Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big Mac]

I was in a weird predicament today concerning a speech contest.

All the elementary schools in my city are having a speech contest on Wednesday. We didn't find out about it until this Wednesday, which gave us only a week to prepare. We had to choose a student and submit the transcript of their speech to the Education Office by 5:00 today.

We chose a student who was willing to write the speech on such short notice, but unfortunately he was very busy this week and didn't have time to write the speech.

So my co-teacher decided to write it for him. She asked me to help fix her mistakes and I told her no.

Am I the only one who thinks that it's wrong to write a speech for a student? I tried to explain to her why I thought it was dishonest for our student to go to a speech contest and give a speech that was entirely written by a teacher. I also tried to explain that it isn't teaching the student a very good lesson. Basically, we're telling him that it's OK to get someone else to do his work for him and pass it off as his own. She said that in Korea, it's OK as long as we don't get caught. She said that all the teachers at the other schools would most likely be writing the speeches for the students too, and she was worried that our student might lose because the other speeches will be better. Myself, I don't care if he loses...he's doing it for the experience, not for the prize. I also don't care about making myself look good as his teacher, which apparently is what all Korean teachers think of when they enter a kid in a contest.

In the end, I insisted that we stay after school and help the student write his speech. Yes, I helped him with it...but they were all his own ideas, which I think is so much better than writing it for him. I had to call the director of the contest to get an extension on the deadline. My co-teacher was not happy with me at all, and she said that the vice principal was upset that we asked for an extension to the deadline, saying that I was "too honest."

I just don't understand why something that would be classified as a huge academic offense in my world is considered so unimportant here. Aren't teachers supposed to be instilling good academic values in their students, not teaching them that it's OK to break the rules as long as you're not caught?

To make matters worse, I'm supposed to be a judge of this contest and I'm worried that I'll just be judging a bunch of speeches written by teachers. If I find out that a teacher wrote the speech, I'll give the student a big fat zero.

[frankly speaking]

Though I agree with you in principal to some extent, I don't think that you are really thinking things accurately.

If you have been teaching speech writing, and the students have been practicing writing speeches, then yes I agree with you and would refuse to write a speech. Editing is ok.

However, the majority of these speech contests aren't about the content as much as they are about the delivery. Doesn't the president of the US have a speech writer? Should we not consider what he says because he didn't write the words?

The students will most likely be judge based on pronunciation, and speech presentation. I don't see the problem with someone using a pre-written speech for a presentation contest.

On the other hand if your criteria for judging is based on content, development of the argument, then yes it is cheating to have someone else write it.

I guess it depends on what the criteria for judging is.

I once had a dean of a certain department at University want me to teach the first year students the same textbook that they would have in the following term, so that they could get higher marks than other departments. I too refused. I believe in academic excellence and morality, but I am not sure that this case of speech contest is exactly the same.

[zipper]

Sounds like a classic defacto teacher speech contest using student proxies.

��it's OK as long as we don't get caught.� Mac, what a classic!

Do what your conscience tells you. If it feels wrong, then stand by your principles.

[andrewchon]

Put it this way, at my school all 6 students were pushed in by their parents.
Rest, given the choice, did their childish thing of having a giggle at classmates in an embarrassing situation.
(school's top 2 non-overseas English speakers chose not to enter)
They wrote their speech in Korean,then teachers, parents, and electronic gadgets wrote that into English.
Is it any wonder that the speakers (who won't allowed crib notes) forgot their memorized speeches after one or two sentences?
It was a farce.
These kids have enough problem making a speech in Korean. In English?

School's solution was to send an over-seas kid after much coaching and polished speech written by co-teacher.

I've heard there was an 'interview' portion, as well as speech, this year anyway.
It's a scripted show of Koreans successfully learning ESL. You can't have a farce, losing face is fatal.
It's cheating but it is not, because it is not a contest. It's show.

[Rteacher]

I would have helped to write it to facilitate the learning process. I think the student would learn better English by repeating what I wrote rather than repeating the unedited writing of a non-native English speaker.

[Observe]

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[T-dot]

Some hagwons and teachers write the university admission essays for some of their students, editing a speech for a contest is nothing.

[The Gipkik]

As has been noted, writing it isn't the biggie. How it is executed is. Write it, but get the speaker's input all the way through. Put that speaker on a podium and drill the hell out of him/her. Intonation, pauses, volume, body language, eye contact, facial expressions. That's where the money is.

[El Macho]

I would write it for them.

The best choice would be to write it with the student, getting input throughout the process (as mentioned above). However, may be an unlikely scenario. The ideal, though, would be to write it with the student and practice it with the student. Failing that, write it for the kid and then coach them on delivery.

All the other contestants will probably have speeches that were written for them. Might as well give your school's kid a boost, making her, the school, the co-teacher, and (even if it's just a miniscule bit) you look good in the process.

[richardlang]

We had an English essay writing contest at my high school. Students submitted their essays to me and the English Department. The chief was unsure if some students had actually written their essays on their own, so we corralled them (about 30 students) into a room, gave them a sheet of paper, and told them to write their essays from memory. Some students' essays didn't match the BULK of the content within their original essays. No wonder!

[Big Mac]

I didn't have a problem with writing the speech with the student, which is what I did. I knew that he was never going to be able to write a good speech in English on his own without help from me.

My problem was with writing the speech for the student, with absolutely no input from him. They need to be his ideas, not the teacher's. The student learns absolutely nothing by having a teacher do all of their thinking and writing for them.

I think there is something very wrong with an education system that thinks it's okay to get someone else to do your work for you.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[dirving]

O.P., you are in the right.

[seonsengnimble]

While speech contests are ridiculous here, I doubt you'll be able to change them. The only important things here are how much the kid's parents spent on props for the kid and coaching. I worked at a hagwon once who set up a speech contest, supplied all of the judges and then invited a few other hagwons to send their students to compete. Guess which students won?

[El Macho]