The Significance of Teachers' Perceptions of Reforms in English Language Education

This study investigates Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' perceptions of the Ministry of Education-initiated reforms in English language education. For that purpose, the study recruited 171 in-seivice teachers and suiveyed them with a questionnaire consisting of three sections. The results of the suivey indicate: a) the teacher participants were well aware of the Ministry of Education's (MOE's) reform efforts, b) they positively perceived the Communicative Language Teaching(CLT)-oriented direction of the MOE's reforms, c) but their perceptions of specific reform policies and measures were mixed, and d) their negative perceptions of some of the specific policies and measures seemed to have been caused by realities of Korean EFL education. The study interprets the participants' positive perceptions of the MOE's CLT-oriented reforms as showing a significant change in Korean EFL teachers' attitudes toward the MOE's reform initiatives and/or their beliefs about EFL education. The study ends with a discussion of implications the findings have.