Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Starperson]

How the heck are you meant to teach four-year-olds (Korean age) English?

There is no curriculum. No program no nothing.
MEEEEE-WA!
SHI-LOH!
NECKOYAH!
AN-DE!

At least I've learnt four new words.

[prairieboy]

I doubt you are actually supposed to teach them anything. Seeing as they are so young (they've only just started to speak coherent Korean) you are basically an English speaking babysitter.

Good-luck. I you use reward and punishment effectively with them you can get them to speak pretty good English though.

Son-saeng-nim, hwa-jang-sil ka-go-ship-a!

Huh? What? You want to go to the bathroom? Say it in English first.

You can get them to say the things they really want and take it from there but for the most part it's wiping up snot and hoping they actually get to the bathroom before they go.

Cheers

[Derrek]

[Mr. Pink]

Why aren't these kids in a kindergarten program? Seriously, I taught this age group a lot. The book we used was Peek-A-Boo.

The way to teach is with a lot of activities and songs.

Teach them a new song every week or two. That should kill like 10mins easy of each lesson time. Make some supplemental activities, like a project using crayons. Don't trust this age group to handle scissors or glue...big big big mistake.

Also use flashcards. They love seeing pictures and it can help them to learn simple English.

If you think they can't learn, just remember at that age they are sponges and will pick up a hella lot more than you think.

EDIT: Agree with derrek the alphabet coloring books rock. Mr. Bugs Phonics is a GREAT BOOK. Check that one out.

[justagirl]

I taught this age group for a year! Aaah! Here are a few things I did (some are repeats of what's already mentioned by others)

read a storybook every class
color
get a feltboard and cut out things relavant to your lesson...they love sticking things to felt boards with velcro.
sing songs
play with toys, for instance, little toy animals: give me the dog.oooh! There's the dog, what does the dog say, woof woof!
hand/motions touch your nose, touch your toes
exercises--these kids have so much energy, I started with jumping jacks (jump, jump jump!) and then sat down and touched toes (right foot, left foot!)

Lesson Ideas:
5 senses
color recognition
animals
ABC's
hello, goodbye, thank you!
family

We had lots of cutouts that we made ourselves. Every class had something to stick on the feltboard, which meant a lot of creative drawing, cutting and laminating by the teachers. We also started every class with the "hello song" and ended with the "goodbye song." They had cute little hand motions with helps 3-yr olds learn motor control.

Good luck--I love the wee ones, but it's nice to not have students cry in class anymore!

justagirl

[Scott in HK]

i just finished reading an article about how much second language learners understand their days in immersion kindie programs...and it seems if you settle down into a good routine...that is easily defined then the students will have an easier time....break your lessons down into segments and give each one a name...book time..song time...play time...whatever and then students will feel more comfortable about what is going on...

there are some activity books on amazon for toddlers....about $10 (US) each...might be worth the investment...

i have always made my lessons so that the students switch from something really active...burning off energy to something quiet...

[tomato]

Hello, Starperson!

My sentiments exactly--about four years ago.
But then I got the hang of it, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I'm glad to hear that you are working without a curriculum, because in the long run, you might find that you are happier that way.
In fact, one reason that I left my last job was that the preschool director started mandating a storybook series after I did fine for a whole year with my own materials.

Here are some of my favorite ideas:

rhythmically greeting the children

If you are of musical bent, take a scrap piece of lumber, draw quarter notes, eighth note couplets, and a quarter rest. Then ask a carpenter to cut it out for you.

At the beginning of each class, greet each child in 4/4 rhythm. Say "Hello, Michael!" in even quarter notes.
Say "Hello, Jane, shh!" with a quarter rest at the end.
Say "Hello, Melanie!" with an eighth-note couplet on the third beat.

easy picture books

My favorite English bookstore is Kim and Johnson in Pusan.
Take the subway to Beomnaegol, which is station #18.
Walk out exit #1 and it's on the second floor in the building right in front of you.
They have a good selection of books published by Creative Teaching Press, which are adaptable for this purpose--or for almost any purpose.
Their phone number is 051/645-0515. Their e-mail address is:

[email protected]

But don't limit yourself to picture books written in English.
There is a wealth of picture books written in Korean which you can translate. There are oodlums of picture books with only one word or very few words on each page. If you know Korean, this will be good practice. If you don't know Korean, this will be a good place to start.

For that matter, the book doesn't have to be written in English or Korean. Keep an eye out the next time you go on a visa run.

give the children turns drawing

You say the children can't draw anything recognizable?
That's okay, have them draw lines, circles, or anything else simple.
Draw a line and then say, "Who else can draw a line?"
If every hand shoots up, and David is behaving exceptionally well,
choose David.

repeating a sentence with different emotions

"Let's all say in a loud voice, 'David drew a line!'"
"Let's all whisper, 'David drew a line!'"
"Let's all say in a puzzled voice [scratching your head and frowning] 'David drew a line?'"
"Let's all cry [taking out your handkerchief and sobbing], 'David drew a line!'"

If David drew a circle when he was supposed to draw a line, that's okay too. Just substitute the word "circle" for "line."

spelling words with alphabet tiles

I once had the good luck of walking past a construction site which was throwing away small tiles of about the same size and shape. I took them home, painted letters on them, and have been putting them to good use ever since.

Lay down the letters for the word BLUE, fingerspell the word, and then take one letter out.
"Who can put the letter L back in?"
Sounds absurdly simple for us, but we're not four-year-olds!

gross motor activity

I try to time this activity for the halfway point in the class.
Jumping, marching, and stamping can be adapted for animals, colors, letters of the alphabet, or any other subject matter.

"What color is this? This is red. Let's march for the color red.
This is red! This is red!"
"What color is this? This is blue. Let's run for the color blue.
Thisisbluethisisbluethisisblue . . ."
"What color is this? This is green. Let's stamp for the color green.
THIS IS GREEN! THIS IS GREEN!"

In order to adjust to a more sedentary activity, it might help to make tiptoeing the last gross motor item.

sign language

Sounds complicated, but you will be surprised how easy it is to teach sign language.
Just make a simple pattern, such as "This is red, this is blue" or "This is a car, this is a truck."
You will only have to look up a few words each week.

My favorite sign language dictionary is:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0913580813/qid=1084934939/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1658994-0003058?v=glance&s=books

monotone musical activities

You don't have to be Mozart to administer this activity.
"Red" has one syllable, so sing the word on G.
"Yellow" has two syllables, so sing the word on G-G.
Call on volunteers to play the appropriate number of G's on the xylophone.
Such a task may be an insult to you or me, but not to four-year-olds.

saying goodby

You don't have to be Mozart for this activity, either.
All you have to do is ask a child to play:



while you point to the correct keys with your finger.

As a disciplinary measure, you can choose the three best-behaving students for this activity.

I hope this helps.
I hope that the next sentence you learn from the children will be
"��� �ִ�."

Incidentally, you are the third person who has asked this question since I joined the message board. Take a look at these forums:

I HATE kindergarten
What's so bad about kindergarten?

I wish I could link to these forums, but I don't know how.
Waterbaby, can you help us?