Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyallen]

I just had a class where a student refused to play a game because he couldn't read. To be fair, what was written on the board were sentences I went over in class for 35 minutes.

My coteacher noticed that the student didn't get up when the other students did for the activity. So he asked him why and he wouldn't tell him (I guess he was embarrassed).

I know there are a few other students who can't read. I would offer to teach them how to read but right now my schedule is swamped with a total of 29 classes a week.

Anyone else had this sort of situation in their elementary, middle or high school? Any suggestions on how to bridge the gap?

Thanks,
Alyallen

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I have a new middle school student this year who can't read the simplist English words, either. I can sit down with her and go over cat - 갔, mat - 맜, show her S - ㅅ, and then show her 'sat', and she doesn't have clue what to say.

She's diagnosed learning disabled and has bigger problems to worry about than learning how to read English. My lessons will be pretty much a waste of time on her but sometimes it's necessary to accept one's limitations as a teacher.

[Alyallen]

[ddeubel]

I think both of you are providing perfect examples of one main weakness in Korean public school language education. THAT READING IS NOT STARTED AT A VERY YOUNG AGE.

Meaning, it doesn't have to mean a diet in the schools of strict phonics rather that teachers right from the first years, provide a good cross section of script in lessons and opportunities for students to work with script and "discover" reading. Too few teachers really provide the full complement of visual text for their lessons or indeed, within their class as charts, posters, decoration etc....

I would send these students to some basic phonics websites, to upgrade at home, if they have computer/internet access. Or how about the lab at your schools? They will be given extra time. It is just too time consuming for a teacher to take on this besides all the main courses.

I will upload shortly on the presentation section of my site, an audio book which follows each letter and associated pronounciations. Meant so that Korean teachers, short on pronounciation confidence can access it and use with their students. I also have on the video link, a whole series of videos , one for each letter, which phonetically provides context and fun for each letter. These are good, even for review.

DD

[Smee]

Yeah, reading isn't introduced until 4th grade, if you go by the standard public school syllabus. The thing is, phonics and the alphabet aren't introduced . . .reading small words is. So, unless the kid is getting extra help at home, s/he'll fall behind. I'd love to spend time actually getting the basics down, but apparently it's vital that we spend four class periods learning "Hello." But this semester I'm going to spend more time teaching letters and words. It's very irresponsible for teachers---whether English teachers or the homeroom teachers---to not teach the alphabet, since even looking around this small town I see tons of signage in English. And, unfortunately, if they don't learn it now, they're certainly not going to have middle school or high school teachers willing to help them.

Currently, most of my students can't read, even the 6th graders, which makes it hard to do the lessons. It made for a very frustrating few weeks (and for a very frustrating day today, when I walked into my new school and realized this . . . what the hell has been going on in the English classroom for the past 3 years?)

[/rant]

[Hanson]

I have had university students who can't read English...

[zappadelta]

[Alyallen]

I talked to my co teacher about that incident in class today. I asked him how many students can't read from the 3rd - 6th grade. He didn't know but he guessed that about 5 students in each class can't read. So that would be about 60 out of 360.

So we decided to create a reading test to determine the exact number and go from there. With firm numbers, hopefully something can be done to address this problem. If nothing else, if the results are bad enough then the school will have to do something about this....I hope...

Smee, it sounds like you are in the same boat as me. I really wished that students were put in English classes based on levels. I'm teaching remedial classes now and the kids are so much more animated in those classes where they are all at the same level, as opposed to when they are in their regular classes and just flounder.

DD, thanks for your input. I really am not sure of the options I have at this point. I teach 29 classes a week. I teach 3 remedial English classes on top of the 2 advanced classes and my regular 12 classes. I look forward to see the material you have available on your website. I will definitely share it with my students if it is possible.

Thanks for the replies, everyone!
Alyson

[some waygug-in]

[Sody]

Many of my students in elementary school can't read either. At first I didn't want to admit this but it's the hagwon students who do significantly better at English than the other students. Looks like someone at some hagwon somewhere is doing their jobs competently

Sody

[Alyallen]

[Sody]

Aly,

Not my regular students no. But my advanced class yes. Can't remember all the books I use but I teach them how to read the journals, letters and also some comic books that I brought in specially for those classes. My advanced classes I teach alone, no co-teachers. The main reason for why they aren't taught to read is that Koreans don't learn English via phonetics. They learn by memorizing words and trying to make sense of them. Since they don't read English books from elementary school and up they don't learn how to read.

The government books are garbage. I hate them, they suck so bad. I literally have to fight with the Korean teacher to do extra English. It sucks trying to be a good teacher in Korea. The culture forces you to be a bad one. Anyhow I posted this because I understand how you feel although I don't play games in my classes.

If you go to your local bookstore you can get Garfield comics that have simple phrases with the Korean translations at the bottom of each graphic. It's quite nice for learning and you can teach them sounds at a casual pace. So with one strip you can go over learning the several sounds that are easy for them to pronouce when you go over another comic strip later. It's great for reading and the students like comics as well.

Sody

[Alyallen]

My advance students can read. At least the ones I had last year definitely could. I haven't started the new advanced classes so I'm not quite sure how good they will be.

I am stuck with the dumb government books for now. I am also stuck with some stupid rules. I am teaching 3 remedial classes. The first class is a group of 1st and 2nd classes. The 1st graders aren't in the class yet but none of the 2nd graders can read. They know the ABC song but don't know what the corresponding letters are. So I ask, "Do I teach them how to write and how to read?" I get told, "No, teach them songs and games. Stuff like that." And this not at some hogwon this is at a school...after school but still a school.

I'm not one to give up but the more I think about this problem the more annoyed and helpless I feel to solve it....

[yingwenlaoshi]

I think it's a bad idea to use Korean writing to teach English reading.

This is "th" week for me.

Next week is "r" and "l" week.

Final "l". Oh boy!

Challegee brought to me by me.

[some waygug-in]

I agree. I don't do it either, and the reasons are many, including the one cited in my last post.

Aside from the various sounds in English which cannot be replicated by the hangeul script, they have been taught a set of "transliteration rules",
which are not based on how a word sounds exactly. They are based on some traditional Korean scholar's (who probably coudn't speak English)
notions of how English must be transliterated into hangeul. I think they have something to do with the Chinese characters as well. Koreans are told that "this is the way it is" and they don't question it.

Then when the average wayguk-in comes and says something like
'cat', they have no clue what was said because it sounds different than what they were taught.

The best is to get them doing some phonics with only English. That's the only way they're ever going to learn anything.



Rant over.