Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazy_arcade]

Got some middle school classes who absolutely will not talk.
They're bright students and they do very well in writing and listening exercises. It's not that they can't speak (they speak an earful outside of class) it's seems to be that, since a couple students lived overseas and speak near fluently, the majority feel to much "shame" to speak. Shame is what my co-teacher calls it.

[genezorm]

Koreans often translate 창피 to shame.....sometimes i feel "embrassed" or "afraid to make a mistake" would be better used....when explaining why students don't speak in class

my suggestion would be to simplify things so everyone can understand, start by asking very easy questions..trying to encourage everyone to answer together
doing things all the students can do, together, like repetition, and pronunciation exercises will get everyone involved

but, if your in a middle school and expect every student to be able to, and want to conduct a conversation in english, it might be a bit tough

[Faunaki]

You need a motivating reward system. This year we implemented E-money which students can use at the monthly E-market. I give about 5-6 E-dollars per class to students who read dialogues, memorize dialogues, write answers on the board, do a role-play for the class, etc. Students must speak into the microphone so everyone can hear them.

Students that I have never even noticed before are now raising their hands to say the answer and usually with a bit of encouragement even 'bad' kids will give it a go.

Of course, there are those students who still refuse to speak. I just speak to them individually when the rest of the class is busy and if they still won't speak, I leave them alone.

Make sure the E-market has lots of good things the students want to buy, they really like ice cream, popsicles, drinks, pens, etc. Also the E-market will be more successful if you have it at lunchtime rather than after class.

[crazy_arcade]

Yeah, embarassed to make a mistake is a better description than shame. I wasn't aware of the Korean.

This is my third year at said school and I've never noticed it so pronounced before. I have a group based point/reward system set-up and it's always done the trick participation wise but I've noticed participation lagging this year, so I'm trying to switch it up. Last year it was TOO difficult to choose students because 90% of the hands would be up to answer.

We were thinking about a stamp system for both mine and the K-teachers classes. Basically the same thing as the play money system except that certain numbers of stamps can be turned in for a reward. I like the money system and market idea--so I might bring that up.

[Fishead soup]

How's the seating plan in the class. You might want to arrange it in a u shape or half circle. Give the students English nick names and name cards so you can remember who they are.

Try activities that get the students out of their seats. Once they get out of their seats they will lose all their inhibitions. Try Find someone who. I have a group of advanced middle school students I teach in the evenings. I set up a questionair and have students ask and answer questions to each other. Every ten minutes I have them change partners.

The main thing is the students will speak more when you remove the perceived audience. In other words if the students speak more in the hall then your classroom enviroment should be more like the hall.

[Easter Clark]

^

Yeah but the big difference is, they speak in Korean in the hall! Have a free-for all in a classroom that size and you're likely to get chaos. It's true they will lose their inhibitions once they get out of their seats--and they may become unruly...use with caution is all I'm saying. And if you're gonna do something active like this, be absolutely sure that everyone understands what they need to do perfectly before letting anyone get up.

I've got a student who lived in the US for 5 years. Her English is better than my co-teachers'. In class she often calls out the answer, but I don't always acknowledge her. Instead I talk to her outside of class so she can get some practice in. The first time I had her in class I told her the class was going to be too easy for her, and to help her classmates if she could...just food for thought.

[poet13]

I have found that in situations where the shy students must participate, a tactic that works quite well is to reduce the class to you and the student for a minute. The first time is the hardest. I will go right over to the student, stand beside him, put a hand on his shoulder and coach him word by word. Sometimes the first couple of times is just a whisper, but it's there. Encouragement and praise follow.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

One activity I do about once a month is to give the kids a puzzle to complete (crossword for the brighter ones and wordsearch on the other side for the dimmer ones) and while they spend the last 20 minutes of a lesson doing this I go around and test them in pairs on their text dialogue or a few original questions. I'm lucky, though, in that my MS class are only 24-30 this year. It would probably be a lot harder in class of 45. This way, every single one of them gets at least a tiny bit of practice to speak.

[R. S. Refugee]

[Faunaki]

[mountainous]