Running head: The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 1

The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency

Hyungwoo Park

University of California, Riverside Extension

The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 2

Introduction

Koreans spend $ 17 billion a year and hire 30,000 native English teachers to improve

their English skills or pass English exams (“English,” 2014). Nevertheless, Korean English

skills are not outstanding, especially in speaking. The average Koreans’ TOEFL speaking score

is 20 points, which is that of the world (ETS, 2017, 16). In spite of $ 17 billion a year, why do

many Korean English learners have trouble in learning English speaking? In this research paper,

we will find the reasons why Korean English learners aren’t good at English speaking. Besides,

I will suggest my solutions for them to improve their English speaking.

Causes

In this part, we will look at why Korean English learners have trouble in learning English.

Phonetical and Phonological Factors

Korean and English have many phonetical and phonological differences. To focus on

the difficulties of English learning as a Korean, I will explain the English features which the

Korean language doesn’t have.

- Consonants

Although this figure may be different depending on the classification of consonants, the

English language has about twelve consonants which Korean doesn’t have (Cho & Park,

2006, p. 237). We can divide them into two groups. The first group is the consonants to which

Korean has similar. Because they are slightly different, Korean English learners adopt these

sounds well. However, consonants, /f/, /v/, /z/, /r/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/, are totally different from

Korean consonants. Many Korean English learners change them into other consonants in

Korean. For example, /f/, /v/, /z/, /r/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ become /ph/, /p/, /d͡ʒ/, /l/, /th/, /t/, and /d͡ʒ/.
The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 3

- Vowel

Vowel systems between two languages are more different than that of consonants, so

Korean English learners do more mistakes. Except for diphthongs, they share only four

consonants, /ɪ/, /u/, /ɛ/, and /a/ (Cho & Park, 2006, p.233). This means that Korean English

learners can use few Korean phonological rules in English learning. Thus, Korean English

learners tend to adopt most vowels wrongly. For instance, although English doesn’t have /o/,

instead of /ɔ/, Korean English learners pronounce /o/.

- Different syllable structures

Korean and English has different syllable structures. A maximal syllable structure in Korean

is CVC(C). (C – consonant, V – vowel) In other words, all Korean words have only V, CV,

VC, or CVC syllable structures. However, a maximal syllable structure in English is

CCCVCCC; an example is “strengths” (Cho & Park, 2006, p.239). Many Korean English

learners divide “more complex syllables than CVC” into V, CV, VC, or CVC by using barred

u, /ʉ/. For example, a beverage brand “Sprite” becomes [sʉpʉraɪtʉ] in Korean pronunciation.

- Stress

In Korean, the role of stress is very limited (Cho & Park, 2006, p.239). For example, stress

can’t change the meaning of a Korean word. In contrast, English can; for example, if a word,

“insulate,” has a stress on first syllable, it becomes a noun, but if it has on second syllable, it

becomes a verb. Many Korean English learners don’t know and use a stress when they speak

English.

These are the phonetical and phonological causes of Koreans’ low English speaking

proficiency and Korean English accent. The phonetical and phonological knowledge of the

Korean language interferes with the learners’ English learning.

The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 4

Methodological Factors

The problem of English education doesn’t only come from the linguistic differences. Korean

English education in school has a lot of problems in English teaching.

- Grammar translation method (GTM) in English classroom

According to Richards & Rodgers (2012), grammar translation method (GTM) is “a way of

studying a language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar

rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences” (p. 3).

GTM is mainly learning the knowledge of language and not related to improving learners’

communicative competence. Almost all English teachers in Korea instruct English by this

method. This is because teaching English with GTM is easy. Teachers can teach English by

their native language. In addition, the class is teacher-centered, so it is easy for teachers to

control many students.

- No speaking in Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)

College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in Korea is the most important standardized test for

Korean high school students because every Korean university requires the score of CSAT.

However, CSAT doesn’t have English speaking section. Instead, they have only English

reading and listening comprehension sections, and all questions are multiple-choice questions

(Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, n.d.). Hwang Jong-bai, English education

professor at Konkuk University, said, "As the CSAT English test doesn't evaluate speaking and

writing abilities, public school teachers do not feel a need to teach those to the students” (Chung,

2014). Thus, the teachers teach only reading and listening for many students to enter into noted

universities. Students are also not interested in learning English speaking because they just

want to gain good scores in CSAT.

