Korean Adult Learners Research Articles

How are personality factors connected to EFL learners’ oral performance? A psychological network analysis

This study employs psychological network analysis to explore the intricate relationships between personality traits and second language (L2) oral performance. The participants, 162 Korean adult learners of English, completed the IPIP-NEO-60 personality trait questionnaire and a time-pressured oral narrative task. The oral narratives are assessed for two aspects of L2 knowledge (grammar and vocabulary) and two aspects of L2 processing (pronunciation and fluency). The analysis identifies two personality factors (neuroticism and extraversion) and two oral performance factors (grammar and vocabulary) as playing central roles in the network model. It shows particularly robust associations in a negative link between neuroticism and vocabulary and a positive link between conscientiousness and vocabulary, as well as a potential interaction of L2 knowledge (vocabulary) and L2 processing (fluency). The findings highlight the need for differentiated instructional strategies based on learners’ diverse personality profiles.

The Impact of Reflective E-Journaling on Korean Adult EFL Learners’ English Anxiety and Course Achievement

Objectives This study explores the potential impact of online reflective journaling on English anxiety and academic achievement among Korean adult EFL learners in an online English course. It aims to investigate whether con-sistent engaging in reflective e-journaling can act as a mediator to help overcome vague anxiety related to English learning by reflecting on their learning processes, leading a positive effect on course achievement. Methods This study involved 148 participants who took “Basic English Reading for Graduate School Students in Professional Studies” in a 15-week online course. Data was collected from students’ weekly e-journaling, the FLCAS survey, and their final exam scores, using a mixed-methods approach. Results The results revealed that high achievers in course achievement exhibited higher levels of anxiety, while the reverse was not observed. While there was a positive correlation between achievement and anxiety levels, there were no significant differences in course achievement across anxiety levels. High levels of English anxiety were associated with more frequent reflective journaling, promoting learning process awareness and academic performance. It was reported that sharing journals on the LMS board facilitates students interaction, motivating active engagement. Conclusions This study demonstrated that even high-achieving students can experience elevated levels of English anxiety, and poor academic performance is not solely attributed to heightened anxiety levels, refuting the conventional concept of English anxiety. The findings of the current study suggest that facilitative anxiety prompts consistent engagement in reflective journaling, which enhances meta-cognition of one’s learning process, thus serving as a mediator for improving academic performance.

Critical Multimodal Literacy and Oral Proficiency Development

This descriptive case study aimed to investigate the impact of critical multimodal literacy in English classes, which included the use of parody films and metaverse-based User-Created Content (UCC) related to disability, on Korean university EFL learners’ conventional literacy and awareness of disability. Data were collected from three participants with varying English proficiency and educational backgrounds over a two-month period, with weekly sessions lasting two and a half hours. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, such as questionnaires, interviews, group discussions, reflective papers, and metaverse-based UCC productions, was employed to assess the effectiveness of critical multimodal literacy in English speaking and disability education. Korean EFL students, influenced by Confucian culture, tend to hesitate when expressing their opinions publicly. In response, this research proposes using avatars to create alternative textual representations of their viewpoints instead of recording personal video presentations. This innovative approach aims to evaluate changes in students’ attitudes towards disabilities and improvements in their oral communication abilities. The overall findings indicated that (1) The critical multimodal literacy practice, employing parody films based on fairy tales in the classroom, plays a significant role in the development of conventional literacy among Korean adult EFL learners. (2) The practice of critical multimodal literacy, which involves using parody films of fairy tales that address disabilities, helps EFL learners broaden their perspectives on disabilities and modify their social behaviors. (3) Attitudes and reactions toward disabilities varied according to the individual experiences of EFL learners.

English Oral Proficiency Measured by Holistic and Analytic Assessments in Dialogic and Monologic Tasks

This study compared Korean adult learners’ English speech in dialogic and monologic tasks, measuring 57 college students’ oral proficiency in terms of holistic and analytic grades. The statistical analyses were focused on two questions: 1) how much do the holistic grades of oral proficiency and analytic grades of the four linguistic features function differently across the tasks? and 2) which linguistic feature has the strongest correlation with the holistic grades of English oral proficiency? The study found significant differences between the two tasks in five aspects (English oral proficiency, topic development, fluency, range, and accuracy). It also showed that a monologic task resulted in lower achievements in those five aspects. In the comparison of the correlations with English proficiency, the range reached the top in both tasks, followed by topic development. The study provides some helpful information regarding which types of speech tasks and linguistic features of EFL oral proficiency are more desirable for targeting in teaching and assessment.

