This paper examined the effects of online English-medium instruction (EMI) on high school students’ performing English face threatening speech acts, by assessing indirect expressions and token agreement (agreement plus but). Participants completed an English placement test and English pretest and posttest through a Google survey. English proficiency, required for study participation was measured using the English placement test. An English pretest and posttest measured English pragmatic performance. The students were given approximately four weeks to complete eight online lectures. The experimental group completed eight online lectures which taught five face threatening speech acts, based on formal situations in the United States. The control group completed eight online lectures about worldwide cultures. The experimental group showed a significant improvement in the English posttest compared with the control group, based on improvements observed in the use of indirect expressions and token agreement. A difference between groups using indirect expressions was observed in an unfamiliar person scenario but not in a familiar person scenario.

This study aimed to examine the effects of creativity-enhanced tasks on middle school students’ English performance, creativity development, and perceptions of creativity and affective factors including motivation and attitudes toward English learning. The participants were 49 middle school students in Seoul, Korea. The experimental group was treated with creativity-enhanced tasks whereas the control group received traditional English instruction. The overall study was carried out for fourteen weeks. The main findings are summarized as the following. First, there were no significant differences found between the experimental and the control group in terms of language performance. Second, the experimental group indicated substantial improvement in creativity, especially regarding fluency and originality. Finally, the results revealed positive changes in students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and attitudes toward English learning. The findings of this study are expected to provide practical insights to English teachers and educators who hope to foster creativity in students by supporting a creativity-enhanced language classroom.

Nearpod, an online teaching cloud-based platform, offers great potential to generate pedagogical tasks and yield better results in teaching communication skills. This study thus examined the effects of Nearpod-based English-speaking classes. To this end, one-on-one speaking tests were conducted twice in a semester, and a questionnaire was administered to assess university students’ perceptions of the usefulness of Nearpod in offline classroom. The participants comprised 39 university students who took a mandatory English class titled Communication in English. The paired samples t-test results indicated that the students’ overall speaking performance has improved over time. Specifically, compared to the high-level students, the low-level students showed a significant increase in speaking performance. The questionnaire analysis demonstrated that most students were satisfied with Nearpod-based English speaking classes because of enhanced interest, active participation in class, and increased interaction with class content and peers. The pedagogical implications are suggested and the limitations of the study are further discussed.

The present study investigated students’ preferences for the types of tasks used to assess English speaking performance. It further examined whether students’ task type preferences affected their perceptions of test effectiveness. One hundred eighty-two high school students responded to a self-report questionnaire. A series of frequency analysis and paired samples t-tests were used for the analysis. The results showed that students’ most preferred task types and their least preferred ones overlapped with each other, suggesting that the task types of English-speaking performance tests used in schools are limited. The four key reasons determining students’ task type preferences were identified, including task difficulty, emotional comfort, practical value, and interest. In addition, the results indicated that students’ task type preferences could affect their perceptions of task effectiveness. Overall, the results suggest the need for developing more varied task types for English-speaking performance tests as well as helping students become familiar with English speaking performance tasks. Pedagogical implications were discussed along with study limitations.

This paper first surveys three kinds of learner interview corpora (LINDSEI, NICT-JLE Corpus, and Trinity Lancaster Corpus), paying particular attention to their interview structures. Then, it explains the principles and features of the ICNALE Spoken Dialogue (ICNALE SD), which includes 425 videos and approximately 1.6-million-word transcripts of the L2 English interviews with 405 learners from ten regions in Asia and twenty native speakers. The ICNALE SD is one of the largest learner interview corpora and practically the sole dataset for the analysis of dialogue speeches by various Asian learners. As a case study based on the ICNALE SD, the author sought to find out how fluently learners in different regions speak in the interviews, which words they characteristically use, and which relationship is observed among them.

