Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Rock]

I'm thinking about streamlining my teaching ability. I need improvement. I feel my teacing is too ad hoc.

Any ideas to help a teacher better improve at teaching ESL? What are some methodologies, or good precepts to incorporate into your teaching?
Should you teach survival English more, basic expressions, or from these text books? What really works, or is considered the best of methods to teach ESL? Any good books anyone has found to help them improve?

[the_beaver]

It all helps you improve.

My own focus is on teaching learner autonomy and learner strategies and within that framework teaching English.

[agraham]

Grammar is only a small part of teaching English, but if you, like me, are not an English major you can check out the book "Grammar for English Teachers". It's quite good IMO. It lays out the basic rules and many of the exceptions, it's divided into parts of speech and style sections, and the exercise solutions have elaboration beyond just answers. It has examples of common student errors and the other illustrative texts are taken from actual literary and journalism sources.

[eamo]

[the_beaver]

[waterbaby]

If you're teaching children then I highly recommend "Teaching English to Children in Asia" by David Paul published by Pearson Education). It was 14,000 won at Bandi & Lunis in Coex.

Totally changed my teaching style and I wished I'd found a lot earlier - it gave me a great insight into my students & I found out a lot of stuff I was doing wrong (& some stuff I was doing righ!) Anyway, I got a whole new approach to teaching out of it and I managed to turn around some unruly classes.

[hogwonguy1979]

improving your teaching in Korea????????

I've been to so many of those conferences and not a thing they present there can be used in Korea. They want to be entertained, not learn English in 99% of the schools here and that includes univs.

Best way to improve your teaching??? Go somewhere else where they value it

good luck, you'll need it.

[the_beaver]

[Intrepid]

I think Korean students recognize a good teacher when they see one, and will quickly drop demands for "free talking" when lessons bring a variety of skills and activities.
Are you teaching adults?
"Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language" (Celce-Murcia, published by Thompson, available for 25,000 won in most bookstores) is pretty good--10-12 page articles on various aspects of teaching ESL/EFL. I use it quite a lot.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[fusionbarnone]

Congrats on deciding to enhance what you know.
A good book for grammar revision; "Grammar in plain English" published by Barron's, comes complete with concise explanation, multi-choice test per section, and "not" boring. I include this because Koreans(teachers) are human computers when it comes to grammar.

For chants with a wide range of applications which constitute lesson plans in themselves; Grammarchants" by Carolyn Graham.

For English chants and standards; English Super Songs and Chants.

for games; "101 games for teaching English" I think that's what it's called as I don't have my library with me in China. It's a purple if that helps.

You can consolidate with a tic tac toe grid using q cqrds(2 teams)

Or, a connect the dots type game with a start and a finish.(Korean kids are competitive at all levels

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[tommynomad]

At my old haggie (JungChul) the director pulled the same thing: stick to the curriculum or else. So I did. He got some many complaints in a month that he asked me to go back to teaching my way.

Good on you, OP, for striving to be better. KOTESOL is a great place to start. If you're open to it, you'll pick up a new idea (or 2, or 3) for your classroom every month. And that's just at the formal meetings. Often teachers go out together afterwards and chat. I've met cool weguigi and Korean ESL teachers through the organisation, and shared tonnes of ideas and programs.

Books I like:
Super Teaching by Eric Jensen. The single most influential teaching book for me. After 20 years, I still use it regularly.
Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener. Densely packed with great techniques. Like ESL teaching for Dummies.
I also recommend you read as much theory as possible (H. Douglas Brown is a good first author). The more you can articulate what you're doing, the better you'll be at self-assessment and adjustment.

[JacktheCat]

We can debate the pluses and minuses of various teaching methodologies till the cows come home. It all comes down the teaching environment and you as a teacher, that is what suits the current class and what teaching methodologies mesh with your personality.

Aside from taking a distance tesol cert. or Master's course; the best way to improve your teaching while in Korea is to observe other teachers at your school, read up on ESL\EFL material, and join KOTESOL (http://www.kotesol.org/).

Two books I highly recommend for the specifically teaching in Korea are:

Teaching English to Children in Asia great book for teaching the younger set, with specific ideas that work with Asian children. The game and activities list at the back of the book is worth the price alone.

Teaching English to Koreans great book for the older set, though a little pedagogical. lots of great ideas that work and personal anecdotes about teaching in Korean universities and high schools.

[some waygug-in]

Another vote for "Teaching English to Children in Asia" by David Paul.

I have learned a lot from it, some of it's useful, some is not.

But it was well worth buying.

For adults, all I can recommend is a lot of patience and try finding topics that will interest them. It's not easy, and it's not always possible but trying is everything. (as they say)

For most of my adult students, what I've found is that what they really NEED to do and what they WANT to do are at opposite ends of the teaching/learning spectrum.
For lower level adults they probably would best be served by using "Side by Side" and just going over the exercises orally. With all the pictures and things it is pretty much self explanatory.

However, a lot of adult students feel that they are too advanced to be using something like that, they want free talking, debates etc. (eventhough they can't yet form a complete sentence)

I like to give them a mix of things from different sources, some low level reading things, some class discussion, some teaching games (not too often) and even the odd grammar worksheet. I use pop songs now and then, and discuss movies that are popular or current events if I can.


A lot of my higher level adults should be doing some writing and with that some grammar exercises (not in class, but on their own)
With the odd exception, they simply refuse to do anything that may involve effort on their part. I tried giving them writing assignments which worked for a week or so, but then the students suddenly became "too busy".

I'm sure my teaching style could use a lot of improvement as well and I intend to do as much professional development as I can. But I agree with what someone said above that it seems like a lot of the currently accepted EFL/ESL methodologies don't go over well in Korea.
They seem to want an "old school" teacher centered approach where all the effort and
learning strategies come from the teacher and the student is just a passive observer.

I have tried to change that somewhat, but it's not easy and a lot of the students are totally baffled when I expect them to actually do something. I think the biggest reason for this may be that a lot of the students are not really here because they want to be, only because their parents send them, or their boss or company sends them etc. If they don't have some intrinsic motivation to learn, it's really an uphill battle for us as teachers.