Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thu_tinh]

I'm in middle school with 40 kids in each class. All the students range from very low to very high. What do I usually do? Lecture on short points, show examples, have students work on the assignment and then they would present in class, sometimes its something they created, and sometimes dialogues they make up.
But now my coteacher told me I have to teach 'conversation' and I'm not 100% sure what that is anymore here in Korea. She wants me to drill dialogues into the students mind instead of letting them feel free to create their own. As well she wants to focus more on reading articles and answering questions.
So how do you teach conversation in your 40 student classes with mixed levels?

[Fishead soup]

With those numbers you should be coteaching every class. When you have two teachers teaching forty students that gives you a 1-20 student teacher ratio.

When you introduce a new dialogue use lots of Choral repetition. Then have the students practice the dialogue with the person sitting next to them. At first some kids are going to just piss away the time. But if both teachers are policing the class properly, you'll get much more dialogue out of you're students than playing Jeopardy.

[jeffkim1972]

it's impossible to teach conversation to 40 kids simultaneously. That coteacher is an idiot.

[butlerian]

[LuckyNomad]

Here's what I do. I try to focus their thinking into a general direction without limiting what they can say.

Here's 1 example that has worked well for me:
I divide the white board into 4 squares. Each square is labled Important/Necessary, Important/unnecessary, unimportant/necessary, unimportant/unnecessary.
After explaining the words, I ask them to tell me what things belong in each category. They can say anything, books, friendship, the sun, nuclear weapons, as long as they can explain themselves.
The students tell me something like, "the sun is necessary and important."
I ask, "why?" "Because if no sun, we die." You can move on to the next student with their hand up, or you can illicit more of an argument from the student or students by asking follow on questions. "What if we lived under the ground?"
The students with little speaking ability can say things like, "garbage is unnecessary and unimportant." Smarter students can say things like, "gravity, electricity, pollution, etc."

The purpose is to let them use all the vocabulary and grammar that they've already learned, yet never got a chance to use in their regular english classes. They get lectured about english grammar and vocabulary 4 times a week. Your class should be more focused towards practical and natural application of everything that they already know.

[thu_tinh]

well i've mentioned to her about how drilling dialogues would not help students very much in real situations. they followed a script once she made up, and when i asked another question that wasn't on that script the students got confused and she lost her placed and got very angry.
therefore I am not sure what or how to teach the students here in Korea anymore.

[jeffkim1972]

[postfundie]

[Juregen]

Don't drill dialouges!

Man, that is really the worst possible thing to do ...

why not make a topic of debate, create a con pro and moderator team, and let them Debate. Give them a week to prepare or something. Give them necessary documentation. All then they have to do is read th material and form their opinions.

after the discussion the rest of the classroom can participate in the debate

[dogshed]

I use a variety of different methods to divide the kids into pairs or small groups. I try to mix them up so they aren't always talking to the same people. Usually they talk the last 15 minutes of the class using the days lesson, but I'm not picky about that as long as they are speaking English. The teacher and I walk around the room to make sure they are speaking English and to inject some questions of our own.