The purpose of this study is to investigate university students’ perceptions on their English conversation classes taught by native English speakers. Its focus is on finding out how well the students understand and how actively they participate in class, what causes difficulty in their understanding or participation in class, and whether their class helps them in terms of affective aspects and English skills. A survey was conducted on a total of 465 university students in Korea, and the collected data were analyzed to compute basic descriptive and inferential statistics. Some of the important findings are 1) over 50% of the students understand their classes well; 2) a little over 30% actively participate in class; 3) about 30~50% of the students perceive their class help them affectively; and 4) about 50% of the students perceive their class help them improve their English skills in general. These results are discussed along with other findings related to the causes of the difficulties that the students experienced. Suggestions are provided on the basis of the results and their implications.

This study investigates faculty and students’ perceptions of English conversation courses in the General English Program (GEP) at a university. A total of 437 students completed the survey and interviews were conducted with 8 of them. Three Native English Speaker (NS) instructors participated in the study by submitting reflective journals and being interviewed. Qualitative as well as quantitative data collection methods were employed to offer a better understanding of the current status of English conversation courses taught by NS instructors. Results about the five research questions are as follows. First, students were satisfied with the courses overall, although it varied across classes taught by each NS instructor. Second, students’ satisfaction with the courses also varied depending on their self-assessment of English proficiency. Third, the results of the stepwise regression analysis showed that NS instructors’ qualifications and attitude were the best predictor of students’ satisfaction with the courses. Fourth, NS instructors expressed dissatisfaction with the current textbooks and administrative support from the university. Fifth, the lack of understanding of both students and Korean culture caused critical classroom management issues, which, in turn, led to students’ negative perceptions of the courses. The findings provide practical implications of this GEP curriculum at the university.

The purpose of the study is to compare the nature of teacher talk between the native and non-native speaking professors with its focus on language functions and interaction modifications in English-mediated writing instruction. The study analyzed the classroom languages of two professors who were teaching college-level composition courses using the same textbook and syllabus. The classes taught by the two professors were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed based on the AS-unit. The results showed both professors used all of the five functions in the order of information, suasion, opinion, future plans, and checking. The NS professor, on the other hand, used the information function more often, while the NNS professor relied more on the suasion function. The data also displayed that the NS professor gave more feedback responses, whereas the NNS professor asked more clarification requests and repeated their own utterances. The findings implied that the types and distribution of the teacher talk may be influenced by the subject-matter and the instructional foci of each professor.

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.