Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ninjaniki]

I would like to teach my 5th and 6th graders how to write in cursive because they dont know how. In America we learn in 3rd grade how to write in cursive. Even in the age of computers I believe that this is an important skill to have. It is also quicker to write in cursive than printing. They should know how to read and write in cursive because not everything is in print, and if they ever go to an english speaking country and they must sign a document with their signature they won't be confused. Plus, they can take pride in being able to write fancy. I would like to know other teachers opinions. What do you think?

[Kimchieluver]

[sojourner1]

In hagwon, they had me teaching kindergarten how to write tier English names in cursive since they were impressed with how I signed my name to documents. The Korean teachers were like, "You the beautiful skill of writing in the old English style."


I'm not going to mess with it in teaching public school ESL, but I would teach it if it were an English speaking country such as America where the curriculum calls for it. Yes, I learned it in 3rd and 4th grade and remember who freaking hard it was. There are more important things to teach 10 year old kids who barely know their ABC's and severely lack vocabulary. They just don't use English much outside of school.

[Ninjaniki]

I should mention this is a special class of students in a public school. They are above average in english.

[EzeWong]

I can see why you want to implement cursive. Cursive is great for faster writing and allows whoever writes it, the ability to read it too.

However, many people get by never using cursive their entire life. I'd spend maybe 1 or 2 classes at most on it. Honestly though, if you have the extra class time to teach it, I think it's a good idea. But I've graduated from a tier 2 college in America and I've never had to write it, and I've never had to read it other than in 3rd grade.

[aka Dave]

I totally disagree with teaching students cursive, it's an utter waste of time. If they want to become English teachers in the public school system, they won't ever use cursive. In fact, you're teaching an ability that will be totally useless to them in any context. 99 percent of Koreans will never learn cursive.

Teach them, rather, how to write a decent paragraph. If they want to teach English, they will have to pass a very difficult test. Acquaint yourself with this test. Your most serious English students will want to become English teachers.

Teach them how to write in English. I'm teaching University students who are juniors and seniors. They have *never* taken an essay composition course before. That is just shocking to me.

Don't waste their time with handwriting. Teach them how to think critically and write effectively.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Puck it. You could introduce it to them once, but there are more important things to teach. I think it would be better to teach them how to type if you can. Writing is pass�. Most of these kids have a hard time getting around speaking and understanding English.

[xCustomx]

I never use cursive, but it's still a necessary skill to learn. There are some sections of the public middle school textbook that is written in cursive, and 95% of the students can't read it. If you're teaching a special class, I would print out a picture of all the upper and lower case letters (search via google images). Then I'd show the students how to write each letter. I wouldn't do more than 5 letters in one day, since they have to know both upper and lower case. For homework, have them write each letter at least 10-15 times and then have them write words, hopefully with letters they have already learned.

Day 1: A-E, Bad, Ace, Bed, Dead, Cab, etc...

I did this before and now one of my students writes better cursive than me!

[teachingld2004]

Some of the times I teach my students how to write in cursive, because some of the time they ask me. So we spend 5 minutes on it here and there. Some times I re-write something that is in a book in cursive and hand it to them. Not often, and as I said I only have done it when the have asked me.

this is not done unless their regular work is done, hey, I would rather do this with them have them talk to each other in Korean, or play some insane running game.

[khyber]

In Alberta, there is one tiny curricular point (buried under hundreds of others) regarding cursive writing. It sounds like cursive is on its way to oblivion.

OTOH, kids seem to find it beautiful and fun to write (especially Korean kiddies). Why not use it as a kind of "reward" or something fun to do with them? I wouldn't invest serious class time into it

[jay-shi]

I think there is some consensus that teaching cursive, while it can be a fun time filler, is relegated to exactly that, an extra-curricular activity.

There are far more important things to learn for Korean students. It can be fun to expose them to an integral part of written English but personally I would only fully teach it after many other, more important, bases have been covered. Typing was brought up by a previous poster and while writing cursive is a neat skill, English typing skills will benefit the students much more in their future.

I feel pretty much the same way about teaching idiomatic expressions. I would like to have a word with the teacher who taught little Min-Su to tell me and the class ever so proudly: "Teachuh! The sky, raining a cat and a dog!" Nice try and somewhat cute, but correct sentence structure comes first IMHO.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I agree that it's not very important anymore. However, it can be fun for them. If I were to do it, I think I'd teach one letter a day as a filler and then by the end of the second week, I'd start incorporating it into spelling activities.

The idea of teaching typing is much more useful and there are online programs for it.

I also agree with Jay-Shi. I'd like to pound the next student who says, "Let's call it a day" at 10am. Idioms are important later in learning the language.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[broken76]

I actually think that teaching cursive is an important skill. I don't use it myself but others do and you need to be able to read it.
Also for people learning English there are studies that show cursive helps in retaining correct spellings of words. It's the way that each letter is connected creating one word out of a single line (usually) instead of constructing the word with completely separated letters.
Unless the school is really pushing cursive it's best not to spend some time on it but it's definitely a good filler lesson since the majority of the students will be interested in learning it.

[suadente]

I had a kid once tell me that he actually got yelled at by his public school (Korean English teacher, I teach at a hogwan) for using cursive (I didn't teach it to him), because the teacher couldn't read it.

I agree with the other posters who stated that there are more important things to teach. If you want them to learn cursive, perhaps give them a hand out and tell them to learn it at home. Maybe you could give them an extra point on a test if they use cursive or something.