15 - Social Attitudes toward ‘School English’ in Classroom Practice in South Korea from 1970 to the Present

Summary

Abstract

This chapter investigates social attitudes toward ‘school English’ in South Korea from 1970 to 1999. As the South Korean economy developed rapidly in the 1970s, the perceived importance of English grew. The trend accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s with continued growth and the transition to democracy. The chapter uses a corpus of forty-nine selected articles on English education from four major South Korean daily newspapers. Articles were selected based on the insight provided into social attitudes and analysed qualitatively to discern trends over time. Results showed that pushes to reform ‘school English’ originated from policy markers intent on linking English proficiency to economic and social development. Instead of reflecting attitudes, policy makers acted as drivers of public opinion.

Keywords: South Korea; English education; social context; social attitudes; elementary school English education; university entrance examination; global English; democratization; economic development; newspaper corpus

Social Context and Language Learning

All formal education, like other human activities, takes place within a complex social context. In this essay, I define social context as the social forces that shape individuals’ daily experiences. These forces include a web of structures and processes, organizations and institutions, and interpersonal relationships. Together social context defines the parameters of individual daily life. For language learning and teaching, social context is important because it influences the choices that institutions and individuals make. For example, education authorities in most countries require pupils in school to learn one or more languages while offering others as options. The broader social context influences these decisions which, in turn, have a direct influence on the daily school activities of pupils. The history of language learning and teaching thus reflects changes in the social context over time. As H. H. Stern aptly put it, “[w]e cannot teach a language for long without coming face to face with social context factors which have bearing on language and language learning”.

A key component of social context is social attitudes, which can be defined as ways a society looks at phenomena in the world. This chapter is an investigation of social attitudes toward ‘school English’ in South Korea from 1970 to 1999 that addresses the following research question: “How did social attitudes affect the evolution of English education policies in South Korea during this period?”.