하향식 문법학습 제안

Abstract

Since the introduction of the communicative English teaching methodology about 50 years ago, grammar teaching, which had been out of focus of teaching, has been slowly but steadily revived as a major concern in English teaching. One principle of the revived approaches to grammar teaching is to encourage students to focus of forms during communicative interactions. Although it is basically correct, its applications can be quite different from a situation to another. Especially, in EFL situations in Korea, they should be very careful and try to develop a methodology that is appropriate for Korean language speakers in particular. In this paper, first, I explain the history of the ‘Grammar-Translation Method’ in Korea and how communicative methodologists had viewed it before they introduced a new English education policy. Second, current tendencies of English teaching in primary and secondary schools are briefly examined. Finally, I propose a top-down approach to English teaching, which I claim is a reliable way to cope with major problems we had before and have now in Korea.