English Language Learning Difficulties of Korean Foreign Exchange Students in English Classes

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Design

The study utilized the descriptive qualitative design since its principal intentions are to identify and describe the difficulties experienced and coping strategies utilized by 19 KEFLLs in their English classes.

Instruments

The study made use of two instruments: a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire is divided into six sections: Section A consists of eight items to gather the students’ background information, Sections B, C, D, and E, each consisted of five items regarding the listening, speaking, reading, and writing difficulties experienced by the KEFLLs learners in their English classes respectively. Additionally, Section F consisted of five items tackling the coping strategies utilized by the KEFLLs in their English classes. Sections B through F comprises of statements that reflect the students’ ELLD and CS in their English classes. The tool uses a Likert-scaling which requires the students to answer in terms of how frequent the statements describe or is experienced by them, using the following ratings: 0 – never true of me, 1 – rarely true of me, 2 – occasionally true of me, 3 – frequently true of me, 4 – always true of me. The overall average tells how often the strategies are used for the acquisition of English skills. The following will be used in interpreting the averages:

High Always or almost always true 3.1 to 4.0

Usually true (Frequently) 2.1 to 3.0

Medium Occasionally true 1.1 to 2.0

Low Rarely true 0.5 to 1.0

Never or rarely true 0 to 0.4

Additionally, three-question interviews were conducted with 6 random students from the sample to validate the quantitative results and to determine the perceptions regarding their English classes. These interviews were recorded for transcription, coding and analytic purposes.

Procedure of the Study

The questionnaire patterned from Kim’s (2008) Korean L2 Writers’ Previous Writing Experience: L1 Literacy Development in School was designed and modified in relation to the study’s purposes.

The study commenced during the second half of the First Semester of AY 2014 – 2015 after seeking approval from the head of the Center for Language Education and Proficiency and student-participants. The study ran for three and a half weeks with sessions in accordance with the foreign exchange students’ schedules.

The questionnaire was given out as soon as the approval of the participants were finalized. The completed questionnaire was collected and analyzed to identify and describe the ELLD experienced and CS utilized by the KEFLLs in their English classes. Interviews with 6 randomly selected students were conducted to validate and to determine their perceptions towards their English classes. The interviews were recorded for transcription, coding, and analysis.

Data Analysis

A Likert-scale frequency rating was used to represent answers conducted by the survey questionnaire. In order to answer questions 1 and 2, numerical values that are presented by the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics concentrating on the means, mode, and standard deviations.

For depth of understanding of the findings of the interview sessions, transcriptions of the interviews will be carefully analyzed and categorized according to saliency, meaning and homogeneity (Patton, 1990). The focus will be on answers common among the 5 random subjects of the chosen sample, to validate their ELLD’s and their perceptions regarding their current English class experience.

Results and Discussion

The results of this study will be presented in two main sections: the survey section (responses to Likert-scale items) and the interview section (responses to the interview questions). The survey section will be divided into six sub-sections namely Descriptive Statistics, Listening Difficulties, Reading Difficulties, Speaking Difficulties, Writing Difficulties, and Coping Strategies. Furthermore, the interview section will be divided into two sub-sections namely: Discussion Difficulty Factors and English Class Perception. The quantitative data from Likert-scale items will be presented in descriptive statistics. The qualitative data from the interview questions will be described in terms of the answers per question.

Survey

Descriptive Statistics. The descriptive statistics for the responses of the 19 KEFLLs are shown in Tables 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in order from the highest mean to the lowest. Columns in the tables show the mean (or arithmetic average), the mode (the most common choice), the standard deviation (henceforth SD, which is a measure of the average dispersion of responses away from the mean), the lowest response (Min), and the highest response (Max). In addition, the percentage of students who responded with each of the values on the Likert scale are given in the last four columns, ranging from 0 (Never) to 4 (Always).

Table 1

Listening Difficulties Experienced by the Korean EFL Learners

Rank

Items

Mean

Mode

SD

Min

Max

0

1

2

3

4

1

The professor’s shift in language (Filipino) makes it difficult for me.

3.47

4

1.02

0

4

0.00%

10.53%

5.26%

10.53%

73.68%

2

I can’t understand