• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.53 no.2
• /
• pp.335-357
• /
• 2007

This study aims to investigate the pragmatic features of Korean EFL learners' interlanguage in the communicative act of complaining. Since a complaint, by its nature, is likely to cause offence, thereby threatening the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer, making a complaint in a polite manner is of crucial importance in maintaining harmonious social relationships. However, very little research has been carried out on the complaint speech act performances of Korean EFL learners. In particular, studies which attempt to examine the effect of social status on the choice of complaint speech act strategies are rare. The present study compared the complaint speech act performances of Korean EFL learners and those of native speakers of English with respect to social status. 24 Korean EFL learners and 28 native speakers of English participated and the data were collected via a Discourse Completion Test. The findings revealed that Korean EFL learners differed from native English speakers in the use of complaint strategies. These results indicate that Korean EFL learners lack certain important skills necessary to make complaints appropriately, suggesting the need for the foreign language learners to develop a more extensive pragmatic knowledge of complaint strategies.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.17-35
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of an explicit word instruction for EFL beginning readers and their perception on the learning experience. Data were attained from 16 fourth graders who took English class as a development activity. Data include the results of pre- and post-test of high frequency sight word recognition, oral reading ability, students' survey responses, and teacher observation. The descriptive statistics were obtained for the result of the pre- and post-test. The findings from the student survey and teacher observation were also provided and interpreted to better understand the result of project and students' perception on the learning experience. The followings are the results of this study. The word recognition ability of the students was dramatically improved after the project. The students were satisfied with the overall learning experience perceiving it as helpful and fun learning. They expressed that the explicit word instruction helped their word recognition and reading ability. The results also supported that the confidence of students on their reading ability were heightened. Several suggestions are made for teachers and researchers on the word instruction for young EFL learners who are beginning readers.

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

• International Journal of Contents
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.58-65
• /
• 2022

This study proposed a soft skill integration activity for online EFL classrooms and investigated student responses. Toward this end, this study recruited 54 college students taking an English Presentation and Discussion class in South Korea. Participants were assigned into high and low-proficiency groups based on the Test of English for International Communication. This study employed questionnaire, class video recordings, and interview to obtain responses. Moreover, problem-based learning with challenge questions was applied to develop soft skills in online synchronous classes. Responses were examined in terms of whether a difference existed according to English proficiency. Major findings of this study were as follows. Regardless of proficiency levels, participants reported improvements in their IT and problem-solving skills and exhibited positive attitudes toward live online presentations via Zoom. However, this study observed significant differences in communication and teamwork skills, perceived learning, and confidence. Interviews with students with low English proficiency levels revealed that they were negatively affected by the lack of non-verbal cues, mechanical skills, and socialization time provided by online classes. Based on these results, pedagogical implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.41-56
• /
• 2007

This paper, drawing on various secondary sources related to bilingualism and bilingual education, proposes a semi-CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) model as an initial option for Korea's ELT instruction at a primary level, with a subsequent application to a secondary level in mind. It is reported that the current pedagogy focused on early English education and communicative language teaching does not meet the needs of students' EFL proficiency. The main reasons for this are considered to lie in the social and educational environment which impedes EFL students' meaningful and authentic communication in target language. Thus, by exploring a conceptual approach to such a problem, this paper suggests a paradigm of integrating content and language for a reasonable solution.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.27-49
• /
• 2009

This study aimed to explore EFL learners' beliefs and preferences about reading tasks and to examine the reading processes that they use for making sense of text. The subjects were comprised of 107 college students who were non-English majors and aged 19-28 years. Based on scores achieved on a reading comprehension test, they were divided into two groups (more-skilled and less-skilled readers) and asked to respond to a survey in class. The results of the survey revealed that: (1) a majority rate themselves as fair readers, which might be indicative of the insecurity they feel toward L2 reading; (2) authentic texts (especially magazines) and popular media appear to be their favorite reading materials; (3) unknown vocabulary is a major impediment to their L2 reading comprehension; (4) the more-skilled readers manifest a meaning centered view of reading, whereas the less-skilled readers center on vocabulary; and (5) both groups employ a multistrategic approach to L2 reading; however, the less-skilled readers are less successful in determining the meaning of unknown vocabulary. Pedagogical implications for EFL classroom teachers are provided.

