title: The teaching and learning of English at secondary school level in South Korea: The curriculum and its implementation

authors: Oh, Kyoungja

subjects: English language teaching in South Korea

abstract: This thesis explores the professional attitudes and practices of a sample of teachers of English in South Korean secondary schools in the context of a focus point-based analysis of the South Korean national curriculum and a sample of widely used textbooks.

There has been widespread criticism of the teaching of English in South Korea since the curriculum reforms that were first manifested in the 6th national curriculum. That curriculum, later superseded by the 7th national curriculum and a number of curriculum amendments, was the first major attempt to respond on a national level to the impact of globalisation and, in particular, to the rapidly increasing use throughout the world of English as a lingua franca.

At the core of the research reported here is language teacher cognition. The backgrounds, beliefs, attitudes and professional practices of a sample of Korean teachers of English in secondary schools are explored using a mixed methods approach that combines questionnaire-based surveys and semi-structured interviews with classroom observation. Surrounding and contextualising this aspect of the research is analysis of the 7th South Korean national curriculum as it relates to English and a sample of English language textbooks used in South Korean secondary schools.

Problems associated with the teaching and learning of English in South Korean schools have been widely attributed to three main factors - teachers’ lack of an adequate level of oral proficiency in English, the fact that the national examination system is inconsistent with the general direction of teaching reforms, and student resistance to communicatively-orientated teaching. The findings of this research project suggest that although these issues are very real ones, there are other issues which are of equal or greater significance but which have been the subject of very little criticism. The first of these is the nature of the national curriculum itself. Close analysis of the 7th national curriculum documentation uncovered a number of critical issues associated with the authors’ interpretation of some of the literature in the area of communicatively-orientated language teaching along with a number of internal inconsistencies. These things, taken together, were found to result in an overall lack of transparency and coherence. The second problem identified relates to the nature of the textbooks which are made available to teachers. The authors of the textbooks analysed as part of this research project had clearly attempted to be as faithful as possible to the curriculum, selecting much of their content directly from lists of decontextualised phrases and sentences that appear in appendices to the curriculum document and providing, in teachers’ guides, actual lesson scripts in English which are, in some cases, accompanied by anticipated student utterances (which are uncannily correct and/ or appropriate).

In view of all of this, it was not surprising to find that many of the teachers who took part in this research project indicated that they were struggling to cope with what they believed was expected of them. What was surprising was the nature of the language lessons that were analysed. It is widely claimed that grammar translation is still practised in parts of Asia, including South Korea. However, grammar translation was not in evidence in these lessons. Nor were audio-lingual methodology or any of the various manifestations of communicative language teaching. Although each of the lessons was very different, what they shared was a sense of theatre in which the teachers, generally occupying centre stage, seemed concerned, above all, to demonstrate their own oral proficiency in English.

The South Korean government has spent a vast amount of money in an attempt to resolve problems associated with the teaching and learning of English. Much of that money has been spent on providing in-service teacher training opportunities. However, unless the problems relating to the nature of the curriculum documentation itself are resolved, it seems unlikely that any of that expenditure will result in a significant change for the better.

text: The teaching and learning of English at secondary school level in South Korea: The curriculum and its implementation This thesis explores the professional attitudes and practices of a sample of teachers of English in South Korean secondary schools in the context of a focus point-based analysis of the South Korean national curriculum and a sample of widely used textbooks.

There has been widespread criticism of the teaching of English in South Korea since the curriculum reforms that were first manifested in the 6th national curriculum. That curriculum, later superseded by the 7th national curriculum and a number of curriculum amendments, was the first major attempt to respond on a national level to the impact of globalisation and, in particular, to the rapidly increasing use throughout the world of English as a lingua franca.

At the core of the research reported here is language teacher cognition. The backgrounds, beliefs, attitudes and professional practices of a sample of Korean teachers of English in secondary schools are explored using a mixed methods approach that combines questionnaire-based surveys and semi-structured interviews with classroom observation. Surrounding and contextualising this aspect of the research is analysis of the 7th South Korean national curriculum as it relates to English and a sample of English language textbooks used in South Korean secondary schools.

