Teaching English is a craft that we all have to learn. We all know that you are not automatically a good English teacher just because you are a native speaker. Having a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree won’t make you one either except if one of these involved  substantial, observed teaching practice, in which case you’d be off to a great start. Likewise those with a PGCE or equivalent teacher training.

There are also teachers who although unqualified, have made it their business to read, experiment, learn from colleagues,  peer observe, ask for feedback and develop from an ingrained sense of personal and professional pride. These are to be admired.

In any event, what English teachers need, is proper teacher training - hard training in effective classroom techniques and methods. Why does this simple fact not register with so many employers in Korea and especially Korean Universities for whom a Masters (in anything!) is often seen as the badge of competence? Don’t people know that even most TESOL MAs are completely theoretical without any practical teacher training? Also, why do so many foreign teachers in Korea not bother to get trained or train themselves in ESL/EFL teaching methods? The obvious answer is they don’t need it to get a job here and once appointed, there is little real quality control after the fact in all but a few select schools. Read more »

Up and down Korea, in hundreds of English hagwons, the teaching of English vocabulary is perhaps one of the clearest examples of silliness in a business where even in this modern age, in this modern country, the basic principles of effective language teaching have never really been imported. The harsh fact is that Korea has not kept up with developments in language teaching and with few exceptions, follows methods written off by educators in the west decades ago. In these private language institutes, the daily “voca” tests have very little long term or practical value. Read more »