Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and Approaches by Sandra Lee Mckay (Chapter 1-2)

Nowadays English is being used as an international language. English is spreading all over the world. There are some negative effects of the spread of English. I want to talk about these negative effects.

Firstly, I’d like to talk about the association of the language with the economic elite. In Korea, English ability is closely related to parents’ wealth. Parents and students feel that public school can not satisfy with their needs of English education. They usually depend on private language institutes. However, only people with wealth can access to private language institutes. It causes a big gap between students’ abilities and opportunities to succeed in society. English education is very essential for students’ success in many ways. Students with high proficiency can enter high qualified schools. It guarantees students’ success in their lives. They can receive a high salary job more easily and more opportunities to become the elite. In this situation, I think that public schools need to create more practical programs for English educations. Besides, the Korean government should provide English teachers various programs for improving their expertise. One of the ways to improve English education in Korea is hiring many native English teachers. However, it does not guarantee the success of Korean English education. Korean English teachers are a lot more important than native English teachers. Usually, native English teachers teach for one or two years and after that they leave Korea. Also, some native English teachers are not qualified as an English teacher. However, we English teachers depend on native English teachers too much. Their pronunciation is the main criteria to judge a good teacher. Even though Korean English teachers are qualified, they seem to be frustrated by comparing them with native English teachers’ pronunciation. Korean English teachers should get over this sense of inferiority and build their expertise through various kinds of training programs. More importantly, Korean society should create an environment for parents and students to trust English education in public school. Only public school can narrow inequality between students’ opportunities.

Secondly, I’d like to mention about the cultural identity. While I was teaching English, I did not think about the negative effects on students’ cultural identities. I think that it was a big mistake. I used American culture to attract students’ interest and attention. While I was focusing on American culture, I seemed to look down on Korean culture. For about first five years since I became an English teacher, I did not deal with Korean culture in my English classes. It was not common to find some Korean cultural materials in textbooks. Naturally, I did not deal with Korean cultural materials. This prejudiced teaching attitudes had effects on students’ cultural identities negatively. Recently, I have tried to deal with Korean cultural materials in my English classes. Surprisingly, we had a lot of difficulties in sharing Korean cultural materials in English, even though we are Korean. Students are more familiar with American culture. Now, English is an international language, so English is no longer connected to American culture. I should provide different cultures from different countries as well as help students build abilities to share their cultures.

Finally, English is very essential for students’ future. The opportunities to access to qualified English education should be given equally. In this sense, the qualification of public school English teachers is very important. Teachers should keep in mind that their teaching attitudes can have effects on their students’ identity formation. Also, society should create the mood for teacher to do their best in studying and teaching.