Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/05/25/200705250037.asp

Korea to increase recruitment of foreign English teachers

A government body in charge of managing native English assistant teachers will increase recruitment by more than four times this year to meet the growing need for competent teachers.
The National Institute for International Education Development, affiliated with the Education Ministry, operates the English Program In Korea to recruit, train and manage native English assistant teachers for schools. The agency aims to provide more than 500 teachers this year through the program. In 2006, 117 teachers were recruited through the program. The figures were 104 in 2004 and 135 in 2005.

The institute currently runs EPIK jointly with state-funded Korea National University of Education. Starting July, the agency said it will solely control the program for more effective implementation.

The program, initiated in 1995 by the KNUE, aims to better prepare students to compete on the globalized international stage by providing an enhanced level of English education - such as English conversation classes - with qualified professional native English speaking teachers, according to officials at the NIIED.

Teachers from six different nations - the United States, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland - are selected to teach at elementary schools and middle schools nationwide.

"Because of the recently seen `English fever` phenomenon, the demand for native English speaking teachers has been rising enormously, but the government wasn`t able to meet that demand," said Kim Chang-eun, an official responsible for the EPIK team at NIIED. "However, we realize that complaints about unqualified native speakers have been an ongoing issue here, so the goal of the EPIK project is constructing a complete system by offering necessary training to the teachers during the semester and also listen to the problems they may be facing at a foreign country."

A teaching candidate should have a strong sense of creativity and motivation, along with the willingness to work with children, he added.

In November, the Education Ministry announced a set of plans to strengthen English education and enable English teachers to conduct the entire class in English. The plans included measures such as annually choosing 1,000 teachers to receive intensive English training and sending all English teachers abroad at least once every three years for a more hands-on experience.

The number of native English speaking teachers at middle schools will reach 2,900 by 2010. About 2,600 native speakers were teaching at elementary schools and middle schools nationwide as of May, according to ministry officials.

The ministry also said Korean English teachers will be required to take writing and listening exams and give a class demonstration "all in English" for qualification beginning in 2009.

The institute will try out various methods to draw more applicants to the program, NIIED officials said.

According to the NIIED`s plans, they will participate in at least three job fairs every year in all six nations to raise the awareness of the program and visit four to six universities in each country to recruit qualified university graduates.

Agreements will also be signed between the NIIED and foreign universities - especially those interested in the Korean language and its culture - for the schools to officially agree on sending a certain number of native English-speaking teachers to Korea.

Teachers will be recruited twice a year and online recruitment systems will be in place, as well as a system that can collect and offer information on the exact number of immediately available native speakers.

"Native speakers are also needed for the development of English education because offering a curriculum that enables international understanding is another important aspect of English education," Kim said. "Native English speaking teachers will become the best resources since they make it possible for us to achieve both goals of promoting an enhanced English-learning ability and learning the culture of other advanced nations."

Training programs for foreign teachers will also be leveled up to provide them with opportunities to upgrade their teaching methods, the NIIED official said, and teachers will be well-informed about the region and a school assigned to them for a more stable and understandable working environment. They will receive educational training before and during their teaching sessions, officials said.

EPIK teachers in the past have complained that they did not know what school or town they would be teaching in until after their orientation training, right before being taken to the towns.

The institute plans to install and operate a stricter management system for foreign teachers to better assist the foreigners here and draw a greater number as well, its officials added.

A variety of places for foreigners to exchange information and interests will be established such as a counseling center, an online community and an alumni association, said NIIED officials, adding that methods to boost participation of teachers in numerous regional events will also be invented.

"The purpose of the project in the long term is transforming the foreign teachers into those who will treasure good memories of Korea and its people through the experience of contributing educationally and regionally," Kim said.


By Cho Ji-hyun


([email protected])

[JD1982]

First thing they need to do in this dumb-ass program is to change the title from "Assistant Teacher" to "Senior Teacher". Otherwise, I am not going to sign another year with the public school madness.

And jack up the salary by 500K per month or allowing me to leave the school when I'm done teaching.

[Alyallen]

Yawn....

More potentially pissed off Foreigners fleeing Korea....

GREAT!

Whatever....they can have a million teachers in the schools and nothing will improve as long as some teachers are forced to use the stupid government textbooks...

I don't think it's a great system when I have to deal with crying children who can't read because they don't go to hogwons. The books provide no real reading section, so kids get loss in the race to learn spoken English. Add to that the constant constant reinforcement of incorrect English pronounciation, the lack of class time and the "edutainment" factor and Korea essentially ends up spinning its wheels...

You know what...forget it, maybe if enough teachers are in the system and leave at the same time, someone will finally have a clue that adding teachers to an ineffective system changes nothing...

[Cheonmunka]

Effective is best. Always aim for perfection of your craft, should be a calling card for these system developers as well as the teachers who run the programs as best they can.
I get tired of errors too when written by native Korean speakers into English. It doesn't work, and neither does the imposing of ad hoc and often disconnected spoken and reading English learning materials necessarily fit with English acquisition. (As someone said up there previously.)
They should employ westerners in development of materials as well as developing outcomes and aims, as well as introducing and implementing methodological practices from the west, and then they should stand back.

[tob55]

You can't have a program addressing all of the needs of everyone for everything...It appears that the fine people who set this up may be looking at it in terms of a way to make extra money, meaning they will charge participants to gain the valuable knowledge that will only be good here in Korea...This doesn't address the need for training that allows the instructor to be prepared for the future after they leave South Korea...

[Saxiif]

[kingtout]

So when you guys attended that week-long session, did anyone bring up the #1 cause for disgruntled foreign teachers?


Namely, the sitting in the office by yourself during vacations, while the K-teachers are sleeping in, or on vacation in Thailand?

I don't get it. This doesn't cost Korean tax payers a dime to give us vacation when there are no classes to teach. Yet, they continue to do this. I mean, if I gotta be sitting around for 9 hours every day, at least give me some leeway on vacation, or I'll just do the 6 hours in, teach straight-through, then leave, hagwon routine.

[jvalmer]

[xtchr]

[quote="tob55"]It appears that the fine people who set this up may be looking at it in terms of a way to make extra money, meaning they will charge participants to gain the valuable knowledge that will only be good here in Korea...quote]

??
Where'd you get this from?

[dmbfan]

[fusionbarnone]

It's already underway as EPIK is offering a "generous" 100k(newbie has to somehow find the airfare to participate in this great opportunity) if you get someone to land themselves in Korea. As if the recruitment perks this outfit create for themselves isn't enough, I wonder how much they really get paid for each participant that is hired?

The EPIK recruitment organization is just another opportunistic racket exploiting the education ministries deep pockets and good intentions. It's irksome when they make out that they're the official govt. reps. looking out for their hires when all they are is a recruitment organization. They just forget about people after orientation.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Good for Korea.

Good


for


Korea

[insam]

[Len8]

You guys who sit in your offices doing nothing. Why do you do it? If you refuse and do something else, do you really think they are going to complain. It would be too much trouble to get another teacher to replace you if you were to quit or get fired (which would never happen anyway). Why the hell don't all of you guys just protest in unison and refuse to waste your time, because it's what your teachers solidarity has decided.That a would be a bluff right. surely everyone in like situation could communicate and organize something like that. hell you are working for a public school and not a hogwon. It's no skin off of any school administrators back to loose any sleep over a joint decision like that.