earticle

영어

This paper reports the current situation of English and English education in North Korea. Two approaches are taken to achieve the goal: One is to examine social attitudes and government approaches to English education. Interviews with defectors from North Korea, newspaper reports and other related literature are used. The other is to analyze middle school English textbooks and research articles to reveal the current practice of English language teaching at schools. The results show that North Korean government and people are interested in learning and teaching English and they take various measures to improve English learning to meet national or individual goals. English seems to be considered as a way of improving their economic situations and finding a better opportunity for many North Korean people. However, English education in North Korea is still limited in terms of resources including learning materials and native teachers of English. Also academic research and practices in English education are still heavily influenced by Kim Ilsung and Kim Jungil’s words so that scientific investigations are limited. It is an impending issue to narrow a gap in English education between South and North Koreas to overcome difficulties encountered in the future.