Learning Together: How Creative Understanding Can Help Overcome Negative Attitudes toward English in Korea

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of negative attitudes toward English in the Korean sociocultural context over time. Positive motivation to learn English on the individual level compensates for some of the negative attitudes in the sociocultural context and results in high levels of proficiency for some learners. Most learners, however, fail to reach the desired level of proficiency because of negative attitudes toward English. Creative understanding as defined by Mikhail Bakhtin encourages the native-speaker teacher of English to engage him or herself with Korean culture which should reduce negative attitudes toward the teacher and English in the classroom. Recommendations on how to put creative understanding into practice and on how to function in a Korean educational institution are included at the end of the paper.