It is undeniable that having fluent linguistic abilities has become one of the most competitive values in our globalized society. Korea University (KU), also aware of this fact, offers various second foreign language courses. However, because these courses are opened to all KU students, the level of student’s language skills differs greatly even within a single class. Eventually, some beginner level students, despite their hard work, have to give up receiving good grades.

The purpose of beginner’s foreign language classes is originally to educate students who have not learned a certain language. However, since there are no official restrictions on the requirements of the auditors, any students, including native speakers, exchange students, and students who excel in the certain language can register for these classes. Moreover, second foreign language courses make it a rule to evaluate students according to a relative grading system. As a result, students who have learned the language before mostly take over the higher scores while the beginners receive relatively lower scores.

▲ Photographed by Choi Ji Young

▲ Photographed by Choi Ji Young

She points out the problematic situation in which the school does not reinforce any restrictions on such beginner’s class to prevent victims like her. Most of all, students have the right to take any open courses unless they are restricted directly by the school’s administrative rules.

However, the school does not seem to realize the magnitude of the problem as much as the students do. Although KU’s Institute of Foreign Language Studies (IFLS) acknowledged this problematic situation, they did not find it a severe or urgent one. The supervisor of IFLS remarked that they do not keep numerical proof on how many students actually expressed complaints, and thus cannot state with certainty whether this is a serious issue. He further claimed that students’ receiving lower grades due to the relative grading system is not only a problem for foreign language courses but for all other courses that go along a relative grading system. He put an end to IFLS’s stance by stating that, unless the voice of students complaining about this problem is as aggressive, the school will not take any further consideration.

Overall, the school did not seem to take this issue into serious consideration since the students’ voice did not result in an uproar. Yet, as much as these courses are elementary level, the school must interfere to make sure that the students of the courses are also elementary level. There seems to be a need for students to move away from student online communities and voice their opinions directly to the school administrations. Especially, for students in the Division of Foreign Language and Literature, second foreign language courses are mandatory, meaning that these students have to take language courses reluctantly. Thus, it is comprehensible that students would rather register for a language they are acquainted with in order to earn an easy “A” grade without committing much time and effort. Continuosly, this problematic situation is producing victimized students calling for a need for KU to step up. Actually, this issue has been recognized by many KU students and professors in the past. So, along this line, professors have individually applied systems to prevent any more victims from appearing.

Professor Kim Seon Ukk (Spanish Language and Literature) admitted the fact that many non-beginners take beginner courses and tend to earn higher scores. “On the first day of class, I recommend to the fluent speakers to take other classes since this class will not be much help. However, it is not effective and there seems to be no concrete solution to this issue,” he says. However, as he thinks highly of the efforts beginner students commit to his class, he desires to evaluate students on a fair scale. To achieve this, he forms groups among beginner and non-beginner students, assigning group presentations in which they are evaluated as a whole.

“In course evaluations, many students complain that they got lower scores because of the fluent students. Especially in the case of all students having good attendance, it is difficult to give merits for the beginners,” says Professor Kwon Hee Joo (Japanese Language and Literature). She also recognizes the necessity for the school to find a solution, such as reinforcing placement tests that are currently applied to Academic English and Advanced English courses.

On lesson plans, professors write in special requirements for registering students notifying that native speakers are most recommended not to take the class. However, this precaution does not seem to be effective because it is not a unified system among KU professors. Therefore, students can still take courses which do not have specific restrictions. Students are aware that they will not receive any extreme disadvantages for taking such courses, which is why they just ignore such requirements.

“Although all second foreign language classes are to be based on relative grading, some classes with exceptionally few students are based on absolute grading. I heard that some professors move native speakers to these absolute gradingbased classes so other students do not receive any damage,” says Lee Sung Min (’12, Foreign Language and Literature). “However, even though the class I took was based on relative grading and the majority of students came from abroad, there were no adjustments made.”

Like this, although many professors are adapting their personal ways to minimize losses the beginners receive, it does not seem to be an ultimate solution. Unless a unified system is enforced by the school, a sound environment for both professors and students cannot be created.

In order to create an ideal environment there can be several solutions. First, the school should identify non-beginner students and recommend them to take classes suitable for their level. The school can if it is allowed, to explicitly identify non-beginners from beginner level students by checking students’ information which has the students’ nationality and what type of entrance exam the students took to enter KU. So, students who entered KU by their excellence in a foreign language must be restricted from taking beginner courses.

Another solution is to follow the method of English courses in which placement examinations are given to freshmen students. This system has come into action since this year in order to distinguish students according to their abilities in English. Currently, students who get assigned to the advanced English course are given exceptional benefits which stimulate them to do their best on the placement exams. Such benefits include being evaluated on an absolute grading system and being exempted from taking the English course in the 2nd semester. This will also stimalate the students who take second foreign language courses mandatorily to study efficiently as they are put in classes of their level.

Mostly, there is a need for students to change their perception. Students must be aware that the main purpose of taking courses is not merely to achieve good grades but is more to broaden one’s knowledge. It is the process of learning that should be weighed with more importance rather than the result. Students who exceed the level of beginners must recognize that taking elementary courses brings no benefit to them but simply becomes a waste of their time and money. Especially in recent times when high university tuition fees are becoming a continuing matter for our society, students must try to get the cream of the crop by taking courses that will truly bring betterment for them in the future. In tandem with the growing sense of students for “true learning,” it is most desirable for the school to make an effort to solve the issues surrounding second foreign language courses in order to minimize the losses of beginner students.