Korean Job Discussion Forums

[taobenli]

I'm a grad student in the U.S. (Seattle) and I'm tutoring a visiting professor's kids (Korean, here in the U.S. for one year). I met them for the first time last week for two hours, one hour for each kid, and just chatted and got to know them. I am meeting with them again tomorrow evening for an hour and a half each, and am trying to think of activities that would help them with their English and be fun for them. I will certainly look over some of the activities on this board, but I could use some advice as it's been some time since I've tutored one-on-one. I've taught Koreans in the U.S. before but they were much younger students- these kids are in 8th and 12th grade, both girls. The younger one is quiet, it's hard to keep the conversation going, she's very smart and has almost no accent, and was almost not placed in ESL at all. She mostly wants to improve listening and reading/writing. The older one is very chatty, but needs more work on pronunciation, sentence flow, reading/writing...

What has worked well for you in your private lessons with students of this age? Links would be appreciated, too.

Thank you!

taobenli

[taobenli]

Hmmm. I could have sworn there were some "teachers" on this board. Was I wrong?

[antoniothegreat]

you are wrong, we really don't teach, just take paychecks and make asses of ourselvs...
First, I think you need to get the shy one to talk, that is a huge problem here. They can all read, and copy, but actual production with English is rare. They are like computers, programmable, but if put in a new situation, easily confused and they break down.
So make her talk...
I have never taught kids one on one, only in groups, but I found games, simple games, get them going, and pass the time, and it is the idle talk that helps. For example, play scrabble, that is good, but the simple off the wall converstaion that goes on is what they really need. They have too much memorization here, and cannot make a conversation. Help them get away from the idea of: if they sentence (A), I respond with (A, B, or C). For example, ask her :how are you? 1,000,000 odds she responds with exactly "i'm fine, thank you, and you?" get away from this auromatic programming....
hope that helped.
ahh, simple games, scrabble, uno, sorry, monopoly, teach her poker...

[hack]

Korean students are used to having a textbook or other written material they can refer to. You don't have to use them al the time but it will get the ball rolling especially with the younger one. There are tons of resources on the web. Here is 1 I find particularly useful
http://www.onestopenglish.com/