• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.51-66
• /
• 2001

This paper compares different uses of downgraders by Korean English speakers (KES) with those by American English native speakers (AENS) in their requestive e-mail. Three different situations in which social power and distance were controlled were set up to examine and compare the participants' politeness strategies in requestive e-mail. It was found that the KESs' use of downgraders appeared differently from the AENSs' use qualitatively and quantitatively across three situations. The AENSs used downgraders almost three times as more, resulting in a much more mitigated and polite effect in requests. The AENSs' requests were mostly modified by syntactic modifiers, such as aspect, tense, conditional, and consultative devices. On the other hand, the KESs' requests were modified mostly by politeness markers and conditionals in a limited number of requests.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.49-77
• /
• 2005

This paper has an aim to examine English native speakers' requests, and offer an instructional technique to develop EFL students' pragmatic ability. For this purpose, English-speaking native speakers' requests were collected in six different face-threatening situations, and analyzed in three ways: directness levels, internal modification and sequence of request. The analysis of requests showed that they were realized mainly through conventionally indirect level in most situations, were internally modified frequently through the use of downgraders, and had a certain sequence of utterances realizing a request. On the basis of these findings, two kinds of interactional activities (Jigsaw and pair work) were provided as sample activities to promote EFL students' pragmatic knowledge about the appropriate ways of making requests given the fact that pragmatic errors can be more serious and more problematic than grammatical errors in social interaction.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.67-88
• /
• 2004

Given the noteworthy increase in the number of native-born English-speaking. EFL instructors teaching overseas, this research examined 6 American EFL instructors who had taught English abroad with special reference to their experience as foreigner instructors in their respective host countries. With the use of interviews as the major technique employed, this research was centered on identifying conflicts or difficulties the research participants encountered as novice instructors, both internal and external to the classroom settings of their host countries. Research findings revealed that the current participants were not adequately prepared to cope with new and unfamiliar physical settings of their host countries, or to familiarize themselves with their new classroom settings and students. Studying the various the conflicts which native EFL instructors encountered, both internal and external to the classroom environment, will hopefully shed light on, and provide a more accurate portrayal of EFL professionals' teaching overseas and may provide possible insights into potential solutions to them. Furthermore, the research findings were considered and discussed in terms of acculturation theory.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.209-224
• /
• 2009

This study examined the role of contextual knowledge in cross-cultural communication between non-native speakers on an interactive web with a bulletin board system through which college students of English at Japanese and Korean universities interacted with each other discussing the topics of local and global issues. The study investigated the influence of students' relative contextual knowledge on active participation in interactions and discussed the results focusing on the use of discourse strategies for meaning negotiation. The study argues that in interactions even between non-native speakers with limited proficiency, contextual knowledge in the topic under discussion affects the degree to which they accommodate to each other during communication and suggests that the focus of teaching English as a foreign language also should be given to what kind of contextual knowledge students need to obtain and how to express it rather than what level of proficiency in English they need to acquire.

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

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.177-194
• /
• 2011

This study examines the use of discourse markers in cross-cultural communication between EFL learners in an e-learning environment. The study analyzes the use of discourse markers in a corpus of an interactive web with a bulletin board system through which college students of English at Japanese and Korean universities interacted with each other discussing the topics of local and global issues. It compares the use of discourse markers in the learners' corpus to that of a native English speakers' corpus. The results indicate that discourse markers are useful interactional devices to structure and organize discourse. EFL learners are found to display more frequent use of referentially and cognitively functional discourse markers and a relatively rare use of other markers. Native speakers are found to use a wider variety of discourse markers for different functions. Suggestions are made for using computer corpora in understanding EFL learners' language difficulties and helping them become more interactionally competent speakers.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.41-59
• /
• 2009

The present study investigated Korean learners' knowledge on the range of possible interpretations of English locative PPs with manner of motion verbs, and considers whether learners can arrive at a superset L2 grammar on the basis of positive L2 input. Unlike Korean, some English locative PPs occurring with manner of motion verbs (such as in John jumped on the bed) are ambiguous as they can be interpreted as either directional or locational. Thirty Korean learners of English in three distinct groups (Advanced EFL-only group; Intermediate-EFL-only group; and ESL-experienced group) participated in an experimental study, along with a control group of nine native speakers of English. The results of the study showed that I) Korean learners, overall, tended to interpret English locative PPs as only locational, failing to recognize the ambiguity between the directional and locational readings in the target structure; 2) For the learners who experienced only the EFL context, even highly proficient learners, as well as intermediate level learners, failed to acknowledge the ambiguity; 3) The learners who experienced the ESL context for an extended period of time could identify the target reading to some extent, although they still could not reach the native-like competence. From these results, it is argued that robustness of positive evidence, not simply its availability, is critical in the acquisition of the superset L2 targets like the present one.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.133-156
• /
• 2007

Although the understanding of English tense system is a crucial factor for communicative English learning and teaching for EFL students, it has been neglected over the years. As with other areas of the grammar, difficulties may arise from the nature of the system itself or from differences between time, tense and aspect. Consequently, many learners face a considerable difficulty with the English tense system as they are more often unable to grasp the basic conceptual differences of present/present continuous, past/present perfect, will/be going to along with many others. More concerning fact is that lots of instructors or so-called native English teachers seem not to be aware of the importance of teaching English tense system. The purpose of this study is to review and examine various theories and practical usages of tense in order to establish and/or present better methods for teaching tenses. This paper is focused on comparatively exact distinction of time, physical notion from tense, grammatical category as well as sequences of tenses in view of school grammar and communicative function. At the end or middle of each chapter, efficient teaching and learning techniques or strategies on tenses are suggested to help instructors or learners who relentlessly face confusions in understanding tense and its usage for communicative English learning and teaching. This study attempts to influence learners' ability to recognize and write tense in authentic contexts not to mention spoken English.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.10 no.8
• /
• pp.317-326
• /
• 2012

The study aims at analyzing and comparing the effect of video teleconferencing English class with native speakers on class satisfaction and self-efficacy of elementary school students according to grades. Revised Kim's self efficacy and researcher's class satisfaction measuring tools were used for this. Grade 3 got the highest score and grade 6 had the lowest one in class satisfaction. In post-testing on self efficacy, average score was lower than in pre-testing except grade 3. Grade 3 got the highest score and grade 6 had the lowest one in self efficacy. I conclude that as students' grade goes up, their interests decrease in teleconferencing class and native speaker teachers.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.211-231
• /
• 2003

The study of English words in terms of etymology has a long history, going back over 110 years since Murray et al. (1884). Scholars have therefore had lots of time to gather all kind of information on the origin of English words. In fact, Modern English is the product of a long and complex process of historical developments from a great diversity of sources. The origins and development of English words meaning ‘a vessel for washing, a bath or a toilet’ are traced from Old English to the twentieth century in this paper in terms of the semantic and/or conceptual categories of the words with their particular senses. We conclude this paper with a brief discussion of how the teaching of English words can give some feedback to both teachers and students under the circumstances of English education in Korea and/or how we come to a better understanding of this charming field of English etymology in its own right.