This study explores ways to enhance pre-service English teachers’ curriculum development competency through collaboration with in-service teachers. To this end, a course was designed to incorporate three key competencies of curriculum development (curriculum literacy, curriculum development competency, and curriculum evaluation competency) while adopting task-based language teaching and collaboration with inservice teachers as teaching methods. The designed course was implemented in a university for validation and revision. Ten pre-service English teachers participated in the course, where they developed English curricula in response to requests from three in-service middle school English teachers. A questionnaire survey conducted at the end of the semester with both pre-service and in-service teachers revealed that the proposed course model adequately worked to improve the three key competencies of English curriculum development among pre-service teachers. Further, collaboration with inservice teachers was found to enhance pre-service teachers’ responsibility and active engagement in curriculum development, while also providing practical assistance and creative teaching ideas to in-service teachers.

This study aimed to find out the direction of reinforcing the subject special description as English records. The study analyzed the English subject description data published in 2017 and 2020 by the Ministry of Education. Focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 18 teachers, 6 each for elementary, middle, and high school. Analysis results of the 2017 data showed that the elementary data had a weak link with the curriculum, middle school data focused on functional areas rather than knowledge or attitudes, and high school data only presented examples of students with high achievement levels. On the other hand, the 2020 data includes not only subject special description but also teachers' content of teaching and evaluation materials according to achievement standards. Based on the results, the introduction of Likert scales and the creation of vocabulary groups by achievement standards are suggested.

In this study, we applied a model of process-oriented English assessments to primary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic and explored how they perceived it. A series of flexible process-oriented assessments were conducted in the first semester of 2022. A survey was administered to 190 fifth-grade students at the end of the semester. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The respondents were classified into three categories according to their self-rated English levels. The results show that the students appreciated the assessments, and they highly valued the teacher’s feedback. Various opinions were presented on providing opportunities for re-testing, reporting results to parents, writing peer reviews in school records, and mental pressures. The process-oriented assessments were found to be conducive for the majority of the young English learners, although some students from the lower group seemed to have experienced a psychological burden. Based on the findings, suggestions are made for educators in the post-pandemic era.

This study analyzes the research trends of PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) in Korean English classes from 2005 to 2019 across ten journal articles, two master’s theses, two doctoral dissertations, and five research reports. This was intended to provide hints for the future direction of English PCK studies. Six criteria—subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, learner knowledge, curriculum knowledge, social context knowledge, and action research knowledge— have been applied to the analysis of the selected English PCK studies. The findings are as follows. Study on the subject-matter knowledge was the most frequent, appearing in 15 studies, mainly dealing with linguistic knowledge. In the field of pedagogical knowledge, studies on class design were most common, and in the field of learner knowledge, learner background and learner characteristics were equally studied. In the social context knowledge field, there were relatively few studies on parents, and in the field of action research knowledge, the number of studies corresponding to three sub-factors was the same. Our study concludes that to systematize the study of PCK for teacher professionalism in the subject matter of English, English PCK education should be done in both pre-service and in-service institutions and that PCK research environments should be provided to this end.

The purpose of this study was to explore how English teachers perceive the appropriateness of the quantity and level of content in the 2015 Revised National English Curriculum. In order to evaluate the appropriateness of the modified curriculum, a survey questionnaire was administered to English teachers at elementary and middle schools across Korea. Teachers and university professors were also consulted for guidance regarding the appropriate quantity and level of content. According to the survey results, both elementary and middle school teachers believe that the quantity and level of content are mostly appropriate for students. However, responses related to the appropriateness of achievement standards for reading and writing were less positive than those for listening and speaking for children in elementary school grades 5 and 6 and middle school grades 1 to 3. In general, methods of optimizing reading and writing content in the English curriculum are discussed.

The paper observes that grammatical competence has been interpreted as the ability to judge grammaticality ever since the employment of communicative competence as the core basis of curriculum design in the 6th national English curriculum of Korea. It contends that this interpretation is different from what has been widely accepted in the literature on grammatical competence, that is, the ability to understand and express propositional meaning of utterances. The study suggests that a new and fresh look at grammatical competence needs to be taken in developing and implementing the national English curriculum which is to provide English learners in Korea with more potential opportunities for success in acquiring communicative competence.

This paper reviews the revisions of the National Curriculum of English, featuring the characteristics of each revision on which the government educational policies have been heavily reflected. On the basis of the analysis of a variety of literature on the National Curriculum and of Korea's sociopolitical and educational surroundings, points that need improving plus future directions of Korea's English education are presented in a summarizing manner. It was revealed that education in Korea has been heavily influenced by politics. This was inevitable in some way, but it seems necessary to make every effort to let education come before politics.

There has been an increasing demand for effective on-line English teacher education programs due to the advantages including cost efficiency and easy access. Despite the provision of a variety of on-line English teacher education programs, only a small number of studies on on-line in-service education program for English teachers have been carried out. This study aims to provide a basic model of on-line in-service English language teacher education based on the critical awareness. To do this, previous studies on on-line in-service English language teacher education in Korea and abroad were critically reviewed and key issues were derived. They are top-down approach to on-line teacher education curriculum development, unsustainability of teacher education, disconnection of teacher education to practice, insufficient establishment of community of practice, and deficiency of reflection on teaching practice. Three on-line English teacher education programs were selected and evaluated by using these key issues. It is suggested that bottom-up approach to curriculum development, establishment of community of practice for the sustainability of teacher education, and reflective learning for connecting teacher education to real classroom practice be included as key components for effective on-line teacher education.

