As English has been rapidly spreading to non-Western communities, we have had numerous varieties of English. In the Outer Circle, English gained an official status, which resulted in nonnative varieties of English. In the Expanding Circle, English achieved the status of the first foreign language. With a range of English varieties, educators and administrators have been faced with controversial questions such as: (1) how to define native speakers of English? and (2) which varieties to teach? This qualitative study investigates four Korean EFL teachers’ perception of speakers of English and the issue of target varieties. Using data from semi-structured interviews and personal conversations collected for one academic semester, the researcher found that the participants considered various features when identifying an individual as a native or nonnative speaker of English. They used to consider ethnicity and nationality important in the past, which have been replaced by language precedence, cultural attachment, native speaker’s intuition, and mutual intelligibility. The findings of this study also demonstrate that American English is regarded as the most preferred variety as an educational target in Korean ELT because of the power that its speakers have.
한국외국어교육학회 [The Korea Association of Foreign Languages Education]
설립연도
1995
분야
인문학>언어학
소개
본 학회는 외국어 교육 분야 상호간의 연구 성과 교류를 통하여, 외국어 교육의 이론과 실제를 발전시키고, 회원 상호간의 친목을 도모함으로써 외국어 교육 분야간의 학문적 교류를 활성화하는 것을 그 설립 목적으로 한다. 그리고 더 나아가서는 국제 협력 차원에서 다양한 언어 및 문화의 이해를 증진시키는 동시에 언어 정책과 관련하여 국제 관계 개선을 위한 가교 역할을 담당하고자 한다.