How North Korea learns English

This article starts out with the program this school uses for learning to read ‘books in other languages’ but then when going into detail it all seems to be about English. Perhaps North Korea has the same situation happening where the word 외국어 (foreign language) is a near synonym for 영어(English). Either that or the article only focuses on the English program in the school. Given the number of North Koreans in neighboring China, I suspect they’re more likely to just send people out of the country for a few years instead of working on complex programs like these, though that’s only a guess.

Original article

North Korean gifted schools - let’s learn to read English like it’s our native language

In North Korea the movement for English reading centered on gifted schools is in full bloom.

In the latest edition of the North Korea educational newspaper, published May 31st and obtained on June the 12th, the example of Pyeongyang’s successful Jeil Middle School is given, saying that “Let’s raise the level of education at Jeil Middle School (both middle and high school curriculum) and raise larger numbers of brilliant students,” and that “Morale for reading texts in foreign languages has been put on firm footing.”

Jeil Middle School is a school where gifted students from each province, city and county gather, and out of those the most gifted gather at Pyeongyang Jeil Middle School.

Quoting Kim Jong-il in the educational newspaper, “Once a student graduates from Pyeongyang Jeil Middle School he or she must be able to read books from other countries,” and “What the phrase “being able to read books from other countries at will” implies is a level where the student is able to understand the text at the same time as it is being read.”

The newspaper stressed that “In order to create the ability to read English books just like you read your native language, in class not only must there be intensive reading of content to be learned from textbooks, but also an aggressive promotion of reading many books during extracurricular time as well.”

Following this, Pyeongyang Jeil Middle School has chosen books presented for reading class in accordance with such items as the students’ age, psychological character and vocabulary.

‘English extracurricular reading’ generally starts from grade 3, and the reading list changes by grade.

Books for grade three are selected from those made up of the daily vocabulary and relatively easy sentences learned during grades 1 and 2, such as ‘Little Tom’, ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’, ‘The Cat and the Dog’, and ‘Pele’.

In fourth grade the students read books with longer sentences such as ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘David Copperfield’, and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, and during the highest grades, fifth and sixth, the students are recommended to read original works on natural science.

With original works on natural sciences, Pyeongyang Jeil Middle School first increases the students’ ability through introductory works with vocabulary explanations and translation on the side such as ‘Conventional Scientific English’, ‘Scientific English Self-study Reader’ and ‘Scientific Technical English Q&A 100′, after which they are to read science textbooks from foreign middle and high schools.

In addition to this, the school gives questions both before and after reading in order to increase comprehension, guides the students in looking up important vocabulary, and takes careful care to keep a record of all books read by the students in the ‘read books’ record.

 The newspaper reported that “as a result of promoting the reading as an extracurricular activity, the reading ability of the students has reached a considerable level.”