• Title/Summary/Keyword: EFL writing

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Citation Practices in Academic Corpora: Implications for EAP Writing

  • Min, Su-Jung
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.113-126
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    • 2004
  • Explicit reference to the work of other authors is an essential feature of most academic research writings. Corpus analysis of academic text can reveal much about what writers actually do and why they do so. Application of corpus tools in language education has been well documented by many scholars (Pedersen, 1995, Swales, 1990, Thompson, 2000). They demonstrate how computer technology can assist in the effective analysis of corpus based data. For teaching purposes, tills recent research provides insights in the areas of English for Academe Purposes (EAP). The need for such support is evident when students have to use appropriate citations in their writings. Using Swales' (1990) division of citation forms into integral and non-integral and Thompson and Tnbble's (2001) classification scheme, this paper codifies academic texts in a corpus. The texts are academic research articles from different disciplines. The results lead into a comparison of the citation practices m different disciplines. Finally, it is argued that the information obtained in this study is useful for EAP writing courses in EFL countries.

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Error Analysis: What Problems do Learners Face in the Production of the English Passive Voice?

  • Jung, Woo-Hyun
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.19-40
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    • 2006
  • This paper deals with a part-specific analysis of grammatical errors in the production of the English passive in writing. The purpose of the study is dual: to explore common error types in forming the passive; and to provide plausible sources of the errors, with special attention to the role of the native language. To this end, this study obtained a large amount of data from Korean EFL university students using an essay writing task. The results show that in forming the passive sentence, errors were made in various ways and that the most common problem was the formation of the be-auxiliary, in particular, the proper use of tense and S-V agreement. Another important finding was that the global errors found in this study were not necessarily those with the greatest frequency. Also corroborated was the general claim that many factors work together to account for errors. In many cases, interlingual and intralingual factors were shown to interact with each other to explain the passive errors made by Korean students. On the basis of the results, suggestions are made for effective and well-formed use of the passive sentence.

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The Perception of Pre-service English Teachers' use of AI Translation Tools in EFL Writing (영작문 도구로서의 인공지능번역 활용에 대한 초등예비교사의 인식연구)

  • Jaeseok Yang
    • The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.121-128
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    • 2024
  • With the recent rise in the use of AI-based online translation tools, interest in their methods and effects on education has grown. This study involved 30 prospective elementary school teachers who completed an English writing task using an AI-based online translation tool. The study focused on assessing the impact of these tools on English writing skills and their practical applications. It examined the usability, educational value, and the advantages and disadvantages of the AI translation tool. Through data collected via writing tests, surveys, and interviews, the study revealed that the use of translation tools positively affects English writing skills. From the learners' perspective, these tools were perceived to provide support and convenience for learning. However, there was also recognition of the need for educational strategies to effectively use these tools, alongside concerns about methods to enhance the completeness or accuracy of translations and the potential for over-reliance on the tools. The study concluded that for effective utilization of translation tools, the implementation of educational strategies and the role of the teacher are crucial.

In My Opinion: Modality in Japanese EFL Learners' Argumentative Essays

  • Pemberton, Christine
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.57-72
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    • 2020
  • This study seeks to add to the current understanding of learners' use of modality in argumentative writing. A learner corpus of argumentative essays on four topics was created and compared to native English speaker data from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). The relationship between learners' use of modal devices (MDs) and the devices' appearance in the school's curriculum was also examined. The results showed that learners relied on a very narrow range of MDs compared to those in previous studies. The frequency of use of MDs varied based on the topic and did not seem to be driven by cultural factors as has been previously suggested. Learners used more hedges than boosters on all topics, contradicting most previous studies. Curriculum was determined to have a direct correlation with MD use, and other important factors may include perception of topic and overreliance on certain MDs over others (the One-to-One principal). This research implies that learners' perception of topic should be explored further as a variable affecting MD use. Curricula should be designed based on frequency of MD use by English native speakers, and learners should receive instruction that teaches the norms of MD use in academic writing. The methodology used in the study to determine correlations between MD use and the curriculum has a wide range of potential applications in the field of Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis.

A Study on Korean EFL Collegians' Approach to L2 Writing Based on Metacognition and Affectivity (상위인지와 정서에 기반한 외국어 학습방법에 대한 연구)

  • Kang, Mi-Jeong;Joo, Chi-Woon
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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    • v.15 no.10
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    • pp.183-190
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    • 2010
  • The present study attempted to identify the metacognitive strategies used by L2 writers at the university level as well as their particular aspects which might influence the use of these strategies. Twenty-seven participants, all of whom were enrolled in an English course, were asked to write an expository essay and then complete a questionnaire which includes their beliefs and attitudes toward L2 writing experience and the metacognitive strategies during the writing process. It was found that even though inexpert writers knew and employed as many strategies as the expert counterparts did, they were unsuccessful in the quality of their texts. Simply possessing a repertoire of metacognitive strategies was not enough for successful L2 writing. The failure of the inexpert writers to apply these metacognitive strategies in an effective manner was influenced by affective factors such as anxiety, self-confidence, self-concept, etc. As a result of this study, a pedagogical implication is suggested.

