ELT in Korea: Opportunities for Change

It is interesting in these days of touch-screen e-learning and online universities that educational theory is addressing the problem of an under-performing education system by revisiting ideas that Rogers, Dewey, Bruner, and Vygotsky were expounding well before Applied Linguistics was born. Indeed, a holistic and humanistic view of education, which can be traced back to Aristotle and Plato in the west, represents a return to basic principles of education, rather than simply another fashionable trend. In Korea, the humanistic ideal of Hongik-Ingan (contributing to the overall benefit of humankind), the founding national philosophy, has always been at the heart of education. Such an emphasis has great relevance in these times of natural and man-made disasters - times in which society, in its deification of monetary gain, has neglected moral education.

It is vitally important at this time that educators seriously reinvestigate the purpose of education, the role of the teacher, and the expectations of society. In an era in which unlimited information is publicly available on the Internet, and in which rapid advances in technology have made the conventional transference of information irrelevant as a teaching paradigm, we must look at the assumptions that underlie our educational practices. In fact the world of English Language Teaching is experiencing many changes and presenting many challenges, on a daily basis. The answer to these challenges does not lie in any specific course of action, but in a positive, proactive attitude to change. It is up to us to be aware of the changing needs of society and to adapt to those needs by providing the most effective learning experience for our students, wherever they might be, and in whatever form our language classroom takes. If we can adopt this attitude, then it will truly be possible to pass on a love of learning to our students. This is surely the best gift we can give them.