Teaching English in Korea: Strategies That Work - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages However, many students are still not able to become as fluent as would be expected. Though some people put the blame on the students, the teachers and schools should bear some of the burdens. One famous Educator once remarked that in teaching, as in learning, what you teach is not as important as how you teach it.
To become an English teacher in Korea, no type of teaching certification, experience, or relevant credentials are needed. The only requirement is that a foreign language instructor will be a native speaker of the language taught. Language instructors often find themselves in difficult situations. They may have no training in the culturally different teaching methods used in the host country. They may be professionals in other fields and fluent in the language but are not trained as teachers. They may be graduate students who have extensive knowledge of the language, literature, and culture but are not trained as language teachers.
These instructors often begin their work in the classroom with little or no guidance to help them, and little appreciation for which methods work, and why. In response, they may fall back on an outdated model for understanding language teaching and language learning. One older model contends that language learning is a product of transmission. The teacher transmits the knowledge and the learner is the recipient. In this teacher-centered model, the teacher is an active participant while the student is a passive listener. The teacher is responsible for transmitting all of the information to the students.
The teacher-centered model may be attractive to new language instructors for several reasons. It may be the method that they have been taught. To them, it makes sense that the teacher should be the focus of the classroom since the teacher knows the language and the students do not. It requires little preparation since all the teacher needs to do is present the material that is outlined in the book. It also requires relatively little thought about student activities or the students' individual needs.  ...Download file to see next pages Read More