Student Experiences in a Multimodal Composition Class

Hyechong Park,Cynthia L. Selfe 한국영어어문교육학회 2011 영어어문교육 Vol.17 No.4

Despite the social turn in literacy studies, few empirical studies have investigated the practical applications and learning experiences of multimodal composition pedagogy. Using a qualitative research approach, this study examines undergraduates’ experiences in producing multimodal texts. Findings report that students’ experiences in a multimodal composition class epitomize enjoyable learning. Students enjoyed their learning process because (a) the multimodal literacy curriculum filled the pedagogical gap between the conventional school-sponsored alphabetic literacy pedagogy and widespread out-of-school multimodal literacy practices and (b) the usefulness of the curriculum helped students enhance their intrinsic motivation to learn and compose. By questioning fundamental assumptions about what counts as knowledge in the current ecology of literacies, the authors argue for a dynamic view of literacy into practice.

A Critical Reflection on the Discourse Community: A Basis for Current L2 Academic Literacy Scholarship

Hyechong park 팬코리아영어교육학회 2012 영어교육연구 Vol.24 No.4

This paper argues that students’ identification with an academic discourse community is crucial in their meaning making and learning composition and academic literacy. I apply theoretically distinct understandings of the discourse community offered by John Swales, Paul Prior, and Suresh Canagarajah to L2 academic literacy studies. Swales’ genre-based approach assumes that students pragmatically accommodate to the expectations of a discourse community. Prior’s approach is grounded in the sociohistoric activity system of a discourse community and disciplinary enculturation to it. Canagarajah’s approach examines critical theories of how power is embedded in a discourse community. Bringing together the work of these scholars suggests that in practice, academic literacy needs a discipline-specific and genre-specific training method. Therefore, instructors’ understanding of academic literacy theories and their distinct positioning regarding the discourse community can help them facilitate students’ identification and learning.

Reframing Learning Transfer across Composition and Content Classes

Hyechong Park 한국응용언어학회 2010 응용 언어학 Vol.26 No.1

Using an expanded theory of learning transfer, this paper investigates how L2 undergraduates build connections among the variations of college writing by transferring what they learn in composition classes to content classes. The findings reveal that (a) undergraduates transfer macro and micro rhetorical analysis skills uni-directionally from composition to content classes and (b) undergraduates build a repertoire of internal discourse patterns as learning outcomes through writing bi-directionally across composition and content classes. Transfer outcomes depend on student writing opportunities in their disciplines, student commitment to writing opportunities, and institutional curriculum management. The author theorizes that undergraduates develop writing expeπise in four nested contexts: epistemology, discipline, genre including internal discourse patterns, and individual variations of instructors and students.

L1 Lemma Mediation on L2 Conceptual Representation: Semantic Overgeneralization and Conceptual Fossilization

Hyechong Park 한국언어과학회 2011 언어과학 Vol.18 No.2

Grounded on the interconnected view of bilingual lexicon, this study investigates L1 lemma mediation on the conceptual representation of L2 nouns. In order to elucidate L1 lemma mediation through the same translation effect, a two-part lexical judgment questionnaire, which consists of Likert-scale rating for the decontextualized word association and frequency-based sentence completion tasks, was collected from two groups of Korean users of English (i.e., one intermediate level and one advanced level) and one group of native English users which acted as a reference group. In order to explicate the nature of lexical representation from L2 users' own perspectives, recall sessions were followed. Findings reveal the binding power of L1 on L2 mental lexicon. Intermediate users showed a higher semantic overgeneralization tendency, whereas advanced users showed conceptual fossilization in lexical representation. The semantic and conceptual transfer errors of L2 users indicate that a subtle or substantial difference can exist between the conceptual systems of L1 and L2

An L2 Writer's Development Over Time

Hyechong Park 새한영어영문학회 2011 새한영어영문학회 학술발표회 논문집 Vol.2011 No.10

A ruling passion for creative writing : An L2 writer’s negotiation of academic literacies

Hyechong Park(박혜정) 한국외국어교육학회 2010 Foreign languages education Vol.17 No.2

This study examines a Korean undergraduate’s negotiation of academic literacies across his home country and the U.S., and its impact on his professional identity. The longitudinal data collected over two years have enabled the author to capture the critical incidents and the processes of how his assimilation, contestation, and negotiating academic literacies have occurred. Using analytical framework of transnational, interdisciplinary, and professional levels of context, this study reports that a ruling passion for creative writing primarily impeded the case study student’s learning academic literacies; however, various dialogic interactions with instructors and peers enabled the student to negotiate his identity as an academic and creative writer. Findings suggest that learning difficulties in academic literacies can be fundamentally rooted in the cultural clash of a belief system between the self and the discourse community. Therefore, an instructor’s understanding regarding how a student’s belief system can shape his literacy values and acts of writing is recommended. Findings also suggest the importance of multiple sources and specificity of feedback for the student's improvement of writing, when American academic discourses are elusive, intangible, and opaque to the international student who crosses the linguistic and national boundaries

