Korean Job Discussion Forums

pear_thumb · Joined: 13 May 2007 Location: Near-ish to Seoul

I don't think that this topic has come up here at least in the near searchable past, so I'm curious--for those of you who have taught an English class for Korean English teachers, what did you do?

I have been told I need to teach a twice-weekly (!!!!) class for the co-teachers in my public school. Except...there are no guidelines nor any past model to follow. And the instructions I've managed to glean have been spotty at best, so I'm wondering what other experience dave's readers might have had teaching other teachers? Any advice? Any clues what the general Korean principal would be expecting with a teachers' class?

[I'm almost ready to say maybe "once a week"--not more.]

There has been mention of "articles" and "books" and "discussion" but what this all actually means for me, the teacher, I'm not entirely sure. For the most basic: I had an idea that it might be an excellent time to run my lesson plans by the rest of the teachers, but in terms of actually teaching them something...um, eh?

For the moment, I'm more concerned with getting my bearing in the classes with students, so any ideas of what others have done with a class for other teachers would be most appreciated! I'm imagining it's really just a thing the principal would like to see happening, but that actual results (aka lesson plans w/ success) are really not necessary.

Weigh in if you will.

Thanks.

Scouse Mouse · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Location: Cloud #9

I found that the teachers only want to be treated like any other student in Korea. They want situational dialogue with some new vocab, and like to have a script to follow. Ask (most) of them to think creatively and they will complain that it is too difficult or they will use some other excuse to avoid any chance that they may "get it wrong". My favourite was "I don't understand him as he does not sound American". This is despite the instructions being on display via a powerpoint presentation!

I stuck with a set format for the lessons and they came along as happy as could be. Everytime I deviated from a set format (Vocab, sample script, fill in the blanks, practice with partners) I lost students. I also lost students whenever I corrected pronunciation. This was a good thing. By the end of term I had 3 students who truly wanted to learn and the rest had become "too busy".

For the last 2 weeks (when they truly were too busy) I had just one teacher show. She was great! Whenever she realised we were alone she asked for "free conversation" and we just talked about our social lives and our plans for summer vacation. She was the model student though. She took to listening to the BBC world service so that she could better understand me (yeah right) and loved to be corrected on sentence structure, grammar, and pronunciation. Most of the other teachers would look at me like I was daft if I dared to correct their Englishee!

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Scouse,

My experience (and continued experience) is quite the opposite. I don't mean this in any negative sense, vis a vis what you wrote. All depends on the situation, dynamics, school, admin, people, time of day, whether.....

But I found that you need to offer adults choice. Many studies confirm this, the world over and it is a standard truism of teaching adults. Survey them about what they want to learn.

Also my advice. Keep it light and personal. They want to talk about their own interests even more so than students. Adults need to see that what is being discussed applies to their lives/experience, even more so than passive (for the most part) younger learners.

I have a few surveys. wished this bloody Dave's allowed you to upload them....ugh.....surveys to be used with adult learners to see what they really think about their own learning/needs. They really do appreciate being asked. Andrew Finch , a prof. at Daegu of teachers, has a great book for teachers, called Teacher's reflections. Find it on my site or at www.finchpark.com/books/

DD

PS> personally I have success with a lot of variation. Structure through the side by side powerpoints on my site, conversation games/activities then other multi media games or songs when they get tired. ...

Scouse Mouse · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Location: Cloud #9

When I first started teaching teachers, I was very keen to do so. I saw it as a way to introduce some variation as my regular classes mostly involve listen, repeat, and practice...

I asked during the first class what they expected, and was met with a wall of blank stares. I then tried a number of different things and asked for feedback after each class. More stares...

Finally, I joined a site with conversational lesson plans. I tried one of them and they loved it. They asked that we do the same thing every week. It is pretty boring, but they seem happy with it.

