Due to growing concerns regarding the effectiveness of full-scale online education, this study investigated motivational regulation strategies employed by tertiary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners taking a writing course via Zoom. Using a mixed method, this study examined a dataset comprising questionnaire responses of 154 Korean students with two proficiency levels and subsequent semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that the learners with a high English proficiency level utilized the instructor’s feedback significantly more than those having a low proficiency level. The high proficiency group also appreciated the Zoom context and the university-wide policy of English-medium instruction (EMI) significantly better than the other group. Finally, correlation analysis revealed significant relationship between the students’ uses of motivational regulation strategies and their responses to the context-dependent factors. For example, the strategic choice of instructor feedback was positively related to their perception of EMI. These findings are discussed for effective online EFL writing instruction in the post-pandemic era.

The purpose of this study was to predict educational transformation in the post pandemic era and address a new agenda for participants in both education and academia of Korean EFL. First of all, this article calls attention to rapid societal changes due to technology for the last few decades, particularly in facets of language use, knowledge building, and learning paradigm. Second, this study attempted to articulate unprecedented challenges of English education in Korea for adapting to educational reform in the digital society: 1) defining digital literacy from the second language (L2) perspective, 2) relocating English curriculum within digital learning ecology, and 3) achieving normalization of Korean school English curriculum. For successful transition, this paper finally suggests that a united voice is needed from participants and that new governance should be established in English education to connect educators, researchers, and policy makers to each other empowered by major academic associations such as KATE.

This study examined undergraduate students’ perceptions of effects of online course types such as face-to-face classes, online classes, and blended classes using survey data from 331 students during three semesters from 2020 to 2021. There were differences in effects using ‘PPT video’, ‘voice only in PPT’, and ‘real-time zoom’ between theoretical courses and practice courses. In terms of media types for online classes, ‘PPT video’ was perceived as the most effective type by students, followed by ‘voice only in PPT’, ‘real-time video’, and ‘blended media use’ meaning a 2-hour-course mixed with 1-hour PPT video and 1-hour-real-time video. The effectiveness of ‘real-time video’ and ‘blended media use’ was gradually decreased as time went by. Students had difficulties in academic achievement and daily life with online learning. They were eager to return to face-to-face classes after COVID-19 passes. Some online learning media types were preferable to use for face-to-face classes after COVID-19.

Learner initiative and very young learner talk have not been fully investigated despite the growing recognition of their importance in English education. Therefore, the present study examined the sequential development of talk-in-interaction observed in an after-school English program in a Korean kindergarten classroom by investigating how children contributed their behaviors to class participation using the methodological framework of conversation analysis. Data was collected from one intact classroom interaction between a native teacher and 28 seven-year-old children. The analysis highlighted a noticeable interactional phenomenon, learner initiative, which was revealed through children’s turn position in the Initiation-Response-Follow-up (IRF) sequence. In particular, this study presented evidence that learner initiative could be displayed through learners’ self-selected turns: initiating repair of the teacher’s previous utterance, asking a question, and displaying knowledge of words. These findings were discussed in relation to the view of learners as active agents through the process of interaction and suggested pedagogical implications of very young learners’ classroom interaction.

Considering critical roles of teachers in education, an increasing number of studies have investigated language teacher identity. Although many studies have reported nonnative English-speaking teachers’ identity, few studies have explored native English-speaking teachers’ (NESTs’) professional identity. Taking poststructural approaches towards identity, the present study investigated how two NESTs working in Korean universities perceived themselves professionally and how their identities were realized in class. Data were collected through interviews, class observations, and material collections. Findings showed that the NESTs constructed multiple identities differently shaped by various factors, such as previous experiences and college majors. One NEST had identities of a role model for foreign language learning and a caretaker, while the other showed weak identities as a teacher with identities of a writer and a babysitter. Despite such differences, the NESTs commonly manifested an overarching identity as a guide who desired to create safe and comfortable learning environments. These findings confirm close connections between teachers’ professional identity and practices.

The present study investigated students’ preferences for the types of tasks used to assess English speaking performance. It further examined whether students’ task type preferences affected their perceptions of test effectiveness. One hundred eighty-two high school students responded to a self-report questionnaire. A series of frequency analysis and paired samples t-tests were used for the analysis. The results showed that students’ most preferred task types and their least preferred ones overlapped with each other, suggesting that the task types of English-speaking performance tests used in schools are limited. The four key reasons determining students’ task type preferences were identified, including task difficulty, emotional comfort, practical value, and interest. In addition, the results indicated that students’ task type preferences could affect their perceptions of task effectiveness. Overall, the results suggest the need for developing more varied task types for English-speaking performance tests as well as helping students become familiar with English speaking performance tasks. Pedagogical implications were discussed along with study limitations.

