Korean Job Discussion Forums

[humanuspneumos]

After teaching in Thailand and seeing my students perform in almost every facet of art within my English class, I was often reminded of the absolute famine of art within Korean ESL.

Thailand was:

Make a bla, bla, drama- they did- it was amazing.

Make a bla, bla, digital production- they did and added captions, titles, and almost hit professional quality.

Let's do some music- they did and the band broke-out guitar and all.

Let's do some choreography- they did the Titanic and moved people deeply with their motion/expression.

Write something creative- they did and wore their heart on their sleeve.

Make a cartoon journal- wow- that's really, really good and funny too.



It was all en masse- creativity bubbling out everywhere. The money is crap in Thailand- but- the creativity- all the creativity!

[On the other hand]

Is there any evidence to suggest that choreography, guitar playing, and digital camera work actually improve students' English abilities?

[humanuspneumos]

Actually, an organization did some research (around 1985?) in linguistics and found that artistic/musically inclined persons picked-up the language more quickly (perhaps a chicken before the egg scenario) I can't cite the research. However, I know I picked-up Spanish more when it was linked to the arts. I was interested in the groove enough to be interested in the language even more.

Anyway- all the stuff I mentioned was tied into English and the students' enthusiam rose much higher than me with a piece of chalk or just their text-books.

[tomato]

American spoken English is often halfway sung on do, mi, so, and la.
I incorporate these four pitches into the English classroom because they are essential.





For further information, see:
http://www.pentatonika.com/spoken.html

[Son Deureo!]

Thinking back on my advanced French classes from high school, I remember that some of my best lessons were the ones where we got to write and then act out our own dramas in French. We did a soap opera that involved drug use, incest, adultery, and infanticide, fake commercials, a parody of Sesame Street, and lots more. In addition to writing, practicing our lines was a great memorization exercise, plus the final products were unforgettable. My advanced French teacher had an awesome rule: you can say anything you want to in my class as long as it's in French. I've kept the same rule in effect in all of my own classrooms from middle school on up.

It takes a pretty high level of L2, plus some game students to pull these kinds of projects off, but I agree that it would be nice to see more drama in the classroom.

[mithridates]

The only part of my French lessons from elementary that I remember are the songs we had to sing. Ridiculous songs, but I'll never forget them.

Une craie, c'est combien? Huit dollars!
Huit dollars!
Une craie, c'est combien? Huit dollars!
Huit dollars!
Huit dollars, oui oui oui,
Huit dollars, non non non,
Une crais pour huit dollar, au revoir...


Another classic:

Ce n'est pas une banque, c'est un cinema
Ce n'est pas une banque, c'est un cinema
Cinema, oh la la!
Cinema, oh la la!
C'est un cinema...

[the_beaver]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[tomato]

Music ear-training could be incorporated into an ESL class with no loss of time for ESL learning.
Using only G's and E's, and using only quarter notes and paired eighth notes, there are 8 ways that you could sing "David has a dog":



EE EE E
EE EE G
EE GG E
EE GG G
GG EE E
GG EE G
GG GG E
GG GG G

and 16 ways you can sing "John doesn't have a dog."



E EE EE E
E EE EE G
E EE GG E
E EE GG G
E GG EE E
E GG EE G
E GG GG E
E GG GG G
G EE EE E
G EE EE G
G EE GG E
G EE GG G
G GG EE E
G GG EE G
G GG GG E
G GG GG G

Write all permutations on the board.
Then sing each permutation and ask for a volunteer to play the notes back to you on a xylophone or electronic keyboard.
Each time a student makes a correct response, erase that permutation from the board.

The kids like it!

[Medic]

I have done a lot of English camps, and a big part of their programes are preparation for skit's or dramas. A big Home School Teaching programe requires all their teachers to prepare their classes to do a stage performance as well. I enjoyed helping the students to perform when I had to and found that they really got motivated to learn and use the required English lines knowing that they were going to be on stage. Now and again you'd get some who refused to do the work, but most of them really got into it.

Learning something in English under these circumstances wasn't a drag, so the learning curve was pretty steep.