ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF THE JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR JAPAN AND KOREA

Japan and Korea share similar motivations towards EFL education, acknowledging the necessity of English ability for each nation’s further development. Although both countries outline similar EFL philosophies in their course-of-study guidelines, there seem to be differences in the ways the guidelines are reflected in the textbooks. This paper compares and summarizes the organization, content, linguistic skills, and tasks of the Japanese and Korean English textbooks used in 3rd-year junior high and 1st-year high school. The continuity of the textbooks between the two grades was also analyzed. The framework of educational approach, the balance of four skills, the continuity of the level and the difficulty of the text were the major observed differences. Learning through the differences and similarities, considerations for future textbook writers are suggested