This study sought to investigate factors affecting the English writing performance of 30 Korean ESL students overseas. Also, examined were the relationship between L1 and L2 education levels and L2 writing performance, the relationship between English language proficiency and L2 writing performance and between length of residence and L2 writing performance. The participants were asked to write essays in their L1 and L2 along with a questionnaire. To analyze the data, two-way ANOVA and correlation were performed. The results showed there was no significant relation between L1 educational level and L2 writing performance, but there was a significant relation between L2 educational level and L2 writing performance. Also, English language proficiency and L2 writing performance were highly correlated. The length of residence of the participants in the U.S. and their L2 writing performance showed a weak correlation. Similarly, their L1 writing performance was not related to their L2 writing performance. These imply that students need to have adequate proficiency of English to write in their L2, and they need to receive a considerate number of years of formal education in their L2 for the success of L2 writing.

This study investigated whether task complexity may affect L2 speaking performance as predicted by the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), and whether the effect of task complexity may interact with individual differences in working memory capacity. A total of twenty Korean advanced-level EFL learners performed two separate picture description tasks, which were different in task complexity along [+/- here and now] dimension. Their working memory was measured by an L1 version of a reading span task. The results showed that there was no significant difference between Here-and-Now task (i.e., a simple task) and There-and-Then task (i.e., a complex task) in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency of English speaking performance, rejecting the prediction of the Cognition Hypothesis. Yet, it found that working memory correlated with accuracy in L2 performance on the complex task, but not on the simple task. This indicates that the effect of individual learners’ working memory capacity is observable only when a task demands a high control of attentional resources. Conversely, when a task is simple, individual differences in working memory capacity do not result in significant differences in L2 speaking performance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate inter- and intra- rater reliability in an interview and a computerized oral test. It was also examined whether rater characteristics influenced on their reliability and biases, and finally the scores of both tests were compared with those of the Versant test using an automated computer rating system. For the study, the data from 21 Korean university students and 18 Korean or native speakers of English raters with various characteristics were collected. Some of the main findings from the study were as follows. First, rater severity was significantly different in each test, but each rater consistently graded on both tests suggesting lower inter-rater reliability and higher intra-rater reliability. Secondly, rater severity was impacted by the rater characteristics such as mother tongue, gender, age, and major. Lastly, there existed a positive correlation among the scores of the three tests, indicating that the scores of human beings and computers are strongly related.

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 investigated the effects of pairing based on English proficiency and gender on high school students’ speaking task performance. A total of 16 high school students - 4 female advanced, 4 female intermediate, 4 male advanced, and 4 male intermediate learners - performed two information gap tasks spotting differences between two pictures, once with a same-level learner and once with a different-level learner. Their performance was analyzed in terms of degree of task completion, amount of utterances and fluency. The results showed (a) advanced level learners performed the task more accurately, more fluently, and in higher length when they were paired with advanced level learners than paired with lower level learners, although the differences were not significant; (b) For intermediate level learners, male students demonstrated a better performance when paired with higher level learners, but female students performed better when paired with the same level learners. The findings are discussed with regard to more feasible and more effective ways of grouping for pair work in high school English classes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the storytelling performance of Korean elementary school students by using the framework of narrative assessment profile (Bliss, McCabe, & Miranda, 1998). Story samples were collected from ten six-grade students during the English storytelling class. The English storytelling class consisted of mini lesson, storytelling activity, storytelling practice and self-assessment. Every class student was asked to practice storytelling in performing three tasks: picture book, family photo, and story stem. In this study, family photo storytelling samples were used to investigate. They were analyzed from six dimensions: topic maintenance, event sequencing, explicitness, referencing, conjunctive cohesion and fluency. From the diagnostic profile of strengths and weaknesses, five types of storytelling performance were presented. The implications for classroom practice and assessment were discussed.

This study deals with the overall meta-cognitive aspects of ATC-Pilot miscommunications pertinent to cognitive human errors based on the previous literature research which it has been focused on the issue of the global aviation English use in regard with aircraft accident and incident. Especially, it addresses the concern over the ICAO aviation English language proficiency evaluation program which will be implemented globally in March, 2008. In addition, It presents the analysis related to the on-going English language proficiency level four test conducted for Korean civil airlines pilots and air traffic controllers.