Earticle

This study investigates how Korean English speakers (KESs) perceive East-Asian English speakers (EAESs) in view of World Englishes (WE). Two surveys were used to examine KESs’ awareness of WE and their perceptions of six EAESs from China, Japan, and Korea. one hundred and ninety-three college students participated in this study and 23 interviewees were randomly selected for rounds of interviews to triangulate the survey data. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in the four categories: (1) belief in learning pronunciation: (2) views of Inner Circle (IC) speakers, (3) preference for interaction with IC English speakers, and (4) willingness to communicate (WTC) with Outer Circle (OC)/ Expanding Circle (EC) speakers through MANOVA. According to the combined results of t-tests, there were also 31 statistically significant differences in KESs’ perceptions between the high and low groups in all the WE categories except for the interaction with IC English speakers depending on the levels of their awareness of WE. The KESs in this study manifested cognitive ambivalence which means the participants felt dissonance in their feelings between valuing non-native accents and yearning for native-like pronunciation. Lastly, this study discusses some important factors related to identities and ownerships of English as WE speakers along with some suggestions for further research on WE.

The present study investigates the effects of two types of intention-oriented input-based approaches ―intentional learning-induced instruction (INT＋) and incidental learning-induced instruction (INT－) on learners' recognition and production of English request hedges. The results demonstrated that the INT＋and INT－groups performed significantly better than the control group on an acceptability judgment test (an unplanned written judgment test). There were no statistically significant differences between the two experimental groups on the acceptability judgment test, which suggested that the incidental input-based learning took place and had some effects on recognizing English request hedges. In other words, it showed that incidental learning became possible in recognizing English hedges when learners were able to attend to and became aware of both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic resources of English request hedges. However, a comparison of those learners in the two treatment groups in a discourse completion test (an unplanned written-production test) indicated an advantage for the INT＋group and implied that the intentional input-based learning involving processing of English polite requests through pragmalinguistic-sociopragmatic connection contributed more to producing English requests hedges.

While a number of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) studies have examined the linguistic features extracted from research paper corpora based on “frequency” and “range,” few attempts have been made to examine whether these criteria meet the perspectives of actual readers and writers of research papers, or to explore the relationship between linguistic features and textual organization. This paper attempts to reveal the nature of expressions researchers consider “useful” by comparing them with those generated based on frequency and examining their relationship with structural segments (moves) of research papers. In the study, over 20,000 English expressions were extracted from the perspectives of as many as 51 researchers from 15 disciplines at a research-oriented university in Japan. With a focus on one- and four-word expressions, the main findings show use of salient adverbial expressions, noun phrases without post-modifier fragments in the researcher-selected expressions, and the existence of expression-dependent and expression-independent moves. The findings reflect researchers’ multiple perspectives, such as linking and creating words and phrases, which would increase and improve learners’ means of expression. The results of the study provide an interdisciplinary expression corpus with contextual information, which may be used to complement frequency-based expression resources.

The present study investigated the effect of English proficiency on the expression of epistemic modality in English argumentative writing produced by Korean undergraduates. It compared three levels of learner corpora with each other and with a corpus of native speaker writing. The findings point to three aspects of L2 writing development with regard to epistemic modality. First, higher level writers utilized a broader range of types of epistemic devices than did the lower level writers. Second, concomitant with higher proficiency was a more even distribution of grammatical classes of epistemic items through greater reliance on modal verbs, nouns and adjectives and less dependence on lexical verbs and adverbs. The higher proficiency writer also exhibited a greater ability to use combinations of epistemic devices from different grammatical classes in diverse syntactic contexts. Third, relatively more skilled writers employed fewer epistemic devices from the semantic category of certainty and more from probability than less skilled ones. From a developmental viewpoint, these concurrent modifications in the use of epistemic devices indicate in the learners' progressive approximation to native-speaker-like expression of epistemic modality.

Recurrent word combinations that carry out specific function have long captured the attention of many linguists. Referred to as extended collocations, lexical bundles are frequently used in spoken and written discourse, helping to shape meaning and coherence in a text or speech. Frequent use of these bundles is indicative of fluency in linguistic production. In the last two decades, lexical bundles have begun to attract considerable attention in corpus-based research; however, there is still an open question of whether they are different across disciplines in spoken discourse. This study aims to explore how four-word lexical bundles are used in 24 academic lectures of hard and soft sciences taken from the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus to see the possible variations in their frequency, structure and function. The present research also attempts to discover the manifestation of the identified bundles in introduction, body and closing sections of the lectures. Findings revealed some marked variations across the two divisions; in that, lecturers in each division appeared to apply different structures and functions in the use of lexical bundles in order to convey their message, so as to be as comprehensive as possible for the learners.

Chunking has been demonstrated to improve reading comprehension. In order to understand the function of using chunks to aid reading, learners require knowledge of syntactic structures and the ability to use them in practice. In this study, participants received instructions relating to syntactic structure and were asked to practice reading using chunks. This study aimed to quantitatively assess whether the ability to practice chunking accurately could improve reading comprehension skills. Thereafter, records of learning achievement (i.e., chunking tests and English-to-Japanese translation practice conducted during classes) were qualitatively analyzed, and attempts were made to clarify the process by which participants acquired chunking and improved their reading comprehension skills. Additionally, factors contributing to the improvement of reading comprehension skills were explored. The findings showed that chunking errors decreased when participants received continued instructions on chunking methods and syntactic structures. However, a decrease in chunking errors was not always associated with improved reading comprehension skills. Reading comprehension was most affected by differences in the acquisition and implementation of knowledge of syntactic structure.

To enhance students' English proficiency and equip them with competitiveness in the workplace, an increasing number of universities/colleges in Taiwan have established English certification exit requirements, through which students must choose from and pass an array of English proficiency tests such as the GEPT, TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS in order to graduate. The goal of this study is to determine whether the exit requirements have brought "teaching to the test" to tertiary institutions or rather have acted to motivate teachers to integrate listening, reading, writing and speaking skills with lesson content to improve students' communicative competence. Data was collected from two groups of technical colleges throughout Taiwan, one group with and one group without exit requirements. The researcher distributed 160 teachers' questionnaires, interviewed 25 teachers, and observed about 50 English class sessions to appraise tertiary-level teaching washback. Findings indicated that the exit requirements have elicited a minor degree of changes in teaching. Teachers consider test factors and test-related activities the lowest priority in their selection of materials and pedagogy. However, a significant difference was found that teachers at schools with exit requirements have a higher consideration of test factors and employ more related activities than their counterparts.

There is an abundance of literature readily available on the affective benefits that English drama can offer in L2 learning and how to use it in the language classroom (Davies, 1990; Kim, 1998; Park, 2011). However, there is a lack of studies which investigated the direct effects of English drama on the learning of target expressions and structures. The present study intends to address this lack. Forty nine primary school students participated in English drama class for 8 weeks. The results of Post-test I demonstrated that English drama was an effective aid for participants to learn the expressions that appeared in the play. In Posttest II, the participants were found to be able to utilize the learned expressions in new situations half of the times. They depended heavily upon formulaic speech (Ellis, 1994) rather than creative speech, producing either a perfect sentence or nothing. In this paper, we researchers gave this the term, 'All-or-nothing phenomenon'. Additional important findings include male students’ superiority over female students in the retrieval of expressions gleaned from the roles of others. However, female students were better in remembering and using their own lines rather than their counterparts, when given new situations.