Using Text-to-Speech Technology for Integrative Listening Tasks

Lim,Youngshin(Youngshin Lim) 경인교육대학교 교육연구원 2022 교육논총 Vol.42 No.-

Exposure to sufficient and appropriate listening materials in a foreign language is significant for language learners in processing verbal information. Based on this concept, the present study investigates the application of a digital listening tool called text-to-speech (TTS) to integrative listening tasks and dictogloss and influence the listening ability of language learners in specified elements and their perspectives. For this study, a total of 29 university students participated in six TTS-based listening tasks (three dictogloss, two fill-in-the-blanks, and mixed tasks) in the first semester (spring) of 2022. Data were derived from pre- and posttests as academic achievement tests, a questionnaire, and a semistructured interview conducted at the end of the semester. The study employed mixed-method analysis to examine the in-depth integrative understanding of the learning effect of using TTS in dictogloss for listening skills. For quantitative analysis, each test score was compared using paired sample t-test; for qualitative analysis, the study employed content analysis for open-ended questions and semistructured interviews. The findings of the study were obtained as follows. First, the study noted significant differences in specific listening elements such as listening comprehension of details and vocabulary. Second, the participants perceived that TTS-based dictogloss was effective for understanding different accents and writing skills and motivating their self-learning ability. Along with these findings, the study suggested several pedagogical implications.

Self-Regulated Learning in Dictogloss based on Online Learning Platform

Youngshin Lim(임영신) 강원대학교 인문과학연구소 2021 인문과학연구 Vol.- No.71

본 연구의 주요 목적은 온라인 플랫폼을 기반으로 딕토글로스를 시행할 때 한국 EFL학습자들의 자기 조절 학습 능력이 어떻게 활용되는지와 이에 대한 인식을 살펴보기 위함이다. 딕토글로스 활동 중 자기 조절 학습 요인의 적용과정을 살펴보기 위해서 70명의 대학생을 대상으로 1학기 온라인 수업 중 수집한 다양한 데이터(채팅, 메일, 및 자기 성찰 노트)를 분석하였으며 참가자들의 인식을 조사하기 위해 학기 말 강의 평가와 설문조사(5점 리커트 척도와 개방형)를 실시하여 연구 결과를 분석하였다. 연구 결과 다음과 같이 3가지의 주요한 특징이 나타났다. 첫째, 자기 조절 학습의 동기적 요인이 리커트 척도의 평균값에서 다른 요인보다 높게 나타났다. 이러한 결과를 통해 딕토글로스가 자기 효능감이나 내재적 가치와 같은 정의적 요인에 영향을 미치는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 둘째, 자기 조절 학습 전략을 고려했을 때, 메타 인지적 요인에서 참가자들은 복습과 자기 점검을 통해 학습 내용을 강화하였고, 또한, 행동적 요인에서는 학습 내용 이해를 위해 동료 학생들의 도움을 구하는 전략 활용이 두드러지게 나타났다. 셋째, 참가자들은 온라인 학습플랫폼 활용을 통해 딕토글로스의 통합적 언어 학습 효과(예를 들어, 듣기 실력과 쓰기 실력)가 있다고 인지하였으며, 이러한 학습 효과는 사고력과 실제 언어 활용(문법적, 어휘적 활용)을 향상시키는데 주요한 역할을 하는 것으로 볼 수 있다. 이와 같은 연구 결과를 바탕으로 온라인에 기반한 딕토글로스의 교육적 함의를 제시하였다. The primary goal of the present study is to examine how self-regulated learning and its various strategies are used in dictogloss and how Korean EFL learners view the benefits of dictogloss which reflect their perspective on self-regulated learning. For the study, a 5-point Likert scale survey and one open-ended question are conducted with 70 university students. Also, triangulation data, which were collected from conversations from the Zoom Chatting room, emails, and students’ evaluation of lectures, were used for in-depth research. Three critical points are detected in the empirical study as follows. First, the mean score of motivational process in self-regulated learning shows relatively higher than that of other components which indicates that dictogloss affects affective factors of self-language learning, such as self-efficacy or intrinsic value. Second, considering the self-regulated learning strategies, participants reinforce their learning by reviewing and self-monitoring in terms of the metacognitive process. Also, in terms of the behavioral process, they ask for peers’ assistance. Third, participants perceive integrative language learning effects (e.g., listening and writing skills) of dictogloss which help them to improve their thinking skills and practical language use (e.g., grammatical and lexical usage).