• Educational Technology International
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.93-112
• /
• 2007

This case study explored the potential for implementing content-based English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in a Korean middle school facilitated by computer-mediated communication (CMC). The instructor scaffolded the student participant's language learning online, helping her to produce English output on her own. While experimental social studies lessons on the topic of stereotyping were taught, data were collected on the student's online exchanges with her counterpart in Iran about their respective cultures. Findings show that the student from Korea was able to better understand her own culture as a result of the online experience. This interaction and the in-class lessons have demonstrated that content-based EFL instruction is a viable alternative to the school's existing curriculum.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.69-76
• /
• 2017

The current study investigated whether Korean learners' English-learning environments, especially target English accent (General American English (GAE) vs. Southern British English (SBE)) and English-language experience affected their production of English vowels. Thirty six EFL learners, 27 ESL-US learners, and 33 ESL-UK learners produced 8 English vowels with a bVt frame (beat, bit, bet, bat, bought, bot, boat, boot). The learners' productions were acoustically analyzed in terms of F1 and F2 frequencies. The overall results revealed that the learners' target accent had an effect on their production of some English vowels. The EFL and ESL-US learners' (especially, female learners') production of bought, bot, boat, and boot, which show characteristic differences between the GAE and SBE accents, was closer to that of the native American English (AE) speakers than the native British English (BE) speakers. In contrast, the ESL-UK learners' production of bought and bot demonstrated the opposite pattern. Thus, the impact of target accent was not demonstrated across the board. The effect of the learners' different English-language experience was also rather limited. This was because the EFL learners' production was not much different from the ESL-US learners' production, in spite of the ESL-US learners' residence in the US for more than 9 years. Furthermore, the Korean learners, irrespective of their different English-language experience, tended to produce bit and bat with lower F1 than the native AE and BE speakers, thus resulting in bit and bat to be produced similarly to beat and bet, respectively. This demonstrates the learners' persistent L1 effects on their English vowel production despite the learners' residence in the English speaking countries or their high English proficiency.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.217-223
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this paper is to compare and analyze TOEIC scores of two kinds of courses opened at a university and the distribution of TOEIC scores of two groups. In addition, this paper will examine the ability of participants and the used instructional materials and equipment. The university has two kinds of TOEIC courses; one is a four-week intensive course opened in summer and winter vacations, where students participate in the classes from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The other is a regular TOEIC course, offering one-hour class every day from Monday to Friday during the university semester (15 weeks). This paper points out how important, the EFL/ESL teacher education, teaching materials, teaching methods and e-learning in operating more effective classes. The intensive TOEIC course and the regular TOEIC course include 120 hours and 75 hours a semester, respectively. Unfortunately, both courses have such a limited amount of time that students cannot achieve their fluent and perfect command of English. For Korean student to master English in a limited amount of both time and resources, the development of effective and qualitative EFL/ESL Intensive courses is essential.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.27-56
• /
• 2011

The analysis on the use of lexical discovery and consolidation strategies that have been researched within the area of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) have not sufficiently drawn the interest of EFL practitioners with regard to vocational high school learners. The results, however, are expected to have implications for the design of vocabulary tasks and instructional materials for EFL learners. The present study investigates EFL vocational high school learners' use of lexical discovery and consolidation strategies with questionnaires, where the use of the learners' lexical discovery strategies were further validated with the think-aloud methodology by asking samples of proficient and less proficient learners to report on their reading process while reading L2 texts that had not been exposed to the learners. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the two groups of learners in the employment of 11 of the strategies which were in the categories of determination, social, memory, and metacognitive strategies, but not for cognitive strategies. The pattern of strategies indicated that different lexical discovery and consolidation strategies were employed relatively more by one proficiency group than another. The study suggests some implications for how strategy-based instruction can be implemented in EFL classrooms.