Globalization and Language Ownership with Reference to English in Korea

Duality characterized by globalization and nationalism emerges from the literature on English education in Korea. One is the recognition of the role of English as a global language. Teaching English is reinforced through education policies and the national curricula. According to recent developments in Asian countries, policies and curricula were renovated in order to promote language ability in official institutions. On the other hand, attitude and ideology studies indicated the main view on English in relation with nationalism. Distinction between native and non-native varieties of English is clearly cut among Koreans. In addition, Koreans showed strong preference for native model. Cultural values on formality encourage English fever in Korea, too. In sum, need to develop linguistic competence has been noted by policy makers and already put into practices. Here, English is taken as the language associated with inner circle nations. The interest of the study is to examines how such duality affects education and curricula. For arguments, the study focuses on teaching culture in English education and investigates the connection between awareness and culture learning. Review of the previous studies on analysis of textbooks raised the question whose culture should be taught presenting imposition on learners as well as teachers. English associated with nations turns out to be obstacles for teachers and learners for overloaded tasks and inappropriate positions