Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Binch Lover]

I'm about to start a new one on one class with a female middle school student who is seeking to gain admission to a foreign language high school. The class would only be for about 6 weeks, twice a week for 90 minutes. Her mother said that she just wants some speaking practice, but I feel that 90 minutes is too long for just simple speaking activities.

I'm going to have a look at what suitable materials we might have in our resources, but I'd like to hear some other people's ideas for keeping the class fresh and interesting. The class will only be for 6 weeks, but I suspect it could get boring fast if I don't prepare well. If anyone has any tips or can point me towards some good materials, I'd be very grateful. I assume her level is quite high if she is trying to get into a foreign language high school, so ideas from university teachers would be welcomed too.

[Fishead soup]

Most Middle school students who are trying to get into a foreign language High School have to develope their speaking skills. Chances are she doesn't get many chances to speak in her Middle school. The speaking interviews for Foreign language high schools are based on being able to discuss on a subject matter that they don't know in advance.
Personally I would use


Small Group Discussion Topics

By Jack Matire

Let her choose the subject for discussion in advance. It's important that it's something that interests her. She will hesitate a lot when answering questions. This is usually due to shyness.

[ThingsComeAround]

Sounds Illegal

[lowpo]

I have two grade 2 students that I teach early in the morning. The school wants me to get them ready for their interview for an International High School.
Here is a website for some interview questions.
http://highschoolinterview.blogspot.com/
1. Each morning I will ask them several questions from the list.
2. I have an adult conversation book that I use. I make them ask each
other questions from the book.
3. One day a week I play clue or monolopy. They are not allowed to
speak Korea. If they speak Korean, they lose 1,000,000 dollars.
4. If we have free time we will just find a topic and just free talk.

[tanklor1]

Bring scrabble. Conversation over scrabble.

[magnolialove]

I used to do one-on-one with middle schoolers who had fairly high levels, and I used to search for weird news stories and come up with discussion questions that would spark more conversation. They seemed to be more interested if I gave them a choice between two or three different ones. The Breaking News English is a good jumping-off point for this sort of thing. After a few lessons, I also asked them to bring in articles, whether they were silly topics or not, that they were interested in.

[Binch Lover]

[ThingsComeAround]

First day, I'd ask her likes/tastes, favorite story genre (you may have to explain genre to her) and yeah- go with what other posters said like one board game a week, and the other time bring a magazine. Also bring a book on the first day- something like Goosebumps/RL Stine/whatever-not-twilight
and let the student give you a summary per chapter, and a book report on the last week. It could take some work, but the student will be busy learning "American public school style" and you can enjoy some structured English learning to show off to other clients

BTW- you getting paid extra for this??

[PigeonFart]

Have a mock interview on the first day....why do you want to go to a foreign language school? why are you learning english? Why not japanese/chinese? what are your good/bad points? what job do you want to have? what do you want from these sessions? what topics do you want to talk about? etc

Prepare these questions in advance. Take it slowly and dont be afraid to go off on tangents. Really try to get to know her. When you do get to know her then conversation will run more smootly and that is exaclty what the parents want (the ability to talk freely without much hesitation).