• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.39-56
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• 2005

This study is a small-scale replication study of Kubota (1998). Kubota discovered that L1 rhetoric was not the main cause of L2 writing problems. The conclusion of Kubota's study was in contrast to that of contrastive rhetoric research that claimed that the use of L1 rhetorical styles in L2 writing negatively affects the quality of L2 writing, in particular, at the organizational level. According to Kubota(1998), the use of Japanese rhetorical styles did not deteriorate the quality of English writing. By investigating Korean ESL learners, this replication study examined whether L1 and L2 writings have the same rhetorical styles and how L1 rhetorical styles affect the L2 writing quality. The study analyzed Korean and English persuasive writings written by 12 Korean ESL learners in terms of organization. The results show that Korean learners of English used different rhetorical styles in their L1 Korean writing and L2 English writing. However, there was a positive relationship between L1 Korean and L2 English organization scores.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.181-210
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• 2003

The purpose of the study was to investigate how Korean EFL writing instructors give feedback to their students' writing and what influences their feedback. A total of 12 Korean EFL instructors in Korean universities teaching freshman English and intermediate EFL writing courses provided their feedback given on students' writing samples and participated in interviews. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively with a constant comparative approach and some data from writing samples and questionnaires produced descriptive statistics. The first lesson from the results of the study was that grammar was still the most frequent concern in giving feedback on students' writing. Contrary to the participants' report, comments on content and organization were not produced very often. The second lesson came from the interview data. Some aspects of teacher feedback seemed mostly influenced by their beliefs on L2 writing and experience in teaching L2 writing. The final and major lesson was that teachers chose how they would give comments on students' writing depending on whether they found their feedback helpful in students learning to write. EFL writing teachers can produce effective feedback by clearly communicating their beliefs about L2 writing and criteria in their feedback to students in their EFL writing classrooms.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.99-108
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• 2020

This study aimed to investigate beginner-level learners' use of translators in L2 writing, and shed light on its validity in writing performance through their responses on the necessity, reliability and limitation of machine translation. 117 university students from beginner-level L2 writing classes participated in the survey. Additionally, 11 of them were interviewed about their answers. The survey and interview data revealed varying viewpoints such as reliability and effects as well as reasons for choosing translator-assisted writing. The vast majority(76.1%) used web-based machine translators for their writing activities, and employed various strategies to help their insufficient L2 skills and to increase their motivation and confidence. On the other hand, they exhibited its detrimental effects including it could lead to plagiarism, and interfere with the learning process unless they post-edited the given translation. However, translators were viewed as a new, efficient, and valid educational tool for effective and successful L2 writing.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.191-208
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• 2011

The quantitative study investigated perceptions of evaluative criteria in L2 writing between two groups - learners (N=212) and instructors (N=52) in Korea. Specifically, the purpose of the study is (1) to examine learners' and instructors' perceptions on evaluative criteria in L2 writing and to provide empirical evidence concerning how they respond to a list of them and (2) to ultimately devise appropriate rating criteria applicable to an EFL context like Korea. Analyses of evaluative criteria were conducted using factor analysis and yielded the following results: learner and instructor groups perceived the evaluative criteria differently and weighted them in a different way. For the learner group, the combined elements of grammar and language in use were identified as Factor 1 and mechanics as Factor 2. The results may infer that learners' response patterns are primarily linked to their instructors' writing practice in class, which may largely focus on grammatical knowledge based on lexical use and mechanical accuracy. Similarly, the instructor group acknowledged grammatical knowledge as Factor 1 and lexical use as Factor 2. The first two factors found in both learner and instructor groups indicate that in an EFL context like Korea, the form-then-content way of teaching and learning is still being considered more effective in L2 writing than any other method. Taking into consideration these perceptive similarities and differences between learners and instructors, the categories of evaluative criteria in writing include content and organization, grammar, mechanics, language in use, and flow of the essay, respectively.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.123-142
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• 2009

The present study used multi-faceted Rasch measurement to explore the characteristics and bias patterns of non-native raters when they scored L2 writing tasks. Three raters scored 254 writing tasks written by Korean university students on two topics adapted from the TOEFL Test of Written English (TWE). The written products were assessed using a five-category rating scale (Content, Organization, Language in Use, Grammar, and Mechanics). The raters only showed a difference in severity with regard to rating categories but not in task types. Overall, the raters scored Grammar most harshly and Organization most leniently. The results also indicated several bias patterns of ratings with regard to the rating categories and task types. In rater-task bias interactions, each rater showed recurring bias patterns in their rating between two writing tasks. Analysis of rater-category bias interaction showed that the three raters revealed biased patterns across all the rating categories though they were relatively consistent in their rating. The study has implications for the importance of rater training and task selection in L2 writing assessment.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2024

