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Through
this study, the researcher reviewed the English educational environment
in Korea and America and determined that the society of South Korea surprisingly places
much weight on English proficiency for all South Korean students.
In addition, the
researcher found that the majority of the 30 Korean interviewees strongly believed that
the English educational environment in Korea is poorly developed and only focuses on
English grammar, reading, and vocabulary skills through the entire public and private
educational system in Korea. The
Wall Street Journal recently stated
that typical South
Korean students spend more than 20,000 hours on English education from kindergarten
to university (Kim, 2013). In addition, according to Kim (2013), “In a recent English
Proficiency Index Survey of 60 countries worldwide by EF Education First, South Korea
ranked 24
th
” (para. 7). Due to the ineffective and inefficient structure of English
education
in South Korea, the researcher wants to further study how the society of South
Korea starts restructuring an effective and efficient way of teaching English. Especially,
it could be a good way for American educators and professors who received English as a
Second Language (ESL) certificates and teach ESL courses in America and Korean
English teachers and Korean professors who teach English courses in South Korea to
work together and research how to restructure the South
Korean English educational
system significantly.
The future research needs to focus on finding the data from Korean students who
study and learn English at the other American colleges and universities. This research
study is only focused on UNK, so it will be beneficial for all higher educational
administrators to know about the other reasons Korean students come to the other
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American colleges and universities. In addition, there were two different groups of this
research study’s interviewees, non-degree seeking students and degree seeking students.
Therefore, the future research would like to focus on one specific group, either non-
degree seeking students or degree seeking students, and the researcher will be able to find
out different perspectives of learning and studying English
and motivations to come to
the United States.
As described above, it seems that the majority of Korean students have a lack of
English communication, English listening skills, English vocabulary, and
English writing
skills. Moreover, it has been really challenging for Korean students to learn English in
the United States because they are not able to build a strong relationship with American
students and the local community members. Through this study’s findings, the behavior
of Korean students is to frequently hang out with Korean students while they attend UNK.
As
a result, the future research wants to determine how to help South Korean students get
connected with American students and the local community members. In addition, the
researcher would like to find an American college or university which has successfully
resolved the above difficulties in the future study.