Yoko Tawada’s drama Kafka Kaikoku (2013) depicts Japan’s encounter with Western culture from the Meiji era on as the catalyst for a metamorphosis much like Gregor Samsa’s in the work of the same name by Franz Kafka. Ironically, the victim of this East-West clash turns out to be Izumi Kyōka (1873-1939), a man who was anything but an enthusiastic adopter of European literary style. Interweaving elements also from Kafka’s Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor, 1919), Tawada’s play suggests further that Izumi’s fate was set, since he—and, by extension, all Japanese—could not resist roles the West had prepared for him. Ultimately, this article explains, Kafka Kaikoku offers a critical view of modernization as a force that made Japanese into beings with a hybrid literary consciousness who lacked both much of their own native particularity and also their very humanity.

There is increasing pressure on world language educators to expand the cultural instruction in their curriculum and to advocate for their language programs as a means to prepare learners with 21st century skills (The Four Cs: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, and Critical thinking). In similar vein, ACTFL’s Global Competence Position Statement (2014) further described the need for language instructors to foster learners’ interactional abilities and behaviors to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from self. Yet many language educators are confused about best-teaching practices during this transition time from methods that focus primarily on students’ ability to use the language to communicate, to a time where it is increasingly emphasized that students should access content information through the language for meaningful cultural reflection. This paper demystifies some confusion about fostering learners’ intercultural competence in instructed language learning and concludes with a variety of tools and techniques to integrate computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and meaningful cultural inquiry at beginning levels of instruction.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the contents of textbooks and assessments by comparing major discussions on textbooks before and after the reform of the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP). To draw implications for analyses, thirty-three previous studies were examined against the basic structure and contents of the KIIP. Further analysis was conducted on whether the items requiring reexamination and improvement had been properly applied to the revised versions of textbooks and assessments. The results are as follows. In the beginning stage, the discussions on the KIIP appeared to have focused mainly on the policy until the reform in 2013. In addition, the item, ‘topic and culture’, presented the highest reflection rate compared to that of the pre-revised textbooks. However, the ‘topic and culture’ item in the five stage assessment, including a pre-program level test and the Korean Language Culture Test, showed that only the level 2 test had the proper contents for its objective, adequate subject coverage and cultural knowledge. Furthermore, the text seemed biased in terms of the type, failing to take into account the realities of immigrants. The results indicate potential for improvement in the linkage between textbooks and assessments to achieve a true ‘social integration’ through ‘language education’, and reconfirm the necessity of continuous research in this area.

The purpose of this study is to develop a teaching and learning method that enables students to learn self-directed knowledge by inducing them to participate actively in class by breaking away from their passive role. The design and basic operating rule of student/faculty collaborative course are as follows. Firstly, students participate in designing and operating a course and professors will act as a coach instead of an assessor. Secondly, valuation standard will not be applied uniformly, but by individualized levels for each student. Thirdly, what matters is students’ growth change by semester in the long term of four-year. Their growth and changing process will be noticed by recording their presentations and utilizing it. The significance of student/faculty collaborative course is that almost all the students were interested and actively participated in the class. Students should be able to apply positiveness and confidence achieved through the course to daily life naturally. If this type of course is processed systematically in four year’s time, students will be able to develop the ability to realize problem and resolve actively. This will be a significant educational alternative for the students who remain at the middle to lower rank in the cramming educational system.

The purpose of the study was to theoretically develop a measurable instrument of an ideal L2 self with six sub-factors: the degree of desire, the vividness of mental imagery, learning strategy, the degree of plausibility, the frequency of thinking about the future, and the degree of fearfulness. All factors were supposed to be part of one of the categories of human emotion, cognition, expectation, and desire. Through the process of scale construction, the study confirmed that this instrument had statistically reliable and valid factorial structures. After an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, ideal L2 self was able to justify the hierarchical sub-scales. The analysis of the structural equation modeling revealed the strong influence of ideal L2 self on the language learner’s effort, learning desire, and learning autonomy. Therefore, this instrument helps us systematically understand the concept of ideal L2 self and observe other factors related to ideal L2 self as well as effectively highlights the discrepancy between Gardner’s integrative motivation and the ideal L2 self.

