South Korean students' motivation to study English drops as use of AI tools rises: Report
An increasing number of middle school students in South Korea are asking whether they need to study English at all, now that artificial intelligence (AI) can do the work for them.
A new government report shows a clear drop in student motivation to learn English, and education officials posit that the widespread use of AI-powered translation apps is playing a key role.
According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Achievement, released on July 22 by South Korea's Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, just 61.3 per cent of third-year middle school students ( roughly Secondary 3 in Singapore ) said they are 'highly motivated' to study English.
That marks a drop of 2.5 percentage points from 2023.
The report also found that fewer students see English as valuable for their academic or professional futures.
In 2023, 73.1 per cent of surveyed students said they believed English was a 'highly worthwhile' subject. That number dropped to 69.6 per cent in 2024.
The 2024 survey drew responses from a nationally representative sample of 27,606 middle and high school students.
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Classroom teachers say the change is palpable.
Many students now complete homework assignments by plugging English sentences into translation apps like Naver's Papago or OpenAI's ChatGPT.
One Seoul teacher told researchers that students who returned from overseas trips and showed a renewed interest in learning English now heavily rely on AI tools, feeling less need to improve their skills on their own.
An official from the Education Ministry put it this way: 'In Korea, English has mostly been something you study to pass exams, not something you actually use. That's always been a challenge.'
'But now, with AI tools handling translation so easily, some students are asking themselves why they need to study at all. The ones who already lacked confidence in English are the first to give up, and over time, that might widen the learning gap,' he added. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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