2021, Vol.22, No.4

Modern English Education 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.55

pISSN : 1598-0782 / eISSN : 2586-6141
https://journal.kci.go.kr/meeso

Various studies have examined factors affecting the textual cohesion, coherence, and flow of Koreans’ second language writing in English, particularly focusing on articles, connectors, or discourse markers, as well as the overuse and repetitive use of nouns and pronouns. How¬ever, noun use in adjuncts and its effects on information flow and cohesion remain relatively unexplored. This study examines such patterns in an L1 and L2 writing corpus to examine the effects of noun repetition and noun phrase complexity on cohesion. Words counts and multiple variables from Coh-Metrix analysis indicate overuse or repetition of nouns, overuse of cer-tain pronouns, and underuse of syntactic adjuncts, namely, prepositional phrases. Qualitative examination of some essays confirms these patterns of noun usage. The L2 writers relied on simple sentences with few adjuncts that highlight noun or pronoun objects, and some make ineffective or excessive use of lexical and referential cohesion instead of more sophisticated (i.e., grammatically and lexically complex) sentences. This can lead to a more unnatural topic flow and development in paragraphs, with fairly one-dimensional sentence cohesion patterns. Thus, learners need more instruction in noun phrase variety, sentence variety, natural patterns of information flow, and appropriate grammatical sophistication in their paragraphs.

The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of diagnosing second language (L2) learners’ writing skills through a multiple-choice examination by applying a CDM (cognitive diagnosis model). L2 learners’ writing abilities have mostly been assessed using direct methods such as essay tests. However, this method not only requires a large amount of human raters’ labor, but also faces several issues such as intra-rater and inter-rater reliabilities. Essay examinations are also hard to validate because they are limited in checking the internal structure (i.e., conducting factor analysis). To compensate for these limitations, this study developed a multiple-choice examination and validated it with factor analysis and a CDM. The examination consisted of 20 items on key L2 writing components: content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. It was conducted on 109 college students. The CDM analysis revealed that the test was valid based on response processes. It provided substantial information about each test-taker’s various skills. These results imply that L2 learners’ writing abilities can be assessed in an indirect way and that the test can be conducted with a large body of stu-dents to provide useful information regarding their writing abilities at the same time.

Although private education has been accused of widening the learning gap between students and causing burdensome household expenditure, most elementary students start private English education even before the third grade. Research on effects of private education has presented supportive evidence for its effects on academic achievement. However, its effects have been in- vestigated sparsely on motivation and affective aspects of learning. In addition, types of learning contents were not treated seriously in research. This study examined effects of duration and content types of private education on L2 learning motivation, L2 speaking anxiety, L2 communica- tion confidence, and L2 WTC. A survey was conducted with 96 elementary students and survey data were analyzed. Depending on content types, participants were classified into traditional and communicative groups. Results confirmed significant effects of duration and content types of private education on L2 WTC. The amount of time of private education positively predicted L2 WTC in classrooms. Students who experienced communicative private education were more willing to participate in English communication. In the following analysis, effects of duration on variables were different between traditional and communicative groups. Based on these findings, educational implications and suggestions for future studies are presented.