This study aims to find out if replacing the present reading-oriented foreign language (English) section of College Scholastic Aptitude Test with NEAT including English speaking and writing skills can be used as a means to promote school English educa...
This study aims to find out if replacing the present reading-oriented foreign language (English) section of College Scholastic Aptitude Test with NEAT including English speaking and writing skills can be used as a means to promote school English education and to reduce private education that causes various economic, social, and educational problems. Therefore, the researcher of this study examined what effect secondary school students' general perception of English has on the actual conditions of private English education and analyzed what changes took place in the actual conditions of private English education before and after KICE (Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation) officially announced 『Direction for the Improvement of National English Aptitude Evaluation Test and English Curriculum』 on May 26, 2011. Ultimately, the purpose of this study is to prevent the polarization of English education causing social inequalities and to seek a plan to substantively reinforce the present school English education. Thus, this study established the following research questions.
1. How do Korean secondary school students generally perceive English skills, English class at school, English class through private education, and NEAT?
2. What changes took place in the actual conditions of secondary school students' English private education before the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT (till the first half of 2011) and after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT (starting from the second half of 2011)?
To investigate the two research questions above, this study selected 1 middle school and 1 high school each in 6 Gus in Seoul (Gangnam Gu, Dongdaemoon Gu, Seodaemoon Gu, Songpa Gu, Yangcheon Gu, and Yongsang Gu) and carried out a survey on 504 middle school students in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades and 337 high school students in the 10th and 11th grades. The questionnaire used for this survey was composed of 2 categories of question items, one investigation on secondary school students' general perception of English: 1. English skills, 2. English class at school, 3. English class through private education, and 4. NEAT, and the other investigation on the actual conditions of secondary school students' private English education: 1. Private English education before the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT, 2. Private English education after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT, and 3. English speaking and writing private education after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT. The research results can be summarized as below.
1. In the English skills out of the results about their perception of English, secondary school students were found to perceive English speaking as the most important skill and grammar as the least important skill. In the English class at school, however, they responded that English grammar was dealt most significantly and English speaking least significantly, and 372 students (44.2%) made a response of 'so-so' toward the satisfaction of English class at school, and 578 students (68.7%) responded that it would be impossible to improve their English skills only through English class at school. In the English class through private education, 710 students (84.4%) responded that private English education helped them with their school studies, 632 students (75.1%) responded that private English education is necessarily required, and 616 students (73.2%) said that they were inclined to receive private English education if circumstance allows. In case of NEAT, 369 students (43.9%) said that they'd heard of it before, out of whom 128 students (34.7%) first contacted this information about NEAT through English private education organizations, and 325 students (88.1%) believed that the introduction of NEAT would increase private English education to the contrary.
2. In the private English education before and after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT out of the research results about the actual conditions of private English education, students' rate of participating in private education decreased from 602 students (71.6%) to 393 students (46.7%) after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT, especially high school students showed a more sensitive reaction to this announcement than middle school students. Particularly, middle school and high school students showed different responses to the number of private English education per week, the reason why to choose a certain English private education type, and an English skill for which they receive English private education, but there was no difference found between middle school and high school students in the hours of private English education per week, the reason why to decide to participate in private English education, the characteristics of private English education lecturers, the rate of private English education lecturers' using English, and the reason why to choose a certain English skill for private education. Besides, they showed statistically significant results in all the question items. In the English speaking and writing private education after the official announcement on the introduction of NEAT, out of the 246 middle school students and 147 high school students having received English private education at present, 145 middle school students (58.9%) and 35 high school students (23.8%) were found to receive English speaking and writing private education, and middle school students showed a more sensitive reaction to the announcement than high school students. Especially, in the total period of English speaking and writing private education, the number of English speaking and writing education per week, the class hours of English speaking and writing education, and a private education area selected between English speaking and writing, there were some different responses found between middle school and high school students, but in the decision maker about students' participation in English speaking and writing private education, there was no different response found between middle school and high school students. Besides, they showed statistically significant results in all the question items.
Although communication-focused integrated English education seems to be emphasized at school, this research on students' perception of English revealed that English class at school is still grammar-oriented and biased. The fact that English class at school is inferior to private education organizations in terms of students' satisfaction with English class implies that it is urgent to put more effort to normalize the public education most of all. Through the investigation on the actual conditions of English private education, it was found that students' mothers play the most important role in deciding both middle school and high school students' participating in private education. Therefore, it is also urgent to establish a plan for them to make a wise choice with a long-term insight into their children's education by providing them with prompt and exact information about rapidly-changing English education policies so that they may not be blinded by exaggerative advertisements of private education organizations that make the best use of school parents' uneasy mind. Moreover, as this study clarified that external factors, such as tests, grades and admission, play a more important role than anything else in deciding for students to participate in English private education in addition to their participation types and English skills, it is needed to improve the present test system more likely to help students develop their individual potential, rather than they use the system as a yardstick to get a better grade for college admission. Furthermore, by expanding teachers' chances of training, who are directly in charge of school English class, it is necessary to establish a communication-centered English education system through school English class more balanced in combination of 4 English skills. Then, it is expected that students and their parents' level of dependence on private education will be lowered and the polarization of English education can be successfully resolved in the near future.