This study examines the challenges faced by native English-speaking professors who teach general English courses in Korean universities, specifically focusing on the issue of social marginalization. Data were collected through online surveys and interviews. The findings indicate that these professors view themselves as a non-mainstream group within university faculties, often experiencing exclusion from decision-making processes and professional development opportunities, primarily due to language barriers. Moreover, cultural differences and structural discrimination exacerbate these challenges. Although the respondents did not report significant difficulties related to student education and exhibited a strong sense of efficacy in teaching English, some lacked sufficient understanding of the institutional curriculum. To address these issues, this study suggests that, for foreign professors to fully demonstrate their expertise in English education and foster a sense of belonging within the university community, they should be granted the authority and responsibility to participate in curriculum improvement research, along with administrative assistance.

This study investigates the effect of strategies-based English reading programs on reading proficiency and affective domains of underachieving elementary school students. Eight fifth-grade students were selected and assigned to either the phonics/vocabulary learning group or the vocabulary/sentence learning group for two hours a week for 16 weeks. To address the research questions, data were collected from four main sources: English reading tests, questionnaire surveys, students’ learning logs and in-depth interviews with the students. The results of the study revealed that the English reading programs had positive impact on the students’ understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, word recognition ability, and sentence reading. As students accumulated successful reading experiences, their self-confidence, interest in reading, and class participation increased while anxiety decreased. The study also revealed that there were differences in using strategies among students in each group, with higher level students tending to use higher-dimensional strategies with more variety than less able students. In conclusion, the leveled English reading programs customized for underachievers appear to be effective in assisting underachievers in their English reading skills.

The Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has made strenuous efforts to improve the quality of English education in public sector. One such attempt is a long-term, intensive teacher training that began in 2007 to facilitate teachers' ability for teaching English in English (TEE). This initiative has expanded over the years such that the number of training institutions has increased to 22 in 2009 to serve growing numberof trainees. This development is not without problems as there is a lack ofconsistency in curriculum, course content, quality of instructors, and overseas training among these institutions. This study aims to check the current status of various teacher training programs and suggest ideas for enhancing the quality of the programs. For the purpose of the study, questionnaires were administered to 900 English teachers to have themevaluate the training programs they had participated in. The findings from 449 respondents showed that most teachers were satisfied with their training programs. These teachers felt that the training programs helped to promote both English skills and teaching skills. Yet, they expressed some concerns about unbalanced curriculum, lack of follow-up service, inefficiency ofoverseas training, etc.

This study aims to explore the placement practices in five college English programs and four university language institutes. Specifically, the present study investigated the types of placement tests they administer, the degree of the correspondence between course objectives and test content, and validation procedures. This study also examined teachers" perceptions on the appropriateness of placement decisions. The data were collected through web site searches, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The results showed that proficiency tests were used for placement purposes in the college English programs. The language institutions administered placement tests only for their speaking courses in the form of oral interviews. The content of placement tests did not largely correspond with the course objectives. All English language programs did not have systematic procedures for identifying misplaced students. Finally, instructors reported that more than one third of the classes included misplaced students. The implications of the findings are discussed.

The present evaluation research was conducted to provide program decision makers with judgements about the intensive in-service teacher training (INSET) program"s worth or merits in relation to important criteria. It also purports to provide program staffs with useful information in improving their INSET programs. Setting boundaries and analyzing the context were followed by the procedure of identifying and selecting the evaluation questions and criteria. The overview of recent developments in English language teacher training provided the underlying principle for setting the criteria for evaluation. The criteria were used to describe the characteristics of a successful language teacher training program or implementation. They included features such as goals, curriculum, personnel, and support. Using the specified checklist, evaluation was carried out on the current intensive English language teacher training courses. Information on each area of the checklist was collected from available sources, analyzed and interpreted qualitatively as well as quantitatively. From the findings of the present evaluation study, some implications are drawn for making policies on INSET, for improving the teacher training programs under investigation, and for establishing and operating similar INSET programs.

The present study aims to examine vocabulary analysis programs suitable for English textbook authorization in the amended version of the national curriculum. The analysis of WordLister 2002, a conventional vocabulary analysis software, reveals that it fails to meet the needs necessary to authorize textbooks in terms of user-friendliness and limited uses of the vocabulary analysis output. The design of WordLister 2002 is too complicated to be used without special training. While it provides useful information on new vocabulary, it fails to provide information in comparison with the existing research on vocabulary. NLPtools, on the other hand, applies corpus analysis techniques to the analysis of textbook vocabulary. In this program, texts in the textbook are seen as a corpus. Another characteristic is that NLPtools employs analysis methods based on dictionaries. It is found that NLPtools processes special characters in the text, so that the user does not need to process them by using specified input codes as in WordLister 2002. Wordlister 2002 requires its user to register a number of words in the process of vocabulary analysis, whereas the user with NLPtools does not need to register words as its built-in dictionary has a wide range of information on words. NLPtools also provides its users with functions, by which they can get and analyze the information they need. With these advantages over the conventional software, it is suggested that NLPtools can be used as a vocabulary analysis program for textbook authorization in the amended curriculum.