• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2002

The English education policy of Korea has focused on cultivating communicative competence in Korean students. Especially the 6th national curriculum adopted a notional-functional syllabus instead of a grammatical-structural syllabus. The syllabus design of the 7th curriculum is different from that of the 6th curriculum in that the 6th curriculum adopted just one syllabus design-the Notional-Functional syllabus, but the 7th curriculum includes various syllabus types. The present study has two purposes. The first purpose is to historically survey syllabus design development in Korea : grammatical-structural syllabus(the 1st-5th curriculum), notional-functional syllabus(the 6th curriculum) and a new syllabus model(the 7th curriculum). The second purpose is to analyze the syllabus design of the 7th national curriculum according to the following criteria : a) communicative functional categories, b) sample sentences. The data was collected by analyzing the 7th grade English textbooks adopted on the basis of the 7th national curriculum.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.211-231
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• 2007

Communication anxiety (CA) in L2 has been identified as one of the important predictors of determining success in the attainment of L2 communication competence. L2 professionals have attempted to explicate its nature in L2, but seemingly failed to achieve the goal. This is probably because they have tended to rely on studies dependent on the use of surveys, which are usually constructed on the basis of their own perspectives rather than L2 students' on CA. To solve this problem, some L2 professionals have utilized diverse research methods that can gather opinions directly from L2 students who are the main constituent in L2 learning; regretfully, they have barely listened to L2 students' voices about controlling CA in L2. This descriptive study explored the nature of CA and the way of controlling it by analyzing data from 57 Korean EFL undergraduates who voluntarily responded to the oral interview questions. The findings of this study pointed out that CA in L2 negatively influenced L2 performance. However, it seemed to have the potential to promote L2 learning. Provided are some important implications that can assist L2 teachers to help their students control CA by maximizing the positive nature of CA.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.191-206
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• 2012

This study examines the use of the modals and quasi-modals of obligation and necessity, which involves the layering of must, should, have (got) to, got to, and need to in a corpus of cross-cultural communication between EFL learners. The study compares the EFL learners' corpus with a sub-corpus of ICE-GB in terms of token counts and semantic/functional distributions because International Corpus of Standard varieties of English serves as common reference points for international comparison of varieties of English. The results showed that must, should, and have to were the main players in both the corpus of EFL learners and that of native speakers. However, some discrepancy exists between EFL learners' corpus and the native speakers' corpus in the use of the modals and quasi-modals of obligation and necessity. Compared to the corpus of native speakers, the corpus of EFL learners was distinctively different in the relative unpopularity of have to and in the comparative popularity of must particularly for root meaning. Suggestions were made for using computer corpora in understanding EFL learners' language use. And pedagogical implications were made for teaching English modality considering the current usage of the modals and quasi-modals in Standard varieties of English and helping the students develop pragmatic competence.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.99-104
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• 2019

In an attempt to shed light on the effects of overseas internships on foreign language development, this study investigated the differences in English compositions written by 10 Korean university students who joined an overseas internship program for 15 weeks. For data collection, the participants each wrote an English composition before and after the internship. Data collected was analyzed to discern differences in the two writings, and statistical analyses were carried out of the results. Results showed that the participants appeared to have attained lexical fluency, generating longer sentences embedded with multisyllabic, more diverse types, more complex and less redundant words in more complicated structures after the internship. This study revealed that overseas internships facilitated the growth of linguistic abilities. Korean SMEs need to enhance the global capacity of their human resources via overseas internships to strengthen their global competitiveness, apart from improving their industrial competencies such as productivity and product quality.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.45-68
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• 2006

Living in the Information Age, schools and teachers are expected to utilize new information technology in education to make teaching more effective. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has been strongly implementing policies to promote information education (IE) in schools since 1988. According to a survey in 2005 (Japan MEXT, 2005), 100% of high schools in Japan at present have computers and the Internet connections. However, videoconferencing systems have only been introduced only in a small number of schools. This paper is the result of a pilot research to see the effects of using a videoconferencing system in a Japanese high school. The purpose of the research was to clarify the effects of introducing videoconferencing system in a Japanese high school and of utilizing it for conferences with other schools abroad on the studies of global issues. The target students were in the 12th Grade in the year 2006. The counterpart school was an Australian high school in Sydney and the conferences were held in English. International discussions on global warming were conducted between the Japanese and Australian students. Affective competence and cognitive competence were measured using questionnaires and worksheets given to students both before and after the videoconferences. The results showed that both cognitive and affective competences rose after each videoconference. Not only the students who actively participated in the conference but also those who were in the audience showed positive effects. In the field of international cooperation on global issues, especially, the effects were large. These results suggest that in order to teach global issues in which international effort and cooperation are needed, direct contacts with foreign students are effective in increasing student cognitive and affective competences. On the other hand, as English was the main communication tool in the conferences, Japanese students faced a certain difficulty in communication. Also, teachers, especially English teachers, were required to make great efforts to assist students in preparing for the conferences. The effectiveness of an international videoconference depends largely on students' English skills and teachers' efforts.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.77-97
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• 2007

