Final thoughts on English policy and education

This study abroad has been an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone and grow personally and professionally. Here are some reflections on what I've learned and experienced.

English Language Policy in Korea

Korea is determined to continue to be a major player in the global economy and the country needs citizens who can effectively use English as an international language.  For this reason, English language education is an academic subject in Korea’s national curriculum. Korea’s extreme, high-stakes testing culture has driven parents to spend substantial sums of money to send children to English tutoring and/or study abroad experiences. Many elementary and middle school students spend hours outside class studying one or more subjects (English, math, science, dance, art and others) in hagwons. High school students’ school days start around 7 and end as late a midnight. My home-stay parent and our host at CNUE both said they believe students work too hard. Both were also somewhat resigned to the fact that it’s necessary for success in Korea.

Although fluency in English as a foreign language opens doors and access to information, there are negative affects to its spread in foreign countries. It has the potential to result in a loss of cultural identity and can serve as a way to stratify society by setting the English speakers apart as a cultural elite (McKay, 2002).

Potential impacts on cultural identity

Before coming to Korea, I wondered how the country’s English language policy impacted student life and family life. Was it so competitive that students had a hard time making friends? Did students who were sent abroad to study and encouraged to only speak with English speakers abroad (Park & Abelmann, 2004) feel out of place when they returned to Korea? Did learning English take away from their Korean identity?  I imagined a rigid, serious classroom dynamic and pictured overbearing parents interacting with submissive children. That’s not at all what I found. The classrooms we visited oozed with enthusiasm. The students we encountered were extremely poised, articulate and funny. The brief interactions between mother and child I observed showed nurturing (not overbearing) mothers who were focused on getting their children the best education they could afford. To me, these students and families seemed to be acquiring English for pragmatic reasons – for access to the best educational and career opportunities. They appeared to me to be Koreans who knew how to speak English. 

Social stratification

Not unlike the situation in the U.S., where you live and the amount of financial resources you have impacts the quality of one’s education. In Korea, parents tend to spend as much as they can afford to help their children compete for the best exam scores and get into the best high schools and universities.

It’s important to note, the students with whom I had extended contact in Korea (our English instructor, Chunee’s college-age children and my home-stay daughter) all had opportunities to study abroad. Their families had resources to provide English instruction beyond what they would get at school. They were proficient in English and were shining examples of how the competitive nature of education in Korea can develop well-educated students. What about students who don't have additional opportunities for learning or students who don't get high test scores in spite of all their effort? I imagine they'd provide a different image of what Korean's competitive society produces.

English Language Pedagogy

The focus of English language instruction in Korea is shifting from a curriculum that places emphasis on grammar and translation to a more communicative approach that develops oral fluency. In spite of having English as an academic subject beginning in elementary school, rigorous teacher training and the high number of students who get additional English instruction outside school, Korea’s students’ TOEFL scores ranked 93 of 147 countries in 2004 and 2005 (Park, 2009).

Many Korean teachers do not feel qualified to teach English oral communicative skills. These teacher perceptions can have a negative influence the teacher’s confidence, teaching skills, student motivation and student success (Butler, 2004). Our conversations at the schools we visited and my conversation with my home-stay mom confirmed this. Before coming to Korea, I wondered why so many teachers didn’t have the language proficiency they felt they needed. I now understand how much practice is needed to acquire and maintain language fluency. The few adults I spoke with don’t have many opportunities to practice conversational English. Many of the home-stay parents for our group relied, at least partially, on their children for translating. Since the shift toward more conversational English didn’t happen until the 1990’s (Park, 2004), these parents and many practicing teachers were likely to have received English training that was grammar/translation based when they were in school.

The native-English-speaker teacher program is a way to help bridge the gap between the Korean teacher’s conversational skills and those needed to provide the instruction necessary to develop oral fluency. It could create an ideal situation where instruction can be taught in English, with support in Korean as needed. This would be especially effective if both the Korean teacher and the NES teacher were trained teachers. Based on the English of the younger generation of students we met, I imagine the next generation of teachers will have stronger oral fluency and won’t have to rely as much on NES teachers to teach conversational English. I’d love to have the expertise of a native speaker for all the languages in my classroom. How wonderful for students to be able to learn English language and culture with support in their home language as needed. I don’t have that luxury, but I do have access to parents and a family literacy program that I could leverage to create rich language and cultural connections in my classroom.

