From Teachers To Actors > IDEAS & IDEALS

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The non-native English teachers at every level in Korea are in trouble. They find themselves in an awkward situation that was unknown to English teachers thirty or forty years ago when I was a high school student. There were, of course, differences from one teacher to another in their knowledge of English and in the ability of teaching it. Nonetheless, the teachers then were undoubtedly the highest authority on English in the classroom, and nobody questioned it. As a teacher of the language of the most advanced and powerful country on the earth, Korean English teachers then were the flower of teachers. They were respected by the students, and envied by the teachers who taught other subjects.

     Recently, however, the firm ground on which they had stood has become shaky and they are being seriously challenged from within and without, although the importance of English remains the same or is even more emphasized. As the opportunity for living abroad has increased, there always are a few of students, if not many, in every English class who have stayed in an English-speaking country for a period of time with their parents. Of course, the English of these students is often more natural than that of the homegrown English teachers in many respects, especially in spoken English. And the chances are that the number of these students will increase, as time goes on.

     To make matters worse, the parents of these students have become a grave concern or even a threat to the teachers in the classroom. When I was a high school student, there were no parents who did or would dare challenge the teacher's English at school. Most of them did not go to college, and their knowledge of English was definitely no match for that of the teachers. But times have changed. Now most of the parents are college graduates, and some of them are immensely knowledgeable about English. They often telephone the English teacher and complain of the teacher's English, especially pronunciation, or they take issue with English grammar or examination questions. Nowadays, English teachers have to constantly pay attention to the parents of the students at home as well as the students themselves at school.

     There are many other factors that demoralize English teachers. Often the teacher's model reading of the English textbook in the classroom cannot be a model for the students any longer as it was in the past. Perfect native-speakers' voices recorded on cassettes or videotapes are always available to the students, and they are correcting not only the students' but also the teachers' accent, pronunciation and intonation. The teacher may only push a button of a cassette recorder, and the students can hear much better English reading than that of the teacher. Various audio-visual aids for effective English teaching, including computers, have been developed and introduced into the classroom, and they are encroaching, nay replacing the traditional and time-honored territory and role of the teachers. Teachers have become, in a sense, a part of these materials. The voice of English teachers in the classroom is inevitably becoming smaller and smaller day by day.

     More perplexing is a rapid increase of the jnumber of the native speakers of English. Like a swarm of bees in spring time they are invading the territory of homegrown English teachers. Now they are ubiquitous, from the universities to the kindergartens throughout the country. I am afraid and worried that in the future all English teachers in Korea will be entirely replaced by these native English speakers, and all the Korean English teachers will eventually be driven out from the classrooms. The time has already come with us. Recently many universities and colleges I know of have fired all the non-native lecturers of the time-honored subject called "liberal English," and instead hired native English speakers for the vacancies.

     The sad lot of the Korean English teachers does not end here. So many students are leaving Korea for English speaking countries to learn English more effectively and quickly. Distrustful of the English teachers and English education itself in the Korean schools, many ambitious parents are sending their young sons and daughters in their early years far away from home at a huge financial and emotional cost. At the heart of this enterprise lies the great expectation and hope that their children will return home equipped with fluent and perfect English acquired on the native soil of English speakers, and eventually will have an advantage over those who have learned English at home.

     The final as well as the fatal blow to the ego and identity of the non-native English teachers in Korea today is that they are put under mounting pressure to teach English in English, as if they were themselves native speakers of English. They feel very much confused before this embarrassing trend of the time, and they don't know how to cope with it. They know well that their English is not good enough to do that, and question seriously the efficiency of the method, but they also know that they have to keep up with the fashion to survive.

     The only and ultimate way out of this sad predicament in which the Korean English teachers find themselves is to become native English speakers themselves by any means: either to be able to speak English like the native speakers of English or, if not, to be an actor, a good actor, who can act as if he or she could speak English well and fluently without any effort or anxiety before the ignorant students. Teachers, don't be sad to find yourselves actors, not teachers any more. The times have changed.
    (December 16, 2006)