Finding English at Its Birthplace
By Choi Tae-hwan
``Our first meeting was surely no accident … it was rather our unaware wishes coming true."
The popular Korean song, ``Encounter," resounded in a dining room during a farewell party for 20 elementary and 20 secondary school English teachers, who were finishing a three-week training program in Oxford, England. The three-week training program (Jan. 7 to 29) exposed Korean-English teachers to an authentic English-speaking environment with a view to developing their teaching methodology and improving their English proficiency.
The training course at St. Clare's, Oxford, in the United Kingdom saw Korean-English teachers divided into four groups. Two primary and secondary classes were made up of three main sections: morning classes, a time for special interactions between a British instructor and the English teachers; and various afternoon and weekend excursions to historical sites such as Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare.
Question and answer sessions during the morning classes were led by Mark Bartram, a scholar and author of many books on English-teaching methodology. This made it possible for us to feel at home as well as be motivated and immersed in his classes. Another teacher, Julie, exerted all her energy into her classes, which succeeded in provoking our curiosity, and enlightened us with interesting cultural differences between Korea and the United Kingdom. She informed us of a great amount of information about the many sites worth visiting in and around Oxford.
More than anything else, on the first day of our training program at St. Clare's, what surprised the Korean-English teachers most was the wide-ranging use of British English with respect to words, phrases and pronunciation. British English is very different from the American English to which most Koreans are exposed. For example, the words ``toilet" and ``W.C." for restroom, ``underground" and ``tube" for subway, ``ground floor" for first floor, and so on. We experienced some difficulty in learning to correctly pronounce words such as job, water, center, and other words, all of which will be of great help for our English students in Korea.
Each of the Korean participants experienced a ``home stay" for 10 days with a British family. This enabled us to experience firsthand the cultural differences between British and Korean families. What a shock it was to realize the differences between the two cultures with regard to daily life in the evenings after work, the basic life patterns at home, the family structure, and so on. For example, Jim and Aileen, my host and hostess, politely asked us not to take a shower after 10:30 p.m. because it would bother their sleep.
What surprised us most as observers was the small size of classes, 10 to 20 students per class, which made it easy for students and teachers to interact with each other and to interact in a level-based, activity-oriented class and in a question and answer-based, creativity-triggered classes.
That is to say, a teacher played a role in facilitating students' learning, not as a master or ruler, but as a helper or facilitator of a class, so that students could call upon the teacher whenever they were in need, which enabled the students to understand, construe and construct what they wanted to acquire and learn through a type of scaffolding.
It was also surprising to learn that parents are asked by the elementary schools in Oxford not to assist their children with homework because this would interfere with the teachers' ability to figure out at what their students were poor at. It would also interfere with the teachers' ability to properly instruct the students and keep them from building up their learning and acquisition through their schoolwork.
Last but not least, students learn as they ask and answer questions on the basis of knowledge, physical development and a mutual relationship. What is more important, in my opinion, is that the students learned and acquired knowledge, understanding and skills through all kinds of school activities, and on the basis of interaction with their teacher and other students within a small-classroom environment.
I don't know why, but I missed a mini-concert in a small music hall with brilliant acoustics, the Holywell Music Room, reputed to be the oldest music hall in Europe. The sound of the beautiful music still lingers in my heart and mind. Also, the sight of an old couple, seated just behind me, holding hands and enjoying watching the famous musical ``Lion King" is still vivid in my mind just like a picture. I remember frequent expressions of ``thank you," ``sorry," and ``excuse me" in the streets, in a bus crowded with passengers, at a dining room, or at a pub.
It goes without saying that this training program is sure to have the effect of recharging all 40 Korean-English teachers, all of whom are dissatisfied with teaching English in a classroom isolated from real English. The program has provided us with a golden opportunity to renew our love for the English language and for teaching English, as well as exposing us to a variety of authentic English teaching materials that we can use for the upcoming new semester.
I dare to dream of teaching in a small class size of around 20 students, which is sure to be full of active interaction through all kinds of questions, answers and lively discussion. The smaller the class size, the more opportunities the students will have to speak English, and the more exposure students have to genuine English, the better command of the English language they will have.
The writer is an English teacher at Jeonnam Middle School in Gwangju. He can be reached at cth0707@hanmail.net