Korean as a Foreign Language in the USA: The Instructional Settings

The article describes the development of Korean as a foreign language (KFL) in the USA, from its modest beginnings in the 1940s, through a period of rapid growth that began in the late 1970s, to its present strong position at all levels of the educational system, including elementary and secondary school, the universities, and the government sector. Recent growth is attributed to three main factors: the increasing visibility of South Korea on the international stage, greater number of Korean immigrants in the USA, and increasing involvement of the Korean government in the teaching of Korean internationally. An examination of instructional settings shows a growing conflict between the needs of learners of Korean as a heritage language and those who are learning it ‘from scratch’. The implications of the current situation for future research and development in the teaching of Korean in the USA are discussed.