Grammar Learning and the English Conversation Class in Korea

Piercy, Stephen R. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1996 語文學硏究 Vol.4 No.-

In Korea there is a rigid distinction between learning English grammar, which is done at school and taught by Koreans, and practicing English conversation, which is done mainly at private language schools and taught by native speakers, usually untrained in ESL teaching. The purpose of the conversation class is to give learners the opportunity to develop fluency in the grammar and vocabulary they have learned at school. Unfortunately, the assumption that Korean learners are good at grammar as a result of their years of study at school is not true. They need to develop their structural accuracy of English as well as their fluency. Recent research into foreign language acquisition suggests that instruction based on fluency activities, although effective in developing fluency, is not so effective in developing accuracy of language. It would seem, therefore, that the so-called conversation class in Korea needs to find a delicate balance between form-based and meaning-based instruction. This means more than dividing class time between conversational activities and studying grammar. In fact, finding this delicate balance is a task for professionals trained in ESL teaching.

Collins COBUILD 의 영어 학습 과정에 대한 평가

Piercy, Stephen R. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1998 語文學硏究 Vol.7 No.-

COBUILD, a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers, is an acronym standing for Collins Birmingham University International Language Database and the COBUILD project is based on the exploitation of the huge language database, the Bank of English, at Birmingham University. At the theoretical level the project is concerned with corpus linguistics, lexicography and the development of analytic software; at the practical level COBUILD has published a wide range of accessible English language teaching reference materials including dictionaries, grammars, books on usage, phrasal verbs, vocabulary, prepositions, and a three-stage English course. All of these materials draw their examples of language usage from Birmingham University's Bank of English which now has over 300 million words of text. The Bank of English comprises a wide range of language, both writing and speech, including books, magazines, unscripted radio broadcasts and casual conversation with data from Britain, the United States and Australia. The Birmingham corpus, however, is not completely inclusive: it does not include highly technical language or non-standard dialects. Researchers worldwide can gain access to a 50 million word sample of the Bank of English via a subscription service on the Internet called CobuildDirect. This paper is concerned with an evaluation of one aspect of the COBUILD project, the COBUILD English course. This course represents a radical departure from conventional course text books. In that it: * follows a lexical approach to language teaching which rejects the traditional distinction between structure and vocabulary * rejects the presentation, practice, production (PPP) scheme of teaching, adopted by most textbooks, and widely taught on teacher-training courses. * uses real language, especially unscripted conversations by native speakers, for language input. * uses task based activities for communicative practice. * employs conscious raising activities to promote language awareness. This paper examines the implications of each of the above features of the COBUILD course and finds that the novel approach of the course is one which teachers can profit from if only to reflect on their own teaching practice in the light of the insights provided by the COBUILD course.

Culture Learning : A Necessary Part of Language Learning

Piercy, StephenR. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1996 語文學硏究 Vol.4 No.-

· Introduction · Why learn about culture? · General criteria for selection of material · Minimum content: Areas of study In recent years the importance of culture learning as an essential component of language learning has received much attention. Many commentators have felt that incidental culture learning is inadequate, and have argued for a more systematic approach. Three reasons for learning about a foreign culture are given: it helps the learner to understand why certain linguistic forms are appropriate or inappropriate; it helps the learner to understand and accept forms of behavior that are the norm in the target language, but may be unacceptable in the learner's culture; it helps learners adopt a more global less ethnocentric outlook. If culture learning is to be systematic a careful selection of materials has to be made in a way that learners can try to understand alternative interpretations of the world and compare and contrast them with those of their own culture. The selection of materials and areas of study should have the aim of providing learners with a basis for orientating to the behavior, talk and texts they meet in the foreign environment.

Strategies for Teaching EFL Composition

Piercy, Stephen 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1998 語文學硏究 Vol.8 No.-

This paper describes a project to identify some of the problems reporters of an English language magazine at a Korean university experience writing English and to try out strategies that may help them overcome these problems. The students' problems in writing English were identified from articles published in their magazine. The activities written for and carried out with the students were based as much as possible on authentic articles and aimed to raise the students' awareness of some selected features of effective writing that had a direct bearing on their own writing. This project was treated as a post-writing clinic. Taking the articles in one particular issue of the magazine as a starting point, the main aim was to help the student reporters become aware wherever possible of how professional writers have tackled similar problems to the ones they face.

Teaching English Through English : The situation in Korean middle schools and high schools

Piercy, StephenR. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1996 語文學硏究 Vol.4 No.-

· The current situation · Method · Experience of and attitudes towards Teaching English through English · Spoken English proficiency required to teach English through English · Factors that make it difficult for teachers to teach English through English · Conclusion This research project investigated the opinions and practices of high school and middle school teachers of English in Korea on the issue of teaching English through English. Specifically, it attempted to find out the extent to which these teachers use English in the classroom, their attitudes to the efficacy of using English, and the factors that they feel make it difficult for them to use English communicatively in their classes. Questionnaires were distributed to and completed by 103 teachers of English at middle schools and high schools. The numbers were almost equally divided between high schools and middle schools: 52 teachers from high schools, 51 teachers from middle schools. The respondents to the questionnaires were attending a summer course on teaching methods and general English conversation. All taught at schools in Kyongido and all had between five and ten years teaching experience. Although these teachers clearly do not represent a random sample of teachers in Korea, it is hoped that their responses give an indication of how Korean teachers feel about teaching English through English. The responses to the questionnaires were broken down and analyzed in terms of factors such as sex and type of school. The results of the survey are discussed in relation to social, cultural and historical factors relating to the teaching of English in Korea. The results of the survey show, as expected, that the teachers do not use English much in their classes. Many teachers do not feel confident about their own proficiency in communicative English. They also cite other reasons such as class size, lack of training in communicative English techniques and the demands of the curriculum and external examinations. However, most of the teachers showed an accommodating or positive attitude towards the gradual implementation on a national scale of teaching English through English. The factors cited by the respondents as making it difficult to teach English through English are discussed and found to be reasonable and understandable, but not insurmountable.

