This study reports on a classroom observation of the language produced by intermediate EFL learners in a Korean university, especially in terms of negotiation of meaning. Negotiation of meaning during task interactions makes certain that task participants receive comprehensible input and produce comprehensible output, which have been argued as essential elements for foreign language learning. Task type is also considered important, with those tasks requiring an exchange of information most likely to facilitate the negotiation of meaning. The purposes of this study was to compare successful meaning negotiation in four types of task(information gap, jigsaw, problem solving, and sharing personal experiences tasks) in terms of qualitative meaning negotiation. For this study, I recorded eight different tasks involving twenty-four students, a total of around five hours of learner interaction. This study showed that qualitative meaning negotiation is more important than the mere evidence of meaning negotiation indices for foreign language development. In terms of task type, open tasks such as problem solving and sharing personal experiences tasks may facilitate a higher qualitative negotiation than information gap tasks and jigsaw tasks, especially in intermediate or advanced English classes.

For second or foreign language learners, lexical acquisition can be a learning burden which takes a learner"s enormous effort and time. In recent years there has been a growing interest in L2 vocabulary learning strategies (VLS), but few have explored Korean EFL college students" use of VLS. Through a qualitative analysis of both written self-reports and interviews conducted with four advanced students, this study found that their lexical approaches were similar in terms of ""macro-strategies,"" whereas being dissimilar in light of ""micro-strategies."" Namely, there were both similarities and differences in the ways and means that they mobilize in learning English vocabulary. At the same time, the four students revealed some patterns of strategy use that were different from those reported on other learning contexts. Another noteworthy finding was that all four tried to produce the learned words in appropriate contexts. Some pedagogical implications are suggested for teaching practice.

This paper demonstrates the findings of an investigation into Korean secondary school English teachers’ practices and perceptions regarding writing instruction. The research employs in-depth interviews with a small number of teachers to identify: (a) teachers’ practices of writing instruction and assessment in the classroom; (b) teachers’ perceptions of writing instruction; (c) teachers’ evaluation of students’ writing abilities; and (d) teachers’ concerns or problems in teaching of writing. The results indicate that there exist discrepancies among teachers’ practices, perceptions, the National Curriculum and the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT): the curriculum provides writing goals that are too high for students; teachers cannot help focusing on low-level features of writing mainly due to students’ poor writing ability; and teachers and students do not have an urgent necessity to teach and learn writing, since writing is not tested in the CSAT. The paper concludes by providing implications and suggestions for future development of writing instruction in the Korean secondary school English classroom.

Many studies claimed that teachers are influential in classroom from the perspective; the human beings present in the classroom interact in a complex context to which students are susceptible in many aspects of learning. Especially in language classrooms, teachers are assumed to be more important and influential, which means that a teacher can play a greater part in helping the students to learn the language. Thus, it is worthwhile to focus on teachers in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore what two effective ESL teachers do in the classroom. Three different qualitative techniques were used and some salient findings emerging were used as themes. For data, the teachers" teaching was observed in class and they were interviewed outside of class. Students" responses to the teachers" behavior through written diaries and interviews were gathered to triangulate the data, which helped to yield more valid and comprehensive viewpoints. This in-depth examination of the two teachers allows us to better understand teacher roles in terms of encouraging students" better learning behavior in the classroom. It was found that, besides the two teachers" technical attention to teaching purposefulness, their attention to affective factor seems to be also effective.

Vocabulary expansion is essential for learners to gain proficiency in L2, but learners’ lexical knowledge has not drawn much research attention in SLA (Howarth, 1996). In an attempt to throw light on a neglected aspect of learners’ competence, this paper investigates the use of a lexical item in the writing corpora. In particular, it compares the frequency and distribution of intensifiers in the EFL corpus with those in a native English corpus. The result of the frequency analysis in the EFL corpus offers an evidence of significant overuse of the limited types of maximizers and boosters, which in turn result in the inflated frequency of intensifiers. Further, the present study uses the mutual information score to measure the strength of the bond between selected intensifiers and adjacent lexical items. The result does not clearly demonstrate associations between the intensifier and the adjacent words due to the small corpus size, but it provides some possible pedagogical implications for L2 teaching. The frequency information rather than the information on the strength of associations between intensifiers and adjacent words, for example, would be more helpful to EFL learners.

