English Language Teaching in Korea

Abstract

This chapter presents a critical examination of current issues and controversies in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Korea, focusing on the recent Korean “English-only” educational policy, which requires that English be taught without L1 support in certain school grades. Drawing from a study I conducted with Korean English teachers and students, I investigate how the policy goes beyond the mere discussion of language of instruction and perpetuates the notion of the Native Speaker (NS) as an ideal language teacher. The conflict between the government's goal for English education (influenced by the discourse of globalization) and English teachers' goals for English education (constructed through daily interactions with the students in the local classrooms) suggests that Koreans should reconceptualize ELT in Korea. Drawing on Wallace's (2002) notion of global literate English and Robertson's (1995) notion of glocalzation, I argue that when the global English is glocalized through critical pedagogy, English can work as a language of opportunity for Koreans. A critical understanding of the complex relationship between ELT and colonialism and a reconceptualization of the ownership of English in Korea will have implications for ELT practices in other countries.