Response Week 1

English Fever

This overwhelming English boom in South Korea hushes concerns about young childrens delay
in psychosocial, linguistic, and academic development (Y-M. Kim, 2002; J-K. Park, 2007).
However, this delay in childrens development has been treated as a necessary evil by Korean
parents, and despite many anecdotal and academic reports of the problems related to the
development of these young Korean children, the numbers going abroad for study has been
increasing rapidly in recent years.

It seems to be that the recent surge in English education is also taking a toll on students
overall health. More and more emphasis is being placed on English ability at the expense of
ability in other subjects. To me, students health and comfort in the school environment should be
a primary concern of the staff, but it looks like in order for their English skills to improve
anything and everything is done. I think that cultural factors concerning parental/teacher
authority and possibly some students own insecurities prevent the issue from becoming
prevalent in the wider education sphere.

Question: What are methods for English to be more prevalent in schools without detracting from
the larger school experience, and what can teachers do from their position to lighten the load?

Taking the TESOL Practicum Abroad

Unfortunately, the ideology of native English-speaking teachers as superior has been

internalized by NESTs, non-native English-speaking teachers, administrators, parents, and
students, as well as the public in general (Phillipson, 1992). Rather, practicum supervisors must
encourage preservice teachers to reflect on their own prejudices, privilege, and assumptions they
bring as native speakers of English. They must challenge the notion of native speakerism

I really think that this is a major obstacle of being a proper English teacher. In order to
better yourself as a teacher, an amount of humility needs to be taken in stride, especially working
in another country where the culture and customs arent your own. There are many variations of
English around the world and within countries and regions, and it isnt accurate to claim to be the
bastion of English knowledge or claim that your own dialect of English is correct. I dont think
there is much to do to combat the Korean view that all native speakers are perfect teachers, but
we can better ourselves when educating others.

Question: How much of our own intuition as native speakers do we base our education on,
versus consulting textbooks and other kinds of official language sources?