Reflection of reading “ Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea: A Two- part case study by Shin & Crookes “

What are some barriers to doing this in your teaching/learning context?

-      Reflection of reading “ Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea: A Two- part case study by Shin & Crookes “

In my understanding, critical pedagogy is that the students are taught by active participation, discussion or debate within social issues based on society and local culture (could be country). That is, teachers focus on usual communications between teacher and student as well as student and student. Also, teachers promote students’ critical thinking through various teaching contents with different approaches than traditional education. I think, as homeroom teachers who teach other subjects, it is possible to do this, but we still have some barriers such as big size class and diverse knowledge level of students. Usually a class which is focused on debate and discussion is a time consuming. We have a limited time of forty minutes in elementary school. Forty minutes is not enough to talk and make the students more involved in discussion. We cannot usually draw a conclusion in other subject classes.

Therefore, this year I am running an extra class after school, the RDBC.  It is short for Reading and Discussions Booking club of Heongdeock. I have two types of classes with my students.  One is the regular 4^th and 6^th grade classes and the other is an extra class after school of voluntary students who were picked after an interview. There are lots barriers to making the RDBC class settle down. Most big problems are their parents’ fault. Some of parents, even though their daughter failed the entrance interview test of RDBC, strongly pushed for their daughter to join to the RDBC. Because she wants to send her daughter to an international middle school, she need a career such as SPEC(스펙Knoglish?) as member of a book club related to the English subject. Her daughter is quite good at speaking and understanding, but not enough to join RDBC. Sometimes, parents are so selfish and greedy and this is quite exhausting.

Even though I have had only two classes with RDBC it has been fun. Their speaking level is almost equal though a few of them are a higher level than others. Most of them can express their thoughts when they want to talk. However, if I apply Shin’s into my regular English class, Oh!!! No, I cannot say. I expect that would not work well. It might be impossible with a regular English class. There is diverse level of students in class. It is not easy to deal with them. Also, the class size is much bigger compared to RDBC in which there are 12 students. However, we have about 30 students in one class. During critical pedagogy class, we discussed “How are you?” target language about greeting people. How can we apply this topic with critical practice or critical thinking into actual class? I think it’s really hard to say “How are you? / I’m fine, thanks.” That is all. It is just natural conversation. Does this include any social issues? Or is this sentence a matter among society? Do we discuss this topic with critical thinking?

I don’t think so. In my teaching field, in a regular English class, it’s impossible though. We are always in a hurry following the regular steps of the curriculum which is provided by the government. We usually focus on speaking, listening, reading and writing according to the text book.

We don’t have enough time to do this. No one denies this truth if they know Korea’s system of English education in English classes. If anybody knows the solution to overcome this problem in Korea, let me know, please!