A NEST’s Narrative: Teaching English in Korea between the Mid 1970s and the Early 2000s

This study explores a qualitative evaluation of a NEST’s narrative of teaching experience from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s with Korean students. Narratives from one teacher who taught English in Korea were collected and analyzed. Data was gathered by oral and written narratives in the form of qualitative research. Narrative analysis was adapted, and events were analyzed inductively. Findings show that each decade has its uniqueness in terms of what teaching approaches applied, what roles a teacher and students had, how the class proceeded including the teacher’s reflections. In the 1970s, it was an imitation stage of teaching from other teachers with more of a teacher-oriented class. The next decade showed the changes of the teacher’s attitude and belief. The class became learner-oriented and created an enjoyable learning environment. During the 1990s an adjustment to the new teaching environment was required as the lab and co-teaching were introduced. The last decade of teaching brought a challenge to deal with computer usage in the class which also met with students being distracted by the computer. Study implications are provided with further study suggestion.