This study explores whether there are differences in the types and characteristics of teacher talk between primary English teachers with different degrees of teaching professionalism. Two primary English teachers who were different from each other in their teaching professionalism were selected. They both taught sixth grade students and used the same English textbook. The data for the study were collected while they both were teaching the same unit of the textbook. Their classes were video-recorded and their interaction was transcribed and analyzed based on the framework of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk (Walsh, 2002). The results show that the two teachers differed in the amount of the use of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk. The more professional teacher used more constructive talk while the less professional teacher used more obstructive talk, and the more professional teacher encouraged the students to engage in the interaction by using constructive talk, such as error correction, content feedback, scaffolding, and so forth. On the basis of these results, some pedagogical implications were made.

This study aims to investigate the effect of DDL on English lexico-grammar learning by Korean middle school students with respect to the types of learning approach (deductive vs. inductive DDL), the student’s level of English (low vs. high level), and the complexity of lexico-grammar items (simple vs. complex). A total of five experimental lessons were given to 36 students divided into two groups: one group received the lessons through the deductive DDL approach and the other group through the inductive DDL approach. The study found that both inductive and deductive DDL were effective in the learning of English lexico-grammar by the Korean middle school students. However, deductive DDL was more effective for the high level students, while inductive DDL was more appropriate for low level students. In addition, both deductive and inductive DDL were effective for teaching simple lexico-grammar items, but deductive DDL was more effective for teaching complex ones. Most of the participants showed positive responses about DDL and expressed a view that they were able to learn the meanings as well as the forms of target lexico-grammar items.

The purpose of this study is to investigate in-depth high school students’ strategy use in reading English texts of College Scholastic Ability Test (KSAT). This study employed a think-aloud method to look into the reading process by task types and by reading proficiency. Six high school students, three high-level and three low-level readers, were asked to perform reading tasks of three types, ‘finding a theme’, ‘filling the gap’, ‘finding an irrelevant sentence & inserting a sentence’, thinking out loud after training. The results are as follows. First, the participants used varied types of reading strategies regardless of top-down/bottom-up. ‘Guessing from the context’ and ‘paraphrasing in L1’, were most frequently used, and ‘using schema’ and ‘sensing the logical organization’ were least used.’ Second, different strategy use patterns were shown by task types: Far more strategies were used in ‘finding a theme’ than the others, especially, attending to keyword. Third, the high-level readers employed more reading strategies than the low-level counterparts. Furthermore, the strategy use pattern was very different between groups: The low-level readers seldom used ‘checking discourse markers,’ ‘synthesizing information,’ and ‘questioning’ that the high level readers commonly used.

The purpose of this research is to explore the interaction patterns in an English (L2)-mediated Mandarin Chinese (L3) class (native-taught) for young monolingual Korean (L1) learners. Twenty-nine class videos were collected and transcribed into 152 pages of Chinese, English, and Korean for this analysis. The interaction patterns in the English-mediated Chinese classes were analyzed using the IRF framework of Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) and Tsui (1994). The results and discussions were integrated into four main patterns to interpret the English-mediated Chinese classes: 1) the native Chinese teacher’s needs for class assistance, 2) the students’ enthusiastic but inadequate use of English, 3) the students’ voluntary Korean scaffolding, and 4) the students’ class participation needs. On the one hand, this research has provided the students’ response to the teacher’s use of Chinese and English (in a foreign language-only environment), which is intended for a better understanding of a classroom with a trilingual teacher and monolingual students. On the other hand, the research has implications for understanding use of an L2 to facilitate an L3 classroom, particularly in the situation of using two foreign languages in one classroom.

With a recognition of a profound effect that teacher identity has in students’ language learning, the present study explores how teacher identity, especially that of native speaking (NS) and nonnative speaking (NNS) teacher in EFL context, shapes the teacher-student interaction and influences students’ learning differently. Data was gathered through classroom observations and video recordings of teacher-student interaction of a total of six hours of class sessions. The data comes from the interactions of three nonnative Korean teachers, one native speaker, and six university students in Korean EFL co-teaching classroom. To analyze the data, the method of discourse analysis was used. The findings show that the native teacher acted as an interaction provoker who stimulated classroom discussion and also an expert of both target language and culture. On the other hand, nonnative teachers acted as an activity guider by helping student understand the classroom activities. As sharing L1 and the same culture, nonnative teachers were flexible with the language choice of the students and understood the difficulties they had in the class. The study further draws attention to the pedagogical implications regarding the co-teaching of native and nonnative teacher in EFL classroom.

