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At
South Korean Universities
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Students at many universities
often fail to reach their full potential as English language learners due to low
motivation. Some of the factors that affect their motivation relate to the country's
education system in general. Others reflect institutional and cultural views of language
learning in particular. Although this article will draw examples from the South Korean
context, it is assumed that the problems described and the solutions proposed can be
applied to contexts worldwide.
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Sources of low motivation in the Korean context
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One cause of low motivation among Korean
students is the relative lack of difficulty they face in fulfilling their college
graduation requirements. Grading is generous and often based on factors unrelated to
academic achievement. Another cause is the inability of students to choose their majors on
the basis of personal interest rather than entrance examination scores. Although Korean
universities now are talking about giving students greater freedom in choosing their
majors, only one institution has adopted the idea thus far. A third influence on
motivation is gender. Large numbers of Korean women traditionally major in foreign
languages, but many are not highly motivated due to the scarcity of well-paying career
opportunities for female graduates and to parental pressure to marry upon graduation.
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Student motivation also is negatively affected
by a cluster of other factors associated with language learning. One of these factors is
prior learning experience. By the time they enter college, Korean students usually have
completed at least six years of English classes, yet most are unable to carry on simple
conversations with native speakers or write sentences free of basic grammatical errors.
Although many Korean middle and high school teachers still favor the grammar-translation
method, and prefer teacher- centered classrooms in which little English is spoken, college
freshmen tend to blame themselves for their lack of communicative competence.
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Students face additional obstacles in college
due to the common practice of grouping language learners according to class rank rather
than proficiency level. In a society in which saving face is vital to self- esteem, this
practice sets the stage for further negative learning experiences and poor achievement in
students who enter college with below average language skills and feel unable to keep up
with their classmates. Unfortunately, even students who begin college with above average
skills soon become less motivated, too, because they are not sufficiently challenged by
the slow pace of instruction in these mixed- level language classes.
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The practice of grouping language learners
according to class rank frustrates students at both ends of the proficiency spectrum by
depriving them of opportunities for real academic achievement. Since many students already
blame themselves for their previous lack of success in learning English, they frequently
become quite discouraged in their freshman year. Together, the need for achievement and
attributions about past failures play important roles in language learning at Korean
universities, and research on motivation in foreign language learning tends to support
this conclusion (Dornyei 1990).
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The lack of positive role models for English
learners in Korea is another factor that has a negative effect on student motivation. The
media regularly carry reports about civil servants and other professionals who fail to
meet the government's own foreign language proficiency standards. Moreover, even college
foreign language teachers often conduct all of their upper-level courses in Korean. Since
research indicates that potential language learners are most successful when they firmly
believe in their own capability to reach a high level of performance in the future
(Tremblay and Gardner 1995:507), the absence of English-speaking role models in Korea may
further explain why some students are not highly motivated.
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Korean attitudes toward foreign languages and
cultures also influence student motivation. Most middle and high school students receive
only limited amounts of information about the history or current affairs of other
countries. At the college level, courses that focus on understanding other cultures also
are relatively scarce. In consequence, many students adopt the image of foreigners
portrayed by the South Korean media, which often are less than balanced in their reporting
about the influence of foreigners on Korean culture.
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The media also shape attitudes toward languages.
Each year around Hangul Day, which commemorates the promulgation of the Korean alphabet,
newspaper articles and editorials complain about foreign words that are
"contaminating" the Korean language and about professors who "overuse
foreign languages." The Korean language, these writers claim, must be protected
"from an all-out invasion of foreign languages." It should come as no surprise,
therefore, that many college students harbor conflicting feelings about learning a second
language. One college freshman told me in confidence that she was afraid of forgetting her
Korean if she spent too much time studying English.
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Strategies for raising student Motivation
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In spite of the array of factors that tend to
reduce language learning motivation, teachers working in Korea can use a number of
strategies to increase their students' self-confidence and interest in English. Before
choosing any specific course of action, however, teachers should take the time to get to
know their students individually at the start of each term. This is especially important
for native- speaking newcomers to Korea, who may be surprised to learn that the
bored-looking student in beginning conversation class actually grew up in an
English-speaking country or that half of the class did not want to major in English at
all.
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Helping students to connect language learning to
their personal goals is a great way for teachers to begin addressing the motivation issue
in their classrooms. One option is to have students fill out individual plans for success
(see Figure 1 ).
