This paper aims to investigate Korean EFL learners’ pragmatic performance in request speech acts in comparison with native speakers of English. Written discourse completion tasks (WDCT) are used to examine how native and non-native speakers request in terms of request strategies, internal modifications, and external modifications. The results show that first, Korean learners had a higher frequency of inappropriate strategies than native speakers. Second, they lacked the quantity and variety of internal modifications both lexically and syntactically. However, regarding external modifications, their use of supportive moves was similar to that of natives in frequency and order. In addition, this study identified newly emergent supportive moves that are Korean-specific and detrimental to communication goals. The findings shed light on pragmatic instruction in the Korean EFL situation by providing research-informed data. Several pedagogical implications are suggested for application in teaching.

In this paper analyzed the features of how native Korean speakers (K) and native Vietnamese Korean learners (VKL) organize the Apology conversation, focusing on the functional phase. Based on the discourse analysis, a role play was conducted to collect data. In order to investigate the influence of social variables (social status, intimacy), learners' mother tongues and learners' Korean proficiency, different social variables were given in role-play situations, and learners' Korean proficiency was limited to intermediate and advanced levels. The results of analyzing conversations focusing on ‘Error Checking–Apology-Apology Acceptance’, which is the intermediate phase of Apology conversation, are as follows. First, in the Error Checking Phase, K tended to make indirect or preliminary remarks. In contrast, VKL immediately presented communication purposes, and advanced VKL tended to use indirect speech and additional statement. Second, in the Apology phase, the higher social status the other party has and the lower intimacy the two speakers has, the more passive K were. Interestingly, VKL showed the same pattern. For intermediate-level VKL, it was observed that the dialogue sequences were not completed. Third, in the Apology Acceptance phase, K repeatedly expressed apologies through complex dialogue sequences. However, VKL performed a concise conversation by simple dialogue sequences, and the intermediate-level VKL expressed ‘relief’ and ‘gratitude’.

Este estudio aborda el aprendizaje de la pronunciación en español como una tercera lengua por parte de los hablantes nativos de coreano en los EEUU. Específicamente, profundiza en las características de sus pronunciaciones, las perspectivas desde las que se pueden entender las pronunciaciones y los puntos que los investigadores de L3 deben tener en cuenta para examinar sus pronunciaciones. Para ello, primero este estudio presenta modelos sobre la percepción y producción de L2, así como modelos sobre la morfosintaxis de L3. Luego, aplica los principios principales de los modelos a las situaciones y características del aprendizaje que muestran los estudiantes coreanos de español en los EEUU. Por último, con base en los fundamentos teóricos y sus características del aprendizaje, hace sugerencias para estudios empíricos que examinen la pronunciación de español como L3. Este estudio puede ser útil para los estudiantes coreanos de español como L3 y sus padres, profesores de español e investigadores de L3. Además, algunas sugerencias de este estudio se pueden aplicar a los estudiantes coreanos de español como L3 que viven en Corea y países angloparlantes que no sean los EEUU.

Okamura, Kana. 2017. “Korean Native Speakers’ Perception of and Responses to Interrogative Greetings”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(1). 143~165. This research examines (1) if native speakers of Korean perceive phrases such as “어디 가 (Where are you going)?” and “밥 먹었어 (Have you eaten)?” as questions or as greetings, and (2) how speakers respond to these phrases. Various expressions are used as greetings in Korean, but interrogative greetings in particular are considered to be widely favored because they express personal interest in the interlocutor. Previous studies claim that because the phrases function more as greetings than questions, it is enough to respond with a general answer rather than an honest or detailed answer. To verify this claim, a questionnaire was distributed to 144 native Korean speakers in their 20s. The degree of intimacy between the speakers and the circumstances of the interaction were used to investigate the perception of and responses to interrogative greetings. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire results found that while the phrases do function as greetings, they still retain their interrogative function, and as such, many native speakers give honest answers such as “응, 먹었어 (Yes, I ate).” Additionally, interlocutor intimacy and situation did indeed influence how the phrases are perceived and answered.

