English language still a challenge for Korean college students

Foreign scholars and experts, who were invited by the government to evaluate the quality of the nation’s higher education, have pointed out that a lack of English language proficiency still holds back Korean students from becoming more proactive in classroom.

“Korean students are well-prepared students. But they are more withdrawn from their American counterpart and seldom raise questions during the class,” an American professor, who taught in Korea, told the local Chosun Ilbo newspaper Saturday. “Perhaps it has to do with their fear of having to speak in English.”

The professor was one of the foreign scholars, who participated in the government project, “World Class University,” which was launched in 2008 to enhance the international competitiveness of Korean schools.

According to a recent survey by the National Research Foundation of Korea, which has been tasked to lead the project, 61 percent of foreign professors who taught in South Korea, said Korean college students still lacked in their ability to express their opinions in English.

On the other hand, the foreign scholars believe Korean students are very diligent (53 percent), and well-prepared for class (47 percent).

The foreign respondents found Korean students need to improve their proactive attitude in classroom and should cultivate more creative approach to the problem solving, instead of just subscribing to the mainstream views.

The foreign scholars overall believe that Korean professors research level has improved, but also pointed out that “Korean professors tend to focus on simply publishing more number of papers, rather than considering their papers’ impact.”

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