The purpose of this study is to analyze research trends in Korean language education for North Korean refugees. In pursuance of this goal, the study collected bibliographic information from 1,924 academic papers related to North Korean defectors and analyzed their research trends using language network analysis methods. The frequency and centrality of the academic papers were analyzed by year, using an analysis tool, NetMiner 4.0, which focuses on analyzing social networks. The findings of the analysis were as follows: First, the study of North Korean defectors began to explode in 2010. Second, the most central words were ‘education,’ ‘unification,’ ‘policy,’ ‘support,’ ‘experience’ and ‘relationship.’ Third, for North Korean defectors, Korean language education as a foreign language was more actively done than general Korean language education. Fourth, the analysis of 15 topics showed that topics on social issues accounted for the highest percentage at 25%. Finally, the areas of greatest interest in Korean language education were vocabulary, pronunciation, and intonation education. It is hoped that more research on Korean language education for North Korean defectors will be carried out in the future.

The purpose of the study is to propose Korean text education for foreign students majoring in translation. Korean as a foreign language students need to improve their Korean skills before taking higher level translation classes. However, there are no basic courses to solve this problem. For this purpose, the study argued for providing Korean text education for advanced Korean language courses and translation. Further, it attempted to show the effectiveness of ‘back translation’. For the study, an experiment was conducted with two groups. One group studied the text structure and language of the instruction manual, and the other group did not study them. The research findings are as follows: first, the text-trained experimental group performed better than their counterpart. They completed the text properly and did not make many translation errors or language errors. In addition, the experimental group showed higher satisfaction with the class. Based on the results of the study, future research suggestions are made.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of some practical teaching and learning methods using multimedia literacy in Japanese language education. As components of multimedia literacy, SNS, YouTube clips, the recording function of mobile phones, and reading tasks were given to 29 university students in an introductory level Japanese language class. At the end of the semester, the students were asked to participate in a survey in which they evaluated whether the teaching and learning methods using multimedia literacy were helpful. The findings of the study were as follows: First, problem-solving skills, and reading and speaking skills were enhanced by using a team-based learning. Second, the class using SNS was very useful for enhancing the language skills due to the convenient presentation of learning materials, the submission and the review of assignments, and the immediate feedback. Third, Korean composition sentences and reading tasks made a great contribution to practicing pronunciation and enhancing conversation skills. Fourth, voice files and YouTube clips provided for absent students could make up for the contents they missed in class. On the basis of this study, a variety of teaching and learning methods using multimedia literacy are expected to be designed and discussed.

The study aims to design an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program model for college English classes (CECs) in Korea. To achieve this aim, two questions were raised: 1) how do foreign universities apply EAP into their CECs? and 2) what are differences in Y university students' satisfaction with the current CECs system and their future needs? In order to answer the first research question, several cases of English programs in foreign universities were investigated through Internet queries. For the second question, we collected surveys from a total of 673 undergraduates. The results indicated that foreign universities primarily target English for general academic purposes, prefer task-based instruction in their EAP classes, and emphasize academic writing and reading skills. In addition, the survey results displayed that the satisfaction with current CECs and future needs are different among students in different disciplines, most students hope to take EAP classes prior to their 4th semester, and students prefer a class size less than 20 students, and an after-class workload less than 4 hours a week. Those results were integrated to ultimately establish a dual model for EAP. More detailed accounts of the model are discussed in the paper.

This study investigates the historical development of English education in South Korea regarding the fourth and fifth National Curriculum Period. By analyzing the newspaper articles in five major newspapers in Korea, we focused on the characteristics of English education in each period. The research questions are: 1) what are the characteristics of the fourth National Curriculum? 2) what are the characteristics of the fifth National Curriculum?, and 3) what is the implication of these previous curricula on the current English education in South Korea? During the fourth National Curriculum Period, after the successful hosting of the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, the importance of communication skills in English spread throughout the country. Accordingly, the need for early English education emerged. In the fifth curriculum, various social factors, including the liberalization of overseas travel, led positive washback effects on English education. In elementary schools, English instructions were conducted as a special activity. In secondary schools, various changes in the educational environment were involved, including the introduction of listening tests and recruitment of native English teachers, which still affects English education in 2020. This paper concludes with educational implications and future research directions.