Information Structure and the Use of the English Existential Construction in Korean Learner English

  • Lee, Hanjung
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.57 no.6
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    • pp.1017-1041
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    • 2011
  • This study investigates Korean EFL learners' awareness and use of the English existential there-construction by examining data collected from 54 Korean EFL learners of English by means of a pragmalinguistic judgment task and a controlled discourse completion task. The results of the judgment task reveal that lower proficiency learners rated canonical sentences and existentials with a preposed locative best in the communicative situations where the use of existentials would have been most appropriate. A comparison of the ratings by more proficient learners and native speakers shows that existentials received highest ratings by both groups where they are the most natural option, while canonical sentences received significantly higher ratings by the learners. With regard to the production data, learners tended to avoid existentials, but rather relied on canonical sentences. Existentials were rarely used by lower proficiency learners and not used productively even by more proficient learners in the situations where existentials would have been the most natural option. These results suggest that Korean learners' difficulty with the use of existentials is not merely a product of performance limitations, but attributable to limited knowledge about existentials and their syntactic alternatives in terms of contextual appropriateness. Lower proficiency learners lack such knowledge, and more proficient learners, while showing better awareness of the use of existentials, have problems as to the placement of new information when engaging in writing tasks that place lower level of demands on attention to the information status of noun phrases compared to communicative, oral tasks.

Utility of Literary Works in English Education (영어교육에 있어서 영문학의 효용성)

  • Lee, Jongbok
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.18 no.8
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    • pp.157-165
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of general use of English literary works. It will be helpful for both general English learners and college students majoring English Education in ESL or EFL context. English literature is very useful pedagogical tool in the language class due to its unique valuable characteristics including authenticity, cultural and linguistic value, and personal enrichment, which impact on fostering English ability of EFL students. For this reason, it is unavoidable to develop a theory and practice regarding using English literature as an educational resource for college students in Korea. In this study several considerations will be discussed in terms of selection of the literary works to be applied for language learning purpose in the classrooms of universities in Korea. Such attentions will include fours skills of English such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. Finally, some effects and implications of using literary text as a pedagogical tool in the EFL language classrooms will be discussed.

Writing Listening Logs and Its Effect on Improving L2 Students' Metacognitive Awareness and Listening Proficiency

  • Lee, You-Jin;Cha, Kyung-Whan
    • International Journal of Contents
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.50-67
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    • 2020
  • This study investigated whether writing weekly listening logs could influence college English learners' metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency. In addition, the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) was applied to examine the learners' knowledge of their listening process. It is process-oriented research conducted by analyzing the MALQ and students' listening logs as to how their metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency have changed during the semester. Eighty-nine students who took an English listening practice course at a university participated in this study. The research findings are as follows. First, it turned out that there was a significant relationship between EFL university students' listening comprehension and some subscales of metacognitive awareness. Second, the students had an opportunity to reflect on learning through regular listening activities, and weekly listening logs, which included important information about listening process and practice. Third, as the students' listening proficiency increased at the end of the semester, it was found that introducing listening logs along with classroom lessons helped the students improve their listening ability. Finally, the high proficiency group students used multiple strategies simultaneously, regardless of the type of listening strategies, while the low proficiency group students used one or two limited listening strategies. However, the low proficiency group students may have had trouble expressing their ideas in English or recognizing the listening strategies they used, not because they did not use a lot of listening strategies. Therefore, teachers should regularly check if students are following their instructions and help them use appropriate strategies for better understanding.

Engaging pre-service English teachers in the rubric development and the evaluation of a creative English poetry (예비 영어교사 주도에 의한 영미시 평가표 제작 및 평가 수행에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Ho;Jun, So-Yeon
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.339-356
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    • 2011
  • This study explored pre-service English teachers' participation in the development of a rubric and examined evaluation of their own English poetry. The current study would investigate: 1) the pre-service English teachers' perception as a rubric developer and self-evaluator, 2) the number of analytic area that the participants included in their rubrics and the scoring scheme that they designed in their rubrics, and 3) the inter-rater differences between self-assessemnt and expert-assessment across analytic areas. Twenty-four EFL learners participated in the current study. The researchers analyzed the learners' own English poetry, their field notes which contained the process of their writing, their rubrics, scores of self-assessment, and expert raters' scores. The results revealed that learners showed positive responses on learner-directed assessment, that 'content' is the most important area, and that inter-rater difference is small across all analytic areas.

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Identifying Key Grammatical Errors of Japanese English as a Foreign Language Learners in a Learner Corpus: Toward Focused Grammar Instruction with Data-Driven Learning

  • Atsushi Mizumoto;Yoichi Watari
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.25-42
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    • 2023
  • The number of studies on data-driven learning (DDL) has increased in recent years, and DDL's overall effectiveness as an L2 (second language) teaching methodology has been reported to be high. However, the degree of its effectiveness in grammar instruction, particularly for the goal of correcting errors in L2 writing, is still unclear. To provide guidelines for focused grammar instruction with DDL in the Japanese classroom setting, we aimed to identify the typical grammatical errors made by Japanese learners in the Cambridge Learner Corpus First Certificate in English (CLC FCE) dataset. The results revealed that three error types (nouns, articles, and prepositions) should be addressed in DDL grammar instruction for Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. In light of the findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future DDL research and practice are discussed.