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Teacher: Shin Jisoo (Korean teacher), Brian Dye (foreign teacher)
Students: 4th graders
Lesson: 1. Nice to meet you.(4/4)
We have two foreign teachers: Nathan and Brian. I work with them both. I teach 6th graders 9 classes entirely on my own, the other 9 with Nathan, and 4 classes for 4th graders with Brian. Nathan has one year and a half's teaching experience in my school and Brian is a brand new teacher in an public school. He has taught at Avalon in 강남 area (expensive private institute) for two years. With Brian, we mostly do 'co-teaching' but split the units (not lessons) and design them accordingly.
But Jisu is IN this data. Which means that what you really split is the "leading role" in the lesson.
The 4th graders are of course less fluent than the 6th graders in general. However, those young kids understand almost everything what the novice foreign teacher (who has no teaching experience in 공교육) says although he is exactly like the 'wine glass' one. When I first had the 4th grade class, I got annoyed at his being so novice first and then I got shocked at the students' perfect comprehension regardless.
The "wine glass" data that Jisu is referring to is this:
NT: Let's see who we are going to be studying with in our text book, in our English book. Let's look. Open your books to the page right here. There is no page number, so I can't tell you the page number. For here. (학생들 둘러본다)It's right before the table of contents.
Ss: (어딘지 몰라서 책을 뒤적거림)
KT: (책을 보여주면서) 차례 앞쪽입니다.
NT: Ok? Let's See. follow me. Jin ho.
Ss:Jinho
NT: Anne
Ss: Anne
N: Joon
Ss: Joon
NT: Mrs smith
Ss: Mrs smith
N: Bill
Ss: Bill
N: Peter
Ss: Peter
NT: Ok. These are the friends that we are going to study with. Okay? If you look on page 8, lesson Number one "How are you?", That's what we are going to study with.
We find that the "wine glass" is wide on the top and wide on the bottom, but very narrow in the middle where the students actually talk. This is because the classroom English, the language used to introduce the language for study, is more difficult than the language for study itself.
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KT: OK. So far, 지금까지, we have learned three things. Do you remember what they are? 세 가지를 배웠는데, Oh, no. Four things. 네 가지를 배웠는데(because in the previous class, a student came up with one more thing) 하나씩만 얘기해주기. 기억나는 거. 무엇을 배웠죠? What did we learn? What have we learned so far?
Ss: (raise their hands)
KT: 음.. 선생님은 자세 바르게 손 든 사람한테 시킬 거야. Teacher! Teacher! 하면 절대 안 시킬거구요, 어~~!!(mimicking) 이러는 사람도 안 시켜줄 거야. OK, back there! (pointing to a boy) 맨 뒤에.
S1: Weather.
KT: Yes, we learned about weather. 우리 첫 시간에 날씨에 대해서 배웠어요. Can you give him a stamp? (to Brian) Well done. 또 나머지 세가지 뭘 배웠나? Ms. Beige! (pointing to her)
We can see that the teachers are having a very hard time remembering the children's names. This is a very common problem with "specialist" teachers, particularly if they work with foreigners.
One solution is for the teacher to give everybody "English" names. But this is rather disrespectful and it also means that the teachers have to learn two names.
We know that memories work not by memorizing information literally but by creating links between one form of information and another. For example, when the nonspecialist teacher learns names, the teacher often works by ASSOCIATING the name with a PLACE (the place where the child sits) and then with a FACE and only then with other aspects of the child. Another example is that teachers tend to learn the names of naughty students first, associating the name with a particularly negative memory.
The teachers here have a different solution! They associate the name with the CLOTHES. This makes it possible for them to invent new names every day. However, it makes it IMPOSSIBLE for the foreign teacher to learn the names or even the faces of the children. As we shall see, this tells us something quite interesting about the foreign teacher.
S2:Introduce. (Brian had "introduced" the term "introduce and introduction" to the students last time)
KT: Yes, introduction. 우리가 친구를 소개하는 거에 대해서 배웠구요, 두 개 남았어. (pointing to a student raising his hand)
S3: We studied capital letter and,, small letter. (notice that because of the focus on vocabulary there is no article use)
KT: Yes! We learned about alphabet. Right? Alphabet letters. 우리가 알파벳 A부터 M 까지 배웠구요. 나머지 하나는 뭐지? Do you remember? Yes, you?