This study examined how teaching and learning activities in primary English textbooks include the components of creativity and character building. Three third and fourth grade level textbooks based on the 2015 revised curriculum were analyzed in order to find the proportions of the components of creativity and character building, and the types of learning activities that embody those components were analyzed by examining the teachers’ guides. The analysis revealed that all of the textbooks examined included diverse components that were intented to increase creativity, among which components stimulating divergent thinking and originality were a high proportion, while convergent thinking and dispositional aspects appeared less frequently. Among character building components, care-forgiveness and responsibility were two of the more popular components, while honesty and moral judgment were few and far between. From these findings, this study suggests that the components of creativity and character building should be more evenly distributed across textbook activities since they should be of equal importance in education.

This study aimed to investigate how two novice teachers in elementary schools conceptualized and developed their practical knowledge about English teaching. They provided their narratives about their teaching six times over the spring semester of 2019. Their narratives were recorded and transcribed. Two researchers examined the transcription to investigate what prior knowledge they had and how they developed their practical knowledge. It was found that their practical knowledge had constantly changed and developed. When they started teaching English, they had their own knowledge on English teaching, which seemed to come from their previous English learning experience and from their study on teaching English. As they applied these knowledge to their own teaching situations, they encountered many problems. The main situations that shaped their practical knowledge were 1) students' level of achievement, 2) level differences among students, 3) teacher status (classroom teacher or English specialist teacher), and 4) colleagues. While coping with those problems, they added new practical knowledge or modified the knowledge they had. The findings provided several implications on pre-service and novice teacher training.

The study investigated how task types such as input or output could affect Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary learning at both short- and long-term periods after treatment. Forty two college students in Korea were randomly assigned to one of the four tasks. Based on Involvement Load Hypothesis, each task induced the same or different involvement loads: Read without glossary (Input), Gap with glossary (Input & Output), Gap without glossary (Input & Output), and Sentence and write (Output). Receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge was measured right after the treatment and a month later. The output-oriented tasks were found to be more effective than the input-oriented tasks regardless of type of vocabulary knowledge. The current study concluded that modalities such as input or output other than task-induced involvement load can contribute to Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. The pedagogical discussion will be made at the conclusion.

This study aims to explore relationships between non-English majors’ instrumental motivation, interest, and their learning behaviors in a Korean EFL context. Two questionnaires of instrumental motivation and interest were administered to 113 freshmen who were enrolled in a language certificate program for non-English majors. Three of the respondents were invited to a semi-structured interview for in-depth understanding of their perceptions about the program and learning. Results of factor analysis showed the validity of the Promotional and Preventional Instrumentality and the Course and Task Interest as important factors. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were carried out on the data. Results showed that the instrumental motivations were positively correlated with the interest factors and learning behaviors. While instrumental motivations were predictors for learners’ intended effort, learners’ interest in course predicted their achievement test score. The findings suggest that characteristics of context and strong obligations of non-English majors might affect their motivation, interest, and learning behaviors. Limitations and implications of the study were also discussed.

This study investigated the use of L1(English) by L2(Korean) learners’ interaction with their native-speaking conversation partners from a sociocultural perspective, using the lens of conversation analysis. The data included 64 hours of recorded interactions of 16 conversation pairs of nonnative learners of Korean and their native conversation partners as well as learners’ diary entries. Findings gleaned from qualitative analysis of learners’ use of their L1 (i.e., English) during native-nonnative pair interactions outside the classroom showed that the overall use of L1 by L2 learners found to be facilitative of their L2 learning. The results proposed a model of L2 learners interaction with their conversation partners that attempted to link learner’s use of L1 and their L2 proficiency, and concluded that learners’ interactions played a key role in improving L2 learners’ language proficiency. In addition, pedagogical recommendations based on the research findings were proposed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation of Latin education in Korean universities. The Latin language should be appreciated in the education since it is an important part of foreign language as the foundation of Western culture, and as a liberal education forming the foundation of academic knowledge. In the beginning, I will confirm the need for Latin education in Korea today, citing two important preceding studies. Latin education should now pursue the universality of knowledge and be directed toward education for the public majority. In Korean universities, Latin education can be oriented in the new direction of ‘a liberal education for the future intelligent public’ without falling into the elitist debate in Europe or in the United States. During the last century, Latin education in the West was criticized as elitism because of the public recognition that it would be a way for students to enter the ruling class. However, Latin education in Korea today is understood to have both the name of the pursuit of liberal arts knowledge that finds the roots of Western culture and the practicality of acquiring a tool language that approaches various modern Western languages.

