Changing attitudes toward TEWOL in Korea

It has now been two decades since we were confronted with the concept of World Englishes (Kachru, B. 1982. Ed. The Other Tongue). Since then, numerous publications have shown that World Englishes is a viable concept, and those of us within the TEWOL profession world-wide have had to tackle the following three tasks: 1) raising the public’s awareness of the need for TEWOL, 2) finding and developing suitable materials for TEWOL, and 3) setting the appropriate norms for TEWOL. Although all three tasks are projects in progress in Korea and definite results may not be available for another two decades, this paper attempts to provide an interim report on the first of these three tasks. It examines the changes in the attitudes of the public and the ELT profession toward TEWOL through a series of surveys and interviews conducted in the last five years. In Korea, the first reactions to TEWOL may best be described as total rejection and ignorance. Slowly, however, there has been considerable enhancement of language awareness in learners and teachers alike. Thus one may now conclude that we have successfully taken the first step of sowing the seeds for TEWOL and are now moving into the second step of firmly planting the roots for TEWOL.