Spelling is a complicated skill, which is difficult to acquire even for native language learners. During the early stages of learning to read, children use various orthographic strategies to spell and their spellings show different developmental characteristics. This present study examines Korean elementary school students" English spelling. This is a cross-sectional study: three hundred and fifty seven students" spelling data was collected from 4th, 5th and 6th grade students and analyzed for comparison from the developmental spelling view. The data was analyzed into two categories: accuracy of spelling at each grade and the children"s invented spellings. Results showed that the EFL children"s spellings have developmental features similar to native language learners or ESL learners. The fourth graders omitted vowels and substituted letter names instead of short vowels. As the grades increase, the salient features of spelling were changed; whereas the fourth graders showed low level achievement in CVVC words, the six graders" spelling presented increased achievement in the same category. However, they have different aspects in detail, e.g. Korean learners acquire diphthongs earlier than CVck, which is unusual compared to the native English learners. Finally, a conclusion was drawn from the data and instructional suggestions are provided.

The purpose of this study is to examine the function and spread of English in Korean academic society by investigating the use of English in writing dissertations. To this end, this study selected one of the universities in Korea and attempted to identify to what extent English has been used in master"s and doctoral dissertations for the last 12 years. The results show that the use of English in writing both master"s and doctoral dissertations has increased gradually and there exists a discrepancy among the fields of study. The results also reveal that a number of dissertations in the fields of natural science, engineering and medical science have been written in English recently. The comparison of the results of this study and some related analyses in European universities indicates a similar trend of English use in academic fields. Understanding the current use of English in Koreanacademic society can lead to a better understanding of the role and function of English in Korea as a whole.

The study examined instructors" and students" opinions about a university General English curriculum in terms of its effectiveness by conducting a series of needs analyses. A total of 608 students, 6 native and 7 non-native instructors participated in the survey and the results were compared across the three sets of data. Though the students and the teachers generally agreed upon the goal of improving communicative ability, there were divergent voices as well as conflicting expectations about the General English curriculum by each party: the students versus the teachers and the native versusnon-native teachers. Whereas the students weighed upon the practical component of the program, the instructors put more value on its academic characteristics. The native teachers emphasized the importance of discussion and small group work for in-class activities, while the non-native teachers and the students gave priority to lectures. The findings advocate the critical role of language professionals in balancing between different needs and still accommodating multiple perspectives in the curriculum development and renewal process.

This study examines a Korean family who came to the United States with the goal of improving their English language proficiency and skills. This study documents their experiences and stories that occurred in their home life and literacy activities/practices at home and in the community. The methodology of this study is qualitative case study. Data collection took place inside and outside the home over a period of three months during the summer of 2003. Primary collection techniques were ethnographic in nature and included participant observation, interviews, and examination of artifacts. The purpose of the study was to show what types of literacy activities this Korean family practiced at home and in the community and how this Korean family developed their home literacy. They interacted with a literate environment, invented their own literacy, and worked to develop and explore new social and cultural knowledge. This study illustrates the lessons and messages from this Korean family that can be conveyed to schools (including teachers), community, and society in both Korea and United States.

L2 speakers often encounter difficulties caused by a dual problem both with vocabulary and structure in delivering his or her intended message. This qualitative study reports on how the dual problem involving both lexical and syntactic problems can be managed by employing CSs. The participants were 12 Korean students studying in a university in the USA, whose language proficiency varied from limited to high advanced. For the data, the participants’ natural conversations in various settings were recorded and stimulated recalls were conducted on the recorded conversations. The study presents various CSs for managing dual lexical-syntactic problems (DL-SCSs) identified from an inductive analysis of the data. Based on a taxonomic analysis of the data, this study presents a taxonomy in which various DL-SCSs are organized in multiple levels. In this paper, examples illustrating how participants employed each DL-SCS are also provided. These examples show that L2 speakers employing appropriate DL-SCSs are likely to communicate their intended meaning despite massive dual problems. Based on the findings, this study suggests that L2 speakers should be encouraged to use DL-SCSs.

Despite many innovative changes such as CLT and task-based teaching, ELT still continues to transmit linguistic skills mostly to prepare learners for future job market (Canagarajah, 1999; Kim, 2002; Norton & Toohey, 2004; Pennycook, 2001; Sung, 2006). Accordingly, in a way to challenge the status quo of decontextualized practices in EFL in Korea, this paper exemplifies the researcher's emic experiences of realigning ELT to critical theory(CT) and pedagogy(CP) for an MA English program over the years. More specifically, after presenting existing literature on the history of ELT in Korea and CT and CP, this study utilized a research method of bricolage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) in which the teacher and student interviews, the student survey, and other relevant curricular and instructional materials were cross-compared and analyzed in the manner of triangulation. In doing so, this paper explains a few principles of developing an EFL graduate program for both domestic and international students. The results showed that exposing students to English-only environments and external faculty from abroad played key roles in the program. However, the lack of coherent administrative support and the high faculty turn-over rate posed constant threats to the enhancement of the program. Lastly, the paper calls for the urgent need of glocalizing curricular and instructional elements in TEFL for ‘critically conscious and conscientious’ practices by mobilizing the concept of 'criticality' in EFL contexts.

