COMPARING ELT POLICIES IN JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA: DO THEY STILL NEED ENGLISH? (A LITERATURE STUDY)

Language policy is one issue that should be highlighted because language policy is one of the most important things to develop in a country. In language, the main goal to be achieved is the successful delivery of our goals and objectives to the listener. Thus, Language policy is concerned with a highly complex issue; therefore, language policy as a separate field of study requires an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon the knowledge and tools of several academic disciplines such as applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology, anthropology, and political theory. This paper aimed to suggest for Indonesia English Education based Japan and South Korea practice in ELT. Keyword: ELT, Language Policy


Method
The study has used a literature study. The purpose of a literature study is to analyze a segment of a published body of knowledge critically through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles (Embun, 2012). The purpose of a literature study is to analyze critically a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles.

Comparing English Language Teaching Education policies in Japan and Korea
Some researchers have carried out the studies of language policy in Japan and South Korea with varying degrees of success. Generally, these studies are focused on the function of English. Some of these studies are mentioned as follows:

a. English Language Teaching Policy in Japan
Language education policy in Japan, especially English education, has received much criticism for not having equipped the Japanese with the practical ability to use English. This problem was summarized by Hato (Hosoda et al., 2005) as unrealistic "top-down goal setting" with examination-oriented goals. She explained out that insufficient class time and negative washback effects from impractical goals only exacerbate the Japanese inferiority complex with respect to their English ability. Sasayama (2013) investigates Japanese students' attitude towards English variations of JE and AE to compare. VGT is generally expressed, Japanese respondents return JE and AE very similarly; However, looking at their attitudes more closely, it became clear that they considered JE to be more amenable and AE stronger. Questionnaire results revealed by individuals Want to sound like Americans, in general, but they expect JE, English which may be widely spoken by respondents themselves, to be accepted internationally.
People's attitudes toward language or variety are not monolithic and change depending on which aspect of the attitude is investigated. Therefore, it is important to discuss not only people's general language attitudes but their various aspects.
MEXT start to include the introduction of English language teaching from the low level to the top level, where it had previously been started from the first year of junior high school, and the use of a more communicative teaching approach over the previous grammar-oriented, examination-focused one. In preparation for these reforms, MEXT  promising evidence that innovative approaches to English teaching can be effective in the Japanese EFL environment (Noguchi 2015), (Hatori, 2005). Furthermore, since 2011, MEXT mandated "English activities" to be inserted into the elementary curriculum starting in fifth grade. There are further plans to lower the age of initial English instruction to third grade by 2020, and one can well imagine that elementary school visits by area Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) are likely to increase in frequency (Boggs, 2018).

Assessment of the Current Policy on English Education
The MEXT plan has problems in terms of resisting linguistic imperialism and reproducing current inequalities. Firstly, it is limited in understanding current situations as they are. It states only the disadvantages that Japanese people experience because of insufficient English competence. Unlike the Council on National Language's report on the Japanese language, movements for respecting a mother tongue and for protecting minority languages in the world are not stated. Also, it still relies on native speakers as models and promotes the JET Program. It does not refer to criticisms that the JET program is costly and has been controversial (Nunan, 2003). On the other hand, teachers who worked with the assistants criticized them for not having an understanding of Japanese culture and for lacking professionalism.
Secondly, the MEXT plan reflects what Pennycook (2001) calls a laissez-faire attitude toward English imperialism. Here, globalization is a given and English is perceived as a necessity for living in the current era. In addition, the primary motivation for supporting English seems to be stated in the first part of the plan, that is, to challenge economic competition.
However, if linguicism is analogous with racism and sexism (Phillipson, 1992), then the logic that "You should speak English" becomes synonymous with "You should become Caucasian or male." Under the Constitution's ideal, respect for human rights, Japan should not be a conspirator in imperialism. English imperialism harms language rights (Phillipson, 1992) and a laissez-faire attitude cannot change the status quo (Pennycook, 2001).

