ABSTRACT Reflecting the continued rise of English as a global language, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become a compulsory primary school subject across many non-English-speaking countries. This trend has been accompanied by publishers’ investment in the development of EFL teaching materials for young learners. Such materials rely heavily on images, with relatively sparse writing in English and the children’s first language. This study examines EFL textbooks for the year in which EFL is first introduced as a compulsory primary school subject in South Korea. Specifically, we analyse whether and how the multimodal resources used in five EFL textbooks approved by the South Korean government for use in Grade 3 address the curriculum requirement to present English as an important bridge connecting different countries. The critical multimodal content analysis of textbook characters and their interactions suggests that a general western bias and implicit support of native-speakerism are still existent in Korean EFL textbooks.

中文翻译：

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韩国小学生英语EFL教科书中英语作为全球语言的解释

摘要 随着英语作为全球语言的持续崛起，英语作为外语 (EFL) 已成为许多非英语国家的小学必修科目。这一趋势伴随着出版商对为年轻学习者开发 EFL 教材的投资。此类材料严重依赖图像，英语和儿童的母语写作相对较少。本研究调查了韩国首次将 EFL 作为小学必修科目引入的那一年的 EFL 教科书。具体而言，我们分析了韩国政府批准用于 3 年级的五本 EFL 教科书中使用的多模式资源是否以及如何满足将英语作为连接不同国家的重要桥梁的课程要求。