The aim of this study is to apply flipped learning in teaching General English courses in university and examine its impact on English self-efficacy and students’ English achievement. The researcher implemented flipped learning by recording videos based on the students’ textbook and up-loading those videos on the SNS before each lesson to provide opportunities for active interactions in class. The students of the experimental group (n=56) were required to learn through SNS the videos to learn in the pre-class. They also practiced what they had learned under the teacher’s supervision by completing collaborative tasks in groups or pairs. Meanwhile, the control group students (n=66) received in-class only traditional English teaching. The statistical analysis of the results showed that adopting the flipped learning strategy appeared to play a role in enhancing the students’ English self-efficacy and English achievement. Also the students’ responses indicated that their satisfaction towards the flipped learning is positive.

The purpose of the present study is to analyze needs of graduate students for English education for their academic study. Online survey was administered to all the graduate students in a university located in Seoul, Korea, and a total of 1,241 students participated in this study. The participants varied in majors including humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, medicine, and so forth. Crosstab analyses were performed in order to analyze the survey data, followed by subordinate analyses by the participants’ majors. Results indicated that most students perceived the great importance of English for their study, and ‘listening’ and ‘speaking’ were found to be the most difficult areas when students take English-medium graduate courses. In addition, although the frequency of scholarly activities varied by majors, most of the students expressed difficulties in writing research papers and making presentations. Based on the results, the present study suggests that English education programs be expanded and opened in order to meet the different needs by the students’ academic majors.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to evaluate the effectiveness of an English program under a practical curriculum for English majors in college and to investigate the relationships among students' perceptions of the program, language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and their satisfaction with the program. To this end, the study followed the changes in college students' perceptions of the program and their learning of English for four semesters from their freshman to sophomore years. Questionnaires were administered four times to measure and trace the students' perceived utility of the program, affective attitude, use of language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and satisfaction with the program. The results showed a statistically significant increase every semester in actual improvement in the students' TOEIC scores. Compared to their high expectations for improvement, the students' perceived improvement was shown to be the lowest at the end of the first semester, after which it got slowly higher each semester during the 2-year period. However, their overall satisfaction with the program got lower each semester. Native speaker instructors and interactive activities in class were found to positively affect the students' perceptions of program utility and affective attitude, which, in turn, significantly affect the students' use of language learning styles and strategies.

Paik Kyung-sook. 2012. Do they teach the prospective teachers properly?: Suggestions based on an analysis of the courses on culture at the English education departments of Korean colleges. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 20(2). pp. 239-268. This study analyses the contents of the courses on culture at the English education departments of Korean colleges to evaluate if the prospective teachers are learning properly what it takes for teaching culture. Referring to the relevant theories and the results of a pilot questionnaire on the practice and difficulties in culture education at Korean secondary schools, this study diagnoses the courses on culture(/culture teaching) by examining the contents of the appropriate syllabuses. The analysis shows that most departments offer a culture-related course or two, but mostly about culture on a macro-level. It also reveals that contents about the multicultural nature of the English speaking communities are not properly included and that the relevant teaching approaches/methods are rarely dealt with. The contents targeting the prospective teachers’ understanding of the ‘intercultural communicative competence’ were rarely found, which inevitably discloses the college educators’ lack of adequate concept of ‘culture education’ in this globalized era. This study finally suggests that the ethnographic perspective and knowledge along with the notion of ‘intercultural communicative competence’ serve as the key concepts in constructing a suitable model of culture education for the prospective teachers as well as the learners in Korea.(197)

This paper overviews the college English teaching system at Seoul National University, and discusses possible changes prerequisite for the betterment of its system. It observes that improvement of college English education is hard to achieve without reestablishing its roles and objectives, paying special attention to its intrinsic relation with English teaching at the pre- and post-higher education levels. The paper suggests that colleges and universities lay more emphasis on quality education, which is best tuned to their students’ future needs and wants.

This paper discusses diverse ways of improving college English education program based on previous studies. In particular, the discussion focuses on three issues: the goals of college English education program, the content of the program curriculum, and the implementation of the curriculum. The purpose of the paper is to assess the current state of Korean college English education, diagnose its problems and weaknesses, and suggest various measures for enhancing it. The importance of taking into special consideration the characteristics of the college and its students as well as the students’ own learning needs in designing any college English education program is underscored. Given that the curriculum of English education program is developed by each college rather than by the government, the information that this paper provides is expected to help colleges upgrade their English education program.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate English education experts’ current general views on the college English curriculum at Korean provincial universities and elicit their consensus of opinion on the distinctive characteristics of the curriculum. For that purpose, two rounds of the delphi survey were presented to forty experts, with thirty one experts’ responses in the first round and nineteen in the second. Based on their responses, the following characteristics of the Korean college English curriculum for provincial universities were deduced as a consensus of opinion: the curriculum is supposed to be more intensive, practical, proficiency-based, and university-specific than the curriculum for the universities in the Metropolitan area; it is supposed to be English for Specific Purposes (ESP) rather than English for General Purposes (EGP) in order to promote the future career of the individual provincial university students and the competitiveness of the provincial universities themselves.

The current research aims to enhance the quality of general English in the university by providing level-specific cultural curriculum and instruction based on students’ needs. This study utilized various research analysis methods such as literature-document and survey/interview. In the questionnaire respondents (a sample of 393 university students) showed that class hours per week and the number of semesters were appropriate, but that more interesting and level-specific instruction was needed. It was also suggested that more elective courses should be available after the completion of general English courses. Based on these results, this research study developed 4-tiered level-specific cultural curriculum. The newly proposed curriculum reported in this study encompasses its specific implementation plans, starting with standards, goals, and language functions for each level, ways to offer remedial and intensive courses at each level and elective courses after the completion of the general courses. This new plan initiative requires an extensive revision of existing curriculums and an application of dynamic evaluation methods. Accordingly, the results of the research project will present an important curricular and instructional model to other universities interested in providing level-specific English programs in the effort of maximizing the students’ learning.

The present study invesrigates the current state of English education/research institutes belonging to four-year universities in Korea. Out of 102 institutes that are currently being operated in 167 universities, 67 institutes responded the survey questionnaire. The survey revealed that the universities established foreign-language education institutes to help students meet the challenge of the internationalization era, many of which establisheà in the 1990s. Most of the institutes, however, were small in their size and focusing on short-term profit-making programs, neglecting research on foreign language education. The paper suggests that the institutes should strive to develop good program, improve its research efforts, and networking among similar institutes in different universities.