• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-115
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• 2006

English immersion has emerged in Korea only recently as an innovative approach to learning and teaching English. Lack of real life experience of using English has been one of the biggest obstacles for Korean learners of English and has resulted in an increasing number of children being sent to English-speaking countries and a huge amount of dollar outflow. This recent innovation is expected to be the magic wand to resolve all these problems. However, setting up an immersion program in a typical EFL context like Korea has brought in another set of issues and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a short-term immersion English program in Korea and provide some empirical data to develop programs that can better cater to the needs of EFL learners. A two-week English immersion program was developed and implemented with 57 Korean and Japanese students whose grade level ranged from 4 to 12. The study results show that the program was successful in terms of changing the participants' attitude toward learning English, improving their English skills, enhancing intercultural understanding and competence, and motivating them for further studies of English and other foreign languages and cultures.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.271-292
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate what English teachers think about what and how to teach culture, as a way of helping students build relevant background knowledge and enhance their motivation in learning English. A total of 300 teachers completed a self-report questionnaire in four areas: (i) their understanding and liking of English-spoken countries, (ii) their use of materials and tools for teaching culture, (iii) their consciousness of teaching culture, and (iv) their needs for culture learning in the teacher-training program. The results show that (i) they think American culture is dominant in EFL but they are much interested in British culture; (ii) they rely on internet most for their cultural experience while they think students get much of the cultural information from textbooks; (iii) they are very much conscious of the importance of teaching culture for improving students' English proficiency; (iv) they want to learn in the teacher training program more about cultural practice, which can be subsumed under the so called 'small c'. The findings suggest that (i) textbooks need to include contents to promote students' cultural awareness and foster intercultural competence, (ii) teachers should use authentic materials with appropriate adaptation, and (iii) a teacher training program should cover a wide range of contents and skills for teaching culture.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.56-63
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to understand how English textbooks in Korea and Japan reflect English education policies for improving the English language learners' cultural ability. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the method of analyzing English textbooks was used because English textbooks are an important tool that most specifically reflects the English policy of a country. This study analyzed a total of six English textbooks, three middle school English textbooks currently used in Korea and three in Japan. We analyzed nouns/pronouns related to culture presented in the reading section included in each unit, and compared cultural diversity and cultural identity included in English textbooks in Korea and Japan. As a result, it was found that both countries experienced cultural diversity through English education and introduced their cultural pride to Western culture to realize the goal of strengthening global capabilities. This textbook analysis results show that English textbooks of Korea and Japan depend on American/British cultures and norms. The cultural contents of English textbooks in Korea and Japan tend to focus on geography, food and drink, festivals and activities, family and education systems, etc. And English textbooks in Korea and Japan include the cultural sections in each lesson, but they don't suggest how to relate these cultural sections into the learners' real experiences. These results can be utilized as the motives from which both countries develop English education policy and textbooks in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

Recognizing the necessity of content-centered teacher professional development programs in a rapidly changing educational environments, this study analyzed the contents of teacher professional development programs in terms of teachers' participation by program contents and teachers' perception of the necessity and the effectiveness of such program contents. Employing Teaching and Learning International Survey(TALIS), this study analyzed the perception of 4,000 Korean secondary school teachers. The results showed that the programs with the highest teacher participation were mainly subject-centered while the teacher participation rates on the newly required contents such as ICT, intercultural counseling, school management and administration, and new job skills were low. Besides, when teachers were asked to identify the content areas where teacher professional developments are needed, the level of teachers' perception of the programs with low participation rates was accordingly low. Lastly, this study implies that since the years of teaching experience serve as a determinant on the types of the contents that teacher professional developments are needed and on the teachers' perception of the effectiveness of such contents, the course of teacher development should be taken into consideration when the contents of teacher professional development programs are developed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.157-164
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• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate students' perception of the integration of Chinese ethnic minority culture into the college EFL teaching which was carried out in the fall and spring semesters with different presentation topics. One and the same questionnaire was distributed to 61 participants, involving Han Chinese and Chinese ethnic minority students, at a university in ethnic minority area in China at the end of each semester, and SPSS 20.0 was used for t-test to analyze the data. The research results showed that Chinese undergraduates have got more significant improvements in cultural cognition, emotions, attitudes, and multi-cultural values in the spring semester than those in the fall semester. All participants benefit a lot from multi-cultural activities without significant differences between Han Chinese and ethnic minority students in both semesters. It is suggested that ethnic minority culture be integrated into the college EFL teaching, along with English culture and Chinese mainstream culture, which be administered as a practical teaching mode to develop students' intercultural competence.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.63-70
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• 2022

At the present stage, the main directions of the professional position of a specialist in the implementation of English-language Education are to improve and spread the practice of learning languages throughout a person's life by involving information, communication and digital technologies in the educational process. Computerization of the educational process in Higher Education Institutions is considered as one of the first and most promising areas for improving the quality of education in Higher Education Institutions. The necessity of ensuring timely training and retraining of specialists of various profiles (in particular teachers) on the effective use of domestic and foreign electronic resources with the help of modern information technologies for the implementation of the professional position of a future specialist in a foreign-language environment is noted. The main goal of teaching a foreign language (the formation of students' communicative competence, which means mastering the language as a means of intercultural communication) is defined. The types of speech activity that cover the content of teaching a foreign language are highlighted. The main types of assessment in a foreign language are shown - current (non-classroom), thematic, semester, annual assessment and final state certification. The task of the teacher is drawn, which is to create conditions for practical language acquisition for each student, to choose such teaching methods by means of information technologies that would allow each student to show their activity, their creativity; to activate the cognitive activity of the student in the process of learning a foreign language.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.644-654
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• 2017

Due to globalization and the increasing number of international marriages, Korea has become a multicultural society. In 2012, the Korean Ministry of Education established guidelines for education on multicultural understanding for all K-12 students. The purpose of this study is to understand how education on multicultural understanding is conducted and to provide suggestions for improvements. Based on the six goals of multicultural curriculum in Bennett's conceptual model, this study explores how multicultural education specialists conduct their instructions and how they convey the value of multicultural understanding in public schools. Four multicultural education specialists were recruited, and various qualitative data were collected from pre- and post-interviews and classroom observations. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The study findings show that the participants educated elementary students by introducing their own (or spouse's) culture through their traditional clothes, food, and customs. This indicated that they focused mainly on developing multiple historical perspectives and strengthening intercultural competence. However, their current education on multicultural understanding may not help students to increase an awareness of the state of the planet and global dynamics, and to build social action skills. Finally, we suggest that multicultural education should be integrated and infused into national (regular) curricula so that all students can enhance their multicultural understanding.