Although it is generally agreed that English education in Korea has improved grεatly since its beginning in 1983, there are still many important areas that have pε:rsistent problεms ， and the proflεssion of English teaching is faced with some emerging issues. English education has progressεd both quantitatively and qualitatively, sincε English bεcarnε a required school subjεct in elementary school in 1997. The teachers’ and students‘ general English proficiεncy havε al50 improved. However, there arε still many teachers whosε English ability Iεavεs much to be dεSlfεd. Also, students’ losing confidence and interest in English is anothεr persistent problem. The society’s change also poses challenges to the English teaching profession This paper discusses these improvemεnts and pεrsistent problems and emεrging issues in English education in Korea

Foreign language education in Korea has a long history. Since the introduction of Chinese characters in the 2nd century, many foreign languages have been taught in Korea. European languages were introduced in the late part of the 19th century, but the teaching of them experienced a setback during the Japanese colonial period. After liberation in 1945, English became the most important foreign language, while other foreign languages were called “second foreign languages”. German and French were the two most popular “second foreign languages” in the early years after liberation, but Japanese increased its weight as German and French gradually lost their appeal to high school students. Chinese is also steadily gaining in popularity. A corollary of this change was the government’s retraining program to convert German and French language teachers to Japanese or Chinese language teachers. The present paper discusses these and other changes in the status of “second foreign languages”, and recommends that the government take some drastic measures to revive the balanced development of “second foreign-language education”.