Improving English Pronunciation Accuracy among Korean Adult Learners

Improving English Pronunciation Accuracy among Korean Adult Learners

Comparison of the Structural Relationship between the Factors Influencing the Psychological Well-being of Adult Learners in the University Degree Courses in Korean and Chinese

본 연구는 한국과 중국의 대학 학위과정 성인학습자의 교육서비스 질, 자기주도학습능력, 학습몰입이 심리적 안녕감에 미치는 영향을 구조적 관계에 의하여 분석하고, 교육서비스 질과 심리적 안녕감의 관계에 대한 자기주도학습능력 및 학습몰입의 매개효과를 분석하여 비교하였다. 연구방법은 한국의 LiFE 사업에 참여한 대학의 성인학습자 303명과 중국의 대학평생교육원 학력인정과정 성인학습자 528명을 대상으로 설문을 실시하여 가정의 검토, 구조방정식 추정 및 매개효과를 비교‧분석하였다. 이에 대한 분석결과를 보면, 첫째, 한국 성인학습자의 심리적 안녕감에 영향을 미치는 변인 간의 구조적 관계는 교육서비스 질과 자기주도학습능력, 교육서비스 질과 학습몰입, 자기주도학습능력과 학습몰입, 학습몰입과 심리적 안녕감의 경로가 유의하게 나타난 반면, 교육서비스 질과 심리적 안녕감, 자기주도학습능력과 심리적 안녕감의 경로가 유의하지 않았다. 중국 성인학습자의 심리적 안녕감에 영향을 미치는 변인간의 구조적 관계는 교육서비스 질과 심리적 안녕감, 교육서비스 질과 자기주도학습능력, 교육서비스 질과 학습몰입, 자기주도학습능력과 학습몰입, 학습몰입과 심리적 안녕감의 경로가 유의하게 나타난 반면, 자기주도학습능력과 심리적 안녕감의 경로가 유의하지 않았다. 둘째, 학위과정 성인학습자의 교육서비스 질과 심리적 안녕감의 매개 효과는 학습몰입만이 단일매개하고, 자기주도학습능력과 학습몰입이 이중매개하는 결과로 한국과 중국이 같게 나타났다. 이상과 같이 중국 성인학습자의 교육서비스 질과 심리적 안녕감의 관계에 대하여 중국은 직접적인 관계가 있는 반면에 한국은 관계가 없고, 나머지 변인들은 심리적 안녕감에 한국과 중국이 같이 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다.This study was to compare the structural relationship between educational service quality, self-directed learning ability, learning commitment, and psychological well-being of adult learners in the university degree achievement courses in Korea and China, and compared the mediating effect of self-directed learning ability and learning well-being. The research method conducted a survey of 303 adult learners at universities participating in the LiFE project in Korea and 528 adult learners in the academic qualification course of the University Lifelong Education Center in China to compare and analyze the assumptions, structural equation estimation, and mediating effects. According to the analysis results, first, the structural relationship between variables that affect the psychological well-being of Korean adult learners was significant in education service quality and self-directed learning ability, education service quality and learning commitment, and psychological well-being. In the structural relationship between variables affecting the psychological well-being of Chinese adult learners, the paths of educational service quality and psychological well-being, educational service quality and learning commitment, self-directed learning ability and psychological well-being were significant, but the paths of self-directed learning ability and psychological well-being were not significant. Second, the mediating effect of educational service quality and psychological well-being of adult learners in the degree acquisition process was the same as that of Korea and China as a result of single-mediation of learning commitment and self-directed learning ability and learning commitment. As described above, it was confirmed that China has a direct relationship with the relationship between the educational service quality and psychological well-being of Chinese adult learners, while Korea has no relationship with the rest of the variables have an effect on psychological well-being.

