Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tausha12]

I'm supposed to teach my fellow teachers English twice a week. I have no idea what to teach them or where to start! There are only 5 teachers in the class and only 2 showed up on Monday. I'm hoping the class will eventually be cancelled because I have no desire to teach fellow teachers and they don't seem too interested in the class. At the very least I'm hoping to get the class meeting down to once a week instead of twice.

Any advice?

[comm]

[soomin]

Why don't you make it an essay/speaking class?

1st class: Give them a topic and ask them to write a short essay about it. Then, have them switch their papers with other teachers and have them grade the papers. This will show who knows how to write, who knows the rules of grammar, and so forth. At the end of class, have them turn in the now graded papers (make sure both teachers' names are on them (writer and grader) and grade them yourself for the next class.

2nd class: Hand back the graded papers and go over the grammar rules that seemed to bring up the most issues. At the end of class, have the teachers read their essays aloud. (If you have loads of time at the end, which I doubt you will) you can have the teachers give pointers (and you as well) on pronunciation, inflection, and so on.

With this schedule, you'll be teaching them grammar, writing, editing, and speaking each week, with not *too* much extra work for you ^.^

Good luck with everything!!

[edwardcatflap]

[northway]

If planning is up to you, why don't you ask them what they want to work on and progress from there?

[soomin]

[tausha12]

The class is meeting twice a week. The Korean teachers only want to focus on conversation. I've just been picking a topic per class and we're discussing it as well as getting to know each other. The teachers seem comfortable with it. I really don't know what else to do.

[cronolegs]

Im a new teacher, but I have one class a day of very fluent adult students.

I have the text book interchange 3 which they all seem to have completed over 5 times each.

So I go through the chapters using the exercises to spark conversation ( i dont bother with doing the exercises unless I think they are useful.) I ask them loads of questions, advice on things etc etc.Variations on cultures relating to the topic

Then pull out a few youtube videos or movies (5 minutes). I have some questions made for the video I am showing which I get them to answer.

Play the vid 1 time with no subtitles, 1 time with English subtitles.
I spend alot of time explaining the humour and things behind jokes.
The keen students go away and watch the video/movie and come back next class with loads of questions on language used. Normally rude words and slang. Can be good fun explaining some of it.

They seem to enjoy the class....

[pegasus64128]

[Squire]

At the end of each class I ask what they want to do next week. With that topic I use the sort of things I'd do with middle school after school classes and camps, but with more conversation and no games. Last week they wanted to talk about a trip we went on, so I set 10 questions and they worked on answering them while I went about checking their answers and correcting. Next week I'll probably ask them to practice asking questions to each other about the trip and recalling the answers they wrote down. Then perhaps moving onto discussing other things they've been doing recently, in pairs again.

I haven't been teaching the teachers for long and never taught adults before, so I still get a bit nervous about those classes. Letting them dictate the topics is very helpful though. They're learning the sort of language they want and it's one less thing for me to worry about

If they don't come up with a topic in the future I think I'll just work on a grammar rule/basic expression or two every week. 'I want/don't want to ________ ' for example.

I suppose if you don't want the teachers to come back you could just turn up with the grade 3 textbook and CD every week and have them learn all the songs and chants, and just endlessly repeat them

[luckylady]

Korean ps teachers tend to be very educated and usually have had many years of English education, even if it was through a Korean English teacher.

I always ask what they would like to practice on first, and if they say just conversation, then I go to the internet and find a news story that has crossed intl borders - that is, something everyone is talking about - find some photos, and put that up for discussion.

then go for opinions, critiques, etc. on the story and photos; often the conversation will take off by itself - don't worry about staying on topic as the whole point is to get them talking in English.

[Gorf]

Make the class as dull and as useless as possible so it will be cancelled, but make sure you make it look like you're doing your end of the bargain. Hell, maybe you should just ask the other teachers to not show up so you can go home and they don't have to stay after class and do homework and other BS.