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 present study aimed to explore how pre-service teacher’s individual regulatory focus orientation, currently emerging as an interesting learner variable for language learning, could influence their Englishspeaking abilities. English teaching demonstration videos of 67 pre-service teachers were analyzed in terms of pronunciation, accuracy, and fluency. The regulatory focus orientations of participants were evaluated using a questionnaire. The results of data analysis, using multiple regression analysis, indicated that promotion-focus orientation was a significant positive predictor for pronunciation, fluency (words per minute, ratio of dysfluency), and accuracy (lexical errors, ratio of error-free AS-units). On the other hand, prevention-focus orientation did not emerge as a statistically significant factor affecting accuracy. However, it was observed to have a negative influence on both pronunciation and fluency. In light of the research findings that highlight the favorable impact of a promotion-focus orientation, suggestions were made for future teacher training programs aimed at enhancing the English proficiency of pre-service teachers.

This study compares AI PengTalk’s assessments of Korean children’s pronunciation with the assessments of Korean teachers. Sixty Korean sixth-graders participated as assessees, and four Korean elementary teachers participated as assessors. Both PengTalk and the teachers rated the children’s production of 10 English sentences on a five-point scale. They focused on segmentals, stress-rhythm, intonation, and speech rate. The findings were as follows: Firstly, PengTalk evaluated the children’s pronunciation in the four elements significantly lower than the teachers across all English proficiency levels. Secondly, teachers’ ratings of the students aligned more closely with their pre-evaluated English proficiency levels than the AI PengTalk’s assessments. The teachers rated students at the upper level significantly higher than those at the intermediate level, who were, in turn, assessed significantly higher than those at the lower level in all four elements. Furthermore, AI PengTalk and the teachers differed in the mean order of the four elements, particularly in segmentals. Based on the results of this study, suggestions were made for the development and implementation of AI-based English programs.

This study explores the ways in which sociocultural perspectives on English language education can contribute to teacher education the era of artificial intelligence (AI). Three key words that represent the relationship between sociocultural perspectives and English teacher education—context, interaction, and social practice—can each be linked to the key concepts of criticality, multimodality, and action research. Teachers of English need to be ready for the forthcoming changes in the AI era, for which they must be equipped with a critical ability to focus on issues and needs in the Korean context. This ability can be applied in teaching students various types of interactions, especially those involving the use of computers, and will create opportunities for teachers to conduct research of their own and cultivate a professional teacher identity. This study concludes by recommending substantial changes in the current pre-service and in-service English teacher education programs in accordance with these key concepts.

Based on the multilingual perspective that emphasizes that non-native variants of English need to be recognized as having values equivalent to the native speakers’ English, this study aimed at discovering elementary school teachers’ perceptions and beliefs of native-speakerism, multilingualism, and monolingualism in English education, and the contradictions and questions they had as they reflected on the language ideologies. Nine elementary teachers participated in the study, and two written reflections on language ideologies and two follow-up group interviews were used as the data source. The findings were as follows. First, the teachers confirmed, consolidated, or realized how native speakerism and monolingualism were deeply rooted in English teaching and learning. However, they showed that they had agency in their own teaching, and also showed changes in their perception through reflecting on their experiences. Last, the teachers had questions and contradictions about implementing a multilingual approach in teaching English, which provides the issues and challenges to be solved for the transformation of English education in the multilingual world. This study has implications for primary English education.

This paper explores initiators of humor and the differing characteristics of humor these initiators use in elementary-level English classrooms in Korea. Forty-nine videotaped ordinary classes and interviews with four teachers were investigated. Teachers tended to make learners the subjects of humor, with this type of humor attracting students to participate in learning. Furthermore, teachers encouraged learners to pay more attention to the form of English language features by humorously revealing mispronunciations or expressions that learners could easily make mistakes with. Additionally, among learners, the primary users of humor were middle- to lower-level students. Teachers needed to build a safe environment for English underachievers who unintentionally made humorous mistakes so that they would not be mocked. Also, certain boys intentionally tried humor to get attention. It is noteworthy that teachers and learners jointly constructed humor by supporting each other. This conjoint humor reaffirms the importance of teachers’ reactions and attitudes towards pupils. By listening attentively and accepting learners’ remarks, teachers could make humorous, meaningful interactions. The current paper projects some pedagogical implications concerning how to use or deal with humor for foreign language teachers.

