Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

ESL isn't about being held to any standards, it's about doing whatever we want... that's why it's the best industry in the world.

We have no set curriculum to follow, no goals to meet, no rules to follow, no one there to point us in any kind of direction at all... so it's all up to ippy's 20 year old coteacher to determine what is appropriate subject matter for the classroom.

All this time spent arguing with ippy about keeping his quest for social justice out of his lessons has lead me to this epiphany: I can argue all I want about what I think is inappropriate, but if there is no established set of rules dictating what is and what isn't appropriate subject matter, then technically, we can teach whatever we want.

That's what makes ESL so great.

[Kaypea]

I don't think kids in Korea need "real world English skills", besides maybe test-taking skills. They don't need to learn how to go to the bank in English, etc, except in so far as they'll be tested on this...

Kids in Korea don't really *need* English, but having a higher level of English will help them get a good social position. So, I think it's a fine idea to give them practice speaking intelligently on vital social issues n' stuff.

I find the good students like knowing about a wide variety of things. Teaching them some British or American social history via lessons on feminism would probably be interesting for them. Just remember to keep the lessons student-centred, don't make them sit through a bunch of arcane historical slideshows.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

^^^^

[ippy]

you seem to have moved your position from 'pushing your ideology' into a more reasonable statement. But i think youre a touch quick to determine its effectiveness. Discussions on issues with no clear black and white answers DO have a place in the syllabus, indeed, pop to your nearest middle school english text book (3rd grade) and have a look at Lesson 8: "what good is a weed". Formulating and then explaining ones reasons is a key part of English development. Also extracting key information from a set text is also quite a useful part of english development. Indeed, the whole thing screams english development.

Did i mention these are my ADVANCED and HIGH LEVEL 2nd graders (going into third grade) yet?

For a person who seems totally concerned about results, you seem rather narrowly focussed on my motivations. How about instead, recognising that just because i have a motivation to talk about this, doesnt mean it will be any well less planned and targeted towards the students interests than all of my other lessons.

Why not assume i know what im doing and i know my students, and instead of claiming to know better (than both myself and my co teacher), just TRUST me to deliver the plan objectively and enthusiastically. Its clear its not the kind of territory for an inexperienced teacher, but ive done my time at the coal face, and ive actually done debates on several occasions, so Im fairly sure i can pitch this right.

[ippy]