DEVELOPING MULTIMODAL DIGITAL LITERACY: THE APPLICATION OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING AS A NEW AVENUE FOR EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LEARNING WITH EFL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KOREA

The purpose of this mixed method research study is to investigate the educational effects of digital storytelling as a communicative language learning strategy in an EFL elementary school class in Korea. In order to find out the benefits and challenges of digital storytelling in EFL class, this study was conducted for 12 weeks in a rural elementary school. Digital storytelling was selected and utilized in the after-school English class, as main teaching and learning tool. Guiding research questions were 1) what are the potential benefits and challenges of digital storytelling for young EFL learners when it is employed in a rural context as a language learning activity? i. e.) the change of motivation, reading, writing, listening, speaking ability, and 2) What does the English teacher find to be benefits and challenges of using a digital storytelling as pedagogical strategies in Korean EFL classroom?. In order to answer those questions, a survey questionnaire on students’ learning attitude was distributed, and pre- and post-test were employed to investigate the difference in terms of the ability of reading, writing, listening and speaking over time. In addition, student’s reflective self-evaluation log, teacher’s lecture report, classroom observation and in/formal interviews with focal students and the teacher were also collected to figure out the factors which gave an influence to students and the teacher. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed based on the characteristics of each data set. The quantitative data results indicated that students show overall improvement in academic performance in terms of reading, writing, listening and speaking. In addition to English proficiency, the learning attitude and motivation toward English learning was elevated, followed by the increase of their critical, creative thinking, and digital literacy skills. The other results of qualitative data highlighted that the English teacher and students were satisfied with the learning experience with digital storytelling in that it played a key role in motivating the learning process and was an effective tool for active learning. To sum up, it seems clear that the digital storytelling activity, as integrated instructional strategy has the potential to shed light on helping EFL learners in a rural school to develop English skills as well as to change their learning attitude toward studying English. In addition, digital storytelling also increased skills other than academic skills related to learning English, and it also helped to improve students’ communicative ability, encouraging their collaboration, motivation and creativity to be heightened

Reading comprehension studies in the last decade: global trends and future direction of Indonesia language researches

The publication trend related to reading comprehension studies in the last decade has sharply grown. Nevertheless, studies offering comprehensive bibliometric and bibliographic reviews related to reading comprehension studies have not been conducted nor also found in the journal or conference proceeding. The purpose of this study is to present a bibliographic and bibliometric review of the numerous documents studying reading comprehension skills. A bibliometric analysis was performed to carry out this study whereby 1,681 eligible documents from the Scopus database published from 2013 to 2022 were used as research materials. Results showed that in 2013-2022, the publication trend of reading comprehension studies slightly increased while the citation trend on the documents regarding reading comprehension skills tended to fall sharply. Additionally, at least there were several major emerging themes of reading comprehension studies such as methodology, language, educational level, reading disability, reading intervention, reading comprehension predictor, and moderating factor of reading comprehension. This study implies that researchers in the field of Indonesian language education can focus on the utilization of Indonesian textbooks in investigating learners’ reading comprehension skills, develop innovative and effective reading interventions to enhance learners’ reading comprehension skills, and explore some other moderating factors of reading comprehension skills such as ethnicity, culture, geographical location, and textbook topic

Strategies in technology-enhanced language learning

The predominant context for strategy research over the last three decades has focused on language learning situated in a conventional classroom environment. Computer technology has brought about many changes in language learning and has become ecological and normalized rather than a supporting tool in the language classroom. Consequently, the landscape of language learning has been rapidly and largely changed with the normalization of technologies in people’s daily communication. The pervasive use of mobile technologies and easy access to online resources require that digital language learners understand and employ appropriate learning strategies for learning effectiveness and that their teachers are able and willing to teach these strategies as needed. This article provides an overview of the state-of-the-art research into technology-enhanced language learning strategies. The strategies under review include those for language learning skill areas, language subsystems, and self-regulated learning. At the end, we discuss the pressing issues that Digital Age language learning has posed to learners, teachers, and researchers and propose considerations for strategy research in digital realms

The application of chatbot as an L2 writing practice tool

This study investigates the effect of chatbot-based writing practices on second language learners’ writing performance and perceptions of using the chatbot in L2 writing practices. A total of 75 Korean elementary school students were randomly allocated to two groups. While the control group received traditional teacher-led writing instruction, the experimental group used a chatbot for individual writing practices for 15 weeks. The chatbot was developed using Google’s Dialogflow machine-learning AI platform by encoding expressions from an elementary school English textbook. A pretest was carried out prior to the experiment to examine the initial writing performance, and a posttest was carried out 15 weeks later with a different writing topic. The participants in the experimental group also responded to a short survey to report their perceptions and opinions about the chatbot. The results showed that the two groups generally showed a similar writing proficiency in the pretest scores, but the experimental group performed significantly better in the posttest than the control group, suggesting that the chatbot-based writing practice had a facilitating effect on their test performance. The participants of the experimental group also found the chatbot useful in improving their language skills and made them feel comfortable when learning a foreign language

