The present study aimed to analyze the developmental trajectories of English achievement and exposure time through private education, utilizing univariate and multivariate latent growth curve analysis. This study used a subset of the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study data from 2012 to 2017. The results indicated consistent disparities in the growth of English achievement, depending on the student’s proficiency levels at the starting point. In particular, the early exposure to private tutoring was significantly and closely related to the initial status and the growth trajectory of English achievement. When the sample was classified by urbanicity, the findings suggested that the gap in English achievement was likely to increase over time across the two regions, with a stronger correlation with private tutoring found in urban areas. These results underscore the need for educational intervention for students in less advantageous conditions, and they provide valuable pedagogical implications for teaching English in the Korean EFL context.

The purpose of this study is to present a diagnostic evaluation tool that can more accurately determine the academic performance level in Korean language proficiency of foreign undergraduate students studying at domestic universities. The diagnostic evaluation diagnoses the academic Korean language proficiency of foreign undergraduates, and provides the diagnosis results to foreign undergraduates, professors, and university institutions so that teaching activities can be conducted efficiently. In this study, it was considered that the ‘Basic Academic Ability Diagnostic Test for the Korean Language Subject' was suitable as a test tool for diagnosing to diagnose the academic achievment of foreign undergraduates. This diagnostic test is a diagnostic tool designed for Korean students in Korea, and it not only continuously verifies its reliability and validity, but also includes background knowledge that Korean university students in Korea are basically acquiring. To prove that the 'Basic Academic Ability Diagnostic Test' is suitable as a diagnostic evaluation tool for foreign undergraduates, the correlation with the Korean language achievement evaluation was analyzed. The correlation between diagnostic evaluation and other items showed a significantly positive correlation. When the diagnostic evaluation score was good, the pre-test and post-test scores of Korean language proficiency, and the TOPIC level was also high. This result proves that the basic academic ability diagnostic test tool is very suitable as a diagnostic evaluation tool for foreign undergraduate students. Also, the analysis result of the pre- and post-tests and the TOPIK test showed a very significant and strong positive correlation with the post-test, and the higher the TOPIK grade, the higher the score of the pre‐test.

This study investigates the claim that task-induced involvement load has an effect on vocabulary learning and examines the effect of task types and word concreteness on intentional vocabulary learning in the Korean EFL context. This study aims at testing whether productive word-focused tasks lead to equally effective vocabulary learning when the total involvement load index is equal but the distribution of index levels of each component (need, search, and evaluation) is different. The three productive word-focused task types are gap-fillig, sentence writing, and gap-filling through word transformation. In addition, in order to investigate the effect of word concreteness on vocabulary learning, two groups of target words were selected based on the level of word concreteness. In sum, the results of this study generally supported involvement load hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijin, 2001) and test types and proficiency levels proved to be important variables that affect vocabulary learning. Moreover, the findings also indicated that word concreteness was not a major factor in vocabulary learning. The pedagogical implications and further suggestions are discussed.

This study aims at investigating 1)the perception of international students' mother tongue and Korean language, 2)whether their perception differs with the degree of Korean proficiency, and 3)whether the degree of exposure to Korean can affect Korean proficiency. Eighty nine international students participated in a questionnaire survey. The overall results on the survey showed that the international students' perception of their mother tongue was strong in general. However, interesting findings were that the participants' level of Korean proficiency was closely related to the perception of mother tongue: the participants who had a low level of Korean proficiency showed a comparatively strong perception of mother tongue. Furthermore, the perception of Korean language was weaker compared to that of their mother tongue. However, the exposure to Korean(e.g. the frequency of using Korean) playing a role in improving Korean proficiency was observed. Therefore, this study suggests that acquiring Korean can be related to the perception of mother tongue and that the international students should raise the frequency of contact with Koreans for their Korean proficiency.

This paper explores the English needs of culinary college students in Korea, asking whether their English needs differ by their desired careers. To this end, we administered a survey to 123 culinary college students and divided them into six groups based on their desired careers. The results show that the type of desired career of the participants is highly correlated with their perceived need for learning English, the kind of English skills that they want to learn, and the level of English proficiency that they hope to achieve. For example, students planning to work for a restaurant or hotel abroad had the highest English proficiency needs whereas those planning to study in graduate school in Korea and those planning to work for a restaurant or hotel in Korea had relatively lower needs. The results suggest that college English programs need to provide diverse college English courses to prepare students for their diverse future careers.

The study investigates to what extent a commitment to and a self-evaluation of a specific self-directed learning activity explain Korean college students’ EFL proficiency (using TOEIC reading scores). Of the Korean college students who participated, 52 completed log writing of self-directed learning activities, and 44 completed a self-evaluating survey and submitting a TOEIC reading score. Through statistical analyses, including correlations and regressions, the study finds that the number of minutes spent on reading aloud explained 10% of the variances of participants’ TOEIC reading scores. Another finding of the study is that perceived effectiveness of note-taking for grammar learning on listening and perceived manageability of reading aloud explained 21% of the variances in TOEIC reading scores. On the basis of these results, the study proposes that commitment to reading aloud and learner-perceived effectiveness of note-taking for grammar learning on listening can function as significant predictors for EFL reading proficiency. Several practical suggestions are provided for EFL instructors and researchers for the more effective use of self-directed learning activities and self-evaluation results.

