Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SeoulShakin]

Hey all -

I've posted on here before that for this month, I am teaching adults, rather than elementary aged children.

It's very different for me, and I'm slightly out of my element.

Does anyone have any links to adult speaking activites, or know of any hints they could give me. I really want to get them actively speaking more, since they're all kind of shy. We are already two weeks into the class, and have done all the ice breakers, but I want them to be able to practice it, and put it to practical use.

Any advice? Thanks!

[mj roach]

Try using something like "Easy True Stories" - 'A Picture-Based Beginning Reader', by Sandra Heyer (Longman Press).

Make photocopies of the 'picture story' only and give one copy to students
in pairs.

Have the pairs work together using a Korean/English dictionary to find 'key' words...not write complete sentences...and prepare to 'tell' the story.

An easy way to get them started is to ask 'wh..? Qs'...have them answer the Qs to start 'telling' the story.

Each pair 'tells' one picture in turn.

As each pair 'tells' one 'frame' ...help them make complete sentences and 're-tell' the frame using one or two different structures/patterns and 'feed' vocab.

When they've finished the exercise...have them look at the picture story as you read the story from the book. (Try to keep them from writing the sentences)

Have them 're-tell' the story using the pictures a week or 2 later.

[Juregen]

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/discuss.html

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/

are these okay?

[SeoulShakin]

The debate one is great, might use that this afternoon.

The first site you gave me is blocked on my school computer for some reason.

[xCustomx]

I'm in the same situation and I'm looking for material to teach false-beginners. They expressed to me last week that they were not interested in working from a book, so it looks like I'll be making power point presentations and giving them real world situations that they may face in order to get them to practice speaking. I've only got 2 free periods and lunch time to come up with something before class starts

[Juregen]

[icnelly]

short short stories, and go over vocab and meaning, etc, and then have them retell the story in their own words: if too daunting, break it down to sentences (1 sentence per student).

[daz1979]

I've been looking for some links myself. I usually teach elementary students; however, I have just started working at a community centre once a week. My youngest student is 56 and my oldest student is 86

[ddeubel]

I'd try a search (though here, it is very difficult!), there have been multiple threads on this and also teaching teachers...

I use commuicative ppts. Each slide has questions from a certain topic. Students in small groups ask and always have to ask a follow up question. Also Tell US about cards work well. See examples in my Batcave teaching folder but full sets of ppts available to our community members.
I also recommend Michael Turcotte's True Story English powerpoints with adults. As well as the Side by Side in ppt. They follow along and use language structures and it is very adult oriented.

As mentioned, having them talk about their own lives works well, as well as debate. There is a book, For or Against which has many debate questions. Give adults lots of choice, they really respect and want input in lesson planning. Doing a needs / wants survey the first lesson is a great way to start. Andrew Finch has some bang on ones in his Teaching Reflections.

DD

[Luna]

I'm typing this really fast, between classes - but this is the plan I've been using this semester for my "Teacher Training" Class. (Conversation class with Korean English Teachers). Sorry for not making the html all pretty-like.

I've been taking essays from This I believe.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138
You can find more about the history of This I believe and some educational materials here:
http://thisibelieve.org/educationoutreach.html

This week we listened to "Failure is a Good Thing".
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6196795 My lesson plan for teachers is something like this.

Give them the essay. Talk briefly about the topic (what is failure, different contexts, other brainstorming). I mention what I think briefly about the topic and what I wanted them to focus on in our later discussion.

We listen to the person read the essay. This is good because it exposes them to different accents, and different rates of speech. We listen again while they read along silently. Then we read through the whole essay out loud, each person reads one sentence.

Then we go through vocabulary and phrases that are hard for them to understand. We discuss the main points, and whether or not we agree. Discuss how this affects our lives. Discussions are hit or miss for me. Sometimes I'm leading the whole thing, and sometimes we have wonderful exchanges without any prompting. I have a diverse group of teachers - I'm usually only teaching 3 teachers on the rare days when they ALL show up.

This week there was a lot of discussion about perfectionism and what the real goal of learning English is. It was a great discussion.

There is also a database of essays that don't have audio files, written by people of all ages and on all sorts of topics.

I hope that helps. I've really enjoyed teaching from this material. [/url]

[Fat_Elvis]

The British Council site has a few leeon plans and speaking activities for use in adult classes:

www.teachingenglish.org.uk

The ITESLJ site has a discussion questions page which is useful:

iteslj.org/questions

Another site I've been using recently with higher level classes is called Heads Up English:

www.headsupenglish.com

Boggle's World has a few useful resources, particularly practicing functional language such as for job interviews or at airports:

www.bogglesworldenglish.com

I also recommend Penny Ur's book Discussions that
Work.

Hope this helps.

[ddeubel]

I'd recommend Penny Ur's book also. She is really always bang on when it comes to instilling communication (for example that low key bible of hers "Keep 'em Talking".

I made a long post with multiple references to resources for teaching adults conversation. Hopefully others will chime in. Go here.

http://eflclassroom.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=826870%3ATopic%3A6908

DD

[postfundie]

I'd say heading into every class with the idea of keeping your teacher talk time low and the student talk time high is a top priority....also don't allow them to get away with ANY and I mean ANY of that one word answer crap...no 'yes' and 'no' only stuff...that can quickly kill off any long ours of prep or articles that you prepare and it makes the class boring as hell...even a level 1 can keep a conversation going by uttering "who what when where why or how" ....those 6 words are weapons...put them in the hands of the students...also you'll have less whinnnnning if you tell them that you'll give 'em at least 5 new words a day and then give them more (relevant crap) also eliminate their Koreanish sentences and hit them other stuff.....that way they won't be saying all that strange stuff....also do review of your vocab EVERY class...


keep this going and you can make a lesson out of about any stinking handout......the debate books and other stuff mentioned above are great but if you let them kill conversations with one word answers it'll be like a bad fart on a first date....


also they need to be doing listening but outside of class. transcripts of about every American drama going can be found on naver.com or somewhere on the net...keep 'em talking