NIIED arch pledges to ascent Korean training abroad
By Na Jeong-ju
An augmenting series of foreigners are training Korean as a second denunciation as K-Pop enlightenment is gaining recognition overseas.
Applications for a Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), administered by a National Institute for International Education (NIIED), have also augmenting neatly as a examination has turn a contingency for foreigners who wish to investigate and work here.
The institute’s President Ha Tae-yun says it is time to ascent a examination and yield improved textbooks and training materials abroad to make Korean a some-more widely-accepted language.
“One of my approaching tasks is to tell textbooks in several languages and yield customized investigate collection to tellurian learners to accommodate a flourishing direct for TOPIK,” Ha pronounced in an interview.
“That’s also to simulate Korea’s flourishing change on a tellurian stage. Korean denunciation preparation abroad is critical from informative and tactful aspects as well.”
Teaching Korean globally
Since Ha, a career diplomat, took a helm of a hospital in late October, he has focused on relocating brazen in a 3 ongoing projects ― compelling a Korean denunciation abroad, selecting unfamiliar beneficiaries of state scholarships and compelling English preparation during open schools.
The institute’s purpose will turn even incomparable in a destiny as some-more foreigners are approaching to use Korean and a country’s tellurian participation will continue to grow, Ha said.
The NIIED, now located in Daehangno, Seoul, skeleton to pierce to a incomparable formidable in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, by 2015 to safeguard some-more effective government of a projects. The preparation method is now pulling for a rider of laws to enhance a institute’s functions during home and abroad.
“I’m really seductiveness in compelling a Korean denunciation among countries with that Korea’s informative and mercantile ties have been flourishing rapidly. The designed ascent of TOPIK and a announcement of customized textbooks are directed during assisting people there learn a denunciation in an easier and some-more gentle way,” Ha said.
By 2015, a hospital will supplement a vocalization territory to TOPIK, that now has dual sections one for vocabulary, abbreviation and essay and a other for listening and reading. It also skeleton to deliver an Internet-based examination in a prolonged term.
The changes simulate concerns that a examination is focusing on usually abbreviation and wording rather than evaluating unsentimental review skills. The coherence of problem levels has also mostly been questioned. Some test-takers have called for a hospital to rise a improved apparatus so that Korean denunciation learners can be scrupulously evaluated.
Providing improved textbooks to tellurian learners is also a large charge for Ha.
Despite a government’s efforts to boost a peculiarity and professionalism of Korean denunciation teachers abroad, many Korean denunciation teachers abroad have complained of a miss of suitable textbooks they can use.
Currently, many textbooks used by them are ones that are targeted to children and teenagers and constructed for racial Korean students, not for foreigners. The preparation method recently published for a initial time Korean denunciation textbooks from turn one to 6 targeting learners from English-speaking nations. But textbooks customized to countries regulating other languages and with opposite cultures are still needed.
“What we trust is that any republic has a opposite enlightenment so a denunciation textbooks should also be customized. I’m committed to solution a problem,” Ha said.
The hospital is now perfectionist TOPIK scores from those who are study on a state grant program, called a Global Korean Scholarship (GKS). It has been articulate with universities and firms to foster a use of a examination in evaluating inclination of Korean denunciation among unfamiliar applicants, he said.
“TOPIK is closely associated to GKS. We devise to enhance a grant module to assistance internal universities to pull top-rated students from around a world,” a boss said.
English education
One of a institute’s flagship programs is to name English teachers among racial Koreans and local speakers abroad and give them training jobs during open schools nationwide.
Under a Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK) program, thousands of racial Korean students have visited a republic and taught English in facile schools in farming areas given 2008. It is also using a English Program in Korea (EPIK) to sinecure local English teachers for primary and delegate schools nationwide.
Ha voiced concerns about a moves by informal educational offices to revoke a series of local English teachers, observant students in provincial areas still don’t have chances to learn from local speakers.
He suggested that English preparation has been on a backburner as educational offices have readjusted their spending skeleton following a doing of giveaway propagandize dish program. The preparation method is also focusing on augmenting a series of Korean teachers competent to learn English in English, rather than only picking some-more local English teachers.
Despite such a process shift, direct for peculiarity English preparation will continue to grow, Ha said.
“Native English teachers have severely contributed to upgrading English preparation here. We should be beholden for them,” Ha said. “I will make each bid to strengthen their training jobs. The TaLK and EPIK programs will be a centerpiece of upgrading English preparation here.”
He pronounced a NIIED skeleton to strengthen a on-the-job training for local English teachers to settle some-more uniformly here, providing them with chances to learn about Korean culture.
According to a preparation ministry, such training programs can also be solutions to flourishing domicile spending on English education. The method pronounced some-more than 15 trillion won is being spent annually on private English education, that some-more than 90 percent of facile propagandize students receive.
“English inclination has turn some-more critical in entering a good college and removing a good job. However, many children can’t learn during private institutes as fee is too expensive,” pronounced a method official. “We wish a TaLK and EPIK programs will be useful in addressing a supposed English preparation order between students in large cities and those in farming areas.”
So far, thousands of local teachers have participated in a programs.
The hospital pronounced a programs yield students in farming areas a singular event to learn from local teachers. It’s a singular knowledge for Korean teachers as well.
“The local teachers are special guest to residents. Parents are happy about their children holding lessons from local teachers and personification with them. Korean teachers also can sell training methods with a local teachers,” Ha said.
Who is Ha Tae-yun
Ha Tae-yun, boss of a National Institute for International Education (NIIED), is a career diplomat who has carried out missions in a series of countries, including Japan, South Africa, a United Kingdom and Iraq.
A local of Gwangju, a 53-year-old started operative during a unfamiliar method after flitting a state examination to name diplomats in 1979. He majored in open administration during Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.
Ha was dispatched to Cheong Wa Dae to assistance form a Kim Dae-jung administration’s general policies after Kim was inaugurated boss in late 1997.
He also served as a secretary for Kim in 2007.
Two years later, Ha became a country’s envoy to Iraq and led missions to assistance reconstruct a war-torn nation. He was named a NIIED boss in Oct this year.