Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Farnsworth]

Up until recently, I'd always thought that any class can be taught in 100% English and this is the best method of instruction. However, I've recently come to think differently. Last week, I decided to carry out an experiment. I have a class of unresponsive middle school students (you know the ones) who wouldn't use English in class if their lives depended on it. I handed out a text that was written in Korean and asked them to explain it to me in English.

Surprise, surprise they stuttered and fumbled their way through it with smiles on their faces. Sure the grammar was terrible, but they were speaking English! This led me to believe that the problem is partly because many of these middle school students don't have the confidence to speak English about something written in English because they either don't understand it, or it doesn't get their interest.

Have you found any other ways of using Korean in the classroom that have helped your students learn better?

[SPINOZA]

I use it to ensure understanding in all and - most of all - it's quick. Why spend 30 seconds drawing a timeline when you can just say "the future; 미래", "the past; 과거", "sentence; 문장"? Why not say "important; 중요한"? Just.....why not?

My classes are 95% English. If I use Korean it's quick and necessary and I always repeat the English several times and make sure they say it and remember it.

Using Korean is also fun for me. That's important - to me. And Korean middle schoolers think it's GREAT when you write something in Korean on the board and funny as hell when you make an error, no matter how small.

I've done CELTA and recently got 100% in an evaluation by supervisors at my public school organization, so I think it's safe to say I'm something of an authority. Admittedly I used Korean a little less than usual in that class, but I did say "욕심; greed", "무서움; fear", "다른; different".

Nobody will ever be able to persuade me that minimal use of Korean isn't a good thing and I will just immediately reject any view different to mine as worthless.

[Hater Depot]

I prefer to try explaining a concept or word in English only before I just say the Korean word. I try to use it only if I have tried everything else.

[Demophobe]

When I use Korean, I use it for an explanation only once, and it's alongside the English word or idea on the board. Next time, I won't say it in Korean again.

I would say that my Korean in the class depends upon the grade/level. For little kids, my grade 1/2 class, I use it a lot...usually for explaining a game or activity, and classroom management. For 3 to 6, the Korean diminishes greatly, as first, they don't need it, and second, it can become counter-productive.

100% English, while very possible (I recall my first year here very well, and have met students from that time recently who said the class was excellent), I think it is sometimes a waste of time when it can be done more quickly in Korean, allowing more material to be covered, or more time spent with the kids using it instead of trying to understand it.

Heck, even if it were 50/50 English & Korean, it would still be about 40% above a typical Korean teachers' English class.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It's funny, the Korean words and phrases I've learned - vowel, consonant, noun, verb, adjective, sit down, stand up, be quite, repeat, etc.

I find that using Korean can be a great attention-getter. It's also important to remember that trying to understand another language is hard work - one can't just get by with passive listening as one could in a lesson conducted in one's mother tongue. I think it's best to limit the time the students doing nothing but listening a teacher is speaking English to very short segments.

Sometimes I think that low-yeild activities where everyone's paying attention (say a trivia game) are better than high-yeild excercises (say a grammar explanation) when attention spans are dropping off at a rate of one every ten seconds.

[tomato]

I try not to speak Korean, but sometimes I don't know any way around it.
In the Let's Go series, there is a lesson on always, usually, sometimes, and never. Sometimes I have to explain those words the quick and dirty way.

Spinoza mentioned the verb tenses. That's another occasion for the quick and dirty way. In fact, one time I had to teach a little Korean.

I was reading I See Colors. The student couldn't understand why I was saying "I saw read, I saw blue. . ." when the text in the book said "I see red, I see blue . . ."

I told her that the lesson was on past tense.
She didn't know what that meant.

I told her that past tense meant 과거 시제.
She didn't know what that meant either.

So I gave her examples, such as 갔습니다 and 봤습니다.
She finally understood.

[plattwaz]

I've always taught kindie, so I try not to use any Korean, because then they spend the day saying "Teacher hanguk-mal!! HAHAHAH!!!" and I don't trust that they won't go home and tell their mother, and then the mother will phone and complain, etc etc etc.

However, when I am explaining something and they question me in Korean -- "Teacher, da-reun?" and use the Korean word for what I am explaining, I say "Yes, "different" in Korean is "da-reun." (Sorry no Korean font/keys on this pc!). Then I make them repeat it in English and that is the end of my Korean.

