• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.207-229
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• 2010

The present study has sought to explore the critical issues of English immersion education through the voices of the four elementary teachers who have recently taught at immersion programs under the guidance of Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education. The interview data with three teachers and the teaching journals of one teacher were analyzed and categorized into two emergent themes: (1) current difficulties in the immersion programs and (2) possible problems with the implementations of immersion programs in all public schools. Specifically, the first issue included teachers' inadequate teaching skills for immersion programs, accumulated learning losses, and lack of immersion class hours. The second issue included workload imposed on immersion program teachers, promotion of private education, learning losses of other subjects, and administration for show. Finally, pedagogical implications are suggested.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.181-197
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to measure how English immersion classes affect students. This study seeks to answer two questions. First, will the young learners gain an international sense? Second, will the students learn English naturally without having to be sent abroad to an English speaking country? Several kinds of immersion programs have been designed and implemented in Korea. However, many students have felt great stress and mental pressure in the immersion programs. Students find the programs stressful because English must be used at all times. In this paper, two groups of elementary school students are compared: one being the control group and the other being the experimental group, an immersion class. The results show that the mental health problems, sensitivities, and rates of depression in the immersion group are greater than those of the students in the control group. Therefore, the immersion students' overall mental health is substandard. The negative effects of lethargy and depression are made worse when they are placed in English only environments. The results indicate more attention should be focused on respecting and understanding the students' overall mental health when teaching them English.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-115
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• 2006

English immersion has emerged in Korea only recently as an innovative approach to learning and teaching English. Lack of real life experience of using English has been one of the biggest obstacles for Korean learners of English and has resulted in an increasing number of children being sent to English-speaking countries and a huge amount of dollar outflow. This recent innovation is expected to be the magic wand to resolve all these problems. However, setting up an immersion program in a typical EFL context like Korea has brought in another set of issues and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a short-term immersion English program in Korea and provide some empirical data to develop programs that can better cater to the needs of EFL learners. A two-week English immersion program was developed and implemented with 57 Korean and Japanese students whose grade level ranged from 4 to 12. The study results show that the program was successful in terms of changing the participants' attitude toward learning English, improving their English skills, enhancing intercultural understanding and competence, and motivating them for further studies of English and other foreign languages and cultures.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.187-210
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• 2002

The goal of this study is to investigate the course development for the Korean students in the immersion English program. This study describes the detailed curriculum and makes some suggestions to improve the courses for regular, extracurricular, and special activities in the five-week immersion English program managed by KAIST in summer 2001. This immersion English program was designed to develop the students' communicative competence in speaking English with native speakers in the age of globalization, by providing students with the English-speaking immersion setting. The results of the students' tests and the data concerning the program revealed that the program was very significant in improving students' communicative competence focused on communication and presentation and in attaining the high motivation for the natural English communication by performing the student-centered and task-based extracurricular activities and special events.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.5
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• pp.79-101
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• 1999

With the advent of the 6th and the 7th national educational curricula in Korea. English language teaching in communicative perspective has been highly recommended and widely practised in that context. The aim of new approach is to enhance the students' general communication abilities in English. However, English teachers still find it very hard to improve the students' communicative competence in English since English remains to be taught as a school subject. In so far as English is taught as a school subject, students' attention is paid to the formal elements of English and the increase in communicative competence in English is hardly expected Only when the students' attention is paid to the content, their communicative competence is expected to increase. The best way to shift the students' attention from formal elements to content is to teach other school subjects in English, that is, English immersion education. To introduce immersion education to Korea, the two most successful examples of Singapore and Hong Kong are reviewed in terms of language policies and general practices in their primary and secondary schools respectively. To implement the program into Korea, extensive research on it is expected henceforth.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.83-102
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• 2007

