Robots Teach English In South Korea

In South Korea, where certified English teachers are scarce, the government has developed a unique approach to meet students' needs: robot teachers.

CNN reports the South Korean government has used a pilot program to test the effectiveness of robot teachers in elementary school classrooms -- and plans to expand the program to 18 schools by the end of the year.

The robots are controlled -- from afar -- by English teachers in other countries.

[Senior research engineer Mun-Taek Choi] told CNN that government evaluation has shown that "the educational robot system indeed helps increase students' interest and self-motivation in studying English and improves their English skills."

This isn't the first foray into robotics in South Korea. According to National Geographic, the government hopes to see a robot in every household in the country by 2020.

Robots inside the home can provide a variety of services such as completing household chores and entertaining children.

Read the full story on CNN.

Comments

[duhtruth]

03:23 PM on 10/23/2010

We have the same thing in the US. It goes with tenure.

[TK Whatever]

05:11 AM on 10/23/2010

robot will teach you right answers, but never ways to communicate or cultural differences or little weaknesses which make us creative and human. robot is useful, but a dangerous tool for learning.
we might end up with "robot like" kids - heartless, uncompassionate, calculative i.e. merceless, dangerous and, ultimately, lost souls.

[AccuracyInReading]

10:05 PM on 10/22/2010

Careful reading shows that these ESL "telepresence" robots are simply a catchy way for children to be attracted to a much older technology: distance learning via video. While probably a bit worrisome for Korea-based ESL teachers, they may actually open up job possibilities for native language ESL teachers based in other English speaking countries who can teach at hours when they aren't already working in their home cities because of time-zone differences, and whose native speaker capabilities may be perceived as valuable to the Korean employers.The technology is simply a way to bring native speaker English teachers into more classrooms without having to physically bring the teachers to those classrooms.

[Cryn]

05:48 AM on 10/23/2010

That's all well and good. But I bet you anything, if this is carried out and it's successful, pay rates will plummet.

[kyeshinka]

06:07 PM on 10/22/2010

The reason South Korea doesn't get too many certified teachers is that salaries haven't budged in eight years. $2,000 a month, on average, is attractive enough for anybody with a BA, but very few of them have certificates. too many hagwons (private schools) simply need someone with a pulse and that keeps the salaries down.

[Cryn]

05:49 AM on 10/23/2010

I think it depends though. Are you here? My Hagwon attracts the best, and so salaries are not that low.

[Aluminaste]

06:00 PM on 10/22/2010

Hey at least theres a bright side to this story (for students). I'm guessing it'll be harder for a robot to keep control of a classroom resulting in lax punishments galore..

[eric14]

04:40 PM on 10/22/2010

We need to think about resource allocation in new ways - not connected with work.

This will not be easy as many people are wealth and work-fixated to the point that they think there is a god that has opinions on taxation. Tax the rich. Redistribute.
Prepare for post-industrial society.

Stop worrying about silly things. It could leave more time for things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqBqSbcP4I

Twenty years from now, the robots will be teaching robots.

[Cryn]

03:39 PM on 10/22/2010

As an instructor in South Korea, I find this story problematic on so many levels.

[Holly Rayl]

11:18 PM on 10/22/2010

As an honestly curious question, what such problems? I don't know much about South Korea, so I'd like some insight from someone who actually lives and works in the system there.

[Cryn]

05:42 AM on 10/23/2010

Hi, Holly, I'd be happy to share. I said that this report is problematic, and that's because of the widespread xenophobia here. Overall, I like South Korea, but I've had some bad experiences because I am a Westerner (cabbies, for instance, refusing to pick me up because I'm white, and a bus driver who shut a door on my leg on purpose and then on another occasion tried to drive off AS I got onto his bus - these were not mistakes. They were intentional). In addition, there has been a lot of talk about replacing every single English instructor with a robot, so they can kick us all out of the country. They blame us - and I am talking about newspapers, etc. - for swine flu, for AIDs, etc., etc.

That said, I have many Korean friends and I absolutely love my kids. But it's not always an easy place to live, because there are Koreans who hate that we're here. However, I don't regret coming here at all. I'm glad I did. If you're an outsider and not a native, these things just come with the territory. I accept that.

[rlugbill]

02:52 PM on 10/22/2010

Do the kids bring batteries to school to give to their teachers?

[Cryn]

05:43 AM on 10/23/2010

Haha. Love it! I imagine this little kid learning English from his robot. The robot dies. So he has to put more batteries in its back.

[martigras]

02:42 PM on 10/22/2010

Good grief, now we are going to outsource teachers too?

[Cryn]

05:43 AM on 10/23/2010

No kidding.