A recent thread got me to thinking about this question:

What can native speakers offer that a Korean teacher can't?



1.  I would posit that we bring the cultural aspect of language learning to the classroom.  We put a face to nationality.  For better or worse, our students are going to judge all of us (of the same nationality) by the few samplings that they have first hand experience with.  We can explain slang, pop culture, memes, etc. far better than our Korean counterparts.

Korean students are often surprised that besides England, Russia, Spain, and France had a presence in North America.  Most of my students never knew that Texas used to be Mexico and then it was its own country before joining the union.  They are also surprised when they learned that we fought a war with Canada.

2.  I would also posit that (if we are doing our jobs) we can give feedback more readily to our students.  As native speakers we naturally know what does and doesn't sound/look right.  We might not be able to explain why but we can see/hear it.  We can also offer up alternatives (to what the student is trying to say) that sound better or are more commonly used.  This is why Korean teachers sometimes ask us for help/opinions on the tests they create.

Adding to this point: we also know what phrases or words are more commonly used than others.
I.e.  'You're' is more common than 'you are' in spoken English. 

We also know weird word combinations whose meanings aren't readily apparent to non-native speakers.
I.e.  I'm pretty hungry. = I'm really hungry.  I'm fixing to leave.  = I'm about to leave.

3.  I would also posit that we can teach the native accent better than most Korean teachers.  There are actual rules that govern the American (sorry, I'm from the States) accent.  There are also rules that are common to all or most other world Englishes.  If we know those rules then we can share that information with out students

Here's some examples of what I mean:
     When t + r come together in a word, it sounds like 'chr'.
          tree, try, trip, intro, etc.

     Between some words that end in a vowel and other that start with a vowel there is a 'w' sound.
          go out, you are, no English

note: Some rules are found only in my particular accent (Texas/SW US).

There are exceptions to the above rules just like there are in grammar rules, but knowing even a few of the most common accent rules can help improve students listening and speaking abilities.  They should know that we are not all voice actors on a CD and be exposed to our different accents.  We have that advantage over Korean teachers.


There are also advantages that Korean speakers bring to the table that we don't (like being able to explain grammar rules in Korean) and I am aware of many of them but I am especially curious about what we, as native speakers, offer to our students that our Korean counterparts don't.

A good Korean teacher (one who is good at English), trumps NT every single time.  Though, even then, I suppose, we bring the cultural exchange aspect to the class.  At the same time, there aren't many good Korean teachers who are good at English - so fear not, we bring plenty.

By the way, there are plenty of threads on this site which focus on fears and low self esteem.  The 'we are losers', the 'we won't have any jobs in the future', 'Koreans are better than we are' threads. 

My advice - ignore all of these.  I can't help but feel as if there are a lot of people with a definite low self esteem and lack of self confidence on this site - hence the number and popularity of these threads.  They speak to people's fears and lead to mass panick (OMG, what if we really are losers?!).

 

I would say correct pronunciation is the number one thing we can bring to Koreans who are learning English.

 Korean English teachers are used to Korean ways of pronouncing English words and often don't pick up on students' improper pronunciation, and even propagate bad pronunciation, particularly those who haven't spent much time abroad or communicating with native English speakers.

I have one co teacher who has been teaching English for 25 years, when he asked me one time if I'd had breakfast that day, I couldn't understand him (it sounded like 'black fish')...there is no way that I wouldn't understand any native speaker asking this simple question, regardless of their accent.

 I spend quite a lot of time on pronunciation in my lessons, and often feel that the co teacher is learning something at the same time as the students (try 'red lorry, yellow lorry' if you're feeling evil).

 At the end of the day it doesn't matter how large someone's vocabulary is, or how well they understand grammar rules, if they can't make themselves understood to a native English speaker.

I guess our presence can also help to bring the language to life a bit and encourage the students to see it as a valuable life skill rather than another dry school subject that has to be endured.

There are so many sounds in English that don't exist in Korean, so this is incredibly difficult. 

Are NETs with no teaching experience really able to do anything more than "repeat this sound after me"?

I agree - obviously it's down to each individual how much they want to learn about teaching pronunciation and what they actually put into practice in the classroom.

 I would still argue though that something is better than nothing - in the case of my co-teacher, he's been teaching his students to pronounce 'breakfast' as 'black fish' for 25 years.

I have another very experienced co-t who regularly talks about 'Englishee'.

Surely we must be having a positive effect in situations like this?

On my CELTA course we learned about Adrian Underrhill's methods - I wouldn't be so quick to assume that inexperienced NET's can't tackle this stuff.

1.) the ability to string a coherent sentence together without sounding like a gorilla, e.g., "i'm going to the bathroom quickly, i'll be back soon" vs "me go bathroom now, soon come back".

2.) the ability to actually teach. what do these korean teachers learn during their 4-year Education degrees??? doesn't seem to be anything. even the most basic of teaching methods seem to escape them.

3.) the ability to use multi-faceted, unique and original activities and materials in the classroom. just look at this site as an example. when i joined up i was amazed at how many incredible materials are on here. i just cannot imagine korean teachers coming up with this sort of stuff. and i read in another thread here recently that some of these activities have found their way into other subjects like Science. if that's the case then NETs have revolutionized not only EFL teaching here in korea, but teaching in general.

I focus on the cultural aspect, pronunciation, and simplifying sentences. Sometimes (at least in middle school) the key expressions will be overly convoluted (though not grammatically incorrect, but sometimes outdated as well) so I'll try to simplify them for my students (many of whom are low level). The higher levels can also learn the simpler or more colloquial expressions but can still practice the more complicated sentences while the lower levels can focus on the easier ones.

So I suppose.. grading language. When I can, I adjust my level of speech based on the level of the student in an effort to keep him/her from disengaging due to something going over his/her head. The KTs are more bound by books/tests whereas I am not. If I can communicate with a student, it tends to boost his/her confidence even if he/she is lower level.

Also, being super rural, for many of my students I am the first foreigner they've ever met. My coTs tell me that in itself is a very good experience for them.

Also, being super rural, for many of my students I am the first foreigner they've ever met. My coTs tell me that in itself is a very good experience for them.

This.

I read posts sometimes from NET's in rural areas who feel their jobs are ultimately pointless - it goes something like 'My students are from farming families, have no interest in learning English and will never use it when they leave school'. I always think this is short-sighted.

We shouldn't underestimate the influence we're having on these kids simply by being there and being nice to them. For some we are indeed the only foreigner they'll come into contact with until they're young adults. They'll remember us their whole lives - I still remember all my school teachers - especially the unusual ones!
 If we can give them a favourable impression of foreigners, we're going a small a way to reducing the insular, inward looking nature of Korean society, and that can only be a good thing in my opinion.

Quote from: dandred on October 13, 2016, 03:06:48 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiJd_d8I-iE

end of argument

I still can't work out whether she's supposed to be teaching Korean or English. She seems to be drilling them both equally.

The students have to use English to speak to us. They always just ask the Korean co-teachers questions in Korean, but with me they have to try and explain things in English.

Also one of my co-teachers speaks only Korean in class. So if I wasn't there, the students would never actually hear any English, as we don't use the book CDs at all. She talks a lot too, so the students don't get to hear as much English as they should!

I have one co-teacher whose English level is higher than most of the other teachers I have met, but she is still always asking me questions about what things are in English so that she can answer the students' questions.

Logic