English Education in Korea:

1
English Education in Korea

• The Present and Future
• of English Education

Hyung-mi Joo
2
The Present of English Education in Korea
3
English Learning Environment in Korea

• English as Foreign Language (EFL)
• Students are learning English as a foreign
  language,
• so that they have few opportunities to use
  English
• in their daily life.
• Emphasis on English Proficiency for
  Communication
• The ability to proficiently use English has
  significantly been
• emphasized in a national and societal level
  as the world
• has been globalized.

4
English Education at Public Schools

• Starting Age of Learning English at Schools
• 3rd grade (9 years old) of elementary school
  (From 1997)

English Teaching Hours (Moe, 2006 January)
5
National English Curriculum I

• The 7th National English Curriculum (2000
  Present)
• - The Ministry of Education (MOE) published
• the 7th National Curriculum in 1997 with a
  view
• to accommodate social changes of the
  21centry.
• - The curriculum has been implemented since
  2000
• year by year and level by level.

6
National English Curriculum II

• The National Common Basic Curriculum has been
• adopted in the 3rd grade through the 10th
  grade,
• but the 11th and 12th grade has followed the
  elective-
• centered curriculum.

7
National English Curriculum III
Decision-making system of English curriculum
(KICE, 2005)
8
National English Curriculum IV

• Characteristics of the 7th National English
  Curriculum
• - Emphasis on communicative language
  teaching
• - More focus on speaking and listening
• - Task-based and process-oriented teaching
• learning
• - Learner-centered curriculum
• - Clarified and detailed achievement
  standards
• - Providing in-depth and supplementary
  instruction
• - Differentiated instruction depending on
  students
• proficiency levels

9
English Teachers I

• The total number of English teachers working at
• schools in the whole country is 31,337, as of
  2005.

The Number of English Teachers in Korea (MOE,
2005)
10
English Teachers II

• Native English speaker teachers as an assistant
• teacher have currently been working at schools.

The number of Native English Speaker Assistant
Teachers (NESAT) (Moe, 2005)
11
English Teachers III

• Native English speaker teachers nationality

Nationality of Native English Speaker Assistant
Teachers (NESAT) (MOE, 2005)
12
English Textbook System

• All English textbooks in primary and secondary
• schools need to be approved by the Ministry of
• Education.
• - An English textbook for primary school
  students is one kind
• of a government designated textbook.
• - Secondary English textbooks need an official
  approval
• from the Ministry of Education.
• Currently there are 15 kinds of Middle school
  English and High
• School English, 10 ones of High School
  English I II, 8 ones
• of High School English Conversation, 7 ones
  of High School
• Reading, 2 ones of High School Writing.

13
Primary English Textbook
Primary English Textbook Authors (Moe, 2005)
14
Secondary English Textbooks
Secondary English Textbooks Authors (Moe, 2005)
Secondary English Textbooks Authors (Moe, 2005)
15
English Textbooks National curriculum I

• The English textbooks for 3rd though 10th grade
• are developed based on the 7th National Common
• Basic English Curriculum (NCBEC).
• The curriculum offers the total number of
• vocabulary and lengths of sentences and
• reading passages for each grade.

16
English Textbooks National curriculum II
The number of Vocabulary and Sentence Length of
Primary Secondary English Textbooks (KICE,
2004)
17
Annual English Education Budget
2005 Annual Budget for English Education (Moe,
2005)
18
The Future of English Education in Korea
19
English Education Reform Project

• The Ministry of Education has recently proposed
  ten innovative plans of English education in
  2006.
• 1. Expanding the number of native English
  speaker teachers
• at schools
• 2. Intensifying in-service English teacher
  training
• 3. Establishing high standards of the National
  English teacher
• selection examination
• 4. Changing English teacher education courses
• in a university level
• 5. Improving the national English curriculum

20
English Education Reform Project (Cont.)

• The Ministry of Education has recently proposed
  innovative plans of English education in 2006.
• 6. Developing multimedia English
  teaching-learning materials
• 7. Promoting English immersion education
• 8. Introducing English proficiency
  certification system
• of speaking and writing for P-12 students
• 9. Building experiential learning centers of
  English
• at elementary school
• 10.Developing English education-only satellite
  broadcasting
• programs and Internet portal sites

21
English Education Reform Project 1

• Expanding the number of native English speaker
  teachers at schools
• Purposes
• 1. To help students improve English proficiency
  for
• communication
• 2. To provide English teachers with training
  programs
• of English conversation.
• 3. To encourage English teachers to collaborate
  on material
• development and teaching methods with native
  English
• speaker teachers.