This study examines practical and effective teaching and learning methods in the field, focusing on the integrated language and culture classes in the Arabic curriculum of secondary education. The purpose of this study is to find out the methods of integrative teaching-learning of the Arabic language and culture to develop learners’ communicative ability based on the understanding of the context of culture for Arabic secondary education students. With a high school textbook Arabic I, the current study presented teaching and learning method of convergence of language and culture. The educational values of secondary language learners in the integrated language and culture class are as follows. First, the target language can be learned from the sociocultural perspective. Second, we can train creative and convergent human resources. Third, discourse ability is improved. Fourth, intercultural competency is improved. This study is of academic value because it has not been previously studied in the field of the Arabic education. Field research can serve as a guide to instructional research.

This paper analyses the lexical verbs in the guided word list of the 2015 Revised English Curriculum and high school English textbooks on the basis of the high frequency 200 lexical verbs extracted from the core academic words in the Corpus of Contemporary American English [COCA]. Lexical verbs are key words in determining sentence structures and meanings. In particular, this research focuses on academic verbs the knowledge of which is important for EFL learners’ academic achievement. The following questions are dealt with in this paper: 1) What changes occur in the distribution of high frequency core academic verbs in the guided word list? 2) Which verbs are classified as career development and technical words? 3) What are the properties of the academic verbs used in the high school textbooks of <English>, <English I> and <English II> in terms of frequency? and 4) With regard to EFL learners’ vocabulary learning, why should we be concerned with academic verbs classified as elementary-level words? The findings reveal that 35% of the 200 core academic verbs are used in the series of high school English textbooks, which means that a thorough learning of the general lexical verbs is important from a pedagogical perspective in the EFL situation. Furthermore, a diverse use of more core academic verbs is required in high school English textbooks.

This study examines the claim that vocabulary learning and retention are dependent on a task's involvement load (i.e., need, search, evaluation), as proposed by Hulstijn and Laufer (2001a). The study aims at comparing the effects of task types and task involvement load on vocabulary retention for Korean EFL university students. More specifically, this study was designed to test whether differential levels of task involvement loads lead to equally effective results to vocabulary retention when the total involvement index being equal. Three types of productive word-focused tasks (gap-filling using a dictionary, writing original sentences, and gap-filling through word transformation) were used to examine the interplay of involvement index and task types. The result indicated that there were significant main effects of task types, test types, and proficiency levels. The results also indicated that there were significant interaction effects of task types on the retention tests, proficiency levels on the retention tests, and task types×proficiency levels on the retentions. The pedagogical implications and further research directions are discussed.

The present study examines the extent to which key competence and learning competence in particular are promoted in the high school English classes attended by Chinese students. Eight hundred and thirty five college freshmen at a comprehensive four-year university in Jilin Province were surveyed on their experiences in high school English classes. In part 1 of the survey, we found that high school English instruction in China tends to be exam-focused rather than emphasizing the development of key competences. In part 2 of the survey, we found that three aspects of learning competence – attitudes toward learning English, meta-cognitive awareness concerning one’s own English learning, and knowledge about English language instruction – are not consistently instilled in high school English classes. Virtually no differences between ethnic majority and minority students were observed in survey. We believe that because English instruction in Chinese high schools is exam-oriented so that instructors do not have enough time to enhance learning competences. Our conclusion is that reform of instructional methods needs to include greater attention to the aspects of learning competence.

