Writer’s Use of Lexical Retrieval Strategies in the L2 Writing Process of EFL Students

Yuah V,Chon 한국영어어문교육학회 2009 영어어문교육 Vol.15 No.1

Although productive skills such as writing is being continually emphasized in the area of English teaching, studies on the writing process of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) have been overlooked in the Korean context. Also, there is scarcity of studies that systematically examine the process of writing with respect to performance-based lexical (PBL) problems, which require the use of strategies for writers to retrieve lexical knowledge to produce target words. As such, this study investigates the L2 writing process by categorizing the types of retrieval strategies, and the PBL problems which trigger the use of strategies when writers try to retrieve the best word for their target meaning. The strategies used to solve the different types of PBL problems indicated that it is a cluster of strategies rather than an independent strategy that leads to effective strategy use. To obtain data on the retrieval strategies for PBL problems, 12 Korean university students were asked to think-aloud while writing in English with word processors. The findings of the study contribute to model building of the L2 writing process regarding lexical aspects.

A Corpus-Driven Analysis of Spoken and Written Academic Collocations

( Yuah V Chon ) 한국멀티미디어언어교육학회 2013 멀티미디어 언어교육 Vol.16 No.3

As already well-acknowledged in the field, formulaic sequences often make up an important part of lexical knowledge. Within the L2 learning contexts, there is increasing demand for the need to understand and retrieve lexical items as in prefabricated chunks. In tertiary contexts, knowledge of academic collocations is even more required. For individual word forms, there is the General Service List (West, 1953), and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). However, what the field currently lacks is a list of academic collocations. Identification of collocations was conducted with the British Academic Spoken English and the Academic Corpus for comparison of academic collocations in spoken and written discourse. There was use of 20 node words in each corpus, which produced 934 written and 460 spoken collocations. With more number of written collocations being produced from the corpus, the study provides a comparative view of the top 50 collocations which suggests a concentration of common collocations in the field of economics. Within the guided approach for data-driven learning, there is proposal for the need to facilitate psychological conditions for learning collocations.

Motivational and Strategic Profiles of EFL University Learners as Predictors of L2 Reading Proficiency

Yuah V. Chon 언어과학회 2017 언어과학연구 Vol.0 No.83

This study explored the relationship between EFL university learners` reading motivation (RM), reading strategies (RS), and reading ability. Participants consisted of advanced (N=48) and low-intermediate learners (N=70). Questionnaires were utilized to collect information on RM and RS. Reading ability was assessed with a reading comprehension test. Regarding RM, Extrinsic Utility Value of L2 Reading was rated at the highest level. RS indicated that the learners perceived Problem- solving Strategies as being most often employed. Multiple regression conducted with RM, RS, and learner affiliated majors indicated that Reading Efficacy, which learners lacked, was a significant predictor of L2 reading. The results indicated that RM and RS were significant predictors of reading ability, however, with different configurations according to proficiency groups.

Lexical Profiles and Socioeducational Variables of Korean EFL University Learners

Yuah V. Chon,Dongkwang Shin 한국응용언어학회 2012 응용 언어학 Vol.28 No.1

In spite of the domineering influence of the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) on learners who aim to enter universities, as yet there is lack of interest in separately examining the lexical aspects of university learners’ English proficiency. The gap led us to assess Korean EFL university learners’ vocabulary size at 10 word bands, and conduct multiple regression to analyze the learners’ background variables in relation to vocabulary sizes. Participants of the study were 403 freshmen enrolled in a general education English program. Learners’ vocabulary profiles, which could be explained through the responses that were obtained through the vocabulary levels test, indicated that frequently appearing words in the curriculum-based high school textbooks were noticeably well-known. The learners’ receptive vocabulary size indicated the learners to be competent in using English for academic purposes, but not necessarily for productive vocabulary. Of the background variables, the CSAT level was a significant predictor for both receptive and productive vocabulary. However, abroad experience was a significant predictor only for productive vocabulary. The results of the study provide implications for how different aspects of word knowledge may be involved in respectively expanding receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge.

Academic Motivational Orientations and Vocabulary Size of L2 Adolescent Learners

Yuah V. Chon,Hyungshim Jang 한국영어어문교육학회 2013 영어어문교육 Vol.19 No.2

While motivation has been widely embraced by both researchers and practitioners as a critical determinant of success in language learning, there are scarcity of studies that pay attention to the separate role of motivation in L2 vocabulary learning. The present study revisits the self-determination framework of motivational orientations to highlight the utility of the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction for predicting L2 learning outcomes, in our instance, vocabulary knowledge. Relationships were sought between L2 vocabulary size and motivation by conducting receptive and productive vocabulary size tests on 261 adolescent high school learners, with information on the learners' degrees of academic motivation via the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire. There were significant differences between all receptive vocabulary proficiency groups for the subtypes of extrinsic motivation. In examining significant predictors of receptive vocabulary knowledge, identified regulation, the most autonomous form of extrinsic motivation, was noted. Further subject variables, such as gender and year of study also indicated the female students and high school seniors scoring relatively higher on the receptive vocabulary test. The results imply how vocabulary learning needs to occur in contexts that can promote positive sensations for more self-determined subtypes of motivation.

