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.

This study investigated spelling errors in English stories written by 206 students in an elementary school implementing Korean/English immersion education. Errors were analyzed using crosstab and MANCOVA. Findings are as follows. Spelling errors occurred in 4 categories in order from the most frequent to the least: substitution, omission, addition, and transposition. The error occurrences differed depending on grade level changes: lower grades (Grades 1-3) vs. higher grades (Grades 4-6). The students in both grade levels made more errors in substitution and omission: these error types were significantly decreased as they progressed to the higher grade levels. Errors in addition and transposition showed much fewer occurrences for both grade levels, and these errors did not show a significant decrease because of their rarer occurrences. Overall, the students’ spelling ability increased remarkably as they progressed in grade levels in the immersion environment.

The present study investigated the characteristics and trends of academic research by Korean scholars of English education. The main focus was on the extent to which active scholars focus on their primary major areas. The study surveyed 11 journals of major academic societies in Korea, and analyzed a total of 5,072 research papers written by 1,639 scholars. The results showed that the most popular topic was acquisition/learning (19.30%), followed by English (applied) linguistics (17.90%), English materials (14.59%), teaching methodology (12.03%), and learning psychology (10.11%), the top five collectively comprising 73.93% of the total papers. The 99 most productive scholars published 1.01 papers per year on average. Younger scholars published more papers per year on average than older scholars. As for the concentrated efforts in their primary areas of research, the top 99 scholars wrote 46.84% of their papers on their primary areas, and 20.03% on their secondary areas of study. Younger scholars concentrated more efforts on their primary areas than older scholars. The results were interpreted, and suggestions were made for the future research.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to evaluate the effectiveness of an English program under a practical curriculum for English majors in college and to investigate the relationships among students' perceptions of the program, language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and their satisfaction with the program. To this end, the study followed the changes in college students' perceptions of the program and their learning of English for four semesters from their freshman to sophomore years. Questionnaires were administered four times to measure and trace the students' perceived utility of the program, affective attitude, use of language learning styles and strategies, perceived and actual improvement in English, and satisfaction with the program. The results showed a statistically significant increase every semester in actual improvement in the students' TOEIC scores. Compared to their high expectations for improvement, the students' perceived improvement was shown to be the lowest at the end of the first semester, after which it got slowly higher each semester during the 2-year period. However, their overall satisfaction with the program got lower each semester. Native speaker instructors and interactive activities in class were found to positively affect the students' perceptions of program utility and affective attitude, which, in turn, significantly affect the students' use of language learning styles and strategies.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine prominent features of frequency in the new vocabulary of the middle school English textbooks based on the 2007 revised national curriculum and thereby to provide meaningful data to be compared with those on the 2009 revised national curriculum. This study used an online software (Vocabprofile) to divide words into four categories by frequency: K1 (1-1,000), K2 (1,001-2,000), AWL (Academic Words List), and Off-List Words (the remainder). Salient features discovered from the frequency-based categorization of words in textbooks by grades or publishers were further examined for pedagogical implications regarding textbook writing and curriculum revisions in the future. The analysis has revealed the following results. K1 words accounted for the most among the words presented in English textbooks, reflecting the significance of the high-frequency words in L2 learning. The number of other words showed a steady increase as the grade gets higher. Finally, most textbooks presented multi-words as new vocabulary, which indicates the importance of idioms or collocations. The vocabulary analysis by frequency could be of use to textbook evaluation, considering the growing importance of frequency-based vocabulary teaching.

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 was to analyze writing activities of 1st grade middle school English textbooks based on the achievement standards of the 2009 revised National Curriculum and provide suggestions for improvements of textbooks. In this study, seven textbooks out of twelve were selected and their writing activities were analyzed as to whether they stick to the guidelines of the 2009 revised National Curriculum. For this purpose, specific focuses of the current study were 1) to look into writing activities based on achievement standards stipulated in the 2009 revised National Curriculum, and 2) to investigate the ratio of integrated writing activities to separate writing activities ones. The results of the analysis revealed that most of the writing activities seemed suitable based on learners’ real-life situations for achievements standards; however, the types of writing activities were rather simple, mainly focusing on given words. Next, there were not only separate writing activities but also a variety of integrated activities such as listening-writing, speaking-writing, and reading-writing activities. At the end of the paper, a few suggestions were provided to improve the qualities of writing activities in the textbooks.

