This study investigated EFL college-level learners’ expectation on and their experience in an online English-medium instruction (EMI) course focusing on how participants interacted with their classmates and the instructor in their online class (zoom session) based on assumptions and rationales of Interaction Hypothesis and classroom interaction research. Analyses of questionnaire, observation, and interview data revealed that participants’ experience of interaction and their perception of interaction opportunities in the zoom session were significantly related to how they would evaluate the course-taking experience. It was also found that cognitive strategy such as participants’ preparation for each class rather than L2 confidence was more relevant to their level of satisfaction with the course. Results of analyses suggested that an online class could be more effective than a face-to-face class in terms of engaging EFL adult learners in an academic course offered in participants’ L2, English. Based on study results, suggestions on how to increase interaction opportunities in online EMI course are made.

This study examined EFL college-level learners’ perception toward the contentbased instruction (CBI) by focusing on their participation in and expectation on the courses practiced in a strong form of CBI. Having analyzed the data collected from a questionnaire, observation and interview, the study found that the participants, 39 students who enrolled in two different CBI courses at a university in South Korea, put top priority on the enhancement of content-knowledge considering their CBI course as a content-course, not as a language-course. Second, the participants seemed to prefer participation opportunities induced by a required and prepared speaking task such as presentation through which they can practice a formal speech appropriate for their education experience and cognitive maturity. They also seemed to favor instructor-initiated interaction rather than being put into pair- or group-discussion between and among themselves. Third, the lack of participation was mainly attributed to the lack of understanding contents rather than lack of language skills. Based on the research findings, the study made suggestions on how to offer CBI courses more effectively for a particular group of EFL college-level learners who already earned basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS), yet to reach cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP).

This study was an attempt to explore how EFL college-level learners perceive flipped learning or flipped classroom approach which would be practiced with Content-Based Instruction (CBI) courses. As an effort to find a way for the CBI learners to be served more effectively in terms of earning content-knowledge and improving L2-using skills, the new approach of flipped learning has been tapped into first of all by looking into their expectations and concerns that they might have if the new approach would be employed in their CBI classroom. The analysis of the data provided by the 159 participants revealed that they did not show clear preference or strong negative attitude toward the new approach. While the young college-level learners appeared technology-savvy, they did not seem confident enough in the new approach mainly due to the on-line component of the flipped classroom approach, which would require more responsibility of their learning. The study also made suggestions on what should be considered if the new approach can be successfully implemented and help the learners earn better learning experience.

This study explored the factors that lead college-level EFL adult learners to participate productively in speaking in a Content Based Instruction (CBI) course. Having investigated how the classroom tasks and environments scaffolded the learners to participate, the study considered factors for motivating students to engage in classroom discussion in spontaneous, voluntary speaking. The findings of this study are discussed through a sociocultural approach. Based on an analysis of the classroom observation and interview data, the study suggests that scaffolding devices and classroom environment play a significant role in encouraging and promoting output performance. The study suggests that four types of scaffolding should be available for a CBI course to facilitate participation in a spontaneous speaking mode: clear guidelines for comprehension and participation; tasks appropriate for the learners’ cognitive and linguistic level; an emotionally supportive environment formed by rapport among classmates; and instructional aids to increase motivation and willingness to participate.

This study was an attempt to investigate whether the Task-Based Instruction (TBI) can fulfill its promises by looking into how a group of EFL college learners would perform in a TBI course. The research findings based on the analyses of the participants'performance on the proficiency tests of speaking and writing, the writing samples produced by the weekly journal task, and their responses to a questionnaire showed that the TBI course was effective enough to assist the learners to significantly improve proficiency levels of the L2 during such a time period of a 15-week long semester. The study also revealed that whether the learners would find the task topic interesting was significantly related to their confidence in using the L2, evaluation on the instructor's way of teaching, and overall evaluation on the TBI course. It also found that the college-level learners did not favor grammar instruction provided in an explicit way while appreciating opportunities to use the L2 in productive modes.

This study was an attempt to investigate a Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) theme with the Interdependence Hypothesis in the use of Content-Based Instruction (CBI) approach. In addition, the study examined the threshold notion of language proficiency and how it would play in different groups distinguished by school level. Based on the analyses of data obtained from comprehension quizzes, proficiency tests of speaking and writing, questionnaire, and interview, the study revealed that the undergraduate group showing a higher level of proficiency and the graduate group experiencing longer period of schooling performed on the comprehension quizzes and evaluated their CBI experiences similarly. It suggested that CALP represented by schooling earned in L1 be taken advantage of as a springboard for CBI. It also indicated that reading skills may be more critical to the survival and success in CBI courses at least for the participants of the current study who showed relatively high confidence in listening skills. It suggested that there is a need for further study to examine whether such a tendency is common to the similar groups of Korean English language learners in order to accommodate their preferred way of learning English.

This study investigated how task involvement should be practiced to fulfill the theoretical assumptions of Task-Based Instruction (TBI). As the task involvement is to be understood as an indispensable component of TBI, how a high degree of task involvement can be secured and exerted in a most effective way was examined. Having analyzed the data obtained from questionnaire, interviews, reflection papers and proficiency tests, the study indicated that customized and timely feedback and comments on the learners’ performances as well as learners’ sense of responsibility were critical if the task involvement leads to desirable learning outcomes. The study also showed that consciousness-raising (CR) task originated from an authentic task was effective enough to help learners acquire linguistic knowledge in a contextual situation. It made suggestions for how to promote task involvement to better implement TBI, through which the learners can improve language proficiency fully taking advantage of their educational and cognitive experiences.

This study attempted to look into the second language (L2) learners' attitude toward and perception of their L2 pronunciation, and make suggestions for L2 pronunciation teaching within English as an international language (EIL) perspective which is theoretically supported by the variationist approach and multi-competence model of the sociocultural framework. Based on the qualitative analysis of what English as a second language (ESL) learners had discussed through individual interviews, the study showed how they perceived the importance of pronunciation, as well as revealed what kind of difficulties and obstacles they had faced in improving their pronunciation skills. It also indicated the types of efforts and strategies that the learners employed to improve pronunciation skills. The research findings made known the factors driving L2 learners to commit themselves to refining their pronunciation skills. Having considered the unique status of EIL as well as respected the identity of EIL speaker as multi-competent language user, the study made suggestions as to what should be taken care of for L2 pronunciation teaching.