L1 lemma mediation in processing L2 word pairs and sentences

Hyechong Park 한국언어과학회 2011 한국언어과학회 학술대회 Vol.2011 No.02

Prior studies have reported that L1 lemma mediation is valid in processing L2 words. On the other hand, this finding has been criticized from a methodological point of view. Therefore, this study investigates L1 lemma mediation by comparing how intermediate and advanced Korean users of English respond to the decontextualized word pairs and contextualized sentence completion items. A two-part lexical judgment questionnaire, which consists of decontextualized word association pairs and contextualized sentence completion items, was distributed to the nine research participants. And the following recall sessions were conducted with the participants to examine their perceived similarity of the word pairs. Findings from the first part of the questionnaire, the word association task, portray that the same translation pairs seem to be more semantically related in comparison to different translation pairs. This result can validate the prior findings regarding the effect of L1 lemma mediation of L2 processing. However, in the sentence completion task, advanced Korean users of English showed low reliability on the same translation pairs and they tended to choose one word for the same translation pairs. These results imply that L1 mediation may not operate in the contextualized word processing for advanced users. Further recall sessions also suggest that L1 lemma mediation may be much stronger in the decontextualized word association task and for intermediate level users of English, while the advanced level users may access L2 lexicon more conceptually. Prior studies have reported that L1 lemma mediation is valid in processing L2 words (Jing, 2002, 2004; Kwon, 2005). On the other hand, this finding has been criticized from a methodological point of view (Vespoor, 2008). According to the criticism, though L1 lemma mediation has been captured, it is mainly based on a difference in reaction time of the decontextualized lexical judgment test. Therefore, this study investigates L1 lemma mediation by comparing how intermediate (n=3) and advanced Korean users of English (n=3) respond to the decontextualized word pairs and contextualized sentence completion items. Due to the contradictory findings and the methodological development in cross-linguistic studies (Fizpatrick, 2007; Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008), native speakers of English (n=3) were also recruited for the study in order to determine the strength of the semantic relations of the word pairs. A two-part lexical judgment questionnaire, which consists of twenty decontextualized word association pairs and ten contextualized sentence completion items, was distributed to the nine research participants. And the following recall sessions were conducted with the participants to examine their perceived similarity (Javis & Pavlenko, 2008; Kellerman, 1977) of the word pairs. The first part of the questionnaire covers ten same translation word pairs and ten different translation pairs; these questions asked the participants’ perception regarding semantic overlap of the noun pairs. Participants showed their semantic judgment through a six-point Likert scale. The second part of the questionnaire consists of ten sentence completion questions; these items asked the participants to choose either the same or the different translation pairs. Findings from the first part of the questionnaire, the word association task, portray that the same translation pairs (M=4.87, SD=.75) seem to be more semantically related in comparison to different translation pairs (M=4.52, SD=.58). This result can validate the prior findings regarding the effect of L1 lemma mediation of L2 processing (Jing, 2002, 2004; Kwon, 2005). However, in the sentence completion task, advanced Korean users of English showed low reliability (Cronbach's = -.275) on the same translation pairs and they, like the intermediate group participants, also tended to choose one word for the same translation pairs [ X2 (1, 0.05)=8.58, <.001, two-ways]. These results imply that L1 mediation may not operate in the contextualized word processing for advanced users. Further recall sessions also suggest that L1 lemma mediation may be much stronger in the decontextualized word association task and for intermediate level users of English, while the advanced level users may access L2 lexicon more conceptually.

Localizing New Literacy Studies in Korea : Their Implications on Secondary English Education

Park Hyechong(박혜정) 새한영어영문학회 2010 새한영어영문학 Vol.52 No.4

This study aims to understand the implications of New Literacy Studies (NLS) regarding secondary English language education in a Korean context. Byemphasizing the meanings which students make regarding texts in relation to their situated contexts, this paper pinpoints critical thinking as primary in students’ literacy building. The synthesis of theoretical and empirical studies implies, first, that the role of English becomes a communicative medium that allows L2 users to perform their beings and to awaken themselves from dominant discourse. As enabling, creative, and skillful people, L2 users can control English to express themselves and further to influence the world. The second implication is that the development of authentic materials that associate text with students’ own lives can be vital for increasing students’ active participation in English classrooms. The final implication is that the pedagogy of paying attention to power relations and resistant positionings will help students be informed choosers of various English languacultures and active knowledge creators.

A Pedagogy of Possibility in Writing Development

( Hyechong Park ) 현대영미어문학회 2011 현대영미어문학회 추계학술대회 발표논문집 Vol.2011 No.-

Student Experiences in a Multimodal Composition Class

Park, Hyechong,Selfe, Cynthia L. The English Teachers Association in Korea 2011 영어어문교육 Vol.17 No.4

Despite the social turn in literacy studies, few empirical studies have investigated the practical applications and learning experiences of multimodal composition pedagogy. Using a qualitative research approach, this study examines undergraduates' experiences in producing multimodal texts. Findings report that students' experiences in a multimodal composition class epitomize enjoyable learning. Students enjoyed their learning process because (a) the multimodal literacy curriculum filled the pedagogical gap between the conventional school-sponsored alphabetic literacy pedagogy and widespread out-of-school multimodal literacy practices and (b) the usefulness of the curriculum helped students enhance their intrinsic motivation to learn and compose. By questioning fundamental assumptions about what counts as knowledge in the current ecology of literacies, the authors argue for a dynamic view of literacy into practice.