ef English Education Needs Major Change

By Lee Ji-Young

I am very happy that the head of the Presidential Transition Committee is a person who is deeply concerned about Korea's English education in schools.

It has been criticized for so long and students have resented an educational system where they have studied English for so many years, and yet are unable to communicate with foreigners.

Recently I read a Korea Times article written by someone who raised this question: ``Do we really need English in Korea?'' My answer to this question is ``Yes!"

Most Koreans I have met were so frustrated with their English, and for many of them, English was a big part of their life in their jobs, business or education.

I've seen store clerks and bus drivers who couldn't communicate with foreigners at all, and parents who were unable to teach English to their children.

I have also met a lot of foreigners who were unable to get the help or services they needed due to the language barrier between them and Koreans; and English teachers, who were having a hard time communicating with students (even though they were high level students).

If foreign tourists, businesspeople and English teachers notice that Koreans cannot communicate even in very simple English, they may not want to come back to Korea, and this will affect Korea's travel industry, international business and English education.

This explains why English education in school needs a fundamental transformation.

As a person who has taught English to children and teenagers for many years, I am well aware of the reality of Korea's English education both in public schools and private educational institutions.

One of the frustrating aspects was, many students and parents complained about Korean teachers' inaccurate pronunciation. It was no surprise to me at all, because my major in college was English, and I knew exactly how impractical and outdated the curriculum was.

In my opinion, the educational institutions that need the most improvement right now are universities. It is where future English teachers are educated, and the quality of education in elementary, middle and high school is totally up to them.

In my college, I had classmates who pronounced words like ``work'' and ``walk,'' ``think'' and ``sink,'' and ``bad'' and ``bed'' identically. This problem will, of course, lead to miscommunication with native speakers.

My college curriculum focused mostly on literature classes and it was not really set up to meet the demands of job market. No wonder many college students spend so much time and money learning English outside of school.

If you ask people who are going abroad to learn English why they really have to go, nine out of 10 will blame it on Korea's English education system.

The transition team announced that Korean English teachers will be required to teach only in English after a few years. It calls for a major change in college curriculum.

It would be great if college graduates would not have to go through additional teacher training programs, which would save a lot of time and money.

One big problem with the English curriculum in secondary schools is grammar. Some people mistakenly think they don't need grammar when they speak English. That is wrong and non-native speakers of English have to learn all the grammar rules.

The problem is Koreans have studied grammar only for reading and tests, and not for real communication. I have rarely met students who could use the present perfect tense such as ``I've been to America.'' and ``I've been studying English for 10 years.''

They know this grammar rule, but when they speak, they don't know how to use it. When I was teaching grammar, I combined it with speaking and writing. For example, I asked students this question, ``Have you ever been to … ?'' with many different places like Japan, Jeju Island, and Busan.

And I had them answer in full sentences like ``No, I've never been to Japan,'' ``Yes, I've been to Jeju Island'' and ``I've been to Busan a few times.'' This method of teaching grammar in conversation worked really well and this should be a part of school curriculum.

Another problem are the textbooks. I have met many Koreans who complained that English they learned from textbook was not very useful in real communication.

Native speakers have also criticized that school textbooks have mistakes and contain very uncommon words and expressions. One area Korean students need to work on is phrasal verbs such as ``work out,'' ``pick up'' and ``take off.''

Native speakers use these verbs everyday in their lives, but Korean students never do, because their textbooks don't have them. English Textbooks have to be perfect, and should be written and revised by native speakers as well as by bilingual educators.

We should not underestimate the importance of spoken English in this era of globalization.

If we do not improve our current education system because of the fear that it may increase household spending on private education, Korean students' English will never get any better, and this will be devastating news for underprivileged kids who cannot afford to learn English outside of school.

The remedies for problems with English education can be summarized as follows:

First, improvement of curriculum with emphasis on communication, starting with pronunciation.

Second, teaching grammar and vocabulary for real communication.

Third, updating the textbooks to teach students ``real English'' and most importantly, training the teachers.

The next government should strive to provide the best English education possible to the students of our future generation.

The writer is an English instructor in Seoul. She has five years of teaching experience with children and teenagers, and two years of teaching experience with adults. She can be reached at stkate27@gmail.com