중등 예비영어교사들의 교육실습

Secondary English pre-service trainees’ practicum: Exploring mentoring

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) has recently strengthened curriculum for training secondary teachers-to-be, increasing practicum credits from two to four in colleges of education. In the movement, this study aimed at seeking a possibility of adopting English mentoring as an additional practicum, as English mentoring has been found from the previous research advantageous to mentors (pre-service trainees) and mentees (secondary students). In this study, cases of English mentoring implemented by H university for secondary students of low academic ability for several years were illustrated, and a questionnaire was conducted to 152 incumbent teachers who were questioned about their perception about mentoring, practicum and the possibility of linking the two. Also, one teacher and one principal were respectively interviewed. In addition, mentors were interviewed in writing. It was found that most of teachers and mentors think English mentoring can be possibly adopted as a way of the additional practicum. Specifically, negative answers regarding the possibility were investigated. It was also corroborated that English mentoring would be the appropriate way to fill in the deficiency of the public education. Finally, some measures of improving English mentoring were discussed.