Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Seoul Public Schools Will Teach English in English
By Lee Won-jean, JoongAng Ilbo (January 22, 2009)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2900156

[Whistleblower]

I had a English Teacher (who is Korean) of one school I work at the other day ask me how she can teach grammar in English and ask me an example (I like ... / I want to ...). I showed her using the power of timelines.

I have found that most Korean English teachers lack the necessary training or have no confidence speaking English in front of the students in fear of embarrassment.

Imagine you wanted to learn French and your teacher kept speaking English, I would be pissed.

[michaelambling]

[Unposter]

The numbers go down because the level of English goes up.

For example:

An Elementary School teacher should be able to say:

Hello, how are you?

A Middle School teacher should be able to say:

I am tripping to Japan.

And, a High Schol teacher should be able to:

order something other than a hamburger in English.

Due to the increasing difficulty of the English, fewer Middle and High School teachers have what it takes to teach in English.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Ed Provencher]

I've been in Korean classes taught completely in Korean from the first class, and I can tell you that they were among the most frustrating situations I've ever been in. I'm sure some people can succeed in learning even with the ambiguity of not knowing exactly what is being said to them or exactly how to ask questions in the target language, but I'm not one of them.

Using a learner's native language in structured ways during class is an appropriate bridge to learning a second language in my opinion. Especially for early in the learning, and when there are troublesome grammar points a learner may be experiencing. In any event, I believe classes can be structured around activities and those activities along with the skill of the students would dictate the % of target language used in class. So, for example, some portion of class could be set aside for native language questions and answers between the students and the teacher, while another portion of the class could be used for strictly English or some mixture depending on the skill levels of the students.

All this may not apply to this discussion since the main topic was about the ability of K teachers to conduct class fully in English as opposed to the benefits/drawbacks of such an activity.

[moosehead]

[aka Dave]

I work at a Uni in the "English Ed Dept." which trains Korean English teachers. They take an exam called the 임 용 고 시. If they pass, they are guaranteed a position teaching English in m.s. or h.s.

This exam was changed drastically - this year there were 3 phases instead of 2, with an essay test being added.

Today, incidentally was the final phase of the test, the teaching presentation and interview phase (everything in English, and this is new as well I believe or recent).

This has been a big deal to me because the past few months I taught several supplemental classes preparing students for this test. At first it was an added writing class for the seniors.

Then we found out who passed the first phase, which covers linguistics and English pedagogy and some other stuff. I don't help them for that so I'm less familiar with it. In our province 80 out of 350sh passed the first phase.

This was mid December. 11 of our dept. students passed the first phase. 8 of them were able to attend an intensive writing course I did with them. They wrote 5 essays a day, and I corrected them. That night I spent several hours going over the essays one on one with the students.

In the 2nd phase writing exam, I believe about 40 percent passed. I was very happy that all eight of my students passed (thanks to their hard work, not my corrections. For every hour I put in they put in 5).

We found out who passed phase 2 early this month. So then again we go to the intesive prep course. I meet with them several hours a day, one on one, and they do teaching presentations and we conduct interviews.

Sample interview questions:
How would you invidualize instruction?
What four key components will you include in your lesson plan?

Anyway, they're pulling 15 hour days, and I work with them in the afternoons.

And today was the big day. I went to school to shoot some hoops and saw one of them. She said she thought she passed.

The crazy thing was she was hauling a box of books that weighed about 30 pounds up a huge hill. I offered to help her and did. But it was bizarre and I asked her who gave here this book box and of course it was her mom. "My mom wouldn't help me." She wasn't in my 3rd class for the 3rd phase but she was in my writing class and she aced that and she didn't have the money for the 3rd phase class. But I think she won. Sometimes just strange stuff happens.

These students are nothing like the students who went through here ten or even five years ago. They're all very comfortable speaking English (nearly every one has spent at least a year in Canada. Why is it always Canada?)

I just hope when they go into the system they do get sucked into the old Grammar Translation Method b/c they don't want to offend their elders.

They're incredibly grateful, they make everything worthwhile. I can't say how appreciative they are. They're just cool.

They're quite capable of teaching (mostly) in English from day one. To be honest, if Korea wanted to improve its English P.S. teaching, they'd fire everyone over 40 and start over. That's not fair, not right, and won't be done. But it would be effective.

[yingwenlaoshi]

If you don't teach English in Korean, they don't understand you.

Make sense of that.

[sojusucks]

Doesn't surprise me.

Education is a business. Here, there are virtually no forms of quality control, so there is nothing but the business end and a pretense at quality.

Think about it: the Principal can't judge the quality of their English teachers, neither can the universities that churn out English teachers (otherwise this problem wouldn't exist).

The solution: Korea need quality control. As Korea hasn't made much progress in English education in the past few decades, other than the fact that more teachers speak Englishee, outside help is needed. However, Koreans are too proud for that so the quality will remain low until something changes (whatever that may be, perhaps qualified teachers from the Philippines could help if they don't mind being cheated even more by schools than Western teachers). Clean up the corruption Korea and more people will be willing to help. No one wants to live in a 3rd world-like country for long.

[PeteJB]

English teachers who don't know Korean cannot effectively communicate certain concepts to a class. Also, Korean teachers who do not speak English well cannot effectively teach students how to naturally speak. The best teacher is either a Korean with a degree / PhD in English or a foreigner with a degree / equivalent in Korean. Oh, and ofcourse five years of training to be a teacher. Oh and to top that off, the natural spark of what makes a good teacher in the first place.

[T-J]

[maingman]

Whistleblower wrote :

I have found that most Korean English teachers lack the necessary training or have no confidence speaking English in front of the students in fear of embarrassment.


Topic: Incompetent Korean English Teachers
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject:

[i]I voted for the retraining with public money above
[/i]

[Privateer]

[aka Dave]