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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Jizzo T. Clown
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Location: at my wit's end
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 Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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I just completed the same course. It's good for beginning teachers with no experience, and a decent refresher for those who have taught for awhile.
I opted to go without the tutor and passed with an "A." (which admittedly isn't hard to do) If anyone has any questions, pm me. |
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dmbfan
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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No it is not hard.
Yes, it is good for a new teacher.
But, it does not really fit in with what I do here in Korea.
A patchwork ESA lesson plan, with a class of 40 4th grade stuents that I teach once a week?
Are you freaking kidding me?
Well, I did it...but, the tutor's comments were pretty "picky".................
"..don't encourage the use of the big screen in class". WHAT?
"....must not deviate from the lesson plan"......crap like that.
I mean, I really don't think teaching the present perfect simple tense to my 4th graders they way the tutor wants it dones is going to work, especially without a co-teacher.
It is not a complete waste of money,but they only want to do what they suggest.........nothing else.
dmbfan |
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xCustomx
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Im on lesson 14, trying to finish the patchwork lesson plan related to may/might. The tutor is worthless, and really hasn't given much help at all. Just "This is one of the more difficult units but you did a great job." I get a 1 or 2 sentence reply on almost every email I send, which makes me feel like I wasted $100 choosing the tutor option. |
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Ryst Helmut
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Location: In search of the elusive signature...
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Woland wrote: |
The 'grandpa' ----> 'grampa' example is slightly more complex. The nasal assimilation can only happen after deletion of the 'd'. That happened because when three consonant clusters occur across syllable or word boundaries in English, the middle consonant is frequently deleted, especially if it is an alveolar stop (/t/ or /d/). In very informal speech, this can happen within syllable codas (but not onsets).
Here's why you should want to know these things:
A language teacher should know something about language and how it works in order to be able to help students in mastering the language. In other words, it's fundamental background to doing your job well. These phenomena are not "idiosyncrasies", but facts which effect comprehension in reception and comprehensibility in production.
When students listen to spoken English, it comes to them not as distinct sounds combined into distinct words, but as a stream of connected speech, in which regular alterations have been made to the underlying structure, some of them generic to human speech production, some of them properties of the specific language in question. Learners have to reconstruct the underlying form in order to understand what others are saying to them. It's not easy. How would you know that when someone says something like, 'jsee the news last night?' that the 'j' there is the equivalent of 'Did you' (and yes, 'did you' does reduce in informal speech to a single connsonant)? WE can help them in this process by presenting them with the base forms (which is what we do with beginners anyway) and gradually introducing them to the regular patterns that effect pronunciation and helping them to notice them happening. We can only do this if we know something of what the regular patterns are.
In the same way, to help students to produce the spoken language effectively requires some attention to their accuracy. For no matter how fluent they become, if they do not produce speech that matches listener expectations in terms of accuracy to a substantial degree, they will not be able to converse because they are incomprehensible.
You might say that you have just been hired as a conversation teacher, but all this stuff is fundamental to being able to hold a conversation. Without help in these areas, all the group work and games and free speaking activities will go to naught.
Maybe you don't see yourself as a professional and are doing a minimalist online cert just to get the pay raise that comes with some kind of certification. If that's the case, ignore me. But if you do actually care about being able to help your students, you might want to reconsider on buying Celce-Murcia et al. For $38, it's a complete reference book for teaching pronunciation, thorough, well-organized and clear in it's coverage of the phenomena of N. American English, and including lots of practical tips on teaching spoken language effectively, including conversation. It gives you specific activities that work for different problems and suggests a variety of approaches to them. It's the gold standard on this topic.
Apologies if my tone seems harsh here. One of the big problems in the EFL industry in Korea has been the Korean assumption that native speaker teachers are the solution to their learning problems, regardless of whether they are trained to teach or not. That assumption is a Korean problem, but taking advantage of it isn't. I recognize that Korea is an entry level job because of the error they've made, and that some of the people who come here to teach aren't interested in doing well at the job, but it ticks me off anyway. Ripping people off is a bad thing to do; being proud of it is worse. That said, I know nothing about you, so if I'm off target I apologize in advance. |
I guess I have to add Woland to the list of "Those I must buy a drink". As for the book...I've the paperback & hardcover...I've about 10 books on the subject, but this one ranks soopreem (and habitually referenced in my papers).
!shoosh,
Ryst |
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dmbfan
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:14 am Post subject: |
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Maybe you don't see yourself as a professional and are doing a minimalist online cert just to get the pay raise that comes with some kind of certification. If that's the case, ignore me. But if you do actually care about being able to help your students, you might want to reconsider on buying Celce-Murcia et al. For $38, it's a complete reference book for teaching pronunciation, thorough, well-organized and clear in it's coverage of the phenomena of N. American English, and including lots of practical tips on teaching spoken language effectively, including conversation. It gives you specific activities that work for different problems and suggests a variety of approaches to them. It's the gold standard on this topic.
Apologies if my tone seems harsh here. One of the big problems in the EFL industry in Korea has been the Korean assumption that native speaker teachers are the solution to their learning problems, regardless of whether they are trained to teach or not. That assumption is a Korean problem, but taking advantage of it isn't. I recognize that Korea is an entry level job because of the error they've made, and that some of the people who come here to teach aren't interested in doing well at the job, but it ticks me off anyway. Ripping people off is a bad thing to do; being proud of it is worse. That said, I know nothing about you, so if I'm off target I apologize in advance. |
Or......it is possible that he, like others who may be working in the publi school system have tried to actually teach. But, the schools are so hell bent on memorization, that they really don't care what the teacher is trying to do, or teach. So, he may be stuck repeating words and phrases...and thats it.
I have known many teachers who have tried to do exactly what you are talking about, but have been told "Uh...stick to book.....uh, (grunt, grunt..pounding on the chest)...repeat words.....".
So, I guess there is no need to assume the that teacher does not care. Another way you can look at this is...
At least he (or she) is actually trying to learn something in order to better him/herself.
dmbfan |
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