Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bogey666]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/03/113_41268.html

my favorite quote here is "not ETHICALLY qualified"



personally, I think this can be somewhat effective with very low level students, but the better they are, the more harm it does - even my Korean english co-teachers who have a pretty good grasp on the language and communicate effectively make a fair amount of mistakes speaking it. I'd think the number of Korean teachers who could pass a potential speaking "stress test" like these supposedly can is VERY limited.



Korean Teachers Substituting for Native Speakers in Incheon

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The education office in Incheon City is conducting an experiment to fill the jobs meant for native English teachers with Korean teachers amid the difficulty hiring native speakers.

It is the first time that a local education office has decided to fill the gap with Korean teachers since 1995, when the government started recruiting English native speakers from abroad.

Currently, some 5,500 foreigners from seven Western countries, including the U.S., Canada and Australia, are teaching English at elementary and secondary schools across the nation.

The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education has selected 11 Korean English teachers from schools in the western coastal city to substitute for native speakers for English conversation classes. The selected teachers have studied overseas extensively and are highly capable of conducting English classes in English, according to the education office.

``Speaking English fluently doesn't necessarily mean they can teach English well. Many foreign teachers lack teaching methodology and some of them are not ethically qualified to treat children. Also, children have difficulties learning from them, as they cannot speak Korean,'' said Koo Young-sun, supervisor of the education office. ``The problem in securing foreign teachers is another reason we have to work with Korean teachers for English conversation classes,'' she added.

The selected teachers will conduct English-only programs during regular and after school classes and the regional education office plans to acknowledge teachers' performances in terms of advancement opportunities and choose more Korean teachers for the positions.

While hiring more foreign teachers, the education ministry also plans to use more Korean teachers at the same time. ``We need more foreign teachers in this transition period. But on a longer-term perspective, Korean teachers will replace them in the end,'' said Oh Seok-hwan, an official of the ministry.

The central government spends about 30 million won ($20,000) annually per native English speaker. The budget for foreign teachers rose to 147 billion won last year from 105 billion won in 2007 and 69 billion won in 2006. This year, the government is expected to spend some 180 billion won.

A native English speaker who has just started to teach English in Korea can receive a salary equivalent to that paid to a Korean teacher with five years of experience.

Some experts say the question of having native English speaking teachers should not be a ``foreigner or Korean'' question, but a choice based on the curriculum.

``Native-speaker of English teachers bring motivation and excitement to learners because of their exoticness. They bring foreign cultures and international stories to Korean learners,'' said Robert Dickey, a professor at Gyeongju University in North Gyeongsang Province. ``Expatriate teachers can share new ideas with the Korean faculty, and be helpful colleagues in the staff room. They are an asset for learning, but only if the schools want them,''

The professor said there have been many reports of schools being ordered to accept foreign teachers when the principal or teachers were not prepared to incorporate such instruction.

``Those native-speaker classes were not integrated into the overall English learning experience, and Korean teachers of English thought the new foreigner classes were cutting into real learning time,'' he said. ``And there have been cases of native-speakers with no idea how to teach and no support from their supposed colleagues on campus. In these situations, the foreigner classes are bound to fail.''

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[sarbonn]

I read this earlier this morning, and all I thought was this sounded like a face saving gesture to compensate for the fact that they're having a harder time attracting native English speakers. So, rather than increase the incentives to attract those native English speakers, they tell their population that they can fill the "gap" by hiring Korean teachers instead. They know the quality is going to go down, and they know that in reality they're going to end up with a Korean teacher who may have learned the subject well but can't speak English well at all, but they're saving face, so they really don't care. The parents will kowtow and believe they're getting something good, and they can then sweep this problem under the rug.

I just chuckled when reading the original article because they couldn't just come out and state they're facing a problem, but instead have to state this is a good thing, and that their solution will raise standards, which everyone knows is not the case. But they have to say it, and it's political suicide for them to say anything that counters this "good" news.

