The purpose of the current study is to present a class model of SQ3R instruction, which consists of 5 stages of reading strategy, Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review for foreign language learning and to investigate its effects on learners’ self-efficacy and their reading comprehension. Five reading steps of reading strategy were instructed associated with skill practices, annotating, note-taking and summary outlining. A total of 23 students in a college academic reading class participated in the study. Students’ self-selected academic reading materials were used for the course. Reading self-efficacy survey and the academic reading part of IELTS practice test were conducted before and after the instruction. Student products such as annotated texts and reaction writing as well as portfolios were collected and analyzed. The survey and academic reading test results indicated that the learners’ reading self-efficacy and their reading ability were improved and that the students seemed to have gained more confidence in academic reading.

When one is reading or writing, various forms of bottom-up knowledge—e.g., grammar, vocabulary, orthography, and the mechanics of written language—interact with the top-down processes at the level of discourse. One of the reasons English language learners encounter a lot of difficulty when they are engaged in academic reading and writing is that they have been taught grammar only at the sentence level and not at the discourse level. In order to illustrate how discourse-based grammar instruction can facilitate the acquisition of academic reading and writing, this paper discusses various ways in which the following four topics can be dealt with at the discourse level: cohesion, the tense and aspect system, comma usage, and existential there. Obviously, discourse-based grammar instruction should be integrated with the teaching of the other top-down and bottom-up skills necessary for academic reading and writing. EFL teachers, however, need to know more about discourse grammar to effectively make their learners aware of it and to offer them learning activities that will contribute to better reading comprehension and written production.

A large number of foreign students enroll at Korean universities each year. Although a good command of the Korean language is crucial for them to be successful in their studies, and both university authorities and teaching staff now agree that students’ language ability needs to be tested before their admission, a valid and reliable test of academic Korean is still to be developed. The aim of this paper was twofold: to determine the Korean language proficiency level and language task types that are necessary to succeed at the university level in Korea; and to determine test specifications that could be used by examiners to appraise university candidates’ language skills. To develop such specifications, Common European Framework (CEF) descriptors of language proficiency were used. These descriptors can be used as indicators showing which language tasks a candidate should be able to do at a certain level. To create test specifications, academically relevant descriptors were selected and task types associated with each were analyzed. Many descriptors associated with the B2 level of the CEF were used to determine the language achievement level necessary for university students in Korea. Information about linguistic input and output associated with each language task type was also gained and applied from CEF descriptors.