This study attempted to investigate the factors affecting the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of English teachers in Turkish state high schools within the framework of job satisfaction, emotional commitment, and demographic factors. The data, which were collected through a questionnaire given to 269 English teachers, were analyzed through descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression. The findings indicated that the English teachers’ job satisfaction, emotional commitment, and OCB levels were above average. Moreover, job satisfaction and emotional commitment predicted OCB. No significant relationship was observed between demographic factors and OCB. The results showed a positive correlation between demographic factors and job satisfaction, and between demographic factors and emotional commitment. The findings suggest that OCB can play a pivotal role to increase the performance of English teachers, consequently leading to better language education. The study suggests that the non-methodological factors in English language teachers’ behaviors and performance need to be studied to increase their performance.

The present study investigated Korean-accented English (KoE) intelligibility and conducted experiments in Korea, Japan, and the USA to test the benefits of listener’s familiarity and identify the key phonological features of KoE. In the experiments, the participants were asked to transcribe the target (KoE) of 100 English statements each containing a target word representing one of the nine features. The transcription data were administered to four groups, depending upon the degree of KoE familiarity (length of exposure). The results indicated that KoE was most intelligible to native English speakers with lower familiarity and least intelligible to the Japanese participants with low KoE familiarity. Although the listeners’ familiarity did not necessarily either facilitate or impede the intelligibility of KoE, the listeners with higher familiarity with KoE tended to recognize the voiced consonants of KoE better. The findings also indicated which KoE characteristics affected the overall intelligibility level, suggesting ways to prioritize KoE features in English language learning in Korean classrooms.

This study probes how cultural contents are represented in middle school English textbooks based on the 2015 revised national curriculum. To this end, culture-related sections of 15 textbooks were analyzed in terms of five aspects: cultural subject matters, cultural types, backgrounds, activities for cultural learning, and language integration. The results reveal that the middle school textbooks deal with everyday life of various cultures, including tasks for introducing Korean culture. The three culture types are provided at a relatively balanced ratio, but as the grade goes up, the portion of spiritual culture increases whereas that of material culture decreases. As for cultural background, non-English cultures in the outer and expanding circle are the most frequently presented. In the analysis of cultural learning activities, searching and communication activities connected to speaking and writing have a large portion, but experiential activities are rare. 45.5% of cultural activities are presented in a single communication skill and 54.5% of them are integrated into two or more skills. Finally, based on the study results, some suggestions for effective culture education to attract students' spontaneous participation in middle school English classes are presented.

근대 영어와 영문학에 기여한 대표적인 요인으로 교육혁명과 윌리엄 틴데일의 성경 번역을 들 수 있다. 인본주의와 실용성에 근거한 에라스뮈스의 수사학 이론과 번역된 고전들은 많은 영국 작가들을 위한 토양이 되었다. 이와 같은 환 경에서 교육받은 틴데일은 성경은 모국어로 읽어야 한다는 신학적 동기를 가지고 그의 역서에서 원어의 성경적 의미는 놓치지 않으면서 간결하고도 웅장한 구사를 할 수 있었다. 틴데일 성경에 사용된 다양한 새로운 단어들, 관용구들, 그리고 수사적 장치들은 16세기의 언어적이고 문학적인 발전에 지대한 영향을 미쳤다. 틴데일이 없었다면 엘리자베스 시대와 그 이후에 나타난 직설적인 산문체는 물론이고, 셰익스피어를 비롯한 당대 영국 작가들의 역동적이면서도 간결한 문어체도 없었을 것이다.

This study investigated intra-learner variation in the effects of implicit and explicit focus on form (FonF) on second language (L2) acquisition of the English passive, an interface construction. The study employed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design, with five treatment sessions between the pretest and posttests. Implicit FonF was operationalized as textual enhancement (TE), and explicit FonF as consciousness-raising (C-R). Five different outcome measures were utilized to examine the respective treatment effects on the form, meaning, and function of the passive. Data were collected with four Korean high school students, two engaging in TE and the other two in C-R, whose developmental routes through the experiment were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the analysis showed that implicit and explicit FonF led to differential variation within each learner, not only across the outcome measures but also over time, yet were suggestive of a potential benefits to each for the different domains encompassed in the passive. These results are further discussed in relation to the learners’ proficiency levels and the types of errors they produced.

This study investigated how Korean high school students use English connectives in argumentative writing. The participants were 71 high school second year students. Analysis of data focused on three aspects of connective use: 1) the frequency and kinds of connectives used, 2) commonly used words in each category of connectives, and 3) frequently used positions of connectives. Considering the possible effect of topical knowledge and general English ability, the analysis included the comparison between two topic groups and between two language ability groups. The results showed there was a high similarity between different topic groups and ability groups in the use of connectives, but a significant difference was also found in some limited features. Based on the results, the study concludes that Korean high school students, regardless of the writing topic and language ability, share common features in the use of English connectives. Some suggestions are made for further research and writing instruction.