Error Analysis of Korean Adult EFL Learners’ Oral Production of English Interrogative Sentences

The purpose of this study is to examine the errors made by Korean adult EFL learners. To this end, it analyzed the spoken responses of the Question Elicitation task, one of all 10 tasks such as Read-aloud, Dialogue Completion, Map-cued Elicitation of Directions, Question and Answer-open-Ended, Question Elicitation, Paraphrasing a Short Narrative, Oral Interviews, Discussions, Picture-cued Storytelling, and Retelling a Story, from 82 adults who were attending a language institute for the purpose of learning English conversation. They were interviewed one-on-one for 25 minutes for the 10 tasks without any interaction with the interlocutor to elicit as much vocal production as possible. The spoken data elicited from the Question Elicitation task were analyzed by employing QSR NVivo 2.0. One finding was that misformation was found to be the most frequent error, followed by fluency errors, omission errors, addition errors, and misordering errors. Another noteworthy finding was that learners often used incorrect forms for pronouns and tense and tended to omit the plural suffix -s and prepositions. In addition, open-ended questions were dominantly used compared to closed questions. Based on these findings, this study suggests that adult learners should be continually provided with contexts and activities in which they can practice the different use of interrogative sentences.

Number Attraction in EFL Learners’ Subject-Verb Agreement and the Effect of Distance

The present study aims to investigate Korean EFL learners’ sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violation and to examine effects of local number attraction, plural markedness, and distance on their agreement computation. Sixty-six Korean adult learners of English at mid- and high proficiencies participated in an experiment which combined self-paced reading and timed acceptability judgement. They were asked to read sentences region by region and rate their acceptability. All sentences contained a local noun that disagreed with the subject noun in number. They varied in terms of (i) grammaticality (i.e., agreement-violating vs. non-violating) and (ii) noun number (i.e., singular subject N/plural local N vs. plural subject N/singular local N). Half of the items had a short-distance condition and half had a long-distance condition. Analyses of participants’ responses showed that learners were generally sensitive to agreement violation when judging acceptability. In addition, proficient learners exhibited biased sensitivity to noun plurality, resulting in mismatch asymmetry in both acceptability judgment and self-paced reading, showing native-like response patterns. Distance between the subject and the verb resulted in reduced sensitivity to agreement violation. These findings suggest that learners can gradually become more sensitive to agreement violation and process subject-verb agreement in a nativelike pattern even when relevant morpho-syntactic features are not instantiated in their L1.

The Importance of Morphological Awareness in L2 Prosody and Reading Comprehension

This study investigated how morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge and metacognitive awareness affect Korean adult learners’ second language (L2) prosody and reading comprehension. In the present study, 56 Korean adult learners of English were asked to take morphological awareness tests (i.e., morphological structure and verbal suffix knowledge) and prosody tests (i.e., stress contour discrimination and stress contour matching) and to complete a survey that showed the participants’ English proficiency based on TOEIC scores, learning experience, age of acquisition, the vocabulary knowledge and metacognitive awareness. Multiple regression analyses were conducted, and the results showed that scores of morphological awareness were more associated with L2 prosody, and scores of vocabulary knowledge, stress contour discrimination, and stress contour matching were more correlated with L2 reading comprehension. Future research is needed to investigate how L2 learners’ morphological awareness contributes to L2 prosody and reading comprehension based on pedagogical implications.

A Study on the Use of Types of Present Perfect by Korean Adult Learners of English

This study aims to analyze the usage of the four sub-types of the English present perfect. Korean English learners tend to use the simple past when expected to use the present perfect. This study investigates which sub-types of the English present perfect Korean English learners find particularly difficult to use. The results show that Korean English learners are not very good at using all of the sub-types of the present perfect. In particular, they have difficulty using the present perfect functioned as Perfect of Result. Also, they tend to use the present perfect correctly at a relatively high rate when temporal adverbials appear in the sentence. However, they seem to have trouble using the present perfect, and they tend to use the simple past instead when there are no temporal adverbials. The findings have two implications. One is that Korean English learners show different levels of understanding depending on the sub-types of the English present perfect. The other is that Korean English learners tend to acquire the English present perfect more easily when temporal adverbials are present. This study is conducted only for Korean English learners. I hope for further research which compares Korean English learners and English native speakers. (Changshin University)

Individual Differences in Categorical Judgment of L2 Stops: A Link to Proficiency and Acoustic Cue-Weighting.

