Daily news about Korea from the on-line edition of the Chosun Ilbo national daily.
Seoul to Phase Out Native English Teachers [Dec 12th 2011]
Most native English-speaking teachers in about 300 high schools in Seoul could lose their jobs next year. In its budget for 2012, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education cut about W4 billion (US$1=W1,126) for 225 native speakers teaching at high schools.
If the budget is approved by the city council, most of the high schools in Seoul except for 30 English "immersion" and international schools, can no longer afford a native speaker.
Currently 1,245 native speakers teach English conversation at primary and secondary schools in Seoul, 895 of them subsidized by the city office of education and the rest by the city government or district offices.
"A native speaker earns on average W42 million a year, and we concluded that they are not effective enough to justify the cost," a spokesman for the city office of education said. "A survey conducted for us showed that Korean teachers with outstanding English and teaching skills are more effective in the long term."
The office also plans to reduce the number of native speakers teaching at elementary and middle schools from 2013.
Students from low-income families will likely bear the brunt of the policy. "Students from well-to-do families may find lessons from native English-speakers dull because they've been attending private tutoring institutes since they were young," an education official said. "But those from poor families should be given the opportunity to learn English with native speakers at school." He added it is "too early to reduce the number of native speakers as long as Korean teachers aren't good enough to replace them."
Students Prefer Korean English Teachers to Native Speakers [Nov 30th 2011]
Korean students prefer to be taught English by Korean teachers with outstanding English conversation and teaching skills, even though they are more satisfied with the lessons of native English-speaking teaching assistants than of their Korean counterparts, according to a survey.
The survey released Sunday by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education was conducted among 28,761 students, 11,980 parents, 2,406 Korean English teachers, and 595 native English-speaking teaching assistants at 1,282 primary and secondary schools in Seoul.
Some 62.2 percent of parents and 53.7 percent of students wanted Korean teachers with good English skills. Only 26.9 percent of parents and 29.7 percent of students preferred native speakers.
Yet in practice parents and pupils were more satisfied with the lessons of native speakers than with Korean English teachers'. Some 54.2 percent of parents said native speakers are more helpful in improving their children's English skills, as against 39 percent who were happy with the lessons of Korean English teachers.
Likewise, 60 percent of students were happy with native speakers' lessons, compared to 55.3 percent said for Korean English teachers.
Native English Teachers to Face Tougher Evaluations [Dec 2009]
Native English language instructors in Korea will soon be required to undergo stricter screening to validate their teaching skills.
The education ministry says it will utilize the National Institute for International Education to boost the number of English teachers selected for individual assessment next year from the current 1,300 to 2,000.
The increased figure will allow the institute to closely monitor and better allocate English instructors to schools throughout the country.
A mandatory 10-day training program will be provided for new instructors on teaching techniques, class management and Korean culture.
Foreign Teaching Pool Expanded to Include More Countries [Dec 2008]
The Ministry of Justice announced Sunday it will allow only nationals of countries including English as an official language that have signed an agreement with Korea to work as assistant English teachers from next year.
The Justice Ministry is currently working on the agreement with India and expects it to be signed next year. So far, only the nationals of seven countries whose mother tongue is English -- Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States -- have been eligible to work as native English teachers.
With the new measure, member countries will be expanded to include the likes of India, the Philippines and Singapore, where English is one of their many official languages. Currently, there are 4,332 native English assistant teachers in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.
However, nationals of such countries will have to meet tougher qualification requirements than those from the countries where the mother tongue is English. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has decided to make both a teacher's license and a bachelor's degree in an English-related major as prerequisites. Nationals of the seven countries whose mother tongue is English have much more lenient requirement of having graduated from a two-year community college or having finished at least two years of a four-year university course.
A qualification to teach in private English institutes will continue to be limited to nationals of the seven countries.
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Nowadays, language is one of the most important skill. There are two languages known as international languages: English and Chinese. I think in every country, there is English class in any level of education starting from the elementary school to university. Some of them might even have Chinese class since it is considered as the most frequently used language especially in Asia. Even though Chinese has begun to be used globally, English has already been used as international language far before Mandarin Chinese. In globalization era, it is compulsory to have a skill in spoken & written English. Every employer prefers to hire employees having a second or even third foreign language ability.
