Knowledge about basic language constructs among teachers of English as a Foreign Language in China and South Korea.

The purpose of the present study is to explore cross-cultural differences among teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) on the basic language constructs and the impacts on their perceived teaching ability in English-reading instruction. Chinese EFL (n = 73) and Korean EFL (n = 39) teachers were administered the Reading Teacher Knowledge Survey for testing their implicit and explicit knowledge on phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, and morphological awareness; and their self-perceived teaching ability on teaching typical readers, struggling readers, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Results showed that both Chinese EFL and Korean EFL teachers' knowledge on the phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonics was implicit rather than explicit. However, the teachers' knowledge on morphological awareness showed cross-cultural difference: Chinese EFL teachers had greater explicit knowledge on morphological awareness than implicit knowledge, while their Korean EFL counterparts showed opposite pattern. Self-perceived teaching ability was also distinct cross-culturally, in that Chinese EFL teachers were only confident in teaching English vocabulary, whereas Korean EFL teachers had generally positive self-perception on teaching typical readers, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Importantly, both groups of EFL teachers' explicit knowledge on the basic language constructs explained additional variance for predicting their self-perception on teaching English reading, controlling for the effects of their years of teaching and implicit knowledge. Educational implications and future research ideas are discussed in relation to the cross-cultural differences of teacher knowledge and their perceived teaching ability.

Cross-language Transfer of Metalinguistic Skills: Evidence from Spelling English Words by Korean Students in Grades 4, 5 and 6.

The present study examined unique and shared contributions of Korean (first language) phonological, orthographic and morphological awareness (PA, OA and MA, respectively) to English (second/foreign language) spelling among 287 fourth-grade, fifth-grade and sixth-grade Korean children. Korean measures of PA, OA and MA were administered, in addition to English vocabulary and spelling measures. Results from structural equation modelling showed that PA, OA and MA were caused by one common construct, metalinguistic awareness (META), and the contribution of Korean META to English spelling was statistically significant, controlling for English vocabulary. In particular, Korean MA and PA played unique roles in explaining English spelling; whereas Korean OA did not significantly contribute to English spelling. Findings from the present study provided empirical evidence of first language META transfer effect on second/foreign language spelling development. Educational implications and future research ideas are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.