• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.977-998
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate prospective teachers' perceptions of the peer review comments readily available to them during the writing process in a teacher training class. Given these needs, we employ a qualitative method of inquiry giving voice to the learner's own view of peer feedback. The data we wish to consider is first-person narratives elicited from four EFL college students, who are prospective teachers of English. With regard to the EFL students' narrative considered here, all were attentive to the feedback they received. Moreover, the way in which these EFL writers talk about peer response activity reflects that they still welcome peer feedback because of the benefits to be accrued from it. Although this study, covering only four EFL students in total, can hardly be considered conclusive, we attempt to offer a synthesis of their stories. First of all, students indicate that they received responses from "authentic readers" (Mittan 1989, 209). We do note, consequently, that students gain a clear understanding of readers' needs by receiving feedback on what they did well and on what seems unclear. Perhaps the greater effect of peer feedback claimed by these students is that they take active roles in utilizing peer comments. Since they feel uncertain about the validity of their classmates' responses, students feel that they have autonomy over their own text and can make their own decisions on whether they should accept their peer comments or not. This contrasts with their treatment of teacher comments that they accept begrudgingly even if they disagree with them. Four EFL writers talked a lot, typically in a positive way, about peer response to their writing, yet they have expressed reservations about the extent to which they should put any credence in comments offered by their fellow students. Perhaps this is because their fellow students are still developing writers and EFL learners. In turn, they were sometimes reluctant to accept the peers' comments. Thus, in EFL contexts, L1 use can be suggested during peer feedback sessions. In particular, we have come to feel that L1 use enables both reviewers and receivers to have more productive peer review experiences. Additionally, we need to train students not "to see peer feedback as potentially bad advice" (Silva et al. 2003, 111). Teachers should focus on training students to utilize their peers' comments. Without such training, students will either ignore feedback or fail to use it constructively.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.83-102
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to find out some major characteristics of intermediate-advanced Korean learners' English by corpus- linguistically analyzing their essays in comparison with native speakers'. We construct a corpus of CBT TOEFL essays by Korean learners, NNS1 (94076 words in 402 texts), and its sub-corpus, NNS2 (14291 words in 45 texts), and then a corpus of model essays written or meticulously edited by native speakers, NS (14833 words in 35 texts). We compare NNS1 and NNS2 with NS, and with some other corpora, in terms of high-frequency words, and show that Korean learners' writings have more features of informal writing than those of formal writing, which is in accord with the reports in Granger (1998) that EFL writings by European advanced learners are characterized by informality.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.83-104
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• 2009

This study examined whether self-correction or metalinguistic explanation might make a difference in the ability to accurately write two English grammatical structures when learners received indirect teacher feedback in the form of underlining target errors in a Korean EFL college classroom. With the goal of helping low-proficiency students improve their ability to accurately write sentences including nonfinite present participial relative clauses and present participial constructions, four groups were formed: a group which received indirect feedback, a group which received indirect feedback and metalinguistic explanation, a group which received indirect feedback and self-corrected errors, and a group which received indirect feedback and self-corrected errors after receiving metalinguistic explanation. The results showed that the effects of either metalinguistic explanation or self-correction integrated with indirect feedback on learners' ability to accurately write the target structures were not meaningful, while the combined effects of metalinguistic explanation and self-correction were statistically significant.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.167-192
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• 2007

This study investigates the effects of written vocabulary exercises on lexical knowledge. Korean university students learning English as a foreign language were randomly assigned to one of four conditions-Condition 1 (having students match word form with word meaning), Condition 2 (having students fill in the blank provided with a list of words), Condition 3 (having students write sentences with the target words), Condition 4 (having students do three practices with the same vocabulary exercise as the condition 1). Each type of exercises in Condition 1, 2, and 3 was designed to classify a different level of mental processing except Condition 4 with multiple encounters of the target words. Learners' vocabulary knowledge of this study was obtained using a format adopted from the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) immediately and two weeks later. The findings indicated that: (1) Condition 4 having students do three matching vocabulary exercises was as effective as the condition 3 (one writing exercise) on the immediate learning of word; (2) although there was no significant difference of the effect of vocabulary exercises between Condition 3 and 4, Condition 4 asking students to do three matching vocabulary exercises was the most effective way of vocabulary retention after two weeks.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.19-40
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• 2006

