English for communication

Lee Byung-min, second from left, director of Seoul National University’s Language Education Institute, speaks during a seminar on high school English education at Konkuk University in Seoul, July 24. / Courtesy of Konkuk University

• Published Sep 10, 2014 2:00 PM KST
• Updated Sep 10, 2014 2:00 PM KST

Professor Hwang stresses importance of speaking, writing

By Chung Hyun-chae

Hwang Jong-bai, an English education professor at Konkuk University and the head of the Korea Association of Second English Education (KASEE), called for a state-level evaluation system for English speaking and writing.

“The aim of English education is to help schoolchildren communicate smoothly with people from all over the world, but under the current English education system students are not able to learn English properly and to develop good communication abilities,” Hwang told The Korea Times.

The English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) only assesses test-takers’ reading and listening abilities, not their speaking and writing skills.

“Our current CSAT English test is something of a half-baked measurement,” Hwang said, “which is unfortunate because the test significantly influences how English is taught in the classroom.”

He added that because the existing test consisted only of reading and listening sections, the English curriculum in schools centered on those two skills. Consequently, students are not required to communicate actively in English.

“As the CSAT English test doesn’t evaluate speaking and writing abilities, public school teachers do not feel a need to teach those to the students,” Hwang said.

Boredom ㅡ learners’ worst enemy

“According to some recent surveys on English education, students said the main problem with learning English is that the class is boring. This means that the classroom, where they brush up on English grammar and words, is not fun,” Hwang continued.

“We can easily find research that shows that encouraging people to communicate with others can maximize their learning affect and foster interest.”

Panelists on a new TV entertainment program, “Non Summit” on cable channel JTBC, agree with the professor. The 11 panelists, who represent different countries, discuss sensitive issues in Korea — in Korean, with remarkable proficiency.

When asked how they became fluent in Korean in only a few years, Belgian panelist Julian Quintart said, “We didn’t study Korean to get a high score in school. We just felt the need to communicate clearly with Korean people, which naturally led us to learn the language with great interest.”

Their situation stands in contrast to that of Korean students, who have been studying English for 10 years on average but still have poor English skills by the time they enter university.

“It would be effective if schools graded students on speaking and writing, and gave them opportunities to interact with others through conversations,” Hwang said, adding that this teaching approach would increase students’ interest in learning a foreign language.

Need for state-level speaking, writing tests

Professor Hwang favors the National English Ability Test (NEAT), an examination that was proposed under the Lee Myung-bak administration but eventually scrapped by the Park Geun-hye administration.

The proposed test was a response to the large number of students and parents who questioned the effectiveness of English assessment standards and teaching methods, and who were also concerned about the rising costs of private English lessons.

“Those problems would largely be solved by controlling the difficulty levels of the tests and implementing an objective evaluation,” Hwang said.

Now that the NEAT has been scrapped, Hwang said schools should gradually incorporate more speaking and writing tests into their grading systems.

“After teachers prepare to teach speaking and writing and reach a consensus on the need for an interactive classroom, the proposed state-level English speaking and writing tests should be re-introduced,” Hwang said.

Policymakers must reflect experts’ opinions

The professor identified a political reason behind the NEAT’s failure.

“Korea’s educational policy changes so frequently,” Hwang said. “Politicians always say they aim to improve public education, but their real purpose is to win votes. This is why the NEAT was scrapped and replaced by the ‘easy CSAT.’”

Under a 2011 educational policy, the CSAT English test was revised so that 70 percent of the questions corresponded to content available on the Educational Broadcasting System. In 2012, a further revision made perfect scores possible for no more than 1 percent of all test-takers. In 2014, the test’s listening section was expanded under another policy initiative.

The Ministry of Education now says it will revise the CSAT again this year, cutting down on the number of difficult questions, and will make sure test-takers are assessed in an objective manner by adopting yet another evaluation system.

The problem with these policies, Hwang said, is that they do not reflect English education experts’ opinions.

“We didn’t conduct studies proving that an easier test reduces private education costs before pushing this policy, but we believe it will,” a ministry official, surnamed Choi, said.

On July 24,

Hwang met English education experts from a number of organizations including the Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics, the Korea Association of Teachers of English and the Modern English Education Society.

“I organized this session to give careful consideration to better educational policy and to make a suggestion that will move the government in the right direction,” Hwang said when opening the meeting.

During the four-hour meeting, the experts offered a variety of opinions on the new evaluation system and the NEAT, but they all agreed that English education in schools needed to improve and that skyrocketing tutoring expenses needed to come down.

“I hope our government hears our experts and establishes an educational policy more carefully, based on accurate studies and research,” Hwang said. “A hastily created measure will never reduce private tutoring costs or improve public education.”