By Yun Suh-young
To cut spending on private English studies, a civic group has launched a campaign by publishing a booklet underlining the inefficacy of learning English at language institutes.
The World Without Worries About Private Education (WWWPE), an educational civic group, publicized the booklet, titled “What a Waste! Private English Education,” which provides alternative methods to learn English without relying on expensive private institutes, on Sept. 28.
The group will begin distributing 2 million copies of the booklet to citizens.
“We’ve launched a campaign to give parents proper information about private English education, since this takes up a major portion of private tuition costs. We want to help them reduce unnecessary spending on educating their children,” said Kim Seung-hyun, a policy division chief at the WWWPE.
“Parents don’t have enough channels from which they can access relevant information. They mainly rely on what they are told by the private academies but the information they get from these institutes is, most of the time, exaggerated and distorted.”
The purpose is to spread a proper understanding of English education.
“Our organization was created in June 2008 and we have been preparing booklets ever since. This is a sequel to the first one we published,” said Kim.
The booklet discusses 12 misconceptions about English education and gives alternative solutions to each of the problems.
Discussions, research, and seminars were held 36 times over the last three years to prepare the booklet. Participating authors include college professors, teachers, private academy instructors, doctors and journalists.
Not early, but right time
The 26 participating authors each give different advice.
“Providing English education at the ‘right’ time is more important than starting ‘early,’” said Lee Byung-min, a professor at the Department of English Education at Seoul National University.
Lee says starting English education at an earlier age is not a rule of thumb.
According to the booklet, the temporal lobe that controls language ability develops from age six.
The consequences of early English learning are also serious, the booklet says.
“Those who come back from their studies abroad at an early age often have difficulties catching up with Korean education,” says Um Tae-hyun, a consultant for study abroad programs.
Instead of spending more on ineffective English education, properly learning their mother tongue and reading books in their own language rather helps to improve a child’s cognitive thinking skills more, the booklet says.
“If they build background knowledge through reading in Korean, they adapt very quickly to English books. This speeds up their English reading comprehension,” says Han Mee-hyun, a participating author and a mother with five years of English teaching experience.
For quality conversations, background knowledge and attitude are more important, says Kim Hye-young, a professor at the department of English education at Chung-Ang University. “Pronunciation is a subordinate matter,” she says.
Parents with young children welcome the organization’s movement.
“I have a wife who majored in early childhood education in college and she says that it’s bad for the child to feel much stress about learning at such a young age,” said Joo Beom-soo, a parent with an eight year-old.
“My child is in the first grade of elementary school and he hasn’t received any private English education yet. I’m a little worried, but I do think private education isn’t so necessary if only there are many other ways to encounter English.”
The 36 page booklet will be distributed to schools, consumers’ cooperatives, religious organizations, libraries and the media.