한국 초등학생들의 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료를 활용한 영어 읽기 경험 사례 연구

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 사범대학 외국어교육과(영어전공), 2023. 2. 소영순.21세기 정보화 사회에서 지식 정보 처리 능력의 중요성은 나날이 증가하고 있다. 2015 개정 영어 교육과정에서는 지식 정보 처리 역량을 새로운 중심 역량으로 소개하고 있으며, 최근 코로나 바이러스로 인한 비대면적 영어 학습 환경이 확대됨에 따라 다양한 온라인 영어 저작물이 개발되어 제공되어왔다. 온라인 저작물은 사전, 영상자료, 백과사전 등의 다양한 자료와 링크로 연결되어 학습자의 필요에 따라 즉각적으로 선택 및 활용이 가능한 하이퍼텍스트(hypertext)기술이 적용되어 구현되었다. 이에 개별 학습자의 올바른 자료 판단 및 활용 역량에 따른 영어 학습 능력의 차이가 심화되고 있는 현실이다. 그러나 영어 읽기에 관한 여러 선행 연구들에서 온라인 하이퍼텍스트 자료의 활용은 성인 학습자를 비롯하여 영어 학습 능력이 우수한 학습자에게만 제한적으로 이루어졌다는 한계를 보이고 있다. 따라서, 본 연구는 연구 대상의 범위를 확장하여 EFL 환경의 초등 영어 학습자들이 영어 읽기 활동에서 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료를 어떻게 사용하고 인식하는지 인지적, 정의적 관점에서 질적으로 고찰해보고자 한다. 이를 위해 한국의 초등학교 6학년 학생들이 자발적으로 참여하였으며 스크린 테스트를 거쳐 세 명의 참가자들이 모집되었다. 연구 참여자들은 총 16회의 온라인 영어 읽기 과업을 수행하며 세 개의 온라인 자료(네이버 영어 사전, 네이버 백과사전, 유투브)를 활용하였다. 참여자들은 개인적인 필요에 따라 자료를 활용하며 읽기 중 발생한 어려움을 해결하였고, 효과적인 독해를 위한 전략들을 사용하였다. 읽기 과업 직후에는 학습자들의 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료의 활용 목적과 읽기 과정 전반에 관한 면담이 실시되었다. 온라인 영어 읽기 과업은 줌(ZOOM) 프로그램을 통해 화면 녹화 및 음성 녹음되었으며, 면담 내용은 스마트 폰을 이용하여 녹음되었다. 세 명의 학습자들은 영어 수준 및 배경지식, 이해도 측면에서 차이를 보였으며 영어 학습 수준과 필요에 따라 적합한 정보 활용 전략 및 읽기 전략을 발전시켜가는 모습을 보였다. 특히, 학습자들이 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료를 활용하며 읽기의 어려움을 해결하는 과정에서 언어적 지식의 습득, 배경지식의 축적 등의 인지적 변화와 더불어 학습자 개인의 영어 읽기에 대한 흥미(reading interest)와 자신감(self-confidence), 자기 효능감(self-efficacy)를 느끼는 등의 정의적인 변화를 관찰할 수 있었다. 비록, 참여자의 영어 학습 수준에 따라 전략을 사용하는 양상에 있어서는 차이가 있었으나 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료가 초등 영어 학습자의 제 2언어 학습에 미치는 긍정적인 영향을 파악할 수 있었다. 본 연구는 방법론적 측면에서 일부 한계가 있었으나 초등 영어학습자들이 영어 읽기 활동에서 정보를 주체적으로 활용하며 효과적인 문제 해결에 기여하는 적극적인 읽기를 실천하였다는 점에서 온라인 영어 학습 및 영어 읽기 활동에서 활용할 수 있는 온라인 하이퍼링크 자료의 영향력에 대해 통찰을 제시하고 있다. 이에 영어 교육환경에서 하이퍼텍스트 기술과 온라인 정보 매체의 접목을 통해 학생들의 읽기 흥미를 증진시키는데 도움이 될 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.Digital literacy plays an important role in the recent computer-assisted learning environment. The 2015 Revised National English Curriculum introduced digital literacy as a core ability to develop in English language learners. In accordance with the emergence of digital literacy, various online reading materials embedded with hypertexts were provided to EFL learners, which connected the English reading text with diverse online resources existing outside of the text. As readers effective use of online resources in English reading is the core ability of digital literacy, the importance of hypertexts and hyperlinked resources in English reading was examined by many researchers. However, few studies are conducted on young readers use of hyperlinked online resources in English reading. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the use of Korean elementary school students hyperlinked online resources in English reading and their perception of the use of hyperlinked online resources. Exploring readers use and perception of English reading assisted by hyperlinked online information sources, will provide insights into English reading instruction by determining young readers difficulties in reading English and how they solve the difficulties with the effective use of hypertext materials while reading. For this study, three 6th grade Korean elementary school students voluntarily participated in the sixteen sessions. Throughout the sixteen sessions, students read English science expository texts. Students used three online resources (Naver English Dictionary (NED), Naver Encyclopedia (NE), and YouTube) to assist their