tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post834486414504793685..comments2024-02-23T23:53:54.842+09:00Comments on Gusts Of Popular Feeling: Article on SMOE foreign teachers teaching alonematthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-19326731411859643182011-12-14T21:57:14.943+09:002011-12-14T21:57:14.943+09:00A (a 29 year old American male) was constantly say...<b>A (a 29 year old American male) was constantly saying in English "Look here please" and "Be quiet and pay attention to the class," but not many students were listening.</b><br /><br />Like this is any different with the Korean teachers. Students aren't exactly rapt with attention on KETs (or even KTs in general) lessons. There is still the same amount of students sleeping at the back, talking to each other and ignoring everything the teacher said, reading comic books, etc. It has nothing to do with the students "not understanding' the NSET.Darth Babaganooshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03292625818454308095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-68202847551892265022011-12-12T16:51:44.044+09:002011-12-12T16:51:44.044+09:00"By sending documents or manuals and carrying...<i>"By sending documents or manuals and carrying out on-site instruction, the authorities constantly train [schools] that native speaking teachers should absolutely not teach alone."</i><br /><br />I would argue that this regulation is itself flawed. Korea is home to what Edward T. Hall would call a "high-context" culture, with radically different approaches to communication than native English speakers from the U.S., Canada or Australia, for instance. Even a Korean teacher with perfect English grammar will still be communicating in a Korean way to Korean students during their English-language classes. They are only teaching half of their subject, which is more than just a system of abstract rules, but more importantly, is a mode of communication with its own unique, inherent cultural characteristics.<br /><br />Thus, native ESL teachers should be teaching alone in Korean classrooms whenever possible. Of course, classroom management skills are paramount when handling elementary, middle-school and high-school students in particular, requiring professional teachers who actually know what they are doing. Duh.<br /><br />However, since local Korean education authorities are unwilling to pay the kind of salaries and, equally important, afford the kind of respect that would attract such professional non-Korean teachers to their public schools, they have improvised this half-assed, stopgap measure requiring native ESL teachers to be accompanied by Korean teachers during their classes, which as the article notes is itself often a failure since many Korean teachers are no doubt wearied by such bothersome hand-holding.<br /><br />In other words, irony of ironies, SMOE seems to not understand simple, basic pedagogy. It really does seem to be a case of the blind leading the blind, or more accurately, the mute leading the mute.<br /><br />I would suggest that hiring actual dancing monkeys for these classes would be far more cost-effective, and achieve nearly identical results.King Baeksuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15106210206814275410noreply@blogger.com