Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grotto]

At my beloved hogwan I have been trying to improve the learning curve of my students

To learn English, you need to learn how to read it, write it and speak it. After spending 3 months in phonics classes showing them the same 100 flashcards day after mind numbing day...where the kids who know what they are shout out the answers before the kids who have to think can even kick into gear. I decided to try to teach my students how to write....starting simple, cat, bat, etc....you get the picture. Well when the students dont even know what an A, B, C....is they have a pretty tough time....sooooo...I started going through the alphabet, 3 letters per day writing and speaking,(the class age is varied 4-9)well I was told flatout by the owner 'Not to teach them writing only speaking, writing is not important to learn' only pronunciation '

Does anyone out there actually get to teach Do any of you tests actually matter When I give tests many of the students get under 50% and that is after a week of reviewing the test, giving the test for practice and then giving them the test. Well the director gives them all 90%+

I understand this is a business but it really drives me nuts that anything I do to try to help the students is classified as too hard....if you give tests they will leave the school.

Frustrated in Korea

[sadsac]

That fairly well typifies many elements of learning in a hogwan. I asked my director about our testing criteria and his response was, "the tets really don't matter." So much for concerning myslef about the kids ability or need to learn. Promote them anyway.

[Homer]

I see your predicament grotto.

It can be frustrating indeed!

I went through the same thing when I first got here.

My current boss, changed her views on education after we (the staff) showed her the benefits (long term).

At my first school I fought until I got my director to let me start a reading and writing program...which I ended up teaching on saturdays...

It made a difference though....

Hope this helps grotto!

[ajuma]

Keep plugging with the phonics!! I know it's boring, but it's SOOO effective! I've got uni students who can barely read because they've never learned phonics. And students MUST be able to read well to get a high TOEIC score. Use this (higher future TOEIC score) with your director. Hopefully, he'll see the light!

Learning a language uses all 4 skills: reading, writing, listening AND speaking! And considering that the TOEIC test only requires 2 (at the moment...reading and listening), learning phonics will help with BOTH of them!

And btw....have your students who KNOW the flash cards teach the kids who are a little shakey...good for both! You know that medical schools use the "watch one, do one, teach one" method. It works in teaching, too!

[Scott in HK]

Not too sound to harsh..but I would have to ask...does anyone out there know how to teach...

do you really think day after mind numbing day of flashcards is an effective way to teach students how to read...

phonics is just one part...and a very small part of a good literacy program...and there are lots of ways to include phoneme awareness without resorting to flashcards...and other boring activities...

phonics intstruction is not particularly effective on its own...if you really want to teach your students to read...you need to implement a much more balanced approach and do more to connect your literacy program to their daily lives...flashcards and 3 letters a day won't really do this...

I think it is really good that you want to improve your students' reading abilities and it will help them succeed as learners...but you need to find new methods...

[Grotto]

the owner of this hogwan doesnt see anything past the dollar signs in front of her.

I try my best to ensure my students learn something.....I hate to say it but the Korean teacher I work with her grammer is horrendous I have a degree in Education, I have the entire Province of Alberta English curriculum on cd, including all the ESL parts. I have gone through it and tried to incorporate what I felt would work into my teaching.

Curriculum Nonexistant. The phonics classes have had the same books for over a year . There is not program Any actual teaching I try to do is quickly quashed. The director is more afraid of a student leaving than of learning. They promote students based on when they can come to class. Of you can come at 3 you are at this level, of 4 o'clock then this level...oh you were in phonics at 3 but now you take piano then so you can come at 5 well then we'll put you in a class several levels higher.

I have tried to talk to the director, the owner and the owners husband(the only sane person there) their is a reason it is called READING WRITING RITHMATIC. These are the basics that every student needs to learn(maybe not math but even it has its place in English, money, buying, shopping....)

I am tired of banging my head against the wall.....3 more months is my mantra.

Thanks for the support, and I do use the kids who are better to do the flashcards at times....that is fun...I call them teacher and play a student.

[Zyzyfer]

[Dawn]

[some waygug-in]

I'm not sure what your teaching situation is, but if games are allowed at all, here are a couple that I've found helpful.

Alphabet bingo: give the students each a blank bingo card, write the alphabet on the board. Have the students fill in their cards with random letters, then have them take turns calling out letters, one per student. As they call out the letters, you circle them on the board.

This combines reading, writing, speaking and listening all in one simple activity.

As they get more proficient at the alphabet, move on to 2 letter words, then 3 etc.

You can't do it all class or every class, but it's good for about 15 mins.
But you probably already know that.