This study investigated individual differences in Korean adult learners' categorical perception of L2 English stops with an aim to explore the relationship of gradient categorizations to perceptual sensitivity to acoustic cues and L2 proficiency. Korean young adult L2 learners of English (N = 49) participated in two speech perception tasks (visual analog scaling and forced-choice identification) in which they listened to English voiced and voiceless stops and Korean lax and aspirated stops with Voice Onset Time (VOT) and F0 manipulated to form a continuum. It was found that in both L1 and L2 stop perception, listeners' gradient category judgment was associated with greater reliance on language-specific redundant cues (i.e., F0 in L2 English and VOT in L1 Korean) and that in the perception of L2 stops, categorical listeners who tended to be less sensitive to F0 were the ones with a higher level of L2 English proficiency. The results suggest that the categorical manner of judging L2 stops reflects learners' better knowledge of L2-specific acoustic cue-weightings, based on which less relevant acoustic information is effectively suppressed.

A study of online adult English learners’ perception of their English learning motivation and L2 selves

This study aims to investigate the perception that Korean graduate students are motivated to study English. Unlike the controversial early studies on L2 (second language) motivation (Gardner, 1985; Gardner & Lambert, 1959, 1972), Korean adult English learners were measured to have a distinctive self-system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) in their L2 selves. 78 graduate school students from online English reading and practical English classes participated in the study. The semi-structured survey data analysis shows that the ideal self in possible selves significantly correlated with all three sub-types in L2 learning motivation. Their learning-oriented learning motivation, in particular, verified that both ideal self and ought-to self should be significantly meaningful predictors in practical English and English reading classes. The study’s implication considers how English teachers may reflect and utilize the features that Korean adult EFLs’ (English as a foreign language) learning motivation is more based on their inherent factors of possible self rather than external factors in learning L2. Based on the findings of the study, some pedagogical suggestions have been presented for further study.

Unpacking Academic Emotions in Asynchronous Video-based Learning: Focusing on Korean Learners’ Affective Experiences

Recognizing learners’ motivational problems in online remote learning, this study examined the patterns of learner’s academic emotions and facial expressions detected in asynchronous video-based learning. The research questions of this are: (1) What are the patterns between facial expressions and negative emotions (i.e., boredom, confusion, and frustration) that learners experienced during online video-based learning? (2) What are the learner’s overall perceptions about their emotions during online video-based learning? This study was conducted with 26 Korean adult learners who took an online video lecture via an asynchronous self-directed mode. Their facial expressions during online learning were recorded and analyzed for detecting affective states. Two judges trained in Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS) analyzed 210 scenes segmented from the recorded video data using a retrospective affect judgment procedure. The analysis identified 101 incidences of boredom, 82 confusions, and 62 frustrations. Moreover, using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and hierarchical clustering, we identified some patterns of significant relationships between facial action units and affective states. The interview data reveal that the potential reasons for negative emotions include lack of concentration, uninteresting content, and one-way content delivery method. Given the massive transition to online video-based learning during and after COVID-19, the results of this study can provide implications concerning how to detect and intervene in potential issues associated with learner’s motivation and affective states.

The effects of length of residence (LOR) on voice onset time (VOT)

Changes in the first language (L1) sound system as a result of acquiring a second language (L2) (i.e., phonetic drift) have received considerable attention from a variety of speakers, settings, and environments. Less attention has been given to phonetic drift in adult speakers’ L2 learning as their length of residence in America (LOR) increases. This study examines the effects of LOR on voice onset time (VOT) in L1 Korean stops. Three different groups of Korean adult learners of L2 English were compared to assess how malleable their L1 representations are in terms of LOR and whether there is any relationship between L1 change and L2 acquisition. The results showed that the effect of LOR was linguistically unimportant in the production of Korean stops. However, VOT merger as evidence of sound change in Korean stops were robust in the speech production of most of the female speakers across the groups. The results suggest that L2 English may not be the primary cause of L1 sound change. For generalizability, further study is necessary to see whether other acoustic cues show a similar pattern.

