Comparing the value of Korean and foreign English teachers.

The Korea Times writes "[t]he majority of Korean parents think foreign English teachers are needed in schools despite the government’s move to gradually reduce their number," but adds:

About 53.7 percent said the most effective type of teachers was “Korean teachers who had excellent English communication skills and taught well.” Only 29.7 percent answered positively about native English teachers. This was attributable to the low interaction between students and teachers and the difficulty in understanding the foreign educators.

And in the Hankyoreh:

parents prefer capable Korean teachers of English over native speaker assistant instructors, a Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) study found.

The report released Sunday by the SMOE found 62.2% of 12,150 student parents and 53.7% of 28,761 students taking part in an online poll describing the most desirable type of English teacher as “a Korean teacher who has excellent English conversation skills and teaches effectively.” The rates were higher than the preference for native English speaker assistant instructors, which stood at 26.9% for parents and 29.7% for students.

. . .

In-depth interviews were also conducted with English teachers on the native speaker assistant instructors. Among the factors cited as strengths were the “new cultural experience” and encouragement of student curiosity and interest regarding English. But teachers also voiced negative opinions about the instructors’ individual qualifications and the cost of their employment relative to the learning benefits.

Here's a July 2010 post about native speaker English teacher evaluations, including the questionnaires then given to Korean co-teachers. Here's a lengthier post inspired by the Busan Office of Education's decision to evaluate their NSETs. And last month, Seamus of Asadal Thought shared a questionnaire going around to parents in Gyeonggi-do who were asked to evaluate the performances of their children's NSETs.

3. 원어민 영어선생님을 활용한 영어수업을 통해 귀 자녀의 의사소통능력 향상에 도움이 된다고 생각하십니까? Do you think that your children’s comprehension/understanding is helped through the English classes that utilise the native speaking English teacher?
1. 매우 도움이 된다. It helps greatly.
2. 도움이 된다. It helps.
3. 잘 모르겠다. I don’t really know.
4. 별로 도음이 되지 않는다. It doesn’t really help.
5. 전혀 도움이 되지 않는다. It doesn’t help at all.

We are in turn left to evaluate how, um, qualified parents are to judge the usefulness of their kids' foreign English teachers.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that "capable" Korean English teachers are preferred or considered more useful. The biggest reason--bigger than shared language and culture, and bigger than their significantly-greater staying power--is that they don't lead weekly or bi-monthly conversation clubs, they teach and review the exercises that appear on the all-important standardized tests. Even though the National Curriculum has nominally placed an importance on "communicative competence" for a decade, English is still overwhelmingly a subject rather than a language, a subject where limited proficiency in spoken and written English is enough to do the trick.

For more data and commentary, take a look at today's Gusts of Popular Feeling post.