Korean Job Discussion Forums

[changwonteacher]

Having left a private language school in Europe for a Hagwon in South Korea, I'm having some difficulty adjusting to the teaching methods used here. Previously I used a lot of communicative activities in classes. Here however I am just expected to help the kids memorize dialogues.

Personally, I don't see this all this rote learning as being that effective. The kids learn the dialogues (many of which are not very natural) and then forget them soon after being tested. When it actually comes to conversing in English, they can barely string a sentence together.

Is this how English teaching is done here Korea? Personally, in being told to use this approach, I think my abilities as a teacher are being wasted. What does anybody else think?

[ilovebdt]

I completely agree with you. I was trained to teach using communicative teaching methods and was also shocked at how the Korean students weren't used to this teaching style.

I found gradually introducing communicative activities alongside the rote learning helped.

ilovebdt

[jajdude]

Students would like to speak naturally but it is so hard for them. Some memorize things, some know a lot of vocab, but just having a normal basic chat in English is really hard for most. It's hard for some Korean English teachers too. Many Koreans who teach English don't speak well and no doubt feel awkward in conversation with an English speaker. I sigh when the students (and maybe boss) say, "We want to speak more," but they just don't have the skill. They feel discouraged and the teacher ends up doing most of the talking. They need basic scripts to follow, simple sentence patterns where they can fill in a few words. A lot of the teaching in Korea is not about building conversation skills, but more about passing tests.

All this is pretty obvious after a while here.

[Privateer]

They need a lot of practice with the basics and the fundamentals - with just a bit of real live dialogue thrown in a little at a time - before they're ready to move up from basic to intermediate and spread their wings a little. It's because the basics and the fundamentals (grammar, phonology, vocabulary, culture, typical means of expressing things) are so different in Korean and English. Everything's counter-intuitive to them.

It takes a combination of hard work and time for the basics to sink in. You can sugar-coat it and try to dress up grammar as games, but in the end they have to work and think and try to understand or they'll end up not getting anywhere, as not infrequently happens.

Once they get to intermediate it still takes a lot of work of course, but it can be fun sometimes too.

I suppose a really gifted teacher should be able to make any subject come alive for their students but I'm not one of them.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Think of how Latin is taught in the west - as a dead language. Then you pretty much have the 'Korean teaching method'. They'll almost never let a westerner take over curriculum and testing method, the latter of which drives the former. The great irony is that this is the reason why they have such great need of us.

[VirginIslander]

Innovate with privates; yield at work.

[Zoot]

Yes, this is generally how things work here. Not just for English, it seems, but most subjects. They have to compete with all those other guys who are constantly coming up with ways to cheat on tests and exams.

You should read 'Clergyman's Daughter' by George Orwell. In one part, the woman starts teaching at a private institute for young girls in English. She sees problems with the cirriculum and decides to make changes to improve EVERYTHING. While her students improve, the parents don't see an immediate improvement and start complaining when their daughters aren't imitating French like parrots but are reading smutty Shakespeare and understanding it.

So, too, is the case for any Korean hogwans I've heard of.

[Juregen]

There seems to be a mild interest from Koreans to adopt to European perspective on teaching (or should i say German?).

Parents are realising that facts do not create intelligence, and that a more interactive approach might be better in the long run.

I use the word mild because it is only now and then that Koreans tell me these kind of things.

[Sody]

[VirginIslander]

I teach at one of the largest hawgrons in Busan. They recently rewrote their middle school curriculum to account for all of your concerns.

They brought in a Korean American with a PHD in education/psychology and a couple other waygooks to write the new curriculum.

So big things are happening down south.

[Pak Yu Man]

[Horangi Munshin]

[VirginIslander]

So big things are happening down south.


At one school.


When I say school, I mean franchise. So big things are happening at lots of schools. Plus, we are international. We have schools in the States, and we have seen first hand the impact of the Korean teaching styles in other countries.

Although Korean students outscore American students on standardized tests, they have difficulty expressing themselves orally and in essays. With the new curriculum, those changes are now being implemented.

My company wants to be global so they have to be as competive as possible. They realised that memorization and regurgitation do not produce excellent English speakers (ie happy customers).

However, one of the biggest problems is training Korean teachers in the new style and training foriegn teachers how to teach effectively. It is a lot of work to retrain the Korean teachers--its like teaching a black smith how to reprogram a computer.

Also, how many foriegn teachers really commit themselves to excellence in hawgron education? It is comforting to know that we can do a piss poor job and not worry about repercussions because we know we will move on in a year.

[spyro25]

[postfundie]

It's a big task to turn the entire attitude of the country around. Also You might just replace one dogma with another dogma..better to get some like minded teachers on your side. I'm all for the communicative approach as long as it meets the students where they are at and builds upon previous lessons.

There is a big fat problem here with korean teachers who just plug grammar all day long. It's especially annoying when it's a teacher in an adult class.