reading. Following the reading tasks, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the students perception of using hyperlinked resources while reading. The use of hyperlinked online resources in English reading was screen-recorded with Zoom software and the following semi-structured interviews were recorded with an iPhone audio-recording program. The findings suggested that readers mainly used hyperlinked online resources to support them in addressing lexical difficulties in reading, which in turn resulted in a positive evaluation of the use of online resources in their English reading. By complementing their linguistic deficiencies with the hyperlinked online resources, readers could feel self-confidence and self-efficacy in English reading. The accumulation of experiences in English reading assisted by hyperlinked online resources also elicited reading interest among readers, which proposed an optimistic view of turning readers into life-long readers. Throughout the sixteen sessions, readers also developed online reading strategies such as locating the appropriate information they needed or finding an effective way to use hyperlinked resources. Although the degree of the potential of hyperlinked online resources differed among individual learners due to their differences in language proficiency or prior knowledge, the use of online resources in reading resulted in their overall cognitive and affective change in English reading. Although this study had some limitations concerning the methodological approach of the research, it will contribute to a better understanding of Korean elementary school students English reading behavior with the potential benefits of hyperlinked online resources in English learning.CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 The Background of the Study 1 1.2 The Purpose of the Study 6 1.3 The Organization of the Thesis 7 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.1 Hypertext in Online Reading 8 2.1.1 The Features of Hypertext in Online Reading 8 2.2 Online Reading Strategies 11 2.3 Factors Influencing Hypertext Reading 15 2.3.1 External Factors in Hypertext Reading 15 2.3.2 Internal Factors in Hypertext Reading 19 2.4 Limitations of Previous Research 24 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Participants 28 3.2 Instruments 33 3.2.1 Background Information Questions 33 3.2.2 Hypertexts 34 3.2.3 Comprehension Questions 45 3.2.4 Semi-structured Interview Questions 45 3.2.5 Final Interview Questions 46 3.3 Data Collection 47 3.3.1 Think aloud Protocol 49 3.4 Data Transcription 51 3.5 Data Analysis 53 3.5.1 Analysis of Reading Process 53 3.5.2 Analysis of Interviews 56 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 59 4.1 Comparison of the Three Readers Use of Hyperlinked Online Resources in English Reading 60 4.1.1 Readers' Use of Pre-Determined Hyperlinked Online Resources in English Reading 62 4.1.2 Readers' Voluntary Use of Hyperlinked Online Resources in English Reading 74 4.1.3 Readers Perceptions of Hyperlinked Online Resource Use in English Reading 94 4.2 The Potentials of English Reading Assisted by Hyperlinked Online Resources 102 4.2.1 The Positive Influence of Hyperlinked Online Resources on EFL Readers' Cognitive and Affective Domain 102 4.2.2 The Value of Reading Experience and Practice 105 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION 108 5.1 Major Findings and Implications 108 5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 111 REFERENCES 114 APPENDICES 123 ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 133석

