 weeks. 204 EFL university students participated in the study. They were divided into three treatment groups: text, audio, and text-and-audio groups. During the experimental period, the participants read, listened, or read and listened depending on their experimental conditions. To confirm the effects of the redundant use of textual and auditory input, TOEIC-based pre- and post-tests were administered. The findings demonstrated that the participants at all proficiency levels more benefited from the use of both text and audio in comparison to the use of audio-only regarding both listening and reading skills. However, the superior effects of using both text and audio over using text-only varied depending on proficiency levels. Regarding the listening skills, the significant differences were found only for the low- and mid-level students. As for the reading skills, only the low-level students benefited more from the redundant use. Based on the results, several pedagogical implications are made.

This paper is a multiple case study examining how undergraduates in two online courses perceive the efficacy of gamified e-quizzes for their class engagement. For the 15-week intervention, ten gamified e-quizzes for Course A and another ten for Course B were designed and employed as formative assessments. Data were collected through an online survey with thirteen Likert-scale items and five open-ended questions. For the quantitative analyses, Welch’s t-test was calculated using SPSS version 26, and the qualitative data were analyzed using NVivo 12. The quantitative data analyses revealed that most of the students in both courses, despite mixed responses on the agentic engagement, had positive views on using gamified e-quizzes for their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. The qualitative analyses displayed that many students could personalize the online classes by using the gamified e-quizzes along with the feedback video lessons and online messaging with the instructor. Cross-case thematic analyses of the qualitative data displayed that the quizzes assisted the students in both groups in increasing the content knowledge through autonomous learning and self-assessing in less stressful and enjoyable contexts. A dominant number of participants responded that they would be willing to take another course using gamified e-quizzes.

In order to explore ways to devise effective pronunciation activities, the present study examined activities in eight English pronunciation programs embedded in either reading or speaking sites for English learners in Korea and overseas. These activities were analyzed based on three categories: comprehension-based, production-based, and English varieties. The first two categories were further divided into systematic phonics and suprasegmentals using small units, such as phoneme, syllable, word, sentence, and discourse. English varieties were categorized into American English, British English, Australian English, and others. Results showed that all of the Korean programs included both comprehension-based and production-based activities, but only two programs included comprehension-based activities related to systematic phonics. All the programs used American English except for one which offered two separate sites; one using American English, one using British English. In the case of the overseas programs, three of the four programs did not teach systematic phonics in the production-based activities. There was a lack of production-based activities teaching suprasegmentals. Regarding English varieties, one program included both American and British English and the rest taught American English only. Implications of the findings were discussed in terms of balance and diversity when devising online pronunciation activities.

The purpose of this study is to explore EFL college students’ perception of teacher-student (T-S) interaction and student-student (S-S) interaction in an online learning environment. There were 195 participants, enrolled in a real-time online General English course, who were divided into two groups. One group took the course for a 15-week semester, while the other took it for two consecutive semesters. A survey was conducted to identify the preferred types of T-S and S-S interaction. A chi-square test was performed to ascertain the differences in preference between the two groups. Open-ended items were used in the survey to explore the reasons behind the preference for a particular type of interaction. The findings revealed that the groups differed significantly regarding their preference for types of T-S interaction, whereas no significant difference was observed with regard to intensive and intimate paired S-S interaction. The more experienced group was successful in creating a collaborative learning atmosphere and exhibited a strong preference for group-based T-S and paired S-S interaction. The study confirmed that a close relationship exists between students’ perception of online T-S interaction and S-S interaction. The study also offers suggestions for teachers to facilitate meaningful and active T-S and S-S interaction in an online learning environment.

This study investigated the effects of using Vlogs for English language learning on Korean EFL learners’ self-directed learning ability, learning interest, and speaking skills. In recent years, ‘Vlogging’ has become one of the most entertaining and popular ways to connect with people on social networking services (SNSs). Over one semester, an experimental group of 24 students participated in Vlogging activities (a total of 10 Vlogs was created and shared with their classmates), while a control group of 22 students received a traditional teaching method. To examine this study, 1) a pre-and post-questionnaire on participants’ self-directed learning ability, 2) a pre-and post-questionnaire on learning interests, and 3) a pre-and post-test on speaking abilities were conducted. The results indicated that the Vlogging-based instruction was more effective than the traditional classroom in terms of increasing students’ self-directed learning abilities and learning interests. In addition, the Vlogging learning group has shown a statistically significant improvement in the English speaking abilities concerned with vocabulary, task, fluency, and comprehension. The study also revealed that Vlogging activities were more beneficial in developing students’ speaking skills than traditional classroom activities. This study suggested that Vlogging activities are useful to develop learners’ self-directed learning ability, learning interests, and speaking skills.