Areum Lee

DOI: Vol.25(No.1) 9-30, 2022

Virtual reality (VR) technology has gradually become recognized as an emerging sector showing great potential to be utilized across various fields. Its practicality has been discussed in several studies, but few studies have been conducted on the use of VR to test English listening ability. Thus, in the present study, an immersive VR listening test was developed to measure English listening proficiency, and the correlation of scores from the newly developed VR test with another validated listening test (TOEIC) was investigated by conducting a non-parametric Spearman’s rank test. The study further explored test-takers’ perceived levels of presence on an immersive VR listening test, given that presence levels are considered one of the most critical factors for the VR experience. Data were collected from 17 tertiary-level test-takers. Each test-taker underwent two different types of VR tests while wearing HMDs (Head-mounted displays): 360-degree immersive videos and a total-immersive listening task. Through test score comparisons and the analysis of responses from presence questionnaires, the VR listening test and TOEIC listening test scores showed a positive, moderate correlation. In addition, the study found that the test-takers experienced similar levels of presence regardless of test type. The study also discusses implications for language assessment and pedagogy, as well as study limitations.

presence levels, immersive, total-immersive virtual reality, HMDs, listening test

Jiang Li

DOI: Vol.25(No.1) 31-55, 2022

This study investigated the content validity of proofreading tasks in newly reformed high-stake Gaokao English tests in China from 2016 to 2021. The tests specifications and Readability analyzer were jointly used to examine the topics, genres and difficulty level of the input of Gaokao proofreading tasks, Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) was employed to check the appropriateness of test items, and iWeb corpus was used specifically to observe the representativeness of collocational errors designed in proofreading tasks. With above examinations, the content validity of Gaokao proofreading tasks was considered not very high in terms of possibly inadequate coverage of genres and topics in specifications, and the tested errors’ relatively low correlation with the error types categorized in CLEC st2 group (with Pearson correlation r = .353). However, the difficulty level of task input was suitable for students’ level (with all Readability Ease scores > 60) and collocational errors in proofreading tasks were revealed to be highly representative since their frequencies in iWeb corpus were significantly fewer than those of expected forms (with Chi-square x² = 12,619,260.6). Some implications on modification of corpus tools for their better adaptation to language testing and multimedia-based English teaching were further proposed.

Gaokao proofreading tasks, content validity, iWeb corpus, CLEC, readability

Chae-young Mun

DOI: Vol.25(No.1) 56-77, 2022

The study aims to investigate the effects of the asynchronous and synchronous online learning on learners’ performance and their perceptions. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemics in 2020 and 2021. A total of 150 students who enrolled in a General English class took pre-recorded and synchronous online college English lectures course and the research was implemented for 14 weeks. At the end of the course, they were surveyed using a Google Forms questionnaire. Students who were taught through asynchronous online lectures were compared with those who were taught through asynchronous and synchronous at the same time. The first group was delivered in a fully asynchronous format; another group incorporated weekly synchronous lectures using Zoom; and the other combined synchronous lectures were given every three weeks. The result indicated that there was a significant difference between the groups. Among the three groups, ASYNC + SYNC group performed better than the asynchronous group. And between the two asynchronous and synchronous groups, ASYNC + SYNC group with 5 Zoom sessions outperformed the group with more frequent Zoom sessions. Participants had positive attitudes towards the synchronous learning format. Pedagogical implications on college English online synchronous and asynchronous lectures are provided.

synchronous, asynchronous, online blended learning, students’ perspectives, COVID-19 pandemic

Kyung-mi O

DOI: Vol.25(No.1) 78-100, 2022

The motivation for this study was to understand university students’ perceptions of gamified e-quizzes as a formative assessment tool and gamification activities in a flipped class. For the 15-week semester, 14 gamified e-quizzes were designed and used by 38 students as formative assessments in a flipped context. Data were collected from an online survey developed for this study. Students’ course evaluation data, midterm exam scores, and final exam scores were also analyzed. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha value, and the Kruskal Wallis test were used for the quantitative analyses of the data. The qualitative data collected from the researcher’s survey items were coded and thematically analyzed. The survey data displayed that most students positively perceived the gamified e-quizzes as a formative assessment tool. The study also revealed that the students’ favorite way of gamification was taking the gamified e-quiz individually at flexible times and places. The qualitative data illustrated that many students favored individual gamification because it allowed them to asses their understanding at flextime, and some students preferred group gamification because of competitive, interactive raking experiences. The course evaluation data displayed that the students had positive perspectives toward the gamified flipped course overall.

gamification, gamified e-quiz, gamified formative assessment, flipped learning, formative assessment, synchronous group gamification, gamification in real-time

이결 Li Jie , 김보경 Kim Bo-kyeong

DOI: Vol.25(No.1) 101-127, 2022

This study explores differences of caption types and speech rates on learners’ cognitive load, learning flow and academic achievement in English instructional video learning. 231 students from A University in China participated in the experiment. Six types of videos with different caption types(no caption, L2 captions, L1+L2 captions) and speech rates(slow speed, fast speed) were developed. Students’ prior knowledge level of the teaching content was examined before the experiment, and their cognitive load, learning flow and academic achievement were measured after video learning. The collected data were analyzed through multivariate analysis of variance. According to the results, firstly, students who studied the videos with L1+L2 captions had the lowest cognitive load, the highest learning flow and academic achievement. Secondly, students who studied the videos at low speech rate had lower cognitive load, higher learning flow and academic achievement. Thirdly, students who studied videos with L1+L2 captions and the slow speech rate had the lowest cognitive load, the highest learning flow and academic achievement. These findings suggest that if the main teaching objective is to understand the video content, it is preferable to provide bilingual captions. Besides, slow speech rate can lead to better learning effect of EFL learners.

academic achievement, caption types, cognitive load, English video, learning flow, speech rate