This paper analyses the foreign language curriculum of general high schools in China. The Chinese educational authority announced an experimental version of its language curriculum in 2003, revised it in 2017, and revised it in 2020. In 2003, the foreign language curriculum included only three foreign languages: English, Japanese, and Russian. German, French, and Spanish were added from the 2017 curriculum. The 2017 curriculum consists of three categories: ‘required’, ‘required optional’, and ‘optional’. The required courses meet the requirements for graduation by all students. Students intending to go to college must complete all required optional courses. The six foreign language curriculums equally set four core competencies: language ability, cultural consciousness, thinking ability, and learning ability. In addition, this paper investigated curriculum structure of the six foreign languages, learning vocabulary, and items included in the appendix, and compared the foreign language curriculum in China and Korea. In conclusion, Korea’s next curriculum suggested that achievement standards and evaluation criteria should be more specific in preparation for the high school credit system, and that achievement standards and evaluation criteria should be described so that the curriculum and college entrance can be linked.

The purpose of this study is to explore inter-grade dividing criteria of the 2015 grade group elementary English textbooks. Elementary English textbooks consist of two grade groups: the 3rd and 4th grade group and the 5th and 6th grade group. L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer(L2SCA) is utilized to investigate the dividing criteria of the communicative functions implemented in these textbooks. Subjects of the analysis were the listening dialogues for their structural sequencing of 3rd to 4th graders and 5th to 6th graders separately within their own grade groups. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and independent sample t tests for inter-grade textbooks for 14 L2SCA statistical indices. The findings are: 6 indices out of the 14 L2SCA statistical indices turn out to be critical for dividing the 2015 grade group elementary English textbooks. The 6 indices are mean clause length, mean sentence length, mean t-unit length, mean complex noun phrasal number per phrase and per t-unit and mean number of verb phrases per t-unit. Based on the findings, it is suggested that a standardized criteria derived from these 6 indices can be provided as an inter-grade dividing criteria of the 2015 grade group elementary English textbooks.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of using films on students’ reading comprehension and attitude toward their English study in the context of a college English class. Specifically, it attempted to examine how a film-based English reading class affected students’ reading comprehension and attitudes toward their study, and how they recognized the film-based English reading class. Thirty-one college students were asked to take pre- and post-tests in English reading, and to respond pre- and post-questionnaires regarding their affective domain, and a focus group of four students was voluntarily interviewed with one of two researchers. Quantitatively, a paired t-test was employed to compare the statistical means from those two samples, and qualitatively, the framework developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) was adopted to describe the major phases of data analysis. The results of data analysis indicated that 1) Using films in the college English reading was helpful for students to comprehend the given text, and to understand other cultures; 2) Also this film-based reading class optimally contributed to the affective domain such as students’ attitudes, interests, and confidence levels. Based on these results, pedagogical implications for effective English reading classes were suggested.

This paper explores initiators of humor and the differing characteristics of humor these initiators use in elementary-level English classrooms in Korea. Forty-nine videotaped ordinary classes and interviews with four teachers were investigated. Teachers tended to make learners the subjects of humor, with this type of humor attracting students to participate in learning. Furthermore, teachers encouraged learners to pay more attention to the form of English language features by humorously revealing mispronunciations or expressions that learners could easily make mistakes with. Additionally, among learners, the primary users of humor were middle- to lower-level students. Teachers needed to build a safe environment for English underachievers who unintentionally made humorous mistakes so that they would not be mocked. Also, certain boys intentionally tried humor to get attention. It is noteworthy that teachers and learners jointly constructed humor by supporting each other. This conjoint humor reaffirms the importance of teachers’ reactions and attitudes towards pupils. By listening attentively and accepting learners’ remarks, teachers could make humorous, meaningful interactions. The current paper projects some pedagogical implications concerning how to use or deal with humor for foreign language teachers.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the process-genre approach on EFL learners’ writing improvement. A total of 48 Chinese college freshmen students participated in this study, and they were divided into high-level (n=20) and low-level (n=28) groups. All the participants were instructed by the same teacher in the College English class for 14 weeks, during which they were taught how to compose in three writing genres: narration, exposition, and argumentation. After comparing the writing scores of pre- and post-tests from both groups, it can be concluded that the processgenre approach is helpful in enhancing the EFL learners’ writing competence because both groups of students had significantly improved their writing abilities. Besides, both group learners attained a salient achievement in expository writing after they were trained by the process-genre approach. Compared with the high-level learners, the low-level learners made larger progress in all three writing genres. It indicates that enough teaching time and teacher’s scaffolding systems are crucial for the learners’ writing development.

The study investigates the effects of corpus-based formulaic sequences learning on developing learners’ writing skills and attitudes. For this purpose, fifty-four high school students participated in the study and were divided into two groups. The experimental group learned formulaic sequences with the corpus-based method, while the control group learned the target items through the definition-centered method. The results of the study showed that no significant difference in writing ability was found between corpus-based formulaic sequences learning and traditional formulaic sequences learning. The corpus-based formulaic sequences learning showed a greater effect on improving grammatical accuracy of writing. The traditional formulaic sequences learning was effective in the acquisition of productive knowledge of formulaic sequences. The results of the survey questionnaire showed that the students showed a positive attitude toward corpus-based formulaic sequences learning, which may mean corpus-based learning can play an important role in increasing students’ motivation. These results may suggest that various corpus-based activities for EFL class need to be developed.