This study examined native-speaking English teachers’ pedagogical knowledge through the analysis of transcriptions of videotaped lessons and interviews with six novice English teachers teaching at middle schools. The goal was to discover what pedagogical knowledge these teachers have and how the knowledge was represented in the form of instructional actions. The dominant categories of the teachers’ instructional actions were repetition of input and instructions. Hence, there were a lot of repetitions of input which seem to come from behavioristic perspectives of language learning and teaching. Also, there were lots of teacher-initiated questions and directives to elicit responses from the students. The primary way of clearing the meaning of the text was translation. The findings indicated that the native-speaking teachers’ pedagogical thought are mostly pertinent to general educational knowledge not about language learning and teaching. In addition, the novice teachers’ pedagogical knowledge deduced from pedagogical thoughts leaned towards heavily to ‘Handling language items’ while experienced teachers in Gatbonton’s (2000) study displayed no dominant category. Implications for teacher training were discussed.

The purpose of the study was to explore the reflective process of pre-service English teachers by analyzing critical incidents entered in their teaching journals during a fourweek student teaching practicum. Thirty-three student teachers were asked to report critical incidents in their journals once a week, especially focusing on „lesson breakdowns‟ or „events that deserve critical significance‟ during a lesson. 133 journal entries were collected and a total of 104 critical incidents were analyzed to see some aspect of secondary classroom teaching and the reflective processes that student teachers went through right after the incidents. From the content analysis, it was found that many critical incidents happened during the initial stage of lesson and were mostly caused by student teachers‟ lack of experiences in either time management or material preparation tailored to students‟ level. By describing and analyzing critical incidents, student teachers became more aware of their assumptions about language teaching and learning and tried to transfer knowledge into real practices. A survey administered after the practicum also revealed that self-observation of critical incidents in their own classroom helped them to generate powerful insights about teaching and to develop reflective teachers.

The study examined the 2009 overseas program of the SNU Intensive English Teacher Training Program (IETTP) to evaluate overall management and its effects for future improvements. Following an overview of the 2009 overseas program, the present study provides the results of the program survey and English proficiency tests that were conducted on 42 trainees. The results indicated that the program was successful in terms of its management and improving English teachers' English proficiency. Especially, the trainees showed strong satisfaction for school visits, culture excursions, and special lecture series which exposed them to invaluable experience of looking into an English speaking country. Three suggestions were proposed in terms of managing and evaluating the overseas program of the IETTP. First, the IETTP needs to take proaction in identifying the needs of in-service English teachers and to reflect those needs in its overseas program. Second, the IETTP needs to develop a customized overseas program which can best support main goals of its overall six-month training program. Lastly, an evaluation of the program needs to incorporate more than just a survey method to triangulate the outcome of the study.

This study investigates secondary school English teachers’ perceptions and psychological burdens involved in the implementation of the speaking and writing tests of the National English Ability Test, which is being developed by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The study surveyed 138 secondary school English teachers in Seoul. Although more than half of the teachers were aware of the new test, 18% of the surveyed teachers were not aware of the fact that speaking and writing skills would be assessed in the new test. Also, 22.7% of the teachers were opposed to the productive skills test. More than half (56.2%) of the teachers felt some psychological burdens toward the inclusion of the speaking/writing tests. Although the teachers admitted that serving as raters for the new test would help improve their teaching, the majority of them were reluctant to participate in the actual rating process. The teachers felt that the difficulty of subjective rating and the lack of time for the speaking and writing tests were serious problems in implementing the new test. The teachers were sensitive toward the students’ test anxiety. They also indicated that they feel a strong psychological burden when making judgments on the students' performances. Implications and suggestions are made based on the findings.

The Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has made strenuous efforts to improve the quality of English education in public sector. One such attempt is a long-term, intensive teacher training that began in 2007 to facilitate teachers' ability for teaching English in English (TEE). This initiative has expanded over the years such that the number of training institutions has increased to 22 in 2009 to serve growing numberof trainees. This development is not without problems as there is a lack ofconsistency in curriculum, course content, quality of instructors, and overseas training among these institutions. This study aims to check the current status of various teacher training programs and suggest ideas for enhancing the quality of the programs. For the purpose of the study, questionnaires were administered to 900 English teachers to have themevaluate the training programs they had participated in. The findings from 449 respondents showed that most teachers were satisfied with their training programs. These teachers felt that the training programs helped to promote both English skills and teaching skills. Yet, they expressed some concerns about unbalanced curriculum, lack of follow-up service, inefficiency ofoverseas training, etc.