Native English-Speaking Teachers Using Korean to Teach EFL in South Korea: A Sociocultural Analysis of Teachers' Beliefs and Practices

The use of learners first languages (L1) in second and foreign language teaching is a practice that is empirically supported and its inclusion is increasingly recommended by researchers (e.g. Cook, 2001; Corcoran, 2015; Cummins, 2007; Garca & Lin, 2017a; Turnbull & Dailey-OCain, 2009). Yet, native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) who deploy their learners first languages in their classes tend to be overlooked in the research, and the Korean context is no exception. Framed through the lens of Vygotkys sociocultural theory (1978, 1986) and Engestrms conceptualization of activity theory (1987, 1999, 2001), this study investigates how three NESTs use Korean to teach EFL to university students in South Korea. The study uncovers how the participants practices shape and are shaped by their beliefs toward the use of Korean, their past language learning and teaching experiences, English-only medium of instruction (MOI) policies and associated ideologies at the societal (macro) and institutional (micro) levels. The data for this study were obtained through 34 hours of classroom observations as well as background, stimulated recall and follow-up interviews.
The analysis reveals that the participants used Korean as a mediating tool serving three broad functions based on Ferguson (2003), namely, to ensure that their students learned the course content, to manage the classroom and to improve the affective climate of the classroom. Additionally, two of the participants used the negotiation of their emergent bilingual identities (Garcia, 2017) as a pedagogical tool (Morgan, 2004). However, the analysis also revealed that the use of Korean is a potential source of tension. Two of the participants perceived an English-only MOI policy. The de facto policy served to create tensions and feelings of guilt and wrongdoing. Additionally, one of the instructors feared making linguistic errors and potentially confusing her students. These fears conflicted with her expert NEST identity and led to her rarely speaking Korean in class. Yet, the tensions surrounding the use of Korean and the de facto MOI also served as the genesis for agentive actions that enabled the participants to use Korean in a modality and manner that minimized or even negated these tensions.