• 한국영어학회지:영어학
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.181-210
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• 2003

The purpose of the study was to investigate how Korean EFL writing instructors give feedback to their students' writing and what influences their feedback. A total of 12 Korean EFL instructors in Korean universities teaching freshman English and intermediate EFL writing courses provided their feedback given on students' writing samples and participated in interviews. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively with a constant comparative approach and some data from writing samples and questionnaires produced descriptive statistics. The first lesson from the results of the study was that grammar was still the most frequent concern in giving feedback on students' writing. Contrary to the participants' report, comments on content and organization were not produced very often. The second lesson came from the interview data. Some aspects of teacher feedback seemed mostly influenced by their beliefs on L2 writing and experience in teaching L2 writing. The final and major lesson was that teachers chose how they would give comments on students' writing depending on whether they found their feedback helpful in students learning to write. EFL writing teachers can produce effective feedback by clearly communicating their beliefs about L2 writing and criteria in their feedback to students in their EFL writing classrooms.

• Educational Technology International
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.71-94
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• 2011

How can an automated essay scoring (AES) program, which provides feedback for essays, be a formative tool for improving ESL writing? In spite of the increasing demands for English writing proficiency, English writing instruction has not been effective for teaching and learning because of a lack of timely and accurate feedback. In this context, AES as a possible solution has been gaining the attention of educators and scholars in ESL/EFL writing education because it can provide consistent and prompt feedback for student writers. This experimental study examined the impact of different types of feedback for a college ESL writing program using the Criterion AES system. The results reveal the positive impact of AES in a college-level ESL course and differences between the teacher's feedback and the AES feedback. The findings suggest that AES can be effectively integrated into ESL writing instruction as a formative assessment tool.

• 비교문화연구
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• 제20권
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• pp.67-111
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• 2010

This paper examined the role of intermediate texts in the writing process in the context of an EFL composition class. From the tradition of teacher research, this study examined how the Korean college students in different proficiency groups created intermediate texts and used them while composing their own writing. The students produced various types of intermediate texts during the compositing process, which could serve as a basis of their writing. However, the patterns of using these intermediate texts differed widely across the proficiency groups. A writing cycle for the low proficiency group, or "surface reading-few intermediate texts-writing," indicates that less proficient students tended to engage in reading in separation of writing practices and thus produced few intermediate texts through their literacy practices. On the other hand, the students in the higher proficiency groups revealed the more integrated pattern (i.e., purpose reading/intermediate texts/writing), indicating that they often engaged in reading with specific writing purposes, practiced reading in connection to other writing practices, and elaborated written intermediate texts produced. This study argues that, to shift our student writers to a higher level category, we as teachers need to help them engage in reading and writing practices in the way they produce and use intermediate texts appropriate to their specific writing purposes.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제3호
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• pp.1-12
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• 1997

Errors in EFL writing are very often attributable to learner's inadequate understanding of the target culture. Most of these errors are very hard to identify because they are grammatically correct notwithstanding the meaning. EFL learners almost habitually equate the meaning and usage of a linguistic item when it is present both in the native and the target languages. However, seemingly identical items in both languages sometimes prove themselves to be distinct from each other because of cultural differences. Some expressions in the native language are neither socially acceptable nor meaningful in the target language. Out of sheer ignorance, moreover, one puts a target item in the way he may use it in his native language. For instance. the primary feature of the term "friend" in Korean is [+same age group]. So, a Korean young man is not supposed to call his teacher a friend. This paper aims to clarify patterns of college level writing errors caused by interference of mother culture.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.23-47
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• 2011

This study investigates the effect of peer tutoring and peer tutor training program on Korean university students' EFL writing. Six tutors and twelve tutees have participated in the experiment. The tutors were divided into untrained and trained groups each of which was assigned to teach six tutees. The three peer tutors in the experimental group received training on how to give peer tutoring. After the pre-test, the tutees wrote series of drafts on three topics and received written feedback from their peer tutors via email. The results of the post-test showed improvement in writing scores in both groups. The tutees in the trained peer tutor group, however, showed much greater improvement. Their improvement was also more consistent, and the score differences between the two groups increased over time. Analysis of the peer tutors' written feedback indicated that the trained tutors focused more on the higher order concerns in writing than the untrained ones did. In the questionnaire all tutees responded positively to the peer tutoring experience. The results indicate that peer tutor training programs may have beneficial effects on Korean university students' writing abilities especially in the elements of higher order concerns.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.127-152
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• 2006

For the past 20 years the process approach to writing has been popular in second language writing classrooms. However, there have been very few studies conducted in Korea with regard to the composing processes and the effects of proficiency on writers' usage. The present study attempts to begin to fill this gap. Three groups of college students with different writing proficiency participated in the study: the advanced group, the intermediate group, and the beginning group. The verbal protocol of their writing processes revealed that they approached writing tasks differently. While the advanced writers focused on generating texts and ideas and examined their writing at both global and local levels, the other two groups of students tended to focus on evaluating text at the local level and generated fewer ideas and less text. The findings from this study are then compared to those of some major studies of the composing process as conclusions are subsequently drawn about the specific needs of Korean college writers.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.77-98
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• 2005

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether focus-on-form instruction is effective in promoting accuracy in writing and to make some suggestions regarding education in business English writing. For this purpose, an experiment, of which the participants were 29 college sophomores taking a course in business English, was made. The learners received instruction in the English nouns followed by modificatory phrases or clauses through the focus-on-form techniques, feedback and explicit explanation. The results were as follows: First, the learners who received focus-on-form instruction improved accuracy in writing. Second, there was a correlation between the learners' English proficiency levels and the effects of focus-on-form instruction. Third, the high level learners showed more positive attitude toward focus-on-form instruction than the low level ones. To promote accuracy in written business communication, the following suggestions were made on the basis of the results: First, focus-on-form instruction should be incorporated into a content-based business English class. Second, repeated focus-on-form instruction is needed. Third, learners' English proficiency levels should be taken into account when focus-on-form instruction is given.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.177-191
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• 2011

This paper examines nursing professionals' English abstract to learn their preferences towards tense and voice choices. A total of 24 abstracts, completed reviews to be published by the editorial board members of the Korea Industrial Nursing Association, were analyzed for the study. Each sentence in the four parts of the abstract (Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion) was examined and classified into active/passive voices, and present/past/present perfect tenses. Verbs were then further identified to see which ones were commonly preferred to state the objectives of the study, methods, and to draw conclusions. Hedging expressions in Conclusion were also examined. The results of the present study revealed that Purpose was mostly (79%) stated in the past tense with slight use (17%) of the present tense in the form of 58% active and 42% passive voice whereas Methods were dominantly (96%) illustrated in the past tense with preference of mixed active and passive voice. The Results were also preferably (92%) stated in past tense and Conclusion in both present and past tense. Verbs used by these nursing professionals seemed diverse; however, hedging appeared to be narrowly limited to a few expressions including suggest and should. More diverse English hedging expressions need to be taught at least college level writing so that the EFL learners and writers can have a better understanding of presenting statements in an appropriate level of caution, confidence, or uncertainty.