National Discourse of EGL and English Teaching in Korea: Focusing on Education Policies and Teacher Perspectives

Cho, Young Gyo (조영교)

National Discourse of EGL and English Teaching in Korea: Focusing on Education Policies and Teacher Perspectives

Modern English Education
Abbr : MEESO
2014, 15(4), pp.77-98
Publisher : The Modern English Education Society
Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Language Teaching

Cho, Young Gyo ¹

¹경남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impact of English as a global language (EGL) on Englishlanguage teaching in Korea in terms of pedagogical principles and practices operating within the nation’s English education. The study first reviewed the English education policies presented in the National Education Curricula since the 6th Revision, in which communicative competence was promulgated first time in the nation’s history as the primary objective in English language teaching. Then, these discourses were assessed by 19 Korean teachers of English and native English-speaking teachers using aquestionnaire and in-depth interviews. The study shows that national discourses ofEGL impose considerable impact on the contents and methodologies in Korean English education. Communicative competence is a firmly established goal for languagepedagogy at all school levels; yet such policy objectives leave a significant gap in our understanding of the reality of classroom-based language instructions, where testoriented pedagogy and teachers’ inadequate preparedness for oral language aredominating such that implementation of communicative syllabi appears to be a distalreality. Teachers’ biggest challenge comprises students’ unequal levels of proficiencyand motivation; their assessment of teaching Korean EFL is essentially not congruentin itself suggesting a clear disjunction between policy ideals and pedagogical reality.

KEYWORDS

English as a global language, communicative language teaching, L2 pedagogy

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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