ReplyDeleteNative speaker always becomes one of the most resourceful source in language teaching system. They are believed to be more qualified to teach, since it is their first language than a non-native speaker mastering the language. As we can see in the article above, in 2012 in Seoul the high number of salary given to the native speaker becomes a problem. Many schools in Seoul can not afford the cost. The number keep rising in periods of time. They need to find a quick solution for this issue.
In my own opinion, there are solutions that can solve the problem. First, not every learner has the same interest to learn the language from the native speaker. When students are taught by native speaker some of them will feel anxious and afraid because they feel they really need to be careful in choosing their words and building the phrase.
I think the idea of having Korean teachers with outstanding English and teaching skills is a really good idea and could be more effective for the students. And second, for the native teacher, they don't need to worry about loosing their job. Native speaker can help the teachers in using the language properly. So the knowledge is transferred from the native speaker to the teacher and finally to the students. In that way, the government and the school can reduce the cost and solve the issue. It is a win-win solution for everyone.
I fully agree with Silvio concerning the importance of English as the most used international language not only for your career but also for your personal life. English skills are not only useful for communicating with native English speakers but also to have an intermediary language that offers the possibility to speak with persons from countries of which you can´t speak the language and they can´t speak your mother tongue as well. Therefore a good English lesson as well as a good teacher is of great importance. But I think a native English teacher is not absolutely necessary, as in Germany and most other countries there are no native English teacher as well. Until now it was a great opportunity for Korean students to learn a language with a native speaker. But in my opinion Korean teachers are sufficient to teach the basic skills, because the students will have the opportunity after or maybe even while going to school to speak to native speakers by travelling or doing a high school year or a semester abroad, anyway.
ReplyDelete"But I think a native English teacher is not absolutely necessary, as in Germany and most other countries there are no native English teacher as well."
DeleteI agree with this.
When I read the articel above, I believe there are significant advantages to both native and non native English teachers. A native speaker of English refers to someone who has learned and used English from early childhood. Absolutely, native speakers will easily explain and share about native English speaking cultures and can provide insight that non native speakers can not. Based on my experience, although they have the best pronunciation, but not all of them can explain the grammar well. It happened because they don't prepare their lesson well or lack of grammar. For me native or non native teachers have the same ability as long as they prepare the teaching material well and have a good class management. In my view, teaching is more than just pronouncing and mastering a language, teaching means knowing how to enrich and encourage students to learn more. The most important, wheter it’s native or non native, teachers must have a good qualification and experience. Because teaching any language is all about skill and passion as well. So, if a person has qualifications and skills, he/she can be an excellent teacher.
ReplyDelete"Based on my experience, although they have the best pronunciation, but not all of them can explain the grammar well."
DeleteI agree with this too.
With English language becoming more popular worldwide, many people will try to learn English. Many non-English spoken countries are adding English language into their national curriculum. The main reason is because English is an international language and use in trading. With Korea now starting to export their electronics products. It is normal for the Korean Government to add English language in the school curriculum. Therefore they need additional labour to teach English language. On the other hand many Korean students prefer Korean teachers rather than native speakers.
ReplyDeleteI think it is normal for students want to be taught by Korean English teacher. This is because they have different accent. Making Korean students having difficult time understanding whatever the teacher says, If we assume Korean students are first time learner in English language, so they have very limited vocabulary.
There is also another possible reason; they feel there is closeness when the Korean English teacher teaches them. If we use the assumption above, the Korean English teacher can easily translates difficult English vocabulary into Korean language.
I have lost count of how many times I have talked students out of wanting to be taught by me and persuaded them to study with a local English language teacher instead. Many Indonesians wrongly assume that being taught by a native speaker ~ ANY native speaker ~ is automatically going to be better than being taught by "a local". Native speakers of English can be good teachers and they can offer certain 'products' that non-native teachers may not, but the advantages of a native speaker - such that they are - tend to kick in only at certain levels and with students who have certain needs.
ReplyDeleteAs English become international language to communicate between people from different area, people start to learn English for their skill to communicate to each other. Nowadays, learning English is a must to face globalization. Globalization itself that make learning English so important like today. Not only English, mandarin language is also important language to face globalization. Learning mandarin language is also in IUP curriculum, so that’s mean mandarin language is also important to learn beside English. Learning a language with the native is always better than we study language with non-native, because they have understood their language clearly and they know exactly how is the right pronounce.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Seoul government should not phasing out their native speaker, somehow native brings different color in the way of teaching the language. Every native must be has more value in understanding the language. Based on that reason, that’s why the native is important to make people more understand in learning a language.