b. Language Policy in South Korea
South Korea is very popular now. South Korea is often called a model country because it has been very successful in terms of both democratization and industrialization in a relatively short period. As Korean society has struggled with globalization over the last decade, it has been necessary for people to be proficient in English. As a result, English language education in Korea has experienced vast changes, aiming at more effective and globalized English language teaching. English is used in advertising and pop culture throughout South Korea, essentially "English remains a foreign language rarely used in Korean's daily lives" (Yoo, 2005). Instead, an interesting social phenomenon has developed as English has become a way for South Korean's to measure success. English has become a "symbol of job success, social mobility, and international competitiveness" (Koo, 2007;Yim, 2007).
In Korea, the concept of "national religion" is replaced by "national language" since it is a unifying power Koreans are proud of and it is quite homogeneous throughout the country.
This situation is changing due to the increasing mobility of Koreans around the world, intermarriages and the migrant workers who are employed in Korea (Chung & Choi, 2016).
English proficiency, in Korea today, is a symbol of prestige, "modernity" (Lee, 2006), success and socioeconomic status (Choi, 2007). In South Korea, official English education starts in the third year of primary education. However, it is a known fact that children start learning English earlier than that, either through private pre-schools or publicly subsidized pre-schools that all include English education in their curricula. At the secondary level, English is a compulsory core subject until the first year of senior high school. Although English becomes an optional subject from the second year of senior high school, most students decide to take it due to its perceived importance. Students also receive a lot of English teaching outside of the realm of official public education, e.g., through conversation schools, as reflected in the astrological expenditure on private English education noted above (Chung & Choi, n.d.).
Till now, we've analyzed Korea's craze for early English Education as a self-portrait of Korean contemporary society and suggested its way to be solved. Due to the change of international environment, the fervor for early English education and the feverish condition of the regular school education, Korea is filled with education fevers, but English education environment condition has proved "ineffective." To solve the problems of English education, we proposed to fundamentally modify the goals of English education in schools by dividing English skills into two: English decoding ability in elementary/secondary schools and communication ability in universities and professional language training institutions. To optimize the use of professionally trained English speakers and to improve world business efficiency in public institutions, we also suggested establishing the system of foreign language expert jobs. To conclude, it's only when all educational requirements (teaching materials, teachers and learning environment, etc.) are well equipped that early may be better than late language start. Some old Korean advocators for early foreign language education give an extreme example of Japanese language education during the Japanese colonial period , in saying they could speak Japanese well even after several decades, despite their learning Japanese only for six years at elementary school. However, we should remember that Koreans, as subjects of the Japanese emperor, learned all subjects in Japanese at that time.

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Vol. Koreans were forced to speak Japanese as an official language in and out of school. On the other hand, it is relatively easy for us to learn Japanese because both Korean/Japanese languages are similar in sound and/or have similar patterns (B. R. Kim, 2015).
Over the past years, there has been an unsurpassed interest in English educational transformation discourse among many stakeholders. This has been a consequence of public To tackle this problem, the Korean government tried to innovatively revamp the entire secondary English education system over the last decade (H. Lee,2010). Even the past president has emphasized the need for a transformation of English language education in Korea since he was elected in 2008. At the heart of these deliberations is the need to find a lasting solution to English educational challenges. This has led to a proliferation of English educational initiatives across the country.
English language in Korea has a long story, "English language teaching was introduced to Korea in 1883 when the Korean government opened an English language school to train interpreters. For the next twenty years, English, with government backing, started to grow into the status of the most popular foreign language" (Kim-Rivera, 2002). However, the history of English in this country does not stop to this point since "the government involvement in and contributions to the development of the field were interrupted when the country was conquered by Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, and Japanese colonial policies began to impact on the system of English language education"

Revision of the National Curriculum of English in South Korea
To gain a better understanding of the current changes which have been made to the National Curriculum of English, it is essential to look at its history. Since South Korea gained independence from Japan in 1945, the National Curriculum of English has been revised several times and its revision can be roughly described as follows: Initial Curriculum (1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954): Structural Syllabus, Grammar-Translation Method, 1st Curriculum (1954-1963 to high school 1st year (Grade 10), and the students were required to take the same English courses, which comprised four skills in one syllabus.
2. The Elective Curriculum of English was from High school 2nd year (Grade 11) to 3rd year (Grade 12), and the students could choose to take more specialized courses such as English conversation, English reading, English writing, etc (Spolsky, 2015).
In 2006  1. The amount of newly introduced vocabulary for each grade was modified in consideration of the interrelationship between grades and school levels. Moreover, by reducing the differences in terms of grammar and communicative functions between school levels (the elementary school level, the middle school level, and the high school level), the pressure on students, who are going to advance to upper-level schools, is expected to be relieved considerably.

