Chapter 7: English as a Foreign Language and Foreign Language Education in the United States, China, and South Korea

Despite its status as an economic powerhouse that dominates the global markets, the United States seems to lag far behind in the foreign language instruction of its citizens (Devlin, 2015). With the exception of immersion magnet schools, where children are exposed to a foreign language at an early age and taught content in a foreign language, many students in American schools are not exposed to a second language until late middle or early high school. Because English is the world’s lingua franca, the acquisition of a second language is not viewed as being as crucial to success in the United States as it is in South Korea and China. As such, second language courses are often considered electives and are viewed as an afterthought in English speaking countries, such as the United States and Britain (Devlin, 2015). Additionally, most of the foreign language courses in American classrooms are taught in English, with grammar drills and functional competence emphasized over interactive, communicative proficiency.