Language Learning

My experience attempting to learn Korean had a profound impact on me. It gave me an authentic opportunity to experience the impact good teaching strategies (comprehensible input, visuals, corrective feedback, creating a safe learning environment, connecting to one’s cultural background, and using a variety of instructional theories and styles) have on language learning. I knew it would be challenging, but I honestly expected to be able to say more than two words after spending two weeks here. As a tourist, I knew people weren’t expecting me to speak the language, but I wanted to be respectful make a good impression. I was surprised by my apprehension to speak in Korean to the people we met.

One of the many things that impressed me about Korea was the kindness of the people we encountered. They appreciated our meager attempts to communicate and used gestures and phrases to help us. Sometimes they would offer help before we even asked – I’m certain I looked quite confused a good portion of the time. 

Friday at lunch we played a real-life game of telephone. We wanted to have Korean food one last time before we left. The restaurant we chose did not have a menu with pictures but we thought we knew the names of enough Korean foods to be able to order something. Unfortunately, we exhausted or Korean food word bank very quickly. They did not serve kimbap, bibimbap, or bulgogi. Just when I thought we were going to have to point to a word and hope for the best, the hostess came and handed her cell phone to Ted. The bilingual (or multilingual) speaker on the other end of the phone helped us order our food. Ted would speak to the person in English on the phone, then hand the phone to our hostess so the person on the phone could explain our order to her in Korean. I’m not sure the name of the beef noodle soup we had, but it was delicious.

Implications for practice

I am by no means an expert on Korean English education or culture after a two-week visit. However, first- hand, authentic experience attempting to understand and be understood in a foreign culture/language helped me comprehend what my students and their families’ experience. It also deepened my awareness of my own cultural lens. The articles we read prior to coming to Korea have a different meaning for me as I reread them because I have more background knowledge from which to construct meaning.

I know I’ll continue to process this experience and consider ways to improve my practice. Here are my thoughts at this point for where to begin:

• Include more ways for ELL students to learn about and maintain their cultural identity as they learn English through partnerships with parents and our family literacy program.

• Be more deliberate about planning which multicultural books to include during shared reading and for independent reading. The LPS media has excellent resources for this.

• Continue to use reciprocal teaching strategies during shared reading and guided reading so students have authentic opportunities for academic conversations.

• Incorporate more frequent use of formative assessments (like exit tickets, white boards and performance-based activities) to inform instruction and provide effective feedback for students. No more, "You understand it, right?"

• Share effective practices for language acquisition and vocabulary instruction with classroom teachers.

Teaching middle school English

The Korean government sets national education policies and English is a mandatory academic subject starting in elementary school. In the past, English education in Korean classrooms focused heavily on grammar. While this is still important, the expectation is to shift more towards oral communication skills. However, the Korean teachers surveyed in Butler’s What Level of English Proficiency Do Elementary School Teacher Need to Attain to Teach EFL? reported they felt their level of English was not high enough to teach to the expectation of the country’s education policies. Korea is starting to hire native English speakers to help bridge the gap between Korean teacher’s English proficiency and the expectations of the curriculum. Our middle school visits gave me some insight into this trend.

Our first middle school visit started in the library. When our group of 16 Americans walked in, a group of five boys darted into the rows of bookshelves laughing. Welcome to middle school.

According to our hosts, middle schools tend to be the most challenging schools for teachers because of behavior issues. I was surprised to learn the underlying cause of some student misbehavior is that the work is too easy.  Many parents in Korea enroll students in tutoring programs for English and other subjects. It’s not uncommon for parents with financial resources to send their children abroad for a year or two to study in an English-speaking school.  Because of this trend, some students complete the middle school curriculum while still in elementary school. Also, some students’ English oral communication skills are stronger than the Korean teachers'. In the schools I visited, students receive the same English curriculum regardless of their English language proficiency.  In two separate discussions I heard, “We teach to the middle.” 

