영어컨설팅 | Real English Consulting Ltd.

This is the third installment of a series of interviews with experts in English education aimed at offering tips, trends and information related to English learning and teaching in Korea. – Ed.

Korean learners and educators prefer American English, including its accent and idiomatic expressions. The evidence: Korean textbooks on the subject are mostly if not entirely based on American English.

Lee Chan-seung, CEO of NeungYule Education, said such dependence on the single variation of English is passι, as other countries are increasingly adopting a policy in favor of what is called “World English.”

The idea behind World English is the use of English as a lingua franca. English, after all, is widely used outside of United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and other English-speaking countries.

“The fundamental issue is that Korea is stuck with the past practices while global English education paradigm is fast shifting from English as a foreign language to English as an international language,” Lee said.

Lee, a famous author of English reference titles and head of a major publishing company specializing in English education, said Korean policymakers should reconfigure the current standards in favor of English as a global language.

“Korean students tend to think they are not good at English, particularly concerning accent, largely because they aim to pick up American English,” Lee said. “Although an American accent is natural and effective in the United States, it does not play well in Asia, where people have drastically different accent patterns.”

Idiomatic expressions affiliated with regional or national culture should be removed from the formal curriculum, Lee said. Once idioms and slang words are excluded, students might be able to learn English at a faster pace because the amount of work is reduced dramatically.

“We don’t have to learn a very difficult expression or usage. Why should we use the ‘it is’ pattern for describing weather when we can simply say that ‘the weather is fine’? And culture-specific expressions are not essential, either,” Lee said.

Lee travels extensively throughout the world, participating in major academic conferences related to English education. His impression is that a growing number of countries are adopting a set of policies toward English as a global language, which have proven more practical and effective.

“We don’t have to apply the American standard to our English education. Instead, we should respect regional varieties of English, including the Korean variety of English, under the broader concept of World English,” Lee said.

The concept of a native speaker of English is misleading, as well, Lee said. Given that English goes beyond regional and cultural barriers, “fluent speakers” should replace “native speakers.” Instead of using nationality as a standard for measuring the competence of English, how fluently one speaks the language should be a new yardstick, Lee said.

Lee also brushed aside concerns about decreased intelligibility due to the increasing varieties of English throughout the world.

“Intelligibility will be maintained because central forces – English used at the U.N., schools and TV programs – keep regional varieties from getting out of control,” he said.

The reality is that Korean education policymakers are reluctant to change the current system. Lee suggested that at least textbooks should be revised in a way that reflects the trend.

“We should include British, Australian and Indian varieties of English in school textbooks, perhaps one chapter for each country,” Lee said.

“What’s important is whether we can train our students to obtain multilingual competence, and what I mean is that Korean speakers of English should be able to understand Indian English and Chinese English,” Lee said.

Lee’s underlying argument is that Korea puts much emphasis on accuracy in learning English at the cost of undercutting intelligibility. One way to fix the problem is that fluent bilingual speakers instead of native speakers should become a new model for Korean students, he said.

When it comes to strategies for Korean learners of English, Lee said content and language learning should go hand in hand.

“The amount of exposure to English is very small for most Korean learners, so it’s almost impossible to gain competence if we separate what we do in the workplace and what we learn,” Lee said.

For instance, a Korean worker interested in business management should read a foreign MBA journal or related business magazine to get the latest information about the field in question. Such content-based approach will naturally lead to a higher proficiency in the target language, Lee said.

“What we really need is not those who are fluent in English only, but those who specialize in specific content while being able to speak English,” Lee said.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.05.14

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English Education News, English Tips by admin