TEE Writing Assignment

Ko, Min-Jung Thu Jun 05 2008, 07:24

The new Korean government promised many rosy plans in English education, which also have provoked heated discussions until now. One of the most controversial policies is teaching English in English. At a first glance it sounds that nothing can be better than this. Imagine that we can have both fluent English teachers and students learning from them, not to speak of taking of financial burdens from parents due to English private education. However, a little close look makes us doubt about the realization and effectiveness of this policy.

Firstly, are English teachers in public schools capable of conducting their classes only in English? Well, if you order them not to use a word in Korean, they could. Frankly speaking, they’ll speak with horrible English which can be intelligible neither to students and teachers themselves. President Lee says teachers will be retrained for TEE, but we already know that retraining is not a magical pill. Especially, teachers in their 40s and 50s cannot be fluent speakers with several months’ of speaking classes.

Secondly, are students ready? Some people exaggerate that nowadays students can speak English much better than 10 years ago, because they began to learn English before 10 years old. Do they really think that an hour of English at Hagwon can make any significant change in learning a language? In the middle of GTM and CLT, English education in Korea is faltering and getting nowhere.

Lastly, without fundamental change of current assessment system, TEE is meaningless. All the classes in secondary schools are, in principle, focused on getting a good score in Sooneung(Korean SAT). English is not an exception. There are listening questions, then students spend time on getting a right answer in a listening section. It asks grammar and reading, then they study grammar and reading. In this situation, if TEE is only allowed in schools, then it would make students directly head for Hagwon for English studying after school.

The new president was famous for his persistence as a CEO. His nickname ‘bulldozer’ was not named for nothing. However, it’s time for him to realize that politics is not same with company management. The new government should listen to many different opinions from other people who is against it and make a policy step by step not at once. Koreans have always regarded education as a top priority not only in the family but also in the country. The smallest change will get a nationwide attention and will be considered seriously. We all know how important English has become not only in school but also in our daily lives. TEE is, of course, could be our ultimate goal in English education but it cannot be achieved by improvised ideas.