First, take a breath. I have been here almost a year in an elementary school and I've experienced many difficulties.
The majority of students are taking English due to their parents rather than their own desire and there are no consequnces for their disregard or misbehaviour even in the public school system because they can't fail; they don't get sent to the office or calls home.
Translation and memorization are still the standard ways of learning in Korea unfortunately; I have also wanted to do more than this, but had a coteacher who controlled everything.
Do you have computer and tv or screen in your room to use powerpoint? Bomb games and quiz games are great ways to get them repeating things in a more amusing fashion. Can you turn any of the material into little songs using familiar tunes? Do they have dictionaries or does your classroom? You could have word search races in teams.
How many students? Can you arrange them into groups to facilitate such activities, maybe to mix up their levels if there are some better than others?
If you can have rewards like certificates to give out to the top individuals in a variety of categories every month and make charts in the classroom so they can see progress (award stickers for different things you want to see in the classroom). Koreans, even kids, are big on winning and doing better than others. Life is about looking good. It might catch on...
Have you talked to the other teachers in your school about their experiences?
Good Luck