There is a famous saying that "Language is a process of free creation" said by an authoritative linguist, Noam Chomsky. It means that through learning and using languages, human beings have been able to expand the scope of their thinking and to make many creative developments in their lives. However, most Korean students seem to be not involved into such a group of people, rather they regard learning language as a trouble and a burden. Actually, although most people in Korea who completed regular course have learned English for more than 10 years, they have big difficulties on writing even one sentence. However, this situation can be attributed to a deeply entrenched English education system in Korea such as teaching by rote. Therefore, English education system in Korea should be changed for students to bring up their ability for English composition.
According to EF, the biggest global educational company, korea held 24th in the English Proficiency Index among the 60 countries where do not use English as the main language. Korean people have so tremendous ardor for English education that they spend approximately twenty thousands time for English education from elementary school to college. However, there were not apparent development in the English Proficiency Index for 6 years. It is because of the education system are centered with memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules so they are bad at writing and speaking in English. As we can see the situation that Korean society has countered, I thought we should be able to consider whether English education in korea is operated well or not.
A series of researches show that changing English education system is not a easy problem because it has been entrenched for a long time in korea. However, having difficulties on writing is a general burden that people all around the world feel commonly. According to Richards, Regina G. Richards, the head of Richards Educational Therapy Center, some students dislike writing because they have hard time getting started and they feel that the paper never turns out the way they want. Others dislike writing because they have nothing to deliver and talk about, or, due to the lack of material. The other people hate composition because they are suffering from linguistic disorder. Like this, we can know that there are distinctive reasons why students are frustrated on writing. The sources show us the hardship of writing is not the only problem of Korean students, but what important is that a conservative English education system in korea does not provide any opportunities for students to be familiar with English composition. However, in this situation, if my argument is accepted and the trend of English education is changed in Korea, it can make korea have bigger manpower and precipitate the approaching into global society.
First, English education in Korea is too focus on the theoretical factors to influence negatively English composition. However, according to an authoritative linguist ,Stephen Krashen, he said that "language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill." It means that grammar is not a prior thing to learn for the first time but a thing that is needed to be learn for refined writing. http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html
Krashen separated the concepts of " acquisition" and " learning". Both of them seem to be the same thing, but there are some differences between them in his reasoning. According to Krashen, 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition'. Acquisition or acquired system is a process that occurs while one is unconscious as when the man acquires his first language. So writing and speaking are involved in the scope. On the other hand, learning or learning system is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process differently with the former. Knowledge of grammar rules is an example of learning. However, differently with the order that he suggested, English education system in korea prioritize learning on the acquisition. Therefore, the educational trend makes korean students struggle with the English composition and they feel it hard because they are obsessed with finding grammatical error and emphasizing with some theoretical parts, rather they really use English to write a essay.
Second, Korean educational trend decreases the students' creativity that is needful for English composition. One of the main problems that makes writing hard for Korean students is because they can not find a creative material to talk about. According to a research conducted by ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Chair of Technology and Innovation Management , physical activity is an important part of bring up creativity and innovations. Also, some experts noted that to develop a cognitive ability and creativity, we should train our brain and the best way to train brain is "reading books". Like this, there is also a different way for nurturing creativity. However, unfortunately, today's korean students say that they have no enough time to read books as well as do physical activities. It is because korean students contribute their time for conducting academy assignments and also some parents dislike that their children read a book with the concern that it might hinder school study . They often say "you'd rather to memorize vocabulary for during that time." Therefore, in this educational trend, Korean students start to learn English from very young ages and study with rote, with losing creativity. http://conference.pixelonline.net/edu_future/common/download/Paper_pdf/ITL59-Baumann.pdf
Third, education in korea make korean students be obsessed with perfectionism inclination. Perfectionism may seem to be a really important and valuable thing, but it is a thing that should be disposed when a person try to English composition. Perfectionists suffer from an obsession they should make it perfectly, even though they write just a sentence. However, if they are not satisfied with their works, they would correct the sentence until they are satisfied. However, if things do not work out well with their plan, they feel distressed and lose confidence and a slight feeling of interest.http://sass.queensu.ca/wpcontent/uploads/sites/2/2013/12/Perfectionism-in-Writing.pdf
Surprisingly, according to a researcher of Newspaper In Education, yeonsu kim, the older generation is responsible for students' perfectionism in writing because older people only have had interests in pointing grammatical errors and logical leaps. Therefore, frustrated with evaluation from their English teacher or parents, they come to feel afraid with English composition and can not start it confidently. This situation so gives students a burden and fear for writing that students feel it more difficulty than the reality and eventually brings about the consequences that the students conduct their stuff poorly.
Some people who disagree with my argument can argue that the reason why students are struggling with English composition is just because they are not native speakers. It is right to some extent. It is a natural thing that we have trouble in writing and speaking extraneously in English because we are Korean, not English-speaking-pupils. However, there are some important thing that opponents neglect. They do not consider the time that Korean spend for English education. Although we are not native speakers, if we spend such a tremendous time and energy for it, so we should be able to confidently make at least a sentence in English. It is very ridiculous that most Korean people who have a degree are good at grammar and Reading Comprehension but they can not write even a sentence in English. Also, they can oppose to my argument by saying the rapid changes in English education form would bring about more confusions. There are not enough English teachers who can play a role for English composition and more advanced works on students' tasks. However, if we maintain such an old style format of English education will hampers the positive development of education in Korea. Regression will be brought by conservative thoughts of the older generation.
We can easily see adults who enroll in English academy where they can learn about English composition and speaking. The reason why they become students again after graduating high school is because there were some limits of English education system in school in korea. Although most korean students receive regular English education course for about 10 years, there are only a few people who have the ability to build sentences with English. It shows that the accomplishment of English education in korea falls short of expectations for the spent time and energy for English education. What researchers say commonly is that this situation is the result of the conservative English education system that has been only existed in Korea. Like this, There are some problems that should be changed for students' capacity to write in English. The first one is that English education in korea is concentrated on theoretical matters that make English composition hard. And the second is that creativity that is needed to find proper materials for essay is suppressed by the education in Korea.The third is the education make Korean students have perfectionism inclination that is needless in English writing. However, If my argument that current educational paradigm should be gone through an innovation is accepted, there would be wonderful synergy effects like opening the opportunities for Korean students to step forward to global society. Therefore, to participate in global society more actively, changes should be started from school and it is the time for it.
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