NAJU — Korea Institute of Energy Technology, known as KENTECH, is expanding a program that teaches English through science to students in Naju, South Jeolla Province.
The university said on the 15th that its English for Specific Purposes program, previously offered only to elementary school students in Naju, will extend to middle school students starting this year. ESP teaches English around a defined topic or goal. Students explore scientific themes such as energy and the climate crisis in English. The aim is to let them experience English as a tool for expressing ideas rather than a subject to be memorized.
Working with the Naju city government, KENTECH has run the ESP Leader's Club since October 2024 for students at 24 elementary schools in the city. This year it is launching ESP Energy Classroom for all grades at Bonghwang Middle School. The expansion from a program centered on elementary students to one that includes middle schoolers gives local students broader access to learning.
This year's elementary and middle school ESP classes run from the 21st through Nov. 14. One notable feature of the program is the involvement of KENTECH undergraduates. The students serve as teaching assistants, supporting small-group instruction and team activities. It amounts to a donation of educational talent, sharing the knowledge and experience they have gained at the university with students in the region.
The teaching assistants work closely with the students, guiding them to explore and express scientific topics such as energy, the climate crisis and future technologies in English. The approach lowers students' anxiety about English and builds experience in discussing their own interests in the language.
Students who have taken part previously have reported greater interest and confidence in learning English.
The ESP program has established itself as a model for sharing a university's teaching and research capabilities with the surrounding community. It has grown beyond an after-school English class into a platform where young people in the region develop scientific imagination alongside language skills, according to the university.
Park Jeong-young, the KENTECH professor who developed the program, said the expansion is significant because it carries ESP instruction from elementary students through to middle schoolers. "We will run a variety of programs so that students in the region can approach English easily and comfortably," the professor said.