Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the English language teaching (ELT) profession in East Asia. Looking country by country and region by region, the sizes of different ELT markets are explained in terms of population data showing the number of foreigners going there to teach English in both public and private programs. After defining and explaining common ELT professional terminology, the author then analyzes these markets in more detail, looking at the types of English teaching work available throughout K-12, university, and corporate entities throughout the region. Relative merits, as well as potential drawbacks and pitfalls of various position types are discussed at length. Finally, the chapter surveys the historical and cultural effects which led to the widespread adoption of employing native speakers to supplement English as a foreign language education in East Asia, and critically examines whether or not the native speaker model is necessary, and what (if any) advantage it confers.
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Notes
- 1.
This section will specifically be looking at Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mainland China (PRC). Hong Kong, while interesting to the overall study of English pedagogy in East Asia, is a very minor market for TEFL (at least for those teachers without advanced degrees and specialized qualifications). While the case of Hong Kong will be revisited later when we look at educational philosophies and practices, in this section, this section will concentrate on the regions with major EFL markets and large concentrations of foreign instructors.
- 2.
The People’s Republic of China also reintroduced English in the mid 1960’s but quickly encountered more pedagogical difficulties during the Cultural Revolution when English classes were practically restricted to learning English translations of political slogans (Cheng and Wang 2012).
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Williams, C.H. (2017). The Foreign English Teacher in East Asia. In: Teaching English in East Asia. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3807-5_1
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