Abstract
In South Korea, the government has actively promoted English proficiency as an indispensable tool in ascertaining competitiveness of individuals and the country. This chapter examines English education in South Korea and its policies as contextualized in its socio-cultural backgrounds. The discussion draws on theoretical insights that view policies as an interactive process among policy documents, the context and the actors in it (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012; Menken & García, 2010). First, the background is laid out by illustrating the symbolic and practical meaning of the English language in the Korean context. Following that, the chapter traces the changes in English language teaching (ELT) policies through a historical survey of curricular reforms and also presents the current agenda of ELT policies, within which the communicative approach is strongly recommended, as reflected in the seventh National Educational Curriculum. In an attempt to investigate ELT practice in context, two case studies, one at the primary level and the other at the secondary level, are presented, particularly to determine the relationship between policy and practice. Both case studies demonstrate that while teachers make efforts to follow the policies, how they actually implement them depends on their unique contexts and individual beliefs. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research and policy making.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andon, N., & Eckerth, J. (2009). Chacun à son gout? Task-based L2 pedagogy from the teacher’s point of view. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19(3), 286–310.
Armstrong, C. K. (2007). The Koreas. New York: Routledge.
Baldauf, R. B., & Nguyen, H. T. M. (2012). Language policy in Asia and the Pacific. In B. Spolsky (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of language policy (pp. 617–638). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. London/New York: Routledge.
Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., Braun, A., & Hoskins, K. (2011a). Policy subjects and policy actors in schools: Some necessary but insufficient analyses. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(4), 611–624.
Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., Braun, A., & Hoskins, K. (2011b). Policy actors: Doing policy work in schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(4), 625–639.
Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Choi, S. (2007). 한국사회에서 영어실력은 문화자본인가? [Is English proficiency social capital in the Korean society?]. In J. Yoon (Ed.), 영어, 내 마음의 식민지 [English, colonialism of my heart] (pp. 105–130). Seoul: Dangdae.
Choi, T.-H. (2014). The impact of the ‘Teaching English through English’ policy on teachers and teaching in South Korea, Current Issues in Language Planning. DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2015.970727.
Choi, T.-H. (forthcoming). Glocalization of English language education: Comparison of three contexts in East Asia. In C.-M Lam & J. Park (Eds.), Sociological and philosophical perspectives on education in the Asia-Pacific region (pp. xx–xx). Hong Kong: Springer.
Choi, T.-H., & Andon, N. (2014). Can a teacher certification scheme change ELT classroom practice? ELT Journal, 68(1), 12–21.
Choi, Y. H. (2006). Impact of politico-economic situations on English language education in Korea. English Teaching, 61, 3–26.
Chung, J. (2011). The (dis)connection between policy and practice: Primary English education in South Korea. Dissertation, Teachers College Columbia University.
Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Demick, B. (2002, March 31). Some in S. Korea opt for a trim when English trips the tongue. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/31/news/mn-35590
Education First. (2013). EF English proficiency index. http://www.ef.com/epi/. Accessed 08 Aug 2013.
Educational Testing Service. (2012). Test and score data summary for TOEFL iBT tests and TOEFL PBT tests. ETS. Available via ETS. http://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/94227_unlweb.pdf. Accessed 16 Oct 2013.
Glasgow, G. P., & Paller, D. L. (2015). English language education policy in Japan: Recent trends, future directions. In: Kirkpatrick, R (Ed.), English Education Policy in Asia and the Middle East (pp. 137–159). Singapore: Springer.
Jenkins, J. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching world Englishes and English as a lingua franca. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 157–181.
Kachru, B. (1992). World Englishes: Approaches, issues and resources. Language Teaching, 25, 1–14.
Kwon, O. (2000). Korea’s English education policy changes in the 1990s: Innovations to gear the nation for the 21st century. English Teaching, 55(1), 47–91.
Lambert, R. D. (1999). A scaffolding for language policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 137, 3–25.
Lee, J. (2004). Multi-layered aspects of language policy: Implementing English education at elementary schools in Korea. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 20(1), 71–87.
Lee, J. S. (2006). Linguistic constructions of modernity: English mixing in Korean television commercials. Language in Society, 35, 59–91.
Menken, K., & García, O. (Eds.). (2010). Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers. New York: Routledge.
Ministry of Education. (1997). 7차 초등교육과정 – 영어. [7th primary curriculum – English]. Seoul: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. (2006). 영어교육혁신방안 정책참고자료 [Data for policy on innovation of English education]. Seoul: Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.
Ministry of Education Science and Technology. (ca. 2011). 중학교 교육과정 해설 총론 [Introduction to junior high school curriculum]. Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Seoul. Retrieved from http://sen.go.kr/web/services/bbs/bbsView.action?bbsBean.bbsCd=43&bbsBean.bbsSeq=247
OECD. (2013). Asian countries top OECD’s latest PISA survey on state of global education. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/asian-countries-top-oecd-s-latest-pisa-survey-on-state-of-global-education.htm. Accessed 12 Oct 2013.
Park, G. S., Jang, Y. S., & Lee, H. Y. (2007). The interplay between globalness and localness: Korea’s globalization revisited. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 48(4), 337–353.
Piller, I., & Cho, J. (2013). Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44.
Rudduck, J., & Fielding, M. (2006). Student voice and the perils of popularity. Educational Review, 58(2), 219–231.
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. (2011). 영어교사 TEE 인증제 개선 계획 [Plan for revision of the TEE certification for English teachers]. Seoul: Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. (2012). 영어교사 TEE 인증제 [TEE certification for English teachers]. Seoul: Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.
Seth, M. J. (2002). Education fever: Society, politics, and the pursuit of schooling in South Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Shim, D., & Park, J. S. Y. (2008). The language politics of “English fever” in South Korea. Korea Journal, 48(2), 136–159.
Shim, S. (2003, October 24). Roh supports English as second official language. Korea Herald. Retrieved from http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=108&oid=044&aid=0000037686
Statistics Korea. (2012). Annual report on private education expenditures. Seoul: Statistics Korea.
Stronach, I., & Morris, B. (1994). Polemical notes on educational evaluation in the age of ‘policy hysteria’. Evaluation and Research in Education, 8(1 & 2), 5–19.
Tak, S. H. (2011, May 24). Korea suffers glut of university students. The Chosunilbo. Retrieved from http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/05/24/2011052401058.html
Tsui, A. B., & Tollefson, J. W. (2007). Language policy, culture and identity in Asian contexts. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ur, P. (2013). Language-teaching method revisited. ELT Journal, 67(4), 468–474.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chung, J., Choi, T. (2016). English Education Policies in South Korea: Planned and Enacted. In: Kirkpatrick, R. (eds) English Language Education Policy in Asia. Language Policy, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22464-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22464-0_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22463-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22464-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)