By Lee Chi-dong
Staff Reporter

SEOUL Korea’s English education is expected to take a historic step, as English classes will be conducted exclusively in English starting from the upcoming spring semester.

Initially, the beneficiaries of the education reform will be first grade students at middle schools and third and fourth graders in elementary schools.

The step followed the curriculum modification by the education authorities, who decided to put more weight on English conversation than on reading and writing, starting from March 1, the beginning of the 2001 school year.

Korea’s reading-oriented English education has come under fire for failing to help students develop practical English skills.

The Education Ministry said yesterday that it instructed 16 boards of education nationwide to assign English teachers for the new semester based on the principle of ``English classes in English.’’

Accordingly, middle school teachers will have to conduct such lessons for all first grade English classes, or three hours a week, and elementary school teachers must do so for third and fourth graders for one hour a week. .

"The new curriculum is designed to improve practical English abilities from childhood with conversation-oriented textbooks, which are composed of English games, role-playing, and so on,’’ said Song Yong-sup, who is in charge of school education policy at the ministry.

He added that, ``Still, there are not many teachers who can conduct classes exclusively in English. Each school is required to assign qualified English instructors to those required classes.’’

But, some progressive teachers’ groups voiced concerns that the new English class system will not be successful, saying that it is a good experiment but too unrealistic considering Korean educational conditions.
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Many English teachers are afraid of speaking English, so it can produce side effects. Teachers who have a poor command of English might be discouraged, while prompting students to turn to private tutoring for better English conversation skills,’’ said one teacher from the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (KTU), better known as Chonkyojo in Korean.

A recent poll by the ministry showed that as many as 5,000, including 2,781 from elementary schools, among a total of 67,464 primary, middle and high school English teachers, are capable of conducting classes in English.

Others were found to be unable to provide such an educational environment for their students due to lack of conversation skills.

In a bid to solve those problems, the education authority plans to increase its budget for research and development of English education methods and textbooks, as well as offer more than 10,000 teachers the opportunity to study abroad.

The ministry also plans to raise the number of native English teachers to 241 this year from 136 in 2000.

The ministry intends to expand the application of ``English classes in English’’ to middle school second graders and high school first graders in 2002, and then to middle school seniors and the second graders at high schools in 2003.

High school seniors will receive English education in English starting from 2004.

lcd@koreatimes.co.kr

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