The research examines the types and causes of L2 writing anxiety Korean EFL learners experience and the influence of study abroad experience on L2 writing anxiety types. For the current study, a total of 128 university students majoring in different subjects responded to a questionnaire consisting of the three parts, including 1) the background questionnaire, 2) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), and 3) Causes of Writing Anxiety Inventory (CWAI). In order to analyse the collected data, descriptive statistics and an independent sample t-test were employed. The results showed that the participants were more likely to face cognitive anxiety than somatic anxiety and avoidance behavior. Moreover, L2 learners’ previous study abroad experience had an impact on avoidance behavior more than cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety. It was also found that main causes of L2 writing anxiety are learners’ linguistic difficulties, fear of teachers’ negative comments, and insufficient writing practice. Based on the findings, both implications for teaching English writing and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Conventional flipped learning instructional models are operated in a blended learning environment online and offline. In contrast, this study moved onto fully online systems and explored how a sense of presence worked for students’ learning outcomes at university English writing courses. The two research questions for this study are: 1) What is the relationship between a sense of presence (teaching, cognitive, social presence) and learning outcomes (group cohesion, class satisfaction)? and 2) What are the variables among a sense of presence that affect group cohesion and class satisfaction? For the purposes of this study, 46 university students from English composition courses answered student questionnaires in the spring of 2021. Correlation and multiple-regression analyses were conducted to look into the relationships among the variables. Additionally, focus-group interviews were conducted and teaching journals were analyzed. The major findings were revealed as follows: Firstly, a sense of presence was significantly related to group cohesion and satisfaction. Secondly, social presence and cognitive presence only had a predictive power of group cohesion. Thirdly, cognitive presence and teaching presence were significant predictors of class satisfaction. Pedagogical implications are discussed for those interested in applying flipped learning in a fully online setting.

This study investigated features of L2 classroom-based teacher-student writing conference and student subsequent revision from the perspective of languaging. A non-native teacher and four non-native students participated in the writing conference about two tasks of summary and critical review in an intact college ESL composition classroom. Eight video-recorded conference sessions were analyzed regarding discourse topics (language use vs. content/rhetoric), and configuration of negotiation and scaffolding. Discourse topics were found to interact with task types as more issues about content and rhetoric were addressed for critical review. Configurations of negotiation and scaffolding were found to be similar in both tasks. Scaffolding was dominant in language use talks while negotiation and scaffolding were balanced in content/rhetoric talks. As for making meaning and student revision, the quality of negotiation was more critical than the quantity. Non-extensive scaffolding also led to successful revision along with students’ background knowledge and classroom instruction. The findings demonstrate dynamics of writing tasks, conferences, and student revision.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the process-genre approach on EFL learners’ writing improvement. A total of 48 Chinese college freshmen students participated in this study, and they were divided into high-level (n=20) and low-level (n=28) groups. All the participants were instructed by the same teacher in the College English class for 14 weeks, during which they were taught how to compose in three writing genres: narration, exposition, and argumentation. After comparing the writing scores of pre- and post-tests from both groups, it can be concluded that the processgenre approach is helpful in enhancing the EFL learners’ writing competence because both groups of students had significantly improved their writing abilities. Besides, both group learners attained a salient achievement in expository writing after they were trained by the process-genre approach. Compared with the high-level learners, the low-level learners made larger progress in all three writing genres. It indicates that enough teaching time and teacher’s scaffolding systems are crucial for the learners’ writing development.

This study was designed to explore effective techniques to be used in IERW (Integrated English Reading and Writing) classes for college students. The study last for 15 weeks and included 457 students and 11 instructors at E University. The participants were freshmen who were taking a compulsory English reading and writing class, and the instructors were seven native English speakers and four Koreans. To ensure the effectiveness of IERW classes, it is important to identify what teaching activities are being used and which activities students prefer. To address these issues, the instructors were interviewed regarding their teaching activities in IERW classes. From the interview results, a survey was made that asked students which class activities they consider useful. The results show that most students responded positively to the activities that the instructors were using, with a preference of around 70 percent. Notably, pair or group activities were rated as less favorable than other activities, with a score of under 50 percent. Some implications of the findings and suggestions for teaching activities for IERW classes are provided.

This study examined the language choice for modality patterns to express the degree of probability specifically in email texts based on Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) analytical framework. Participants were students enrolled in an English writing composition course at an online-based Korean university. They were required to write an email thanking their professor, in which they stated their future plans (definite or indefinite) with a degree of probability. The text analysis was compared with two groups of students' scores (high-scoring group n=40 and low-scoring group n=29), based on an assessment of the course assignment. After building up two learner corpora, UAM Corpus Tool version 3.0 was used to analyze the language choice closely using a modality system of the SFG framework. The high-scoring group showed more range and frequency in the use of modal verbs combined with a modal Adjunct or another modal expression. Explicit teaching on the importance of expressing the appropriate degree of probability using a range of modality devices, rather than relying heavily on the primary modality (choice of modal verbs) is highlighted as a pedagogical implication.

