Memorizing textbook has been requested by the Chungnam education office ..idiots

[flasyb]

Yeah, feels bad, man.

I teach at a boys' high school, and for their 'speaking tests' they were asked to memorize a two-way dialogue and recite both parts. To me. And I was to grade them.

I told my coteachers that this was ludicrous and that this wasn't 'speaking' and they said it was the only fair way to grade students.

Memorization has nothing to do with speaking. If you want to test their intonation and pronounciation or whatever, let them just read it from the book. If you want to test their speaking ability, let them speak. Memorizing and roboticizing tests neither of these.


Eff.

Are you in Chungnam too? My school just had its official opening after moving to a new building. Turns out the superintendent of the Chungnam MOE is an ex-English teacher who firmly believes that memorising the textbook is the best way to learn English. Presumably, it's what he did at school 40 years ago, it worked for him so let's ignore the last 40 years of research into and implementation of ESL/EFL teaching techniques and stick to memorisation, eh?

In his honour, some of the best 1st grade students recited a few pages from the textbook. I helped them with their pronunciation after school a few times. After a week of memorisation, their pronunciation had actually improved quite a bit. That is to say, their pronunciation of their particular textbook pages.

The best part was the brown nosing. One second grade student was given a speech to read (not memorise) by the head of English (nice guy, doesn't make me desk-warm and totally has my back). It contained the phrase "memorising the textbook is the best way to learn English" no less than 4 times and suggested that after the success of the superintendent's new program of memorisation, it would surely only be a matter of time before such a program was rolled out across the nation. The writer of the speech, evidently, is looking for a promotion.

[woman-king]

The definition of "speaking English," in a lot of the Korean educational thought that I've personally encountered, does basically equate to "ability to say English words intelligibly, whether or not you understand them is less important."  I'd say most of my middle-school students can read most simple English letters and words and basic sentences, but their comprehension of what they actually mean is not as high as their ability to recognize letters and words and say them.

[kimjoohui]

By the way, according to the tests they wrote many Korean middle school students are short. They will solve this problem by jumping rope 50 times a day.  O.o

LOL! So that's why I'm so short... I didn't jump rope enough every day. :D

As others have pointed out, memorization does seem to be the standard way of testing speaking skills in Korea. At my hagwon, we are to give the students a end of term speaking test, and my job is to make sure they have completely memorized their speech/ paragraph from the textbook. At least I don't have to grade them as the head teacher, director or admin guy in charge of the native teachers get the pleasure of doing that.

[#basedcowboyshirt]

The definition of "speaking English," in a lot of the Korean educational thought that I've personally encountered, does basically equate to "ability to say English words intelligibly, whether or not you understand them is less important."  I'd say most of my middle-school students can read most simple English letters and words and basic sentences, but their comprehension of what they actually mean is not as high as their ability to recognize letters and words and say them.

It breaks my heart when I see students saying things like, "Last summer in Spain, I attended a festival, La Tomatina, whose highlight is a tomato fight. That afternoon I heard fireworks going off and a great cheer coming from the town. I saw people throwing tomatoes at one another. Feeling my heart beating faster with excitement, I also started to throw tomatoes at people." (This was our speaking test this semester) It breaks my heart because most of these students, if I ask a simple question like, "What did you eat for dinner yesterday?" or "Do you like to play badminton" can't come up with an answer of more than one word.

All day I try to teach the idea that English is imperfect and it's more important to be able to share ideas rather than trouble your brain worrying about grammar, etc.

[Davox]

Make them memorize in translation the 200 most-used English verbs !!!! Now THAT could be useful.

This is what frustrates me the most about English education here.  Memorization can absolutely be useful when learning English, but everyone here spends so much time memorizing absolutely useless garbage instead of stuff that would actually be useful.

[flasyb]

Make them memorize in translation the 200 most-used English verbs !!!! Now THAT could be useful.

This is what frustrates me the most about English education here.  Memorization can absolutely be useful when learning English, but everyone here spends so much time memorizing absolutely useless garbage instead of stuff that would actually be useful.

That's what happens in my high school. They have lists of words to memorise. It only helps with reading comprehension. They have no idea, for the most part, how to put these words in a sentence. Each test, they get pages of new words and have to memorise the translation. Their ability to understand written English improves with their vocabulary. Their ability to use English (speaking/writing) remains the same. Minimal.

[arealpanda]

yes, memorization is hardly effective in terms of language acquisition.
but its what the administration and parents call "results".

they're juking the stats. 
and we're here to load the little jukeboxes up til they all sound like broken records.
well, in chungnam-do, anyways.

hail the educators.

[happygolucky]

I think memorizing conversations or dialogues can be beneficial to some extent. But memorizing a text about 'Beatrix Potter and her Dream'... come on. The texts these students have to memorize are way above their actual speaking capability. And having them recite it like parrots is pretty close to useless in my opinion.

I also have the Vocabulary lists taht my students have to memorize. And most of the words they'll hardly ever use, and as a result will probably forget them. And yes, like FlasyB said, they can't use the words in a sentence. It's all about the scores. It's sad imo.

[yeti08]

yes, memorization is hardly effective in terms of language acquisition.
but its what the administration and parents call "results".

they're juking the stats. 
and we're here to load the little jukeboxes up til they all sound like broken records.
well, in chungnam-do, anyways.

hail the educators.

That's it.  Parents.  The parents need constant "proof" that their child is learning and at the same time expect them to be fluent in a month.  If the parents weren't mainly garbage then the education system wouldn't be garbage.  But as Rusty said if you don't like it leave, because in the end who cares, not my country.

[Cy&Leon]

No doubt only memorization is not the best effective method for language acquisition. What do you propose for a country's environment that is not immersed in English? It's not like you would use it again at the supermarket etc.

Nevertheless, memorization is a form of practice that does aid in language acquisition. Certainly, it is not fun. It works for the lower levels as I can see they are able to read better when I spot check them on certain words. So, I don't see memorizing the dialogues is the worst thing.

[flasyb]

No doubt only memorization is not the best effective method for language acquisition. What do you propose for a country's environment that is not immersed in English? It's not like you would use it again at the supermarket etc.

Nevertheless, memorization is a form of practice that does aid in language acquisition. Certainly, it is not fun. It works for the lower levels as I can see they are able to read better when I spot check them on certain words. So, I don't see memorizing the dialogues is the worst thing.

I'd propose that they get as much "real" practice in the classroom (as far as that is possible). Not going to happen when KETs speak exclusively in Korean and the only speaking practice is memorisation.

I don't see memorising dialogues as the worst thing either. Except when students memorise a whole dialogue (of three different speakers!) and then recite it back in a monotone voice, barely pausing, ignoring punctuation, and making not effort at all with inflection (it sounds schizophrenic). That's what memorising the textbook means in Korea. That's now the established method of improving speaking ability in Chungcheongnam-do (Chungnam). It's not all memorising dialogues though. Sometimes, they memorise entire passages (of several pages) about a topic, such as the Titanic, tectonic plates, or (my personal favourite) Korean winning the football world cup. That's what happened at the most recent speaking competition in my province.

Of course there's a place for memorisation and I can see how it can help with pronunciation. However, it's not interesting so it will discourage students from learning English and often students don't even understand what they've memorised. I certainly wouldn't base all speaking tests/competitions (in which schools compete for large cash prizes) on memorisation, which is what has happened in Chungnam. What a pity and what a waste.