Abstract:

The Korean Ministry of Education has given priority to communicative competence in this current 7th curriculum, a major shift from previous curriculum methodologies. But the Korean English teachers have expressed their skepticism about the efficiency compared with the amount of time and money being put in, citing various reasons such as large class size, different levels of students' spoken English, and teachers' poor spoken English. The presenter singles out Korea's collectivistic culture as one of major factors which impede the improvement of students' spoken English. He analyzes various negative features of Confucianism and collectivism, and other English environmentally negative factors in the Korean secondary school context which discourage students from speaking English. He also provides possible solutions to these cultural barriers.

Please see the PDF or MS Word files for full article.