The benefit of language play for language learning is not recognized in English education. Based on the idea that teachers’ perception of teaching and learning affects their teaching practices, this study sought to examine teachers’ perception of language play in the English classroom. The specific purposes of the study were to discover commonalities and differences in elementary teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ perception of language play and to provide suggestions for including language play in teacher education and classroom instruction. Separate group interviews were conducted with 7 in-service and 9 pre-service teachers at the elementary level, in which the participants shared their responses to 3 language play texts that highlight rhyme, rhythm, and nonsense compound words. The topical analysis of the data revealed that both the teachers and pre-service teachers focused on understanding the words in the texts and did not recognize their playful aspects. However, the in-service teachers interpreted the texts more actively than the pre-service teachers and shared ideas for using language play texts in the English classroom. Based on the findings, the paper emphasizes that pre-service English teacher education needs to include language play as one of curricular contents, which should continue into teacher education.

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 purpose of this research study is to identify the perceptions of both primary ELL(English Language Learner)s and English teachers on MMP(Multimodal Media Production)-embedded English instruction at a primary English class. In order to answer this question, 182 primary ELLs and 2 English teachers participated in this research. A questionnaire survey was administered to the focal participants and an open-ended interview was conducted with the teachers. The results show that overall perceptions on MMP were comparably high among ELLs, and there was significant difference between genders, grades and English levels in terms of learning interest. The teachers’ interview revealed that MMP would trigger deeper understanding of the lesson and ELLs’ voluntary active class participation by heightening motivation, self-confidence and interest in learning English. In sum, the implementation of MMP-embedded English instruction has positive pedagogical effects for young ELLs since it may promote essential literacy skills in the 21st century as well as help in affective domains.

This study aimed to investigate how two novice teachers in elementary schools conceptualized and developed their practical knowledge about English teaching. They provided their narratives about their teaching six times over the spring semester of 2019. Their narratives were recorded and transcribed. Two researchers examined the transcription to investigate what prior knowledge they had and how they developed their practical knowledge. It was found that their practical knowledge had constantly changed and developed. When they started teaching English, they had their own knowledge on English teaching, which seemed to come from their previous English learning experience and from their study on teaching English. As they applied these knowledge to their own teaching situations, they encountered many problems. The main situations that shaped their practical knowledge were 1) students' level of achievement, 2) level differences among students, 3) teacher status (classroom teacher or English specialist teacher), and 4) colleagues. While coping with those problems, they added new practical knowledge or modified the knowledge they had. The findings provided several implications on pre-service and novice teacher training.

This study focused on challenges faced by early childhood English teachers in Korea against the backdrop of the local rise of English education for young learners. A mixed-method was used to collect data, including open-ended survey questionnaires and interviews. Six teachers from 250 early childhood English teachers were selected for this study based on the length of teaching experience. A number of challenges emerged from the analysis of the survey, including classroom management, mixed-level class, motivation, teaching methodology, parents involvement, restrained English education in the context of Korea, the teacher’s level of English, lack of assessment and materials which fit early childhood language learners, and balancing between interest and learning. Nine distinct themes were found based on calculated frequency. They were cross-tabulated by two groups of teachers depending on whether teachers had less or more than three years of teaching experience. Results showed challenges and difficulties faced by teachers with lengthy teaching experience. Findings of this study suggest a way to build teacher education programs to support the challenges identified by teachers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of good English teachers’ characteristics and to suggest guidelines for how to be a good English teacher by conducting a survey questionnaire to middle and high school students and their English teachers in Korea. The survey was composed of 48 items regarding teaching skills, personality and creativity, and assessing skills. The results showed there are different perceptions about the characteristics of good English teachers between teachers and students. Teachers perceived checking students’ understanding during the class as the most important characteristic followed by giving appropriate feedback to students, while students perceived treating them respectfully as the most important one. According to the research findings, this study suggests that English teachers should carefully consider developing students’ affective and creative aspects as well as linguistic skills that were shown to be important in both teacher and student perceptions. It also suggests the curriculum developers and teacher trainers for English teachers should continuously monitor the teacher evaluation process and apply the findings as helpful guidelines for future research and practice.

The present study investigates English teachers’ needs in relation to competency-enhancing in-service teacher training program. Two different surveys were conducted with English teachers in three school levels from primary to high school. The first survey consisted of an open-ended question to collect unstructured responses from teachers. The second survey was constructed based on the analysis of the first survey. A total of 1,111 teachers participated in the study (124 for the first survey, 987 for the second survey). The survey results are as follows: The needs analysis survey consisted of six factors that are English proficiency (five items), school curriculum (four items), teaching methodology (seven items), contents of teaching (six items), value (three items), and method for teacher training (six items). Second, there were statistically significant differences according to three school levels and years of teaching experience. This result suggests that more attention needs to be paid to different needs of English teachers so as to develop effective competency-enhancing English teacher training program. Pedagogical implications have been discussed.