This middle school has a native-English-speaking teacher (NEST) who co-teaches with a Korean teacher. Their NEST teacher (who may not even have teaching certification or experience) teaches the class and the Korean teacher is there to help with translation of instruction as needed. The Korean teacher leads the class one day a week to teach grammar. We did not get to see a classroom in action at this school, but I wonder if this co-teaching arrangement makes it even more difficult for the Korean teacher to maintain his or her authority. The NEST focuses on oral communication and develops interactive learning activities.

No touch is their anti-bullying campaign

I had a chance to go into a classroom of boys and explain my job as an ELL teacher.  As luck would have it, I was one of three people in our group who toured the building in traditional Korean clothing. I got quite a reaction when I walked into the room.  When I asked them what they would want their English teacher to do to help them learn English, one student replied, “Make it easy.” Sounds like a typical middle school response to me.  

The next middle school we visited had a similar program for English instruction. We got to meet their NEST teacher and see his classroom.  He came to Korea to teach English without a teaching background. He develops his own curriculum and appreciates having a Korean teacher in class to help bridge the English-only instruction. The NEST teacher said he and the Korean teacher have a good working relationship.

These middle school visits helped clarify the trend to hire native-English-speaker teachers as co-teachers. Koreans are driven to be competitive in a global world. Since Korean is not the language of international business, the Koreans need to learn English. I noticed many of the adults who spoke to us apologized for their English proficiency. With the younger generation’s wider access to English through technology, tutoring and study abroad opportunities I wonder if the next generation will be more fluent in English. I wonder if it’s possible for Korea to eventually develop a critical mass of Korean teachers who don’t need a NEST teacher in their classroom.  

My home stay

I had a wonderful time with my host family on Saturday.  Choon Hwa, the mother, is a first grade teacher. Her daughter, Ho Yuen is a 16-year-old high school student. 

My visit began with a cooking lesson. Choon Hwa taught me how to make kimbap – it’s kim (seaweed) wrapped around rice, pork, carrots, danmooji (a radish), cucumber and crab. It was delicious and a fun way to start getting to know each other. 

Making kimbap

Ho Yuen's desk

After a visit to a park and a walk around a lake, we visited Ho Yuen’s high school. I was surprised to find the school was open and students were in some of the classrooms working. Ho Yuen’s classroom looked similar to another high school we’d visited. The student desks were covered with books, paper, snacks, makeup and drinks. One desk even had a hair straightener on it. When she explained that she spends all day in the same desk (teachers move from class to class) and that she stays at school until 9:00 pm or later, the variety of things stored on their desks made more sense. 

Next we did little shopping in downtown Chuncheon and arrived home in time for Choon Hwa’s favorite drama:  A Gentleman’s Dignity.  It seemed like tamer version of Sex in the City, except from the perspective of four men rather than four women. 

Student work - first grade writing

On Sunday, we had an incredible breakfast – bulgogi, soup, and a homemade fermented juice.  It was the best meal I’ve had so far. Then we visited Choon Hwa’s classroom.  The classroom was very similar to the elementary classrooms we'd seen on our visits. It was very organized and clean with plants on the students’ windowsill and beautifully illustrated student work hanging on the walls. She spends a significant amount of time keeping it organized and clean (she has to mop and clean it herself) in addition to preparing for her teaching duties. She teaches her students physical education, art and music in addition to math, reading and writing.  I found it interesting that her reading curriculum is taught whole group with no differentiation for different level of readers. If a reader is struggling, Choon Hwa stays after school and works with them to help them keep up. Next year, the school will add English class to first grade. She expressed concern about her ability to teach it because of her English proficiency. 

This home stay provided additional context to what we’ve seen this week. Choon Hwa thinks the schools and parents make children work too hard, but is resigned to the fact that it’s a necessity for students to be successful in Korea. Ho Yuen starts her final exams tomorrow. These are high-stakes exams that play a major role in options for higher education.  Ho Yuen planned study today, but seemed confident and prepared. I wish her well.

Elementary school visit

Our first exposure to an elementary school in Korea was the elementary school affiliated with the Chuncheon National University of Education. It is a public school, but a lottery system determines who gets to attend the school.

