Teaching Tips from a Korean High School Student

Korean students are required to learn English for one main reason: to be prepared for the International environment. By that I mean the student should be able to communicate with another person in English. In order to fulfill such goal, nothing is more important than being able to think and process in English.
For a student to think in English, they must be in an English atmosphere. Although sending a student to a country where English is spoken as a first language is ideal, in Korea, the best method could be providing an environment like the English speaking country. For example, students would be provided with an instructor(s) speaking English (as their native language).
Now, all the instructor has to do is communicate with the students. The instructor and students could:

• watch a movie with students and discuss about the movie,
• talk about issues today,
• act in a play together,
• or even play games like Mafia.

What the instructor is doing is training the students to process in English by getting them into the English atmosphere and culture. Although this may take time for students to adjust to, the more time spent doing things in English, the more the student would get used to thinking in English.As for homework students could be assigned activities to increase their reading, listening, and speaking skills. Of course, these should all be to train students to think in English. In the case of reading, students may choose any book they want, and have a discussion with the instructor about the book. For listening and speaking, they could listening to songs in English and try to follow along (singing songs along with the music actually helps students gain accurate pronunciation).

Finally, practice, practice, and more practice is required. I mentioned before, because students cannot be physically put into an English speaking environment for twenty four hours each day, practice is essential to at least be close to that environment. In addition, smaller classes or individual classes would be ideal so that one student can be exposed to the environment and culture for a longer period of time.

With an environment of English, and long and intense practice, eventually students would be able to think in English. They would not have to go through the English-Korea, Korean-English translation process. By thinking in English they would be prepared for the International environment.