Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jgrant85]

I just found out that the school I'm teaching at is going to let me choose the textbook I'll be teaching from. I'm hoping some of you might have some suggestions, as I don't really have experience in picking the book myself.

First, I'll be looking for a good ESL book for the teacher (me) that has some sort of sample lesson plan for the year. This is my first time teaching abroad, and my main concern is that I'll rush through everything too fast and end up having a bunch of time left at the end of the year. If it were a companion book to the textbooks the students would use, that would be preferable.
I've been told my student will be beginner & intermediate in terms of the level of English proficiency. I'm not sure if that would be the same in Korea as here in the USA, so if anyone has a suggestion for a book falling in that category I'd appreciate your input.

[bulldog]

You'll need to advise people of the age groups and school type. Is it a hogwon or a public school? How many students in a class? Maybe you can ask the 'school' what textbooks the kids have done before if any.

[jgrant85]

[FUBAR]

How old and what level are the kids? It's probably best to find a textbook that comes in a series so that you can advance the students as the years go by. Parents love seeing that their kids are progressing. Just make sure not to go to fast. Try to keep it to two pages a day and find some activities to supplement the lessons. Word searches, crosswords and Hangman don't count. Those are crutches that can be relied on from time to time if something fails (like a CD player), students don't bring their books or exam time for them at school.

Take a look at First Choice, Smart Choice books. It has a good textbook, work book and teachers resource book with lots of activities that can be incorporated in the lesson if you plan out our lessons. (by the week and not by the day)

hope that helps. I haven't taught in the hagwons for a long time, but i do clearly remember my first time there. Just make sure to plan ahead and you will be ok.

oh yeah... and watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0pb0BKODBQ&feature=channel_page

[jgrant85]

[Straphanger]

Oxford Press has some great readers you can grab in the "Starter" series. Give them a thumb-through, but stay away from the comic books.

[jgrant85]

[i]

When I had to pick a book for a class, I used Let's Go from Oxford:
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/letsgo/
The teacher's book has tons of activities, games, etc. Plus there are on-line worksheets, quizzes, tests.
Someone else recommended it on here which is why I chose it.

[seonsengnimble]

The side by side series is pretty good, although a bit dry. I like it because it reinforces grammar quite nicely. Instead of just having a sample in first person, they'll use first second and third which is helpful in reminding the students to conjugate their verbs.

[Arthur Dent]

See if you like the True Stories series. You could also try Boost. What a World may be useful if your classes have any more advanced students. If you don't like them as main textbooks, they could be useful as supplements. New vocabulary from these books can be effectively practiced using sentence construction with index cards/teams/points, etc.

Other resources might be Great Sentences for Great Paragraphs. You may find that you will have to tailor lessons to the students depending on what you discover in their reading/writing skills. Nice to have a few tools to use for each students needs.

Get a few books with different concentrations. This will give you a few tools to work with. You may want to have a browse of teachers guides as well, just to develop your thinking in terms of methodology with regards to teaching specifically in Asia.

[jgrant85]

[jgrant85]

I decided to go with the "Clear Grammar" series. From all the reviews I've read online, it seems like a pretty decent group of books. Thanks for all the help everyone!

[Fishead soup]

Side By Side- Best selling ESL/EFL textbook in Korea for a good reason. I use it in conjection with the PPT on deubels site. I use the Audio Lingual approach.