earticle

영어

This paper explores the historical development of English education in Korea regarding the second and third National Curriculum period. By using the historical research method which analyzes newspaper articles in four major newspapers in Korea, we compared the similarities and differences between these two periods. The research questions are: 1) what are the characteristics of the second National Curriculum? 2) what are the characteristics of the third National Curriculum?, and 3) what is the implication of these previous curricula on the current English education in Korea? It was found that the second National Curriculum Period showed steady development in English education in terms of its emphasis on oral skills instead of the traditional emphasis on reading and grammar skills. However, the lack of coherence among various English textbooks, the lack of English teachers fluent in English, and the exam-oriented social atmosphere were the significant challenges in fully implementing the second National Curriculum. The third National Curriculum Period overlaps with the Yushin Regime propagated by the late President Park Junghee. During this period, a systematic effort to introduce communicative language teaching continued, whereas the exam-orientation persisted which made the English class employ teacher-centered grammar-translation methods. This paper concludes with educational suggestions and future research directions.