Teachers’ job satisfaction is a crucial factor to determine the quality of education in that it affects their dedication and participation. While teachers’ job satisfaction in general has been widely investigated, subject-related job satisfaction has been sparsely explored. Thus, this study investiaged both general and subject-related job satisfaction and compared them. A total of 117 secondary English teachers in Seoul participated in a survey which measures job satisfaction in terms of seven factors: relationship with people, job duties, work environments, opportunities for professional development, compensations, administration systems, and recognitions. Overall, the participants showed a modest level of satisfaction in both general and subjet-related jobs. Yet, subject-related job satisfaction was higher than general job satisfaction. They were particularly satisfied with their relationship with students and teachers. They also showed high satisfaction with recognition they receive as a teacher as well as an English teacher. In contrast, they were dissatisfied with compensations and workloads in general, and the number of students in charge and administrative support in teaching English. Finally, their job satisfaction was affected by gender, school type, position, and marriage. Based on the results, suggestions to enhance secondary English teachers’ job satisfaction were made.

This study explores whether there are differences in the types and characteristics of teacher talk between primary English teachers with different degrees of teaching professionalism. Two primary English teachers who were different from each other in their teaching professionalism were selected. They both taught sixth grade students and used the same English textbook. The data for the study were collected while they both were teaching the same unit of the textbook. Their classes were video-recorded and their interaction was transcribed and analyzed based on the framework of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk (Walsh, 2002). The results show that the two teachers differed in the amount of the use of ‘constructive’ and ‘obstructive’ teacher talk. The more professional teacher used more constructive talk while the less professional teacher used more obstructive talk, and the more professional teacher encouraged the students to engage in the interaction by using constructive talk, such as error correction, content feedback, scaffolding, and so forth. On the basis of these results, some pedagogical implications were made.

The current study explores the potential of the collaborative reflection of the teacher, colleagues, and students in promoting teacher expertise. To this effect, the authors first created a principled set of checklists on six domains of teacher expertise by synthesizing relevant literature. Then they developed protocols for collaborative reflection. These tools were applied to a middle school English teacher’s reflective practice, involving the teacher participating in stimulated recall sessions of her own classes, writing reflection journals, and receiving feedback from her colleagues and students. The results show that collaborative reflection has high potentials for mediating the teacher’s cognitive and affective changes, leading to behavioral ones. This suggests that collaborative reflection, when relevant institutional prerequisites are met, can take an instrumental role in promoting teacher expertise.

The present study has investigated teaching motivation and demotivation factors on itinerant English teachers for pre-school children. A total of 119 itinerant English teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale, which had 32 items for teaching motivation and 14 items for demotivation. They also responded to 8 items asking about personal background information, which were used to examine the direct influence on teachers’ (de)motivation. Factor analyses were conducted to explore (de)motivation factors. As a result, five factors emerged regarding teaching motivation: altruistic motivation, intrinsic motivation, interpersonal motivation, monetary reward, and self-improvement motivation. Four teaching demotivation factors were also identified through factor analysis: burnout, lack of self-confidence, insufficient external support, and lack of autonomy. The result of t-test and one-way ANOVA indicated that teachers’ age, marital status, and teaching experiences have influenced teaching motivation, whereas their undergraduate major and age contributed to the level of teaching demotivation. This study implies that it is necessary to provide them with systematic pre- and in-service teacher training programs in order to develop the comprehensive knowledge of early childhood education as well as to improve their overall English proficiency.

This study aimed to examine educational connoisseurships of the 3rd and 4th year pre-service elementary school teachers (PSTs). Twenty eight 3rd year and 28 4th year PSTs were asked to write a critique on a video-taped elementary English lesson. Their comments were categorized and examined to see if there were any outstanding characteristics. It was also investigated whether the different amounts of coursework the two groups of PSTs had completed were reflected in their critiques. Many PSTs were found not to have developed their educational connoisseurships to examine whether a lesson was designed to maximize learning, and the functions of the target expressions were practiced and learned in a meaningful way. Two most common perspectives in their critiques were to examine whether the students were interested in the learning activities, and whether the learning activities helped students learn the target expressions. Some differences in the views on classroom English and differential learning activities were found across the two groups.

This study investigates 95 articles on English teacher education published in English Teaching for the past 50 years. Remarkable changes have been made in research methodology and research focus. In particular, six themes emerged from the selected articles and were discussed: (1) teacher qualifications and roles, (2) teacher training and professional development, (3) teacher cognition and perceptions, (4) teacher professional identities, (5) teacher talk, (6) teacher evaluation. Finally, pedagogical implications and directions for the future research are suggested.