In and around the teaching of language as a school subject - part Ⅰ

Abstract

This paper is the first part of an article of the same title that is, in principle, an introductory survey of the language education by formal schooling. From the teaching of Korean as the national language, beginning in the very first year of primary school, up to that of a second foreign language in high school, we invest a considerable amount of energy (including time and money) in language education; still, we believe the actual state of affairs to be unsatisfactory. In the cause of improvement, we ought to have a thorough grasp and control of our object and its surroundings. For this reason, the discussion in this paper is opened by giving a rough sketch of education and language. And then supporting sciences (linguistics, sociology, psychology and the study of education) are to be taken into consideration. In Part II and Part III, we will seek for a more concrete means to contribute to the betterment of language education: a useful and usable theory of language teacher training, theoretical yet practical guides for teaching and/or research, etc.