Preparing Korean EFL learners for English Communication with World Englishes and EIL

Abstract

With the status as an international language, English is a language used by a variety of speakers in various situations (EIL). Therefore, to help students to be a competent English user is becoming more complex. For example, English learners are expected to communicate not only with native speakers of English, but also with English speakers whose native language is not English. However, Korean English education does not seem to be prepared to make Korean EFL learners competent English users. Thus, this paper deals with reasons why Korean English education is not reflecting EIL. This paper argues that the discrepancy between awareness of and attitude towards World Englishes is exposing Korean EFL learners only to native varieties of English, which probably causes difficulties in communicating in English. Along with the review on how Korean EFL stake holders consider English varieties other than native varieties, this paper proposes three feasible ways to incorporate different varieties of English with consideration of the local context of Korea.