The purpose of the study is to examine if there is any difference in Korean college students revisions of their free journal writing in response to indirect (coded correction) and direct error feedback (explicit correction). Through careful examination of their 60 pieces of revised texts, it was revealed that the students who received direct error feedback were more actively engaged in rewriting their first piece. More specifically, the students revised their writing at a meaning level, deleting and adding words, phrases, or sentences, whereas the students who received indirect error feedback tended to focus on the errors marked by codes. In addition, the students in the direct feedback group often missed the corrected forms or words while the students in the indirect feedback group avoided correcting errors marked by the teacher or tried to correct other parts of the sentence with the erroneous forms or vocabulary left in it. These results suggest that second language (L2) writing teachers should choose an appropriate error feedback method depending on the relative merits of each type of error feedback and the purpose of the writing class.

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.

Due to the highly instrumental, test-driven, learning that occurs in secondary education in Korea, EFL teachers at tertiary level face students who, while differing in terms of proficiencies, majors, and learning needs, tend to share a lack of English performance skills. Communicative competence is not yet part of the university entrance exam, so it receives little attention in secondary education, leavingtertiary educators the task of fostering this skill. This paper describes a Freshman English program which attempted to do this by applying recent findings in the fields of cognitive, affective and social learning, and by catering to differing learning needs and multiple intelligences. In order to do this, the researchers put together a student-centered program which encouraged students to take responsibility for their learning through making performance projects, assessing their performance skills, and continuously reflecting on their learning needs, goals and achievements. The program was in effect for four years, and results showed improvement in student confidence, motivation, and attitudes to learning, in addition to communicative competence and autonomy. In conclusion, it is suggested that the humanistic goals of the 7th National Curriculum are achievable at tertiary level. This will, however, involve teacher-training and reform of the test-driven learning environment.

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.

The aim of this paper is to analyze Korean specific particles ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’ and show how to teach them effectively to foreign learners. In this respect, we first analysed some typical ‘i/ga’ or ‘eul/leul’ constructions: they seem very similar in appearance but their syntactic structures are quite different. We showed that in order to explain effectively ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’ constructions, the notion of ‘topic’ should be introduced and found that there exist some particular semantic restrictions between two successive noun phrases participating in ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’ constructions. Secondly, we tried to show how to construct the educational substance and method of these specific particles ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’. We proposed to introduce types of ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’ constructions, typical predicates used with these constructions, semantic restrictions of two successive noun phrases participating in these constructions, equivalent constructions corresponding to these constructions and their concrete examples in constructing the educational substance and method of the specific particles ‘i/ga’ and ‘eul/leul’.

The aim of foreign language learning is to develop the communicative competence, it can be said that speakers might communicate their own ideas with each other according to the appropriate linguistic context and condition. Surely considering this ability is deeply related with culture, it has been focusing on the importance of learning culture. Language is part of a culture, so we have to accept naturally to program the teaching culture as a part of teaching language. Actually, such that thinking is apparently not proper. In other words, we need the education of the incorporating both culture and language. Currently, it has been growing the importance of teaching culture in Korean educational context influenced by the movement of teaching foreign language, as reflecting of that above, most of the textbooks published since 2000 have included the cultural content and materials specially with the emphasis on the communicative competence. After looking into the situation in teaching language of culture about such that textbooks, this study tries to present the educational way on the basis of the result of those facts. To do so, as the aspect of the communication in language teaching, this research intends to examine whether the cultural content in the textbooks has played a critical role in the real communicative situations where participants from the different culture and language will be able to communicate with one another effectively. This point of analysis depending on the criteria of the cultural content, the origin of culture, and the cultural activities is to distinguish three parts briefly, the pragmatical part, the area of cultural information and the learning of culture.

This paper is to suggest a proposal for creating directions for Korean textbooks with Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases, and to present a lesson as a model. Korean textbooks with Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases which are used for Korean language education are recommended to express not only their inherent abundant stories but also various stories which posses cultural values reflecting various aspects of Korean traditional cultures and modern societies. In addition, common issues such as environmental or social issues must also be included. Students will learn cultural knowledge regarding Korea through these reading materials. They will also understand the natural proper meaning and usage of Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases. Readers will acquire Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases as expressive vocabulary through various activities such as games and word puzzles. Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases often appear in reading materials such as newspapers and social or cultural books. Readers will grasp the text’s content, and as a result, will be able to easily approach various reading materials as well. Therefore, an ideal textbook for learning Chinese-Korean idiomatic phrases must be developed to enhance the efficiency of Korean language education.