This qualitative study, grounded in the sociocultural perspective, attempts to explore a Korean English teacher’s identity construction by employing a self-study, through narrative inquiry. As a self-study, the participant, Sofia, will also be the researcher. Data from her teacher life story narrative and reflective journals were analyzed to see how she reconstructs her identity through reflection of her own experiences. The study revealed four major themes showing the identity formation of the participant: (1) identity formation by resisting identity assumptions or stereotypes; (2) identity formation through influence of context; (3) identity formation through previous learning experiences; and (4) identity formation through conceptualizing teacher as professional. Based on these findings, the present study generates implications for teacher education practice and future research.

This study investigates how voice-chat conditions affect learners’ affective factors. In order to examine the effects of voice-chat conditions on Korean EFL learners’ attitudes towards English language learning and perceptions of voice-chat, 123 college students participated in this study. Participants were divided into two experimental groups: voice-chat with peers and voice-chat with robots. During the 16-experiment week, participants had a chat with either peers or robots. All participants in both voice-chat conditions showed positive attitudes towards English language learning and positive perceptions of voice-chat. Results indicate that both voice-chat conditions are effective in enhancing the learners’ confidence in English speaking, motivation to develop their English language skills, interests in English language learning, and beliefs in the improvement of their English speaking ability. In addition, engagement in voice-chat appears to help learners to reduce their stress and anxiety level. Findings suggest that EFL teachers integrate chat robots into their language teaching process.

This paper examines the putative universality of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) (Montalbetti, 1984) postulated for pro-drop languages by observing the interpretational status of overt and null pronouns in the context of quantified antecedents that contrasts between Korean (pro-drop language) and English (non pro-drop language). In pro-drop languages, an overt pronoun cannot have a bound variable interpretation when the antecedent is a quantified NP (e.g., everyone, someone). Twenty three Korean learners of English took a forced-choice picture task, in which they had to select one of the two pictures that best depicted a sentence they heard that carried ambiguous meanings. Results showed that Korean speakers accepted a quantified antecedent with Korean overt pronoun ku, violating the OPC. The imperfect knowledge of the OPC by Korean speakers was attributed to the influence of the English overt pronoun he on the Korean overt pronoun ku. Pedagogical implications are discussed on the explicit instructions on the meanings of lexicon used in the OPC construction.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to find context-specific motivational factors in Korean college contexts within the framework of Gardner’s integrativeness and Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System; (2) to examine how those motivational factors explain motivated behavior. For this purpose, motivation data by 787 students was analyzed. The factor analysis revealed eight factors in Korean context: promotional instrumentality, bad learning experience, ought-to L2 self, integrativeness, elusive ideal L2 self, ethnocentrism, intercultural avoidance, and international posture. The regression analysis showed that four motivational factors, bad learning experience, ought-to L2 self, elusive ideal L2 self, and promotional instrumentality, significantly explained the participants’ motivated behavior. The findings indicate that there existed context-specific motivational factors which could better explain success of L2 in Korean EFL college contexts. The theoretical and pedagogical implications were provided at the conclusion.

The purpose of this study is to seek how to improve KSL curriculum through the analysis of SSL curriculum. This study compared SSL and KSL curriculums in terms of education system, policy, language assessment, purposes and learner groups, operation cases, and teacher education. Some of the findings are as follows: 1) Swedish curriculum system is relatively simple compared with the Korean counterpart; 2) for policy, the Swedish national test is administered every three years in elementary and secondary schools, which gives learners a motivation to learn Swedish; 3) for purposes and learner groups, SSL curriculum is focused on the functions of language learning rather than culture and social identity compared with KSL curriculum; 4) for assessment, SSL specified the contents and levels of evaluation depending on grades while KSL curriculum does not have a complete assessment. and 5) for teacher education, the two countries recognized the necessity of professionalism in teaching: Sweden started new curriculum since 2011, where 4-5 year SSL teacher programs for youths have been operated, but KSL teacher education mainly targeted programs for adults and qualified teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to discover some features of Chinese translation of Korean onomatopoeia, which include onomatopoeic and mimetic expressions. The study analyzed 115 expressions from the 16 works of hangari (pot) which is written by Chung Ho-sung, one of the most well-known Korean writers. The Chinese translations were found to be classified into five different types: 1) maintaining onomatopoeia; 2) switching into patterns; 3) providing explanations; 4) deleting and 5) differentiating interpretations. The result showed that Type 3 (providing explanations) was most frequently used, being responsible for 39% of all the Chinese translations. Type 1, maintaining onomatopoeia, was responsible only for 26% of the translations, confirming that Korean has much more abundant onomatopoeia than Chinese. The other three types ranged from 10% to 14%, which requires some particular attentions of the translators. Finally, the study suggests a specific classroom activity which can facilitate effective learning of onomatopoeic translations of Korean into Chinese.

