The new Course of Study, which was revised in 2008, promotes balanced allocation of four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in designing lessons, and addresses an important role of grammar which is assumed to underpin communication activities. This study has compared the communication tasks in new textbooks published by four major publishers to investigate how communication tasks differ according to the publishers, grades, and sections of the textbooks. Following Usuda et al. (2012), this study used the criteria of task-likeliness: interactional requirement of pair or group work, focus on message, requirement of outcome, explicitness of task completion, and authenticity (Skehan, 1998; Ellis, 2003; Willis & Willis, 2007). The results showed that many of the tasks in Publisher C, which contain information gaps, were rated most task-likely, especially with respect to the outcome. Such tendency was observed all through the textbooks, or regardless of the sections of the textbooks. With respect to the grades, there were two publishers in which the textbooks for the second-and third-year students were rated more task-likely than those for the first-year students; however the other two publishers did not reveal such a feasible organization of the textbooks. Such diversity was also observed with respect to the sections of the textbooks.

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The purpose of this paper is to consider current situations and issues in the English Villages in South Korea, especially through analysis of questionnaires completed by the participants. English Villages are language education institutions which aim to create a language immersion environment for students. In order to provide the opportunity for students to study in English Villages, new English Villages are being constructed one after another in South Korea. However, the number of visitors is decreasing rapidly year by year. To find the solution for this problem, the author went to Paju English Village, which is the largest of its type in South Korea, to interview the manager. The survey indicated that most of the participants feel satisfied with the English Village, especially the curriculum, teachers and lectures. Students also think that English Village classes are more fun and effective for learning English than in their schools.

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