Korean University Esl Students' Perceptions of Their English Speaking
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KOREAN UNIVERSITY ESL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ENGLISH SPEAKING by Grace S. Kim A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Committee: ___________________________________________ Chair ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Education and Human Development Date: _____________________________________ Summer Semester 2013 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Korean University ESL Students' Perceptions of Their English Speaking A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University By Grace S. Kim Master of Education George Mason University, 1994 Bachelor of Arts University of Virginia, 1988 Director: Elizabeth Sturtevant, Professor College of Education and Human Development Summer 2013 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright: 2013, Grace S. Kim All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my father, Joon Sang Yoo, who instilled in me the love for learning. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank God for letting me study, guiding me through all these years until I finished this dissertation. Without Him, I could not have started or finished this project. I want to thank Dr. Sturtevant for encouraging me and believing in me throughout this long journey. Her proddings, in the darkest hours of deep despair, helped me bounce back to this project multiple times. I want to thank Dr. Maxwell for his clear and sharp eyes that caught any errors in my logic. I want to thank Dr. Osterling for his kindness and genuine interest in my topic and for helping me see the issues in global terms. I want to thank the 10 participants for sharing with me their thoughts about English even though I was a total stranger to them. I pray that your answers help my research lead to some concrete answers to your needs. I want to thank the Handong Global University students in Korea that helped me transcribe verbatim the long hours of interviews in Korean. I want to thank Liz, the APA editor, for cleaning up my paper. I want to thank my husband, Joon, for believing in me and supporting me both morally and financially from start to finish. Without him, I could not even have thought of starting this project. Thank you, Yubo! I want to thank Lauren, Victoria, and Paul for putting up with the perennially-dissertation-mode mom who was always too busy to really be there for them during their formative years. I want to thank my mom who gave me a passionate personality to finish what I start, no matter how hard. I want to thank my father-in-law for blessing me to pursue this project even if it meant separating him from his grandchildren. I want to thank my mother-in-law for believing in me and saying, “yes” as soon as I mentioned this project to her. And I want to thank all my family, friends, and colleagues for their prayers and for frequently asking whether I had finished or not. Your questions were wake-up calls for me to return to my project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………….vii Abstract...............................................................................................................……… viii Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Korean Education………………………………………………………………………….1 English Education in Korea……………………………………………………………….1 English in the US………………………………………………………………………….3 Researcher Identity: ESL/EFL Teacher…………………………………………………...4 Research Questions………………………………………………………………………..4 Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………………….5 Significance of This Study………………………………………………………………...6 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature……………………………………………………….8 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..8 Researcher Identity………………………………………………………………………..9 Part I: Importance of Speaking the Second Language to Improve the Second Language.13 Part II: Context for English Teaching in Korea………………………………………….19 Part III: Studies of ESL Students’ English Speaking in the Classroom………………….28 Summary of the Literature Review………………………………………………………43 Chapter 3: Methods………………………………………………………………………49 Purpose…………………………………………………………………………………...49 Research Questions………………………………………………………………………49 The Sample………………………………………………………………………………50 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………..52 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………….55 Threats to Validity……………………………………………………………………….61 Chapter 4: Results……………………………………………………………………….67 Research Question 1: Why Did These 10 Korean ESL Students Come to the United States?................................................................................................................................67 Research Question 2: What Are the Students’ Perceptions of Their English Speaking and Learning in Korea, in Class and Out of Class?...............................................................116 Research Question 3: What Are the Students’ Perceptions of Their English Speaking and Learning in the United States in Class and Out of Class?...............................................194 v Research Question 4: What Do the ESL Students Think They Could Do—What Would Help Them—to Improve English Speaking in the United States?..................................276 Research Question 5: How Have the Students’ Culture and Experiences Influenced Their Perceptions of Learning English, Especially Speaking?..................................................334 Chapter 5: Discussion…………………………………………………………………..341 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………..341 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………...352 Recommendations………………………………………………………………………353 Future Research………………………………………………………………………...355 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..358 List of References.……………………………………………………………………...363 Biography.………………………………………………………………………………372 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Participant Demographics .................................................................................……50 2 Participants Categorized According to Reason for Coming to United States ……..68 vii ABSTRACT KOREAN UNIVERSITY ESL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ENGLISH SPEAKING Grace S. Kim, PhD George Mason University, 2013 Dissertation Director: Dr. Elizabeth Sturtevant Ten Korean ESL students in a U.S. university English language institute were interviewed for their perceptions of their experiences with English (in particular, with English speaking) in Korea and the US, both in and out of school. This study was conducted to find the factors that led to the difficulties they encountered speaking English in and out of school in the US. Although they had studied English for many years in Korea, a majority of their English curriculum in school and in afterschool academies was preparation for the grammar and reading-based college entrance exam. Also, aspects of Korean classroom culture that they brought with them to the US appeared to inhibit them from utilizing ESL classrooms as a place to practice English speaking. Outside of school, they had difficulties making American friends who could help them improve English. This often led them to resort to the company of other Korean international students, further preventing them from improving English speaking although they had come to the US for that very reason. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Korean Education Koreans are very interested in education; their literacy rate is 99 percent, the highest of any country at a similar level of economic development (Oh, 2012). However, the whole educational system from kindergarten to high school has been described as a preparation of college-ready students (Card, 2005; Seth, 2002). For Koreans, getting into what they consider to be a good college can improve their socioeconomic status, including even finding a suitable marriage partner in terms of social status and financial assets (Shin & Koh, 2005). In this context, the CSAT (College Scholastic Aptitude Test) that high school students in Korea take at the end of their senior year is extremely important, and English is one of the three most important subjects tested. English Education in Korea In the last several decades, learning English has been called a “mania” in South Korea (Park & Abelmann, 2004, p. 646). Especially in the last two decades, Koreans have invested tremendous amounts of time and money in learning English. In 1995, under President Kim Young Sam, English lessons were started four years earlier, in third grade in public elementary schools, than previously, in middle school. In addition, for faster acquisition of English, many students from kindergarten to university continued to take private English lessons outside of school or to even go abroad to study in English- 1 speaking countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2005, according to the data from the Korean Immigration Office and the National Statistical Office, 222,605 people left Korea to learn English. In addition to the time investments, as of 2006, Koreans were spending about three to four trillion dollars on English education yearly (Bae, 2006). Why is English this important to Koreans? First, a Korean who is proficient in English gains a global, competitive status within Korea. Dr. Pak, a sociologist at Kyunghee University (in Seoul) said that Koreans believe that globalization is the only method of survival in these