I tried a few things from your site and whilst they are great for my childrens afterschool classes, they did not work with the group of adults I had to teach. I can not figure out why the dynamics of my particular group are so different to your experiences, but I wish they were not. Perhaps it had something to do with them all being female, or some other 'korean' thing!

ceesgetdegrees · Joined: 12 Jul 2007

Well in my experience, they are a complete and utter joke and a waste of my and their time. Most korean teachers resent the fact that you are in their school, let alone having to spend time learning english. Most korean teachers i have worked with have really low english speaking ability. It's just a waste of time, do it for a few lessons then eventually you will see most of them drop out of the class.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

ceesgetdegrees · Joined: 12 Jul 2007

Hey,
I said, "in my experience" i tried everything with them, singing songs, different books, different conversation topics, all of which failed and eventually they stopped coming to my class. good for me and good for them as we both end up with free time. Have you worked in a rural area? i't's a lot different to working in seoul or the bigger cities, i am the first foreigner any of these people have met, the shyness, awkwardness, total inability to think outside of their little korean world has been a complete shock to me. The teachers i work with have no idea who nelson mandela, ghandi, mother theresa, ali, dalai lama, princess diana are/were. all they know is bushee and beckham, thank god the kids are teachable, the adults are just too wrapped up in their own little world, and lets face it, they will never be in the situation of having to speak english to any great level, whenever they go on vacation, it's with groups of koreans, eating korean food, speaking korean, steering clear of the natives. Koreans who don't plan on emigrating have no need to learn english, they know it, i have learnt it and now it's just up to your supervisor to realise what a futile attempt teaching korean teachers english is, more of the typical smoke and mirrors b.s that is so pervasive in this country.

Fishead soup · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Location: Korea

There tends to be two kinds of teacher training in Korea. The first kind is training them for teaching their own students. The other kind is actually teaching them a conversation class. Its best to find out what is expected of you rather then give them something they don't want.

Discussion topics are pretty much hot or miss. The quality of the lesson will depend largly the level and age of the students. If you're in mixed company men and woamn be careful of what you talk about. It's best to let them decide.

The best thing to do is plan a field trip. Either a Buddhist temple or mountain. If you go to the mountain go to a restaurant and have Dongdong ju. Then you'll break the ice with them.

Typhoon · Joined: 29 May 2007 Location: Daejeon

Have them read Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul (selected parts anyways) and discuss in relation to their lives as teachers and how it can apply to their classrooms if at all. Interesting, uplifting and good for conversation that is relevant to their jobs. Just my two cents.

B-Teacher · Joined: 09 Nov 2006

Sody · Joined: 14 May 2006

I think that's a great idea. You can first begin the discussion with how teaching is different in your country. Teaching is a topic you could talk about for weeks.

Anyone notice that it's the same old story for just about every single teacher you meet? They all start teaching English to some of the Korean teachers and then it never really gets off the ground. I wonder if anyone has successfully taught for more than a few months.

Sody

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I'm in a situation where I'm helping my KT improve her classroom English. Would anyone know of any resources that specifically dealt with classroom English. Most of the adult material I've found deals with regular conversation and discussions.

B-Teacher

I'll post something up on my community today. Handy to have a place to post up material and hate that you can't here on Dave's . But it is called, "Teaching Reflections" by Andrew Finch. Awesome and is perfect for English teachers and for discussing language teaching and just English language and needs in general. I use it in part, in my courses for Korean teachers.

I'd also recommend his latest book, Visit Korea. That would be a super text for teachers also. Cultural specific topics like folktales, sites/travel in Korea, really work wonders for producing interest and language.

But check out reflections. I do believe it is also on his website but I have a fully formatted .pdf, I thought it was that valuable. So see EFL Classroom later today. www.finchpark.com/books/

Cheers,

DD

passport220 · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Location: Gyeongsangbuk-do province

Here is a thread from the past that offers some advice and resources:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=81110&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Luna · Joined: 22 Feb 2007 Location: seoul suburbs

I'm going to try using sound bites from the "This I believe" program on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=4538138&startNum=16

most of my teachers have long since dropped out of the class. Some never came to begin with.

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

The other foreigner at my public school used to teach the teacher's, and he didn't really like it. They paid him 50,000 won/hour for it because it was overtime (they tried pushing for 30,000 but he wouldn't budge), but he said they kept cancelling. Usually one class out of two were cancelled.