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International Conference 2018
Featured Panel Discussion
Focus on Fluency in the Korean Context
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Fluency has been a very elusive goal for the Korean English learner. Oral and aural skills of college entrants are often at a rudimentary level. This discussion session aims to pinpoint the causes of this slow progress toward fluency and to suggest solutions at the individual school level, the national policy level, and the societal level. Solutions will focus on promoting fluency among young learners, lowering anxiety among tertiary students, and proposing a new notion of communicative competence. Ample time will be provided for a question-and-answer session with the audience.
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Biographical Sketches
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Kyungsook Yeum, PhD, is the director of SMU TESOL and a faculty member at Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul. She has served on the Board of Directors of the TESOL International Association (USA, 2015-18). Her understanding of the TESOL profession has been honed through her work as President of KOTESOL (2004-05), Vice President of the Korea Association of Teachers of English (KATE) and the Applied Linguistics Association of Korea (ALAK), and other leadership appointments. Her areas of concentration include teacher education, program evaluation, and leadership. Email: yeum@sookmyung.ac.kr
Boyoung Lee, PhD, has long been actively involved in diverse aspects of Korean English education as teacher, scholar, author, educational show host, teacher-trainer, motivational speaker, consultant, and ELT program developer for all ages of different levels and grades. Her main interests in ELT are in teaching and learning English communicative skills, especially speaking. Her most recent projects are on her own YouTube channel (search EBY_MISOA) and other major Internet platforms. Web: www.misoa.co.kr
Joo-Kyung Park, PhD, is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Honam University, Gwangju. She served as President of KOTESOL (1996-97) and currently serves as Immediate Past President of the Applied Linguistics Association of Korea (ALAK) as well as Conference Executive Director of AsiaTEFL. Her research interests include teacher education, speech/pronunciation, critical pedagogy, World Englishes, and intercultural communication. Email: english58@hanmail.net // joo@honam.ac.kr
Panelist Abstracts
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Kyungsook Yeum
my presentation will unpack a new notion of communicative competence, as represented by terms such as ‘criticality,’ ‘learner identity,’ and ‘global competence.’ Accordingly, her major focus will be how to help our learners to meaningfully function in the real world. A case of new curricular implementation will be presented to exemplify how the CLIL concept is utilized to offer diversified language courses. Major points include (a) the value of English education, (b) curriculum sustainability, (c) learner’s global competence, and (d) market competitiveness.
Boyoung Lee
My discussion about fluency in Korean EFL setting will be focused on two levels: (a) how communicative fluency for young learners is promoted in both public and private sectors of Korean educational system and (b) how the recent changes in education policy shifted the learners’ approaches to developing their oral fluency.
Joo-Kyung Park
Anxiety is one of the major factors hindering the development of learners' oral fluency. It is even more so with Korean learners. I will showcase how to lower Korean university students’ anxiety and enhance their English fluency in three ways: First, use Korean cultural topics and resources in task-based and learner-centered English classes; second, encourage students to utilize codeswitching as their communicative strategy; third, have short-term overseas cultural exchange programs in outer- and expanding-circle countries.
