Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Whistleblower]

Try to check the credentials of English teachers

Koreans should pay more attention to who teaches them English, according to David Nunan, president of Anaheim University and former president of Tesol Inc. (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), an international education association. Nunan sold 200 million books related to English teaching in recent years.

Nunan said private schools are employing people who are not qualified. �This is a big problem and creates negative effects. Just because you can speak doesn�t mean you can teach. I wouldn�t cross a bridge made by someone who is not an engineer. Teaching is a profession,� he said.

The quality of English teaching is down because of the explosion in demand for English teachers. �People can�t keep up with global demand,� Nunan said. He said there are some schools that only recruit native speakers instead of people trained to teach English. �The quality is poor because they don�t have any training. Parents should evaluate the schools and the criteria for employing teachers.�

Nunan said good teachers of English don�t necessarily have to be foreigners. �There are advantages to having Korean teachers. In Hong Kong, the local teachers get good results. They know the cultural context that the kids are coming from.�

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2877489

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Has anyone else noted the decreasing quality of teachers in Korea? There are some people that I work with that would not be able to find suitable employment in the UK. Any others have opinion of teachers within Korea as well as the quality of schools in Korea?

[hellofaniceguy]

[quote
Nunan said good teachers of English don�t necessarily have to be foreigners. �There are advantages to having Korean teachers. In Hong Kong, the local teachers get good results. They know the cultural context that the kids are coming from.�quote]

That's fine a dandy, except I have seen far to many k teachers teaching the same mistakes they make, to their students. Most of the k teachers I have met have terrible pronunciation and constantly misuse the r/th/l just to name a few. No one is perfect, even native English speakers, however, I have sat in on some highfalutin� board meetings over the years and have been embarrassed at many korean CEOs� pronunciation and use of grammar from having been taught by so called expert Koreans who teach the English language.
I am against any foreigner teaching a language that is not their native tongue unless they have spent years and years living in a foreign country learning and knowing the idioms, etc.
How many times have you cringed when you heard k teachers speaking English...and you know it's not correct!

[babtangee]

I teach English to Korean English teachers. Who would have thunk it?

[spliff]

Nunan's a numbnutz.

[Woland]

Actually, Nunan is right.

The key issue is professional training of teachers. I've met many Korean teachers who are quite good at helping their students learn, even if their English is markedly non-native (idioms, btw, are way overrated as learning material). The key is that they know something about teaching, as well as about theır students. There's room for improvement here, but the casual dismissal of Koreans, as well as other non-native speakers as teachers of English reveals more about the writer than those populations.

I just spent this afternoon with a group of Turkish teachers, including some former students of mine, and can say that Korea would be better off with any of them than unqualified native speakers. An end to E2 visa restrictions by nationality would be good for professional standards in Korea.

[Juregen]

[Saxiif]

[Thiuda]

I agree with both Nunan, as well as Woland's follow up post to the OP. It is not necessary to be a native speaker of the target language to be an effective teacher thereof.

One thing that I've found makes a big difference to language instruction, is the teacher's ability to speak a second language. Monolingual language teachers are less able to anticipate students' problems in language acquisition and consequently often do not pick up on students' real needs. Having worked in Germany, where, like myself, most English instructors are non-native speakers, I was able to identify a further benefit non-native speaking teachers offer their students; a more comprehensive understanding of the target language's grammar. I think it is appalling how many native speakers of English are unable to identify the lexical categories of English, explain the different tenses, or define what a subject/object is.

Regardless of Nunan being right or wrong; native speakers are here to stay. In order to improve the system, I suggest that native speakers be given incentives to stay, improve their skill set, and acquire Korean. This might be done through pay increases, or by providing native speaking teachers with better visas if they can prove they've added qualifications in their time in Korea. Also, it might be in the nations interest if it provided native speakers with real career opportunities, i.e. making them fully qualified teachers that are provided the same benefits as their Korean counterparts. It is not fair to say that native speakers are second rate teachers when the Korean system contrives to keep them as such. Korea needs to start providing equal opportunities to all educators.

[Thiuda]

[jay-shi]

[Unposter]

First of all, I completely agree about idioms. Unless, you are quite advanced, it is a waste of time.

IMO, the nationality of a teacher has little direct bearing in the educational process. Whether the teach be a native-speaker or not is irrelevant. What is important is effectiveness as a teacher.

One of the biggest problems with English-language education in Korea is that few Korean teachers feel comfortable or confident to teach in the target language. You can see it in many of the students too. They feel a strong reluctance to speak the language. That is the main reason why Korea imports Native-speaking teachers. Once Koreans get over this reluctance, there will be little need for Native-speakers.

But, I would also argue that the one advantage of Native-speaking teachers is the cultural experience and hopefully understanding they bring. And, I think in a country as homogenious, and geographically isolated as South Korea is needs these types of experiences to build understanding and sophistication.

[bacasper]

Here in Mexico, most of the English teachers are Mexicans. Their command of English varies widely. As a general rule, it is worse in public schools and better in private schools. In the commercial school where I teach, I have fellow Mexican teachers who speak near-perfectly and with little accent. I have heard native speakers make more grammatical mistakes.

[wylies99]

[Woland]

[wylies99]