Busan Questions Efficiency of Foreign Teachers

Here's a story from my not-so-long-ago home, Busan. More ESL teacher news.

Busan Questions Efficiency of Foreign Teachers

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

BUSAN _ Busan education authorities are pessimistic about the effectiveness of native English speakers teaching English classes.

``Although many schools want to hire native English-speaking teachers, they can't afford to do so due to financial difficulties. Additionally, they are currently in need of teachers who can speak both English and Korean,'' a Busan education office spokesman said Thursday.

In the wake of this problem, the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education plans to employ foreign spouses of Korean nationals or Koreans fluent in English as assistant teachers at elementary and secondary schools starting next month.

It is Busan's first official trial in hiring non-English native speakers as assistant teachers. The teachers will be required to teach a maximum of 14 hours a week, prepare extra teaching material and lead programs such as the ``English-only zone'' and ``English library.''

Some English teachers in the biggest port city welcomed the regional government's decision. ``Many children have difficulties with English native speakers as most foreigners cannot speak Korean. I think one-way classes will not work for quality English classes,'' a teacher in Anrak Middle School told The Korea Times.

The city education government will recruit a total of 10 bilingual assistant teachers and dispatch them to several schools for a three-month trial. The results of the pilot system will decide whether the system will be expanded to all schools in Korea's second biggest city.

I saw this in today's Korea Times.