22
English Education Reform Project 1

• Government plans to expand the number of native
  English speaker assistant teachers (NESAT) at
  schools until 2010. Especially, all middle
  schools will have a NESAT.

2006-2010 Planned number of NSEAT for middle
schools (MOE, 2006)
23
English Education Reform Project 2

• Intensifying in-service English teacher training
• Purposes
• 1. To encourage English teachers to use English
  in class
• 2. To help English teachers improve their
  teaching skills
• and English proficiency for better teaching
  
• Intensive training programs will be provided to
  1,000 teachers per year from 2007 through 2015.

24
English Education Reform Project 2

• Government requires all English teachers to be
  able to have TEE (Teaching English in English)
  after 2010.

Using both English Korean
Using only English for more than 1 hr./week
Using only Korean
Percents of the amount of language use in class
from 2002 to 2006 (Moe, 2006)
25
English Education Reform Project 3

• Establishing high standards of the national
  English teacher selection examination
• Purposes
• 1. To develop a more effective system to select
  qualified
• English teachers
• 2. To devise a selection examination to measure
  both
• English proficiency and teaching ability of
• pre-service teachers.
• 3. To encourage teacher education universities
  to offer
• more qualified education courses

26
English Education Reform Project 4

• Changing English teacher education courses
• in a university level
• Purposes
• 1. To encourage universities to develop English
  education
• courses closely connecting to teaching
  contexts
• 2. To prepare universities to produce qualified
  pre-service
• teachers with a high level of English
  proficiency and
• good teaching ability

27
English Education Reform Project 5

• Improving the national English curriculum
• Purposes
• 1. To reduce educational differences between
  students
• in different socioeconomic status
• 2. To increase the effectiveness of primary
  English education
• Government plans to
• 1) advance the current starting age (3rd
  grade) of
• learning English at schools to the 1st
  and/or 2nd
• grade of elementary school and
• 2) expand English teaching hours for the 3rd
  to 6th
• grade.

28
English Education Reform Project 6

• Developing multimedia English teaching-learning
  materials
• Purposes
• 1. To develop teaching-learning materials based
  on technology
• for after-school programs
• 2. To provide English teachers with in-depth and
  
• supplementary teaching materials
• 3. To encourage English teachers to provide
  students in
• different levels of English proficiency with
  differentiated
• instruction by using the newly developed
  materials

29
English Education Reform Project 7

• Promoting English immersion education
• Purposes
• 1. To pool international human resources being
  able to
• proficiently use English in Jeju Free
  International City and
• Free Economic Zones located in several
  cities within Korea
• 2. To establish the foundation of settling down
  foreign industrial
• companies in Korea
• Government plans to provide English immersion
  education at schools in Jeju Free International
  City and Free Economic Zone Cities.

30
English Education Reform Project 8

• Introducing English proficiency certification
  system
• of speaking and writing for P-12 students
• Purposes
• 1. To encourage students to improve productive
  language
• skills of speaking and writing, which have
  not been tested in
• College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)
• 2. To promote English teaching integrated with
  four language
• skills of listening, speaking, reading, and
  writing

31
English Education Reform Project 9

• Building experiential learning centers of English
  
• at elementary schools
• Purposes
• 1. To build and operate experiential learning
  centers in rural
• regions and poor urban areas
• 2. To provide intensive English learning
  opportunities to low
• socioeconomic group students who have not
  enough private
• English education
• 3. To reduce the educational differences between
  different
• socioeconomic group students

32
English Education Reform Project 10

• Developing English education-only satellite
  broadcasting programs and Internet portal sites
• Purposes
• 1. To provide students with high quality English
  education
• through broadcasting media and Internet
• 2. To provide more opportunities to learn
  English to students
• in remote rural areas such as farming and
  fishing villages
• 3. To reduce private education expenses which
  have
• dramatically increased