The induction experiences of novice teachers are receiving increasing attention within the subject field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).The process of beginning to teach is acknowledged to be complex and often fraught with tensions and anxieties for newly qualified teachers who may experience significant disjunction between the realities of classroom and institutional life and what they have been taught on pre-service training courses. Research has also shown that novice teachers can be helped to make a successful transition from the teacher-training environment to the school through well-designed induction programs which provide structured support and professional development with access to resources beyond the school itself. This article seeks to uncover whether these elements of well-designed induction programs are replicated for teachers of English in the Korean school system. Using data gathered in interviews with recently graduated teachers, the article examines the experiences of teaching in the early years and documents teachers’ own perceptions of their induction into teaching. The article discusses the place of the teachers within the social network of the school and, in so doing, hopes to foreground how individuals come to terms with the new and complex roles inherent in ‘being a teacher’ within this framework. This is a perspective particularly necessary for TEFL as a discipline where methods are so often deemed paramount in learning to teach, rather than an understanding of what it means to be a teacher of English as a foreign language in a particular socio-educational context.

1. INTRODUCTION
 2. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
  2.1. Processes of Induction for Novice Teachers
  2.2. Teacher Training and Teacher Induction Policy in South Korea
 3. RESEARCH METHOD
  3.1. Participants
  3.2. Procedures
 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
  4.1. Disjunction Between Pre-service Training and Classroom Practice
  4.2. Formal Induction Experiences
  4.3. Relationships with Colleagues
  4.4. Relationships with the School Principal
  4.5. Relationships with Parents
  4.6. Reflections on the First Year(s)
 5. CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

• David Hayes(Brock University)
• Kyungsuk Chang(Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation) Corresponding author