This paper deals with a part-specific analysis of grammatical errors in the production of the English passive in writing. The purpose of the study is dual: to explore common error types in forming the passive; and to provide plausible sources of the errors, with special attention to the role of the native language. To this end, this study obtained a large amount of data from Korean EFL university students using an essay writing task. The results show that in forming the passive sentence, errors were made in various ways and that the most common problem was the formation of the be-auxiliary, in particular, the proper use of tense and S-V agreement. Another important finding was that the global errors found in this study were not necessarily those with the greatest frequency. Also corroborated was the general claim that many factors work together to account for errors. In many cases, interlingual and intralingual factors were shown to interact with each other to explain the passive errors made by Korean students. On the basis of the results, suggestions are made for effective and well-formed use of the passive sentence.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.157-165
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of general use of English literary works. It will be helpful for both general English learners and college students majoring English Education in ESL or EFL context. English literature is very useful pedagogical tool in the language class due to its unique valuable characteristics including authenticity, cultural and linguistic value, and personal enrichment, which impact on fostering English ability of EFL students. For this reason, it is unavoidable to develop a theory and practice regarding using English literature as an educational resource for college students in Korea. In this study several considerations will be discussed in terms of selection of the literary works to be applied for language learning purpose in the classrooms of universities in Korea. Such attentions will include fours skills of English such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. Finally, some effects and implications of using literary text as a pedagogical tool in the EFL language classrooms will be discussed.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1017-1041
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• 2011

This study investigates Korean EFL learners' awareness and use of the English existential there-construction by examining data collected from 54 Korean EFL learners of English by means of a pragmalinguistic judgment task and a controlled discourse completion task. The results of the judgment task reveal that lower proficiency learners rated canonical sentences and existentials with a preposed locative best in the communicative situations where the use of existentials would have been most appropriate. A comparison of the ratings by more proficient learners and native speakers shows that existentials received highest ratings by both groups where they are the most natural option, while canonical sentences received significantly higher ratings by the learners. With regard to the production data, learners tended to avoid existentials, but rather relied on canonical sentences. Existentials were rarely used by lower proficiency learners and not used productively even by more proficient learners in the situations where existentials would have been the most natural option. These results suggest that Korean learners' difficulty with the use of existentials is not merely a product of performance limitations, but attributable to limited knowledge about existentials and their syntactic alternatives in terms of contextual appropriateness. Lower proficiency learners lack such knowledge, and more proficient learners, while showing better awareness of the use of existentials, have problems as to the placement of new information when engaging in writing tasks that place lower level of demands on attention to the information status of noun phrases compared to communicative, oral tasks.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.121-128
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• 2024

With the recent rise in the use of AI-based online translation tools, interest in their methods and effects on education has grown. This study involved 30 prospective elementary school teachers who completed an English writing task using an AI-based online translation tool. The study focused on assessing the impact of these tools on English writing skills and their practical applications. It examined the usability, educational value, and the advantages and disadvantages of the AI translation tool. Through data collected via writing tests, surveys, and interviews, the study revealed that the use of translation tools positively affects English writing skills. From the learners' perspective, these tools were perceived to provide support and convenience for learning. However, there was also recognition of the need for educational strategies to effectively use these tools, alongside concerns about methods to enhance the completeness or accuracy of translations and the potential for over-reliance on the tools. The study concluded that for effective utilization of translation tools, the implementation of educational strategies and the role of the teacher are crucial.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1085-1101
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• 2012

This study, guided by Engeström's (1999, 2001) activity theory which owes its theoretical lineage to sociocultural theory, explores how roles (peer feedback givers and receivers) and tasks are distributed among EFL students who engage in peer response. More specifically, as an extension of previous research of focusing on "stances" ESL students adopt, I investigate whether different roles in peer response groups make a difference in the nature of peer response and identify what underlays the different roles in peer group interaction. In addition, I examine whether different roles to the peer response create tensions and contradictions in peer response and how these created conflicts lead to changes in peer response activity system. The data I wish to consider is first-person narratives elicited from two EFL college students. I use Won's and Choi's (both pseudonyms) stories as a heuristic, which is a method that allowing one to proceed fruitfully in finding information. Foregrounded in this study are the students' different roles in the same peer response activity. A division of labor exists between Won/Choi and their peers - the way tasks are divided up and the way roles are structured. Yet Won and Choi adopted rather divergent roles when participating in peer response activity and carried out qualitatively different peer response activities. It is obvious here that the distribution of their roles in carrying out this particular peer response is shaped by Won' and Choi's perception about the validity of their peers' responses.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.113-126
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• 2004

Explicit reference to the work of other authors is an essential feature of most academic research writings. Corpus analysis of academic text can reveal much about what writers actually do and why they do so. Application of corpus tools in language education has been well documented by many scholars (Pedersen, 1995, Swales, 1990, Thompson, 2000). They demonstrate how computer technology can assist in the effective analysis of corpus based data. For teaching purposes, tills recent research provides insights in the areas of English for Academe Purposes (EAP). The need for such support is evident when students have to use appropriate citations in their writings. Using Swales' (1990) division of citation forms into integral and non-integral and Thompson and Tnbble's (2001) classification scheme, this paper codifies academic texts in a corpus. The texts are academic research articles from different disciplines. The results lead into a comparison of the citation practices m different disciplines. Finally, it is argued that the information obtained in this study is useful for EAP writing courses in EFL countries.