Korean Job Discussion Forums

[english puppet]

[transmogrifier]

I like Powerpoint. Just like any tool in the classroom, it can be used well or poorly, but is not bad in and of itself. I always just laugh at those who treat it as some sort of scary monster that is destroying teaching. It's just pointless hysteria masquerading as a "I know best" attitude.

You might as well rail against flashcards, textbooks, cloze exercises, whole class discussions etc.

[english puppet]

[Guajiro]

[english puppet]

Guajiro,

Hadn't heard the Canadian example before but it's a great one.

As others have pointed out in other posts, the English program here is overly ambitious to begin. Regardless of how useful it might be later in life a lot of people aren't motivated or have other things taking their energy etc..

In a way, it's that pressure (added to all of the other pressures here) that makes it as kooky an issue as it is. My KT the other day admitted that the reason she piles on vocabulary is mostly about impressing parents or admn that she's teaching "a lot" - as if language was doled out by the pound or something. The fact it's an insanely unmanageable number of new words and the kids are totally baffled are secondary issues at best.

[12ax7]

[Adventurer]

[english puppet]

[edwardcatflap]

I'm not in the PowerPoint is evil camp either but it is overused here. It's like in every lesson I've seen here from Korean teachers there has to be a PPT, a youtube clip and some pictures of Yuna Kim, Park Ji Sun or K Pop stars. Otherwise, the teachers claim, the kids won't be interested. Maybe that's true but they should occasionally try to interest them in things beyond their narrow little worlds.

[transmogrifier]

I come from a high school background, so tend to set up the lesson with:

1. Starter activity (either a review of previous lesson, lead in for the lesson to come or an unrelated fun thing like a brainteaser etc)
2. Lesson title and objectives (i.e. what they will learn)
3. Hook (something to get the students engaged in and thinking about the topic, perhaps personalize it, pictures, videos, a class vote etc the options are endless)
4. Key Content (the actual information/skill the students need to know - can be delivered in so many ways, including Q&A, barrier activities, reading tasks, group work, drills etc)
5. Processing (the students take the information/skill learnt from Step 4 and use it in a novel and/or creative way)
6. Assessment (can be done informally at the end as the students wrap up, or as the starter in the following class, or in a scheduled assessment period)

This does not have to be crammed into one session, but could be spread out over 2 or 3 or whatever depending on the topic.

I use Powerpoint as the organizational backbone for this type of lesson, especially in terms of holding the instructions for each step (very useful - they get both verbal input from you and have a written backup) etc. However, it is important that at least two of Steps 3-5 are independent of the Powerpoint once the instructions are given (i.e. you could turn it off and still be able to complete the task). Otherwise you leave yourself open to both technological failure and being too one-dimensional in your task selection.

[motiontodismiss]

I wonder how many of these parents that are evaluating NETs have TESOLs or are fluent in English. Many of them don't even know what the result of a good NET looks like; I wonder on what basis they're judging NET's. The Korean teachers are SO competent and that's why most of these kids that have perfect scores on the TOEIC can't even order a burger at a Burger King stateside.

I imagine if they required a TESOL for NET's they'll have to raise wages. As far as fluent bilingual Koreans go, I highly doubt they'll put up with the crap that NET's put up with for the salaries that they get, not to mention most of them don't come back from the anglosphere.

[12ax7]

[transmogrifier]

[Carbon]

[english puppet]