Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EricaSmile84]

There are a handful of students in each of my classes that have zero English skills (can't read small words) and refuse to try. I can understand why they don't want to try but what I don't know is how to deal with them. Do I let them go or leave them alone? Do I work extra hard on them? I want everyone to learn (obviously) but I also don't think its right to spend the majority of my classtime on kids who don't want my help. There are a lot of bright students who want to learn and I'm afraid that they will be bored in my class because my pace is too slow for them.


I'm sure these types of kids are in all of your classrooms... so what do you do?

[Bibbitybop]

Do you have a co-teacher? Make him/her help out.

Make sure the kids aren't retarded.

Work with their abilities, dumb it down if you have to.

If they are simply defiant, don't let any of the kids in class have any rewards. Don't move on, or just hold them after class, etc., until the defiant student does something to contribute. Soon all the kids will be shouting answers at the kid and he/she will repeat that answer. This is just one of many methods, but please make sure the student is at a competent level and not retarded before subjecting him/her to this peer pressure.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Sometimes they know, but they're just shy and afraid of making a mistake.
Forget about the smart, outspoken ones... they're always going to have their hands up. Focus on the ones in the middle... who could do it, but lack confidence-- make a note of those kids and make lots of eye contact so they can warm up to you. And the second you see their hand go up, make sure you pick them, and make sure you give them a big reward and a big smile when they get it right. Unfortunately, the Koreans have a knack for being overprotective of children and the result is an 'it's okay to not try, just don't lose face' kind of mentality.

Anyway, the best way to deal with this is to come up with a way to structure your lessons so that the smarter kids have to help the slower ones. I've found the smarter ones love to prove how smart they are and won't mind if the material is easy for them as long as they get a chance to shine, and the slower ones don't mind the help because they end up with the right answer... strangely enough, they feel better if their peers are helping than if you are... maybe because they know their peers better? Or maybe it's that they get to have contact with the kids they look up to. The only time I have problems is when the smart kids are selfish jerks, or worst of all, when the dumb kids are considered cool.

Anyway, I structure my classes so they get harder as they go along. Maybe the first ten minutes or so are drilling them on simple things that they should all know, if only because I've repeated them endlessly. Then in the middle twenty minutes, you can go to the book-- get them on teams and make the smarter ones leaders, and make sure you require everyone to finish before you hand out a reward... the smart ones will rush to help the slow ones.

Then I end the class with something really challenging so the smarter ones get a chance to show off... or I pit the slower ones against each other, but let the smarter ones help. Or middle-level students with easier questions... usually, the kids have a better sense of their levels than you do so they will make things fair-- and you'll know things aren't fair when one team starts complaining...

Hope it helps!

[Monad]

Hi, I've yet to teach in Korea, but I think my experience teaching in various contexts in Taiwan and Japan might apply here.

Following the comments of Bibbitybop and ESL Milk:

I think it is necessary to first find out what you are dealing with regarding these difficult students. It may be down to some mental or long term behavioural issues or the result of some event in their personal lives. Even if you can get this info. from your boss, you should find out how other teachers have dealt with these kids. (All of this done with the utmost discretion of course.)

What you do next will depend on which teaching philosophy you think is most appropriate or most convincing. This is a rather big question and there are other areas of the Dave's that would go into this in greater depth.

I like the idea of quicker students helping slower students; a self-regulating class is the ideal I would certainly work toward, where/when it is possible.

Starting off the class with easy stuff and getting progressively more difficult makes sense to me also, but ending with a challenging activity sounds like an unnecessary risk. ESL Milk, I suspect we might agree on various methodologies, but I need a bit more convincing on this one.

For me, ending the class on a high note is the golden rule, regardless of age or level. I would go for an activity that I was fairly sure would run smoothly and would be a lot of fun for everyone, regardless of intellectual competence. It would be an activity that blurred the boundaries between the smart and the not-so-smart. Basically, this could be some sort of drill game, among other options...but I should stop there before this turns into a very long message that possibly ought to be posted somewhere else on Dave's.

[cruisemonkey]

Beat them.

No, seriously... there will always be some students you can't motivate. If they're not disruptive, who cares? If they're disruptive, change their behavour i.e. put them out in the hallway and make them adopt and hold a physically uncomfortable position.

[poet13]

cruisemonkey. Why punish them for their lack of motivation? If they are disruptive, absolutely. But motivation? If they are content to sit quietly (ok, rare) then if that's really how they want it, I would let them. If they really refuse to learn English, the FT isn't going to win a standoff with a student. It's not who breaks first, it's the fact that the students stood up to the teacher in the first place that makes him or her the winner.

That being said, I'm a hypocrite. My students participate because I make them participate. A few students I have to coach them word for word to speak. It's frustrating for sure.
There is one boy at my other school who I do not teach now. He just sits there. He won't participate, he destroys the materials given to him (not in a violent way, just bit by bit, folds, crumples, tears corners off of, etc), and has the attention span of overcooked spaghetti.

[cruisemonkey]

poet13,

I think you misread my post.

[poet13]

Yup, I did. My bad. Sorry.

[mrsquirrel]

[poet13]

DAMN, you sound like me in the classroom!

"You forgot the indefinite article again damnit!" kick, punch, punch, elbow strike...thud.

[mikekim]

For middle school beatings.

For high school forget about it. These kids are going nowhere and they know it. No manner of motivation is going to lull them out of their almost certain future of selling handphones and delivering pizzas. These kids are here because its the law and the principal keeps them in school because each head is worth money/funding.

Korean teachers say they don't give up on these type of kids, but in reality they do - or they do indirectly by giving them tests that they have no chance of passing.

If they are just going to sleep all day/night, write CCCCCCCCCCCC for all their tests and the CSAT why the frack are they going to listen to English monkey which is worth no grades and is going to be useless in their future life.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

[canuckistan]

[Stormy]

[dogshed]

Carol Dweck

I don't believe in panaceas, but her ideas backed by about
30 years of research come very close.