Ko, Bo-Ai. 2018. “Thematic Patterns in Formal Email Writing of Korean EFL College Learners”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(1). 31~59. This study explores the Theme types and the thematic progression in the formal email writings of Korean EFL college learners, based on the Theme-Rheme analytical framework of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). Data was collected from 99 college students, enrolled in an English Writing Composition course during the second semester of 2017 via a cyber university in Korea. Their main writing activity involved email writings in the form of requesting primarily based on the Genre Approach. Text analysis was conducted with the comparison of the high- scoring group (15), the medium-scoring group (15) and the low-scoring group (15), based on assessment of the course assignment. Employing the coding step of identifying the Theme and Rheme of each T-unit, the text analysis sought to figure out which Theme types were used for each T-unit and which thematic progression patterns were used for overall text flow and cohesion. The key finding was that there were certain discourse-specific thematic patterns of formal email writing. Among the range of thematic features, this study will highlight marked Themes, interpersonal Themes and thematic choices of nominalization for the purpose of formal email writing texts.

This study investigates how input modes and text types influence Korean college learners’ CALL listening and their perception of their concentration, comprehension and anxiety. The current study employed three input modes (listening-only, listening-with-subtitles, and listening-with-transcripts) and two text types (lectures and dialogues). The major findings are as follows: 1) subtitles or a transcript enhanced learner’s listening comprehension; 2) subtitles were the most helpful input mode whereas transcripts may have imposed more cognitive load to decode the reading; 3) the text types influenced CALL listening comprehension, but the familiarity effect may have been more dominant for more literate text types such as lectures; 4) apart from the higher English proficiency student’s perceived concentration, the two written input modes were perceived as beneficial tools for their concentration, comprehension, and reduced anxiety; 5) in particular, the lower English proficiency students tended to perceive the transcript as advantageous although they did not actually benefit from the transcript for their listening comprehension as much as they perceived. The pedagogical implications of the present study is subtitles and transcripts can be efficient pedagogical tools to draw learners’ attention to linguistic features or organization of the content to foster language ability. When designing CALL listening classes or applications, individual learners’ differences should be taken into account as well.

There has been considerable research which investigates whether the underlying linguistic competence of L2 learners is constrained by principles and parameters of UG, parallel to the situation in L1 acquisition. In terms of the Scope Principle (henceforth SP), a principle of UG, which is associated with the scope interaction between a quantified expression and a wh-phrase, some experimental studies in EFL settings were conducted to investigate whether or not interlanguage grammars can be characterized by the principle. These experiments were carried out through the Truth Value Judgment Task (henceforth TVJT) alone, showing contrasting and confusing results, especially between Japanese learners and Korean learners. That is, while Japanese EFL learners observed the SP, Korean EFL learners did not despite the fact that both Japanese L1 grammar and Korean L1 grammar disallow the distributive interpretation, especially in the ambiguous sentence like what does everyone have? Therefore, the present study aims to confirm whether the same results are obtained provided that the identical experiment using the TVJT is repeated in other EFL learners. Noticeably, this study employed an additional, complementary task (Question and Answer Task, QAT) in addition to the TVJT as an attempt to increase the accuracy of the task and reflect learners’ actual knowledge of the target features. In QAT, the subjects were asked to write the answers to the target questions involving quantifiers and wh-questions in English. Results from the TVJT appeared, on the face of it, to provide support for the claim that the Korean EFL learners are under control of the Scope Principle. However, findings from QAT revealed that they are not constrained by the principle. Thus, it would be reasonable to conclude that the results of the present experiment do not fully support the claim that the Korean EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar has access to the UG-driven Scope Principle. Instead, it can be argued that Korean learners' interlanguage grammar may be affected by their L1 grammar, which gives rise to the claim that the explicit instruction on the interpretation of those sentences is required as part of overcoming this problem.

The present study aimed at examining Korean college learners’ academic achievements and views in flipped classrooms. In total, 89 students with two different levels of English proficiency (45 in beginning class and 44 in intermediate class) participated in the study. All participants had pre-and post-test, and they responded to two surveys. Also, 15 students participated in the follow-up interview. The results showed that students’ academic achievements in the intermediate class were statistically significant in their post-test (p<.05) although those in the beginning class did not show any significance. Regarding students’ views on the approach, the findings revealed that many students in the beginning class considered the flipped learning skeptical while half students in the intermediate class perceived the approach positively. The results suggested that the flipped learning approach may not be an effective learning approach for beginning English learners. Finally, pedagogical implications and future research were discussed.

Youn-Kyoung Lee. 2017. The Effect of Problem-Based Learning on Korean College Learners’ English Vocabulary Learning. Studies in Modern Grammar 96, 253-270. The present study aimed at examining the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on English vocabulary learning in a Korean college context. In total, 52 students participated in the study. The PBL class (n=26) was assigned to the experimental group, and the non-PBL class (n=26) was the control group. Both group had the same curriculum. All participants had pre-and postvocabulary test, and 12 students participated in the follow-up interview. The results showed that there were significant differences between the two groups on the post-vocabulary test (p<.05). The PBL participants’ interview data revealed that PBL provided sufficient English conversation practice and opportunities of scaffolding. The findings suggest that PBL should be applied to foster Korean college learners’ ability of English vocabulary learning.