Korean Job Discussion Forums

[C.M.]

Thoughts and/or views on teaching with out a text. I started teaching a conversational English class this week. The students are in final year high school; most will (or at least want to) attend university next year. Unfortunately, the education director has given me a text designed for "beginner or lower intermediate", a level which these students passed years ago. I thought that directed topic discussions/english news paper articles etc. would be more appropriate to this group, most of whom can articulate their thoughts and feelings reasonably well. Do you have other suggestions for conversational english classes? What format do you follow and what activities do you plan for a group of students whose ability exceeds the demands of the text?

[Ya-ta Boy]

I would get a higher-level text book. I'm a strong believer in structure. I'm not saying stick to the text book religiously. I'm saying use it to build on. These are high school students. They still have much to learn about grammar as well as needing to expand their vocabulary.

Take a look at breakingnews.com as a supplement to an upper level text.

[C.M.]

Thanks for the tip....I checked it out and will use it. Meantime, I am on the hunt for a decent text which challenges the students to do more than just use the past tense of the verb "walk" in a full sentence.....

[some waygug-in]

How old are your students? You might want to consider getting one of the many conversation type books available. If they are not so advanced, you could try something like a conversation book for teens.
There are a few different titles out there. Look through some of them and see if you can find one that suits your needs.

"Teen Talk" is OK if they can handle it, but some of the vocabulary is pretty advanced.

You could also try "conversation topics for small groups" by Jack Martire,
although the book for teens is pretty dated, there are still some useful topics.

[C.M.]

Thanks; I will look for the sources you mentioned. There are 8 students between 18-19 years old. Half were pleased with the reading/writing/speaking assignments from this week (including the "breakingnews" content). However, that pace is fairly quick and steep and I learned that a few of the students are not yet quite ready for it (of course one of those students showed up to a night class last week after a few bottles of Soju and asked me four times for my name, stopping in between questions to ladle Visine into his eyes; it was priceless watching him try to write it on the board ) So...a balance between the two seems to be the order.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Mr./Ms C.M.

You did notice that breakingnews has both an easy and difficult level, didn't you?

When I use those lessons, I cherry-pick what I think is useful for my students.

[ilovebdt]

I would suggest Let's Talk 3 it comes with a CD too. It's easily available in Korea.
My clever high school students like it. It especially the crime and punishment chapter!

[C.M.]

Quick thanks for the suggestions on text books. "Let's Talk 3" and "Teen Talk" (both one and two) arrived today and they are excllent. Appreciate it.