Determining L2 Proficiency in the Production and Perception of Consonant Clusters

In recent years, EFL teachers and linguists have evaluated the results of test materials to assess learners’ proficiency in languages. However, these approaches have several limitations, such as inappropriate test locations, lack of cost effectiveness, and insufficient test time. To address this issue, in the present study, the author proposes a novel and alternat i ve method of determining L2 proficiency. Specifically, among 6 types of consonant clusters produced by Korean adult L2 learners, specific consonant clusters (e.g., voiceless stop+liquid) related to L2 proficiency were found, through which a series of equations were derived using discriminant analysis; furthermore, the participants’ scores in the onset clusters were applied to these discriminant equations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method; the hit ratio of these equations for categori s ing L2 level was also examined. In addition, the results of the perception test revealed that the voiced/voiceless stop+glide clusters are related to learners’ L2 proficiency. Depending on these induced equations, EFL teachers or researchers can assign a learner to an appropriate proficiency group. In future research, based on different data of EFL learners , the proposed approach can be meaningfully used to derive other useful discriminant equations. Keywords: consonant clusters; discriminant analysis; L2 proficiency; production; onset

Examining the Design of Microlearning for Korean Adult Learners

Examining the Design of Microlearning for Korean Adult Learners

Korean Adult English Learners’ Perceptions of the Common Grammatical Features of English as a Lingua Franca

The present study examines Korean adult English learners’ perceptions about English as a lingua franca (ELF) and the common grammatical features of ELF. 276 university students participated in this study through an online survey portal. The survey consists of two parts: part one asks participants’ attitudes and perceptions about ELF statements, and part two is an acceptability judgement task for common grammatical features of ELF. Overall, the participants showed moderately positive attitude toward most ELF statements despite they manifested stronger preference for native speaker-oriented English learning on a few aspects. The results from the acceptability judgement task for 19 grammatical items consistently remained between neutral and slightly positive ranges. These results indicate that the participants already possess the concept of ELF, at least beyond a non-negative stance, and admit the features of ELF as acceptable forms of English for global communication. Participants’ major, study abroad experiences, and experiences of communicating with foreign people did not cause consistent and significant difference in their attitude toward ELF, nor in their acceptability judgements. For timely and effective incorporation of ELF into English classrooms in Korea, further research need to be conducted with various learner groups regarding the perception about ELF, the development of teaching activities and materials, and the empirical data from on-site applications.

Interplay of Working Memory, Strategy Use, and Task Difficulty in L2 Reading Comprehension

In pursuit of the precise mechanism by which working memory (WM) functions in second language (L2) reading comprehension (RC), the current study examined whether strategy use or task difficulty influences the role of WM in L2 RC. Eighty Korean adult EFL learners participated, and their WM capacity, RC performance, and strategy use were measured. The variable of task difficulty was operationalized by the relative difficulty of texts on which RC items were based. The results showed that difference in strategy use brought about significant difference in RC performance when the readers with insufficient WM capacity had to comprehend difficult texts, whereas no such difference was found with easier texts or among L2 readers with more WM capacity. These findings not only illustrate intricate interrelationships among WM and other variables in L2 RC, but also provide a noteworthy implication for L2 reading instruction that L2 learners with deficient WM capacity could benefit from active strategy use when faced with a difficult L2 reading task. The compensatory role of strategy and the necessity of remedial strategy training for the learners with limited WM is further implicated for L2 reading classrooms.

Relation between Frequency and Processing Difficulty of English Relative Clauses by L2 Learners: A Learner Corpus Analysis

This paper explores whether frequency can play a role in accounting for difficulties in processing English relative clauses (RCs) by L2 learners. Previous experimental studies showed that the processing difficulty of RCs in L2 is modulated by the syntactic function of the head noun and noun animacy. By analyzing a corpus of essays written by Korean adult learners of English, this paper shows that the distribution patterns of the RCs in the learner corpus are consistent with the experimental findings. Object-extracted RCs almost exclusively occur with inanimate head nouns, while subject-extracted RCs occur about two times more frequently with animate head nouns than inanimate head nouns. It is also found that the object-extracted RCs with inanimate head nouns often contain animate subjects and have the animacy configuration reflecting typical thematic structures of transitive clauses. The results of the corpus analysis provide support to frequency-based approaches for L2 processing, claiming that a higher frequency of a particular RC form makes it easier for L2 learners to acquire and process. (Chonnam National University)

Features of Lexical Collocations in L2 Writing: A Case of Korean Adult Learners of English

Features of Lexical Collocations in L2 Writing: A Case of Korean Adult Learners of English