In what may be a perversion of one of my favourite quotes “If children aren’t learning, change the way you are teaching”, the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) is developing an English test in what looks like a thinly veiled attempt to improve test scores. The Institute aims at replacing foreign English tests like the internationally recognised TOEFL and TOEIC with the new homegrown version. One wonders how overseas universities will react to the new test. Considering China’s rising importance in global affairs (don’t get too excited/anxious, the Chinese have a long way to go yet), imagine if other countries started running their own versions of the HSK, the test run by the Ministry of Education to assess one’s proficiency in Mandarin. Or to extend our example, imagine if other countries started running their own versions of S-TOPIK. What would the Korean reaction be? Disbelief; protests that Koreans know the Korean language best and therefore should have exclusive rights to conduct Korean language proficiency tests; results disregarded by Korean companies using the test to hire foreign workers. The list goes on.
Instead of changing the English tests (ie, making the test results more vague as there only seem to be three grades), perhaps a better solution would be to make available more resources that actually teach English, rather than resources that teach how to pass the TOEIC and TOEFL (I’m looking at you, Ear/Nose/Throat/Foot of the Hand of the TOEIC).
On the other hand, this may be an innovative (government talk for ‘easier’) approach to fulfilling one of the president’s election promises; to make English the language of the classroom. Critics complained that there is a shortage of qualified English teachers. In my own experience at an elementary school, of the 25 classes I taught every week only three of those 25 teachers were able to teach a class in English. I always wondered what happened in the other English lessons the students had to endure with their teacher when I wasn’t there. Most likely the teacher would put the CD in and switch to autopilot.
I don’t see this new test replacing the TOEFL and TOEIC as it would require overseas universities to recognise its validity. The new test could help to increase the number of ‘qualified’ English teachers and could cut the cost of English education. Or simply destroy the dreams of Koreans hoping to study and work overseas.
Filed under: Korea, teaching in Korea, test | Tagged: Mandarin, Lee MB, China, 2MB, Lee Myungbak, KICE, Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, TOEFL, TOEIC, Eye of the TOEIC, Ear of the TOEIC, S-TOPIK, HSK, Korean test, Chinese test, Lee MB and education, Lee MB and English, English in Korea, rise of China, studying Chinese