Repair Strategies Employed by Korean Speakers in Producing English Final Consonant Clusters

Youngshin Lim 한국언어연구학회 2021 언어학연구 Vol.26 No.1

This study attempted to investigate how Korean speakers produce English final consonant clusters by using repair strategies. Based on the preservation principle in interphonology, three main points were examined. The first point focused on the most used repair strategy by Korean speakers, such as deletion, insertion, and substitution. The second point was whether any age difference existed in using repair strategies when pronouncing various final consonant clusters. The third point concentrated on the specific patterns of repair strategies used in certain syllable structures. For the production test, twenty-four target words were pronounced by eight Korean speakers and the data were statistically analyzed by 3-way mixed ANOVA to see if there were any variable interactions. The major findings of the study were exhibited as follows: First, most Korean speakers employed deletion for repair strategies, and the highest error rates were presented in fricative-fricative combined clusters. Second, the younger group made fewer errors in stop-# and nasal-# combined clusters. Third, all kinds of the repair strategies were used in fricative-fricative clusters, and insertion was primarily used by the older group in fricative-stop clusters. According to the findings, it could be assumed that productions of English clusters by the younger group have been in progress by maintaining certain English phonetic features.

Young English Learners’ Perception of Multiple Intelligences in a Web-based English Learning

Youngshin Lim 한국중원언어학회 2022 언어학연구 Vol.- No.65

The primary objective of this study is to investigate how Multiple Intelligences (MI) can be applied to English activities and perceived when implemented in EFL web-based learning contexts. To achieve this goal, eleven Korean primary students participated in the five-day online English camp, which was carried out using synchronous and asynchronous methods. The study employed data triangulation from an in-depth individual interview, a questionnaire, and teachers’ reflective journals. The data were processed through content analysis by transcribing data and coding to extract valid inferences. The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, participants perceived web-based English activities differently according to their intelligence preferences. Second, participants perceived that web-based MI activities efficiently activate their intelligence with digitalized learning tools and modes and interact with other learners. In contrast, some participants negatively perceived some activities due to their less preferred MI. Third, participants managed their difficulties with various web-based learning modes such as chat boxes and share screens. Pedagogical implications were drawn from this study to activate learners’ various intelligence in the limited personal contact via web-based learning platforms.

Analysis of Dictogloss Tasks using Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy based on Digitalized Collaborative Work

Youngshin Lim 서울대학교 언어교육원 2021 語學硏究 Vol.57 No.3

Associated with Web 2.0 pedagogy, this study aimed to investigate how learners’ cognitive skills can be processed in dictogloss in terms of Bloom’s digital taxonomy. Sixty-four university students participated in the study with three different types of dictogloss. The overall result of this study demonstrates that dictogloss stimulates lower- and higher-order thinking skills. Specifically, the study finds two crucial points to develop a well-balanced cognitive domain: First, dictogloss enables learners to utilize diverse digital learning actions in digitalized collaborative learning contexts, such as uploading, collaborating, and networking. Second, different modes of online learning delivery (i.e., synchronous and asynchronous modes) promote different levels of the thinking skills applied in the learning process. Based on these findings, the crucial implication could be drawn that dictogloss could stimulate and improve learners’ various levels of cognitive process when it is accompanied by a synchronous learning module owing to its immediate interaction in a digitalized collaborative work.

Selective Application of Pronouncing Strategies in the Production of Sequence of English Liquids by Elementary EFL Learners

Youngshin Lim 한국중원언어학회 2021 언어학연구 Vol.- No.61

This study aims to investigate how Korean elementary EFL learners pronounce English liquids in various contacts across words and see how they utilize two principles of selective application in the acquisition of English liquids concerning gender difference. For this, the study examines the liquids in the onset of the following word which contacts the coda of the preceding word with liquid or nasal phoneme. In the production test, 102 Korean elementary school students read 8 sentences and their recorded data are statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA and three-way mixed ANOVA. The results are as follows. First, there is no significant difference between genders in the overall results of the English liquid production test. Second, despite no significant difference in accurate production, a significant main effect is reported in a repeated mixed ANOVA concerning error types of each contact context. Third, on the basis of pronouncing strategies, the ‘preservation principle’ and L1 phonological rule are differently adapted according to their contact contexts.