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Alphabet go fish. Cards with big and small letters spread out face down on the table, students take turns trying to find matches A - a , b - B etc.

Same as above but with one set of letter cards and one set of picture cards that start with each letter of the alphabet.

A- ant,
B- boy,
Etc.

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If you have student cards with a picture on one side and the first letter on the back, hold up one card so the students can see the letter. They have to try and guess the picture F - fish etc.
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Junior scrabble is OK in small classes but not great in large groups, unless you have 2 or more game sets. The good thing about it is that it comes with colorful letter tiles that the kids like playing with.

Besides playing just scrabble, if you have enough letter tiles. Divide the class into teams. give each team enough letters that they can form simple 3 letter words. They need to all have the vowels and at least the first five consonants.

To play, you call out a word and each team tries to spell it. The first team to do so gets a point. etc.

You can also play this game using alphabet cards instead of tiles. Whatever is handy.
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Crazy card
Phonics match games: these take a lot of work to make all the cards, but they are worth it in the long run.

A set uses picture cards with the word written underneath. The cards have to have 5 or 6 different colors, one color per card.

The students have to match cards that have the same short vowel sound .
You need about 6 cards for each short vowel sound. It can get confusing for them when they have to match words like hot - box, so you have to explain that it is the central letter sound that they are trying to match.
Cat - hat , fox - box etc. If they can't match with the preceeding vowel sound, they can try to match the color, if they can't do that they have to draw a card. Make a few crazy cards to make the game interesting and fun. They have to say the name of their card as they play it (or pick another card if they forget)

short o words fox, box, socks, hot, pot, dot.
short a words cat, hat, fat, can, fan, man.

etc.

After they get used to the short vowel sounds, you can start adding cards with long vowel sounds. Not too many at once, or they just get confused.

Anyway, this is probably all useless to you if you aren't allowed to play games in class, but I hope it helps somebody.

[Grotto]

some good input thanks

I think I misled people when I say only flashcards....they have a phonics book(so-so) and I am always trying to encourage learning by trying different things....I am determined that my students will learn...or die trying

I play alphabet bingo, rhyming games, words that start with A, words that have A in the middle....etc

One game my students love is one I made up?!? I have a super soft ball, that we play catch with....excellent for teaching the days of the week, counting, rhyming...and many others. Throw the ball to one student, Monday...next Tuesday...etc. 1,2.....25. They never get enough of this game.

What is really interesting is that the parents call in and complain when you give homework. This hogwan is doing well right now thanks to myself and my co-workers...when we all leave in 3 months time I think the school will continue to burn through teachers rapidly...before we came 12 teachers in one year...since we came 2 teachers(korean) in 9 months. Funny eh

[Corporal]

Do we work at the same hagwon?

The exact same thing goes on here. Most of my students don't even know their alphabet. When I ask them to identify the letters of something on the board (Like "six") they stare at it for a long time and then say "s-e-x". And no they aren't teasing me. They mix up a lot of other letters too. They only know their alphabet completely if they sing the ABC song from start to finish. Stop 'em in the middle and they're toast. If you get them to write their ABCs they are scratching their heads by about F. It's ridiculous really. The head teacher explained "well it's because of phonics that they sometimes mistake the I for the E because of the sounds". I know that. It's still ridiculous. Then she complains that I am giving the students too much writing and that I should be speaking more with them. Sure, well if I spoke non-stop for six 50 minute classes you can imagine the kind of voice I'd be left with. These kids are all such low level you can't hold a conversation with them. I think it's pathetic that the Korean teacher doesn't spend more time just working on their basic ABCs with them rather than spending all that time chatting with them in Korean and singing useless songs that the kids don't even understand anyway.

My little rant...

[some waygug-in]

One idea that I heard at the Busan KOTESOL conference was to use the alphabet song, but sing it with the sounds of the letters rather than the names of the letters. I've never tried it, but it sounds interesting.

The guy who presented it sang the short vowel sounds for each vowel and the most common sound for the changable consonants.

Ah, beu, keu, deu, feu, geu, heu, jeu, keu, leu, meu, etc.

I don't know how helpful this is for teaching, but it does illustrate the basic problem with the alphabet song. We need something that gets them practicing the sounds of the letters, not just the names of the letters.

A simple illustration: "A is for apple" you will note that the A is the name of the letter, but in the word apple it is the short vowel sound. Now I can't think of any way to confuse students more, right off the bat than this.

Why not "A is for ape"? at least the sound matches the name here.

Anyway, the point is that the students need to recognize that the names of the letters and the various sounds that they make are different.