This study examined whether learning context and language aptitude affected the use of pronunciation learning strategies and pronunciation proficiency. One hundred thirty-eight Chinese learners (88 KFL Ss & 50 KSL Ss) learners were investigated for the correlation between learning context(KSL, KFL), language aptitude (high/low), pronunciation learning strategy and pronunciation proficiency. Participants' sound discrimination ability was measured by PLAB and then they were divided into high group (upper 30%) and low group (lower 30%) by scores. SPLS and personal information survey were also conducted. The results showed that (i) a significant difference was found in pronunciation proficiency pursuant to learning context and language aptitude, (ii) use of pronunciation learning strategy differed significantly pursuant to learning context and language aptitude, and (ⅲ) use of pronunciation learning strategy could predict pronunciation proficiency. The findings suggest that effective pronunciation learning strategy should be investigated and taught in L2 Korean classroom.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between EFL learners’ reading motivation, proficiency, and strategy use. Fifty-seven students at a Korean university participated in the study. Two self-report questionnaires and a reading comprehension test were used to measure the learners’ motivation to for reading in English, reading proficiency, and reading strategy use. No significant correlation was found between reading motivation and reading strategy use or between reading motivation and reading proficiency. However, students’ performance on the test was positively related to their reported reading strategy use, showing a moderate correlation. In addition, the study found that although proficient students and less proficient students used almost the same kinds of strategies to support their reading comprehension, more proficient students used strategies more frequently than less proficient students.

The purpose of this study is to analyze part of speech distribution according to proficiency level in 66 Korean textbooks used in major Korean language institutes. Since the number of Korean learners with instrumental motivation has significantly increased, it becomes a very important issue to evaluate their Korean proficiency levels measured through the official assessment of Korean Proficiency Test (TOPIK). Language teaching is subject to certain target learners, and it is necessary to proceed along with studies on them by considering the utilization of their research results. With regard to the distribution of different parts of speech throughout the proficiency levels, 593,100 nouns accounted for 47.86% of the total, 267,334 verbs accounted for 21.57%, and 108,593 adjectives accounted for 8.76%. Other than these three major parts of speech, those that modify other elements of a sentence show a comparatively high percentage. Although many parts of the textbooks contain dialogues or conversational sentence examples, the percentage of abbreviated words or exclamations that represent the characteristics of the spoken language were not very high.

This study aims to study factors affecting level of Korean language proficiency for Korean Missionaries' Kids (MK) dwelling in Turkey. 45 Korean MKs were asked to answer three different questionnaires designated to investigate Korean language proficiency, cultural identity and demographic background. This study adopts altered TOPIK for the evaluation of Korean language proficiency, and focuses on finding out the relationship of Korean proficiency with sexuality, age, age at immigration to Turkey, years of Korean study, self-recognition of cultural identity, cultural identity of Korea, and cultural identity of Turkey. The SPSS for windows 17was used for the statistical analysis.Ethnic Identity Scale was measured with the KAEIS that was developed by Ahn(1999) and Proficiency Test that was selected by TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korea) session 19, 20. Cronbach  for cultural identity of Korea was 0.823 and Cronbach  for cultural identity of Turkey was 0.691. Internal consistency reliability for Korean proficiency test was 0.891. The result shows that cultural identity of Korea and age at immigration to Turkey have significant relationship with level of Korean proficiency, especially age at immigration to Turkey has more significant relationship with the proficiency. The result from this study helps to recognize factors affecting level of Korean language proficiency. Especially, the Korean proficiency of MKs who live in Turkey has a close relationship with Korean cultural identity.These facts indicate that not only the Korean education are required to effectively increase the korean education itself, but also developing the pride of being Korean are needed to be followed up as well.

The present study was designed to investigate Korean EFL college learners' language development across writing proficiency levels in the ir written productions. For the evaluation of their language development, 18 subsets of the syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) were used. 86 uni vers ity students participated in the study and wrote narrat ive essays about an assigned topic by using the Criterion®. The writing samples were scored by e-rater® and divided into three different proficiency levels to compare language development among groups. Then their essays were analyzed by us ing L2 Sy ntactical Complexity Analyzel: The findings reveal significant differences in 15 out of 18 measures of CAF and language learners' linguistic developmental patterns across their writing proficiency levels. The results indicate that there are di stinctive features regarding CAF among the three groups. With respect to fluency and accuracy, levels I and 2 showed a similar language developmental pattern, and level 3 was much higher than those groups. In terms of syntactic compl exity, levels 2 and 3 presented a similar developmental pattern, and level 1 was much lower than those groups in general. This study shows the predictive potential of CAF across writing proticiency levels of language learners.

