Recently, I’ve been reading up on the trend in Korea of replacing English teachers with robots. Proponents are quick to point out that the children are really excited about it and that interacting with a robot might be easier for the shy students in class. They mention that the robots only need routine maintenance and will never ask for a raise or complain about work conditions. Also, the robots are programmed with games and music that they can “dance” to (it was in quotes in the article I read).
It’s time for a rant. I don’t even know where to begin on this one, as I find it such a monumentally stupid concept. I suppose before I really get into it I should acknowledge that some have asserted that the robots are not meant as a replacement for teachers and are only there to enhance the education experience. Also, this is only happening in a very small group of schools in Korea, so it’s not like there is a giant robot uprising that will see the end of my career, or my life, by next year. I am aware of all of this, but it makes the notion no less ridiculous.
First, a little bit about the robots. The worst I’ve seen appear to be little less than walking trashcans fitted with voice recognition software, and we all know that that is flawless. At best, the robots are actually controlled by a real person in the Philippians, who can see, hear, and speak with the children. Even then, however, there are a few problems. The first is the design choice to not show the actual teacher’s face on the monitor, but a generic Caucasian one. Why do that? I also have to assume that the range of vision for the teacher is rather limited and those robots, streamlined as they are, might not turn all that quickly. Can children goof off behind their robo-teacher’s back? And what if they do? What if there’s a fight or somebody gets hurt? Even if the teacher can take action, by calling the school for instance, the fact remains that a real person would be able to react faster to an emergency. Which brings me to my last point: if you’re going to hire a person from the Philippians to control your robot and run your English class, why not just hire him or her to teach at your school? There are so many more benefits for your students to having an actual person teach them, which I will discuss below.
Looking beyond the specifics of the robots in question, there are still several glaring flaws with this plan. The first and most obvious is the artifice of it all. I wonder what Korean schools that have taken this approach feel the purpose of English instruction is. If they feel it’s to interact with foreigners in any capacity, which I have to assume they do, then they are doing a disservice to these kids. While it may be true that interacting with a robot is easier for shy students, it is not helping them with their problem, only substituting in a weak alternative. Case in point, I was far more willing to play around with the robots at Canal City in Fukuoka than I was to approach a Japanese person and start up a conversation. Pushing panels on a touch screen, however, in no way changed my outlook on spontaneous human interaction. The only thing that has changed that is talking to real people. I’ve got my fair share of shy students and I try my best to show them that talking to me doesn’t have to be intimidating. Can the robots crouch down to speak to younger students? Can they smile in a way that isn’t creepy as all sin? Can they give a thumbs up or do anything to actively interact with kids beyond speaking to them? It certainly doesn’t seem that way.
As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog, my relationship with my students extends beyond the classroom. I go to community events, sports practice, games, other classes, and chat with my students during passing period. These robots seem incapable of doing any of that and honestly those are the times I feel my students really need me here. My JTEs have told me on more than one occasion that the students are very good with recycling material but have trouble with original thought and creativity. It’s not really surprising when you see how many junior high classes are run, with students learning a grammar point then translating a page in their book to Japanese and maybe, if there is time, coming up with a single sentence of their own. My time with them outside class is unscripted. I can potentially ask them about anything, and they have to really think about what they are able to say and how they can answer me. There is also this strange phenomenon I’ve noticed where children will use English when I’m around even when they aren’t talking to me. I’ve heard kids use “thank you”, “I’m sorry”, count and do all manner of other things in English when talking to each other. Well, all of that’s gone for these Korean kids, because there robot teacher is likely to only show up for class, teach the lesson, and go offline so that the person controlling it can go teach at another school remotely or maybe just collect their check and be done, I don’t know.
There is so much more about this that gets under my skin, but I’ve hit the main points, so I’ll just rapid fire a couple more here. I just love how proud these people are that their robot is programmed with games. You know who else is? Me and any other teacher you could hire. The difference being we can change our games to accommodate different skill levels and we can make up new games on the fly. But the number one detriment is the loss of any relationship between teacher and student. I know I’ve got a few students who try hard or do extra work because they want to talk to me and get to know me. I’m here partly as an example of the bare minimum English skills can get you, a new friend. Robots might be neat and the kids might find them interesting in the same way as a new toy, but it just isn’t the same.
All right, getting off my soapbox. I’m done.
You raise a lot of really good points. I'm guessing that the reason is largely that people in the Philippines are cheaper to hire than a foreigner from a first-world country who expects a decent wage to live on, insurance, etc. Of course, that raises the question, how much does it cost to create and then maintain these robots? What do you do if one breaks down/goes on the fritz? If it operates on an OS, it will probably crash and have issues... what about lag/camera feed lag issues? Basically, I think people aren't looking at the long-term things, or even realistically thinking about the technical difficulties they'll face, just the novelty of being able to say "hey, look what we're doing!" I think that if they had the robots as some kind of secondary thing to have around when the ALT can't be there, that would be great. If kids aren't afraid to interact with the robot, any continual use/practice with English would benefit them, so long as they're still getting real, spontaneous interaction.
ReplyDeleteAs far as disciplinary issues go.. Yeah, Idk, maybe they still have a teacher go sit in on the class and make sure the kids behave themselves. I have no idea how Korean schools do disciplinary action,though, but it seems to me like.. a lot of the time (well, okay, maybe only half of my teachers, but that's still *a lot*) effective classroom management isn't happening anyway. I spent an entire class period yesterday trying to shout over my third years who simply would not stop talking. Although I suspect some of that had to do with excitement because of the break, some of it's because that teacher struggles to project authority to the kids. It happens a fair amount with the women teachers and younger teachers in general; I was only finally able to get them to cooperate when I stopped what I was doing, looked irritated, and told them point blank I wasn't going to try to talk over them. (That also raises issues of what do you do if the kids need the word slowed down, better enunciated, or if the volume can't go up any further.) Hopefully teachers aren't mistaking the "no need for a teacher" to mean "no need for an authority figure, or I'd guess you'll be right, and there's going to be a lot of anarchy in these English classes.
...Oh and. This is probably really bad, but I just couldn't help but picture some kind of robot-Skynet-esque freakout in in all of these Korean schools, ala this video:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.collegehumor.com/video/6438967/jeopardy-supercomputer-becomes-self-aware