Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alphakennyone]

I have five students. I teach them grammar, note-taking, reading, writing, and conversation over the course of five hours. Everyday.

It's not so bad, but the end of the class is conversation for 45 minutes, and the students are, understandably, a bit dead by that point. We're still in the first week together (seven weeks total), so maybe it's understandable, but I find myself making other parts of the lesson longer to have less of the conversation aspect. Any ideas to liven it up a bit?

[bnrockin]

come pre-prepared with topic lists with interesting topics. Maybe find an article to go with each topic for the class to read and debate. A website that helps me is http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/discuss.html. Lot's of interesting topics here that you normally wouldn't think of.

[Boodleheimer]

kenyon,
wow. can you change the schedule at all so that the conversation isn't at the end? make the end review or something?

-betakennyone

[cruisemonkey]

The 'secret' is to find out what interests them, and steer the conversation that way.

[passport220]

I just finished a class of adult English teachers. As other posters said it is a trick to get hit a topic that interests them (use current event stories) ��. To a point, if they get too involved in the discussion they will abandon English and go to Korean to make their point.

One thing I tried was to play a quiz game. Yeah, I was worried they would think it was immature and beneath them. I told them it was just for fun, and ask their permission. I gave out candy as prizes and everything. They loved it! Again, I made sure to explain to them from the �get go� that I respected them as mature adults and the game and candy was just for fun. They told me it was fine and not to worry about it. I also told them we would take our time on specific questions if people would like to discuss the subject matter. I highly recommend.

[Boodleheimer]

i had a super-awesome class once (how i miss them) - i gave each person a newspaper article in English on some 'human interest' story (not current events, since this project was over the course of weeks), gave them an assigned date when they would present the main themes of the article, give proper definitions of any difficult words, and provide discussion questions so that the whole class could get involved. it was also a class made up of lots of different nationalities, so the discussion often was on cultural differences (but i doubt that diverse a class is common here).

same could be done with websites instead of newspaper articles. or NGOs.

[postfundie]

screw that!!!!!...the trick is not so much to find a topic that interests them...(although this is a nice bonus when you come across it)..I've taught adults for over 5 years now. After the first 4 were over I decided to make a couple of Hard and fast rules for conversation classes. The first rule is that you NEVER give me gashdang one word answers. A simple 'yes' or a simple 'no' can kill conversations quicker than B.O. and bad breath can kill the mood on your first date. The second rule of conversation club is you do not break that rule. On the street do what you want..in conversation class you follow the rule. I used to focus on finding a topic they like. Forget it...then end up you are serving a bunch of picky pants and that sucks!!!!!

THere are other rules....

(the other suggestion here of moving the conversation part to the beginning sounds like winner to..)

[Ya-ta Boy]

[postfundie]

dude you can prep until you are blue in the face, but if they are not responding it's a lost cause! It's playing basketball with the brain dead...there must be life in them and they must pass the ball around, not just back to you but to each other. Do what ya ta boy says, tie it all together, but only if you have those rules in place. Otherwise picture yourself rolling a ball to someone mentally out of it and then everybody watching the ball slowly roll past on the floor. This is the average conversation class with students who are not talkative or who don't follow the rules...

[oneofthesarahs]

Can you give them a break before conversation begins? Coffee is cheap and plentiful in Korea. Maybe you can have students -and yourself- take turns making it (if you have access to a coffee pot) or buy it (cheap with only five students). Give them a while to chill and regain some energy.

[postfundie]

coffee for a caffenine break...good but then you run into that you pay I pay crap...

[shetan]

Also I found giving them facts, information and statistics about the topic your discussing gives them something to say.

If they dont know much about the topic they just sit there and go red. Cute but not conducive!!

[gweilo_farang]