This study investigates the social construction and continual (re)production of the cultural Other through educational materials, focusing on Korean middle school English textbooks. Twelve middle school English textbooks from four publishers were collected and analyzed, with a focus on how they (mis)represent cultures and practices of minority groups. Utilizing critical content analysis to examine both visual and written texts in the textbooks, this research uncovers recurring patterns of exoticizing and commodifying Hawai’ian culture, homogenizing African culture, and romanticizing Indigenous peoples. The findings contribute significantly to our understanding of how cultural representations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks shape perceptions and influence societal dynamics. They also illuminate how these representations reflect and perpetuate Eurocentric colonialist discourse. Moreover, the results underscore the importance of equipping educators, especially English teachers, with critical literacy. This empowers them to identify hidden power relations that reinforce stereotypes, and actively engage in the construction of a more inclusive and equitable society.

The study investigated ten Korean secondary English teachers’ views on to what extent core competencies were reflected in textbooks using 18 Likert-type statements. This study also examined their views on how well cultural contents and activities met curricular objectives of teaching culture through open-ended questions and interviews. Results showed that the three items on civic competence had lower means except for the one on ethical use of information collected in class. Teachers replied that tasks for each grade were deficient in helping students feel proud of their own culture and developing positive attitudes toward other cultures. They thought that current cultural contents lacked diversity despite positive improvements in including other cultures over the years and possibility of meeting curricular goals. Consequently, they made various efforts to offer appropriate culture teaching using additional materials and/or activities with diverse teaching strategies and techniques. Some implications are drawn from these results for better culture teaching.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of using films on students’ reading comprehension and attitude toward their English study in the context of a college English class. Specifically, it attempted to examine how a film-based English reading class affected students’ reading comprehension and attitudes toward their study, and how they recognized the film-based English reading class. Thirty-one college students were asked to take pre- and post-tests in English reading, and to respond pre- and post-questionnaires regarding their affective domain, and a focus group of four students was voluntarily interviewed with one of two researchers. Quantitatively, a paired t-test was employed to compare the statistical means from those two samples, and qualitatively, the framework developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) was adopted to describe the major phases of data analysis. The results of data analysis indicated that 1) Using films in the college English reading was helpful for students to comprehend the given text, and to understand other cultures; 2) Also this film-based reading class optimally contributed to the affective domain such as students’ attitudes, interests, and confidence levels. Based on these results, pedagogical implications for effective English reading classes were suggested.

Learning a language is an interesting topic to be discussed between linguists. Its existence as a means of communication makes language play an important role in people’s lives. Universal grammar, cultural context and English as a global language are some of the topics that have been researched. Universal grammar (UG) is a principle of language applied in communication. Then, there is a tendency that language shares similarities with culture. It means that when people learn a language, inevitably they also learn about its culture. How a person expresses something to others is an example that shows language is interrelated with culture. The existence of a language also has a relationship to the power of ideology that a language has. How much power a language has will determine how many people use the language. As English is a very powerful language, English is spoken in many countries and there has been a need for people to communicate with other nations.

This paper aims to compare generic features of a specific genre in Korean and English language. For this purpose, written advertisements from magazines in two languages were compiled and small corpora of equivalent genres were analyzed from a perspective of comparative genre analysis. The focus of analysis was given to the ‘lexical’, ‘structural’, and ‘other choices’, by exploring the discourse values within a specific context. The case is to raise foreign language learners’ awareness of language form within a meaningful context, represented in a relevant genre. In this study, the comparison is narrowed down to written advertisements through cross-linguistic comparison. It shows that comparative corpora of familiar genres can be used to help learners realize the ways FL is explored to achieve particular communicative goals. Furthermore, it can lead naturally to the discussion of cultural and social aspects reflected in the language.

Effective foreign language learning accompanies the learning of the target language’s culture. But English is said to be not a foreign language, but a global language. What should culture learning be like in teaching English as a global language (EGL)? This paper aims to make some suggestions for the directions of cultural learning in EGL. First, the features of EGL learning are explored in comparison with those of EFL learning. Second, it is discussed why EGL learning does not match the communicative competence on which the communicative approach has been based. Instead EGL learning needs intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Third, it is considered what culture education should take into account for ICC. The main section seeks out the ways in which cultural contents involved in teaching materials contribute to develop ICC. Four (4) series of Korean middle school English textbooks are analysed in respect of the ownership of cultures, the types of culture and the cultural activities, from the intercultural perspective. The result admits the cultural contents of the textbook are not suitable for developing ICC. Finally, some directions will be deduced on how and what teaching materials are equipped to develop ICC in teaching English as a global language.