THE EFFECTS OF PROJECT LEAD THE WAY LAUNCH CURRICULUM ON ELEMENTARY GIRLS’ PERCEPTION AND CAREER INTERESTS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS

The United States has examined the quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education since before the turn of the century. STEM educators are still having the conversation around why more women are not joining STEM pathways. Girls and boys as early as birth are curious about the world; through their own lens they learn about gravity from dropping spaghetti on the floor or seeing a small insect on the wall. As children get older they are influenced by the perceptions of their parents and peers. This study looked at the perception and career interests of girls in STEM and non-STEM schools. Student surveys included the Career Interest Questionnaire (CIQ) and the Semantics survey. The CIQ asked participants about their interests in STEM careers and college, and the Survey items were designed to measure understanding how girls feel about STEM. The participants in the study were from the same school district. One group of participants was from a non-STEM school (i.e., an art magnet school), and the other group was from a STEM magnet school. All participants were females from grades 4 or 5. The STEM group of participants in the study had access to Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Launch curriculum designed for kindergarten through 5th grade. The STEM students had access to PLTW Launch curriculum beginning in kindergarten, and the other group in the study did not have access to PLTW Launch or other STEM curriculum

Understanding Children’s Help-Seeking Behaviors: Effects of Domain Knowledge

This dissertation explores children’s help-seeking behaviors and use of help features when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems. This study was conducted with 30 children who were 8 to 10 years old. The study was designed to answer three research questions with two parts in each: 1(a) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 1(b) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(a) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(b) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(a) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(b) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal? This study used multiple data collection methods including performance-based domain knowledge quizzes as direct measurement, domain knowledge self-assessments as indirect measurement, pre-questionnaires, transaction logs, think-aloud protocols, observations, and post-interviews. Open coding analysis was used to examine children’s help-seeking situations. Children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional types of help-seeking situations when using Google and Kids.gov were identified. To explore help features children use and desire when they formulate search queries and evaluate results in Google and Kids.gov, open coding analysis was conducted. Additional descriptive statistics summarized the frequency of help features children used when they formulated search queries and evaluated results in Google and Kids.gov. Finally, this study investigated the effect of children’s domain knowledge on their help seeking and use of help features in using Google and Kids.gov based on linear regression. The level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge affects occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated search queries in Google. Similarly, children’s domain knowledge quiz scores showed a statistically significant effect on occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated keywords in Google. In the stage of result evaluations, the level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge influenced their use of help features in Kids.gov. Furthermore, scores of children’s domain knowledge quiz affected their use of help features when they evaluated search results in Kids.gov. Theoretical and practical implications for reducing children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional help-seeking situations when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems were discussed based on the results

Development and Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Distance Education Learning Environments in Higher Education: The Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES)

Globally, as distance education has become firmly embedded as a part of the higher education landscape, governments and institutions are calling for meaningful research on distance education. This study involved designing, developing and validating a learning environment survey instrument for use in distance education-delivered courses in post-secondary education. Specifically it involved merging two distinctive areas of study: psychosocial learning environments research and distance education research. The unique social structure of asynchronous distance education learning environments requires a unique and economical instrument for measuring the perceptions of distance education course participants. The research followed a three-stage instrument-development process of identifying salient scales, developing survey items, and field testing and analysing data using item analysis and validation procedures. This was followed by an investigation into the associations between the psychosocial learning environment and students enjoyment of distance education. The results yielded a new six-scale, 34-item Web-based learning environment instrument suitable for use in a number of asynchronous post-secondary distance education environments. The new instrument, the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) assesses Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Student Autonomy. Analyses of data obtained from 680 subjects supported the factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. The results also indicated statistically significant associations between the distance education learning environment and student enjoyment of distance education

A Child-Driven Metadata Schema: A Holistic Analysis of Children\u27s Cognitive Processes During Book Selection

The purpose of this study was to construct a child-driven metadata schema by understanding children\u27s cognitive processes and behaviors during book selection. Existing knowledge organization systems including metadata schemas and previous literature in the metadata domain have shown that there is a no specialized metadata schema that describes children\u27s resources that also is developed by children. It is clear that children require a new or alternative child-driven metadata schema. Child-driven metadata elements reflected the children\u27s cognitive perceptions that could allow children to intuitively and easily find books in an online cataloging system. The literature of development of literacy skills claims that the positive experiences of selecting books empower children\u27s motivation for developing literacy skills. Therefore, creating a child-driven metadata schema not only contributes to the improvement of knowledge organization systems reflecting children\u27s information behavior and cognitive process, but also improves children\u27s literacy and reading skills. Broader research questions included what metadata elements do children like to use? What elements should a child-driven metadata schema include? In order to answer these research questions, a triangulated qualitative research design consisting of questionnaires, paired think-aloud, interview, and diaries were used with 22 child participants between the ages of 6 and 9. A holistic understanding of the children\u27s cognitive processes during book selection as a foundation of a child-driven metadata schema displays an early stage of an ontological contour for a children\u27s knowledge organization system. A child-driven metadata schema constructed in this study is apt to include different metadata elements from those metadata elements existing in current cataloging standards. A child-driven metadata schema includes five classes such as story/subject, character, illustration, physical characteristics, and understandability, and thirty three metadata elements such as character\u27s names and images, book cover\u27s color, shape, textured materials, engagement element, and tone. In addition, the analysis of the relationship between emergent emotional vocabularies and cognitive factors and facets illustrated the important role of emotion and attention in children\u27s information processing and seeking behaviors

Educational use cases from a shared exploration of e-books and iPads

E-books and e-book readers are becoming increasingly widely available, particularly for the general reader, and there have been many studies on their adoption. However, less is known about their use for educational and academic purposes. We report here on work carried out on e-books and e-book applications using iPads by academic and teaching staff. After considering pedagogical issues and reporting survey results, we identify a spiral of six key use case areas for e-books. This spiral of use cases moves from basic e-book use, through situational reading, e-books and learning, using multiple learning resources, collaborative/group learning, to e-book production. We discuss each of these use case areas and provide guidelines that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike