Has the Time Come to Change Our English-Learning Ways?

This is the last in a series of articles offering helpful strategies to help students prepare for the English-language portion of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). ― ED.

By Choi Hae-rang

More than 670,000 students nationwide took the CSAT last month. I was also one of the Korean students praying and trying to be relaxed in the unfamiliar classroom that morning.

After lunch, it was time for the English test. For me, compared to Korean and mathematics, English was the subject which I usually received the highest grade, so I felt less worried about that part of the test. However, as time went by, the confidence I had at first changed into nervousness.

I felt something different from several mock tests and numerous trial examinations I used to prepare, especially, the English part.

When I read the passages and tried to find the answers one by one, it took a longer time than it usually does, and the 70 minutes allowed felt more like 50 or 60.

Come to think of it this was because the topics of the reading comprehension part were unfamiliar to me.

Many times, I become bewildered when I see questions about science since I’m not acclimatized in this field, rather, I am much more versed in subjects such as the arts, civics, history and so on.

I am sure I am not alone in having problems answering questions on unexpected topics. On the other hand, grammar questions are relatively easy, as

I had spent a great amount of time studying it in books. However, there were more challenging questions which required logical thinking.

Many Korean students focus on memorizing words, grammar and sentence structure. They spend a considerable amount of time and effort just finding answers to questions that have a similar format as the CSAT instead of looking for opportunities that enable them to use what they know to improve their overall understanding.

This typical pattern of studying English often makes students bored and stressed about English. Also, if there is even a slight alteration in the test format, such as increasing the length of the passage a little, it will have an adverse effect on them.

I think we should learn a lesson from this. It is time to make some adjustments to the way we learn English. We are accustomed to quick studying for fast results.

As I keenly felt, students need to take time to deal with as many topics as possible. This will help them enhance their background knowledge and their reading comprehension. Moreover, finding our own way to grasp English with personal interest is also important.

One way that helped me improve my reading ability was finding some written material that I was interested in and then studying it. In my school, I was able to participate in extracurricular activity with one of my English teachers. We listened to CNN news many times and after fully understanding it, she asked us to paraphrase the news in our own words.

Although it was demanding at first, dealing with the various issues helped me to improve my ability to recognize the main point, not to mention it greatly enriched my vocabulary.

Choi Hae-rang is a senior student at Suwon Academy of World Languages in Gyeonggi Province. She can be reached at withsun―@hotmail.com.