Autonomy and Communicative Teaching : Are they relevant to Asian Learners ?

Piercy, Steven R. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 2000 語文學硏究 Vol.10 No.-

It is sometimes argued that mainstream ELT concepts such as autonomy and communicative language teaching reflect western cultural values and may be of limited relevance to teachers and learners from other cultures. This paper examines the validity of this view by first examining Jones'(1995) discussion of the concept of autonomy in the context of setting up a self-access centre at a university in Canbodia. A weakness of Jones' argument is that he fails to take sufficient account of the importance of group autonomy in an Asian context. An important strength of his approach, however, is that he points out the importance of accepting existing cultural behavioral patterns as a given that may be modified but not overridden. He also advocates that those who will be affected by a proposed change should be involved in its implementation. In the light of these important principles, the remainder of the paper discusses the problems of introducing communicative teaching methods in middle schools and high schools in Korea. The Korean Ministry of Education's proposals for the adoption of communicative teaching methods have so far had little success. Reasons for this are examined in relation to Korean teachers' perception of the constraints they face in using communicative teaching techniques. Finally, a possible solution to facilitating the introduction of communicative teaching techniques in schools in Korea is suggested that embraces both cultural sensitivity and autonomy in that it takes Korean teachers' perceived need for English language development as its starting point and tries to allow the teachers as much possible scope to develop their own approach to communicative teaching.

An Analysis of a Newspaper Editorial According to the Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis

Piercy, Stephen R. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 2001 語文學硏究 Vol.11 No.-

This paper is an attempt to analyze an editorial from The Times newspaper of London according to the principles of critical discourse analysis. The editorial is on the issue of whether the Elgin Marbles, as they are called in Britain, should remain at the British Museum in London or be returned to Greece in accordance with the repeated demands of the Greek government. This is a controversy with profound ideological implications including even the question of which country and its culture, Britain or Greece, best represents the heritage of the civilisation of Ancient Greece which is universally acknowledged as the cradle of Western civilisation. Critical discourse analysis goes beyond the analysis of text and looks for realisations of the social practice that underlies the text. The organisation of this paper broadly follows the suggestions made by Fairclough (1992) in which he recommends proceeding from an analysis of discourse practice at a macro level, through an analysis of the text and aspects of discourse practice at a micro level, to an analysis of the social practice and ideology of which the discourse is a part.

Task-based Learning

Piercy, Stephen R. 상명대학교 어문학연구소 2000 語文學硏究 Vol.9 No.-

This study will investigate whether the methodology of task-based learning can realistically be regarded as a new paradigm replacing the hegemony of Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) in second language teaching methodology. The principles underlining task-based learning will be examined in contrast to the principles underlying Presentation, Practice, Production and in relation to recent research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Since the 1970s Presentation, Practice, Production has been the dominant methodology in second language teaching. Recently, backed by research in SLA, task-based learning has been advocated as a more realistic and superior methodology, although some have dismissed TBL as yet another fad in the history of ELT.

The Internet as a Resource for Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language

Piercy, Stephen 상명대학교 어문학연구소 1997 語文學硏究 Vol.6 No.-

These days many EFL/ESL teachers have access to the Internet, but few use it as a teaching resource. The main reason for this is probably a lack of knowledge of the resources available on the Internet for English Language Teaching (ELT). The purpose of this paper is to point out the different types of ELT materials available for access on the Internet, where the materials can be found, and how they can be used. ELT resources on the Internet are discussed in this paper under the following categories: Resources for normal classroom use: Teachers can access and download lesson plans and other prepared materials. They can also access a wider range of authentic texts from newspapers, magazines and other sources than are normally available to a teacher in paper form. Resources that contribute to teacher development: These resources include articles on the theory and practice of EFL/ESL teaching in online journals and discussion forums. The latter enable teachers to discuss problems and ideas with other teachers anywhere in the world. The Internet can also provide information to teachers on future events, such as conferences, and training courses throughout the world. Other practical tasks: Teachers can order EFL books from online bookstores and search for employment opportunities. CALL software resources: The Internet has a huge amount of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) software that can be downloaded at no charge. The Internet as a medium for student language practice: Students can practice English on the Internet using online interactive exercises. They can consult online reference materials such as grammars and dictionaries and ask for advice on grammar. Students can find pen-pals on the Internet who they communicate with by e-mail. They can participate in special discussion lists set up for EFL/ESL students. They can 'chat' in real time with other language learners and teachers. Teachers whose students have Internet access can arrange for the students to conduct online projects. This can be a research project in which students find out information which is then written about and discussed in class, or the publication of a class web page. The conclusion of this study is that the Internet is a rich source of ELT material for teachers, and although at present the Internet is not much used as a medium for student language practice, this situation is likely to change in the near future with the geometrical growth of the World Wide Web.

대화의 인종학적 접근

( Stephen R. Piercy ) 상명대학교 어문학연구소 2003 語文學硏究 Vol.13 No.-