Korean Job Discussion Forums

[spyro25]

I had an interesting experience tonight in my teacher training class. These are M.A. TESOL students at a public university in Busan. Let me give you some background..

A month or so before the course started, I was called into the directors office to be told I was to teach a class titled 'communication'. When I asked what I was teach, I was told 'it's kind of a general conversation class with a TESOL theme', and was given a book to teach 'speaking' and a book to teach 'writing' - and that was that. I'm an M.A. TESOL graduate myself, but at no point had I ever studied 'communication', and I don't believe communication theory to be in the remit of an MA TESOL degree.

Fast forward to today, and what I am doing in class is quickly going through certain topics such as using connectors to join sentences like 'and', 'but', 'so' and 'also', then asking the students to think about how they might prepare a class on that topic to a group of elementary school kids, giving them 10 minutes or so to prepare a little demonstration in front of the class, using their COMMUNICATIVE ability to do so, and the rest of the students were invited to make notes about the positive aspects of the performing student's communication skills and perhaps to use them later in their own presentations. This goes fine until the halfway through the third hour when two of the students (as I am teaching no less) say they are 'confused' about the format of the class and that it wasn't what they expected.

This was a fair enough point, in that it seems they had been confused about the almost non-existant guidelines about this communication module in the handouts they were given at the start of the course regarding the MA. However, they quickly turned it into a debate with the rest of the class about 'we don't have to learn this stuff' and 'why is he teaching us how to teach' (which I wasn't), and 'we want a class about theory' - totally interrupting my class and causing me to have to defend my intentions for the class, its format, teaching approach and even my status as a professional.

I explained that the way I saw it, other MA TESOL programs don't have a module on communication because they already assume that its students have a perfect grasp of English. In my mind, this communication module was designed to give the students an opportunity to practice using English in a classroom setting, with my mini lectures and presentations not intended to tell them how to teach but rather how to communicate key topics in English such as paragraph building, using a graphic organiser to plan essays, or using vocabulary charts to help students build their vocabulary. In my mind - that would be an MA TESOL communication class, for a group of non-native students. I even told them to think of my module not as a core module but rather an extra module necessary for an MA TESOL program taken in a non-native English speaking country.

Hopefully my students got the point and it is something I will be taking up with the director (who hasn't been around for ages) as soon as I can.

I guess what I am asking you guys is - have I been doing totally the wrong thing with these guys? What would YOU say the point of this communication class would be? When I asked the two students what they expected the class to be like, they said 'we thought we were going to discuss a topic related to teaching English in English' - which to my mind is not a communication class, and certainly wouldn't be a module on an MA TESOL program. Anyway, what do you think? Have I been going about this in the wrong way?

At the end of the class I got the two alone and told them they were totally unprofessional for disrupting the class like that and if it had been a Korean professor they had done it to they would probably be kicked off the course by now. That felt good! However, I am curious to how it will all turn out.

Just venting because I haven't been stood up by a group of students like that since my first year of teaching kids in a hagwon. I blame my director for most of the confusion but I have a feeling it will come back to me and she will say I didn't teach them in the right way or something like that - even though I have had no direction at all and have planned this communication module from scratch by myself.

Has anyone ever had this kind of problem teaching MA students before, and if so, what did you do about it?

[DrunkenMaster]

Two more condescending t w a t s in the Korean teaching profession who think they are better than you because they are going to be "real" teachers, regardless of the fact that you POSSESS the very degree they are studying for.

It's all your fault for not having a Ph.D., an B.Ed., and for not having passed the GOREAN TEACHER'S EXAMINATION, you know.

Did you forget that YOU ARE NOT KOREAN?

Learn your place.

[pkang0202]

Give them an exam with really hard, abstract questions like "What is the meaning of Life", etc...

Read their short essays and tear them a new a-hole with everything from grammar to punctuation, to structure. After you fill their papers with red ink, post their essays in the front of the classroom with their names blocked out. Make an example out of their papers for the rest of the class. Say, "this student here, name omitted to protect their identity, needs a lot of work. Here are the mistakes....."

It'll probably humble those students.

[Tjames426]

Sounds Interesting.

A lot of my Graduate TESOL work was actually learning teaching. We read and studied TESOL Journal and other professional articles on how to teach:

Methodology
Grammar
Vocabulary
Reading
Speaking
Listening
Theory
etc...

Afterward, we wrote and applied our learning in actual lesson plans and teaching exercises, with feedback from our peers. Personally, from my own experience through the process, I believe your approach is right on.

The whiny Korean MA students need practical application, and then feedback on teaching different aspects of English in English effectively.
Sounds like, these Koreans believe they are so academic that actual teaching is beneath them.

[PRagic]

In order for a program to work, individual course content needs to be considered from three perspectives: students, teachers and THE ORGANIZATION.

From what you have told us, the organization is clearly at fault here. The purpose of the class in the overall program was not thought out in advance, nor was the specific target content of the class communicated to the instructor.

And another poster makes a very good point. From the perspecitve of teh student, be it here in Korea or elsewhere, it is odd to receive any MA program instruction from an instructor with an MA! That is not the OP's fault, of course, but it is something else that the administration ignored.

[Craven Moorehead]

[mistermasan]

tell nthem such questions are welcome but not in the middle of class and that you'll be happy to answer such during office hours.