EPIK and NEST-NNEST Collaboration in Korea Revisited

English language teaching (ELT) in Korea has gone through a lot of changes and challenges. Recently, team teaching as a form of teacher collaboration has emerged as a solution to meet them in Asian ELT contexts, such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Starting in 1995, team teaching has been implemented in Korea mainly through English Program in Korea (EPIK), a government project to recruit native English language instructors to teach in Korean elementary and secondary schools. However, it does not seem to have been as effective and successful as expected. Based on the review of the literature, this paper examines 1) the definition of collaboration and team teaching; 2) major factors of successful collaboration; 3) major issues and concerns with EPIK; and 4) suggestions for effective NEST-NNEST collaboration. The paper argues that the native-speakerism or the native speaker myth deep-rooted in the Korean society is one of the biggest obstacles in making NEST-NNEST collaboration successful in Korean ELT contexts. It is suggested that the duties and responsibilities, and qualification requirements of NESTs be redefined and both NESTs and NNESTs be provided with proper education for intercultural understanding and collaborative teaching.