Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RoryB]

I have just taken on a group of 15 advanced high school students for a 50 minute conversation class twice a week. I have already had a few lessons with them but I feel there is a lot of room for improvement. They are really good students but aren't speaking as much as I would like. I have tried listed roleplays followed by class discussion; debates (3v3 then 4v4 but not enough time in a 50min class!) and group activities. At the end of every lesson I don't feel that the students have learnt anything useful and as of yet haven't been able to provide any really useful feedback to them . Kind of feel I am letting them down by not providing a good conversational environment but with 15 fairly shy teenagers it's been pretty difficult so far!

One thing they have said to me is that they want to talk about social issues. Anyone of some ideas/tips for me? Please help!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Trick them into asking things of what you think of the female teaches. You can have a fairly attentive free-talking class of 30 students this way with a constant barrage of questions.

[BS.Dos.]

Don't know about 'social' lesson topics specifically, but the BBC Learning English/News English page has some ready made topical news item lesson plans you can look at and maybe use.