At lunch time, however, I call most of the foods by their Korean name, because a lot of them just don't work in English. "Eat your gak-du-gi!" just doesn't work if I say "Eat your square spicy pickled radishes!"

[just because]

I probably use to much korean in my class but find it much easier to get my point across if i use it then being frustrated day in and day out if i don't.

As long as they are learning effectively and their English improves I cannot see the problem with using it in the classroom if you speak it well

[Njord]

[jamespulis3]

IMO using the L1 to help in the acquisition of the L2 just makes sense, but if the L1 is overused to the point where the acquisition of the L2 is discouraged that doesn�t make sense to me.

In class I always ask the students�.

"What does ___________ mean in Korean?"
"What does ___________ mean in English?"

And they must answer...

"It means ____________."
or
"It means ____________ in Korean/English."

[Woland]

I agree with everyone who is saying the use of Korean can really help in the learning of English here.

There are a couple of reasons why this is so. The goal in any classroom should be to maximize learning for all students. The L1 is a tool which teachers have available to them in L2 classrooms to help do this, in ways that numerous people here have pointed out. English-only policies that ask us to abandon this tool do so on the premise that maximizing English production equals maximizing learning. This is an equation that has been abandoned by most serious applied linguists. If you maximize English but learners do not understand it, all that English goes to nothing in terms of learning.

Moreover, our purpose in teaching English to Koreans in Korea is not to turn them into monolingual native speakers of English, but to make them effective bilinguals. Real bilinguals that I know don't have the two languages hermetically sealed off from one another. They notice the connections between the two languages and use this knowledge to effectively communicate. Bilingualizing instruction is more in line with this development goal.

Bilingualizing instruction can go beyond the use of L1 just for classroom management into more complex matters. For example, we regularly hear complaints about the poor writing of Koreans (see Simone's thread on The Big Lie). A lot of the problems aren't simply about grammar, but about organization of information and genre structures in texts. In order for students to improve in these areas, they need to notice them in the two languages. One way to teach about these things is to bring in comparable model texts in English and Korean and have students work through questions about how the texts are organized and how information is presented would probably be helpful. You really don't have to be bilingual yourself to do this; students can locate texts and you can build the lesson around key points in the English text, which you can read. Have them tell you about the Korean text and about what they have discovered as similar or different in it.

The issue in using Korean in the classroom is not really one of quantity, but of how it is used, in particular, whether that use helps maximize learning of English.

[bosintang]

If you're teaching kids, I think speaking Korean in the classroom is a bad idea. Some people feel young beginners need L1 in the classroom, but I completely disagree. Young beginners can benefit the *most* from being in an all-English environment.

First off..think from a business perspective. How are you selling yourself if you're speaking Korean in class? The reason parents send their kids off to native speakers is because they don't speak Korean in class. I remember one place I worked at, one of the teachers used some Korean in class, and one of the Korean teachers did a basic "If he's speaking Korean in class, why the hell are we paying him as a native speaker?" grumble, and in essence, that teacher was right. Remember that you are hired as a conversation teacher.

Secondly, if you have to resort to Korean in class, what does that say to how you prepare your lessons? Or how well did you prepare your students for a safe English environment (a huge psycological barrier)? And when you have to resort to translating something into Korean, can your students actually generate the material, rather than just nodding their heads that they understand it?

Some suggestions rather than using Korean:

- Make sure your students feel safe being in an English environment by teaching key classroom language as soon as possible. Review it everyday if you have to.

- Be clear before your lesson what key vocabulary is going to be important. Don't let peripheral language be a show-stopper to your lesson. Use lots of pictures and flash cards. Older students can use dictionaries.

- Stop explaining! If you are rambling away in class in English or Korean, you are literally talking to yourself. Teach new grammar points through patterns and activities. If your students can't get the grammar point, slow down and simplify.

[sadsac]

Never have, but a personal choice.

[bluelake]

I teach Korean history to a mix of international and Korean university students, so using Korean is frequently somewhat a necessity, although lectures are predominantly in English.


T

[jacl]

It's a necessary part of my curriculum. I use a web site in class for translation. Some sentences in my practice conversation excerices need to be explained in Korean. I couldn't do as good a job without it.