The present study is triggered by the implementation of the achievement assessment system and the 2009 revised national curriculum, and the consequential need to help teachers to understand the new version of the curriculum when carrying out the achievement standard-based evaluation at school. The present study focuses on the newly introduced advanced courses of the 2009 revised national curriculum of English and provides an analysis of the hierarchical and interconnected relationship among these courses and the organization of their achievement standards. The study also provides guidelines for teachers on refining and customizing the curriculum-based achievement standards of the advanced English courses, for their own evaluation activities at school. Based on the analysis, the study attempts to suggest directions for the successful implementation of the new assessment system.

The role of the teacher in the EFL context is a key to success for the improvement of learners' English abilities. Research has been conducted on how to improve English teacher education system in Korea to cultivate competent English teachers. However, few attempts were made to examine how the English teacher education system in general has changed in the last few decades. This study aims to revisit the English teacher education system in Korea on the basis of the teacher education models. For this, the pre- and in-service English teacher education research and programs are reviewed and analyzed. At least two new changes are recognized. The current pre-service program has become more English education oriented compared to past programs. In the in-service program, a new perspective of "teacher development" has been adopted to emphasize teachers' self-reflection. Several practical ideas were suggested for both pre- and in-service English teacher education programs so as to meet teachers' needs and the changes in the Korean EFL environment.

최근 교육과정에 있어서 의사소통능력이 강조됨에 따라서 듣기, 말하기가 특히 강조되는 반면, 읽기와 쓰기 즉, 문자언어에 관한 학습능력 역시 같이 향상되고 있는지에 대해서는 논란의 여지가 많았고, 학교단위 수준에서 보면 오히려 부정적인 견해도 많았다. 이것은 알파벳, 단어, 문법, 구문, 독해로 이어지는 기존의 일반적인 상향식 학습의 폐해로 여겨지기 때문에, 문자언어에 미숙한 중학생이라 할지라도 텍스트 전체로부터 접근하는 하향식 읽기 방법을 접목할 필요가 있다. 글의 전체적인 구조와 전개방식에 대해 배경지식을 가진다면 읽기가 훨씬 수월해 질 것이기 때문이다. 쓰기의 경우에도 빈칸 채우기나 문장 단위의 통제되거나 유도된 수준에 그치는 경우가 많고, 실생활에 필요한 자유 작문 형태의 쓰기 학습은 소홀히 다루어지고 있는 것이 현실이다. 이 문제 역시 영어교사들이 자유 작문을 시도해 볼 신뢰성 있는 틀이나 형식이 없기 때문에 그 필요성을 인정하면서도 실제로 수업에서 적용키 어려운 점이 있었다. 이 같은 상황을 학생과 교사 입장에서 개선할 수 있는 효과적인 방법으로서, EFL(English as a Foreign Language) 상황 하에서 읽기와 쓰기를 체계적으로 연계시킨 좀 더 새로운 학습방법이 고안될 필요가 있었다. 본 논문은 비교적 최근의 이론인 과정-장르 중심 접근법에 이론적 근거를 두고, 장르별로 텍스트의 전체적인 구조와 언어적 특징을 구별하고, 이것을 쉽게 도식화한 스켈레톤 다이어그램을 그려 봄으로써, 읽기와 쓰기에 동시에 효과적인 새로운 접근법을 구안하였다.

The purpose of this study is to inspect the possibility of changing teacher-centered language learning into learner-centered one emphasizing learner’s interaction with self-directed learning contents available on-line for high school students. This study is to develop onㆍoff blended contents and apply them into classroom environment. It also discusses the kind of contents teachers and learners want to use. Reading parts for each lesson are usually dealt for three class hours in high schools. So it is designed that the first and the third period are done through off-line classroom and the second, on-line. Well-linked with the first and third period, on-line contents for the second period were designed, developed and applied into educational environment. More than expected number of teachers and learners were pleased with on-line contents reaching 80~90% of high level in satisfaction and also showed 65% reaching learners’ interaction rate in off-line classroom. If on？off blended learning model is well structured based on enough researches, it will realize its strong potential as a desirable learning model for reading.

The purpose of this study is to establish English as elective subjects for 11~12 grades in Korean high schools. This study was conducted in the form of survey including a total of 1,923 participants, consists of 728 high school English teachers, 984 high school students, and 939 parents. The questionnaire consisted of nine questions, and which were designed to elicitate the participants perception and needs on English as the elective subjects in high schools. The results of the study indicate that 1) we need the subjects that include 4 skills(listening, speaking, reading, and writing), 2) binding listening and speaking skills together will meet the need of students and parents who want to choose conversation-only subjects, 3) on the other hand, binding reading and writing skills together will meet the needs of the students who want to prepare for establishing the academic basis in the future. 4) Various proficiency in English between students requires various level of the elective subjects in high school English. On the basis of these results, this study suggests we need 1) the subjects which deals with 4 skills on the basis of traditional concept, and 2) ‘listening and speaking’ subjects and ‘reading and writing’ subjects. And the subjects should have various levels between the highest level to the lowest level.

The purpose of this study is to develop unit objectives in the view of application and systematic approach, reflecting the main features of the 7th curriculum revision which include process-oriented approach (POA). First, this study suggests that it is a better way to use the traditional objectives statements flexibly than not to use them. Next, objectives are stated mainly with contents and learner’s behaviors. But, this statement doesn't fully cover the features of POA. So, one alternative way is that content and behavior domains include the process-related factors characterized as procedure (or task) and learner-centeredness (or humanism). Finally, to suggest the factors of communicative unit objectives, all the objectives in recently and widely used course books are analyzed on the basis of Valette’s taxomony. In this analysis, it is known that content domain with language, socio-linguistics and communicative parts includes the factors such as fluency, authenticity, topic, activity, task, and behavior domain with cognitive and psycho- motor parts emphasizes and reflects creative expression and humanism (or affective factors).