The present study was designed to examine the nature of hesitation phenomena in the speech of Korean college EFL learners participating in oral proficiency interviews. Looking beyond the implications of hesitations in language learners' talk as signaling their disfluency and incompetence, this study presents a qualitative analysis to provide insights into the positive aspect of hesitations as a learning opportunity. A detailed qualitative analysis of the learners' talk reveals that hesitation phenomena was abundant in the learners' talk and the underlying mechanisms for the hesitations were more than the learners' incompetence of the target language. Hesitations found in the present study were the places where the learners forestalled, detected, and repaired problems in their target language output. Hesitations were facilitative devices that the learners utilized to make trial and error for further development of their second language. This paper concludes that the hesitation phenomena in learner interactions can be seen as potential opportunities for learning where learners struggle with the target language and learn through those difficulties.

A continuing challenge for English educators and policy makers in Korea is how to provide the right amount of good English education in an effective and efficient way, to help achieve the needed level of English communication skills. No efforts would turn out successful if the amount and the quality of public English education did not meet people's expectations. In order to plan and implement successful English education policies, it is necessary to figure out what kind of English education and how much of it are needed for Korean people. The current study aims to investigate what levels of English speaking proficiency Korean people perceive they need. The study first reviews some widely-used international English oral proficiency standards, then, compares those with the level descriptions of the Korea’s national curriculum of English. To gather information on the current level of English speaking proficiency, and the expected level of English speaking proficiency, 356 teachers (123 elementary school, 114 middle school, 119 high school), 696 students (179 elementary school, 222 middle school, 295 high school), and 650 parents (164 elementary, 212 middle school, 274 high school) from all the 16 district education authorities, were surveyed and interviewed. The results are presented with the discussion of the future directions of English education in Korea.

The study investigated whether Korean EFL students' vocabulary used in reading-based writing differed according to writing topic and their reading and writing proficiency. College students enrolled in writing courses (n=95) were asked to write argumentative essays in response to two readings on judging people by appearance (JPA) and disclosing personal information of serious criminals (DPI). These students were divided into high and low proficiency writer groups and into high and low proficiency reader groups according to their writing and reading scores respectively. The students' vocabulary used in writing was then analyzed by VocabProfile, which provided four lexical frequency lists: the first 1000 frequent words (K1) including function words (FW) and content words (CW), the second 1000 frequent words (K2), academic word list (AWL), and off the list words (OLW). The results indicated that the topic JPA produced a higher proportion of K1 and content words, whereas DPI generated more K2 and off the list words. None of the vocabulary profiles, however, significantly differed according to the students’ reading proficiency. In contrast, proficient writers were found to use significantly more K1 and function words than their counterparts. With the topic effect further considered, for JPA, proficient writers used more K1 words and function words whereas less proficient writers used more K2 and off the list words. With regard to DPl, proficient writers were found to use more function words than low proficient writers. Findings are discussed in more detail, along with implications.

This study investigates the effects of the types of tasks and feedback on Korean adult EFL learners' fluency, accuracy, and complexity. A qualitative approach was also added to determine the perceptions that learners and teachers have about task-based instruction (TBI) and feedback types with learning journals, interviews, and stimulated recall. Although the experiment had the limitations of a small size of subjects and short length, certain findings are worth noticing. For both levels of group learners (lower intermediate and higher intermediate), fluency was highest in the descriptive tasks receiving implicit feedback. For accuracy, the rate was highest when both groups performed descriptive tasks receiving explicit feedback. For complexity, only higher intermediate level learners showed substantially higher rates in narrative tasks with explicit feedback. Planning time and the freedom to choose the topic (picture to describe) presumably might have affected fluency and accuracy in descriptive tasks. Accuracy was found to have been more affected by explicit feedback that primarily provided corrections on morphosyntactic errors. In addition, the qualitative research on the perceptions that L2 learners and teacher had about their experience with TBI and feedback provides insightful perspectives that are hoped to contribute to designing more effective TBI and interactional corrective feedback. (201)

The purposes of this paper are to report the English proficiency of Korean university students through TOEIC test, and to suggest feasible ways to improve their communicative competence. A total of one thousand and forty-two sophomore students who took the Practical English course participated in this study. The data based on TOEIC scores were analyzed and the major findings revealed that: (1) Although students had slightly higher scores on the written language sections than on the spoken language parts, they had the lowest scores in the grammar section; (2) The total listening comprehension scores were significantly correlated with the total reading scores; (3) There was a high positive correlation between students’ proficiency level and their scores; (4) Multiple regression analysis showed that part 3 (short conversations) influenced significantly on the total listening part, while part 6 (grammar) had a significant effect on the total reading part. In conclusion, these findings contribute to the emerging picture of what constitutes a successful language learner by proposing a more refined model based on Willis’. In conclusion, the results of this study offer several suggestions for language teaching professionals as providers of effective instruction of communication strategies for enhancing the development of communicative competence.