twisty turny story

Park boyun, Park ji-hyun, Cho eunjin, Han kyung-jae, Jung yoojin, Lee yujin

Hi! It's the year 2015. I am a Korean student and I have jsut graduated from high school. I really have to say that I feel very proud of and confident in my English proficiency! I am not a special student. I'm average. But almost all "average" students in Korea these days like English and can use it well. That's because English education in korean public schools is very different now compared to 10 years ago...

First, our English book changed wholly. I can't believe there weren't as many pictures nor colors as now 10 years ago! The book these days are so cool and full of fun tasks that we can't help opening it at least once everyday. In each chapter, we can be someone else. It's our imagination. There's a different theme for each chapter, so students get to play various roles week by week. For instance, I was an imaginery lawyer. I had to solve a case that was pretty difficult because a friend sued his best friend. Our group(4-5 students) had to solve the case and talk over it during the class and present it. Other students were fascinated by our creative solution.

Second, there is no grading system any more. We used to grade students based on their level & ability. Can you guess how stupid it was? Grading is nothing but number(score). So we changed every grading system. Without worrying about the score, students feel relaxed and they can accept and intake what they learned very easily & fast. As things goes like this, every students enjoys the class itself. Yesterday, there was a "quiz fun" time. We used computer during that time, in that class teacher gave us some quiz and we were able to find the answer through the internet or whatever. Then, we told the answer to the class. We didn't need to find out the "correct answer", I mean, we told the answer which we think is right. Because we don't worry about the score, this way, we do not need to spoil our imaginary and excitment.

Third, schools are providing more English contacting chance for students by inviting famous guest speakers who can spek English or by holding English book report competition in school itself. Compared to the past, students get to have more English input and produce more English output.

We don't study English as a main subject any more. We can learn English as an extra curricular subject. And our teachers don't insist that we should learn more difficult grammar and they just give us the time to enjoy english itself. A few years ago, when government announced that English was not a main subject any longer, there were many people worrying that students might not learn English. But unlike those worries, the students enjoy and learn English more than before. And the result is great.

Besides, Korean English education system has changed. We used to use only English textbook in the class. But nowsdays English classes have divided into various content such as poetry, novels, newspapers, speech and writing a novel class. Students should choose several subjects which they are willing to learn. students can learn authentic literature and materials related to current usage in daily life. Students really enjoy those classes to learn content as well as English.

The number of English teachers has increased a lot and the number of students in a English class has decreased up to 7-9 students. Students in the same class have become so friendly to each other that we feel very comfortable to speak English. We also have much better access to English teachers. Whenever we have questions or problems we talk with teachers face to face. Also, teachers give us plenty of useful feedback.