Chemical Education Today edited by
Jonathan R. Hill University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Offering English-Mediated Chemistry Classes in South Korea: A Note on This Nationwide Experiment by Jae-Seung Lee Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea 136-713
[email protected] Using English has been a norm of chemical communications in both written and spoken forms for decades. For example, representative science citation index (SCI) chemistry journals issued in countries where English is not an official language are presently published in English, as is the case for Chemistry Letters in Japan (1) and Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society in Korea (2). The use of English as a common language among chemists apparently promotes the active transmission of information among chemists, as well as the general public's access to chemical information when necessary. Importantly, the standardization of chemical terms in English for chemicals, reactions, and theories has enabled chemists to efficiently achieve systematic development in major fields of chemistry that those fields would not have otherwise achieved. On the other hand, the language barrier of nonnative English speakers has been an obvious obstacle for efficient chemical education, especially if those speakers have not been exposed to English in the chemistry classes they either take or teach (3). In South Korea, where English is not an official language, this language barrier has been a more significant problem than in most other countries. From the standpoint of linguistic categories, Korean is classified as one of the “exceptionally difficult languages to learn” for native English speakers by the United States Department of State and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (4). This claim suggests the converse is true, namely, that native Korean speakers find English an exceptionally difficult language to learn. This possibility might explain the mean scores of Korean takers for Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which have never been higher than the world mean scores since 1992 (5). English-Mediated Courses in Chemistry To address these problems, recently the Korean government has strongly encouraged English-mediated courses (EMCs) in schools. In the English-mediated courses, the teachers and students that are nonnative English speakers are supposed to speak and write only in English and use textbooks written in English. Interestingly, offering EMCs in universities is one of the important parameters for national university evaluations, which almost forces the universities in Korea to offer EMCs to students in a core curriculum. In addition, the number of international students who are nonnative Korean speakers and thus need classes in English is also increasing in Korea (6). As a result, the proportion of EMCs in universities in Korea 470
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has grown every year. Figure 1 demonstrates the proportions of English-mediated chemistry courses (lectures only, spring semester in 2009) offered by four major universities in Korea. On average, slightly less than half of the lecture-based chemistry courses (46%) are offered in English, which reflects a dramatic increase over the past decade (7). Although the proportion of chemistry classes in English in high schools and middle schools is not significant yet, such classes in supplemental private institutes are becoming popular in Korea in spite of their high tuition fees. The Effectiveness of Chemistry EMCs This observation raises a question: how effective can the chemistry courses be when a nonnative English-speaking teacher teaches nonnative English-speaking students in English, especially when their English proficiency is poor? Can the teachers deliver the concepts and meanings to the students with enough accuracy and fluency? Can the students understand the experimental and theoretical aspects of chemical reactions for further applications? Most of all, can both the teachers and students motivate themselves to think in English? Regarding these questions, strong debates are ongoing. This is a hot social issue in South Korea. Those who oppose the EMC policy point out the negative influence of English as a second language on intelligibility of instruction in chemistry courses (8). They believe the effort to improve English should be made independently in English courses, not in English-mediated chemistry courses in which chemical understanding may be sacrificed. Additionally, the core concepts of fields such as biochemistry and chemical history rely on description more than the core concepts of other fields of chemistry do. For nonnative English speakers, understanding these core concepts when they are presented in English demands intensive linguistic effort. For this reason, it may be beneficial for such descriptions to be presented in Korean, not English. On the other hand, EMC supporters emphasize that globalization of the chemical community in South Korea makes it very important for students and teachers to be familiar with those aspects of English associated with chemistry. EMC supporters argue that the firsthand experience of the teachers in acquiring English as a second language can help the students understand and learn in a better way (9). Most of all, supporters suggest that chemistry is the most suitable subject for EMCs, because it can be easily demonstrated through examples such as
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Vol. 87 No. 5 May 2010 pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 10.1021/ed1001152 Published on Web 03/12/2010
Chemical Education Today
be a good lesson that might affect future national plans for other nonnative English-speaking countries. Literature Cited
Figure 1. Proportions of English-mediated chemistry courses in four major universities in Korea during spring semester, 2009. The data were collected from the online registration Web sites of each university.
chemical reactions with molecular formulas, illustrative schemes depicting chemical mechanisms, and images for substances. Looking to the Future Although the subject of much debate, EMCs in Korea have been and will be ongoing for a certain period of time. Because of the nature of education and research, however, the outcome of this nationwide experiment in Korea will not be determined for a few years. A successful result would be of great promise to other nonnative English-speaking teachers teaching chemistry in English to nonnative English-speaking students. However, there is some anxiety in Korea that this approach may simply be constructing a tower of Babel. No matter what the result is, it will
r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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1. Chemistry Letters Home Page. http://www.csj.jp/journals/chem-lett/ index.html (accessed March 2010). 2. Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Home Page. http://journal. kcsnet.or.kr/main/j_search/j_finaledit.htm?qpage=j_search&spage= b_bkcs&dpage=fd (accessed March 2010). 3. Churchill, D. G. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1022–1023. 4. Staffing and Foreign Language Shortfalls Persist Despite Initiatives to Address Gaps. U.S. Government Accountability Office: Washington, DC, 2006; GAO-06-894, p 10, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ d06894.pdf (accessed March 2010). 5. TOEFL Test and Score Data Summaries. http://www.ets.org/ portal/site/ets/menuitem.c988ba0e5dd572bada20bc47c3921509/? vgnextoid=20beaf5e44df4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD &vgnextchannel=d35ed898c84f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190 RCRD (accessed March 2010). 6. Park, S.-J. Small World in Big Korea. http://www.cauon.net/news/ quickViewArticleView.html?idxno=12488 (accessed March 2010). 7. According to the online registration Web sites of each university, no English-mediated chemistry classes were offered before 1999 at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; before 2003 at Korea University; before 2003 at Yonsei University; and before 2004 at Seoul National University. 8. Zielinski, B. W. Intelligibility in Speakers of English as a Second Language. Paper presented at the 16th English Australia Educational Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 2003. 9. Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers in the English Teaching Profession. http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0209maum.html (accessed March 2010).
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