S4: We learned about sing. ('sing' is inaudible here) We can see that the sentence structure is simply given by paradigmatic repetition, by uptaking what the teacher says.
KT: We learned about what?
S4: Sing.
KT: Ah, yes. We learned a song. But,,, I'll give you a hint. Uh, Brian, can you help me? (he was at the back) with this? (and he comes to the front)
KT: OK, 자, 우리가 뭘 배웠냐하면, uh, who said "introduction?" 누가 introduce.. (S2 raises her hand) OK, can you come up to the front?
Notice the polite use of "Can..."
S2: (comes up to the front)
KT: What's your name?
S2: My name is...영어이름이요?
KT: Uh, Korean name.
S2: 전현경.
KT: 현경이. OK. Listen. I'm Ms.Shin. He is Brian teacher.(pointing to Brian) (He calls himself "Brian teacher." and at this moment, he waves his hands to the students and the students grin).
Just as Ms. Shin creates an "English" form of her name, "Brian teacher" has created a "Korean" form of his own name.
But when Koreans do this, they are almost always being genuinely friendly and helpful, trying to make things easier for their interlocutors, adapting (correctly) the foreign way of ordering the name without relinquishing their own name.
When foreigners do it, they are almost always being satirical and snide. They are making fun of the supposed inability of Korean learners to master the article system ("a teacher") and to order names "correctly". They also do not understand that "teacher" attached to a surname is not a job but a form of respect in Korean (because if they did understand this correctly they would not use their given name but their surname, "Dye Teacher" and not "Brian Teacher").
Ms. Shin doesn't know Brian teacher. (Ss laugh) Who are you? (to Brian) Brian doesn't know Ms. Shin. (Brian shrugs as if to say 'who's that woman?' and the students grin) But, 현경 knows me, Ms. Shin. (turning her to me) And 현경 knows Brian teacher. (turning her to Brian the students giggle) So, I saw him for the first time. 헉, who is he, who is he? (to 현경, mimicking)
S2: Ms. Shin?
KT: Uhhuh?
S2: 어, It's Brian. (The child's response is correct.
Ss: It's!!! Hahaha!!! (they burst into laugher)
KT: It's OK! Don't laugh! 어, 누가 웃고 있어? (they become quiet) This is. (to 현경)
S2: This is Brian teacher. ("Brian teacher" is incorrect. So because of this teacher's degrading "joke" ("Brian teacher") we are forced to teach the children that what is correct is incorrect and what is incorrect is correct.)
KT: Oh~~. (as if to say I'm glad to know who he is)
S2: Brian teacher. This is Ms. Shin.
KT: Very good! 굉장히 잘했구요. 이 때! I SAY........WHAT?
Ss: 아~!
KT: And HE SAYS...WHAT?
Ss: (raise their hands)
KT: I say, 음~~~~~.(down intonation) And he says, 음~~~.(up intonation) What is it? Ms. Stripe! Mr.Stripe!
S5: Hi, hi,,Ms., hi.... Hi, Brian teacher. Hi,.. hi, Ms.Shin.
Ss: “끙.....”“어~~”(they are eager to answer, puting up their hands since they know that's not exactly what I expected)
KT/NT: Okay~.(at the same time)
KT: AND THEN what should I say next? What should we say next? (point to a girl)
S6: Nice to meet you.
KT: And he says?
S6: Nice to meet you, too.
KT: Very good. Well done. I'll give you a stamp, too. And give her a stamp as well.(to Brain) Very good. Well done. 잘했어요.
It's very depressing. But it's very good data for the exam, because there is very clear evidence of learning.
We said that the real problem was establishing that the thing learnt by the children was not previously learnt. If we teach the children something that is INCORRECT, then the likelihood that they learned it before is quite low.
Now, here's an interesting question to consider. If the children learn this INCORRECT form of address ("Brian teacher") they CANNOT generalize it to other foreigners. Believe it or not, there are foreigners who are both anxious to learn Korean ways of being polite (rather than make fun of them) and anxious to teach English ways of being polite.
Those foreigners will know that "Brian teacher" is not a legitimate form of address but a degrading joke in very poor taste. So they will not be able to use this knowledge with most other foreigners.
Now...can we call this development, or not?
dk