Korean Secondary Teachers’ Perception of Teaching English Pronunciation for International Communication

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of English medium classes and to consider the implications of such findings for the future. Fifty-two university students (37 female and 15 male) who were taking an English medium class in the Department of English participated in the study. They were asked to complete a 22-item questionnaire which asks the nature of the class, the strengths and weaknesses of the class, and difficulty of the class along with background questions. The results reveal some compelling facts about students’ views on the topic. Only twenty-five percent of the participants indicated that they registered for the class to learn about the subject when the objective of the course was to learn about the subject through English. On the contrary, another 25% expressed that they signed up for the class to improve their English, and the majority in fact indicated that their speaking and listening improved through the class. However, many participants stated that their level of English was the primary obstacle to studying in the class, and they expressed doubt that they could comprehend much in class. The results suggest there needs to be a clear explanation and understanding of what content-based instruction entails for students and in order to implement content-based instruction, certain requirements seem necessary from both students and teachers to maximize learning and teaching content and language.