This study compared Korean adult learners’ English speech in dialogic and monologic tasks, measuring 57 college students’ oral proficiency in terms of holistic and analytic grades. The statistical analyses were focused on two questions: 1) how much do the holistic grades of oral proficiency and analytic grades of the four linguistic features function differently across the tasks? and 2) which linguistic feature has the strongest correlation with the holistic grades of English oral proficiency? The study found significant differences between the two tasks in five aspects (English oral proficiency, topic development, fluency, range, and accuracy). It also showed that a monologic task resulted in lower achievements in those five aspects. In the comparison of the correlations with English proficiency, the range reached the top in both tasks, followed by topic development. The study provides some helpful information regarding which types of speech tasks and linguistic features of EFL oral proficiency are more desirable for targeting in teaching and assessment.

The study investigates which grammar features need high priority of pedagogical intervention to develop implicit knowledge, unlike grammatical features in need of explanation of explicit rules. Two types of data were collected from 29 Korean college students: a sentence completion test in English and a meta-linguistic knowledge test (requiring students to both correct the underlined error and explain the grammatical rule) in Korean. Through statistical analyses, including a Wilcoxon signed rank test, this study finds significant differences in test achievements for tense, time prepositions (for and since), subjunctive moods, dative alternations, quantitative adjectives (many and much), gerunds, and third-person singular -s in the simple present tense. Based on results obtained, this study proposes which specific grammar features need intensive pedagogical intervention for production skills, including sentence writing and speaking. Several practical suggestions are provided for EFL instructors and researchers to make more effective use of speaking and writing activities as well as formative testing.

Background : Several studies have suggested different arguments for the effect of stretching exercises and core muscle exercises on flexibility and balance ability. Objective : To determine the effects of stretching exercises and core muscle exercise on flexibility and balance ability. Design : Quasi experimental research Method : The study applied exercise interventions (three sessions per week for 6 weeks) on 40 subjects. The subjects were divided into stretching and core muscle exerciseing groups to identify the change of flexibility and balance ability. Sit- and- reach test results and hip hyperextension were measured for identifying changes in flexibility, and the Romberg test and Pedalo stabilizer were used for changes in balance ability. Results : Both the stretching exercise and core muscle exercise groups showed a statistically significant increase in flexibility (p<.05). However, the stretching exercise group showed a statistically significant increase in balance ability (p<.05), whereas the core muscle exercise group showed partially statistically significant differences in this par t(p>.05). In the analysis of the differences in the amount of change in flexibility, based on the types of exercise, stretching exercises showed a significant difference (p<.05), whereas a significant difference was not found in the amount of change in balance ability (p>.05). Conclusions : These findings indicate that stretching exercises are the more effective intervention for improving and maintaining flexibility, whereas there is no difference between stretching and core muscle exercises with respect to improving balance ability.

The study investigates to what extent a commitment to and a self-evaluation of a specific self-directed learning activity explain Korean college students’ EFL proficiency (using TOEIC reading scores). Of the Korean college students who participated, 52 completed log writing of self-directed learning activities, and 44 completed a self-evaluating survey and submitting a TOEIC reading score. Through statistical analyses, including correlations and regressions, the study finds that the number of minutes spent on reading aloud explained 10% of the variances of participants’ TOEIC reading scores. Another finding of the study is that perceived effectiveness of note-taking for grammar learning on listening and perceived manageability of reading aloud explained 21% of the variances in TOEIC reading scores. On the basis of these results, the study proposes that commitment to reading aloud and learner-perceived effectiveness of note-taking for grammar learning on listening can function as significant predictors for EFL reading proficiency. Several practical suggestions are provided for EFL instructors and researchers for the more effective use of self-directed learning activities and self-evaluation results.

The study investigates whether different English learning contexts result in different grammar development in learners’ shared mother tongue, Korean. The research instrument included a sentence completion task of collocational expressions in Korean dialogues, a multiple-choice test of grammar in Korean sentences and dialogues, and a sentence composition task using double nominative structures. The participants were 26 students at the age of 8 to 9 year old in the EFL context, 21 in a type of immersion program, and 19 in the ESL context. The results showed little difference among the three groups in the collocation sentence completion task and the multiple-choice test, but a clearly significant difference between the EFL students and the ESL students in the double nominative sentence composition task. The students who had been learning English in English culture showed more limited knowledge in the writing sentences with such peculiar but common structures in Korean language, compared with those who had been learning English in a Korean cultural context. In the complementary correlation analysis of the scores in the sentence composition task with a double nominative structure, the length of residence in Korea proved the strongest correlation, implying that the longer students live in Korea, the better they perform. The study provides the pedagogical implication that the curriculum of a mother tongue for bilingual learners could need to intervene with more emphasis on enhancing learners’ grammatical development, including language-specific structures.