Can EFL Speakers Communicate in English-mediated Classes?: A Case of a Liberal Arts Class for Engineering Students in Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to explore what factors prevent English as a foreign language (EFL) students from participating in English-medium instruction classes; and (2) to examine how dialogic teaching techniques enhance students’ participation in classroom interaction. Utilizing the notions of “communicative competence” and “truncated repertoire,” we first investigated the barriers to communication in classrooms. We next examined how EFL speakers are able to communicate in English-medium instruction (EMI) classes. The findings suggest that when the instruction was designed to reduce cultural barriers and to facilitate authentic discussion, EFL students were able to participate in classroom interaction, and they perceived discussion as a way to learn an unfamiliar subject taught in English.

Keywords:

• English-medium Instruction (EMI)
• Communicative Competence
• Truncated Repertoire
• Dialogic Teaching
• Authentic Discussion
• Classroom Participation

Acknowledgments

A modified version of this paper was presented at the International Colloquium on English as an Official Language in UNIST, November 15, 2013. We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and constructive feedback.

Notes

1. The transcript partially follows the conventions of conversational analysis (Sacks, Schefloff, & Jefferson, 1974).

Transcription conventions: “=” = latching (overlap between adjacent turns), :: = lengthened vowel, hhh = laughter, (xxx) = uncertain or undecipherable, CAPS = loud speech, underline = utterance highlighted for analytic purposes, (.) = pause, “text” = quoted speech, ( ) = description of speech situation and other paralinguistic features, and [ ] = transcriber’s comments, omitted phrases, or nonliteral translation. “P” indicates “professor,” and “S” indicates “students.” Students are numbered because more than one student is participating in interaction.

Transcription followed the speakers’ verbatim speech as much as possible; therefore, some parts of utterances may be ungrammatical or incomplete sentences because the students are nonnative students.

2. These are the names of nationwide super market chains in Korea.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by National Research Foundation in Korea [grant number NRF- 332-2011-1-A00021] and UNIST policy research grant for G-Project in 2013.

Notes on contributors

Jinsook Choi

Jinsook Choi, assistant professor in UNIST(Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology), has been teaching social science in EFL settings in Korea for five years. As a linguistic anthropologist, she is interested in bilingual education, language and diversity, and cultural identities both in Guatemala and in South Korea.

Bradley Tatar

Bradley Tatar, assistant professor in UNIST, has been teaching social science in EFL settings in Korea for seven years. As an educator, he is interested in constructing learning environments for student engagement and motivation. His social science research interest is political conflict and environmental issues in South Korea and Ecuador.

Jeongyeon Kim

Jeongyeon Kim, assistant professor in UNIST, is a specialist in sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. Her research interests include motivation and achievement, speech act behaviors in EFL environments, and language policy.