To compare data on the speech act of requests from two different methods, a study was conducted in which both native and non-native speakers of English participated as subjects, and data were collected by means of actual e-mail writing and DCT (discourse completion test). The analysis of requests from the two different data-gathering methods showed that despite some similarities, considerable differences existed between e-mail and DCT requests in several important aspects of requests such as amount of talk, directness level, downgraders and supportive moves which play an important role in making a given request sound less imposing and more polite. Also it was shown that requests of non-native speakers differed considerably from requests of native speakers in terms of the four aspects of requests across type of data-gathering methods. Based on the findings, some suggestions were made for both further research and L2 classrooms.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.121-137
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• 2005

The present study aims to examine how the roles of teacher and learners affect the repair patterns of both teacher's and learner's utterances in English as a second language (ESL) classroom discourse. The study analyzed beginning ESL classroom discourse and found that the structure of repair seems to be greatly influenced by the roles of participants in a second language classroom. The teacher's repair work was mainly characterized by self-repair. In contrast, learners' repair sequences were predominantly characterized by other-repair. More specifically, self-initiation by the learner of the trouble source was cooperatively completed by the teacher and the other learners. Other-initiated and other-completed repair was the most prevalent form in the current classroom data, which was carried out by the teacher in both modulated and unmodulated manners. When the trouble sources were mostly concerned with the learners' problems with linguistic competence and information presented in the textbook, other-repair took place in a modulated manner (i.e., recasting and prompting). On the other hand, when dealing with learners' errors with factual knowledge, other-repair was conducted in an unmodulated way (i.e., 'no' plus correction).

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.33-60
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• 2004

This study was an attempt to present an appropriate way of interpreting L2 learners' linguistic behavior within Universal Grammar (UG) framework. Based on the Korean EFL adult learners' performance on the Subjacency violation sentences, the study suggested that the EFL learners are able to acquire subtle knowledge of target grammar and their linguistic behavior should be interpreted with the most recent version of UG theory, the Minimalist Program (MP) notion. The MP notion seems more plausible to accommodate incomplete L2 grammar while acknowledging UG-constrained interlanguage which the previous version, Principles and Parameters (P&P) approach, could not explain very well. The study observed no age-effects among the Korean EFL learners in their linguistic competence measured by the performance on the UG-constraint violation sentences. Having suggested that the MP notion can be a more reasonable tool to explain the EFL learners' linguistic behavior, the study introduced comprehensive hypotheses such as Constructionist Model (CM) and the Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM).

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.259-281
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• 2009

The ICELT(In-Service Certificate in English Language Teaching) is a highly practical course-based English teacher education program which integrates classroom teaching and off-site teacher training. This case study analyzes the three-year implementation of the ICELT program in Korea and discusses its effects and the implications for improving the inservice English teacher education system. It has been found that the course participants were satisfied with the quality of its execution, thinking that it contributed to their professional development in the areas of teaching practice, methodology and language competence. The study has identified several success factors as shared program goals among the course participants, including systematic selection of course participants, well-qualified tutors and the proper provision of resources including syllabus, teaching materials and course assessment system. Nonetheless, it has been suggested that attention needs to be paid to generalized application of the ICELT for English teacher education due to the limitations such as the heavy workload caused by the program, lack of course participants' collaboration with other teachers at their schools and tutors' poor understanding of the Korean education context. Bearing this in mind, the implications for improving the inservice English teacher education system in Korea have been discussed. Finally, further studies have been suggested, which are concerned with in-depth investigation in exploring the division of roles between native English speaking tutors and Korean ones and the impact of the program on the sustainability of course participants' professional development and the impact on schools.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.261-283
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to consider the possibility of learning polite expressions of English using the mobile application Naver Band. To improve communicative competence, students need to develop sociolinguistic competence as well as grammatical and discourse competence. To be accordant to social context, the roles of the participants, and the purpose of the interaction, students have to make an appropriate utterance. When a hearer has a higher social status and is older than a speaker, or have low levels of familiarity, Korean native speaker tends to use polite expressions. Students need to learn polite expressions of English because English has a different honorific system from Korean. To realize the characteristics and function of polite language is one thing, but to learn it in a real classroom is another. This study attempts to apply the use of a mobile application, which is considered a user-friendly tool for students, into learning polite language using the UK historical drama, Downton Abbey. Two tests were administered to an experimental group that used the mobile application and a control group that used group work. The results of the two tests show that the use of the mobile application has a positive effect on learning polite expressions and is effective as an after-school activity. In an open-ended questionnaire, students tend to identify polite expressions as superior or high-level language forms and separate these forms from practical expressions. It should be noted as well that teachers need to consider instructing in modern English when using a historical drama in the teaching and learning of polite expressions.