Korean Job Discussion Forums

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

I think it is connected to time.

Individual words are not as important as seeing and using them in context and as part of a language act/use of language.

Images or video or visual demonstrations that enhance comprehension of words and phrases and language usage are ideal - but at times they are not readily available ---

--- sometimes you want to make sure the students understand the word or phrase - or you want to highlight it as useful for their level (giving them contact with it which will hopefully be repeated later too) --- but you don't want to take up much of your limited class time focusing on individual words or phrases (vocabulary).

When key words to their level come up in class, I like to write them on a poster on the wall or on the whiteboard and I'll ask "What's that in Korean (or Spanish)?"

If almost nobody answers, I know they don't know it and I'll have to decide how much time the word is worth spending at that moment or in a subsequent activity.

If any students blurt out the same word, there is a good chance they are right. I gives me an idea of how useful the word is for the class. And I can have some assurance the students who are not too familiar with it (and who speak Korean (or Spanish)) will have had meaningful contact with it.

Students know they should write down in their notebooks any key vocabulary or sentence patterns I write on the board - especially on the wall poster.

Those items become material for future lessons and/or tests.

In short, allowing some very limited use of the L1 in class can provide meaningful contract with key vocabulary without spending too much of your limited classtime on individual words.

Often, you will have good material prepared for the key target vocabulary involved in lessons you've planned for.

But during an activity, other vocabulary (and grammar) items come up that you know are very useful for the level of the class.

What you do with them has a big impact on classtime and meaninful contact and comprehension...

Some things you ignore beyond how they came up in immediate context. X% of the students will have missed it completely and had no meaninful contact with it.

Other things might be more useful for the class' level and be worth highlighting? What do you do then?

Sometimes, I'll jump on the computer and do a quick google image if I know it can be done fast.

Sometimes I'll just write it on the board and expect the students to copy it down and look it up later.

Sometimes I'll ask if who knows it and what it is in the L1 of students.

Sometimes I might do something else...

But I do think giving it to the students in their L1 can save time by giving almost everyone in the class immediate comprehension which helps them retain the English word ----- which means they have made meaninful contact with a useful item.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

There's not much you can legitimately do when you only have the students once a week.

By legitimate, I mean something more than putting on a show and pretending you are accomplishing more...

With a low level class like that, I'd concentrate on short common dialogs and basic grammar points that come up all the time. I like focusing on verbs, and the simple past is a good one for this kind of work: Irregular simple past verbs are easy to comprehend but require repeated contact and practice before they are mastered.

The good thing about surival level classes is that everything is new and useful - especially the most commonly encountered material.

And in East Asia, you rarely have true low beginner or survival level class. Koreans and Japanese and Chinese spend years memorizing and "learning" grammar points but don't get enough time using it or seeing it in use.

If you spend time on communicative activities where students put into practice the most common sentence patterns and conversations (phone etique, greetings, classroom English, and so on), and they become more comfortable with communicating, it starts to unlock their memories and loosen up the set sentence patterns and grammar points they've studied before...