2.3.2 Current education system and statistics

World bank data for 1999 (World Bank website) shows Korea as a high income economy (GNP per capita $10,550) with annual GDP growth of 5.5% and a population of forty-six million. Net primary enrolment is 92%, and net secondary enrolment is 97%, with only 1% of males, and 4% of females (age 15 and above) being illiterate. Korean students go to primary school at the age of six/seven (figure 6, below), middle school at age 12/13, and high school at age 15/16. There are various types of high schools, specialising in humanities, foreign languages, art & athletics, natural sciences, and vocational training. Students in vocational high schools receive tuition in subjects such as agriculture, engineering, commerce, fisheries, etc., and enter the job market upon graduating. Students in other high schools aim to enter a tertiary institution: national or private university (4 years); teacher-training college; college of education; or junior college (2 years). The Air and Correspondence colleges, along with the Open University have made tertiary education available to older citizens and to handicapped students. 

From 1945 to 1978 the numbers of Primary schools (table A-2) increased from 2,834 (including South and North Korea) to 6,426 (in South Korea alone), and by the end of the 1970s, 99% of elementary-age children were in school (99.9% by 1996). The number of Secondary schools in this time increased from 165 (1945) to 3,265 (1978), and to 4,561 in 1996, while the number of tertiary institutions (universities, junior colleges, vocational colleges, graduate schools) rose from 19 to 309 (1945-1978) and to 827 by 1996 (513 of these are graduate schools). As can be seen from tables A-3 and A-4 (below) class sizes in high schools in 1996 were c. 48 students, 99% of students progressed from middle school to high school, and 78% of students from Academic high schools went to universities and colleges.

2.3.3 English education in Korea

Lee (1991:12) documents the history of English language teaching in Korea, from the "Tong-mun-hak"of 1883, to the state system of the present day, outlining a process of development from infancy and expansion (Late Chosun Era - 1883-1911), to shrinkage, restoration and suffering (Japanese colonial era - 1911-45), disarray (post-liberation era - 1945-61), reshaping (post-revolution era - 1961-80) and reform (contemporary era - 1980-present day) (cf. table A-5, below).

2.3.3.1 English in secondary education.

Since its introduction into the university/college entrance examination during the Japanese colonisation, the study of English has been an important part of middle and high school education (it was added as a subject in elementary school in 1997, with a focus on oral skills). However, this entrance examination is highly objective, using TOEFL[6]-like discrete test items (Lee 1991:23), and promoting rote-learning of linguistic "facts". Modern Koreans tend to be keen for their children to go to University (of 1.35 million applicants to tertiary education in 1993, 29% were accepted - Korean M.O.E. website), and this results in test-driven distortion of high school education, heavy financial burdens on parents, and physical and mental stress on the students, as evidenced by student suicides each year. The high stress that the examination puts on students has even led some to commit suicide. News reports of high school students' attempted suicides immediately followed this year's CSAT[7] test on November 17. (Korea Herald, November 29, 1999)

Given this pressure to pass the entrance test (cf. Brown & Yamashita 1995:86), it is not surprising that high school English tuition focuses on knowledge of language-as-code, of which students typically absorb a considerable amount, despite limited exposure, large classes, "incompetent teachers"(Lee 1991:18) and low motivation. This situation is compounded by the lack of a National English "syllabus", with textbooks functioning both as syllabi and as teaching materials. These textbooks are sanctioned by the government and have till recently been grammar-oriented, treating language as a collection of discrete skills (Lee 1991:36). The report on the Sixth Curriculum for High School English (1992), however, specifies that "the grammatical syllabus does not help much to develop learners' communicative competence"(1992:66, translated by Li [1998:681]), and suggests that textbooks be produced based on CLT methodology.

Lee (1991:45-7) points out that Korean High school teachers teach English in Korean, because: i) they do not have sufficient command of spoken English (cf. Li 1998:686), and the self-perpetuating grammar-translation method does not require spoken fluency from the teachers; ii) the textbooks contain excessive content; and iii) there is a lack of teacher-training in English and teacher re-education programs (cf. Li 1998:686). Thus, despite the fact that objectives of the Korean National Curriculum state that high school students should be taught to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing in English, without any of these being emphasised or neglected, secondary teachers have little opportunity to promote development of performance skills in their students, and the resulting low level of these is worsened by English being "taught and learned badly"(Lee 1991:18).

Students arriving at tertiary education in Korea have thus studied English, mostly for the intrinsic reason of entering a tertiary institution (53% of students  - Lee 1991:77), usually without attention to oral skills, though they are aware that the ability to use spoken English is important for their future (92% of students  - Lee 1991:77). Having learned "language-as-code"for six years in middle school and high school, with teachers who in general see the behaviourist teaching approach as appropriate (Lee 1991:92), with Korean as the medium of instruction and without attention to learning strategies, first-year tertiary students are typically lacking in second language productive skills, though mostly agreeing that interaction with meaning-negotiation is "crucially important in oral communication"(80% of students – Lee 1991:79). High school students generally perceive their English proficiency as very poor (whatever their level), and agree that their long-term wants have been contradicted by their short-term needs (Lee 1991:79), and can therefore be reluctant to participate in a conversation class in which they are encouraged to perform, to take risks, and to use skills which they are convinced they don't possess. An important part of any conversation course is therefore to address this lack of confidence, motivation and independence which the students bring to the classroom.

The era of education-for-all in Korea has been relatively short, and has shown continuing advances (e.g. decreasing class sizes – table A-3, above). It is inappropriate therefore to speak of "traditional"learning and teaching methods in high schools as being responsible for inefficient learning preferences in students, since these methods were adopted as practical means of preparing students for formal, test-driven curricula introduced during Japanese Colonisation (1910 – 1945) (cf. Brown & Yamashita 1995 for a discussion of the entrance exam system in Japan, and the "examination hell"[1995:86] which accompanies it). If we look to the "master-apprentice"tradition that has been part of Korean culture for 4,000 years, however, we can see a different attitude to education. The next section therefore deals with cultural influences on learning in Korea.

Continue reading Chapter 2: Cultural influences on learning in Korea

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[6] Test Of English as a Foreign Language
[7] College Scholastic Ability Test