Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

for a lower level class, I break down my sentences, but not to idiot speed. If they can't pronounce a word, I might emphasize each syllable, until they can do it. Then I can speed up again. I don't speak to the kids like retards. If a sentence is difficult, I say it twice, a little slower, or pause in the middle for a second. It helps me when people speak korean to me like that.

I think the point of this post was...don't talk to students like they are retards. They will just mimic it.

[Corporal]

[rapier]

its wierd...in taiwan they kept telling me to keep it at dead slow speed. Here they told me to speed up and speak at normal rate.
Who knows whats best? If you are a parent teaching your infant how to speak do you speak super slow?? Probably not. The natural speed is probably the best.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[peppermint]

I speak slowly, but I try to speak quickly enough that its a slight challenge for them. Every so often with an overconfident freetalking class, I'll speak at full speed.

Full speed for a Newfie is damned fast, so that only lasts about a minute or two.

[eamo]

The tutors on my TESL course told us to speak at our normal speed. It's the perceived wisdom in the professional TESL scene at the moment.

Of course, as soon as I arrived in Korea I realised on my first day of teaching that I had to slow down to be understood.

I think the TESL tutors were totally wrong in the context of teaching beginners. Maybe for advanced students.

[Corporal]

[Skarp]

Key word is balance.


Another key word is stretching.


Normal speed is best. A range of normal speeds exist.

You have a slow normal, that you might use when trying to give clear instructions or if speaking to a foreigner (eg British to American.) This is too slow for normal conversation but about right for a beginner class. (Not many classes are beginners though)


Then there is fast normal - used when having a joke with other natives and when you are excited or animated. This is too fast for even high level classes usually.


More important than speed is 'enunciation/articulation'

Super slow speakers lose a number of vital features of connected speech. Liaison. Elision. strong and weak forms. This is very annoying to listen to and will make a student no friends if they speak like this abroad.


The maligned TESOL/TESL teachers are not wrong. An appropriate version of normal speech is best.

Filter out difficult expressions, slangy pronunciation, any strong accent (even if American) and you will be OK. And keep just out of reach of the students, so they are stretched all the time. (but not too far or they will quit)

There are loads of fun listening games you can play in class to help students adapt from Konglish to English pronunciation, and the main areas for work are in features of connected speech.

Skarp.

[Juggertha]

when introducing something i often -

-read it once at a "normal" speed.
-read it again stressing all the important pronunciation points (slowly)
-and again at a normal speed.

rinse/repeat

[jajdude]

The poll question sounded biased. "Overly" and "superslow" make it sound bad. But you often got to go slow and pronounce carefully. If the question was simply "speaking slowly and clearly is usually the best for lower-level students" then who would say no?

[The Man known as The Man]

[slap it]

that's only true if you work for a bad school. bad schools like bad teachers.......good schools have good teachers. so.........go work for a good school and you won't see what you see...

[ladyandthetramp]

[princess]

I have been told to speak faster...