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These forms are based on motivational strategies
recommended by Crystal Kuykendall (1992) and ideas of my own for the EFL classroom. During
subsequent student-teacher conferences about the plans, teachers can help students view
language learning within the context of their individual goals and help them map out
strategies they can use to overcome their language-learning difficulties. The importance
of setting specific goals as opposed to the general goal of "doing one's best"
has been stressed by Tremblay and Gardner (1995:515) and other researchers. Oxford,
Park-Oh, Ito, and Sumrall (1993: 369), for example, emphasize the importance of selecting
classroom activities that "students see as leading toward their personal learning
goals." Even female students who do not plan to pursue careers after graduation can
develop a greater interest in their studies if they are able to connect foreign language
learning to personal goals such as the desire to travel abroad or to read English language
publications.
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At the beginning of each term, teachers should
also take the time to explain their language-teaching approach to their students. They can
accomplish this at any level by communicating in simple English sentences and by giving
brief demonstrations of typical classroom activities. They should not assume, for example,
that students accustomed to teacher-centered classrooms will automatically understand the
reasoning behind pair work or other group activities designed to create an interactive
learning environment. Students who have been taught to view language teachers as
authorities on correct usage may question the value of working with fellow student.
Although native-speaking English teachers may view pair activities as effective ways to
reduce performance anxiety and increase learner confidence, some Korean students may not
feel they are useful.
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Testing different kinds of group activities may
help teachers find the right mix for a specific class. For example, teachers can use a
pair-monitor technique recommended by Alice Omaggio- Hadley (in Young 1992:165) in order
to give Korean students the extra guidance in correct usage they expect. In this
technique, a third student is given a card containing the correct forms for a pair
conversation based on selected language cues. The third student acts as group monitor and
provides feedback to the students working in pairs. As they move from group to group,
teachers listening in on the pair conversations can help students overcome their
preoccupation with errors in form by rewarding them for good communication as well as
correct usage.
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Teachers also should introduce all new
activities carefully and explain how they can help students improve their English skills.
Motivation levels drop and anxiety levels go up when students are unsure about how or why
they should perform certain language tasks. Making positive statements about upcoming
activities, moreover, is an excellent way to increase motivation. By saying, "I think
you're really going to enjoy our next activity," and meaning it, teachers convey an
enthusiasm that is contagious.
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New activities can be introduced without a
significant loss of class time provided students are taught a number of common English
classroom expressions at the beginning of the term. Teachers working at the college level
in Korea, for example, should bear in mind that most middle and high school English
classes are conducted primarily in Korean. Students in the first year of college,
therefore, may never have heard the phrases, "Please turn to page five," or
"Underline the verb in each sentence." It is especially helpful to write
directions on the board or to provide students with written lists of frequently used
expressions. In her study of the sensory preferences of ESL learners, Joy Reid (1987)
found that Koreans studying at American universities were the most visual of all
nationalities. These conclusions suggest that using a visual backup system for oral
directions and other class work may help set the stage for more positive learning
experiences at the college level in Korea.
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Teaching non-verbal communication may be equally
important. Students who have grown up far from a large city such as Seoul may never have
had contact with foreigners before taking their college English classes and, consequently,
may misunderstand the gestures and other non-verbal cues of their Western teachers. Suzan
Babcock (1993:7-13) recommends teaching students specific forms of non-verbal
communication such as the raising of eyebrows to express surprise or disbelief in order to
prevent confusion and frustration among students who may misread teacher intentions.
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Teaching students learning strategies is another
way to influence motivation levels. In order to identify strategies used by the most
successful learners in a particular class, one approach is to poll students about the
techniques they use to learn vocabulary, prepare for tests, or reduce anxiety. These
strategies can be passed on to the whole class. An alternate approach is to teach students
strategies that are widely known to increase achievement in second language learners. For
example, many Korean students view writing assignments as translation projects. This is
probably due to the emphasis placed on translation in their middle and high school English
classes. By encouraging students to begin thinking in English when they write and by
explaining why this is useful, teachers will be helping students overcome poor language
learning habits. Research has shown that strategy training is most effective when it is
made explicit and treated as a regular part of the students' classroom experience (Oxford
1992:19).
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Creating activities that foster real
communication also will enhance motivation. Teachers of college-level writing classes, for
instance, can help their students write articles for the campus columns in the English
language dailies or even correspond with students in other countries. Students in one of
my classes put together a collection of short articles they wrote about themselves and
their country for students in a high school global studies course in the United States.
They were proud of their role as co-teachers of the course's unit on Korea and worked on
the proj-ect with great enthusiasm.
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Another way to increase motivation among
students is to send them positive messages about language learning and to teach them how
languages change and grow. One enjoyable way to do this in the Korean context is to have
students write lists of Korean English coinages and their American English equivalents
such as "eye shopping" (window shopping). By working on these mini-dictionaries,
students may begin to see how they and their Asian neighbors actually are shaping English
and making it their own rather than being overwhelmed by it. Instead of devaluing Korean
English, teachers can use it to help students overcome culturally based views of foreign
language learning, which consciously or unconsciously may lower their interest in learning
English.
