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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:
South Korea is a very developed country where education is cut throat, especially when it comes to english. english is used as a way to differentiate students in class levels, entrance exams to middle and high school and finally the national exam which distinguishes which university a student will go to; in Korea, this one test basically makes or breaks your life.
english is an essential part of education of Korean students and from a young age, students are forced to learn english for the sake of their betterment. From my experience, where I have taught in South Korea as an english conversation instructor for 2 years at a public high school, I see the challenges students face on a daily basis, their stress levels, the constant sleep deprivation and their drive or lack-there-of to succeed, especially in english. Even though after high school, students may never use nor continue to learn english, they are still forced to do so which makes my job very fun and difficult at the same time.
As students are forced to learn english from an early age, their motivation is extremely limited, however, you also have a small number of students that realize the importance of english in our globalized world. In this discussion, I will focus on both groups, the unmotivated and the motivated students and discuss the problems associated with these two groups.
Lack of motivation is something I see on a daily basis in classes. Students are forced to study until 1-2am and study for 16 hours or more a day. In my classes, I taught various levels of students and even in the lower level classes they were still able to participate and focus but I to cater to their specific level. Common mistakes at the lower level are poor grammar understanding, poor pronunciation and lack of first hand experience using english. I try to develop many different methods to engage students by playing games, using visuals and pairing students so that they help one another. In Korea, students are taught to focus only on reading and listening because it is how they are tested on national exams etc. however, I don't feel this allows students to develop their overall skills in english whatsoever, students have studied english for over eight years yet they can barely put a sentence together.
Advanced students have had a lot of experience in using english. Middle-class students unfortunately have more opportunities to live and study abroad therefore, they are more comfortable in speaking and participating in class. Usually, advanced classes are smaller and students are really interested in learning and speaking in english, in comparison to standard classes with usually 35-40 students per class at the high school level.
As classes are smaller, you have the an opportunity to really get to know the students' strengths and weaknesses and a major problem I notice is , pronunciation and their lack of a proper accent or intonation. Even though the students are confident in their abilities, their lack of intonation can make it extremely difficult for a native speaker to understand. In class, I try to create activities that focus on this problem by making students think of what and how they are speaking in english. As students also have a lot of confidence in their abilities, I constantly correct their mistakes on the spot and write them down so everyone understands the mistakes made and how to correct them. Overall, I usually seen an improvement after a few months in their intonation and pronunciation.
In Korea, education is a duty, or as students tell me, their full time job. There are very few extra curricular activities such as music, sports, drama. Although Korean students rank high in math and sciences, they have a very poor ability to think for themselves in abstract ways. President Obama constantly praises the abilities of young Korean students, however I strongly disagree with their educational methods. I try to offer a different perspective on education for colleagues and students and hopefully make a different, positive impact in their studies and methods however, unless teaching, and examination methods change and more opportunities are created to get away from formal studies, Korean students will continue to struggle through their high school studies.