The Effects of Revised Dictogloss in Synchronous Online Learning and the Perspective of Korean University Students

Lim, Youngshin 이화여자대학교 교과교육연구소 2021 교과교육학연구 Vol.25 No.3

The current study aims at investigating how dictogloss in synchronous learning platform affects Korean EFL learners’ perspectives and their language learning. In particular, dictogloss for this study is implemented with a variation of dictogloss opinion and with blended types of input (i.e. listening and reading texts) that was carried out in breakout rooms of Zoom. Seventy-three university students participate in this study in 18 groups of different English proficiency. The data are collected from the dictogloss output of participants and their responses to the questionnaire are analyzed with a mixed method (a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods). The findings of this study are presented as follows. First, the output of dictogloss shows the highest score in intermediate-high blended level groups (20 points) while the lowest score is reported in a low-high blended level group in class A (12 points) implicating integrative performance of dictogloss would not be solely affected by English proficiency. Second, the results from the questionnaire demonstrate participants’ perspectives of taking a variation of dictogloss works positively to develop multi-language skills. In-depth descriptions from their replies exhibit the importance of other factors of learning such as affective factors, preference of teaching method, and student's learning style for effective dictogloss in the online learning platform.

Speaking Activities for Communicative Competence in English Textbooks

YoungShin Lim 한국초등영어교육학회 2019 초등영어교육 Vol.25 No.4

With higher requirements for communicative ability from increased worldwide interactions, the communicative approach has been enthusiastically taken into language teaching. Looking into various communicative teaching methods derived from this approach, this study specifically investigates how communicative competence could be cultivated through speaking activities in the 2015 revised versions of elementary English textbooks which are analyzed by two frameworks. One of the frameworks is taken from the theoretical framework of the communicative continuum (Littlewood, 2005). The other is the framework that categorizes the components of communicative competence from a pedagogical perspective (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1995). The results of this study indicate that, firstly, the average number of speaking activities in exercising formulaic structure is higher than that of the number of activities negotiating meaning. Activities focused on exercising formulaic structure include non-communicative learning (26.29%) and pre-communicative language practice (50.80%). Secondly, the most frequent categories of communicative competence are identified in linguistic competence (28.69%) and discourse competence (64.14%) which are mainly composed of lexico-grammatical building blocks in formulaic structures. According to the findings from this study, more meaning-oriented speaking activities such as communicative language practice and structured communication should be provided in systematic procedures to help learners gradually attain various components of communicative competence. In addition, situational variables and politeness strategies of sociocultural competence should be considered in speaking activities.

Perception of English Tense and Lax Vowels by Young Dialect Speakers and its Pedagogical Implication

Youngshin Lim 한국중원언어학회 2020 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.55

This study attempts to investigate the perception of English tense and lax vowels /i, ɪ, u:, ʊ, eɪ, ɛ, oʊ, ɔ/ by two regional dialect Korean speakers focusing on the phonological and phonetic distinction. Their perceptual patterns are analyzed based on the Perceptual Assimilation Model. For this study, two perceptual tasks, the AX discrimination task and an identification task, were carried out with 18 Kyunggi dialect speakers and 12 North Kyungsang dialect speakers by using different sets of 80 tokens. The major results indicate that: (1) in phonetic distinction, there was no major difference in discriminating tense and lax vowels between regional dialect speakers; (2) in phonological distinction, a significant difference was detected in /i-ɪ/ pair in North Kyungsang dialect speakers; (3) Both groups showed the poorest performance in perceiving /u:-ʊ/ in phonetic and phonological distinction, specifically lower in phonological distinction; and (4) Employing this result of the L2 perceptual category into PAM, it can be explained that each regional dialect group uses different parameters of category goodness in L2 acquisition. Based on this analysis, the pedagogical implication is provided.

Students' and Parents' Perception of a Synchronous E-learning (Zoom Class) in the Primary English Camp

Youngshin Lim 한국중원언어학회 2020 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.57

This study attempted to investigate how primary students and their parents perceived the feature of synchronous e-learning, specifically the Zoom Class, which was implemented in a 5-day online English camp. 12 students and 7 parents participated in this study. The data were taken from 9 survey questions and a written interview with 5 questions asking about their preference for certain e-learning platforms and types that were embedded in the Zoom Class and their expectations for language competence. Overall, the result showed that both students and parents were satisfied with the Zoom Class in English camp because they could engage in interactive learning with prompt feedback from the teacher by using various technological features (e.g. sending a personal message in the chatbox or participating in real-time class activities with other students). Also, they preferred synchronous virtual class to other online learning modules and expected to improve their listening skills. According to their perceptions and references revealed in the survey, the study proposed several appropriate activities for effective language learning through synchronous e-learning.