광진ECC

It has been a sincere pleasure to have so many students from Gwangjin-Ku in our ECC Program.

The continuing globalization of life means that our students will use English in their future life and eventually in their careers. This means they will need interactive and communication skills for such situations. As parents you can help them connect language learning to their future needs and help map out the strategies they will need to use to overcome language-learning difficulties.

As Korean students continue their English studies I hope they don’t get trapped by the common mistake I see in Korea, to be motivated to learn solely to do well on exams, but rather pursue English knowledge for knowledge’s sake. In other words, don’t just learn many facts about the English language, but become equipped with the tools needed to put the language to use outside of the classroom. This means learning not for the purpose of achieving short-term goals, but learning for the sake of expanding individual capabilities and horizons. It means instilling in our students the awareness that their real education is never complete. This desire for quick results is well known to administrators and teachers at ECC. We are all familiar with the situation where a student produces excellent spoken statements or questions, but then is completely unable to understand the answers or replies. That's precisely why you can't learn a language fast. You can learn to say a lot in quite a short time, but it may take a very long time indeed to be able to understand what other people are saying to you.

Studying language itself does not automatically result in the ability to use language in real situations. Research shows that students do not acquire communicative competence by memorizing vocabulary items in isolation, and by producing limited simple sentences. Even students who learn grammar well may be unable to understand language when it is spoken to them outside the classroom.

I think researchers and educators would agree that learners learn a language best when they are provided with opportunities to use the target language to communicate. The more learners use the target language in meaningful situations, the more they achieve competence. Active use of language is central to the learning process. Therefore, learners must be involved in generating utterances for themselves. They learn by doing, by practicing language, and by modifying it to serve communicative needs. Learners need strategies that allow them to compensate for language, which they have not yet mastered.