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Volume 8 Number 3, Autumn 2011, Pages 1-270   


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Native English-Speaking Teachers' Quandary: What to Do with So Many Students?

    Christian Youngwan Shin


The perspectives of native English-speaking teachers are considered with respect to teaching relatively large groups of engineering and computer science students in General English courses at a Korean university. As problems related to class size are examined from the teachers' point of view through semi-structured interviews, it affords a rare occasion to hear what they really have to say about one issue which is continually identified as a major obstacle to teaching English as a foreign language. Considering that it may not be feasible to substantially reduce class size at most two-year colleges and four-year universities in Korea owing to financial constraints, remedies for minimizing the effect of large class size on English education are probed through the lens of the teachers. These remedies can certainly help address the problems encountered in big classes at the university in question and could possibly alleviate problems associated with large class size at other institutions in Korea and elsewhere with similar educational contexts.

Keywords: class size, native English teachers, teacher perceptions, classroom management, EFL teaching