Criticality for global citizenship in Korean English immersion camps

Abstract

Given a heavy social, ideological pressure for parents to pursue better English education for their children in the globalized world, short-term English immersion camp programs have emerged as an educational option in South Korea, promoted as environments for intercultural communication between native English-speaking teachers and local Korean students. Examining teacher recruitment materials and promotional materials of 52 English camps, this paper explores how intercultural communicative competence and global citizenship relate to and interact with each other and how these concepts are implicated in Korean English immersion education. The paper further examines what these English camps promise and deliver in terms of preparing English learners for global citizenship via English education. Viewing the cultivation of criticality at the heart of the development of intercultural communicative competence and the shaping of global citizens, the paper argues the need to revisit the concept of criticality in language teaching and learning, familiarize teachers, and students with the practice of criticality, and as a result, raise their critical awareness of the world. Thus, criticality with its emphasis on overcoming stereotypes, relating to and understanding otherness, and gaining a deeper understanding of one's own cultural values could better prepare our learners for the globalized era.