Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ABC KID]

I was thinking most specifically towards public school co-teaching but this can be extended to any environment such as universities and academies...

How much do English do you think Korean teachers should use when teaching English?

Personally speaking I think that option one should be the aim and option two the bare minimum. The only voice of doubt in my head is that some Korean teachers, for all their willingness (in some cases) to speak lots of English when teaching, make grammar or pronunciation mistakes in virtually every other sentence, effectively teaching the students incorrect English. Maybe the answer to this is just higher standards for qualifying as an English teacher...

I know there are lots of theories and literature in this area but what do YOU think?...

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It should depend entirely on the level of the class. For high-intermediate and above it should be 1% tops.

[aarontendo]

I think it does in part rely on the ability of the teacher. However, teachers should be fairly good at English to teach the language. Classes should be conducted largely in English.

I don't know if it matters so much on level anyways. For kids at least, I think though it's easy to say we should use Korean more, we should also keep in mind that they're little language sponges. They'll get the point as long as we keep it simple and contextualized. I find myself having to rely more on Korean in my high school classes then I ever did in middle school ones! Though that be due more to the complexity of activities and such.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

All of my classes are Basic~High Beginning, so most CTs use Korean at least 50% of the time, but I do try to get by in English first. Using Korean does prove to be a time saver though. I'm not one of those pedantic TEFLers who thinks that the classroom should be "English-Only." In a hagwon, maybe, but not in PS, unless (as YBS said) their level is high enough.

[GreenlightmeansGO]

To be a little bit specific, I think that grammar concepts would be better understood if taught in Korean first.
A major problem at my school is that the Korean teachers teach mostly in Korean and then expect the kids to speak to them only in English. Yeah, right.
When the teacher screws up the pronunciation it's also a big problem...I now have to correct all the kids' pronunciation of 'world' - they are singing 'A whole new worrrrrr'. It's killing me.

In an ideal world I would say the Korean teacher should know enough English to conduct the lesson (pronouncing the key words as required), and to discipline the class.
So...about 70-80% English.

Don't get me wrong - in other contexts, such as conversation classes, the level of English should be about 90% +.

[Gwangjuboy]

[Gwangjuboy]

[ABC KID]

[Hank the Iconoclast]

[Gwangjuboy]

[Jizzo T. Clown]

[Hanson]

Remember that Korean English teachers are usually teaching Korean students to do well on a test.

Slightly related, at my last uni gig, I asked my English Literature majors how much English their Professors spoke in class. They said zero. They showed me a few of the "classics" they were assigned to read - all translated in Korean.