Problems associated with the teaching and learning of English in South Korean schools have been widely attributed to three main factors - teachers’ lack of an adequate level of oral proficiency in English, the fact that the national examination system is inconsistent with the general direction of teaching reforms, and student resistance to communicatively-orientated teaching. The findings of this research project suggest that although these issues are very real ones, there are other issues which are of equal or greater significance but which have been the subject of very little criticism. The first of these is the nature of the national curriculum itself. Close analysis of the 7th national curriculum documentation uncovered a number of critical issues associated with the authors’ interpretation of some of the literature in the area of communicatively-orientated language teaching along with a number of internal inconsistencies. These things, taken together, were found to result in an overall lack of transparency and coherence. The second problem identified relates to the nature of the textbooks which are made available to teachers. The authors of the textbooks analysed as part of this research project had clearly attempted to be as faithful as possible to the curriculum, selecting much of their content directly from lists of decontextualised phrases and sentences that appear in appendices to the curriculum document and providing, in teachers’ guides, actual lesson scripts in English which are, in some cases, accompanied by anticipated student utterances (which are uncannily correct and/ or appropriate).

In view of all of this, it was not surprising to find that many of the teachers who took part in this research project indicated that they were struggling to cope with what they believed was expected of them. What was surprising was the nature of the language lessons that were analysed. It is widely claimed that grammar translation is still practised in parts of Asia, including South Korea. However, grammar translation was not in evidence in these lessons. Nor were audio-lingual methodology or any of the various manifestations of communicative language teaching. Although each of the lessons was very different, what they shared was a sense of theatre in which the teachers, generally occupying centre stage, seemed concerned, above all, to demonstrate their own oral proficiency in English.

The South Korean government has spent a vast amount of money in an attempt to resolve problems associated with the teaching and learning of English. Much of that money has been spent on providing in-service teacher training opportunities. However, unless the problems relating to the nature of the curriculum documentation itself are resolved, it seems unlikely that any of that expenditure will result in a significant change for the better.

year: 2016

title: Processing of Hemp Fibre Using Enzyme/Fungal Treatment for Composites

authors: Li, Yan

subjects: Fibre

abstract: Hemp fibres compete very well with glass fibres in terms of their specific strength and stiffness and so can replace glass fibres as reinforcement in composites. Combining them with thermoplastics results in potentially cheap recyclable composite materials. The adhesion between the hemp fibre and thermoplastics such as polypropylene is a major factor in the mechanical properties of the composite. Interfacial bonding can be improved by modifications to the fibres, the matrix or both the fibres and the matrix. The aim of this thesis was to investigate low cost and efficient fibre treatment methods with low environmental impact such as bag retting and white rot fungi, and chelator/enzyme treatments which could be applied to hemp fibre in order to create better bonding fibre for potentially recyclable composite materials. 
	
Bag retting was carried out by keeping fresh green hemp fibres in a sealed plastic bag for 1 to 2 weeks to allow natural retting to occur under sealed conditions. For white rot fungi treatments, the dried non-retted hemp fibres were gamma irradiated, and then inoculated with white rot fungi for 2 weeks. Chelator/enzyme treatment was achieved by immersing the fresh green non-retted hemp fibres in solutions consisting of either EDTMP.Na5 (ethylene diamine tetra (methylene phosphonic acid pentasodium salt) or pectinase (P2401) and laccase (53739) for 6 hours.

Several characterization techniques, namely wet chemical analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fibre density testing, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential and single fibre tensile testing were used to assess the effect of treatment on hemp fibres. Wet chemical analysis and FT-IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present in untreated and treated hemp fibres and showed all treatments removed non-cellulosic compounds from hemp fibre. The separation of untreated and treated fibres was investigated by visual inspection. An examination of surface morphology of hemp fibres carried out using SEM revealed that all treated fibres had cleaner hemp surfaces than untreated ones. The fibre density testing showed that the treated fibre had higher density than untreated fibre. XRD was carried out to assess modification of the crystallinity of fibres and the results showed hemp fibre crystallinity index increased in all treated fibres. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to obtain the activation energies and relative thermal stability of fibres, and indicated that all treatments improved fibre thermal stability. Zeta potential indicated that all treated fibres were more hydrophilic than untreated fibre. Single fibre tensile testing was used to obtain the tensile strength of untreated and treated fibres and it was found that the tensile strength of all treated fibres was reduced.

