Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PeterDragon]

So, my school has never had a foreign teacher before, ergo the students have never had to practice speaking. When I arrived here, I immediately got the rock star treatment, of course. White people are MAGICAL creatures that half of my students had only ever seen on TV! Anyway...

After spending a couple of weeks getting a feel for class, curriculum, and student ability, I decided to institute 20 minutes of conversation. I ask every student one or two questions, and they have to answer me in complete sentences. They HATE it. They listen to each other with trepidation and respond with fear or embarrassment when it's their turn. A few of them slipped through the cracks and can neither understand or speak English. I have my co-teacher act as an interpreter for those kids and I slowly walk them through the proper English response when they answer. You cna cut the tension in the room with a knife when I'm doing this.

My question is---- SHOULD I be doing this? I'm technically only bringing them up to the level of work they should be doing, per the curriculum, but I don't want to put the kids through this agony if it won't help any of them. Any experienced teachers have an opinion on this? Is there a better way to get everyone talking for about half the period?

[The_Conservative]

[chris_J2]

Many of the public school lessons have role play activities, complete with masks & magic wands etc, which my students always enjoyed. (The winning group always got a small chocalate bar to share too, so that probabaly helped!)

Anyway, try using role play to build up their confidence.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It might be better to get them more comfortable with you first. What ages are they?

Often group responses work better.

[Atavistic]

How many students?

Are they only talking to YOU? What do the other students do while they're talking to you? Do they just watch?

I know people argue that kids who can't speak English perfectly shouldn't practice together, BUT have them practice in small pairs and groups. They are less under pressure than dead on with you and the whole class staring at them.

Also use the magic marker stick and the like. They love that.

[Rapacious Mr. Batstove]

Dude! You are just putting massive pressure on them and setting them up for failure.

Think

Pair

Share.

Start with a basic question on the board.

E.g What's your favourite animal? Get them to repeat it.

Provide (write) some basic answers. E.g. My favourite animal is the dog. I like dogs best. Get them to repeat it.

Then tell the students to work in pairs. A and B. Each student practices asking the question and giving the answer.

After the pair work. Shut them up and walk around the room asking the same questions to random students. They will feel MUCH more confident and will give the right answer 99% of the time. Smart students can extend themselves and surprise you here sometimes.


New Question. Repeat TPS.

I do this most lessons with great sucess. 4 questions takes about 15 minutes.

[mindmetoo]

I wonder at times if this mania for answering with just a noun is related to Korean. It's a pretty word language when you add in verbs and markers. It seems to me Koreans tend to answer with a single words if possible.

"Get your ass in gear!"
"Dude, hurry up!"

vs

"bali! bali!"

[PeterDragon]

They're in middle school. Your suggestions are right; I need to pair them more, but so far I've had trouble coming up with decent ideas. Honestly, the textbook is way above the abilities of most of them. It's pretty much a slightly badly written version of a textbook you might see in an American Junior High. It leaves no room for basic questions, instead focusing on the interpretation and creation of short essays. It's too dense to easily be conducive of games. If I had my way I'd scrap the entire book in favor of something easier, but I am required to teach the book. The problem is, even with pairing, the class size is just big enough that most of the kids are just stuck silent/watching.

My co-teacher recognizes the disparity between their level and the required text. She actually offered me a copy of Oxford's Let's Go 1 as a suggested supplement to teach them the basics. Since they meet twice a week, I'm thinking of devoting only one session a week to the required text, and the other section to the Oxford basic text, which is much more user friendly and much more conducive of games. And I also want to cut telling them the actual definitions of advanced words like "ironic", "diorama" from my job description--- they don't understand enough English to understand any simpler breakdown of the words; my Korean co-teacher is already explaining those words to them in her section, why should I have to re-explain it?

Hmmm..... I think I'm hatching a plan. I should run it past my co-teacher. She's been flexible so far.

[Dome Vans]

[bosintang]

[oneofthesarahs]

Asking them questions point blank is waaaay to confrontational. They're going to be so nervous when you ask them questions, they probably won't answer you properly even if they can. Sometimes students feel more free to talk about YOU than themselves. Let your students ask questions about you, which gives them an opportunity to practice question forms. It also gets them more comfortable with you as a human being rather than a big scary white faced teacher. Tell them funny stories. Make them laugh. Once they feel more comfortable in the classroom, they will gradually begin to open up.

You could also have them play two truths and a lie which is so much fun when they get the hang of it. They write down two true things and one false thing about themselves, then read it to the class. The class has to vote on which is the lie. You can give them candy or something if they fool the majority of the class. In this way, they'll be speaking in front of their peers, and the other students will actually be paying attention.

[mack4289]

About pair work: does anyone else find it impossible to get students to do this? I teach in a hagwan, with low level students and no Korean teacher, so maybe it's different, but I basically consider pair or group work to be hopeless. Even with the older kids with somewhat decent English, I couldn't imagine students in groups actually doing the work.
Basically I find that, if left to their own devices, the vast majority of my students don't take any initiative and have almost zero intuitive learning skills. Unless I beat them over the head with what I want them to do, the class doesn't function. My oldest students are 13 (Korean age) so that probably has a lot to do with it.

Two truths and a lie is a great game, but could your students understand it? Or maybe it's not even a question of could they, but how long will it take for them to understand it?

[Jizzo T. Clown]

Pairwork isn't impossible but they need something extremely structured. Think in terms of scaffolding. I'd rather start out way too easy and gradually give them something a bit tougher as their confidence grows.

Most of my lessons are structured--

Whole-class discussion

Pairwork

Class discussion

Group work

Mostly drill and practice, drill and practice, repeat as needed. Sounds boring but it works! One trick I like to use is to go around during group work and ask individual students to give me the structure we're learning, correct them if necessary, and tell them that I'm going to be calling on them when we finish the activity. Then afterwards they aren't nervous because they know that they're correct, and they look good in front of their peers.

[jinks]

[mack4289]

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Ah, the power of not wanting to be embarrassed in front of your friends. What would we do if these kids had no shame, like in the West?