In light of the expanding use of technology in education, we attempted to analyze how Korean college students perceived the use of Machine Translation (MT) tools in the classroom. Specifically, this study attempted to explore students’ perceptions of their ability to use MT tools and to measure the reliability of the MT-generated output, along with measuring students’ general sense of confidence in English learning. This research analyzed 183 EFL college students’ responses to an online survey, and a one-way ANOVA was used to test for the differences in the averages of three groups. The results of data analysis revealed that 1) Among beginners, intermediate learners, and advanced learners, those self-identifying as advanced had the highest scores on all the factors measured.; 2) There was a significant mean difference in students’ perceptions of the ability to use MT tools, their beliefs regarding MT’s effectiveness as a learning tool, and affective attitudes towards the use of MT tools between beginner and advanced groups. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications for the effective use of MT tools in the Korean EFL classrooms, and suggestions for future research were presented.

The purpose of this research study is to identify the perceptions of both primary ELL(English Language Learner)s and English teachers on MMP(Multimodal Media Production)-embedded English instruction at a primary English class. In order to answer this question, 182 primary ELLs and 2 English teachers participated in this research. A questionnaire survey was administered to the focal participants and an open-ended interview was conducted with the teachers. The results show that overall perceptions on MMP were comparably high among ELLs, and there was significant difference between genders, grades and English levels in terms of learning interest. The teachers’ interview revealed that MMP would trigger deeper understanding of the lesson and ELLs’ voluntary active class participation by heightening motivation, self-confidence and interest in learning English. In sum, the implementation of MMP-embedded English instruction has positive pedagogical effects for young ELLs since it may promote essential literacy skills in the 21st century as well as help in affective domains.

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary school teachers’ and students’ experience of teaching and learning English grammar and how they perceive English grammar education with regard to its role in learning English and the need and ways of including grammar instruction into the curriculum. Questionnaires were administered to 123 teachers and 1513 6th grade students. In addition, written interviews with 20 teachers were done through e-mail. Major findings from the analysis of this survey are three-fold. First, most of the teachers and the students had experiences of teaching and learning English grammar and they perceived that English grammar knowledge plays a positive role in learning English. Second, majority of both the teachers and the students believed that grammar instruction should start in 5th grade, but there is a gap between the teachers and the students with respect to grammar teaching approaches; the teachers prefer the inductive method, while the students prefer the deductive one. Third, many teachers considered that grammar instruction would not have a negative effect on English classes based on the communicative language teaching approach, but they believed that activities for grammar instruction should be well designed in order to keep students interested in learning English. Based on these results, several suggestions for improving English education in elementary schools are made.

This study investigates the effects of writing to learn on sixth graders’ English development compared with speaking to learn and examines their perceptions. The study established the following research questions: (a) what are the effects of writing to learn on English speaking and writing abilities compared with speaking to learn? and (b) what are the students’ perceptions of writing to learn compared with speaking to learn? Students in the experiment group had experienced learning English through writing to learn, whereas those in the comparison group had learned English through speaking to learn. As for the results, writing to learn had significant effects on developing speaking and writing abilities in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency. Also the students had more positive perceptions on writing to learn in cognitive and behavioral perspectives. Writing to learn has been confirmed as effective in learning English, leading students to use English to express their own ideas with more extensive vocabulary and complicated syntactic structures.

This paper examines whether Korean students learning English are familiar with gender-neutral language. A total of 149 first-year university students were asked to choose the words they would use when speaking or writing English. The questions in the questionnaire consist of two types: Type I asked the students to arrange the given two words (e.g., gentlemen, ladies; boys, girls) in the parallel-pair form conjoined by and; Type II asked the students to choose one of the two words or phrases (e.g., policeman, police officer; anchorman, anchor). Of the eight parallel pairs in Type I, four were chosen where the word order of Korean and English is reversed (e.g., ladies and gentlemen) and the other four pairs have the same order (e.g., boys and girls) in both Korean and English. The students did better with the same order pairs than with the reversed order pairs with the exception of ladies and gentlemen. Of the nine pairs in Type II, a majority of both female and male students picked five gender-neutral words: anchor, firefighter, mail carrier, police officer and flight attendant. The four gender-specific words they preferred were chairman, salesman, freshman and actress.

This study investigated Korean university learners' perception of native English speaking teachers(NESTs) and non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) in the University English for academic purpose. Questionnaire survey and interview data collection were implemented. For the questionnaire survey, 118 students participated for NEST courses and 127 for NNEST courses. Among them 10 students(5 from NEST, 5 from NNEST) were interviewed to consolidate the data. The results revealed that students perceived more positively in the English speaking courses by NEST with regard to improving their listening and speaking ability, NESTs' teaching attitude which intrigued students to participate in the class, trying to ask questions in class, and keeping their tense during the class with English language code. However, students in NNEST courses felt less anxiety, used more L1 in group work, and tended to ask questions later the class in Korean than in NEST course. Students in NNEST courses perceived positively about L1 use as long as it is controlled. These findings are valuable implications for NNESts to manage their EAP courses effectively.