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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:18 am Post subject: |
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| Exactly. The kids aren't there to learn Korean with a North American accent |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:34 am Post subject: |
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If my students are stuck on a new concept I dont hesitate to invite a more advanced student to translate it for their classmates.
If we've accumulated a list of new vocab on the board, instead of just "repeat after me" I'll call out the words & ask the students to answer back the korean, chorally. Really helps with lower level comprehension. Then we do it again english/english.
In helping individual students answer questions on handouts or conversationally, I usually play dumb. "Teacher, how do you say blah-blah (some korean word)?" Even though I know: "I dont know. What are you trying to say?" Their attempted explanations are very valuable. Only then do I steer them to the english word they want.
I've been fortunate in my (middle school) co-teachers who hold back on gratuitous translation, though sometimes I've had to explain my rationale. They see my approach work.
Korean has its place in large public school classes, used judiciously. A bit goes a long way in helping the students feel comfortable. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:19 am Post subject: |
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+1
It's knowing when and how to use it that makes all the difference. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't see any problems with it. It may also be a good way to work more autonomously. |
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jonpurdy
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Reise-ohne-Ende wrote: |
Because the age the students are at now (especially elementary schoolers) is one of the most malleable and adaptive, especially when it comes to languages. Habits they pick up now - in pronunciation, vocabulary, etc. - are very likely to fossilize, which is why you have older Korean speakers with an IMMENSE knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar who still can't make the 'f' sound
Every time she says things like "Look at TV!" or "shupermarket", it drives me batty. Because - and here's the most relevant part - when she says, "Repeat after me: shupermarket," that is EXACTLY what the students say.
I have 35-year-old friends that I've sat with for 10 minutes trying to get them to say my name right (it's an 'f', not a 'p') and it doesn't matter what I do, they really don't seem able to copy it. I'll make them put their upper teeth on their lower lip and blow, and they'll make the 'f' sound. And then they do the same thing in trying to say my name, but somehow their lips always slide together before they vocalize and they end up saying 'p' again. A lot of them don't even seem to be able to hear the difference.
My point is: unless a Korean teacher is FLUENT in English, with near-native pronunciation, they are often hampering students' abilities by perpetuating extremely common L2 errors. This is where NETs come in. |
This.
I can foresee in twenty years a lot of Koreans speaking near perfect English because of the work we are doing now. You can see a pattern even now. From what I've seen, teachers in their 40s and up have strong Korean accents and generally can't pronounce "f", the "ih" in iguana, etc. Teachers in their 30s tend to have less of an accent but their timing sounds a bit off. Teachers in their 20s often sound pretty close to a native speaker but still have a slight accent. And English education has improved over time so this makes sense to me.
I can definitely see a lot of NETs being replaced in 10-20 years by Koreans who can speak nearly perfectly or perfectly (which was the whole point of EPIK in the first place, no?). |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:08 am Post subject: |
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Well, yes and no. I worked with a young co-teacher who spoke flawless English. It was her 2nd year teaching.
But she taught all her classes in Korean.*~*
She was convinced that the students couldn't understand even the most basic commands unless she translated everything into Korean.
Try as I might, I could not convince her to use more English in class.
This is what I meant in my previous post about knowing when and how to use translation. Most Koreans don't have a clue and go way overboard.
There has to be more than just getting Korean teachers who are fluent in English, they have to also have a mind shift away from always translating every detail and conducting the class in mostly Korean. |
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