[Beej]

If Korea could use Korean teachers to teach English to their kids they would. No Korean likes foreigners to make money in Korea whatsoever.
We all know how bad Korean English teachers are, but the curriculum is just as bad. Korea needs to study how the Scandinavian countries teach English and just copy it exactly.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[blackjack]

Truth be told I don't actually know why they need us here. How many Koreans actually need to be fluent in English? being able to be understood and to convey your needs is more than most will need (when traveling). In business if it is that important then they can hire an interpreter.

Sure I do my best and my students are progressing well, but when they leave (my after school programme), I don't really see where they will be using their English skills. my 10 year olds (western age) could go to an English speaking country and survive, could talk with the locals (basic and would have to consult dictionaries, they are 10), but none of them want to live overseas.

The only difference I feel I have made is their pronunciation is better, and they use words like should, can I (instead of give me) and i don't know/understand (instead of the blank stare/head down). I guess they do try harder because they are forced to use English with me.

Please don't tell my boss he could save a fortune

[wylies99]

If THEY think THEY can do OUR jobs, ask THEM the definition of ANY idiom.

BTW, blackjack, many of the KTs tell the students to ignore anything we teach them. That's one of the MANY reasons why we seem to have such a limited impact.

[prideofidaho]

[wylies99]

[sojusucks]

At my previous public school, there was a Korean English teacher that travelled to the US several times and she spoke English quickly but incorrectly. She had confidence so everyone assumed that she could speak but no one noticed all the errors she taught in English class except me. Now she works in an Education Office in the area mentioned in this article. Perhaps she is one of them.

So, the schools have cheated a lot of foreign teachers, furthering the negative reputation of Korea, and the exchange rate is also a factor, and now the Koreans are trying to take over again. But we all know that Koreans can't teach. Look at their internaitonal rank in education if you don't believe me: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805160015.html.

[T-J]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

It's been said a million times on this site-- teaching is a skill, speaking English is not. On the other hand, teaching isn't something that always goes well.

Every time I walk into a classroom, I am left with the sneaking suspicion that I am not making the smallest bit of difference in these kids' English-speaking ability-- but whether that's my fault or not is open to interpretation. I certainly hammer them a lot. Could a Korean teacher do better? To be honest, I'm not completely sure. Some probably could, others probably couldn't.

I think one step forward would be to open up a foreign teacher training program. It boggles the mind that they can spend 10 million won on an 'English Zone' full of touch-screen TVs, cameras, computers, speakers, but won't spend 500 dollars on a week of training. If foreign teachers are so in demand, why not actively strive to create teachers, instead of just dropping uni grads in classrooms and telling them to teach?

Another step in the right direction would be improving their tourism industry. Most Korean tourist destinations are frequented solely by Koreans... if they got some really nice attractions, more international travelers would come here. But to tell the truth, I don't think they've found the right way to market their country to foreigners... and their 'niche' has already been filled by Japan. So they decide on hokey slogans like 'Pride of Asia' and too-good-to-be-true promises of romance and inspiration from walking 20 minutes up a rock or something.

ALSO: I don't know if English is the cure to the ills of Korean society or not, but given it's an export-driven economy here, I'm guessing it's pretty important. This is a culture that thrives on networking, and they know that if they can't do it globally, they're not going to be able to adapt their culture to the world's. English isn't just the Americas/England/Australia language, it's the global language. We're talking about business trips, meetings, conferences, seminars-- not to mention random opportunities. If local business is going to reach beyond the borders of Korea, they have to be able to adapt. English is important everywhere.

[caniff]

[ryoga013]

[michaelambling]

[Golem]

It is the material and style of teaching that is incorrect. I have worked at several schools and even with Koreans that spoke excellent English the problem was that they taught mostly in Korean with very little English. When the class speaks Korean the students feel like they understand Korean but the truth is they have little or no capacity to use it in real situations. Teachers, Korean and American, nee to use Communicative Language Teacher and learn to engage students through activities that require students com communicate.
Most of the textbooks are crap. I honestly think many of the foreign teachers teach as well as the Korean for the simple reason that the Korean teachers don't actually make the students use the target language. They generally focus entirely on grammar and vocabulary.
Korean kids aren't studying latin people, this is a spoken language.