Competent Korean English Teachers' Perceptions of Instructional Context and Classroom Practices: A Case Study from a Sociocultural Perspective

Abstract

Recently in Korea, the CLT-based National Curriculum was consecutively revised to urge innovations in English education. This study examines Korean teachers English teaching in secondary education under the curricular reform with the purpose of exploring the nature of foreign language teaching. Specifically, it focuses on understanding two competent teachers classroom instruction from an insiders point of view. Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) and Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987, 1993

Leontev, 1978) are adopted as the theoretical framework, by which a teachers classroom instruction is defined as an instructional activity system. In particular, the framework is used to understand the holistic nature of teaching by indicating that classroom instruction is a goal-oriented, tool-mediated, and co-constructed activity. It is also useful to examine the dynamic nature of teaching by demonstrating the interplay between the teachers and the contextual factors. The participants were two English teachers and their students of a middle school and a high school. The participant teachers were selected based on purposeful sampling (Creswell, 2013

Merriam, 1998) in terms of their English teaching competence. The class of each teacher was examined qualitatively over a one-semester period to answer the following research questions: 1) how do two competent English teachers perceive their instructional context? 2) how do two competent Korean English teachers actually teach in the classrooms? Data were collected through class observation and interviews along with relevant documents and then analyzed through a grounded content analysis following ethnographic traditions (Bogdan & Biklin, 1998

Creswell, 2013

Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Several significant findings emerged from this study. First, the two teachers perceived the instructional context in different ways and anticipated different educational objectives accordingly. The middle school teacher projected an orderly class to teach grammar to the test while the high school teacher envisaged a motivating class based on communicative language teaching. Second, the teachers classroom instructions were constructed toward the objectives. In particular, the middle school teacher gave an effective lecture on grammar, covered the textbook effectively, and controlled the students learning while not boring them in class. On the other hand, the high school teacher made efforts to actualize CLT, kept the students interested, and engaged them in class while giving some control to them. Third, the results of the theoretical analysis unfolded the dynamics of teaching. Not all the goals the teachers pursued were fully achieved because of emerging conflicts. In both teachers instructional activities, there existed an inherent tension between the competing objectives, which was accompanied by various conflicts. The teaching outcomes were attributed to the ways in which the conflicts were resolved by the teachers. It was concluded that the class of the middle school teacher functioned very well in the exam-oriented secondary education in Korea but diverged from the orientation of the National Curriculum. In contrast, the class of the high school teacher was very communicative as well as aligned with the curricular reform, but it remained to be seen how the experimental class would endure the exam-oriented Korean educational situation. Based on the findings, the study discusses issues on English classroom instruction and instructional innovations. It also provides some pedagogical implications concerning the transformation of English teachers and the orientation of educational innovations in Korea.