The overall difficulty level was lowered by deleting the intensive course achievement
standards or by inserting some of them into the basic course achievement standards.
Especially, achievement standards related to the productive skills (speaking, writing) were more specifically revised to an achievable level considering the circumstances of English education in Korea.
3. By adjusting and adding 'communicative skills' and the sample sentences and by adopting as many basic words as possible, it is expected to reinforce practical English study by learning more natural and authentic expressions.
4. Cultural contents of textbooks are reinforced by integrating diverse cultures into the resource pool. In short, some of the curricula were revised and reinforced by clarifying basic vocabulary principles, separating the objectives among the school levels, and describing the objectives clearly.
In 2009  Consequently, all the high school courses are elective. is another approach to mass bilingualism. For example, in the similar but not identical situation in Russia, (Fayzrakhmanova, 2016)  English proficiency remains at a moderate level that can be explained by a range of sociocultural and linguacultural factors (Fayzrakhmanova, 2016).  (Spolsky, 2015) Compulsive & academic subject/ nationwide since 1997/ 40 min. per week for 3rd and 4th grades; 80 min. for 5th and 6th grades (since 2001)/ The government plans to increase the number of instructional hours (Spolsky, 2015) Personal (Teacher) Focus on Primarily homeroom teachers, NEs (Butler, 2018) Focus  (Butler, 2018)

Conclusions
To sum up in Comparing English Language Education Policies in Japan and South Korea above. This paper suggests for Indonesia English Education. Japan and South Korea are two countries that have a strong country. So, they don't need an English to develop their country because their country is already developed and strong, but they still need to learn English for the benefit of their country. English education policy has been started in elementary school.

This indicates how important English is mastered as an international communication way.
Based on the two countries, it might be as reflection for Indonesia. Therefore, Indonesia, which is classified as a developing country that is certainly in need of mastering English as an international language for the progress of this nation in globalization. Indonesia needs to make an English education policy to mastery English from chilhood so that English can be a power to develop the Indonesian at an international level. Indonesia needs to use how English is used as a facilitation to introduce culture, natural resources and etc to globalization where we know English is one of the international languages. thus, Indonesia needs to master English as early as possible to reach that goal. The students should study English from elementary school but the students should be study English based on their needs. Thus, language policy needs to make policy especially in English Policy that the students can study English starting from preschool until secondary school. The English subject is not compulsory but as optional based on the students' needs. Supporting, (McKay, 2004) found that students believed their elementary school English had a positive effect on their English learning at middle school in the domains of reading, speaking, and listening. Similar results were reported in (J. H. Kim et al., 2011). But we need to see first in Indonesian context before taking the policy. we need to see Socio-Cultural, Political, and Geographical before give the recommendation. In Indonesian context, teaching language is very unique and difficult not only in teaching English but also Bahasa Indonesia that Indonesian people know that Bahasa Indonesia is Bahasa Negara Indonesia. This has been to a great extent attributable to the multicultural and multilingual nature of Indonesian society, in which one can easily identify differences -in language, ethnicity, and culture to mention a few (Madya, 2008). According to Ethnologue 2005 (Rachman in (Madya, 2008)), Indonesia has 745 local languages, of which 271 are in West Papua, and dialects with their own characteristics and about 350 ethnic groups and tribes, with their own customs, types of villages, social structure, beliefs and religions. Throughout South-East Asia, this country probably has the greatest diversity of culture, caused by differing histories of the people's contact with and responses to the outside world (Geertz in (Madya, 2008)). With all of these differences, however, the people are being united by being Indonesian recognizing Indonesia as the only home water-land and Bangsa Indonesia the only nation, and esteeming highly Bahasa Indonesia as the only uniting language, as stated in the 1928 Youth Oath long before this country got its independence in 1945. All of this is clearly expressed in the motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika or Diversity in Unity.
To support the recommendation, the policy maker need to know the importance of ideology in L2 education. Ideological analysis in L2 education reveals that social and political agendas call ideologies into service in the process of allocating resources and benefits to different social groups. Standard language ideology, the ideology of monolingual (English) classrooms, the ideology of variation, and implicit ideologies in teacher education, SLA, research methods, and other aspects of L2 education have direct consequences for social positions of learners, teachers, and others; and it is in such social positions that individuals gain (or are denied) access to economic resources and political power.