Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gorf]

I'm starting a new job next week teaching adults. I've been in South Korea for almost 2 years, but I've only taught Korean children. I did some volunteer English teaching back home before I came to Korea, but I have never taught formally. I am hoping some people here might be able to give me tips about how to teach effectively to adults, attitudes, and how to deal with problems such as shy students or how to make students feel like they're getting their money's worth.

Some notes about these classes:
- No homework, but I can assign extra study work if I want to. What are some good ideas?
- Classes are 2 hours, with a 10 minute break in the middle. Good ideas on how to fill up time and make it valuable?
- 4 or fewer people per class. Is there any kind of dynamic here I can work off of?
- There is a very standard textbook we will use, but I'm not sure if the students want to go over the whole thing, such as the listening exercises. Do adult students get frustrated if some materials aren't used?

Basically I'm looking for someone to give me some pointers on how to help adults learn English better. This is a speaking class and my director wants me to just play it by ear, correct and make them feel like they are learning. Simple stuff, but I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. I don't want to just go over the book for 2 hours, but I am struggling to think of extra activities or topics we can discuss or do together. Anyone have any suggestions? Sorry if this is ramble-y, it's almost 6:00 AM.

[YTMND]

Depends on their level. When I taught Korean adults, they wanted to be in the same class regardless of their (mixed) levels.

The good thing is they usually then chose what they wanted to do since one book would not satisfy all of them. That is going to be your challenge. Sure, you can plan a lesson for kids, and the kids will follow you regardless if they know it or not. An adult that already knows the material will feel the class is a waste. But if they bring up something simple to talk about with lower level students, then your job is to be their social backboard. A lot of it rests on the higher level students to direct the class.

Another thing that comes up is that you will have 1 student who will talk for the rest, and then the other student or students will passively sit back and listen. Another one of them will be the vocabulary master while the speaker has a better grasp of the grammar and patterns to say. They get into this rut and are dependent on each other, they can't communicate unless the other is there.

I can't say I found a solution to this, but in high school classes and college classes I noticed something similar. In a class of 20-45 students, only 3 would talk while the others sat back even though they could answer. I divided the class into teams where each active speaker was a leader. They had to manage their team and get a "new person" to make a "new sentence".

Instead of having them write sentences, I had them make word lists. Then I introduced a word map and made up a story about their town.

If they can't make word lists, meaning their level is beginner or absolute beginner, you will need picture cards. You will also need to prepare sentence patterns in a very detailed manner compared to kids classes. Kids will listen and repeat, they won't care about the grammar or if it makes sense or not. Adults read, whisper to themselves, change the sentence, and then when they feel confident they might speak. Usually, they just sit back and wait for the "speaker" and compare what that person says with what they planned as an answer.

This means 2 things. One, they aren't interacting in a conversation, and you might be going too fast for them to finish making a sentence. You need to find a way in adult classes to get everyone taking turns.

Dialogues can help, sentence problems (like TOEIC questions), and paired activities. Schools always say "Play games", but this doesn't have much luck unless the students really know each other and can make jokes about each other. So, I usually hold off on playing games until they get a chance to get to know each other.

This is a good first lesson for high beginners. Get them talking about themselves with short introductions. Regular beginners could talk about every day routine activities (waking up, brushing teeth, going to work, shopping, etc...).

And last, use the book as a guide. You don't have to do every page, and you can stop at certain chapters, get online supplemental material so they aren't getting bored with the book work.

[nautilus]

[Zyzyfer]

Specifics first. I'm a bit rusty though.