A math class in Korean university was taught in English for one semester and the students' improvement was measured in math content and English proficiency. Pre and post test in 9 week intervals showed that math content loaming in the immersion class was superior to the non-immersed class. Especially, the immersion class showed remarkable improvement in difficult problems among math content test problems. The immersion class improved in math-related English, but not in general English. It is discussed that the particular English expressions for math are hardly separable from the math content knowledge in English because understanding and using those expressions correctly means the students' understanding of math concept in English and thus the math concept itself.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.585-599
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• 2020

This study investigated children's interests in learning English, affected by educational activities in and out of institutes, and mothers' perceptions regarding early childhood English education. We recruited, 253 mothers of 3- to 5-year-old children in either general kindergartens or English immersion institutes. They answered questions on socioeconomic status, perceived interest in English by their children, their perceptions regarding early childhood English education, and English education outside institutes. In addition, 42 English teachers provided information within institutes such as class time per week, teacher-pupil rate, and language use policy during class. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS 22 for frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The major findings are as follows. First, the two groups were in distinct learning environment. Second, mothers' perceptions and outside-institute activities were significantly different between the two groups. Third, the English interests of children at both institutes were influenced by mothers' worries and at-home English interactions. Fourth, education within institutes did not affect both group's English interests. Fifth, private education and socioeconomic status did not affect both group's English interests. Lastly, only the children's interests in English immersion institutes were affected by gender and mother's perceived necessities. Focusing children's interests, this study helps in understanding young children's affective aspects regarding learning English. The findings are expected to be a guideline for each home and institute to increase children's interest in learning English.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.67-89
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• 2001

This paper is to introduce assorted features of a four-week English Immersion Program managed by Hongik English Language Institute for the first time in summer 2000. The program was aimed to provide English learners with the English simulation environment where everything was supposed to be English only. Thus being exposed exclusively to the English surroundings the clock around, the learners who had not had enough opportunities to use the language were able to attain a high motivation for speaking English, which eventually led to the increase of their general English language proficiency. Presenting merits and demerits of the curriculum and the overall management of the program, this paper plays a role in directing the program in a more improved way for the future and giving guidelines to other institutes where similar programs are under consideration.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.97-121
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• 2011

This study aims to examine how motivational constructs are interrelated with social, context-specific factors and, as a result, contribute to L2 writing achievement within the framework of self-determination theory. The data consisted of 67 Korean college students' questionnaire responses, final scores in an on-offline blended writing course, and qualitative interviews with 5 students. In the descriptive and the correlation analyses, the participants' extrinsic motivation was found higher than intrinsic motivation, with low amotivation. Among social factors, immersion environment, foreign instructor, and peer comparison marked high scores, whereas Korean instructor and online material gained low scores. Those contextual factors were interrelated with each other, such that the immersion factor correlated significantly with Korean instructor and peer comparison. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivational subscales engendered strong correlations with the high-scored social factors, i.e., immersion, foreign instructor, and peer comparison, which were also closely interrelated with L2 writing achievement. The findings illuminate intricate workings of motivation in its effects on L2 achievement and corroborate the roles of contextual factors. The effect of motivational subscales on achievement may be valid through interplay with some social factors. The dynamics of motivation is discussed for pedagogical applications.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.293-312
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• 2011

Many immersion programs have been established and managed throughout Korea in recent years in schools, English villages and camps. Research on the effects of various programs has been reported with focus on the program types or the benefits and learning outcomes for the participants. The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of participation at English camp as a teaching assistant by comparing some factors such as competence, English abilities, and connection to current studies/career before and after camp experience. The results show that all 17 competence rates rose with 'crisis management' showing prominent change. Also, the camp experience provides opportunity for improving English Test scores, conversational skills, teaching skills, and mostly language confidence. Lastly, the camp helped in setting career goals and was helpful in the preparation process of job seeking. Most of the subjects, the teaching assistants at camp, replied that the impact of camp experience is useful in current studies/career. In conclusion, the experience as camp teaching assistant is valuable in many aspects.