Contextual autonomy in EFL classrooms: A critical review of English teaching methods in South Korea.

摘要

English has become the lingua Franca, the primary language of international communication of the world (Phillipson, 1992). The spread of English as an international language has tremendously impacted on foreign countries and their English education. Recently, researchers have argued that the dominance of English has created structural and cultural inequalities between developed and developing countries (Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1994). Traditionally, English education in EFL countries has heavily relied on teaching methodologies developed in the Center countries, but problems related to adopting teaching methodologies originated from other countries have been rarely investigated.; The purpose of the study is to suggest contextually based approaches to EFL teaching through exploring a notion of contextual autonomy. Using surveys and interviews with English teachers in Seoul, South Korea, the researcher explored issues related to reasons to reconsider the current English teaching methodologies, particularly, of communicative language teaching, which has been widely accepted and used as a fundamental concept for language teaching. Traditional grammar teaching was reviewed compared to CLT to suggest contextually responsive language teaching methods in local EFL classrooms.; To suggest reasons for contextually responsive language teaching, the study identified the origin of the dominant discourse, which has contributed to build a certain form of ideology regarding English teaching practice and its consequences, from the voices of English teachers in Seoul, South Korea. The study, further, explored ways to empower EFL teachers by identifying their perceived reasons of powerless in their professions due to accepting contextually irrelevant teaching approaches from the Center countries. The goal of the study, therefore, was threefold: (a) to challenge the ideology related to language teaching methods, particularly about the dominant notion of CLT and its impacts on English teaching practice in EFL countries, (b) to suggest ways to find and practice contextually based language teaching methods, (c) to empower EFL teachers to be equal partners in the field for contextually responsive language teaching to be made.