Korean EFL Learners’ Perceptions of Online Interaction

With the increased interest in blended learning for higher education in Korea’s universities and EFL settings, there is a need to understand how students work within blended learning environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the interactional practices of EFL students in a blended EFL writing course in order to gain the understanding of interaction in terms of its usefulness and challenges. Data were collected from multiple sources such as surveys, observation notes, reflective journals and interviews, all of which were analyzed to extract salient themes. The emerged themes involving the usefulness of each interaction type (learner-instructor, learner-learner, learner-content) were prompt and personalized teacher feedback, group discussion, and lurking. Themes involving challenging were demands on posting, limitation of e-peer feedback and English-only policy. Further discussion of the themes is presented in relations to learning second language writing and suggestions for addressing the challenges are made.