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

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.