• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.317-337
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• 2010

The present study has a dual purpose to investigate the current state of school English library and needs required for its effective use, and to propose a reading program at the school library. The literature on school library was reviewed. A questionnaire survey was done to find out the current situation of English library at the secondary school. The analysis of 26 secondary English teachers' responses reveals that there was the absence of librarians or reading specialists at the school English library. It was also found that the uses of the English library were limited due to the absence of the specialists, no guidelines, and no link between the curriculum and the library use. A case study on a 2-week special reading program at the school English library was conducted and 15 middle school students took part in the project. The participants took pre- and post-tests to identify their reading level using a software and did a variety of reading activities using the books selected according to their level. The comparison of the tests shows that most of the students' reading level improved after the reading program. The analysis of their views on the program and its effects reveals that they gained confidence in reading and their vocabulary understanding was improved. Some suggestions are made for the effective management of the school English library.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.141-160
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• 2010

This study aims to analyze the effects of explicit lexical collocation instruction on grammatical collocation knowledge, by focusing on the preposition collocations. The forty participants consisting of twenty men and twenty women are currently freshmen English majors in college. They responded to the questionnaire on their basic lexical learning strategies in pre-post tests, and carried out a lexical collocation test and a preposition collocation test as pre-post tests. They took the open class on the lexical collocations(LC) 5 times, but they did not concretely study any grammatical collocations(GC). Each test is analyzed and compared with pre-post tests by SPSS 12.0. From all the analyses, it was first revealed that most students who didn't know about the concepts, types and uses of collocations became aware of them after the class. The effects of the lexical collocations on the lexical collocation knowledge were quite revealing. Second, the correlations between the lexical collocations and grammatical collocations were not significant, although relations among the lexical collocations were quite significant. Finally, some suggestions for methods of mixed lexical chunks instruction are made for students' productive skills. Also, it is suggested that more profound attention should be paid to giving direct instructions on the basis of the lexico-grammatical continuum between LC and GC.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.345-364
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• 2009

This study attempts to provide a comprehensive framework for listening strategy use among university students in Korea in relation to TOEIC listening scores. In particular, this study tests whether motivation, based on the self-determination theory, mediates listening strategy use on listening comprehension (LC) process and whether reading comprehension ability moderates the use of listening strategy in LC achievement. One hundred seventy six freshmen students participated in the study during their first semester required English course. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess students' motivation and LC strategy use. The responses were statistically analyzed via the moderator and mediator model. The results indicate that internalized motivation mediates the use of listening strategy in LC achievement; however, reading comprehension skill doesn't affect students' use of listening strategies in relation to listening skill achievement. In other words, students who have internalized motivation were able to utilize listening strategies effectively in terms of achievement of the TOEIC listening skills. The findings of the current study offer in-depth understanding of the relationship among use of LC strategies, intrinsic motivation, and listening skill achievement shared by the mediator and moderator models.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.291-311
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the English reading strategies of Korean secondary EFL learners by their personality types. The study was conducted with 112 middle school students and 100 high school students in Korea. The instrument used for personality measurement was the MBTI test. A reading strategy questionnaire was used to see how frequently each reading strategy was used while students read passages in English. The collected data was analyzed using t-test and two-way ANOVA to see the differences between high school and middle school students in terms of personality types. The results of the study demonstrated that there were significant differences in strategies used by the two groups of students and high school students used more reading strategies than middle school students. It was also found that the students exhibited some differences in reading strategy use depending on their personality types, especially between the N(Intuition) and S(Sensing) types. For example, students with N(Intuition) types used more vocabulary-comprehension, guessing, and metacogntive strategies than S(Sensing) types. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for classroom English teachers are discussed based on the results of the current study.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.217-235
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• 2009

This study aimed to explore how the Korean university students' reading motivation is related to their English (L2) reading behavior. The construct of the students' Korean (L1) and L2 reading motivation was investigated with the data obtained through the questionnaire from 120 sophomore students. A factor analysis was conducted to extract the major factors of motivation and determine the interrelationship among items in the questionnaire. As a result, 6 factors were extracted: Intrinsic Motivation for English Reading, Extrinsic Motivation 1 (Immediate Goal Orientedness), Extrinsic Motivation 2 (Integrative Orientation), Importance of L1 Reading, Intrinsic Motivation toward L1 reading, and Importance of L2 Reading Skill. The interrelatedness between the assessment results on the L2 reading behavior (reading amount, time and speed) and motivation factors was measured by correlation coefficients. It was found that Intrinsic Motivation toward English Reading was significantly related to the students' reading amount and Intrinsic Motivation toward Korean Reading had positive association with the students' reading time with statistical significance. Other factors did not show significant correlation with the students' reading behavior. In addition, the students' reading speed was significantly related to their reading amount as well, while reading time did not affect the speed gain.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.19-34
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• 2010