This study aimed to identify target lexical bundles (e.g., on the other hand, at the same time) for argumentative essay writing and rank them in order of teaching priority for Japanese learners. Despite significant functional roles of lexical bundles in academic writing, the inclusion of lexical bundles in argumentative writing had been underexplored. Since argumentative writing skills help undergraduate students prepare for their academic careers (e.g., writing papers), the lexical bundles under this genre deserve more attention. This study first extracted 78 target bundles from L1 argumentative essay corpora (International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English: ICNALE and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays: LOCNESS). The study then classified the bundles according to their discourse functions and semantic transparency to estimate the learnability for Japanese learners in L2 compatible corpora with the ICNALE. The results showed that learners had difficulty using the bundles with referential functions (e.g., in the form of) and semantic opaqueness (e.g., when it comes to), suggesting that the bundles in these two categories should be prioritized among the 78 bundles.

• 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.9 no.2
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• pp.133-149
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• 2003

As the world becomes a global village, national conferences become more frequent, and the language of choice to mediate the exchange of information is English. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to find several methods to prepare L2 students for English communication at conferences. Various studies about discourse markers can be found in this study. Discourse markers are indicators of fluency in spoken language, and indicators of improvement from features of spoken English to more typical forms of formal writing. In this study the presentation styles of native speakers and Asian non-native speakers are compared, and the difference between efficient and non-efficient speakers at conferences are discussed. As a study of conference English teaching and learning method, this research targets suggestion and application of discourse markers for L2 speakers. As a result, the fact that discourse markers are very important in effective writing and conference English is found and accordingly we can see that developing the ability to use discourse markers in writing and speaking are essential for L2 speakers.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1255-1279
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• 2010

Much has already been learned about what goes on in the minds of second language writers as they compose, yet, oddly enough, until recently little in the L2 research literature has addressed writing and mental imagery together. However, images and imaging (visual thinking) play a crucial role in perception (the basis of mental imagery), in turn, affecting language, thinking, and writing. Many theorists of mental imagery also agree that more than just language accounts for how we think and that imagery is at least as crucial as language. All of these demands, to be sure, are compounded for EFL students, which is why I investigate EFL students' writing process, focusing on the use of mental imagery and its relationship to the writing. First I speculate upon some ways that imagery influences EFL students' composing processes and products. Next, I want to explore how and whether the images in a writer's mind can be shaped effectively into a linear piece of written English in one's writing. I studied two university undergraduate EFL students, L and J. They had fairly advanced levels of English proficiency and exhibited high level of writing ability, as measured by TOEFL iBT Test. Each student wrote two comparison and contrast essays: one written under specified time limitations and the other written without the pressure of time. In order to investigate whether the amount of time in itself causes differences within an individual in imagery ability, the students were placed under strict time constraints for Topic 1. But for Topic 2, they were encouraged to take as much time as necessary to complete this essay. Immediately after completing their essays, I conducted face-to-face retrospective interviews with students to prompt them for information about the role of imagery as they write. Both L and J have spent more time on their second (untimed) essays. Without time constraint, they produced longer texts on untimed essay (149 vs. 170; 186 vs 284 words). However, despite a relatively long period of time spent writing an essay, these students neither described their images nor detailed them in their essays. Although their mental imagery generated an explosion of ideas for their writings, most visual thinking must merely be a means toward an end-pictures that writers spent in purchasing the right words or ideas.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.127-152
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• 2006

For the past 20 years the process approach to writing has been popular in second language writing classrooms. However, there have been very few studies conducted in Korea with regard to the composing processes and the effects of proficiency on writers' usage. The present study attempts to begin to fill this gap. Three groups of college students with different writing proficiency participated in the study: the advanced group, the intermediate group, and the beginning group. The verbal protocol of their writing processes revealed that they approached writing tasks differently. While the advanced writers focused on generating texts and ideas and examined their writing at both global and local levels, the other two groups of students tended to focus on evaluating text at the local level and generated fewer ideas and less text. The findings from this study are then compared to those of some major studies of the composing process as conclusions are subsequently drawn about the specific needs of Korean college writers.