Policy Making in Foreign Language Teaching towards Globalization: the Act on the Promotion of Education of Critical Foreign Languages in Korea

This study focuses on the implications of the enactment of the Act on the Promotion of Education of Critical Foreign Languages in Korea. This act is a legal institutionalization of the state’s responsibilities for and roles of teaching less commonly taught foreign languages. Foreign language education policy in the country has focused on English and a few major foreign languages. However, the Korean government came to realize the importance of teaching numerous languages that had been considered minor ones to cope with “glocalization”. With the enactment of this Act, the Korean government officially recognized the importance of education related to various foreign languages within its legal framework for public education. The objective of this study is to review the background and outline of the Act and examine the implementation of the projects associated with it. This paper also discusses the expected effectiveness of the Act for teaching diverse foreign languages and issues in the implementation process.