The purpose of this study is to investigate university students’ perceptions on their English conversation classes taught by native English speakers. Its focus is on finding out how well the students understand and how actively they participate in class, what causes difficulty in their understanding or participation in class, and whether their class helps them in terms of affective aspects and English skills. A survey was conducted on a total of 465 university students in Korea, and the collected data were analyzed to compute basic descriptive and inferential statistics. Some of the important findings are 1) over 50% of the students understand their classes well; 2) a little over 30% actively participate in class; 3) about 30~50% of the students perceive their class help them affectively; and 4) about 50% of the students perceive their class help them improve their English skills in general. These results are discussed along with other findings related to the causes of the difficulties that the students experienced. Suggestions are provided on the basis of the results and their implications.

The study aims to tind out the patterns of negotiation of meaning among non-native speakers in CMC environment, particularly in video conference mode. The two Chinese students and two Korean students participated in 12 video conference sessions and accomplished infonnation gap tasks for 6 weeks. The researchers compared the patterns of negotiation of meaning occurred during video conferencing of two group settings: the same ethnic group and the different ethnic group settings. The research results show that in the same ethnic groups, lexical errors and content triggered most meaning negotiations while content and phonological errors in the different ethnic group settings. There is a clear tendency to indicate non-understanding of a lexical trigger through a local indicator in the same ethnic group while global nonunderstanding indicators caused by phonological and content triggers occurred more frequently in the different ethnic groups. At the response stage, in the same ethnic groups, rephrasing and elaboration were the most commonly used strategies to minimize non-understanding whereas in different ethnic groups, about half the responses fa ll in the category of minimal. The effects of video conferencing as a CMC tool and the advantages of non-native interactions as a way to promote cross-cultural understanding were discussed based on research resu lts.

This study examines the relatively unexplored genre of argumentation for Korean EFL speakers. The data consisted of audio-recordings of a naturally occurring argumentative discussion between two non-native and two native university students. The argumentation was first analyzed by identifying the claims, counter-claims and supports that were made during the discussion. To observe the pragmatic aspects of the argumentative discussion, van Eemeren, Houtlosser, and Henkeman’s 2007 categorization of speech acts amongst the four stages of confrontation, opening, argumentation, and concluding for a critical discussion was examined for the two groups. In addition to the contextual and pragmatic factors, the participants’ perceptions on this genre and their awareness of their performance in stating claims and supports were examined through interviews and questionnaires. The results of the study revealed that there were particular pragmatic aspects which characterized the claims and supports of the participants that won the argument as well as features that differentiated the native and non-native speakers when engaged in argumentation. Suggestions for more instruction for the genre of argumentation in terms of the structure and pragmatic aspects of the content are given.

As English has been rapidly spreading to non-Western communities, we have had numerous varieties of English. In the Outer Circle, English gained an official status, which resulted in nonnative varieties of English. In the Expanding Circle, English achieved the status of the first foreign language. With a range of English varieties, educators and administrators have been faced with controversial questions such as: (1) how to define native speakers of English? and (2) which varieties to teach? This qualitative study investigates four Korean EFL teachers’ perception of speakers of English and the issue of target varieties. Using data from semi-structured interviews and personal conversations collected for one academic semester, the researcher found that the participants considered various features when identifying an individual as a native or nonnative speaker of English. They used to consider ethnicity and nationality important in the past, which have been replaced by language precedence, cultural attachment, native speaker’s intuition, and mutual intelligibility. The findings of this study also demonstrate that American English is regarded as the most preferred variety as an educational target in Korean ELT because of the power that its speakers have.

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the acquisition process of the ellipsis at the end of sentences for Koreans who learn Japanese through the contrast of Chinese and English native speakers. The sample of analysis comes from OPI data. The two results below are described in detail: First, Koreans who learn Japanese use more frequently the ellipsis at the end of sentences under the “Existing-Verb-Clauses” than Chinese and English native speakers. However, the acquisition level goes up, the frequency of usage is getting higher to the point where the acquisition process is inclined to be equal at both side (Koreans who learn Japanese vs Chinese and English native speaker). Second, the formality varies more than Chinese and English native speakers, as well as it appears at the beginning level. The formality includes “「けど」,「から」,「て」,「ので」”.The formality of Chinese and English native speakers is similar to Koreans who learn Japanese at the end of the learning stage.