This study sought to investigate factors affecting the English writing performance of 30 Korean ESL students overseas. Also, examined were the relationship between L1 and L2 education levels and L2 writing performance, the relationship between English language proficiency and L2 writing performance and between length of residence and L2 writing performance. The participants were asked to write essays in their L1 and L2 along with a questionnaire. To analyze the data, two-way ANOVA and correlation were performed. The results showed there was no significant relation between L1 educational level and L2 writing performance, but there was a significant relation between L2 educational level and L2 writing performance. Also, English language proficiency and L2 writing performance were highly correlated. The length of residence of the participants in the U.S. and their L2 writing performance showed a weak correlation. Similarly, their L1 writing performance was not related to their L2 writing performance. These imply that students need to have adequate proficiency of English to write in their L2, and they need to receive a considerate number of years of formal education in their L2 for the success of L2 writing.

The study is aimed at investigating whether learning readiness contributes to university students’ group discussion in English in a flipped classroom. The research questions are: 1) Is there a change in learning readiness before and after flipped learning?; 2) Is there a change in students’ participation in group discussion before and after flipped learning?; and 3) Does learning readiness contribute to participation in group discussion? A total of 52 students participated in the study. Student survey questionnaires and quizzes were collected for data analysis. Wilcoxon matched pairs signed rank test, a non-parametric test for repeated measures t-test, and multiple regression analysis were utilized to answer the research questions. The statistical analyses produced the following results: 1) there was a significant change in students’ participation in learning readiness and group discussion; and 2) learning readiness and quizzes greatly contributed to group discussion. These findings corroborated the previous research that learning readiness is essential for self-directed learning in a successful flipped classroom. This suggests that teachers devise ways to help students engage in online activities for greater learning readiness.

In a teaching environment where all instructors have to teach the same class materials within limited time, from which they have to create the same test items, it is very difficult to create some space that could foster learner autonomy (LA). The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of LA on college students’ academic achievements, task perceptions, and classroom engagement at a Korean university. The study was undertaken in four sections of the same beginner level college English course over the course of a semester. A total of 84 students enrolled in the college English class participated in the study, of which 41 students were assigned to the control group and 43 students to the experimental group. The students’ learning outcomes between the control and experimental groups, their responses to the LA task, and the instructor’s observations of the students’ learning process were analyzed. The study revealed that the students in the experimental group produced significantly higher scores in their exams than those in the control group. Also, compared to its counterpart, the experimental group appeared to engage in the learning process more actively. Educational implications for promoting LA in EFL college classes are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to develop a curriculum to help foreign broadcasters who will be in demand in the future develop pragmatic language and Korean language skills suitable for broadcasting languages. Based on literature review related to broadcasting language and Korean for Occupational Purposes, the broadcasting language conditions for foreign broadcasters were organized. In order to develop the Korean language curriculum, it’s been interviewed and surveyed foreign broadcasters who are working at Korean broadcasting stations. Based on the needs assessment, the education contents and teaching items were designed. The principles of composition of the curriculum established in this study are as follows. (1) Curriculum for Korean language and broadcasting ability for foreigners; (2) content that can be understood and proceeded with the characteristics of genre; (3) use the correct broadcasting language; (4) active response attitude; and (5) a broadcaster with the ability to understand Korean culture. Proposals for the curriculum that can help foreign broadcasters grow into good communicators of cultural content in Korea are presented.

The purpose of this study is to design a Japanese language class based on the analysis of college students’ assignments and their misuses of ‘can’ expressions in them during a Japanese conversation class. In the class, the assignments required the students to record their thoughts about conversation topics. For the assignments, the instructor tried to transcribe the students’ recordings, find their misuses of ‘can’ expressions and provide some corrective feedback for the misuses. Following the feedback, the students were asked to resubmit their recordings and then, the instructor examined their recordings again focusing on ‘can’ expressions. The findings from the students’ first recordings revealed that the students used some verbs that describe ‘possibility’ at first, and gradually they used more ‘surukotogadekiru(=can)’ expressions. Then, finally, the students tended to use both ‘possibility’ verbs and ‘surukotogadekiru(=can)’ expressions regardless of the students’ proficiency levels. However, by comparing to the students’ second recordings, the use of ‘possibility’ verbs increased while the use of ‘surukotogadekiru(=can)’ expressions decreased in the second recordings. Based on the findings, a class design that can be applicable to the Japanese language conversation classes was suggested.