English Education Boom at Kindergartens and Elementary Schools
Children learning science in class 4, grade 3 of Yunghoon Elementary School in Seoul open the textbook of "Nature 3-2." "You need two wires to light up the bulb, one negative and one positive," American teacher Catharine Feiffer tells the kids. The pupils, grouped in four or five, are bent on connecting wires. Feiffer addresses Kyong-sil. "Do you think it's going to work, Rina?" "No." "Why not?" "Because... oh, I see! I didn't put the positive wire." "Okay. Try again." "First I teach children the new words to be covered in a particular day. Through a simple test on paper, I find out if they have learned the new words," says the instructor. "If kids don't understand a word, I repeat it slowly several times more until they comprehend it."
That is a scene at the "Immersion Program," Yonghoon Elementary School has been implementing since 1997. The school, conducting an "open education," has consigned mathematics and science to native English-speaking teachers. Textbooks have been translated from the authentic national textbooks by principal Pak Sung-bang, 66, and copyread by foreign teachers. "During my study abroad, I carried with me an English dictionary day and night to memorize vocabulary. One day a professor told me, "One must be naturally familiarized with words in life rather than memorizing them unconditionally. Discard dictionaries and learn English with the whole body." The 1995 attachment of his school to the Internet also prompted him to conduct classes in English. "I was amazed at the great quantity of information available on the Internet," he continues. "Judging that education in English and the latest information accessible through the Internet have to be done in parallel, I made up my mind to employ native English speakers as teachers."
Children who no longer fear English are increasing in number around us. Though the private primary school Yonghoon is the only one that teaches some subjects in English, English conversation is compulsory at public and private elementary schools. Private institutions teaching preschool children English are booming. At S Institute in Ilwon-dong, Kangnam Ward, south of the Han River, 4-year-old Hye-yung was applauded when she said, "May I have wo...wowowowo..." Though she was unable to think of the word water, she didn't give up trying lest she be scolded for speaking Korean. A kid who cannot pronounce correctly even "How are you?" is undergoing bilingual training.
Since 1966 English conversation has been a required subject for all pupils at Sonil Elementary School in Kalhyon-dong, Unpyong Ward, northwestern Seoul. Two English literature-major full-time lecturers, beginning in the second semester of grade 1, teach two hours of English conversation to lower grades per week and four hours a week to higher grades. Nearer to graduation, pupils become bilingual to the extent of communicating with foreigners freely, boasts deputy principal Lee Bong-hak, 55. "The textbooks used are so compiled from local and foreign ones as to fit our reality," he says.
Another feature of the English conversation education in Sonil is that pupils use no notebooks. Children are led to get fond of English through videos, songs and paintings. "A teaching formula where a teacher writes words or phrases on the blackboard and pupils write them down in the notebooks and recite them represents a dead education," maintains Lee. "If middle school freshmen are suddenly exposed to English through textbooks of stiff contents, they are liable to develop a sense of resistance to the foreign language. Accordingly, it is effective to help younger children get familiarized with spoken English."
But such a high-level English education for children has a limitation in that the cost must be born by the beneficiaries. As public elementary schools teach English conversation beginning with the third grade, first and second graders have to rely on private institutes, guidance books or individual tutoring. Mostly, private schools conduct experimental educational programs. "My child learns spoken English through guide books, and I'm concerned whether he can catch up with his pals learning it from native-speaker instructors," worries a mother. This is not an instance of simple envy. It's a high time for us to pay keen attention to a call that English-specialized teachers on a par with native speakers must be assigned to public schools with a budget from the state coffer.