I think we are all agreeing that English has become a major international language. Most of countries use English as their second language after their mother language. This also showed by the educational sectors worldwide. Almost every country has English lessons in every grade of school. Although many people saying that native teacher is not important, I find that native teacher is important. Many native teachers maybe not pay attention to grammar as much as local teacher, but they also give some common words that they used in daily life or in certain part of environment such as business environment. Not to mention their pronunciations which are very good, so we can learn how to say some words correctly. Native teacher also gives some other benefits such are their speed to talk make our listening skills improve. These are some tiny little detail that local teacher can’t provide and seem to be abandoned by many people but surprisingly play crucial parts in our life.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading these articles, at first I thought that what the Korean governments planned to do was rather outrageous. However, after thinking about it for a while, I'm starting to find them quite reasonable. Though native English teachers could be considered as proficient and useful source of linguistic knowledge, the demand for high salary could be a problem for the governments' expense management.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, even though English teachers could be proficient at speaking English, due to it being their first language, their teaching skills are what really matter nonetheless. After getting through quite a lot personal experience in English courses, I find that there are many native teachers who could speak English quite well, but lacks the ability to teach, or even show good linguistic examples in the learning process, e.g grammar. All in all, I'd rather be taught by a local teacher with remarkable teaching skills than a so-so native English teacher.
At first when I read the title, I thought they’re purposely not hiring native English speakers any more because they’re confident enough with their language, like Japan does. Japanese people feel that their language is the best, so they want people from other countries learn their language, not the otherwise. I hear that people in France feel like that as well. And if they want to learn, it’s difficult for them to speak like other people from other countries do. Now, Korea is very globally known, thanks to their actors and celebrities. Now many people from other countries are learning their language. But I don’t really agree if they’re decreasing they’re budget to replace the native English speakers to Korean. Because I think if they seriously want to learn English language, they need more often to listen to what native speakers’ speak like. So they can improve their ability to speak fluently. But it’s just my opinion. Thank you for reading.
ReplyDeleteIn my own opinion, we don’t necessarily have to learn from native speakers. Yes, native English speakers have more knowledge and are used to the language itself. Not every native are qualified to do the job. Teaching the language could be difficult to those who have no understanding or knowledge of it. But if locals could understand English and have the right teaching skills then we should prioritize them. We should give job opportunities to our own society first, and then if we have the money to pay the high demanded salaries from natives then we could utilize them. What’s also interesting is there are many cultural exchange programmes where expats volunteer to teach English, but that’s not the case in Korea. They are cutting them off because they think hiring them is improvident. I think that they would be more comfortable to learn from Korean teachers because if they don’t understand the material the teacher could make them understand by using Korean.
ReplyDeleteI think a native English teacher is important to a country that want to learn more about English although in the article it’s said that it’s cost effective but you will get more advantage when you learn English from the native English teacher because they will help you with everything that may the local teachers don’t know like grammar and how to say the word properly also they will help you to know a proper words to say and to write in the sentences and I think English nowadays is the most important language to learn because it’s official international languages and it’s use by many world people so it’s important to you to know and understand it well in order to help you to compete with any other people in the world. In order to achieve more you have to sacrifice more so it’s okay if you spent more in order to get better eduaction .
ReplyDeleteI am quite agree that native teacher is not necessarily needed except if you want to learn the pronunciation of English. Like Lina said, although they (the native teachers) have the best pronunciation, not all of them can explain the grammar well. I think that is the reason why most of Korean students prefer Korean English teacher rather than the native teacher. Usually the non-native English teacher can explain the grammar better. When I studied in the Philippines, most of my foreign friends came from South Korea. When I asked them the reason why they are studying in the Philippines, they said to study English. Most of my Korean friends who continue their college there take secondary education of English. They want to be an English teacher when they go back to Korea. At first I do not really understand why they study abroad if they just want to be an English teacher. Then they explain that in Korea the salary of English teacher is high and also English teacher is needed.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the article, I think that Korean might want to improve the use of their language and to cut down the use of English, but after I finished it I know that the cost budget problems might cause this decision. What’s better, English native speakers, or someone from our own country who fluent in English? If you ask my opinion I have to preferred an English native speakers, because from my experience in elementary and junior high school English native speakers are much more effective and when I learnt it with them, I don’t feel a certain pressure that I usually get from my school local English teacher. One of the advantages of a native speaker teacher is when they teach, they could make the learning environment and process more fun, so the students could relax and might reach their maximal ability. With a local English teacher in my school the learning process is boring and sometimes I questioned whether my teacher even qualified to teach this subject.
