Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jgrant85]

I teach at a hagwon. The management is legit and doesn't try pulling anything shady, but they have put me in charge of teaching a beginner-level elementary class for English. I've told the office manager that it would be better to have someone who speaks both Korean and English to teach that class (since they're literally just starting out) but they seem to think that if I teach it that means the students will learn faster just by hearing me talk. I do have experience teaching before (not at this level though), but I can tell that they're not learning much if anything. Since the hagwon can't afford another teacher I'm sort of stuck with this class, and from their point of view I think it might look like I'm a bad teacher since they're not learning fast enough even though I think it isn't my fault. Again I have a few years experience so I know I have the ability to teach, but since they're just beginning to learn English my experience really isn't suited for that level.

What do you think I can tell the school so that they'll realize what I'm saying is true? I'm also concerned they might try to cut back my salary if they're "forced" to hire another teacher.

[tenchu77491]

I had a similar problem, a kid couldn't write the alphabet. Usually the Korean teacher does a few weeks of teaching the newbies until they learn the alphabet, and at that point they are launched into the lowest class with me.

There is a new kid that learned half the alphabet (only capital letters). Which is really annoying, and not to mention he's not a likeable kid to work with. He's damn stubborn and won't do anything. I pretty much gave up and told the Korean teacher he needs to go back and learn the rest before he can really be productive in my class, and not to mention he is holding up my entire class.

I had another class. In this class I teach one unit of books and the Korean teacher teaches another. The problem is the vocabulary in my books don't line up with the Korean teacher's books (even though they are the same brand/company/level etc.). I was teaching and after pronunciation drills, I asked the kids to write each of the new words 4 times in English and 4 times in Korean. I noticed the kids not writing the correct Korean.

I brought this to the Korean teacher's attention by showing her the Korean they were writing. I asked the Korean teacher what we should do about this because I may be able to correct them sometimes, I certainly can't correct their Korean all the time. Not every English word is easy to explain with English alone, and I am far from fluent in Korean.

Solution? My teacher's book now has all of the English vocabulary translated to correct Korean for me. Yep, I got to teach Korean as well as English. I wonder how some of the parents would feel about that.

I really doubt the school will take much of your advice to heart. You may or may not get through with a co teacher, but since it's a hagwon that may be a hit or miss depending on how serious the Korean teachers are running around and doing their jobs.

[iggyb]

What is the age group?

Use Google Books --- it is a TESOLer's friend. If you know how to play around with your Internet Explorer cache, you can read 90% of pretty much any book they have a limited preview of.

Google for the age group and ESL level you are teaching. You should find plenty of ideas quickly....

In my opinion, except for discipline issues, I think your school is basically right.

I can understand your point of view, and for a teacher who hasn't done this before, it makes sense, but as far as English-only, it is a legitimate way to go.

You have to "dumb-down" what you teach. You have to get to the level the students are at. If it is just the alphabet and phonics - that is what you teach. (It isn't really "dumbing-down." It is deciding to not use the student's native-language as a crutch that can often do more harm than good in basic level and other courses.)

One big problem with TESOL people (especially new ones) in public schools in the US is that the are often thrilled to use Spanish or other foreign language they learned when they have ESL/EFL classes where most of the students are native speakers of that language.

Also, schools hire native speakers of Spanish who are fluent in English and the students spend most of their time speaking Spanish with the teacher.

I think it is much better if a teacher works to move the level of the instruction down to the level of English proficiency overall in the class. If that means you have to use a lot of body language and keep it very simple, that is what you should do.

--- One reason I've failed miserably at learning Korean, despite having progressed through the 400-level courses in an American university, is that my teachers used English the majority of the time - even at the highest level. And even the 400-level courses were taught by nice but inexperienced Korean graduate students...

I'd rather have suffered through a program that used Korean-only and dumbed it down to my level....

[tenchu77491]

^Err, when I learned Japanese it was like this

Years 1,2 and 3 were taught by Japanese professors speaking Japanese only. Year 4 was taught in English by a native English speaker.

I think that method was great, we learned all fundamental stuff in Japanese and when we hit the high level complicated concepts, and what not we had English to back us up. I think it would have failed miserable if they didn't use English at some point.

Certainly you can mix language and still have a great class. The amount of work you can get done changes drastically and depending on the age and everything that may help a lot for their learning.

I have issues in some classes because English just isn't enough. Have you tried to explain what "solo" means in English to a group of 7 year olds. Not the most complicated word in the world, but I can't figure out body language or anything to pull that one off. The kids thought it means "to sing (in korean)" because of the stupid picture in the textbook. That was just a recent example. I have had many words that were just too difficult to do in English. It doesn't seem logical to spend 25 minutes of a 45 min class trying to get "solo" into their heads.

[jgrant85]

I just found out today that the parents of one of the students in this class, the only one that causes trouble and disrupts the learning, will be asked to remove their child from this school. I think the ability to teach them will improve after this, mainly because I have to take 10 or 15 minutes out of class almost every day to discipline her. I'll let y'all know how it turns out, since they're asking her parents today or tomorrow.[/list]

[iggyb]

Yeah, that's tough. Discipline with basic speaking, young children is the biggest problem, I think. If there are Korean teachers in your institute in a nearby classroom, you can just pop in quick and ask them to come over.

I did this early and often with a discipline problem kid, and it helped convince them sometimes to act like the other students, because all of them saw I'd bring in someone they respected more than the foreign teacher who couldn't understand what they were saying.

This worked well since I already knew many Korean curse words: Catching one "dong-kay" and calling in a Korean teacher immediately to say a couple of pointed words about it snap most kids to attention.