Student Voices: Korean Perceptions of Ideal English Teachers

Addressing their concern about status inequalities among teachers of English, in this viewpoint paper, the authors argue that characteristics related to association with an Inner Circle country, Caucasian appearance, middle and upper class socioeconomic status and university education seem to be related to the image of the " ideal " teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This image, in turn, affects job prospects, salary and recognition by students and peers. By reflecting on their experiences in relation to how well they fit the " ideal " , the authors show that the construct is highly flawed and potentially destructive and divisive. To redress the inequities brought about by perceptions of the " ideal " language teacher, strategies are suggested for assigning competence to people who do not fit the idealized image. The article aims to offer a fairly new perspective from the unique experiences of three established language teachers and to also raise awareness about the need to accept greater diversity among language teaching professionals.

2013

English language acquisition has become increasingly important to South Koreans as they strive to compete in the globalized economy. As the demand for English education has increased, the Korean government has responded by, among other initiatives, creating the English Program in Korea (EPIK). This program brings native English speakers from Anglophone countries to South Korea, as assistant English teachers. This paper reports the findings of a survey given to over 1,000 Korean elementary and middle school children. The students were asked several questions on a Likert scale to gauge their opinions on a variety of aspects of their EPIK teachers. Broadly speaking, the respondents indicated high levels of satisfaction with their teachers across all questions.

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2014

This study attempts to report the results of the current state of Korean language teachers in U.S. higher education from a governance perspective, and discusses the findings in the broad context of Korean language teaching. Two sets of data collected from the members of the American Association of Teachers of Korean in 2006 and 2012 through detailed survey questionnaires are compared with respect to the teachers' personal profile and status (e.g., gender, age, current position, frequency of renewal, year of Korean language teaching, highest degree earned, field of specialization, current salary range) and their perceived job satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction for instructional duties, other non-instructional aspects, workload, working environment, job security, salary, and status of the Korean program). The findings suggest that Korean language teachers appear to be generally satisfied with their job overall, more so in the category of instructional duties but less satisfied with their workload, salary, and the status of the Korean program in their respective schools.

2009

In an effort to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of native and non-native teaching assistants and part-time teachers (both referred to as TAs in this article), students completed 632 evaluations of Korean Language TAs from 2005 to 2008, and these evaluations were compiled for an analysis of variants (ANOVA). The evaluations were categorized into three groups of TAs: native Korean-speaking female, native Korean-speaking male, and non-native male; nonnative females would have been included in the study, but there were not enough non-native female teachers to have a reliable sample. In an effort to encourage more self-examined teaching practices, this study addresses the greatest strengths and weaknesses of each group. Results revealed several significant differences between the ratings of the groups: native female TAs rated lowest overall, and non-native male TAs rated highest overall. The most prominent differences between groups occurred in ratings of amount students learned, TA...

Journal of Social Transformation and Regional Development, 2020

This study presents English teachers' professional, personality, social, leadership, and classroom interaction attributes which senior high school and university students expect from their English teachers. By knowing those attributes, English teachers are expected to be able to help their students attain better English language proficiency. For the investigation, five sets of questions were distributed in order to find out the respondents’ favourite English teachers attributes. The respondents consisted of senior students of three high schools and undergraduates of three universities who had high, mediocre and low English language proficiency. The results show that the students' levels of education and English language proficiency influence the students' perceptions on their English teachers' attributes. This study suggests that English teachers recognize the attributes that their students highly expect from them. It is suggested that English teacher training instit...

2016

This study aims to investigate why high school students might wish to choose teaching as a career. Who chooses teaching and why is important for policy makers the teacher is an important variable in determining the quality of education. Countries, especially developing ones, are aware that they need to train better teachers who would educate citizens of the 21 st century. Teacher recruitment policies also play a role in the selection and maintenance of practicing teachers. This study aims to (1) investigate the motives of high school students who wish to major in English, and most of whom may become English language teachers as a result of alternative recruitment policies; (2) to find out some information about the student’s language learning beliefs and habits. The opinions of their parents and their language teachers have also been looked into to uncover any persuasion or dissuasion from people around the entrants. Three questionnaires were developed by the researchers to gather ...

2017

Addressing their concern about status inequalities among teachers of English, in this viewpoint paper, the authors argue that characteristics related to association with an Inner Circle country, Caucasian appearance, middle and upper class socio-economic status and university education seem to be related to the image of the “ideal” teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This image, in turn, affects job prospects, salary and recognition by students and peers. By reflecting on their experiences in relation to how well they fit the “ideal”, the authors show that the construct is highly flawed and potentially destructive and divisive. To redress the inequities brought about by perceptions of the “ideal” language teacher, strategies pertaining to providing role models, raising awareness, providing tools and techniques for improving proficiency, and discussing status and identity issues are suggested for assigning competence to people who do not fit the idealized image....

JURNAL BASIS

The process of teaching is a continuous learning journey, even with years of experience in teaching English as a foreign language, it is difficult to determine how to be an effective teacher. Different learners and teachers have also different views on what constitutes a "good English language teacher”. The aims of this study are to investigate and identify the qualities and characteristics that make an English teacher competent, as perceived by learners, particularly in the post COVID-19 and to gain insights into how learners' preferences may have evolved or changed due to the challenges and experiences faced during the pandemic, and how these factors influence their evaluation of effective English teachers. The participants in this study are students enrolled in the English Department of FKIP Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarmasin, spanning one batch which is 2020 with total 49 respondent students as participants. Data was collected at the sixth semester using a quantit...

2015

Desired Characteristics of English Instructors Perceived by Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology Students Kornthip Ratanapumma, Bundit Anuyahong English Department, College of General Education and Languages Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand [email protected] " ABSTRACT The purposes of this research were 1) to study opinions in desired characteristics of English instructors of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology students in five aspects: Teaching Ability, Personality, Morality and Ethics, Assessment, and Academic Work 2) to compare students’ opinions on the five aspects according to students’ gender, academic year and faculty, and 3) to gather supplemental suggestions. Research samples were 291 TNI students in second semester of 2014 academic year, derived through simple random sampling technique. The instruments used for gathering the data were the rating-scale and open-ended questionnaire. The statistics used for analyzing the data were frequency, percentag...

2014

Understanding prospective teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about the effective foreign language teacher is central to successful teacher training programs. The views teacher trainees bring with them may directly influence the expectations they have of their future profession and their commitment to methodology classes. In a questionnaire three different English teacher trainee groups at a Hungarian university rated their views on the personality traits, professional qualities and classroom management skills of an effective language teacher. Some general support for the importance of most of the listed teacher characteristics was found, with some variation across and within the participant groups and trait types. It is argued that similar questionnaires and data can be effectively used in class discussions or as parts of training sessions on (future) teachers’ self-awareness and critical thinking towards their chosen profession. Introduction Foreign language teacher training in Hung...