Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Pressure to teach in English grows
By Park Su-ryon and Seo Ji-eun, JoongAng Daily August 08, 2009
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2908514

[Ilsanman]

It's about time. Retrain or upgrade those teachers who can't teach in English. Hire new teachers who can.

[schwa]

I agree its time for the MOE to get serious about this. Teaching english in korean doesnt work.

They've been talking about it for years & deadlines have come & gone, come & gone. Theres stress but no shock in this for Korean english teachers. Oldschoolers knew their time was up & have quit or taken to teaching ethics or whatever.

Those with middling ability have either buckled down & upgraded their skills or carry on in anxious denial.

The system is loath to fire teachers & offers generous programs for improvement. But there comes a point where K-teachers not up to the job need to be let go.

For the sake of the students.

[ddeubel]

I completely disagree (not with teaching in English but with "tests" for teachers).

I was asked to help with the test creation and flatly refused. I'll also be the first one to support and attend any protests against this. It won't fly with teachers and will only create resentment and kill morale.

If you want good teaching, you don't use tests that will only "label" and make for a competitive situation that translates in no way into better teaching. What you do is support teachers in their efforts to improve and also get good admin in place that hires dedicated teachers that can make a difference. Admin and teachers have to be on the same page or the whole shoot goes to crap.

This is all a recipe for disaster. I'm talking to many Korean teachers and NOT ONE, likes this. It will only undermine a lot of people's efforts to make a difference (like my own).

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[D.D.]

The resistance to teach in English is huge and these tests cause the Korean teachers to hate the FTs. Only old age and retirement will change things.

[andrewchon]

ddeubel:
Do you know how the tests on K teachers were conducted and so on?

[Cerriowen]

I taught at a public school... I watched a few English classes. They had 50 works of korean, followed by 1 or 2 words of English from the text book... then back to English...


Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah " I CAN " Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah " I CAN'T " Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah "I Can, I Can't"

Kudos for them to put pressure on English teachers to actually speak English. Two of my three coworkers could barely put a coherent sentence together, and only one could converse without consulting a dictionary or resorting to Korean.

[ddeubel]

[Real Reality]

School English Classes: Quality of Teaching Appears to Be Diminishing
Editorial, Korea Times (June 7, 2006)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/news_view.asp?newsIdx=2901058
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606b&L=edling&D=1&T=0&H=1&F=&S=&P=400

[Kikomom]

[lifeinkorea]

Will they also tell science and math teachers to stop using Korean when teaching? What will those textbooks be written in? I would love to see the choir sing without Korean verses,

Banning the native language for the sole purpose of some propped up dream to "immerse" yourself (OOOHHH AHHH!! Doesn't that sound so cool? IMMERSE!!!) is nothing more than grandiose logic.

There should be explanations and context in a person's native language so they can relate. Then, there should be discovery opportunities in the target language so students can apply the second language without relying on the native language.

But oh well, it appears English will be treated like an abduction of communication. Students who think and communicate daily in one language will be pacified and told to progress slower because of a brute force system to march in herd mentality.

I won't be around to participate if this idiocy reaches my classroom.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I am not trying to be difficult; but I do not see what the controversy is here. The website article states that public teachers of English will be eventually required to take the test, not teachers of other subjects. Is it such a hardship that someone who teaches a foreign language should know that language and have accreditation to prove it?

Nevertheless, there are other ways of doing this besides one more test to put on the pile of umpeen other tests. I used to work in a retraining program for English teachers run by the government near Cheongju. It was a good program; teachers volunteered to take a half-year of university-level classes in conversation and composition, and most of us had Masters degrees teaching the program. The problem was that nobody could fail. There were teachers (young and old) who were diligent and ambitious, and some who didn't care and were there for a paid holiday to drink every night. No matter what, everyone passed.

A program like this would work if it were mandatory and the evaluation had teeth. I sympathized with many of the older teachers who knew grammar very well but were totally lost in teaching youngsters who could speak circles around them in English slang. Nevertheless, they needed to be retired or moved out of what they were doing, and I don't care if such teachers hate proficiency requirements.

The saddest thing I saw was younger female teachers who told me that they were really improving their English for themselves; much of what they were learning they would not be allowed to implement in the classroom anyway, as it would be overruled by older superiors and principals who wanted things done the traditional way. I really learned to loathe principals in that program. They shared our cafeteria and thought they were the kings of the world. No reform or test program will help if it only addresses teachers and not other educational administrators.

Ken:>

[cubanlord]

[Hyeon Een]

I agree with certain aspects of what Ddeubel says, as well as Cubanlord, but I will say that the issue of teachers being able to teach English in English will become a non-issue if you just give it time but there is a more pressing problem.

In order to become an English teacher in a Korean public school now you have to pass a series of very very competitive tests. I teach university students who want to become English teachers and EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM who has a chance of passing these tests spends at least a year, if not more, studying abroad and becoming at least conversationaly fluent in the language. If they want to pass the tests they also have to become excellent grammarians and understand teaching methodology. The older teachers didn't come into English teaching in such a competitive environment and so there are many who are pretty useless. The current crop who are coming through now are capable of teaching in English and the older crowd are going to retire over the next 20 years or so.

If the tests remain as competitive as they are now Korea should be in a very good position to have all English classes taught in English by Korean teachers only, without the need for foreign language instructors, within the next 20 years. The biggest hurdle to this is nothing to do with the Korean English teachers ability, but with the university admission test that highschoolers take.

In order to do well in the university entrance exam test-taking 'skills' and 'tactics' are more important than actually being able to speak or use English. Until this changes there will be little point in having English teachers capable of teaching in English. The goal of middle and highschool English teachers is currently to help their students get the best score they can in the English section of the university admissions test. The best way to get a good score in this test isn't to be good at speaking English, but to be well versed in test taking strategies. Until this is changed the whole idea of teaching English IN English is pointless. Korea is currently hiring a huge crop of English teachers perfectly capable of teaching in English, but their students will not be best served if they actually do. They will be best served by learning stupid test taking strategies rather than real world useful language skills.

I'm interested in what Mr Ddeubel, who apparantely works with current teachers, has to say with regard to this massive hurdle in the quest for teaching English in English campaign. I think this is a much more important problem than older Korean teachers being uncomfortable with teaching in English.

[ddeubel]