About "The Azaleas"(진달래꽃) - the poem from last Sat

This song is about a prayer for the deceased :

“the deceased” might have been her lost son or husband who had passed away in war.

In Maya’s video, you can see a lot of people who fought for their country and died. So I think Maya chose those images to honor their struggle and memory with the song. 

“Azaleas” – So Wol Kim (1902-1934)

If you are sick of me and want to go, I'll let you go-gently-I won't say a word. 

I will pluck a handful of azaleas from Yaksan in Yangbyon. I will strew them in your path.

Tread gently in these flowers. They deck your parting steps.

If you are sick of me and you want to go, though I die, I won't shed a tear.

Frankfurt School

Culture industry has depoliticized the working class and made them comfortable and blinded in their life so they don’t look for change, or they are too lazy to want change. It discourages the ‘masses’ from thinking beyond the confines of the present. (ex, Americans living on borrowed money and not worrying about the future. – Instant gratification)

Hope comes from those on the margins of society, ‘the outcasts and outsiders’, who are out of reach of the culture industry, to defeat capitalism and bring about a new world. (similar to those calling for critical pedagogy)

Devils advocate question : Whether it is capitalism or Marxism, both systems pacify their citizens through different forms of propaganda, so what is the difference? It’s a continuous cycle. Capitalism leads to Marxism back to capitalism and so on. Ex. Russia was a kingdom with business that changed to communism and now back to capitalism. American will eventually call for revolution once the masses are bled more and more and the class divide becomes too great, possibly a change to socialism.

Lesson Plans from the Outer Limits

I guess ..this article is about changing from the traditional methods that take away teachers’ power to a new approach that empowers teachers. Modernist positivism, based on scientific principles, has controlled how teaching has been done for most of the 20^th century by providing teacher-proof material and focusing on teaching measurable objectives. There is one correct way to teach and one correct body of subject matter.(the article said,)

The key difference is the old paradigm involved the “discovery” of knowledge but the new paradigm (NP) involves the “invention” of knowledge.  

"My Devils Advocate " Questions: 

 Who is calling for a change? Who are those pushing for a critical pedagogy? Isn’t the reality that there has always been and always will be a political agenda to teaching as there is to everything else in life? Haven’t the rich and powerful always ruled and manipulated the masses in one way or another?

New Paradigm Ts refuse to accept knowledge without questioning it first. Where did the knowledge come from? Who benefits from the knowledge? Freire called this “critical consciousness” which leads to social change.  Ts must learn to operate in a cognitively sophisticated scholarly way before they can teach that way.

The use of Freirian pedagogy in teaching English

My Summary for Freirian principal

: Using real life material that is relevant to the student to raise their critical consciousness  about their world – use critical pedagogical method

It is a problem posing method so students get involved using a critical method – participatory approach – active participation and reflection

I strongly agree - what he said ,"Teachers are guides not an authority so we can empower the students"

This article focuses on the inequalities of NS and NNS in Korea and the need to create a critical pedagogy for EFL teacher training.

Part of the article showed the domination of American English in Korea but how Koreans need to understand that most of the time they will be using English will be with persons not from America so  I think Koreans need to change the obsession with American English. Koreans need to understand that we need to use English as an International Language (EIL).

Indigenous critical traditions for TEFL? A historical and comparative perspective in the case of Korea

This article is about disproving the idea that Korean students are passive learners such as Chinese and Japanese students. The researcher conducted 2 studies, at a middle and high school. From the reading it seemed as though the high school was a Foreign Language high school. The finding showed that students didn’t resist this kind of class and that they were able to learn using a critical pedagogical method.

My frist question :Do her results truly reflect a regular high school senior students’ ability to handle this type of critical pedagogical method? 

I don’t think the high school was indicative of a normal high school. It seemed like the high school was a foreign language school since it mentioned the school had a heavy emphasis on foreign languages.
It went so far as to say that the kids’ English ability was greater than most Korean seniors due to that fact. 

My second question :
What is the best way to balance the needs of the student by covering both the material relevant to the SAT and communication needs by using a critical pedagogical method? Would the diversity of material allow for enough grammar/vocabulary for the students to have enough success on the SAT? Is there a way to design material that is student generated that would allow this?

English education and teacher education in South Korea

While I was reading the paper I thought it was very informative and through about what it takes to become a school teacher in Korea. There were 2 parts of the article that I thought were thought provoking. First on page 375, when it mentioned the amount of English education elementary school children are receiving. I could help but think, “How can 1-2 hours of English per week make any difference?” It is just 34-68hrs per year. It seemed like the MOE is just giving lip-service to wanting to promote English for communicative purposes. When it was announced that English education would be offered from the 3^rd grade, I would imagine everyone thought that the students would get an hour a day, everyday not an hour a week. Also, these curriculum makers know that learning a 2nd language is best achieved during the critical period before puberty. So, how can they justify just 1-2hrs per week? It doesn’t make sense. I think parents and teachers should insist on at least an hour a day, everyday.

There was also mention were 2 pilot programs: one to introduce English into the 1^st grade and the other for an English immersion program in 2008. I wonder what the results were. I think if the 1^st graders got just 1hr of English a week then the results probably showed no big results of starting in the first grade so it plan was probably canceled.

Another interesting point had to do with the MOE’s decision to establish a total innovation plan covering all teacher policies. It also mentioned how the MOE will select successful teaching models and disseminate them widely. It seems as thought teachers in Korea are being stripped of power in the classroom.

So I am left wondering what it would take to either increase the number of hours of English education in elementary school or how to best use 1-2hrs of English lesson per week. In my opinion I think 1-2hrs is not enough so then the focus should shift to the first question, “How to increase the hours?” Who would need to get involved? Mothers, parent organizations, teachers and teacher organizations, even publishers since they can sell a few more books.

**Families earning less than 1.9mil/mo sent on average 260.000 for hakwons but families earning more than 6mil/mo spent 840.000/mo.

Indigenous critical traditions for TEFL? A historical and comparative perspective in the case of Korea

This article is about disproving (dispelling) the idea that Korean students are passive learners such as Chinese and Japanese students. The researcher conducted 2 studies, at a middle and high school. From the reading it seemed as though the high school was a Foreign Language high school. The finding showed that students didn’t resist this kind of class and that they were able to learn using a critical pedagogical method.

Do her results truly reflect a regular high school senior students’ ability to handle this type of critical pedagogical method? - I don’t think the high school was indicative of a normal high school. It seemed like the high school was a foreign language high school since it mentioned the school had a heavy emphasis on foreign languages. It went so far as to say that the kids’ English ability was greater than most Korean seniors due to that fact. (P117 1^st & 2nd paragraph)

What is the best way to balance the needs of the student by covering both the material relevant to the SAT and communication needs by using a critical pedagogical method? Would the diversity of material allow for enough grammar/vocabulary for the students to have enough success on the SAT? Is there a way to design material that is student generated that would allow this?

Asian Dad: B+ Again!? (you die)