ReplyDeleteAt first when I -only- read the title, I quickly think that Seoul, and the whole South Korea is becoming too proud of their teaching resources that they think that they don't need any more native English teacher to teach them of what is actually basic. It could be true that maybe more and more South Korean English speaker or English teacher are becoming quite skilled enough to teach the people of South Korea the English language fluently, but in terms of pronunciation, there could be some difficulty, I mean, as fluent as a foreigner trying to speak in other accent, it would not be as perfect as the native speakers, would it? But then again, there are many cases that a native English speaker teacher are not as skilled and as qualified as they should be, their teaching quality sometimes appeals the other way of their high wages. Some teachers are randomly picked up without any tests, and it’s good that Seoul is tightening and hardening the tests to get the certificate to teach in Seoul.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I do believe that by having both native or non native English teacher there are must be an advantages that we can get. In this case, there are some advantages that we can get from non-native English teacher, first is we know that the non-native English teacher didn't came from a country which uses English as their first language so I do believe since they have experienced firsthand of what their students through they have a better understanding when teaching the students. So by knowing that, the non-native English teachers have a higher degree of patience with the students. They are more tolerant with the mistakes that the students may make and more appreciative of the slow process of learning the language. This might be one of the reasons why the students are prefer to have Korean English teacher to native speaker since they have a better understanding with the students. A high degree of patience is an important thing when we’re teaching someone else a new language, in my case I’ve ever taught my friends Korean language yet it took me an hour but my friends still can’t understand so I have to teach her slowly and carefully. It’s a good thing to know that the non-native English teachers have a high degree of patience but still they can’t excel the native teachers. The native teachers has lived in a country that uses English as their first language for a long time, so this is the disadvantage for non-native English teachers which they frequently make grammatical mistakes and wrong diction or pronunciation. But the most important thing is, teaching is not as easy as we thought. Before the teachers in a school can teach us of course they have to be qualified first for their skills and their knowledge before they’re going to enrich the knowledge of their students.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I do believe that by having both native or non native English teacher there are must be an advantages that we can get. In this case, there are some advantages that we can get from non-native English teacher, first is we know that the non-native English teacher didn't came from a country which uses English as their first language so I do believe since they have experienced firsthand of what their students through they have a better understanding when teaching the students. So by knowing that, the non-native English teachers have a higher degree of patience with the students. They are more tolerant with the mistakes that the students may make and more appreciative of the slow process of learning the language. This might be one of the reasons why the students are prefer to have Korean English teacher to native speaker since they have a better understanding with the students. A high degree of patience is an important thing when we’re teaching someone else a new language, in my case I’ve ever taught my friends Korean language yet it took me an hour but my friends still can’t understand so I have to teach her slowly and carefully. It’s a good thing to know that the non-native English teachers have a high degree of patience but still they can’t excel the native teachers. The native teachers has lived in a country that uses English as their first language for a long time, so this is the disadvantage for non-native English teachers which they frequently make grammatical mistakes and wrong diction or pronunciation. But the most important thing is, teaching is not as easy as we thought. Before the teachers in a school can teach us of course they have to be qualified first for their skills and their knowledge before they’re going to enrich the knowledge of their students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Adrian that there are certain advantages to being taught English by native speakers while being taught by local teachers entails its own advantages. I think native speakers do not necessarily teach better than their local compatriots, nonetheless they can better suit the demand of intermediate English students who do not have any trouble with grammar anymore.
ReplyDeleteActually, what interests me about the topic at hand is the Asian mindset that native speakers are seemingly always better (thus command better pay packages) at their own game. The context can be broadened if we take into account the general mindset that Westerners are always better than Asians at everything. Usually, foreign expatriates easily command better wages than their local peers who probably are of the same quality, only because of the presence of such mindset. I believe that this creates unfair competition and people should start thinking rationally and start reading behind the lines. Nevertheless, I cannot blame any specific party for this, as Western culture already dominates the Asian region, and as such Asians cannot be blamed for thinking that the only way is Hollywood, nor can Westerners because I do not think it is intended at all.