Short fibre composites were produced by extrusion and injection moulding. Fibres, polypropylene (PP) and a maleated polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent were compounded using a twin-screw extruder, and then injection moulded into composite tensile test specimens. It was found that all fibre treatments increased the tensile strength of composites. White rot fungi Schizophyllum commune (S.com) treated fibre gave the highest tensile strength of 45 MPa, an increase of 28% compared to composites using untreated fibre. Both the single fibre pull-out test and the Bowyer and Bader model were used to determine the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of untreated fibre and S.com treated fibre composites. The results obtained from both methods showed that IFSS of the treated fibre composites was higher than that for untreated fibre composites. This supports that the hemp fibre interfacial bonding with PP was improved by white rot fungi treatment. The Bowyer and Bader model was also used to calculate the tensile strength of untreated and S.com treated short fibre composites and results closely match the experimentally values.

text: Processing of Hemp Fibre Using Enzyme/Fungal Treatment for Composites Hemp fibres compete very well with glass fibres in terms of their specific strength and stiffness and so can replace glass fibres as reinforcement in composites. Combining them with thermoplastics results in potentially cheap recyclable composite materials. The adhesion between the hemp fibre and thermoplastics such as polypropylene is a major factor in the mechanical properties of the composite. Interfacial bonding can be improved by modifications to the fibres, the matrix or both the fibres and the matrix. The aim of this thesis was to investigate low cost and efficient fibre treatment methods with low environmental impact such as bag retting and white rot fungi, and chelator/enzyme treatments which could be applied to hemp fibre in order to create better bonding fibre for potentially recyclable composite materials. 
	
Bag retting was carried out by keeping fresh green hemp fibres in a sealed plastic bag for 1 to 2 weeks to allow natural retting to occur under sealed conditions. For white rot fungi treatments, the dried non-retted hemp fibres were gamma irradiated, and then inoculated with white rot fungi for 2 weeks. Chelator/enzyme treatment was achieved by immersing the fresh green non-retted hemp fibres in solutions consisting of either EDTMP.Na5 (ethylene diamine tetra (methylene phosphonic acid pentasodium salt) or pectinase (P2401) and laccase (53739) for 6 hours.

Several characterization techniques, namely wet chemical analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fibre density testing, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential and single fibre tensile testing were used to assess the effect of treatment on hemp fibres. Wet chemical analysis and FT-IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present in untreated and treated hemp fibres and showed all treatments removed non-cellulosic compounds from hemp fibre. The separation of untreated and treated fibres was investigated by visual inspection. An examination of surface morphology of hemp fibres carried out using SEM revealed that all treated fibres had cleaner hemp surfaces than untreated ones. The fibre density testing showed that the treated fibre had higher density than untreated fibre. XRD was carried out to assess modification of the crystallinity of fibres and the results showed hemp fibre crystallinity index increased in all treated fibres. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to obtain the activation energies and relative thermal stability of fibres, and indicated that all treatments improved fibre thermal stability. Zeta potential indicated that all treated fibres were more hydrophilic than untreated fibre. Single fibre tensile testing was used to obtain the tensile strength of untreated and treated fibres and it was found that the tensile strength of all treated fibres was reduced.

Short fibre composites were produced by extrusion and injection moulding. Fibres, polypropylene (PP) and a maleated polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent were compounded using a twin-screw extruder, and then injection moulded into composite tensile test specimens. It was found that all fibre treatments increased the tensile strength of composites. White rot fungi Schizophyllum commune (S.com) treated fibre gave the highest tensile strength of 45 MPa, an increase of 28% compared to composites using untreated fibre. Both the single fibre pull-out test and the Bowyer and Bader model were used to determine the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of untreated fibre and S.com treated fibre composites. The results obtained from both methods showed that IFSS of the treated fibre composites was higher than that for untreated fibre composites. This supports that the hemp fibre interfacial bonding with PP was improved by white rot fungi treatment. The Bowyer and Bader model was also used to calculate the tensile strength of untreated and S.com treated short fibre composites and results closely match the experimentally values.

year: 2009

title: Kei hea te tangi a te Tūī? An exploration of Kaitiakitanga in urban spaces

authors: Walker, Erana

subjects: Kaitiakitanga

abstract: Indigenous people’s connection to the natural world differs from place to place. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Māori connection to nature is often articulated through the concept of kaitiakitanga whilst intertwining concepts of whakapapa, wairua, mana, mauri and place. Kaitiakitanga captures the relationships, narratives and practices that Māori utilise to protect kin of the natural environment as well as Māori communities in general. Over recent decades increase use of kaitiakitanga with respect to resource management has been linked to ideas of guardianship and stewardship, departing from important aspects such as place, whakapapa, intergenerational knowledge, spirituality and resource use. Calls to recognise the diverse ways kaitiakitanga has and can be expressed by Māori have echoed through academic literature, encouraging wider perspectives and application of the concept to develop. This has reinvigorated not only the need for natures protection but also the recognition of cultural knowledges and concepts in practicing kaitiakitanga. 
 
