Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Holden]

I've got to answer all these questions at my interview this week for a public high school job! Help!


1. What is your general feeling about Korean students through your teaching experience?
2. Teaching a class of about 20 students, what is the most effective way to teach?
3. What are things that you can suggest to improve each of your students' English ability?
4. How do you deal with the students causing a lot of problems in your class, what are the best ways to deal with them and why do you think they're making trouble?
5 How do you deal with the students who never do their homework and have no interest in or concentration on your lesson ?
6 What are your strengths and weaknesses in teaching English and how do you think you can improve on these areas?
7 What is your own personal method of finding out a student's English proficiency level?

[calypso]

We shouldn't be helping you. It is your interview. Why are they so difficult?

[prosodic]

[wylde]

fair go.. i think he is asking what do experienced people think koreans would like to hear..

number 3.. i like surprise.. ask them something or do something to them they wouldn't expect and make them react in english.. they'll probably react in korean but just tell them you don't understand.. they must think of what they need to say in english.. thinking and build a sentence beats the shit out of reciting a learned script.

edit: nice job crois

[lush72]

1. What is your general feeling about Korean students through your teaching experience?
Apathetic at best, asleep at worst.

2. Teaching a class of about 20 students, what is the most effective way to teach?
Partner up time!

3. What are things that you can suggest to improve each of your students' English ability?
Hmmm, make an effort to learn the language perhaps?

4. How do you deal with the students causing a lot of problems in your class, what are the best ways to deal with them and why do you think they're making trouble?
I would throw 'em out (thats how I would deal and what I think is the best way to deal) and they do it because they are a-bored, b-looking for attention, c-dont see any value in learning English, d-know they can get away with it.

5 How do you deal with the students who never do their homework and have no interest in or concentration on your lesson ?
Ignore them and hope that they will go away.

6 What are your strengths and weaknesses in teaching English and how do you think you can improve on these areas?
Does being western count as a "strength"? I am perfect, the students need to improve!

7 What is your own personal method of finding out a student's English proficiency level?
If there are no dice around I usually flip a coin.

[Holden]

I figured I'd geta bunch of flames, but I appreciate the input from a few people so far. I'm just trying to get input from anybody with good ideas/suggestions. I'm sure it's just a formality anyway, mostly based on my degrees and appearance I bet.

I hate interviews. At least hear it's likely nobody will understand my replies.

[Holden]

[canuckistan]

1. What is your general feeling about Korean students through your teaching experience?
--Too much emphasis on memorization and not enough on the development of creative problem solving and critical thinking skills.

2.Teaching a class of about 20 students, what is the most effective way to teach?
-- For ESL the most effective way to teach is to incorporate the practice of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills into each lesson plan. For groups of 20 students this can include more:
--Pair work, group work, team games, class projects.

3. What are things that you can suggest to improve each of your students' English ability?
--Get a decent English/Korean-Korean English dictionary--either in book form or those nifty electronic ones. Use it!
Encourage students to create more of an "English zone" in their lives outside of the class by watching English TV (I like Discovery Channel), movies, etc. Listen to radio. Reading books and magazines (Reader's Digest is good). All of these activities must come with a warning to be sure of choosing the appropriate level of material or the student may feel overwhelmed and give up.
--They should learn basic English idioms


4.How do you deal with the students causing a lot of problems in your class, what are the best ways to deal with them and why do you think they're making trouble?
--time outs, extra homework. Let the students know the rules from day 1 and be consistent with enforcing them.
If it's still not improving, a discussion with director who should then speak to student. If it's still not improving a phone call to the parents.
Time outs in the hallway work well as students dislike being cut from the group--10 minutes can feel like an eternity to a child.
Why are they making trouble? Varies from student to student, but being placed in a class with an English level that's either too hard or too easy is often the case.

5.How do you deal with the students who never do their homework and have no interest in or concentration on your lesson ?
--See answer number 4. Or, if you notice that a student has particular interest, you can try motivating them by designing homework assignments for him/her around that interest.

6.What are your strengths and weaknesses in teaching English and how do you think you can improve on these areas?
--This is up to you, but --learning more Korean. Attending more ESL teaching workshops, building more of an ESL library etc

7.What is your own personal method of finding out a student's English proficiency level?
--Again, up to the individual. For me, I ask them questions which are meant to elicit specific responses in specific verb tenses starting from the simple tenses through to the perfect tenses. I also listen to accent, speed of delivery, vocabulary used. I also listen for typical mistakes made by Koreans in English ie: lack of articles/determiners
These level tests should be given in both written and oral form

Some of these are very broad questions, and, I don't know the age of group of your students..these suggestions are geared toward teaching elmentary/middle school.

[The Man known as The Man]

I liked the post about not helping the OP.

[Corporal]

[SuperHero]

[rok_the-boat]

If they are really asking you all those questions it must be a good school.

The usual type of questions are:

1. Are you available?
2. When can you start?

Then come a load of excuses as to why your salary is not quite as much as they advertised, why the appartment is not quite as big as you imagined, and why it is necessary to do a 'few' extra hours ... etc.

[Gord]

I would just like to point out that if one can't answer the questions on their own, perhaps they shouldn't apply for the job since they are pretty much all related to teaching a class.

I'd like to be a guy who flys a combat jet, but it would be pretty damn stupid of me to try and cheat on the flight test because I couldn't actually fly very well.

[canuckistan]

[Ryst Helmut]