This qualitative study explores how a holistic approach to writing across language skills can promote EFL student writing in terms of linguistic, cognitive, metacognitive, and affective factors. As an alternative to current writing methods that narrowly focus on the surface structure of language, this study shows how a technology-incorporated EFL writing project, conducted by Korean college students, integrated various activities across different language skills to support student writing globally and holistically. Beyond the traditional view of writing as a product and the current view of writing as a process, activities presented in this paper also embraced social factors of writing. This paper investigates the following three research questions: 1) how can an integrated curriculum facilitate student writing? 2) How can L1 writing assist L2 writing? 3) How can technology promote student view of writing as a social act? The result of this study indicated that the students’ writings greatly improved in both form and content during this project. The successful outcome of the Dokdo project will provide a new insight on EFL writing to writing teachers.

The purposes of this study are to explore firstly two teachers’ EFL writing classrooms at a university in Korea and secondly students’ perceptions on their teachers’ classroom-based teaching for EFL writing in the same social and institutional context. The classroom interactions focus on rules of processes and teaching and learning of writing. The data comprise classroom observations of two EFL writing classrooms and interviews with both teachers and students. The findings indicate that the two teachers show a big contrast in terms of their writing practices. One teacher embodied the textbook with traditional approach and adopted translation activity whereas the other teacher tried to have creative self-expression approach with the textbook and workshop activity. The students tended to adopt classroom-based writing practices that might suit their purposes or goals in learning of writing in English. The findings provide an in depth understanding of the teaching and learning of writing, the role of teachers, and students’ purposes in EFL writing classrooms. It also suggests that the teacher needs to consider students perceptions by actively talking about relevant issues.

This study aims at investigating Korean high school students’ reading and writing relations in English with a focus on analysis of effects of reading journal writing which integrates reading and writing. Three groups (reading, writing, reading journal writing) had different treatments for 8 weeks. The results revealed that the reading journal writing group had the highest post-test writing scores compared with the two other groups. This group’s scores were statistically significant different from the reading group’s. The same results were also found in the higher-level group. As for the lower-level group, however, the scores of the writing group were highest. These results support the bidirectional hypothesis with a special emphasis on the interaction of reading and writing. The higher-level and the lower-level reading journal writing group had the highest post-test reading scores; however, no statistical significance was noted among the three groups. The results of the reading test do not seem to be clearly related to any hypothesis of reading-writing relations. The results of the questionnaire survey and interview and of the analysis of reading journal suggest that effects of reading journal writing can vary with reading texts and learners’ language proficiency level.

This study was conducted to explore the possibility and potential of developing a new EFL (English as a Foreign language) curriculum which aims to promote foreign language learning and enhance students’ understanding of the world. For this purpose, the study examined the integration of poetry and dialogue journal writing within an EFL curriculum. The Data collection consisted of a survey, interviews, samples of dialogue journal writing, a classroom video recording, the classroom teacher’s journal and the researcher’s field note and journal. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to address the research question: What happens when EFL students read poetry within a response-oriented framework? Data analysis revealed that: 1) The students showed positive attitudes and beliefs toward using poetry through response-based instruction, 2) Students perceived that poetry and dialogue journal writing were a good resource for promoting English language, and 3) Students extended their learning experiences through their transactional readings of poetry. The study suggests that poetry and dialogue journal writing hold the potential to develop EFL curricula.

The value of dialogue journal use for literacy development has been empirically substantiated from both first and second language studies. This experimental study investigated the effect of dialogue journal writing on the writing quality and reading comprehension ability of EFL college students in Korea. Subjects were 207 freshmen in four reading sections of a freshman English course. For a 10-week period, subjects in two experimental groups wrote dialogue journals, and their progress was compared with the progress of subjects in two control groups who answered comprehension questions in a pretest/posttest format. Writing quality was assessed holistically in two essays. Reading achievement was evaluated with two reading comprehension subtests of TOEFL. Results indicated that the journal-writing groups progressed better in the two areas, although not always to a degree that was statistically significant. Some limitation was also noted. It was concluded that the use of dialogue journals could be an effective technique in EFL instruction, as in L1 and ESL instruction, with general and particularly with reading courses.

This study investigates the implementation of a new EFL course, English Practice. This is designed to enhance English reading and writing skills, and increase literary experiences among university students. For this study, literature for young adults and e-mail writing were introduced to change teaching/learning conventions in an EFL setting. The research framework was practitioner research. Data collection consisted of a survey, students’ writing in the classroom, and the instructor’s field notes and journal. Data were analyzed to address the following research question: What happens when university EFL students read and write English for real purposes? Data analysis revealed that: 1) the students viewed literature and e-mail writing as a new experience of language learning, 2) the students showed changes in their learning, and 3) the students’ experiences with the literature went beyond language learning. The author concludes that the unique course program provided students with new ways of developing understanding English as a foreign language and provided opportunities to express individual experiences of the texts they read.

L1 and L2 summaries written by Korean university students in an EFL writing class were studied to determine the causes of instances of “plagiarism.” Summaries in both L1 and L2 were evaluated holistically along with seven essays in L2. It was found that more proficient writers in L1 and L2 tend to demonstrate less Reliance on the Source Text1); and a good amount of Reliance was also present in L1 as well as L2, suggesting that L2 interference is not the only cause of Reliance. These findings indicate a relation between Reliance on the Source text and writing ability both in L1 and L2. Moreover, a closer look at instances of Reliance often revealed efforts by the writers to integrate source text material into their own texts, though these attempts often seemed like “plagiarism” to writing teachers. However, Reliance in these cases may not be plagiarism per se from students’ point of view. The results are expected to help teachers understand the causes and nature of students’Reliance on the Source text in the writing instruction.