The first part of this paper examines foreign language enrollment statistics from 1960 to 2002 in United States institutions of higher education. Spanish has been the most widely taught language for more than 35 years, and it counts for more than half (54.3%) of all enrollments in 2002. The second part of this paper reviews United States language policy history and its main debate focusing on two different policies: Bilingual Education and English Only Movement, and it reviews also their different points of view about the national identity of U.S.A. and their perspectives on foreign languages. The last part of this paper recommends that foreign languages be considered as precious resources for Korean future, not only several but more various foreign languages be taught in Korean middle and high schools, and bilingual education system or immersion program be introduced and implemented in special purpose institutions at least from middle school level.

The rapid growth of translation studies has made remarkable progress in the old ‘literal vs. free’ translation debate. Now it is clear that a literal translation is not so accurate and faithful to the source text, and such concepts should be replaced by more precisely defined terms. In Korea, translation has been relegated to language learning, and a literal translation is still recommended in order to focus on the source language, although it is not possible to translate a totally different Indo-European language following closely the form of it. Furthermore, literary style, so common and frequent in any Indo-European language, aggravates the difficulties, because literal translation of a source language written in literary style usually distorts Korean language and leads to misunderstand correct meanings of the source language. In this paper, I have attempted to expose the problems of literal translation and to make rules of translating Spanish into Korean by using mainly ‘transposition’ and ‘modulation’, terms developed by Vinay and Darbelnet(1958). I hope to apply such rules to the education of Spanish or other foreign languages.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of guided reading on learners’ self-regulated reading ability. Guided reading is a teaching method that gives learners the opportunity to practice their own reading strategies. Eventually, learners become able to generate their self-regulated reading strategies. Guided reading is based on the gradual release of responsibility model (GRRM), which is closely related to the process of gaining an apprenticeship in constructivism. In order to study the effects of guided reading on learners’ self-regulated reading ability, two classes of 5th graders in a primary school in Seoul participated in this study. One class received guided reading instruction to practice their English reading strategies and the other class received English reading instruction according to the seventh English curriculum in Korea. The results of this study showed that the experimental group who received guided reading instruction based on GRRM achieved a higher score in the post test than the control group who did not receive guided reading instruction. They also showed more confidence in reading English.

The purpose of this study is to inspect the possibility of changing teacher-centered language learning into learner-centered one emphasizing learner’s interaction with self-directed learning contents available on-line for high school students. This study is to develop onㆍoff blended contents and apply them into classroom environment. It also discusses the kind of contents teachers and learners want to use. Reading parts for each lesson are usually dealt for three class hours in high schools. So it is designed that the first and the third period are done through off-line classroom and the second, on-line. Well-linked with the first and third period, on-line contents for the second period were designed, developed and applied into educational environment. More than expected number of teachers and learners were pleased with on-line contents reaching 80~90% of high level in satisfaction and also showed 65% reaching learners’ interaction rate in off-line classroom. If on？off blended learning model is well structured based on enough researches, it will realize its strong potential as a desirable learning model for reading.

This study is to investigate the relationship between teaching and testing restricted on English listening comprehension processing. 726 listening activities in three textbooks of High School English and 80 questions in four nationwide English listening comprehension tests for high-school first grades were analyzed and classified into micro-skill categories of top-down, bottom-up and interactive processing. The results revealed that the tests put emphasis on the top-down processing in contrast to overemphasis of the textbooks on the bottom-up processing, whereas interactive processing took up a small portion both in the textbooks and tests. While the number of questions requiring bottom-up processing reduced in the tests, all the questions of bottom-up processing were focused only on one specific micro-skill, comprehending details. Further, despite diverse demonstrations of top-down micro-skills, each micro-skill question for top-down processing in the tests took some specific forms, which might lead students only to studying for preparation for the specific forms rather than for enhancing general comprehension abilities. Further pedagogical suggestions and implications for listening teaching were suggested.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a practical English program for college students which had been administered both on- and off-line. After over 1,400 freshmen took two TOEIC-based courses consecutively, questionnaires were administered to measure the students’ satisfaction of the program and their perceived usefulness of on-line learning. The effectiveness of the English program was measured through the improvement in the students’ TOEIC scores, their perceived usefulness of online learning, and their satisfaction with the program. The results showed a statistically significant increase in the students’ TOEIC scores in both semesters, with greater improvement in the second semester as compared to the first. Although the students’ overall perception of the usefulness of e-learning was in the middle on the scale, those who perceived online learning as useful were shown to have spent more time studying for the courses outside class, thereby improving their TOEIC scores and enhancing their level of satisfaction with the program. Pedagogical and research implications are suggested.