EFL In South Korea

There are many ways to define advocacy, but when specifically referring to education, you are left with three main areas: Parent advocacy, educator advocacy, and administrative advocacy .  All of these areas have a common goal: helping, representing and encouraging students to grow and learn to the best of their abilities. As an educator, it is my job to ensure my students have the best resources, opportunities and individual support to guarantee they have the best possible environment for learning.                 Teaching at a private kindergarten in South Korea provides so many challenges for teachers as advocates. There is a business model that runs the school and administrators are often focused on the enhancement of profits rather than students. There is a delicate balance to be had between educators and parents as well, and there are many cultural and social barriers that affect students' abilities to communicate their needs clearly.             With all of these

When teaching the English language in a foreign country, most teachers utilize similar curriculum and strategies as American schools and our research and development teams consult American standards for testing, textbooks, and level placements. However, because of the difference in language, culture and general content of the textbooks, students can sometimes get lost very quickly. Their overall literacy is good, but some find they cannot readily understand concepts that an American child might grasp quickly, due to being raised in an American culture. An example of this is one of the stories in the textbook, Reading Street, in  a piece of non-fiction text about ranch hands’ responsibilities on a cattle farm. Most of the vocabulary for them is new since they do not grow up with farming vocabulary. We, therefore, need to teach a lot of background information. This is an example that demonstrates, first-hand, that, “Reading comprehension requires not only the skills of reading…