This action research explores an effective teaching method for EFL teacher’s questioning types in a Korean online university context. By reviewing the previous studies on teachers’ questioning types which have been categorized mostly by cognitive linguistic tradition, this study sorts out the different questioning types from socio-linguistic perspective using the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) framework. These new categorized questioning types are applied to instruct the participant students (57) who were majoring in English and were mostly interested in TESOL (Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages) certificate program provided by the online university in Korea. Using a series of lecture content, two assignments, and an online discussion board, these newly added questioning types (offer and request types replacing command) were successfully taught in an online lecture entitled ‘Classroom English and Communication’ in the first semester of 2021. With a mixed analysis method, this study explains the procedures of various classroom tasks and analyzes the assignment data and online discussion board texts. This teacher classroom communication consisting of instruction and questioning needs to be reconsidered due to this study’s findings and its pedagogic implications that are clearly based on socio-linguistic perspectives.

There is a growing research interest in language teachers’ professional identity. Nevertheless, unlike studies involving the identity of native and non-native English-speaking teachers, few studies analyzed Gyopo English teachers’ identity despite a sizeable body of Gyopo teachers in the Korean educational context. Using post-structural perspectives of identity, this case study analyzed the identities of a Gyopo instructor as an English teacher and how such identities were reflected in classroom practice. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and self-reflective reports written by the participant. Findings reveal that the participant constructed multiple professional identities as a teacher with previous language learning experiences, a bridge-builder, a multitasker, and a teacher who is not a native English speaker but an American, and a replaceable person. While experiencing identity conflicts, she constantly negotiated and renegotiated her multiple, contradictory identities to position herself more favorably. Based on these findings, the present study offers pedagogical suggestions.

This case study aimed to examine ways Korean university students in an English critical reading class participated in educational action projects. For this purpose, the reading class was designed to enhance students’ critical thinking skills and global citizenship as readers. Eighteen students in the class were taught by the teacher how to read texts in English using a critical perspective. The reading class was managed in a flexible mode with comprehension check-ups, critical dialoguing, and student-initiated action. Students were invited to connect what they discussed to action outcomes as a group project. Students in groups presented their understanding of readings and what they discussed in critical dialogues of the readings. They then reported what they did outside the classroom to foster themselves as truly active citizens in their local circumstances. Their group reports and project products were collected and analyzed into themes using qualitative methods. It was revealed that critical dialogue activities could help students come up with action-provoking questions on the readings, bring about a variety of action outcomes resulting from collaborations in groups, and help students become more active readers and citizens. Educational implications are also discussed.

The current study investigated the usage of the bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) within Korean EFL environment. Thirty-two university students with an intermediate to high proficiency participated in this study. The students were given a Korean bilingual version of VST and reported their official English scores. The findings of this study are as following: (1) The VST scores showed a significant relationship with students’ proficiency scores which indicates that students with a bigger size of vocabulary had a higher proficiency of English. (2) When VST scores were divided into each frequency level, no particular frequency band demonstrated a significant relationship with English proficiency. Also, the difficulty of each level did not show a consistent pattern. Based on the results of VST, the influence of Korean EFL environment such as loanwords and the test-oriented education system was discovered. This study provides implications for teaching vocabulary in EFL environment and suggests the need for developing of a vocabulary size test for Korean context.

Laufer, Elder, Hill, and Congdon (2004) proposed the vocabulary strength framework reflecting the process of vocabulary knowledge development with a hierarchical order of four strength modalities: passive recognition, active recognition, passive recall, and active recall. Employing this framework, the present study aims to empirically examine its generalizability to EFL contexts and further explore its availability to validating the TEPS vocabulary section. Three sets of web-based tests for three proficiency groups (beginner (n=37), intermediate (n=31), and advanced (n=30)) are developed with words from three frequency bands (3000, 5000, and 7000). The test includes four sections representing four strength modes and an optional TEPS section for the two upper groups. A one-parameter Rasch model analysis reveals that item difficulties agree to the hierarchical sequence of difficulty order in the framework. Different vocabulary growth rates were found across modes and word bands. The TEPS item difficulties that are closer to recall than recognition may give a theoretical account of the measuring construct that the TEPS items tap upon.

This study examines the relationship between students’ perceptions of learning contexts and motivation to learn English in Korea. Three categories of contexts were operationalized: the transnational context as learners’ international interest including study-abroad desires, the national context as awareness of English learning to prepare for CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) and their classroom experience as the last category. A total of 433 high school students were assessed on measures of L2 learning goals, perception of contexts, self-reported L2 proficiency and motivational intention in the questionnaire, followed by focal participants’ interviews and essays. The statistical analyses show that transitional and classroom categories are statistically correlated with motivational intention. However, the national context is negatively correlated with actual motivation. Multiple regression analyses found that the transnational category is the best predictor for motivational intention, while the national category involves the least significant predictor. The students’ classroom experience is also a meaningful, milder than transnational, predictor. Synthesized results of both quantitative and qualitative data suggest that L2 motivation is more of a sociolinguistic construct that should be construed in relation to multiple social contexts. Findings also suggest Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) notion of the ideal L2 self can better explain the complexity of L2 learning motivation, whereby the integrative-instrumental dichotomy loses its explanatory power.

