[Education] Haste Could Derail Program to Reform English Education

English education has long been regarded as a double-edged sword in Korea.

Yi Keun-chull says the incoming government is likely to push ahead with its English education reform plan in a hurry without fine-tuning measures.

/ Korea Times photo
by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

English education has long been regarded as a double-edged sword in Korea.

In fact, there is no doubt English education has largely contributed to enhancing Korea's international competitiveness. But it's also true that overly enthusiastic English education here has brought about costly private English education and overseas study at an early age as well as damaging the family structure through the ``kirogi,'' or ``wild geese'' family phenomenon in Korea.

To minimize these side effects and bring crippled public English education back on the right track, Lee Myung-bak's transition team has unveiled a series of epoch-making policies on public English education especially focusing on such pragmatic sections in language study as speaking, listening and writing.

The incoming administration plans to import more than 23,000 English native speakers by 2013 to teach Korean students at secondary schools nationwide. Approximately 1.7 trillion won budget will be spent on the project over the next five years, according to the team.

But it's still unclear how well these policies will work in normalizing public English education and improving Koreans' English proficiency.

The Korea Times recently had interviews with two famed private English teachers here to listen to problems of the transition team's English education policies and what public English educators and policy makers should learn from the private education field.

The two interviewees are Yi Keun-chull, 42, disc jockey for KBS Radio's early morning English education program Good Morning Pops, and Kim Dae-kyun, 44, a well-known TOEIC instructor at Education Broadcasting System (EBS) and private institutes.

Right Direction But Too Hasty

The two English teachers agreed on the next government's speaking-focused English education policies including the planned English immersion programs. But they said the team seems likely to push ahead with the scheme in a hurry without fine-tuning measures.

``The overall policies regarding English education now being examined is right. It is because speaking is basic ― but the most essential part of foreign language study,'' Yi said. ``But the incoming government's plan to recruit tens of thousands of English native speakers and fluent Korean-English bilingual speakers within a couple of years to allocate them in secondary schools nationwide as English teachers is hardly achievable. I think the policy did not take into account the actual education circumstances we face. It will take at least one decade to complete the project.''

Yi stressed effective English speaking education can be made in harmony with sufficient English-fluent teachers and small number of classmate.

``Currently, each English classes in secondary schools accommodate more than 30 students on average. The number should go below 10 to ensure the brisk participation of students'. Thus, the next leader should seek ways to scatter the students to form ideal conditions for speaking education,'' Yi said.

Kim was concerned that these notable changes in English education would further increase students' dependence on private institutes, resulting in widening the ``English divide'' between haves and have-nots.

``Following the announcement, I've heard a growing number of students of affluent families started to seek private schools offering intensified English speaking programs. It's also possible that the number of students leaving the country to study abroad would increases,'' Kim said.

Competition to Fortify Public Education

Competition theory is the foremost thing that public education should benchmark from the private education field, the two English experts said.

``Most Koreans believe private education is superior to state-backed education in quality, curriculum and effectiveness. They also believe the superiority comes from each private instructor's competence rather than other factors. But I'm sure it is largely due to fierce competition among instructors ― not capability,'' Kim said. ``Unlike public education, nothing guarantees tenure and income in private education but ability. Thus, private educators put all their effort into providing students with best lessons to survive. That's a key point differentiating public and private education.''

Lee predicted that the incoming government's plan of utilizing master's degree achievers in English speaking countries, retired career diplomats and TESOL license achievers as English teachers at public schools would blow fresh wind into somewhat stagnated public education.

Yi said sufficient finance and time to research contributed to making private education better than public education overall.

``Public school teachers commonly don't do research to teach better due to numerous administrative affairs they have to take care of. Sufficient finance will enable the government to hire more staff to handle non-educational affairs, resulting in allowing more time for research to teachers,'' Yi said.

Practice Makes Better Speakers

The two instructors both agreed that speaking practice is the sole recipe to becoming a good English speaker.

Noting that still a majority of Koreans hesitate to speak English for fear of making a mistake, Yi said ``I assert that making mistakes improves English proficiency.''

Korea has enough infrastructure to study English without going abroad, the lecturers said.

``Korea is one of most favorable countries to learn English in the world. Almost all well written English study books are flooding both online and offline bookstores. Also, high-speed Internet enables language learners free access to free English education materials in the forms of voice, video clip or paper,'' Kim said.

He gave four tips for effective English study.

(1) Memorize essential English sentences and read them out loud. (2) Build up your vocabulary. (3) Use an English-English dictionary. (4) Wear earphones to always to listen to English everywhere. Yi also stressed memorization in foreign language study, saying ``Memorize English textbooks you have and practice sentences out loud repeatedly. It will allow you to speak English without thinking in Korean.''

pss@koreatimes.co.kr