English Teaching: Practice and Critique

Teaching intercultural English learning/teaching in world Englishes: Some classroom activities in South Korea

Volume 11 Number 4 December 2012

Kang-Young Lee (Chungbuk National University, Cheong-Ju, Korea)

This paper discusses what intercultural English learning/teaching (IELT) is in English as a world Englishes (WEes) and how IELT can contribute to the development of proficiency/competence among WEes and can be fitted into actual WEes classrooms. This is to claim that IELT be a pivotal contextual factor facilitating success in proficiency/competence among all varieties of Englishes in today's globalised world and suggest that IELT be listed as a requirement for professional ELT qualifications in South Korea. To do this, the paper first talks about the present status of English as a world Englishes and its implication for the language/culture education. Then the study provides what IELT is and it consists of, and how IELT components can be realised in WEes classrooms. At the end, this paper presents some of the teaching activities conducted in the present author's classes throughout two semesters of 2011. This may help WEes teachers especially from the inner circle varieties in South Korea to be equipped with the awareness and understanding of the main issues in IELT for his/her classrooms since students' progress towards intercultural competence is under threat (Sercu, 2002) without teachers' adequate development in intercultural communication and their active involvement and commitment with/to learners. 

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