The purpose of this study is to analyze part of speech distribution according to proficiency level in 66 Korean textbooks used in major Korean language institutes. Since the number of Korean learners with instrumental motivation has significantly increased, it becomes a very important issue to evaluate their Korean proficiency levels measured through the official assessment of Korean Proficiency Test (TOPIK). Language teaching is subject to certain target learners, and it is necessary to proceed along with studies on them by considering the utilization of their research results. With regard to the distribution of different parts of speech throughout the proficiency levels, 593,100 nouns accounted for 47.86% of the total, 267,334 verbs accounted for 21.57%, and 108,593 adjectives accounted for 8.76%. Other than these three major parts of speech, those that modify other elements of a sentence show a comparatively high percentage. Although many parts of the textbooks contain dialogues or conversational sentence examples, the percentage of abbreviated words or exclamations that represent the characteristics of the spoken language were not very high.

This study investigated whether role assignment and proficiency difference in pair work affect low level learners’ production and task performance in English. A total of 16 Korean EFL high school students, in dyads of same or different proficiency levels, performed two information gap tasks, one in free interaction and one with role assignment. Their pair interaction was analyzed according to task completion,words, C-units, and interactional modifications. The results showed overall that assigning a dominant role to learners resulted in an increase in their production of words and C-units as well as task completion. The increase was particularly strong among learners who showed passive participation in free interaction. While the influence of role assignment did not differ greatly in homogeneous and heterogeneous pairings, low homogeneous pairs exhibited difficulty in performing tasks. These results suggest that it is possible to facilitate low level learners’ pair interaction by assigning leading roles and pairing them with higher level learners.

This research introduces an English language program of a research-oriented science and engineering university in Korea. The university had established a PBT TOEFL score of 550 as one of its graduation requirements in 1995, implementing it for fifteen years. The policy, however, created problems such as students’ learning focus on receptive skills of the language and the discrepancy between the English curriculum and the graduation requirement. In addition, students who were unable to graduate on time due to not meeting the graduation requirement had increased. Facing these issues, the institute abolished the TOEFL policy and developed a new English program, which is characterized by a level-based curriculum, the implementation of an in-house placement test, mandating a number of courses to take, focus on productive skills, and teaching both general English and ESP-oriented courses. With the aim to introduce its rationale, placement test and curriculum, this study also reports on the results of questionnaires designed to determine students’ perceptions of the new English program and main issues raised in a panel discussion designed to examine the program. Limits and suggestions for the program are lastly presented.

A continuing challenge for English educators and policy makers in Korea is how to provide the right amount of good English education in an effective and efficient way, to help achieve the needed level of English communication skills. No efforts would turn out successful if the amount and the quality of public English education did not meet people's expectations. In order to plan and implement successful English education policies, it is necessary to figure out what kind of English education and how much of it are needed for Korean people. The current study aims to investigate what levels of English speaking proficiency Korean people perceive they need. The study first reviews some widely-used international English oral proficiency standards, then, compares those with the level descriptions of the Korea’s national curriculum of English. To gather information on the current level of English speaking proficiency, and the expected level of English speaking proficiency, 356 teachers (123 elementary school, 114 middle school, 119 high school), 696 students (179 elementary school, 222 middle school, 295 high school), and 650 parents (164 elementary, 212 middle school, 274 high school) from all the 16 district education authorities, were surveyed and interviewed. The results are presented with the discussion of the future directions of English education in Korea.