My first impression was the impeccably clean, bright, cheerful facility. The classrooms and hallways were filled with smiling, energetic students and laughter - lots of laughter. We were greeted by students waving from windows two stories above us shouting, "Hi teachers, we love you!"

First grade classroom

Based on what I'd read about Korean education and culture, I expected to see classrooms filled with students sitting obediently in rows waiting for permission to participate. Imagine my surprise when I entered a first grade classroom to find students bowling in teams and cheering each other on. I was bowled over...literally.

Third grade lesson on measurement

In the third grade classroom students were engaged in a boys against the girls review game. I could not understand what the teacher was saying, but I could tell they were learning about estimating and measuring. The teacher's effective instruction and use of manipulatives and visuals helped me make sense of the situation and kept students engaged.

As an ELL teacher, I was interested to see the English classroom. This school employs a native speaker of English, a recent college graduate from Toronto, in addition to the Korean English teacher. The native English speaker works with fifth and sixth grade students in 50-minute sessions three times per week. His focus is developing speaking and conversation skills in an interactive environment. He uses games and role plays to engage the students in conversation. He also helps prepare students for their school's English speech contest. In the speech contest, students are judged on content as well as use of hand gestures. The students' work from his class is not assessed formally. The school's English tests are based more on English grammar and vocabulary than on speaking. 

Student work in English class

Student work in English class

I  noticed evidence of Chuncheon National University of Education's teacher certification curriculum in many areas of this school. For example, there was a small electric piano in most of the classrooms.  Small potted plants, with student's name on them, lined the windowsill of the classrooms. Georgeous artwork was on display in the classrooms and hallways. In physical education class, the students were practicing a traditional dance and playing Korean drums. The school also had a beautiful outdoor space and garden.

Prior to our site visits, our professor host from CNUE told us many Koreans would wonder why teachers from the United States would come to Korea to learn about education. Korean's education system is heavily influenced by the United States' education system. Many Koreans want to come to the United States to attend college. The enthusiasm of the students and the professionalism at this school impressed me. I wondered what a Korean teacher would think if he or she visited my school. 

Lunchtime

Physical education class

Learning language in Korea

Our week at Chuncheon National University of Education included three Korean language lessons. Our instructor, Jina, a student from CNUE was extremely professional and an absolute delight. Her encouragement and sense of humor put everyone at east and made learning fun. These lessons, combined with my attempts to apply what I learned as we toured Korea, gave me a deeper understanding of what English language learner students experience everyday.

 

The objectives of our language course were to: 

• Understand Korea through Korean language

• Feel good about learning a foreign language

• Pick up useful expressions

The first useful expression Jina taught us was a basic greeting: “Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Terri.”  Jina modeled the conversation a few times – being very deliberate about pronunciation and intonation.  Then, as a class, we said the conversation along with her. She’d periodically stop and repeat words we were mispronouncing. Jina introduced two more basic conversations in that first session using the same process.  After repeated practice, we rehearsed with a conversation partner. Finally, Jina invited each pair present their dialogue to the class. I’ll be honest…my heart skipped a beat when I heard we were going to do this. As I waited for my turn, I kept practicing the dialogue in my head, hoping I wouldn’t embarrass myself too much and let my partner down.  I made it through just fine and Jina’s positive feedback (unwarranted I’m sure) made me feel good about my accomplishment.

Jina continued with this style of instruction for two more sessions. As we progressed, the sample conversations grew a little longer and more complex. By the final day, I struggled to keep up. However, when Jina checked for understanding before moving on, I just nodded my head and pretended I was on track. Something I’m sure our ELL students do on a daily basis. By the end of the hour, I’d hit the wall.  I couldn’t process any more information.

After three days of lessons I could say hello and thank you, but only if I really concentrated, visualized the phonetic spelling of the word in my head, and mentally rehearsed the word before attempting to say it.

An article we read prior to coming to Korea – Second Language Learning in the Classroom by Lightbrown and Spada outlines five instructional theories for second language classroom instruction. Here’s how our classroom instruction aligned with some of those theories:

Get it right in the beginning:  Jina taught simple, structured conversations to introduce us to the language and help us listen to and speak in grammatically correct phrases and sentences. We repeated the phrases, at first, without really focusing on meaning. As we practiced, Jina corrected our errors by repeating the phrase and encouraging us to mimic her pronunciation and intonation.

