Korean Job Discussion Forums

[m8888888]

I just started teaching at a public high school. It's a vocational high school, so the students are at a very low English level, and don't have a lot of incentive to learn English. In a lot of my classes, the kids are apathetic, don't try, and don't care. If I try planning any activities they do on their own, they don't do them. They just talk with their partner in Korean, or sit there. Which I totally understand- if I had to go to school from 8am-9pm, I'd be tired and wouldn't care, either. But since I'm the teacher, I want to get them involved. What's the secret, all you great teachers out there?! How do you get students involved and interested?! I can't imagine singing or playing games with them, stuff I always liked doing in high school French class.

[ChuckECheese]

[Mark7]

Dude, or (dudette),

I'm totally in your boat. A few of my classes are very difficult to do because these kids don't care one lick. I also teach Freshmen at my high school, and so I have kids who are still middle-schoolish and still don't care. So, the experience is humbling at first because you think these kids are enthusiastic to meet a foreign teacher, but they really don't want to do anything except go home.

They don't do my homework, so I made them do a pop quiz to see if they studied their dialog from last week.

So, don't feel bad, because I felt the same thing today, these kids were apathetic and cared for nothing during today's lesson, and they feel like they do not need to listen to me because I'm the "way-gook-in." I try to do games that get the entire class involved, and don't do what I did last week and try to do a game where the class has to watch a few kids do it, because they don't give a darn to watch and just talk in Korean.

My biggest advice is to keep teaching it through, never stop, and only stop if there are kids that are disrupting the class. I also feel for them too, I once was a high school kid who did not care either. But you'll be surprised, there are a few that do care and they are worth teaching. Also, be loud and use a strong tone of voice, and use hand motions to draw them together. Sometimes, I whisper words so they can guess what they are trying to say to you.

Good luck.

[formerflautist]

Lots of games. Keep them interested and force them to speak. I made a modified version of Taboo that my students love. Try teaching practical English dialogue and forcing them to memorize. I'm going to try out them making their own comics today and see what they come up with. The best thing is just to push through it.

[merkurix]

[Pak Yu Man]

Let's see.

Korean mixes the advanced students with the idiots. It also doesn't matter if you pass or fail. You'll still pass. Korean schools won't hold a student back a year, so why would a lazy twit even try to do the work when he'll pass no matter what?

[jvalmer]

In one of my 1st year middle school classes, there is a 17 year old. I haven't really noticed the kid. Probably one of the taller ones. I'm not sure if he has been held back a few years, retarded, or maybe just didn't go to school for a few years. My co-teacher just told me about him and she won't give me much details, because she isn't sure.

[Hollywoodaction]

[oneofthesarahs]

I've found that older students really like pictionary. Start them off with concrete words like car, school, hamburger, etc. Then you can move on to more abstract words like rich, smart, tall. The better they get, the more difficult you can make the words. It's not a good game to play all the time, but it's good for breaking the ice.

[jvalmer]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I'm going to a vocational high school soon and this is a very interesting discussion.

My question is, Why do these kids need to study English in the first place? What is the goal of the school that kids on a vocational tract must study English?

My impression is that these are future cab drivers, welders, bartenders, and restaurant workers. If that's the case, could (or should) a course be built around those needs (i.e. skills basic enough to understand a foreigner when they encounter one)?

[Ekuboko]

[bosintang]

[Jizzo T. Clown]