This study investigated EFL college students’ culture-related templates of written texts along the possibility of inter-cultural transfer. We designed a case study to explore how certain cultural assumptions contribute to EFL students’ rhetorical decisions while writing an argumentative writing. The participants were four EFL college students. Multiple data sources include background questionnaires, argumentative essays, and in-depth retrospective interviews. To analyze rhetorical choices in the participants’ writing, we identified choices of argumentation subtypes, and introduction and conclusion components. We also categorized the location of the writer’s main claim and thesis statement. The interview data were qualitatively analyzed to see what rhetorical resources participants draw from the cultural/educational contexts, and which factors had influenced the participants’ rhetorical strategy. Data analyses indicate that each participant manipulated different rhetorical structures to strengthen the rhetorical impact of their writing. Indeed, the complex constellation of individual participants’ cultural resources was at play in their L2 writing. This study contributes to our understanding of the rhetorical templates of L2 texts as constructs that are always in process, and therefore adaptable and negotiable.

The purpose of this study is to investigate error patterns in EFL college students’ English writing as well as their change over time, based on the teacher’s feedback. In order to accomplish this purpose, two research questions were constructed; first, what are the characteristics of Korean EFL students’ writing based on the maturity of English sentence by the T-unit analysis? Second, what types of error patterns are produced in Korean EFL students’ writing? Also, how do the error patterns change based on the teacher’s feedback over time? The participants were four Korean EFL college students, and they were asked to pre-write, draft, revise and edit until they completed their final draft. The results of pre- and post-writing test were also analyzed. The major findings are as follows: 1) The mean number of T-unit among participants was 42.25 units, and the mean number of words per T-unit was 10.95 words. 2) The most frequently committed errors were found out as lexical and morphological errors. Moreover, the rate of lexical and sentence structure errors has been dropped, whereas the rate of punctuation errors has increased as the teacher’s feedback progressed over time. Pedagogical and practical suggestions are also made on the effective teaching of English writing in Korean classroom settings.

Park, Yong-Yae. 2018. “Advice Receiving in College EFL Writing Tutorials”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(1). 159~200. This paper explores interactional practices observed in advice receiving by the tutees in college EFL writing tutorials within the framework of conversation analysis. The data for the study include 24 audio-recorded writing tutorial sessions at a university in Korea. The findings indicate three types of advice receiving: 1) advice receiving with marked acknowledgments using a:: (‘oh’) to mark the advice to be informative and newsworthy; 2) advice receiving with unmarked acknowledgments; and 3) advice resisting. Advice resisting can be further divided into three types, that is, (1) making excuses, (2) complaining, and (3) disagreeing. In the first two types of advice resisting, the tutors' advice deals with various problematic areas in the tutee's writing, and the tutees resist advice by pointing out their inability to do what is advised or complaining about the complexity of the task. The third type, disagreeing, takes place when the tutees resist the tutors' advice on vocabulary choices. These resisting patterns seem to differ from those observed elsewhere (cf, Heritage and Sefi 1992) and reflect the nature of the tutorials and the particular tutees in this study. Finally, the study suggests some pedagogical implications on EFL learning and tutor training.

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.

By examining two low-proficiency EFL students’ experiences of reading literature, and of writing about what they have read during a semester-long reading/writing course, we investigate literature’s place in EFL writing classes. We also observe whether using literature in EFL writing classes lead to successful synergies among LW (learning-to-write), WLL (writing-to-learn language), and WLC (writing-tolearn content). We adopt a case study methodology. The participants, Mia and Sun, are first-year students who attend a private university in Seoul. Both students favor the inclusion of literature in the reading-writing classroom. Mia experiences the literature-reading-writing connection mainly as language knowledge, with the strong appreciation for WLL perspective. By comparison, Sun concerns for LW dimensions of writing, together with the WLL perspective. This study provides evidence that literature-reading-writing connection serves as a vehicle not only for a rich reading experience but also for the synergistic learning of writing, content, and language.

Employing Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Grammar approach, the present study examines the Korean EFL college students’ way of organizing thematic structures in written English texts, with special focus on the influence of learner proficiency. A total of 150 learners’ argumentative essays consisting of 50 essays each from three levels of learner groups were compared with 50 essays from its native counterparts, with inquiry focused on the thematic selection, usage of various theme features, and semantic distribution of topical themes. The results show that textual themes, multiple themes, and first person pronouns as topical themes are highly overused in the learner texts compared to the native essays. Overall, the level of proficiency significantly affects learners’ choices regarding thematic structures although the enhanced proficiency does not involve the improvement in all aspects of thematic organization. From these findings, it is suggested that the EFL writing pedagogy should pay greater attention to the effective use of thematic organization as a means of enhancing textual coherence and embrace level-specific instructions.

