Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EMKAYES]

Hi there,

Due to cut-backs in our college's budget this year, some of my department classes have been put together. This has resulted in a couple of my classes having 60-70 students in them.

This is a 2 year college and the level of the students is low.

I need some help with ideas on how to cope with so many students for a 2 hour lesson.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

EMKAYES

[kimchi_pizza]

Divide and Conquer!!!!

Sorry, that's all I got for ya...

[ChilgokBlackHole]

If I were one of your students, I'd find another university. No offense against you, but if the class isn't a straight lecture, it has no business having that many students.

[EMKAYES]

Thanks for having a go Kimchi Pizza!

To CBH

I have an English class with 67 students. If you were one of my students what would you do?

Thanks for answering that question before I'd even asked it!

Cheers.

[Draz]

If it wasn't a lecture class before, it sure is now.

Do you have to give them grades? What a pain in the tush. What kind of class is it? "English" covers a lot.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[EMKAYES]

Yes, I must give them grades - The classes are credited and I have pretty much free reign. They just gave me the course title = 생활영어 - 'Everyday English'.

I can't lecture to these students because they will sleeping within 5 minutes. Those of you in high schools know what I mean.
The place where I'm at is filled, mainly, with the lower-level students from the 'lower-level' high schools; you know, the ones that sleep in the classroom!

Anyone got any ideas?

[EMKAYES]

My Korean is pretty good and as much as I try to avoid using Korean in the classroom, maybe this is a situation in which the use of Korean as an aid to teaching English could be advocated.

Any views on that?

[Goon-Yang]

Everyday English...there you go.

I'd use a lot of video/newspaper/magazine clips and do loads of group work. Usually the groupwork does not go well with a class that size, but it's them wasting their time not you.

Everyone knows Friends in Korea. Get some other popular shows and force them to watch an ep every week or two. I had an advanced conversation class I forced to watch Supernatural (most of them I knew would want to anyways). That went well.

Good luck with you. It could be worse, you could be teaching over 50 engineering the basics of English composition. That class was great :shooting self in head smiley:

[sarbonn]

My best advice, having taught college with classes ranging from 50 to 200 students, is to decide if you want to turn this into a lecture class (which is the easiest). If not, you're only real option is group separation, in which you design lessons around groups working together. Quite often, this latter process is scorned because it is usually considered the lazy method of teaching, but in your situation, it might be the better alternative to chaos. Trying to do individual teaching, like you would do in most 20-25 student classes is really difficult (and to be honest, anything above 20 is going to always be difficult with that kind of lesson plan).

[cdninkorea]

[Easter Clark]

Oh man in a class that size the only thing I could think of to do would be:

Lecture--talk about the grammar point and new vocab. Drill new vocab--focus on pronunciation.

Write--Give several sample sentences. Have the students copy them.

Drill--listen and repeat the sentences they just wrote.

Dictation--read a few sentences then have them listen and write them. Then they can check their answers in pairs. Then you can write the correct sentences on the board.

Student writing--write some sentences using the new grammar and vocab.

Pair dictation--read sentences while your partner listens and writes. Then check answers at the end.

Lecture again--summarize what they did and talk about some of the mistakes you heard.

That would be just about 2 hours.

Yeah, dry as hell, but what can you do? I think if you try any pair or group speaking activities in a class that size you're just asking to be frustrated. At least with the "drill and kill" approach, there is some kind of measurable objective.

[matthews_world]

Do a situational topic and expound upon it for 2, 3 or 4 lectures.

Have the students repeat a list of corresponding phrases and explain context for each.

Prepare a roleplay for the topic. Have the students pair up and perform in front of the class.

Give a diary some kind of fun extension assignment - writing log, video journal, etc. that goes along with the topic where they can express their experience with the topic that they could work on in class.

I would'nt concetrate too much on games.

You'll certainly need a mic for yourself and one or two that the students can pass around for participation.

[EMKAYES]

Thanks for the great suggestions. The class is in a 2 hour block so I think lecture style is out of the question - for the whole 2 hours anyway.
I'm working on the lessons now and have an idea to try and have it role play based using practical/situational English. A mixture of all your suggestions really.
My idea is to have the 12 weeks run in a logical way using the story of a Korean going to the USA, so for example
week 1 - buying a ticket to the US
Week 2 - at the airport
week 3 - taking a taxi/bus/subway
week 4 - at the hotel
week 5 - making plans with friends
week 6 - shopping
etc etc

This method was used in a book I used to study Korean and I found it very useful.
I'm also gong to have a department specific dialogue per week and also try and cover a grammar point every week.

I'll try and let you know how it goes!
I'm now looking forward to the challenge!

[Fishead soup]