The Interplay between Teachers’ Innovative Language Switch and Learning Development

This presentation explores the rising number of bicultural and bilingual English teachers’ and their interest in teaching English (L2) to Korean Primary school students. The related teachers being talked in this presentation are the second-generation Korean-Americans, Korean-British, Korean-Canadians or gyopos (in Korean), who hope to establish a new pillar in the EFL teaching community which offers a new way of understanding effective bicultural and bilingual education. On the basis of the gyopos’ dynamic, flexible and expandable identity construct (Kumaravadivelu, 2008) while traversing between two homes (the West and East) and around the world, they have inhabited the two worlds simultaneously, and show great potential to evolve culturally. This is to say that gyopos embrace both the Korean and Western heritages and languages. Positively, the mutual cultural and linguistic ties with their students can contribute to an effective and enjoyable EFL teaching and learning environment. Further, the culture and identity exchange within the teacher-student relationship can be discovered where the students vicariously experience both worlds through the eyes and stories of their gyopo teachers. With all of this considered, there is hope that gyopos may bring out the best of each world they are affiliated to which can positively reinforce the learners to widen the foreign cultural arena in their minds and strengthen the linguistic ability for both L1 and L2 simultaneously. In the long run, the young children learners can acquire L2 more efficiently through the increased bilingual focused education system, in addition to adopting the essential globalized trend of embracing national and cultural differences at an early age. The key ingredient to this presentation is the fair balance and creative use of dual language input by the gyopo teachers in the classrooms. It is vital, however, more studies should be undertaken, to confirm the positive and practical attributes which gyopos offer. The results would contribute to a further enhancement of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Korea, with the specific aim of developing creative and efficient bilingual teaching methods.