외국어를 습득함에 있어 언어적인 장애만을 생각하기 쉬우나 실제로는 크고 작은 문화적인 장벽(cultural barriers)이 차지하는 비중 또한 큰 것이다. 본 연구는 문화 지도 자료의 개발이 영어 교실에서 문화 교육의 효율을 높이고, 문화 교육이 영어를 통한 의사소통 능력을 극대화할 것이라는 이해에 근거하였다. 이에 학교 현장의 영어 수업에 직접 활용할 수 있는 문화 지도 자료를 설계 ⋅개발하여 현장에서 활용할 수 있도록 하는데 목적을 두었다. 본 연구는 체제적 교수 설계 과정을 바탕으로 요구 조사 및 분석, 기초 자료 분석, 자료의 수집, 자료 개발 및 평가를 통한 수정⋅보완의 단계를 거쳤다. 요구 분석과 수집된 생생한 사진 및 비디오 자료를 바탕으로 저작도구를 이용하여 자기 주도적 학습과 교실에서의 수업 지도 자료로서의 기능을 지닌 교수⋅학습 자료를 제작하였다. 제작된 지도 자료의 전반적인 보완 및 개선을 위하여 프로그램의 적합성에 대한 평가를 실시 하였다. 영어 교사 평가 결과 제작된 프로그램을 교사의 수업 자료제작에 대한 부담 없이 효율적으로 사용할 수 있다는 점 등이 장점으로 드러났으며 학생의 흥미와 동기부여에 도움이 됨을 알 수 있었다.

In an attempt to solve the problem of various English spellings of Korean names of landmarks and geographical locations used for maps, road signs and guidebooks with the lack of standardization, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism enacted the MCST instruction no. 279, an English translation guideline for public sector translation, on December 29, 2015. On September 23, 2015, the Ministry of Education announced a new national curriculum for elementary and secondary schools, Proclamation of the Ministry of Education #2015-74. This revised national curriculum for Elementary English textbooks will take effect on March 1, 2018. The main purpose of this paper is threefold: i) to review the English Translation Guideline for Public Sector Translation proposed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, ii) to analyze English spelling of Korean culture-related terms from 5 elementary school English textbooks which are currently used according to the English Translation Guideline, and iii) to suggest how to write Korean culture-related terms for new elementary school English textbooks which will be published after 2018 according to the 2015 Revised National Curriculum.

As a part of the research of small gardens, this study was carried out to survey the history and culture of 19C English and Australasian cottage garden. This western garden study will be expected to change Korean suburban and rural garden style delightfully and plentifully. The results of these studies are summarized as follows. The cottager appeared in the English landscape and social system after the Black Death and with him, the cottage garden. But, the suburban garden is the ancestor of the stylized English cottage gardens. Loudon created the nineteen-century suburban garden which, in the long run, influenced the shape and planting of rural cottage garden too. Loudon worked out rules from Repton's theory and practice, and then modified for the smaller. A measure of regularity is imposed by two conditions: the fact that suburban gardens are rectangular and fenced; and his own ideas for what he called 'gardenesque'. Miss Gertrude Jekyll could recognize the cottager's unwittingly good examples, could deduce from it some widely applicable rules. From the old cottage garden Gertrude Jekyll borrowed the charm of natural simplicity, produced a garden style from it and, at last, made the cottage garden self-conscious. It was a good example of the art which conceals art, not of artlessness. To sum up: the rules for laying out and planting the cottage garden are straightforward; The design should be rectangular and very simple; The native plant species can be included in the planting, and every cultivar not later than, say, the middle of the nineteenth century, excepting those which have never been associated with the 'idea' of a cottage garden. Australasian cottage gardens have derived from the English originals. They were also a fairly uncomplicated structure based on a grid of straight paths and a wide selection of flowering plants, shrubs, bulbs, annuals, biennials, perennials and climbers planted with no particular regard to flowering season or stature and with an unsophisticated colour scheme. The ideas of Loudon were most popular and widely read. As the century advanced, the transformation of the cottage garden was furthered into the flower garden. They took the news of the latest discoveries and productions in their stride and eagerly welcoming. However, aside from the profusion of the planting, the use of favourite old flowers and the random scatter of flowering shrubs, perennials, bulbs and other plants, the most important is still the simplicity of the design.@