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In his article on the importance of teaching
cultural skills as well as language skills in the context of international business, Brian
Bloch (1996) cautions against the use of overly narrow teaching methods which focus
primarily on the development of linguistic competence.
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South Korea's emergence as an economic
powerhouse only recently has made the cultivation of cultural skills an important concern.
Courses in area studies are rare, and most university language departments still focus
primarily on grammar analysis in the study of language and on aesthetic appreciation in
the study of literature. Many literature courses, moreover, are still taught in Korean.
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In my experience, however, bringing cultural
content into the language classroom is one of the best ways of increasing motivation. In a
society in which the conflict between globalization and nationalism remains unresolved,
many members of the younger generation greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn about
life in other countries and to exchange ideas with teachers who are sensitive to both
cultures.
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Although most institutions in South Korea have
not yet adopted a more content- based approach to language learning and usually employ
native speakers solely to teach lower level language courses, teachers can weave cultural
content into any course by selecting appropriate texts and activities. Setting aside ten
minutes at the end of each lesson to allow students to ask questions about American
culture or other cultures of English-speaking countries is easy to do and gives students a
chance to talk about dating practices, campus life, or anything else they choose. Having
students write their questions on slips of paper and drop them anonymously into a culture
question box, as Christina Zlokas- Cavage (1995) suggests, has proven itself to be a great
way to increase interest and improve language skills even in the shyest students.
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Although research in and outside the field of
second language learning indicates that motivation involves a number of variables, most
studies tend to agree that "an openness and positive regard for other groups and for
groups that speak the language" (Tremblay and Gardner 1995:506) are powerful
influences on language learner motivation. Therefore, efforts to increase the linguistic
competence of students may depend on the creation of college classrooms that foster not
only communication per se but also a deeper appreciation for English-speaking cultures. In
the long run, universities that develop content- based curricula for their English
programs will be in the best position both to motivate their students and to help them
acquire the linguistic and cultural skills they need in the twenty-first century.
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Janet
S. Niederhauser is an Assistant Professor of English at Honan University in
Kwangju, South Korea. She has previously taught German at Northwestern and Ohio State
Universities in the United States, and both English and German at Yonsei University in
Seoul, South Korea. |
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Return
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- Babcock, S. P. 1993. The significance of cultural influences within the ESL/EFL
classroom: A Taiwan experience. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 375-681.
- Bloch, B. 1996. The language-culture connection in international business. Foreign
Language Annals 29, pp. 27-36.
- Dornyei, Z. 1990. Conceptualizing motivation in foreign-language learning. Language
Learning 40, pp. 45-78.
- Kuykendall, C. 1992. From rage to hope: Strategies for reclaiming Black and Hispanic
students. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.
- Media role for language (editorial). October 10, 1996. The Korea Herald, p. 6.
- Most SNU professors overuse foreign words during lectures. October 10, 1995. The Korea
Times, p. 3.
- Oxford, R. L. 1992. Language learning strategies in a nutshell: Update and ESL
suggestions. TESOL Journal, 2, pp. 18-22.
- Oxford, R. L., Y. Park-Oh, S. Ito, and M. Sumrall. 1993. Japanese by satellite: Effects
of motivation, language learning styles and strategies, gender, course level, and previous
language learning experience on Japanese language achievement. Foreign Language Annals 26,
pp. 359-371.
- Reid, J. M. 1987. The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21,
pp. 87-111.
- Tainting the purity of language (editorial). December 2, 1995. The Korea Herald, p. 6.
- Tremblay, P. F., R. C. Gardner. 1995. Expanding the motivation construct in language
learning. Modern Language Journal, 79, pp. 505-518.
- Young, D. J. 1992. Language anxiety from the foreign language specialist's perspective:
Interviews with Krashen, Omaggio-Hadley, Terrell, and Rardin. Foreign Language Annals, 25,
pp. 157-172.
- Zlokas-Cavage, C. 1995. The culture box [Tips from the classroom]. TESOL Journal, 5, pp.
32.
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Figure 1
Name ____________________
My Plan for Success
Where I want to be and what I want to be doing when I am 30: |
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My special skills, talents, and
interests that can help me reach my goal: |
Things that may prevent me from reaching my goal: |
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Steps I can take this semester that
will help me reach my goal: |
Steps I can take that will help me reach my goal: |
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How learning English can help me reach my goal:
The most important thing my teacher can do to help me learn English: |
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