Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inthewild]

I'll be teaching hour long classes, class size about 6. I've been teaching adults for a while but just one or two people per class.

One class is beginner, the other intermediate. I was going to use Jazz English for the beginner and Let's Talk Business for intermediate.

I know what to do with these books for a 1:1 class but for a bigger class, not so sure. I was thinking 30 minutes book, 20 minutes newspaper article or something, finish up with free talking.

I'd appreciate your input on teaching these kinds of classes, any experience you might have. I'd like the classes to be a success so any ideas you have would be great. Thanks.

[Faunaki]

Depends. Could you give more info. Are they conversation/grammar/reading?

If it's convo something like this:
10 min - dialogue practice, get the students up and moving and talking to one another. Something like, what did you do on the weekend? Or a review of last week's lesson. This is to get the energy up and to get them talking right away.

10 min - introduce new lesson, teach new vocab, grammar. students take notes here.

10 min - hand outs/book work. Students practice what you have taught them in a simple way. Go over the answers. Give students confidence in what they are doing.

20 min - A more interactice activity based on the main focus on the lesson. Students have to talk to each other this time around/look for answers/gap fills/interviews. This part should be energetic. Get the students moving and working hard.

5 min - Students are given time to conclude and summarize their work.
This is the time for them to say the sentence structure properly.

5 min - Go over any problem sentences/grammar/pronunciation that you heard in class. Use this time to praise students. Give out homework.

Personality plays a big role with adult students. Always be positive, friendly and most importantly patient.

[inthewild]

It's all up to me, whether it's grammar, conversation or a mix.

I'm starting to think it'd be better to do like American Headway 1 and 3 with them instead. Not to late to change. I think I could base the whole 60 minutes around that but just encourage the conversation when the book calls for it.

Thanks for the ideas. Please keep them coming.

[plynx]

i think your initial plan sounded good - 30 min. for the book, 20 min. for a newpaper or article and 10 min. of conversation. i used this exact format for two of my business classes, with around 8-10 adult students.

i would suggest using the same formula, but in reverse order. i opened with 10 or so minutes of conversation, which allowed those who showed up late to join in without missing much of the lesson (not sure if you are teaching for professionals at an institute or their place of business, but chances are high that you'll have a number of late-comers each day). we then moved on to an article or newspaper that held some relevance to current news topics. this created more time for discussion and the students really seemed to enjoy it. the last 30 minutes of the class, we focused on the business textbook - case studies, common situations in the workplace, etc.