Nanotechnology has been growing constantly and it is becoming the leading technology in scientific research and development. Although nanotechnology has important applications in broad variety of fields without boundary of any particular industrial area, the study of nanotechnology related to its commercialization has been conducted in a few ways. To put that figure in context, this study investigates public and expert perceptions about negative potentials of nanotechnology. Through a series of surveys with public (N = 541) and experts (N = 62), we analyzed about public willingness to pay for nano-applied products. Survey results showed that public and experts preferred nano-applied products in the order of electronics, cosmetics, and food and medicine. Experts express high payment intention to electronics rather than public intention. In addition, the survey results showed the purchasing intention of both public and expert group was affected by the attributes of nano-applied products in the order of risk fatality, risk chance, certification, and labeling. But experts put more importance in risk fatality than risk chance comparing to public. Through the case analysis of the effects of labeling and certification, we revealed either labeling or certification can induce both public and experts to buy the nano-applied products with high risk chance and low risk fatality. However, for the nano-applied product with high risk fatality and low risk chance, both labeling and certification are simultaneously required to make customers have positive purchasing intention. The result of this study could be utilized for the nanotechnology-based company to get the consumer behavior information about nano-based product and to establish their marketing strategy.

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.

This paper investigates key discursive practices constructed in English language teaching (ELT) in Korea and calls for the necessity of ‘criticality’ in theorizing, researching, and pedagogical practices. Utilizing a new qualitative research orientation of ‘bricolage’ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Kincheloe, 2004) and critical discourse analysis (CDA; Fairclough, 1995), this paper engages in multi-methods of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data. More specifically, some current issues related to ELT in Korea are juxtaposed critically with various historical, political, sociocultural, and economical factors. This is to investigate how these factors influence the formation of discursive practices regarding the NS-NNS dichotomy and ownership of English, teaching English for practicality, relationships between language, culture, and power, and neutralizing and depoliticizing key concepts in ELT. This paper suggests that ELT in Korea is a site in which multiple discourses are contesting to delineate particular ways of teaching and learning. Accordingly, this paper argues that ELT practitioners should be aware of the role of English as symbolic power and understand what is implicated in current discursive practices in ELT in order to possibly engage in more progressive pedagogy in line with Freirian consciousness-raising or problematizing practices for Korean learners of English.

This study investigated patterns of communication breakdowns (CBs) and use of communication strategies (CSs) in the process of meaning negotiation between a native English speaking teacher and thirty five Korean EFL university students. For over a nine-week period, the classroom was observed and the data were collected through the transcriptions of tape recordings, teacher interviews, and student interviews. The results showed that patterns of CBs for EFL learners were multi-dimensional: syntactic, phonetic, lexical, and affective. Particularly in this class, whereas the teacher tried to choose the most effective and various strategies and tactics to ‘bridge the gap’ in communication, the student did not use CSs in a diverse manner in order to overcome CBs and only used eleven out of 33 CSs in the taxonomy of Dornyei and Scott (1997). Accordingly, it may be necessary for EFL learners to have more experiences in more contextualized classroom interaction or consciousness-raising activities for diverse use of CSs without sacrificing communicative opportunities to learn target language.

The current research aims to enhance the quality of general English in the university by providing level-specific cultural curriculum and instruction based on students’ needs. This study utilized various research analysis methods such as literature-document and survey/interview. In the questionnaire respondents (a sample of 393 university students) showed that class hours per week and the number of semesters were appropriate, but that more interesting and level-specific instruction was needed. It was also suggested that more elective courses should be available after the completion of general English courses. Based on these results, this research study developed 4-tiered level-specific cultural curriculum. The newly proposed curriculum reported in this study encompasses its specific implementation plans, starting with standards, goals, and language functions for each level, ways to offer remedial and intensive courses at each level and elective courses after the completion of the general courses. This new plan initiative requires an extensive revision of existing curriculums and an application of dynamic evaluation methods. Accordingly, the results of the research project will present an important curricular and instructional model to other universities interested in providing level-specific English programs in the effort of maximizing the students’ learning.