This action research explores an effective teaching method for EFL teacher’s questioning types in a Korean online university context. By reviewing the previous studies on teachers’ questioning types which have been categorized mostly by cognitive linguistic tradition, this study sorts out the different questioning types from socio-linguistic perspective using the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) framework. These new categorized questioning types are applied to instruct the participant students (57) who were majoring in English and were mostly interested in TESOL (Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages) certificate program provided by the online university in Korea. Using a series of lecture content, two assignments, and an online discussion board, these newly added questioning types (offer and request types replacing command) were successfully taught in an online lecture entitled ‘Classroom English and Communication’ in the first semester of 2021. With a mixed analysis method, this study explains the procedures of various classroom tasks and analyzes the assignment data and online discussion board texts. This teacher classroom communication consisting of instruction and questioning needs to be reconsidered due to this study’s findings and its pedagogic implications that are clearly based on socio-linguistic perspectives.

This case study aimed to examine ways Korean university students in an English critical reading class participated in educational action projects. For this purpose, the reading class was designed to enhance students’ critical thinking skills and global citizenship as readers. Eighteen students in the class were taught by the teacher how to read texts in English using a critical perspective. The reading class was managed in a flexible mode with comprehension check-ups, critical dialoguing, and student-initiated action. Students were invited to connect what they discussed to action outcomes as a group project. Students in groups presented their understanding of readings and what they discussed in critical dialogues of the readings. They then reported what they did outside the classroom to foster themselves as truly active citizens in their local circumstances. Their group reports and project products were collected and analyzed into themes using qualitative methods. It was revealed that critical dialogue activities could help students come up with action-provoking questions on the readings, bring about a variety of action outcomes resulting from collaborations in groups, and help students become more active readers and citizens. Educational implications are also discussed.

The current study investigated the usage of the bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) within Korean EFL environment. Thirty-two university students with an intermediate to high proficiency participated in this study. The students were given a Korean bilingual version of VST and reported their official English scores. The findings of this study are as following: (1) The VST scores showed a significant relationship with students’ proficiency scores which indicates that students with a bigger size of vocabulary had a higher proficiency of English. (2) When VST scores were divided into each frequency level, no particular frequency band demonstrated a significant relationship with English proficiency. Also, the difficulty of each level did not show a consistent pattern. Based on the results of VST, the influence of Korean EFL environment such as loanwords and the test-oriented education system was discovered. This study provides implications for teaching vocabulary in EFL environment and suggests the need for developing of a vocabulary size test for Korean context.

This study examines the relationship between students’ perceptions of learning contexts and motivation to learn English in Korea. Three categories of contexts were operationalized: the transnational context as learners’ international interest including study-abroad desires, the national context as awareness of English learning to prepare for CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) and their classroom experience as the last category. A total of 433 high school students were assessed on measures of L2 learning goals, perception of contexts, self-reported L2 proficiency and motivational intention in the questionnaire, followed by focal participants’ interviews and essays. The statistical analyses show that transitional and classroom categories are statistically correlated with motivational intention. However, the national context is negatively correlated with actual motivation. Multiple regression analyses found that the transnational category is the best predictor for motivational intention, while the national category involves the least significant predictor. The students’ classroom experience is also a meaningful, milder than transnational, predictor. Synthesized results of both quantitative and qualitative data suggest that L2 motivation is more of a sociolinguistic construct that should be construed in relation to multiple social contexts. Findings also suggest Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) notion of the ideal L2 self can better explain the complexity of L2 learning motivation, whereby the integrative-instrumental dichotomy loses its explanatory power.

The aim of this paper was to examine the knowledge of Korean students about English relative clauses in both contextualized and decontextualized situations. To this end, a study was conducted in which fifty college students of EFL participated as subjects, and data were collected by means of three methods: elicited imitation task, composition and conversation. The findings of the study indicated that subjects’ performance on comprehension and production tasks was affected by grammatical positions on which relativization occurs in relative clause. It was also shown that their performance was influenced by position of head noun in matrix clause that relative clause modifies. Based on the results of the study, two sets of ordering (i.e., the accuracy order of comprehension and the frequency order of production) in which a variety of types of relative clauses were understood and used in contextualized and decontextualized situations were offered to describe and explain the Korean learners’ performance on L2 relative clauses.

The main goal of this study is to review the role of the age factor in foreign language education and to discuss its implications in Korean English education. ‘The younger, the better', under the critical period hypothesis, has recently played a critical role in the introduction of English language education to young children in Korea and the public and the govemment seem to be highly dependent upon the hypothesis when they decide children’s English education. For example, the English education program in Korean elementary schools is an offspring of this theory. This study, however, casts a doubt on the effect of age on English education by reviewing theoretical and experimental studies focusing on whether age or the critical period hypothesis is a meaningful factor to validate the early exposure of foreign language education and its following success. Findings from foreign language education in US, French immersion programs in Canada and other foreign countries and adult second language leaming and studies dealing with the critical period hypothesis were critically reviewed to provide evidences to such argument that age is not a primary factor to determine early English education in Korea. On the contrary, time or the amount of exposure to the English language should be a more critical factor in a context where a very limited exposure to the target language is only possible. A list of generalizations and implications are also provided.

The present study aimed at examining the effects of English collaborative writing and learners’ reflections on the experience of collaborative writing. The study was classroom based, and the participants (n=33) were Korean graduate students majoring in English education. The study compared texts produced by pairs (n=22) with those produced by individuals (n=11). Among the participants, nine students, involving the collaborative writing, participated in the follow-up interview. The study found that collaborative writing had an overall significant effect on students’ L2 writing. In particular, pairs produced better texts in terms of content, organization, and vocabulary, but not grammar and mechanics. The results of the student interviews showed that collaborative writing helped them pool ideas and provide each other with useful feedback. Most students were positive about the experience while a few of them demonstrated some reservation about collaborative writing.