SOUTH Korea should place more emphasis on teaching experience and methodology other than the fact that English is their mother tongue when selecting foreign English language teachers, The Korea Times has reported.
“People think, if you have an English native speaker, you have a good teacher. It is more important to have teachers who have experience and ideas of methodology rather than having native speakers,” said Michael E. Rudder, Regional English Language Officer of the US embassy in South Korea, whose duties include assisting and facilitating improvements in English teaching.
Since December 2007, the South Korean Ministry of Justice has had stricter requirements in place for the E-2 visa, which is issued to those teaching foreign languages. The new requirements have led to a decreasing number of foreign English teachers choosing to enter South Korea. South Korean educators say although the quality of English native speakers is crucial, the labor shortage across the country makes it difficult for them to fill places and, as a consequence, they cannot avoid lowering the criteria.
According to Rudder, well-trained South Korean teachers will be the key for success in English education. In order to achieve this, competency levels must be increased across the board. The Seoul Office of Education recently introduced the “English Ability Improvement Program,” designed to improve teachers’ English ability. The plan suggests that for the first year after someone becomes an English teacher, his or her English lessons must be monitored. It is planned that by 2012, 2,000 teachers will have gone through this training. Seoul’s plans are part of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s “English Public Education Perfection Project.”
