2023, Vol.24, No.

Modern English Education 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.55

pISSN : 1598-0782 / eISSN : 2586-6141
https://journal.kci.go.kr/meeso

This study identified trends in motivation and demotivation research in English language learning in South Korea over a 28-year period, from 1996 to June 2023, utilizing text mining techniques. With the 506 extracted abstracts from RISS and KCI, we conducted TF-IDF analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling analysis. The study categorized the 506 studies into four periods to identify trends in each period. The results showed that the number of motivation and demotivation studies steadily increased, especially during the third period (2010-2016). Keyword frequency and TF-IDF analysis revealed that the terms ‘self’ and ‘factor’ were highly frequent, and ‘strategy’ and ‘demotivation’ carried significant weight in specific documents. The first period primarily concentrated on learners’ motivational factors in English learning, whereas the second and third periods explored motivation and demotivation among learners and teachers, as well as the impact of teachers’ motivation on learners. The fourth period extended its focus beyond motivation and demotivation to include remotivation. This study holds significance in synthesizing the research trends based on word frequency in the abstracts of articles on (de)motivation in English learning, conducted from 1996 to 2023.

As a result of the rapid advancement of mobile technology, individuals can now communicate and exchange information from anywhere at any time. Users of MIM applications like KakaoTalk, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others can enrich their text messages by attaching pictures, videos, and other forms of media. Previous research has shown that the use of emoticons and punctuation marks enables people to convey their emotions and feelings in text-based communication. This study aimed to examine how Korean university students use emoticons and punctuation marks when communicating in English through the KakaoTalk MIM application, and to explore the role of these non-verbal elements in text-based MIM communication. The current study employed qualitative methods, including observing messages and conducting interviews to collect data from Korean university participants. The results showed that Korean participants made use of emoticons and punctuation marks provided by the KakaoTalk MIM application to support their English communication. Some positive functions of these features were demonstrated during conversations with their counterparts on the platform. The benefits of employing these features through a MIM application were discussed in terms of their ability to enhance the effectiveness of textbased English interactions.