• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2002

Language plays a central role in everyday communication activities. Therefore, an individual need to be able to use language to communicate with confidence and without fear. One of the major fears that people have is the fear of communication. This fear is most of the time due to a lack of confidence in communicating in a particular language or due to poor proficiency in the language. In some cases it can also be due to attitudinal problems. In the context of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language, students can have a great fear of using English with confidence. This fear can be an acute one and thus students may avoid using English to communicate. However, non native speakers of English need to be highly competent in the use of the English language for a variety of communicative purposes particularly in meeting the challenges of globalisation and that of the digital age. This article presents some insights on language apprehension found among communication undergraduates who are non native speakers of English.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.299-313
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• 2001

This study examines the current state of English education in private kindergartens in Korea. Among 1700 kindergarten teachers surveyed for this research, 680 replied that their institutions provided English lessons for children. Analyses of the data collected from these 680 teachers showed : 1) They started to teach English not because of educational considerations but because of pressure from children's parents or kindergarten principals; 2) Most of the English teachers were part-time instructors specially recruited for English lessons. Generally, English lessons were given two or three times a week, with one session lasting for about 20 minutes. A variety of teaching methods and materials were used for the lessons given to children aged three to five. Focus of the lessons was given to listening and speaking words and sentences; 3) Most of the teachers considered the scarcity of qualified English instructors as the most serious problem for providing English education in kindergartens, and they did not want to teach English themselves. They evaluated positively the performance and role of Korean part-time English instructors. The evaluations were generally poor as to native speakers serving as kindergarten English teachers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.189-208
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• 2009

Most if not all research articles published in journals require the author to write an abstract regardless of academic field. However, abstract writing in English is a highly specialized genre on its own. In this light, the purpose of this study is to investigate differences in journal article abstracts written in English by Korean and native English scholars. 90 research paper abstracts written in English by Korean national scholars, US-educated Korean scholars and native English scholars were compared according to rhetorical organization. A generalized rhetorical scheme was used in analysis which was based on Graetz (1985) and Swales (1990): Background-Purpose-Method-Result-Conclusion. In addition, the use of conjunctions as a cohesive device was analyzed based on the categories proposed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). Analyses of the research paper abstracts showed that the majority of the abstracts included the purpose, method and result components. However, while approximately 70 percent of native English writers used research background in the abstract, only 26 percent of Korean national scholars did so. Regarding the use of conjunctions, Korean-national scholars overused and inappropriately used additive and temporal conjunctions. The US-educated Korean scholars showed similar patterns to the native English speakers. The findings obtained here imply that there is a need to provide academic writing instruction of abstracts to non-native scholars.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.85-102
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• 2002

Learners and users of a second language have to resort to a variety of conversational strategies or structures to enable them to communicate effectively and competently. Factors affecting effective communication among English as a second or English as foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners are diverse in nature because of different socio-cultural backgrounds. Gambits as a conversational strategy are used to a large extent and teachers must be made aware of such conversational strategies used by English as second or foreign language learners. Thus, studies focusing on conversational strategies among ESL/EFL learners in the English language classroom are important in order to identify the types of conversational strategies used and to help teachers to understand the appropriate conversational strategies and structures. Such understanding can be used to guide learners to use correct conversational strategies when communicating in English. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of gambits as a communication strategy in conversation among non-native speakers of English in an English as a second language(ESL) context based on Kellers conversational strategy signals. (175 words)

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.349-354
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• 1996

The phonetic mastery of English has been considered next to impossible to many non-native speakers of English, including even some teachers of English. This paper takes issue with this phonetic problem of second language acquisition and proposes that combination of cognitive and physical approaches can help master English faster and more easily.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-20
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• 2004

The findings in contrastive rhetoric research of the twentieth century have shown that different cultures have different conventions in organizing written texts. These culture-related conventions were claimed to influence English texts written by L2 learners, including Asian learners of English. However, due to the massive inflow of the American culture into Asia as well as increased exposure to English in the midst of globalization of the last decade, it is quite probable that the textual gap between the native English writers and Asian EFL writers have been reduced. The present study investigates the changes that have taken place in EFL writer's knowledge of genre-specific writing over the past decade. To this aim, this study compared four sets of application essays written by four groups of applicants (1) native American applicants in 1993, (2) Korean EFL applicants in 1933, (3) native American applicants in 2003, and (4) Korean EFL applicants in 2003. The results suggested that the disparity between the Korean EFL writers' and the native English writers' texts were becoming less noticeable at the macro-level, possibly due to Korean EFL writers' enhanced textual awareness of English genre structures Pedagogical implications are discussed.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.91-114
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' perspectives on content-based instruction (CBI) in English at a higher education in Korea. Based on the assumption that content-based instruction programs could be successful if teachers were actively involved not only in transmitting the content knowledge but also in students' development in the second or foreign language competence, the study explores teachers' treatments of language in relation to the students' language development in CBI classes. Research questions were related to five areas such as (1) the goals of CBI programs, (2) difficulties in CBI classes, (3) the use of native language, (4) teaching strategies and techniques, and (5) factors that affect the success of the CBI programs. Data gathered from 24 college instructors from a large university located in the metropolitan city of Korea. Results of the study indicated that college instructors of CBI programs had keen interest in developing students' language competence, experienced difficulties in designing course syllabus for mixed leveled group of students, rarely used Korean in class and used successful teaching strategies. Also factors needed to improve the CBI programs were recommended at the end of the study. Results of the study implied that teachers needed to be more aware of the students' learning process of English and to be more communicative with students in English in class. Further studies were needed in relation to the CBI courses for students of different age levels.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.23-36
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• 2009

This paper aims to investigate the use of reference and substitution as cohesion devices by advanced Korean EFL writers and English native writers. Twelve research articles (totaling 218 pages, 93,033 words) written in English were collected in academic journals. Half of the research articles were prepared by Koreans and the other half were written by native writers. Several demonstrative pronouns, personal pronouns and demonstrative adverbs were selected as referential cohesion devices for this study. Three substitutional cohesion devices were also chosen. Their frequency was investigated at first, after which their preference was analyzed. There was not much difference in the overall use of cohesion devices between the two groups. Some devices were used by Korean writers more often than native ones. Reasons for this could be high English proficiency of Korean writers, their hyper-correction or the influence of Korean culture. Other more distinctive cohesion features such as conjunctions are recommended for analysis of cohesion in future research.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.193-206
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• 2011

The purpose of the study is to examine the use of emotion vocabulary by Korean English learners. Three basic emotion fields, pleasure, anger, and fear were selected to elicit the participants' responses. L1 English speakers' data was also collected for comparison. The major results are as follows. First, English learners responded with various inappropriate verb forms like I feel~, I am~ while the majority of English native speaking teachers responded with subjunctive forms like I would feel~. In addition, L2 English learners used mostly simple and coordination sentences. Second, the lexical richness, measured through type/token ratio, was higher in English L1 data than in English L2 data. The proportion of emotion lemmas reflects the lexical richness or the diversity of the emotion words. Lastly, L2 English learners' responses focused on a few typical adjectives like happy, angry and scared. This structural and semantic distinctiveness of Korean English learners' emotion words was discussed from pedagogical perspectives.