Collaborative Essay

-by Inkab, Hyun-a, Kanghoon, Sera, Sujin

It's 2015. I am a Korean student who has just completed high school. One thing I am really happy about is my English proficiency! This is due, of course, to the wonderful English teachers and education system I have experienced. The three great things that have make me confident and good at English are English classes conducted in English; having many opportunities to speak and write English during the class; and having more native speakers of English as well as fluent Korean English teachers.

First of all, I think we had lots of chances to speak and write in English during the class. Therefore, we could learn not only receptive skills but also productive skills. Also, we had to learn productive skills to pass university entrance exam. Lots of native teachers helped us with improving our writing, speaking skills. Local teachers and native teachers conducted team-teaching in our class. Local teachers mainly taught reading, grammar, vocabulary and idioms efficiently. Native teachers conducted interesting conversation classes including game, activity and movie. Compared to my sister, my speaking skill is better than her's. It's because she never learned speaking, writing skills in public school.

I did not understand what teachers wanted us to know when they first started teaching English in English. Tremendously, every students got English knowledge gradually from their teachers without any korean translations. The best thing was that when we helped our friends who didn't fully understood the last English lectures, we could use same English words. How wonderful we are. Plus, we could use English when we have questions involved with lectures to the teachers. When I heard TEE system, I thought that would not work out. However, that is one of the best decisions I've ever seen in my country concerning English education.

Moreover, there were many native teachers as well as fluent Korean English teachers at school. I was satisfied with class conducted by Native English teachers, because I could learn more than English. They explained us how the school life of foreign countries are different, certain kinds of food they have on holidays, interesting dramas and so on. Those stories made me feel more interested in learning English. What's more, I could learn many useful English expression which we can use in our daily lives and practiced my pronunciation through native teachers' feedback.

Indeed, the educational effort to familiarize students to English using environment played a key role in improving my English proficiency. What really benefited me was the chance to learn and practice productive skills. Having native teachers in classes were especially helpful in obtaining correct language usage and cultural knowledge. I learned from my teachers, both native and korean, and learned on my own as well, thanks to the education system and good teachers. I expect that more and more English learners will benefit from them.