Say what you mean, mean what you say:  This theory stresses the importance of providing comprehensible input - making sure the learners understand what the teacher is teaching. Teachers create comprehensible input in a variety of ways including: activating background knowledge; using visuals; using graphic organizers; and providing instruction that draws on students’ experiences.  As we progressed, Jina worked to help us understand the meanings of words and phrases. She used visuals and knew enough about our culture to draw on our experiences to help us makes sense of some Korean cultural norms. Since Jina delivered her instruction in English, we did not have to struggle to understand her instructions and clarifications.  This is a luxury many ELL students do not have.  I found myself continually thinking about how hard my ELL students have to work. They are learning a foreign language in a foreign language.

Teach what is teachable:  This theory proposes some aspects of learning a language, like word order in a sentence, have to be taught in sequence because they are acquired in stages. The learner must master one stage before they will be capable of learning the next.  Jina’s lessons started as one or two-word phrases and progressed to more complex phrases and sentence structures. Since I hadn’t mastered the basic conversations we'd been taught, I struggled to keep pace as the conversations grew longer and built upon prior rules and words we’d been taught. How many times a day do my students feel this way?

Get it right in the end:  Proponents of this theory believe it’s important for learners to attempt to use language for meaningful conversations - even if the grammar is not perfect. Through continued practice learners will acquire some, but not all, grammar and syntax without explicit instruction.  Jina provided corrective feedback on some grammatical errors, but did not go too deeply.  She appeared to be able to sense how much we were ready to process. She didn’t insist upon, nor expect, perfection.

Even after three well-designed language lessons and a week in Korea, I can only say hello and thank you. My progress was much slower than I expected and nowhere near the progress ELL students make in classrooms that only use English instruction. This has given me a renewed sense of admiration for my students’ progress and reminded me of my responsibility to ensure they receive the best instruction possible.

As I reflect on my experiences this week and consider ways to improve my practice, three questions come to mind:  Do my students always understand the essence of what I am trying to teach? How will I know? How can I effectively share my experience with classroom teachers to ensure all students receive the best possible instruction?

Elementary school teacher certification

On June 25, the 62^nd anniversary of the Korean War, we toured Chuncheon National University of Education (CNUE).  We learned about the importance of elementary education in South Korea and of the rigor of elementary education teacher preparation.

Teachers are extremely well respected in Korea. Having a teacher in the family improves the social status of the entire family.

CNUE is one of eleven National Universities of Education in Korea – they are universities whose sole purpose is to develop elementary school teachers. Only students who graduate in the top five percent of their class are considered for enrollment.

The coursework for getting a degree and teacher certification is very challenging and well-rounded. The objective is to develop the whole person. Teachers are expected to be global minded, morally impeccable strong in every subject. In addition to subject area and educational foundation courses, all students must complete courses in: 

Technical arts: courses similar to our industrial technology, home economics, and sewing.

Physical education: western style dances including jazz, tango, waltz; swimming, camping, skiing and golf

Art education:  At a minimum they must learn piano and one other Korean instrument. They also take fine arts courses like ceramics and painting.

Moral education and ethics: Includes learning the etiquette of their tea ceremony, among other things.

University students' woodworking projects

Regalia for learning tea ceremony etiquette

As we progressed through our tour a comment by our host, Professor Kim, stayed in my mind.  He mentioned teachers are beginning to have issues with conflict in the classroom – students are challenging teachers. For example, some students (as a result of tutoring) have finished the middle school curriculum before they get to middle school. They act arrogant and bored and it is creating a serious problem. Parents are contacting university professors to tell them teachers need to be trained on ways to deal with this moral aspect of education.

Later in the tour, as he explained the required coursework for computer technology, he told us university students complain that the work is too difficult. His response to them is that sometimes students in elementary school know more about technology than the teacher – the teacher needs to be excellent in all subjects.

In the evening, I had an opportunity to talk with a professor from the university, Dr. Suh, about his middle-school aged daughter’s experiences learning English. This conversation shed more light on the issue of conflict in the classroom. 