Le but de cette étude est de découvrir les méthodes d'enseignement-apprentissage intégré de la langue et de la culture française pour développer la capacité de communication basée sur la compéhension du contexte de la culture pour les étudiants en spécialité de français. Les étapes de recherches suivantes sont : (1) établissement de l'objectif ducours, sélection et organisation des contenus en tenant compte des résultats des études précédentes et (2) suite à la description du contexte culturel, réalisation de la tâche intégrant la langue et la culture française, ainsi que les quatre compétences à savoir expression orale, écoute, lecture, écriture. Nous prévoyons les résultats suivants grâce à cette étude. (1) Les éléments culturels contribuent à motiver les apprenants dans l'enseignement-apprentissage des langues étrangères; (2) Les documents authentiques aident les apprenants à comprendre la langue et la culture cible mais aussi à acquérir une capacité de communication; et (3) Les apprenants développeront la compétence interculturelle par des procédures comparatives entre la culture de leur pays et la culture cible tout en accomplissant la tâche.

Le but de cette étude est de mesurer la pertinence et la faisabilité des classes « inversées » dans la conception de curricula de français dans les universités coréennes. Plus précisément, l'objectif était de répondre à quatre questions de recherche: (1) Quelle est l'attitude générale des étudiants coréens de français, face à leurs professeurs, leurs pairs et vis-à-vis du français? (2) Quelles sont les attentes des étudiants coréens vis-à-vis des classes «inversées»? (3) Quelles étapes de la conception des parcours sont les plus déterminants? (4) Dans le parcours proposé, quels sont les éléments les plus pertinents et quels sont ceux qui restent à améliorer? Selon le résultat de l'enquête, les étudiants coréens avaient des aprioris plutôt méfiants envers leurs pairs et leur professeur de français, mais aucun à l'égard de la matière elle-même. En outre, ils reconnaissaient l'influence prépondérante de l'enseignant dans leurs études de français. La prise de parole et la grammaire étant désignées comme les parties les plus difficiles de leur apprentissage. Enfin, beaucoup d'entre eux ont montré leur grand intérêt et des attentes élevées quant à l'efficacité de la classe dite «inversée».

This study investigates the opening stage of English class in the elementary school. It specifically explores the significant features of the interactions among teachers and students. A non-native Korean English teacher, a native English teacher, and 25 elementary students participated in the study. Twenty-three opening parts of the English classes were collected, transcribed, and analysed for the study. Data analysis showed that 1) the openings consist of greetings, reviewing, promoting motivations, and giving class objectives, 2) students had authentic communication, in that they moved out of the I-R-F sequence and even took the lead in the conversation as in Waring (2009)’s study, and 3) there were three types of learner initiatives in the class opening, which were reported by Waring (2011). It is also worth while to note that students self-selected, volunteered to respond, and began a sequence on the assigned turn regardless of their English competence. Some implications were suggested for meaningful interactions in the opening stage of English class in the elementary school.

The goal of this study is to develop a teaching model for aviation French in the university. This curriculum model focuses on three major features - i.e. linguistic (lexical, phonological and syntactical), situational and cultural- as criteria for teaching. As for the lexical aspect, using Crocker(2014) as the main textbook, as well as in-flight service announcement scripts, the model satisfies the scope of the special vocabulary used in this field. In regard to the phonological aspect, the model uses Crocker(2014)’s main textbook audio files, along with a security video released by Air France in 2015. Regarding the syntactical aspect, this study focuses on ‘the voice’, or ‘the mode’ airline employees generally use, conveying an atmosphere of courtesy and professionalism in their interaction with passengers. The linguistic feature therefore, goes with the situational feature. In addition, the model includes a cultural feature, professions working in the aviation industry will likely encounter. It is important to address frequent cultural mistakes to the learners so that they can appreciate the need to tolerate and respect different cultures. Regarding overall curriculum, the model focuses on listening and reading comprehensions in the first half of the course. But starting from week nine, the model focuses on speaking and writing skills by providing a role play section and a composition section. In the final two weeks, the model requires learners to give presentations on topics related to the air industry.