This study investigates how EFL learners' chunking ability both in oral and silent reading affects reading comprehension, and how the chunking ability in silent reading relates to that of oral reading. The participants of this study consisted of 30 Korean university students taking a required 'English Reading' course. Chunking is a technique of grouping words into meaningful syntactic units for better understanding. Chunking was measured from pauses in oral reading. Results of this study suggest that the participants who can chunk properly both orally and silently display better comprehension of texts in general. However, chunking in silent reading was found to be a stronger indicator of improved reading comprehension. Also, the chunking skills in silent reading showed a statistically strong correlation with those observed in oral reading, suggesting that the chunking ability in silent reading may develop in parallel with that of oral reading. Oral as well as silent reading should be continuously practiced to improve reading comprehension of all levels of EFL learners, including low levels of learners. There is also a need to encourage students to read aloud with appropriate prosodic cues to help them read in meaningful units of words, therefore increasing EFL learners' comprehension not only in reading but also in listening.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.157-175
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• 2009

This paper offers a critical review of a newspaper argument regarding the problems of high school education assessment for university entrance examination system in the United Kingdom. The media account raises three sets of questioning to hold that the nation's long-standing A-levels have failed and is no longer viable as a high-stakes test. However, it is found that the writer's argumentations involving misleading conceptions can be deconstructed because of invalid reasoning and unreliable evidence. So, it is proposed that a reasonable solution to replace the discredited A-level exams should be to adopt an eclectic approach for assessing candidates' multiple capabilities; performance, potentiality and critical thinking skills. These criteria for component-oriented assessments are designed to measure their high school academic achievements and intellectual capacity for tertiary education; in the process of such measurement, critical-logical reasoning abilities for sound judgment and problem-solving tasks should be incorporated with the basic precondition that each university possesses its own discretion for the determination of adequate proportions to reflect each of the assessment outcomes. It is, therefore, expected that this critical review will inspire the readers to understand aspects of assessment as an educational field and to confirm how seriously they may be misguided by a distorted media argumentation without substantive background knowledge.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.231-251
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• 2010

This study was designed to identify students' perceptions and attitudes towards dictation practice in English listening classes and investigate the relationships among 5 factors with regard to dictation practice: participation, usefulness, interest, motivation, and confidence. For the study, the research was implemented for 15 weeks with 41 Korean university students. The subjects had dictation practice in their English listening classes on a regular basis for one semester. At the end of the semester, a questionnaire was used to find out students' perceptions and attitudes towards dictation practice. For the analysis of the subject's responses, first, a descriptive analysis was administered. After that, a correlation analysis was done to explore what the relations among 5 factors were. Results indicated that most students actively participated in the class, and they regarded dictation as a very useful practice in their listening classes. Also, the dictation practice motivated students not only for English listening but also for overall English studying. However, more than two third students showed low interest and confidence in the class. As for the correlations among 5 factors, there were very strong correlations between usefulness and motivation, usefulness and confidence, interest and motivation, interest and confidence, and confidence and motivation. Based on the results, some implications were presented and some guidelines for effective dictation practice were suggested.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.55-74
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• 2009

Although a considerable amount of research on discourse signaling cues has been conducted in reading, little attention has been paid to such cues in the area of listening. Moreover, despite the solid evidence showing that cues have beneficial effects for reading comprehension, L2 listening research has produced mixed findings about the role of cues. Such discrepancies among these findings might be due in part to inadequate research methodologies as well as the idiosyncratic features of their experimental designs. However, no study, to date, has thoroughly examined the research designs of listening comprehension studies on cues. Consequently, this study critically evaluates the present state of research designs and reporting practices of studies investigating the role of cues in listening comprehension. The present study aims to provide insights into areas that require empirical attention and systematic investigation. It also seeks to encourage improved and refined research practices for future studies. This paper is organized as follows: It will first critically review the empirical findings regarding cues in the area of L1 listening comprehension. Second, it will present a critical evaluation of L2 listening studies on cues. Finally, it will address the major research design issues of currently available listening studies and provide suggestions for improvement in future research.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.63-90
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• 2007

The present study investigated what combination of three form-focused options - explicit explanation, production practice, and corrective feedback - may be effective in helping low-proficiency learners improve accuracy in communicative writing. The subjects were 34 Korean university students enrolled in 'Business English 1' and the study lasted 11 weeks. The relative clause structure was selected as the target structure. The study found that the combination of explicit explanation, sentence-level production practice, communicative writing practice, and recasts had a significantly greater effect on improved accuracy than the combination of communicative writing practice and recasts and that of explicit explanation, communicative writing practice, and recasts. Because the second and third combinations didn't lead to significantly improved accuracy, it can be concluded that of the form-focused options forming the first combination sentence-level production practice made a decisive contribution to the significant increase in accuracy. It also found that the provision of self-correcting opportunities before providing recasts on errors committed in sentence-level production practice resulted in significantly greater accuracy in communicative writing than the provision of recasts alone on them. The results of the study suggest that we should make low-proficiency Korean learners have sentence-level production practice which is intensive and focused and make them self-correct targeted errors before providing them with narrowly focused recasts in order to help them to improve writing accuracy.