Date: Saturday, June 9th, 2018.
Time: 10:00am~1:00pm
Place: Teacher Training Center (교사교육센터), Rm. 101, Gyeongin National University of Education, Gyeonggi (Anyang) Campus
Topic: Key Competencies Oriented English Curriculum Revision and A.I. Assisted English Class
Details:
The Suwon-Gyeonggi KOTESOL chapter’s June workshop features one speaker,YounghoonSohn presenting “Key Competencies Oriented English Curriculum Revision and A.I. Assisted English Class”
As always, attendance is free and refreshments will be provided.
Questions or comments may be directed to the Suwon-Gyeonggi KOTESOL chapter president Tyler Clark at sparkyclarky@gmail.com.
More detailed directions may be found at https://koreatesol.org/DirectionsGyeonginGyeonggi
Abstract:
“Key Competencies Oriented English Curriculum Revision and A.I. Assisted English Class”
Key competencies oriented curriculum revision has become a norm of the current national curriculum of Korea. In 2015, the Ministry of Education of Korea released the 2015 revised national curriculum whose main idea is educating students to have key competencies required for the future. The six key competencies which have been selected by the Ministry of Education are self-management competence, knowledge-information competence, creativity competence, artistic competence, communication competence, and community competence. In order to educate students in these key competencies, the researcher approached English class from a different perspective than previously. Not like in countries where English is spoken as a mother tongue, English is treated as a subject like mathematics, science, art, etc. Thus there’s nothing much to learn other than studying phrases of English and studying situational English expressions by memorizing new vocabulary and grammar. Key competencies oriented English class is not like that. The researcher chose several themes and revised the curriculum thoroughly based on the key competencies. For example, in order to teach community competence, students are exposed to situations in which social issues reside. Discrimination issues against students from multicultural families, gender discrimination issues, and lookism are Korea’s social issues. The researcher carefully approached these issues and refined them into appropriate forms for elementary school students.
In order to educate students in Knowledge-information competence, the researcher organized a properly-guided-English-presentation-form for EFL classroom elementary school students. Lastly, to improve their communication competence, the researcher planned to have a guided-English-debate for elementary schoolers. Key competencies oriented English curriculum revision is still in progress, thus there are some activities that have been done already, and there are some that haven’t.
When it comes to knowledge-information competence and communication competence, utilizing A.I. might be a great idea to help students have these competencies. Regarding the technological state of A.I., it can’t be considered as a replacement for a teacher. It’s rather an assistant. When it comes to using A.I. as an assistant of English class, you might see its potential because of its versatility. The researcher will introduce its use in the class as an example. When it comes to its use, the only limit is your imagination.
Speaker Bio:
Younghoon Sohn has been teaching in elementary school for 9 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in elementary English education from Gongju National University of Education. He is going to finalize his thesis for a master’s degree in this winter in Dankook University. Being a son of car mechanic, he has been interested in tinkering with machines and inventing something since a young age. In his late twenties, he became mesmerized by artificial Intelligence and machine learning. He mostly taught himself by finishing several courses about A.I. from Stanford University and Washington University via MOOC platform. Now he is an A.I. developer and a teacher in elementary school. He built an A.I. English teaching assistant called ‘Toby’ in 2017 using various Google cloud API and IBM Watson API platforms.