Dr. Suh’s family lived in the United States while he was earning his degrees at American universities. Consequently, his daughter’s English proficiency is higher than the level of her classroom instruction and she’s not learning anything new. He feels the classroom instruction places too much emphasis on grammar and syntax (the English teacher’s strengths) and not enough emphasis on conversation. The same is true for math. His daughter completed middle school math, with the help of private tutors, while she was still in elementary school. She will complete high school math before she finishes middle school. His daughter had to give up piano lessons because she didn’t have time for piano and her tutoring work. He gave the impression this was something she did willingly. Our discussion was starting to create an image of a high-pressure parenting in my mind. An image he quickly erased when he added, “We are not that strict. When I get home, all I want to do is play and play and play with my daughters.” 

Many families cannot provide the opportunities for tutoring and English language practice that Dr. Suh can provide for his family. This encounter makes me wonder how teachers differentiate instruction in classrooms where students are at different levels of proficiency.  I also wonder how parents of students who do not have as many opportunities for tutoring perceive the issue of conflict in the classroom. I hope to gain some perspective on this during our school visits.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression

Han River water fountain display

Chicken delivery motorcycle

Seoul has a population of 10.5 million people – making it the largest city I’ve experienced. It had a feel that was not as stressed, fast-paced or as crowded as other (smaller) big cities I’ve visited. Although our group is clearly not from Korea, I never had the feeling of being conspicuously foreign 

On Saturday (June 23) I got to experience Korean hospitality first hand . It was an unforgettable experience.  We had the good fortune to be hosted by a Korean family the entire day. Chunhee and her two college-age children showed us how to use the subway and generously shared their cultural capital. The end- of- day picnic on the Han River – complete with fried chicken delivered by men on motorcycles and a water fountain display shooting from a bridge -  was the perfect ending to an unforgettable day.

Through my visits with Chunhee and her children, I had the opportunity to gain their first-hand perspective and help clarify two questions I had about “English fever” in South Korea: 

1.  Do South Koreans strive to learn English more for practical value or social value?

In this family’s situation, it appeared both are important, but their decision seems to weigh more heavily on the practical side.

My conversations with Chunhee made it clear she and her husband want  to provide their children with the best education they can afford – study in the U.S. is their best opportunity. She would love to send all her children to college in the United States, but it is cost-prohibitive.. Currently her son is attending Community College in Dallas, TX to finish her pre-requisites (this is a more economical alternative) then plans to transfer to a University. Chunhee lives with him in Dallas during the school year.

I also had the opportunity to talk to her daughter. She studied one year at a University in Seoul, then took a one-year break to go to Dallas, Texas with her mother and siblings. She studied ESL while her younger sister finished high school and her brother attended Community College. She thought her year of English language learning would help her stand out among her peers. It did, but, many of her peers do the same thing and she didn't stand out as much as she thought she would. She considered her English at a “middle” level. She has graduated from University and is looking for a job. The jobs for which she applies require applicants to submit their TOEFL score. That score is a factor that can set candidates apart. It has an impact on one’s job opportunities regardless of whether they will use English in the job.

2.  When parents decide to send students to English-only schools and encourage their students to spend time with English speakers, does it diminish the sense of community when they return to South Korea?

Throughout the day in Seoul, I saw families with children strolling along walking paths, dipping their feet in Cheonggye Stream and picnicing along the Han River. When we were at the Han River, Chunhee’s daughter said it was a place she comes with her friends to hang out. She and her brother told about what they do in their spare time and with friends.

 It seems, for this family, all the studying and traveling abroad to study still leaves time to foster friendships and enjoy what Seoul has to offer.

I appreciate them taking the time to share with us. I learned a lot about what it means to be a good host and cultural broker to others.

Korea - English Language Learning and Teaching

Welcome to my blog! This summer I have an incredible opportunity to go to South Korea and learn about their culture, educational system and ways they learn and teach English as a foreign language. I know I'll return to my job as an ELL teacher with a deeper understanding of my students' needs and with new and improved practices for teaching English Language Learners in Lincoln, Nebraska. I also hope to return with a deeper understanding of myself and my place in the world.