The aim of this paper was to examine the knowledge of Korean students about English relative clauses in both contextualized and decontextualized situations. To this end, a study was conducted in which fifty college students of EFL participated as subjects, and data were collected by means of three methods: elicited imitation task, composition and conversation. The findings of the study indicated that subjects’ performance on comprehension and production tasks was affected by grammatical positions on which relativization occurs in relative clause. It was also shown that their performance was influenced by position of head noun in matrix clause that relative clause modifies. Based on the results of the study, two sets of ordering (i.e., the accuracy order of comprehension and the frequency order of production) in which a variety of types of relative clauses were understood and used in contextualized and decontextualized situations were offered to describe and explain the Korean learners’ performance on L2 relative clauses.

This study explores whether there are any differences between monolingual Korean and bilingual Korean-Chinese university students in terms of their beliefs about language learning. The Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI, Horwitz, 1987) was distributed to university students in Korea and China to identify learners’ beliefs about language learning. Monolingual Korean and bilingual Korean-Chinese students reported similar opinions about foreign language aptitude and difficulty of language learning. The study also found that Korean-Chinese students were more confident than Korean students about their special ability for learning a new language. In addition, more Korean students than Korean-Chinese students reported that they felt timid in speaking English with native speakers or with other people. Because this study is the first research attempt to compare the differences in beliefs about language learning between monolingual and bilingual EFL learners, the results of this study should provide significant information about and implications for teaching and learning a foreign language by comparing the behaviors and thoughts of Korean and Korean-Chinese university students.

The current study has two research questions: 1) Are EFL students’ ratings comparable with the advanced or native TESOL graduates’ ratings? 2) What are the significant variables that discriminate one self-marked proficiency group from another? To address question 1, 90 Korean EFL learners rated 3 sample essays on a 5-scale with four writing features (organization, content, language use, and holistic feature), Twenty-five TESOL graduates also rated the sample essays given the same scoring rubric. The students’ ratings then were compared to the ratings of TESOL graduates. To address research question 2, 100 students’ responses to 10 survey items were analyzed, using discriminant analysis (DA). The result showed 1) that significant difference were observed in a few analytic features between students’ ratings and colleagues’ ratings, and 2) that the students who marked themselves as high-proficient writers were likely to respond with confidence that their ratings were accurate. In conclusion, differing L2 proficiency level is partly, but not fully associated with rating performance in subjects who are able to read and comprehend English sentences. On the other hand, L2 proficiency influenced student raters’ perception.

The main goal of this study is to review the role of the age factor in foreign language education and to discuss its implications in Korean English education. ‘The younger, the better', under the critical period hypothesis, has recently played a critical role in the introduction of English language education to young children in Korea and the public and the govemment seem to be highly dependent upon the hypothesis when they decide children’s English education. For example, the English education program in Korean elementary schools is an offspring of this theory. This study, however, casts a doubt on the effect of age on English education by reviewing theoretical and experimental studies focusing on whether age or the critical period hypothesis is a meaningful factor to validate the early exposure of foreign language education and its following success. Findings from foreign language education in US, French immersion programs in Canada and other foreign countries and adult second language leaming and studies dealing with the critical period hypothesis were critically reviewed to provide evidences to such argument that age is not a primary factor to determine early English education in Korea. On the contrary, time or the amount of exposure to the English language should be a more critical factor in a context where a very limited exposure to the target language is only possible. A list of generalizations and implications are also provided.

The present study aimed at examining the effects of English collaborative writing and learners’ reflections on the experience of collaborative writing. The study was classroom based, and the participants (n=33) were Korean graduate students majoring in English education. The study compared texts produced by pairs (n=22) with those produced by individuals (n=11). Among the participants, nine students, involving the collaborative writing, participated in the follow-up interview. The study found that collaborative writing had an overall significant effect on students’ L2 writing. In particular, pairs produced better texts in terms of content, organization, and vocabulary, but not grammar and mechanics. The results of the student interviews showed that collaborative writing helped them pool ideas and provide each other with useful feedback. Most students were positive about the experience while a few of them demonstrated some reservation about collaborative writing.

Many researchers called for a need to expose L2 learners to diverse writing contexts, and L2-L2 interactions using English as a communication tool became more common than communication with native English speakers. The present study introduced two groups of Korean university students to a task, for which they were grouped differently: the first with a group of students at a Chinese university and the second with Chinese students as well as students of a different Korean university. These groups performed a task that they selected from among three choices. In the process of their e-mail exchanges, the students' pre- and post-task perspectives were explored through two surveys. In addition, the students expressed their reflections regarding this experience in writing. Overall, the students seemed to consider this experience of exchanging emails with L2 students speaking a different L1 useful and it helped some students gain confidence in their ability to use English as a communication tool. This study provided an opportunity to expand the writing context in EFL classrooms.