The Computerized Enhanced ESL Placement Test (CEEPT) at a public university in the US reflects a new academic writing assessment as test-takers are given sufficient time to plan, produce, and revise a short, academic essay. This study examines the authenticity of the CEEPT, will illuminate the potential of the computerized process-oriented writing assessment. The authenticity was examined based on both logical and empirical analyses. A close examination of a checklist with test and Target Language Use (TLU) tasks reveals relatively good correspondence between the characteristics of CEEPT tasks and of TLU tasks, which indicates high authenticity of the CEEPT. Test takers’ responses to the open- and closed-items on the CEEPT survey also show positive evidence in support of the authenticity of the CEEPT. Students perceived a close match between the academic tasks and the CEEPT tasks, and this high authenticity contributed to eliciting their true writing abilities. The CEEPT as one possible model for process-oriented writing assessment can provide alternatives to timed-single draft essay tests. The findings in this study can advance our understanding of writing assessments and may be applicable to the Korean context.

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 present study investigated the relationships between acculturation and English learning among Korean students at an American university. A survey was conducted with 115 students whose first language is Korean. Data was collected through an acculturation questionnaire, self perceived Korean and English proficiency questionnaire and background questionnaire. ANOVA, Post Hoc Tests, Group comparison and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The majority of students in the survey chose bicultural adaptation as their strategy for acculturation and did not lose Korean cultural identity although some of them exhibited linguistic assimilation. In the four group comparisons based on acculturation types, students in a high bicultural tendency group reported the greater level of English proficiency. The results of multiple regression showed that students’ age of arrival in the U.S, their level of American acculturation, and gender (male), were important predictors of their English proficiency. Different from the assimilation theory in second language acquisition both integration into American society and positive acceptance of Korean culture and identity seemed to be important processes for their achievement of successful English learning as well as for their successful acculturation. In conclusion, the pedagogical implication of the finding and future research were suggested.

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.

With the emergence of sociolinguistic approach in second language learning, instructors have begun to acknowledge the native language (L1) as a legitimate tool with the potential to facilitate second language (L2) learning mainly in output-based tasks. This study focuses on how the use of L1 by L2 learners affects their task achievement. Two communicative tasks were used, and tasks were carried out by 32 high school students in L2 only, or in L1 and L2 during group test sessions held on different days. Tape-recorded transcripts of learners when performing the tasks, interviews, and questionnaires were collected and analysed to investigate effect on the use of L1. The findings suggest that during performing the tasks, learners used their L1 to complete their tasks for a variety of functions. Through the L1, they explained and negotiated the task each other, or checked their understanding or compared answers to the task against their peers. To allow the learners to use of their L1 was even more effective than to urge them to use L2 only in a foreign language class using task. Further investigation indicates that, if one of goals of output-based introduction is considered as the successful completion of the task, the learners’ use of L1 may be beneficial to attain the goal when performing completely in L2 is impossible or beyond the learners’ linguistic ability.

The CLASS (Computerized LAyout Solutions using Simulated annealing) deals with the inter-cell and intra-cell layout problems in a cellular manufacturing environment. It focuses on the relative placement of manufacturing cells to minimize the total material flow (cost). The method is based on simulated annealing, which has been successfully applied for solving facility layout problems. This algorithm has a character of the independence of the final solution to the initial solution. There are 2 comparisons were made with applying 2-Opt algorithm to the CLASS when finding initial variables and used 2-Opt algorithm again after finding a solution by using 2-Opt algorithm to the CLASS to accommodate to improve the output.