The JoongAng Ilbo notes that according to Ministry of Education survey taken in 2006 of 32,000 elementary, middle and high school English teachers nationwide, only half — 49.8%, to be exact — could teach for a full hour in English.
To combat the problem, the Seoul Office of Education has decided to push for the adoption of an “English proficiency certification system” that would evaluate English teachers’ ability to conduct classes in English and issue certifications through interviews with native speakers (if they can find any).
An official with the Seoul Office of Education noted, however, that teachers would not be penalized if they failed to get certification, and the aim of the system was to give teachers a little push to improve their speaking ability.
And hey, they might be incompetent, but at least they’re not smoking pot and threatening ex-girlfriends with AIDS.
The program also plans to institute mandatory training for teachers based on their speaking ability.
The Office of Education’s plan is part of the “Perfect English Public Education Project,” a campaign pledge of President-elect Lee Myung-bak. The project calls for the cultivation of 3,000 teachers a year who can conduct classes in English (1,000 new teachers, and 2,000 current teachers to undergo retraining).
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I couldn’t figure out from the article who will do the testing.
I have no doubt, though, that the test givers will be extremely well-qualified individuals who speak English as a first language. For them to be otherwise would just be silly!
Hmm…the Seoul Office of Education (which I bet not even half of which can speak English to save their own hides) giving English speaking tests to English teachers. There’s something about that I can’t seem to put a finger on….
It is absolutely absurd that we have English
teachers in this country who can not speak English.
I myself have taught several of these “teachers”
as graduate students; and, I have met two or three more through
my wife–herself a teacher, but not of English–all of whom
lacked the very basic skills required for a
conversation beyond “Hi, how are you; I am fine.”
In the meantime, young uni grads who are increasingly becoming more and more qualified to teach English in K. schools find themselves struggling
for the very few open positions in schools by way of the wonderfully-thought-out and executed government exam, not occupied by the
less-qualified fat cats sitting on their English teaching jobs till the day they retire.
Funny how it all works (or doesn’t work)
Will the english testers get the pre-briefing on who is the more senior teacher and therefore how to score accordingly?
Wow, what’s that? One more thing that the Korean education officials could have done 10 years ago if they had any sense but will now awkwardly enforce it? Sounds ’bout right.
“teachers would not be penalized if they failed to get certification” So what’s the point? Everybody gets to feel better because there is a “Perfect English Public Education Project” in place?
I read elsewhere that even though LMB is planning to axe and downsize ministries, there were not going to be any layoffs. How then, will the government “shrink” and the taxpayer get any relief.
“Window-dressing” and “eyewash” fixes are what the KDJ and RMH administrations were good at. Nobody wants to feel any pain at losing a job, but that is exactly what is in order to fix Korea.
Fix: Induct incompetent Korean English teachers and redundant bureaucrats into the Army. They might be useful there.
Many of us who have visited Korean public school staff rooms know the awkwardness of meeting “The English Teacher” and discovering - with the rest of the staff looking on - that “The English Teacher” can barely speak the language above a Let’s Go 4 level. It quickly becomes a game of grading the conversation level down so The Teacher doesn’t lose face.
But I’m used to that. I’ll never get used to the seeming majority of English hogwon owners who speak little to no English. How do they stay in business? Would you buy a car from a guy who can’t drive?
You know, with all the “crackdowns” on prostitution-human trafficking (see if you can say it fast 50 times) and the writer’s strike in the States, quite frankly, I’m hurting for entertainment!
Is there not one soul who would be willing to record a clandestine video of one of these English Exams? Then please post it to YouTube!
With the Won rate like it is these days, we could all use a good laugh!
If you had a thick cockney accent, would they pass the test? What’s the standard there?
Wow. My last post really says something about my grammar! lol
Given the obsession with ‘proper’, American English, I would think not. And people with a drawl, a brogue, or who speak like GWB need not apply, either.
Actually the MoE started more than 10 years ago. Threw a whole lot of money at a let’s-perfect-the-teachers-during-winter-vacation-cuz-the president-said-so “program”. Produced a mistake-riddled booklet that appeared to have been pasted together by 4-month-old chimps playing in a wind tunnel. Paid the foreigner 70,000 won per hour when the won was 800:1 - everyone was hot to suck on the gov’t teat, including the wife of the then Kiwi ambassador.
Presidential initiatives + bureaucratic procrastination x incompetence = money in someone’s pocket. May it be yours.
In the latter case, that is a good thing. A principal reason for hiring native speaker teachers is to put good language models into the classroom.
I spent 9 freezing hours in a school yesterday interviewing candidates for north Jeolla English teacher positions. 34 of 270 applicants made it to that stage. 17 or 25 ( depending on who one asked) will be selected as teachers.
The interview reflected speaking ability , and their opinions on education related trends, policies and classroom practices.
I would recommend 5 of those to be teachers . Those who’s fluency is high enough to conduct a class completely in English, a level I would be comfortable exposing my children to.
A majority of the rest “will continue to study Englishee more harder” to be “more better ” teachers, as they responded, when asked what their strengths as teachers were.
Clearly they have a long ways to go. Especially if teaching of other subjects in the second language is to occur as the new government hopes- a practice which is needed for proper language education. The government’s aims are fair enough , but unrealistic. Where are these domestic , near native fluency English teachers going to come from?
Furthermore, many of the candidates believed that the domestic educational resources would be able to produce enough skilled English speakers to curb some of the overseas educational travel ,which some didn’t fail to mention ,exposes delicate Korean youths to harmful cultural differences like drug abuse etc…
Granted, the candidates were verrrry nervous being interviewed by foreigners in their second language,in general their responses were very nationalistic, shallow and unoriginal.
I don’t know other school boards conduct interviews or retraining, but I wouldn’t expect the results to be much better. It will take another generation or more to get to an efficient nation wide ESL level.
But to Koreans really want it? I don’t think so. I think the nation’s leaders say they need to, so everyone follows suit. It’s part of a greater, more complex situation based on cultural and economic values and desires, one which blogs like this continue to explore.
Does Korea have a clearly defined or realistic vision for itself in the world community?
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“A majority of the rest “will continue to study Englishee more harder” to be “more better ”
No, it’s “more gooder”….
Great post, btw.
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