The purpose of this study is to examine effective ways to introduce creative thinking skills development in the English learning classroom, specifically, focusing on questioning techniques and creative thinking techniques. The study explores selected creative-thinking techniques which are in accordance with English teaching methods and goals in the Korean context. The techniques highlighted were deemed adequate for enhancing creative and analytical thinking skills of English language learners and include the following: Brainwriting, SCAMPER, Lotus Blossom Technique, Forced Relationships/Analogy, Wishful Thinking Technique, Six Thinking Hats, SWOT, PMI technique, Flat Stanley Project. The study attempts to outline examples of and procedures for implementing such techniques in English education. The study is intended to provide insights for both researchers and practitioners alike and shall thus contribute to the ongoing discussion of integrating creativity education with English learning and teaching.

본 연구의 목적은 웨슬리 설교에 나타난 ‘love’를 포함하는 표현들을 분석하고, 이에 대한 교육적 시사점을 찾는 데에 있다. 이를 위하여 죤 웨슬리의 설교 중에 20편이 선정되었다. 콘코던스 프로그램은 AntConc 3.2.0w이 사용되었다. 설교들로부터 워드리스트가 추출되었고, ‘love’ 단어를 포함한 표현들을 조사하였다. 결과로는, 199개의 표현이 발견되었고, 그 연어들의 특징적인 부분을 분석하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 학습자들로 하여금 연어적 지식을 발전시키는 데에 도움을 줄 수 있으며, 영어학습에 있어서 어휘를 확장시킬 수 있게 해 준다. 학습자들은 또한 교수자의 지도하에 스스로 코퍼스 프로그램을 이용할 수도 있겠다.

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.

Paik Kyung-sook. 2012. Do they teach the prospective teachers properly?: Suggestions based on an analysis of the courses on culture at the English education departments of Korean colleges. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 20(2). pp. 239-268. This study analyses the contents of the courses on culture at the English education departments of Korean colleges to evaluate if the prospective teachers are learning properly what it takes for teaching culture. Referring to the relevant theories and the results of a pilot questionnaire on the practice and difficulties in culture education at Korean secondary schools, this study diagnoses the courses on culture(/culture teaching) by examining the contents of the appropriate syllabuses. The analysis shows that most departments offer a culture-related course or two, but mostly about culture on a macro-level. It also reveals that contents about the multicultural nature of the English speaking communities are not properly included and that the relevant teaching approaches/methods are rarely dealt with. The contents targeting the prospective teachers’ understanding of the ‘intercultural communicative competence’ were rarely found, which inevitably discloses the college educators’ lack of adequate concept of ‘culture education’ in this globalized era. This study finally suggests that the ethnographic perspective and knowledge along with the notion of ‘intercultural communicative competence’ serve as the key concepts in constructing a suitable model of culture education for the prospective teachers as well as the learners in Korea.(197)

The present study explores how high school English teachers perceive recently proposed or implemented English education policies. Among the policies are performance assessment, the depaπmentalized classroom system (DCS), 20 11 revised national curriculum for English, the two-Ievel (Types A' B) English tests in College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), and National English Ability Test (NEAT). The study examines three aspects ofteacher perception on each p이 icy: knowledge, attitudes, and implementation. A questionnaire was administered, and the responses of 395 high school English teachers were analyzed‘ The res비ts showed that the knowledge aspect scored the highest for all five p이 icies while differences were revealed as to specific aspects of knowledge, attitudes, and implementation across different policies. It was also revealed that the attitude aspect was positively correlated with the implementation aspect and that correlation between attitude and implementation was higher than the 、 correlation between attitude and knowledge. The facto rs identified to be highly correlated with all five policies were teacher’s academic attainment, age, and teaching experience, the number of students per class, and the implementation of English creative school. Implications are suggested for in-service teacher development, English education policy-making, and effective policy implementation.