The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 5

- Unqualified teachers

Many candidates study hard to pass an exam to become an English teacher in Korea. The exam

is not easy and requires high English proficiency including speaking skills (Kwon, 2013, p.23).

However, before the 1990s, after students graduated from the Department of English Education

in Korean national universities, all of them could be an English teacher without the exam. Thus,

they didn’t need to study English hard, and some of them became unqualified English teachers.

In addition, many teachers in school stop to learn English speaking. A statistic supports these.

50 teachers who received in-service training for a four-month in Daegu, a Korean city, took a

speaking test, and their average scores are 576.6 out of 100, which was 10 points lower than

those of the national average students (Kwon, 2013, p.25). If people stop to learn their second

language, their language proficiency decreases, especially speaking.

Solutions

For Korean students’ communicative skills, I suggest some solutions. The first part is in-

classroom activities for pronunciation, and the second is new government policies for English

education.

In-classroom Activities for Pronunciation Skills

Although Korean and English have a lot of phonetical and phonological differences, many

Korean English teachers don’t teach pronunciation in their class. Thus, I introduce some

effective activities to show how teachers can do. They help students to correct pronunciation

errors that originate interference.

1. Teaching basic phonetics and phonology: Like grammar, teachers need to teach basic

knowledge of English pronunciation, such as IPA symbols with how to pronounce them

or where stress in word is. Many Korean students don’t know how native speakers
The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 6

pronounce standard English. They speak English with their accent, which is non-standard

English accent, as I mentioned in “Phonetical and phonological factors - Consonant”

section.

2. Practicing with minimal pairs: A minimal pair is a pair of words with one phonemic

difference only, such as “cat-bat” or “bad-bed” (“Minimal Pairs,” n.d.). They are a useful

tool to practice English pronunciation, especially phonemes which the Korean language

doesn’t have. In addition, students can learn how English phonemes are used in the

lexical context.

3. Tongue twisters: Tongue twisters are words which are hard to pronounce quickly, like

Jerry's jelly berries taste really rare. This is because phonemes in words are similar each

other, and this makes confusion. The meaning of many sentences is awkward. However,

when students practice tongue twisters, they spend more time to read than normal

sentences (McCutchen & Perfetti, 1982, p. 6).

The Change of Korean English Education System

The Korean government should introduce new policies to improve students’ communicative

competence. This is because the Ministry of Education in Korea affects all English education

in all public schools and most private schools.

1. New English curriculum: The Ministry of Education in Korea should distribute new

curriculum that will substitute for the old method, GTM. All textbooks in Korea follow

guidelines by the Ministry of Education, and the guidelines emphasize only reading and

listening now. They have speaking and writing sections, but they are weak and few.

Besides, almost all teachers skip. When I was an elementary, middle, and high school

student, my teachers did, too. The ministry should make new guidelines for English
The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 7

textbooks, and the guidelines require the textbooks add speaking activities, such as

discussion and presentation.

2. Speaking section in CSAT and absolute evaluation: The Ministry of Education should

introduce speaking section in CSAT. As I mentioned in page 4, the teachers don’t teach

English speaking because it is not in CSAT. If CSAT has English speaking section,

teachers will teach speaking, and students will study hard for the exam. Also, all speaking

tests including in school should follow absolute scales to evaluate speaking. According to

Krashen, the anxiety in class interrupts students’ acquisition (Brown, 2014, p.289). Korean

education is competitive, so many students gain a lot of stress in language learning. In

addition, they don’t want to speak English because they think their English is poor and

they will do a lot of mistakes. To solve this problem, teachers should evaluate students not

by other students’ proficiency but by absolute achievement with constructive feedback.

3. The change of teacher evaluation system: The teachers’ evaluation in Korea just assesses

how much they instruct well and they guide students well (Choi & Park, 2016, page 261).

Although they are important, high English speaking proficiency is also required to

English teachers to progress speaking classes. They must be a good model in class for

students not to learn errors in speaking class. Thus, the government should test their

English speaking and give feedbacks. If not, their speaking ability will decrease.

Conclusion

We look at the reasons why Koreans are not good at English speaking and how to improve

their skills. There are other many reasons of Koreans’ low English proficiency and solutions

for better Korean English education, but I chose important causes and solutions by my

personal opinion. However, by my analysis, Korean English education may be better, and

students can achieve better communicative competence.

The Causes and Solutions of Koreans’ Low English Speaking Proficiency 8

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