Adolescent EFL Learners’ Perceived Use of Listening Test-taking Strategies and L2 Proficiency

Yuah V. Chon,Sunghye Kim 한국영어어문교육학회 2016 영어어문교육 Vol.22 No.2

The ability to listen in a second language (L2) is important for Korean secondary school EFL learners who need to excel on the national high-stakes exam. However, the current practice of teaching L2 listening and testing are mainly product-oriented where primary interest is on the outcome of the test. After completing an L2 listening test, the test-taking process of 1,134 Korean EFL high school learners were explored via questionnaires with interest in general proficiency. Exploratory factor analysis yielded ‘online listening strategies’ (LS), ‘planning & evaluation’ (PE) and ‘test-taking strategies (TS).’ The results indicated that the frequent use of PE and LS was associated with rising proficiency levels, but that the use of TS was detrimental to L2 proficiency. The results indicated the significance of employing LS to ascertain the main idea of listening and PE for directed attention. However, the use of mental translation was found to be a detrimental LS. The results present implications for teaching learners to strengthen rudimentary listening skills and to work consistently towards introducing listening tasks that will deter the use of test-wiseness skills.

Direct Writing, Translated Writing, and Machine-Translated Writing: A Text Level Analysis with Coh-Metrix

Yuah V. Chon,Dongkwang Shin 한국영어교육학회 2021 KATE Forum Vol.45 No.1

Lexical Threshold of L2 Reading in the Korean CSAT

Chon. Yuah V. 한국외국어대학교 영미연구소 2014 영미연구 Vol.31 No.-

For over two decades in Korea, no other English exam has been able to replace the high-stakes Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). From a lexical perspective, there has been transient analysis of the reading passages, however, without sufficient attention it deserves as the nationally administered exam. Twenty-one years of the main CSAT of English reading texts for academic years 1994 through 2014 were utilized to compile a specialized, small corpus. For analysis, lexical richness (STTR) was calculated, and distribution of the CSAT words across the fourteen word bands of the British National Corpus (BNC) was searched with RANGE to propose a lexical threshold level. By STTR, lexical variety indicated to be steady over the twenty-one years of the CSAT. However, the recent 2014B CSAT exhibited a noticeable increase of words compared to the CSAT in previous years, pressuring test-takers to improve reading fluency. The range and the percentage of CSAT words across the 14 word bands of the BNC indicated test-takers to minimally need a threshold of 6,000 word families for 95% coverage (including proper nouns) of the CSAT reading passages. The study ends with implications for L2 vocabulary learning.

L2 Collocational Knowledge by Congruency and Writing Proficiency of EFL University Learners

전유아(Yuah V Chon),Shin woong Lee 한국영어어문교육학회 2015 영어어문교육 Vol.21 No.1

While less research has been conducted on the relationship between L2 collocational knowledge and L2 writing proficiency, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between L2 learners' collocational knowledge and L2 writing ability. A receptive collocation test, counterbalanced for incongruent and congruent collocations, and adjective-noun (AN) and verb-noun (VN) collocations, was developed by matching normalized frequencies of the collocation items from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). When 68 university freshmen learners were tested for collocational knowledge and writing proficiency, they were found to have more problems with the incongruent collocations, but congruent AN collocations resulted in higher error rates than the incongruent AN collocations at a significant level. As in previous studies, the learners were found to experience more difficulty in acquiring incongruent collocations, but more noticeably, knowledge of synonymous collocates in the AN collocations was found to be another source of difficulty. With hierarchical multiple regression, the study also indicated collocational knowledge to be the primary significant contributor of L2 writing proficiency. The study underscores the importance of teaching collocations to help learners retrieve them more automatically in the process of L2 writing.

Vocabulary Size of Korean EFL University Learners

Yongsang Lee,Yuah V. Chon,Dongkwang Shin 한국영어어문교육학회 2012 영어어문교육 Vol.18 No.1

While noticing that there is insufficient interest in the assessment of EFL learners’ vocabulary levels or sizes, the researchers developed two tests identical in form (Forms A and B) to assess the lexical knowledge of Korean university learners at the 1^st ~ 10^th 1,000 word bands by adapting a pre-established vocabulary levels test (VLT). Of equal concern was to investigate if the VLT was equally a valid and reliable instrument to be used on measuring the lexical knowledge of EFL learners. The participants were 804 university freshmen enrolled in a General Education English Course from four different colleges. The learners were asked to respond to either Form A or B. While scores generally fell towards the lower frequency bands, multiple regression found the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to be a significant variable for predicting the learners’ vocabulary sizes. From a methodological perspective, however, noticeable differences between Forms A and B could be found with item response theory analysis. The findings of the study provide suggestions on how future VLT for testing EFL learners may have to be redesigned.