As with most indigenous people, Māori have experienced urbanisation that has spanned across generations of whānau and hapū. Urbanisation has the ability to challenge health outcomes, cultural practices and cultural knowledge, and more importantly, relationships to nature. Growing urbanisation and environmental degradation continue to challenge people and our relationships to nature. There is now a need to understand how urban spaces may also challenge the concepts that encourage connections to nature like kaitiakitanga. Moreover, there is a need to understand if such cultural concepts can become challenged when transient Māori reside in another tribal group’s boundaries. This research provides a deeper analysis of kaitiakitanga by understanding its application within the urban space of Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. From data gathered through a survey, focus groups and interviews, this research project illustrates the experiences of Māori in the urban space who know and practice kaitiakitanga in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. More importantly, this study posits the integral role of place connection and mana in supporting and shaping kaitiakitanga practices in urban spaces.

The data from participants shows a clear narrative of kaitiakitanga from both local and transient Māori exist and indicates that kaitiakitanga is practiced in accordance with their location and whakapapa to their area of residence. The study has found that kaitiakitanga practices have adapted to suit urban spaces allowing for both transient and local knowledges to exist within the urban space. The key findings of this research show many influences that impact kaitiakitanga practices like the recognition of childhood spaces and experiences, ideas of kinship, cultural knowledges, spirituality, mobility, nature as well as modernisation. Through exploring participants use and knowledge of kaitiakitanga, this research provides a new lens in which to view this concept and bring to the fore, the various experiences and ways that participants connect to place, people, culture and most importantly, nature.

text: Kei hea te tangi a te Tūī? An exploration of Kaitiakitanga in urban spaces Indigenous people’s connection to the natural world differs from place to place. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Māori connection to nature is often articulated through the concept of kaitiakitanga whilst intertwining concepts of whakapapa, wairua, mana, mauri and place. Kaitiakitanga captures the relationships, narratives and practices that Māori utilise to protect kin of the natural environment as well as Māori communities in general. Over recent decades increase use of kaitiakitanga with respect to resource management has been linked to ideas of guardianship and stewardship, departing from important aspects such as place, whakapapa, intergenerational knowledge, spirituality and resource use. Calls to recognise the diverse ways kaitiakitanga has and can be expressed by Māori have echoed through academic literature, encouraging wider perspectives and application of the concept to develop. This has reinvigorated not only the need for natures protection but also the recognition of cultural knowledges and concepts in practicing kaitiakitanga. 
 
As with most indigenous people, Māori have experienced urbanisation that has spanned across generations of whānau and hapū. Urbanisation has the ability to challenge health outcomes, cultural practices and cultural knowledge, and more importantly, relationships to nature. Growing urbanisation and environmental degradation continue to challenge people and our relationships to nature. There is now a need to understand how urban spaces may also challenge the concepts that encourage connections to nature like kaitiakitanga. Moreover, there is a need to understand if such cultural concepts can become challenged when transient Māori reside in another tribal group’s boundaries. This research provides a deeper analysis of kaitiakitanga by understanding its application within the urban space of Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. From data gathered through a survey, focus groups and interviews, this research project illustrates the experiences of Māori in the urban space who know and practice kaitiakitanga in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. More importantly, this study posits the integral role of place connection and mana in supporting and shaping kaitiakitanga practices in urban spaces.

The data from participants shows a clear narrative of kaitiakitanga from both local and transient Māori exist and indicates that kaitiakitanga is practiced in accordance with their location and whakapapa to their area of residence. The study has found that kaitiakitanga practices have adapted to suit urban spaces allowing for both transient and local knowledges to exist within the urban space. The key findings of this research show many influences that impact kaitiakitanga practices like the recognition of childhood spaces and experiences, ideas of kinship, cultural knowledges, spirituality, mobility, nature as well as modernisation. Through exploring participants use and knowledge of kaitiakitanga, this research provides a new lens in which to view this concept and bring to the fore, the various experiences and ways that participants connect to place, people, culture and most importantly, nature.

year: 2021