KOTESOL: Because That’s the Way It’s Always Been Done

Change is often hard to come by, and that aptly applies to the field of education in Korea. It is almost always easier to do things the way they have been done in the past, rather than to forge new plans and new methods of execution. As educators, though, we have to continuously look at current practices to ensure that they are the best practices, rather than just commonplace practices that people are satisfied with only because they are the most familiar. Here we will discuss several of the English-as-a-foreign-language teaching practices that are still prevalent mainly because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Why Not Spoon-Feed Students?

In EFL classrooms here, the dominant metaphor for teaching is “the teacher as information giver;” knowledge flows one way: from teacher to student. The stereotypical English teacher conveys knowledge about English grammar, about English vocabulary or about English usage to the student, who in turn, records it, memorizes it and regurgitates it on the ubiquitous written English test. One good reason not to do this, which applies to all areas of education and not just EFL, is spoon-feeding is not nurturing. If you give students information, they might be able to recall that information for testing purposes, but for little more. They will not be equipped with the strategies and techniques needed for discovering the information on their own and thus will not be equipped for life in the real world.

A second, very important reason is that English is an acquired skill. By spoon-feeding students, the teacher is only conveying information about the language, not nurturing the English skills themselves. We need to give students a lot of exposure to the language itself – not just in the receptive skills of reading and listening, but also in the productive skills of speaking and writing. We need to present material to the students so that they can inductively discover patterns and meanings on their own rather than being spoon-fed. Information that is discovered on one’s own is information that is retained much longer than information that comes direct-delivery from a teacher. Spoon-feeding of language is not even best for babies.

Why Not Test, Test, Test?

Testing in Korea is deeply rooted – in education and in history. During the Joseon Dynasty (the 15th-19th centuries), securing positions in state officialdom was based on performance on state-administered examinations on the Confucian classics, and a lot of the preparation for these high-stakes exams involved the memorization of lengthy Chinese-character texts.

Little has changed over the centuries: memorization for high-stakes tests. In this tradition, English language testing has centered on vocabulary and grammar testing for two reasons: discrete item testing is easier for question making and marking, and vocabulary and grammar lend themselves to discrete item testing. As preparation for this type of test, teachers convey grammar- and vocabulary-related factoids to students who are expected to memorize these factoids for testing purposes. Sound familiar? As stated above, what is happening is that students are being tested on knowledge about English, not on their ability to communicate the language. It is communication that is the fundamental reason for the existence of language.

By relying on discrete item testing that focuses on grammar and vocabulary, the system produces high school graduates with 10 years of formal English education who can select the correct form of the verb to be used with a plural subject in the past-perfect tense but cannot carry out a simple oral exchange in English. Rather than focusing almost exclusively on frequent summative assessment, which this type of testing is, we need to concentrate much more of our efforts on formative assessment. We need to concentrate our efforts on assessing these skills.

Summative assessment occurs at the end of a learning period; formative assessment occurs during the learning period. Summative assessment is characterized as assessment of learning and is contrasted with formative assessment, which is assessment for learning. What we need to do is concentrate more on giving our students practice in the four skills, especially in the productive skills of speaking and writing and giving them ample feedback on what areas they need to work on most and how to go about it. For language learning, discrete item testing has only very limited value, as does summative assessment.

Why Not Use Korean in the Classroom?

The use of Korean in the English classroom by Korean EFL teachers is commonplace. If asked why they have opted to do this, the most prevalent response would likely be “because it is easier.” However, the unspoken reason that many do it is because of a lack of confidence in their own English-speaking skills. Korean society tends to glorify perfection but disparage anything less, and many Korean teachers would feel a loss of face if they made a mistake in using English. Using Korean in the homogeneous Korean-speaking classroom does have its advantages. It is the easiest means of communication – for not only instructions, but also for things like grammar explanations, vocabulary meaning and classroom management.

The advantages of using English in the EFL classroom, in my opinion, far outweigh those of using Korean. To begin with, if the target language of English is not used for communicative purposes in the classroom, the learners will not recognize it as a real language that can be used to communicate ideas and meaning. They will think of English as merely an academic subject, as they do History, Science or Mathematics rather than a communicative device. EFL students have few opportunities to use English outside the classroom, so they should be provided with such opportunities in ample dosages in class.

By properly using English not only during the lesson, but also for classroom management activities (roll call, arranging seating, setting up equipment and tidying up the room), students’ exposure to English can be greatly increased in a non-threatening environment. Students will hear and pick up language effortlessly in a natural setting. They will not only increase their English skills, but they will come to the realization that English is a living and useful language, not just something to be translated into Korean. Korean does have a niche in the EFL classroom, though. If something is just too difficult to explain in English, such as abstract vocabulary meanings or complex grammatical explanations, Korean can make a task easier, but English, combined with simple gestures and distinctive tone of voice, can make quite a lot intelligible sense and make Korean use unnecessary.

Conducting second-language classes in the mother tongue and spoon-feeding students information to be memorized for discrete item testing are all vestiges of the past. We as English teachers need to espouse modern teaching techniques that have been proven to be much more effective, and lay to rest the dinosaurs of a past era. The Joseon Dynasty state officials’ examination was the predecessor of today’s high-stakes exams in Korea.

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Monthly Chapter Meeting

Date & Time: September 7 (Saturday), 1:30 pm
Place: Chosun University, Main Building, Left Wing
Featured Workshops

• Getting Students Involved Outside of the Classroom, Tim Thompson (KAIST; Daejeon-Chungcheong Chapter) [2-hour workshop]

Swap-Shop: Share your teaching ideas and activities.
Admission:  No Charge
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Email:        gwangju@koreatesol.org
Twitter:      @GwangjuKOTESOL

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