0000000000726717
AUTHOR
Wook Namgung
A comparative analysis on Finnish and Korean high school English textbooks in the perspective of communicative language teaching
English textbooks are a key resource for English courses in both Finnish and Korean high schools. The present study aims to compare the similarities and differences of Finnish and Korean high school English textbooks and analyze them from the perspective of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) on which English textbooks of both countries are theoretically based. Two English textbooks have been selected from each country for this research. One textbook is targeted for 10th grade and the other for 11th grade. The textbooks have been analyzed according to six dimensions: textbook structure, vocabulary, language forms, topics and cultural backgrounds, communicative functions, and activities fo…
Repositioning teachers as assessors : Compromised aspirations and contested agency
The global trend to emphasise assessment for learning brings up the issue of repositioning teachers in assessment. The contemporary curricular policy reforms encourage teachers to take an agentic role in assessment, but multiple dimensions of the environment affect its realisation. Drawing on an ecological approach to teacher agency, this empirical study investigated how Korean secondary English teachers (KSETs) perceive and enact their own teacher agency in assessment within the ecosystem of Korean education. The dataset for the study comprises semi-structured interviews with 15 KSETs. The interview questions involved the main themes such as personal experiences over the life course regard…
Investigating the professional agency of secondary school English teachers in South Korea
This qualitative study examines the professional agency of secondary English teachers in Midwestern South Korea. Specifically, it investigates how secondary English teachers in South Korea understand their professional agency and what mediates their professional agency. The ecological approach in this study recognises that agency encompasses both individual and environmental dimensions and is formed through the constant interplay between the individual and the environment. The dataset for this study comprises 15 semi-structured interviews with secondary English teachers in South Korea. The thematic analysis highlights a significant gap between Korean English teachers’ espoused agency and re…