English Language Teacher Education in South Korea: Changes and Challenges

doi:10.1017/9781108856218.009

8 - English Language Teacher Education in South Korea: Changes and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 October 2020

Sang-Keun Shin

Edited by

Amy Bik May Tsui

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Amy Bik May Tsui: Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong

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Summary

This chapter outlines the various English teacher education policies and the corresponding measures introduced by the South Korean government to emphasize the importance of English to its national competitiveness. It points out that, despite these policies and measures, English teaching in schools has not significantly improved. It observes that in contrast to official rhetoric ostensibly supporting varieties of English, even teachers who speak fluent English set native-speaker English, especially American English, as the norm and feel burdened about teaching in English as they feel they lack English proficiency. In addition, in-service English teachers continue to raise the question of whether Communicative Language Teaching pedagogy developed in the ESL environment is appropriate for South Korea in which English is taught as a foreign language. Many teachers also experience reform fatigue due to frequent changes in policies for political purposes. The chapter concludes that there is an urgent need for research on English education policies and English teacher education policies that will create the environment where new English teachers can put theory into practice.

Keywords

globalization English fever washback grammar translation method Communicative Language Teaching English as a lingua franca locally appropriate pedagogy reality shock teacher socialization native-speaker varieties of English reform fatigue

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: English Language Teaching and Teacher Education in East Asia
Global Challenges and Local Responses
, pp. 159 - 174

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108856218.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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