This paper investigated the use of of, the most frequently occurring preposition, in essays written by 416 matriculants at a Korean university. The learner corpus consisting of these essays contained 1,250 tokens of of, and these tokens were first analyzed according to their functions, i.e., integrative, separative, idiomatic, and others, adapted from Lindstromberg’s (2010) categorization of the functions of of. To ascertain what types of errors were made regarding of, the 46 tokens of of identified as errors were further categorized as addition, misordering, misformation, or wrong position. Of these four categories, addition was found to be the most frequently occurring type of error (31 of the 46 tokens), while wrong preposition and misformation accounted for ten and three tokens, respectively. No tokens of misordering were found, however. Also noteworthy is the finding that, albeit occurring mostly in simple constructions and basic functions, of was used accurately in over 95% of all the tokens found in the learner corpus.

This study examines the effects of the integrated reading-writing tasks (e.g., writing summaries or reflective essays) on college students’ writing performance. A pre-test and a post-test which consisted of reading comprehension questions and a writing task were administered to 207 EFL college students at the beginning and end of a semester. The data was analyzed both quantitatively using ANOVA and post-hoc test, and qualitatively using a questionnaire survey and interviews. The mean scores of the posttest for the classes which utilized the integrated reading-writing tasks were higher than that of the control group. Also, higher level students in the two experimental groups and a control group showed that there were improvements between the pre-test and post-test, specifically in the treatment groups. The analyses of the questionnaire survey and interviews revealed that the treatment groups which integrated reading-writing in class perceived writing summaries and reflective essays as helpful and effective tools for enhancing their writing ability. The overall results of the study indicated that implementing the integrative approaches to language instruction in the EFL classroom is beneficial in improving learners’ writing performance regardless of the learners’ proficiency level.

This study examined how Chinese college students react to their writing teachers’ corrective feedback (CF). A total of 1,077 students completed a survey questionnaire consisting of two parts: participants’ general information and their reactions to teachers’ CF. It was found that students had positive feelings towards CF, and that they gave the most attention to the problems at the micro-level. They believed that teacher CF could help them greatly with revision in organization, vocabulary, and grammar, but that it was not so helpful with problems in content. Failure to comprehend or make corrections based on their teacher CF was reported. In such cases, some students tended to employ very limited strategies, or they responded to CF in a passive manner. Accordingly, it is suggested that further qualitative research also be conducted to obtain a fuller and finer picture of students’ reactions to their teacher’s CF on their writings.

This study used focus group transcripts and blog entries to explore the experiences of five Korean community college students in a course designed to promote second language (L2) writing development. To provide an in-depth look at this experience from the learner’s perspective, the author was “embedded” in this writing course, taking on the role of participant-researcher. Through multiple readings and coding of data from focus groups and students’ shared blogs, five relevant themes emerged from the students’ discourse: internalization; depersonalization; simplification; bonding; and approbation. From consideration of the students’ perspectives on their experiences in the writing class, suggestions for improving the experience of Korean and other L2 writing students are proposed, including use of relevant and accessible writing topics. The cohesiveness established through the discussion activities in the current study may have benefited participants’ motivational and strategic adaptation, suggesting that such sharing of experiences could be helpful for L2 writing students.

The current study aimed to explore how students’ L2 writing self-efficacy and interest contribute to strategy use and writing performance. An exploratory factor analysis with 212 Korean college students’ self-reported motivation scores revealed three underlying constructs of self-efficacy, communicative interest, and instrumental interest. Subsequent multiple regression analyses indicated significant positive relations between self-efficacy and the five types of strategy use. Communicative interest appeared to positively contribute to use of planning,monitoring, and compensatory strategies. Instrumental interest was a predictor of retrieval and compensatory strategies. L2 writing strategy use was a statistically significant but minor contributor to L2 writing performance. The current study also suggests that students’ instrumental interest and communicative interest should be balanced. Further research is needed to identify mitigating effects of L2writing strategy use for motivation and performance development.

This paper examines how Korean college EFL students use contrastive conjunctions in their argumentative writing in comparison with native speaker college students’ use of them. The data consists of a Korean college students’ writing corpus, which was divided into a lower proficiency group and a higher proficiency group, and an American and British university students’ writing corpus. The findings reveal that the first two most frequently occurring forms are but and however in all four groups,although the usage patterns such as positioning differ between the NS and the NNS groups. The third most frequent form is on the other hand in both NNS groups and yet in both NS groups, which shows an interesting difference in that the NNS groups hardly use yet in their writing. Both NNS groups also show frequent misuses of conjunctive adverbials such as in contrast, on the contrary, and on the other hand. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications and suggestions.