Published by the Gwangju International Center since 2001
We are all familiar with the terms linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. But peace linguistics may not be so firmly seated in our lexicons. To find out more about this, we turned to Jocelyn Wright for an interview.
Those familiar with English language teaching (ELT) are most likely familiar with the international ELT associations TESOL Intl. Assn., centered in North America, and IATEFL, centered in Europe. These two associations have been with us for nearly a half century, leaving Asia underrepresented. To fill this gap, AsiaTEFL was relatively recently formed. The following interview is with AsiaTEFL President-Elect Park Joo-Kyung, a resident of Gwangju, and focuses on what AsiaTEFL is and what it has to offer the ELT community.
Many people in the Gwangju area know Professor Park Joo-Kyung for her work in the field of English language teaching (ELT) as an instructor, teacher trainer, administrator, ELT association leader, and the list goes on. But what you may not be as aware of is that she is also widely known in ELT circles throughout the nation and, indeed, throughout Asia and beyond for her leadership and service – as attested to by her recent appointment as president-elect of AsiaTEFL. Our KOTESOL interviewer recently caught up with Dr. Park to quiz her more on her leadership and service activities over the years.
When we think of teaching lessons in English in Korea, we immediately think of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and, most often, of the instructor being an expat, native speaker of English. However, what has been trending in recent years, especially at the tertiary level, is teaching content courses (e.g., engineering, history, mathematics) in English. To understand better this aspect of teaching, we have sought out Phillip Schrank, a university professor in our Gwangju community, for this interview.
If you are a language teacher in the Gwangju area or a member of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL), the nationwide teachers’ association, you have quite likely heard of Lindsay Herron. She has spent well over a decade teaching in Korea and almost as long involved in KOTESOL. Lindsay is presently the president of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of KOTESOL, a past national president of KOTESOL, and the chair of this spring’s KOTESOL International Conference. Lindsay graciously agreed to the following interview to talk about teaching, the local KOTESOL chapter, the upcoming conference, and a bit about herself.
Before the revision in North Korea, English or Russian were the only languages taught in cities in 2003, but in 2013, English education was expanded nationwide. In the revised curriculum, foreign language subjects were unified into English, and the Russian language course was abruptly ended. As a result, the number of hours spent by students in English classes has been greatly expanded (Cho et al., 2015).
“We are currently at just over 300 teachers. This number is on a slow decline, but this is mostly due to population decline, a prominent issue in Jeollanam-do.”
“This warm welcome reminded me to be mindful of our students’ current circumstances.”
