This paper evaluates the use of Factor Analysis (FA) in English education research in Korea and suggests improvements in methodology. A detailed coding protocol was used to review 179 FA cases from 12 major English education journals (2014-2023). The review identified several key issues, including small sample sizes and lenient criteria for sample size selection, insufficient reporting on data appropriateness and normality, confusion between principal component analysis and FA, overreliance on the Eigenvalue > 1 criterion for determining the number of factors, inappropriate factor rotation methods, inconsistency between factor rotation and extraction methods, inadequate reporting on factor loadings and cross loadings criteria, and excessive reliance on SPSS as a statistical tool for FA. This study provides specific guidelines for applying FA appropriately and reporting results accurately.

This study was investigated the contents of total polyphenol, flavonoids and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Codonopsis lanceolata extracts according to different steaming times. The contents of total polyphenol and flavonoid proportionally increased from 6.45 mgGAE/g to 18.26 mgGAE/g and 2.01 mgRE/g to 6.12 mgRE/g according to ethanol extracts at EDS7. DPPH radical scavenging activity was found to have been 15.26~65.2% and showed the highest level of antioxidant activity at EDS7 was 65.2%. The activity of ABTS radical scavenging and SOD-like activity were also the same result. DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity was related to the number of steaming, and the scavenging activity was increased up to 7 times of steaming. The antimicrobial activity of EDS7 had strong antioxidant activity. Antimicrobial activities were examined against 5 microorganisms related to pathogens and food poisoning. The antimicrobial Activity was different depending on the bacteria, but it was effective at the concentration of 300 mg/mL rather than 150 mg/mL. These results showed that Codonopsis lanceolata extracts with a different number of steaming would be conducted to confirm the possibility of developing antimicrobial and antioxidant. It will be helpful in the study of component analysis of Codonopsis lanceolata extracts processed products.

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 explores a discussion held among raters for a writing assessment in a Korean university. It investigates rater behaviors that influence their decision-making processes as revealed in their interaction during discussion. Four raters independently assessed student writing samples using CEFR scales and then held a discussion session to agree on a single score for each sample. Observation and analysis of the rater discussion showed that there were differences in the degree to which individual raters’ initial judgments were reflected in the final decisions and that each rater’s argument style affected the degree. Raters’ personality dynamics, appreciation of student effort, and comprehension of students’ intended meaning were found to be prominent factors that influenced the process of score decisions. These findings have important implications for the use of discussion in performance assessment and for the rating process in general.

The present study sought to investigate whether Korean learners would benefit from tablet PC-based English learning and how they and their instructors would perceive the relatively new mobile technology as a language learning and teaching tool. To this end, 161 young learners and 57 instructors at private English institutes in several cities in Korea took part in the present study. For three months, the learners received one of two forms of instruction, one based on traditional paper-based materials and the other via tablet PC-based materials. Analyses of the listening and reading tests and of the questionnaire responses, followed by student interviews, indicate that the learners may benefit from tablet PC-based English programs, especially in their reading skills and their learning autonomy. Furthermore, the learners’ beliefs in the effectiveness of tablet PC-based instruction were found to be stronger than among the instructors. Pedagogical implications and future research directions are discussed.

This study aimed to explore the etfect of translated writing on English writing performance of Korean learners of English and their perceptions on translated writing in comparison with direct writing depending on their English proficiency level. A total of 75 male high school students were divided into two groups according to their L2 writing expertise and were asked to perform two ditferent writing tasks: 1) write directly in English (direct writing), and 2) write in Korean first and then translate the draft into English (translated writing). 136 written compositions (68 direct writing samples and 68 translated writing samples each) from 68 students were selected for analytical scoring and T-Unit analysis. The 68 students also filled a survey questionnaire which asked which type of writing was preferred for their English writing. The results showed that the performance of the direct writing was significantly better than that of the translated writing for hjghlevel writers, while there were no great ditferences among low-Ievel writers between the two writing tasks. T-Unit analysis revealed that syntactic complexity between direct and translated writings by two proficiency groups did not yield any statistically significant ditferences, and more students preferred translated writing to di rect writi ng in general. 8ased on the results, pedagogical implications are suggested.

This study aimed to investigate characteristics of English summary skills of Korean college freshmen. To achieve this aim, 120 English summary writings were collected from an English diagnostic test for college freshmen. Two texts with different features were used for the test. Text A is a persuasive essay with a problem/solution structure, and Text B is an expository essay with a collective structure. Fifty-three students summarized Text A and the others Text B. For each of the text groups, students were classified into two groups by their summary level. In the analysis of the writings considering the genre of the original text, organization, and adherence to summarization rules, it was found that the learners summarized the persuasive essay better than the expository essay. The high-ability group used various transition words and followed the structure of the original text when they organized their writings. As for summarization rules such as invention, selection, and paraphrasing, Text A group did not show any difference in their creation skill of topic sentence between the high- and low-ability group. On the other hand, the high-ability group that read Text B was better at creating general sentences than the low group. There was not a significant difference between the high- and low-ability groups in their paraphrasing skills, Text A group in general performing better than Text B group. Further suggestions and pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study examines ESL learners’ satisfaction levels in two types of ESL writing courses at a Midwest American university. Approximately 100 students in an English-for-General Purposes (EGP) writing classes and 27 students in an English-for-Business Purposes (EBP) writing classes were surveyed. Responses to survey items were then analyzed using factor analysis. The two primary satisfaction factors identified from the response patterns were social atmosphere of the classes, and the effectiveness of ESL instruction. The degree of students’ satisfaction with the ESL instruction efficiency was not much different between the two groups of students, whereas the level of satisfaction with social atmosphere was significantly higher among the EGP students than the other group. Furthermore, in general, students’ perceived improvement on some writing skills after taking their ESL class was significantly higher than before taking the class, and particularly the perception level of improvement of organizational writing skill was significantly different among the two ESL groups, the EGP students reporting more improvement than the students. These results were discussed for further implications for development of ESL curriculum in the context under study in specific, and in Korean English education context in general.

A field-specific essay test was developed as an attempt to improve the ESL placement procedure for international graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Graduate departments were classified into four areas, business, humanities/social sciences, technology and life sciences, and a set of four input prompts, and writing questions was developed. A total of 124 volunteers participated in taking both the regularly-required general-topic test and the field-specific test. A total-group FACETS analysis of the students’ performance on the two tests showed that they performed better on the field-specific test. However, subgroup analyses showed the field-specific topic effect only in the business and life sciences subgroups, while no prompt effect was found for the humanities/social sciences and technology subgroups. Considering that early in the test development procedure, these results were predicted by in a prompt evaluation session, the results suggest that more effort should be exerted to carefully select the topic and content of prompts in order to secure equivalency of the topic effect across all disciplinary groups. This paper further addresses limitations and promising research directions.