A case study of curriculum and material evaluation : elementary English as a foreign language in South Korea

English as a foreign language (EFL) is quite different from English as a second language (ESL) in many respects. Few EFL studies, however, have been conducted with consideration given to the unique EFL environment. This case study of South Korean elementary EFL was designed to evaluate the previous (1997--2000) and new (2001-- ) curricula and materials based on the researcher's experience and a review of the literature.This study first suggests communicative language teaching (CLT) criteria appropriate for elementary school pupils who are beginning to learn EFL in Korea, and then evaluates the two CLT-based curricula for the 4th grade based on the suggested criteria. Second, this study aims to examine the two different material sets for the two curricula focusing on spoken language communicative activities. For the material comparison, the Sisayoungasa Co. material set, one of 16 sets based on the previous curriculum, is compared to the new material set based on the 7th curriculum.Perceptions of the curriculum and material change were considered from three perspectives: three teachers, a policy maker and a researcher. It was revealed that opinions from the three perspectives vary considerably. The study also found that despite the recent attempt to implement CLT-based elementary EFL, there are still deficiencies in the Korean elementary EFL curriculum and materials