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.

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.

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 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.

This paper is on the design of foundations for English curriculum on the basis of discipline centered curriculum to give academic and pedagogic platforms for curriculum development. For these purposes, this study finds theoretical and pedagogic elements, and inquiries into their natures and relationships. Theoretical foundations should reflect both general education theories and the features of the subject such as English. These foundations can include linguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, which interact in both academic and pedagogic contexts. Specifically, linguistics (the nature of language) has some features such as expressiveness, productiveness, semantics, commonness and regularity. The theories of psycholinguistics can be grouped into behaviorism, cognitivism and humanism. Sociolinguistics focuses on key elements such as the language user as a social being, variations of language, social context and social use of language. The pedagogic elements such as content system, learning elements and social context which directly come from the theoretical elements also interact each other indirectly.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate from English teachers' perspectives the secondary school English curriculum of the 7th National Curriculum, which became effective in 2001 for middle schools. With such a goal, the present study analyzes the results of questionnaires collected from middle school teachers of 7th-grade English. The study discusses the realities and problems of the 7th National Curriculum that teachers experience when they teach 7th-grade English classes. The study also discusses-solutions and alternatives proposed by teachers in order to contribute to the improvement of the English curriculum.

The purpose of this study is to find out what characteristics of the communicative functions are presented and how these functions are reflected in the elementary school English textbooks based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. For this purpose, 20 elementary school English textbooks(5 different textbooks from the third to sixth grade) are analyzed and compared. For data analysis, 11 upper categories and 77 subcategories of communicative functions presented in the 2015 Revised National Curriculum are used. The results represent that first, no grade contains all 11 upper categories of communicative functions in the textbooks. Second, the communicative functions presented in the textbook have a wide variation in the frequency of presentation among the upper categories and subcategories. Third, there are no textbooks that reflected all 77 subcategories of communicative functions, and the degree of reflection in each textbook differs. This study suggests that more various examples are needed and organized in the textbooks in order to foster learners’ basic communicative competence, and connectivity and continuity of communicative functions among grades should be considered when organizing textbooks.

Hyunsong Chung. 2017. A Diagnostic Review of English Pronunciation Teaching Based on the Analysis of the 2015 Revised English Curriculum and English Textbooks. Studies in Modern Grammar 96, 191-212. In this paper, we discuss the goal of English pronunciation teaching in Korea and how to elaborate the elements of English pronunciation teaching in the national curriculum based on the analysis of the 2015 revised English language curriculum and English textbooks. We suggest that the elements of English pronunciation teaching should be explicitly and properly specified for all the levels in the curriculum including primary and secondary levels. The activities in the classroom should combine task-based controlled practices in pronunciation with communicative activities. Phonetic symbols in the textbooks should pursue IPA conventions and be consistent. It is necessary to continue the discussions and conduct researches on pronunciation teaching in the national curriculum so that the results can be positively reflected in the future revision of the English curriculum.

교육인적자원부는 2006년 8월에 고시된 국민공통기본교육과정(1-10학년)에 맞추어 2006년 12월 31일에는 11～12학년 선택과목 개정시안을 고시하였다. 우선 7차 교육과 비교하여 개정시안의 가장 중요한 변화는 과목 명칭의 변화와 함께 시수단위가 8단위 5개 교과목에서 6단위 6개 교과목으로 변경되었다는 점이다. 즉 종래의 “영어Ⅰ,Ⅱ”, “영어독해”, “영어회화”, “영어작문”의 5과목에서 영어Ⅰ,Ⅱ는 통합 4기능을 교육한다는 원래의 목적을 살려 그대로 두고 주로 개별 기능 분야에 해당하는 독해, 회화, 작문을 교사, 학부모를 상대로 광범위한 설문지 조사결과를 토대로 읽기․쓰기Ⅰ,Ⅱ와 듣기․말하기Ⅰ,Ⅱ, 즉 통합기능으로 묶어 6개 과목으로 분리하는 방안을 택하였다는 것이다. 사실 선택교육과정은 7차 교육과정의 가장 중요한 특징 중의 하나로서 교육현장에 많은 변화를 가져왔고, 이로 인하여 시․도교육청과 단위 학교로 하여금 교육과정 편성과 운영의 문제를 진지하게 받아들이고 고민하는 계기를 마련했다는 점에서 긍정적으로 평가되어 왔다. 그러나 현행 고등학교 교육과정은 선택교육과정의 기본 체계에 따른 여러 가지 구조적인 문제점들을 갖고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 관련 그동안 일반적으로 제기된 중요한 문제점들을 정리하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 현재의 대학입시제도에 영향을 받는 고교 교육현장에서 많은 학생들이 심화 선택 과목에 중점을 두지 않고 있으며 학교에서도 다양한 선택과목을 제공하고 있지 않다는 점이다. 둘째, 국가수준에서 지나치게 이완된 형태를 취함으로써 특정 대학의 입시 정책에 의해 고등학교 교육과정 편성․운영 방식이 결정되는 결과를 초래하였다. 셋째, 교육과정 문서에서는 학생 선택을 강조했으나 실제 대부분 학교에서는 소수의 교사가 맡을 수 있는 과목 중심으로 운영되어 왔다는 점이다. 이와 관련해 구체적으로 다음와 같은 문제점들을 지적하고 있다. 즉, 선택 대상보다는 선택 주체 위주로 설계되었다거나, 과정 선택보다는 과목 선택형으로 설계되었다는 점, 대입 준비 과정인 일반계 고등학교에서 일반선택과목의 이수 시기나 분량이 부적절하다는 점, 학생들이 이수 과목들이 대학입시와 직결되어 있다는 점, 학교에서 학생 대상의 요구 조사를 실시하기는 하지만 학교의 한정된 자원으로 인해 학생이 원하는 선택 과목을 충실히 제공하기 어렵다는 점, 학교의 교과목 개설은 학생 요구보다 교수 수급 상태에 의해 결정된다는 것이 보편적인 견해이다. 선택 주체, 선택 대상, 학생의 학습권 보장, 교사 수급과 배치, 학생 수용 등과 관련하여 안정적인 운영의 틀이 제대로 마련되지 않은 상태에서 학생 선택을 통한 교과목 개설과 운영은 많은 문제를 안고 있다고 볼 수 있다(박순경 외, 2004). 이 글의 목적은(7차교육과정과 비교하여) 위와 같은 문제점을 보완하여 발표된 개정시안의 주요내용과 특징 및 개정의 의의를 알아보고자 하는 것이다.