Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mangorice]

HI, I have my contract signed and my flight booked. I will be teaching in Busan through EPik in march.

Epik does not know what age group I will be teaching. and I dont think I will have a syllabus to follow...

Most importantly, I have never had any experience teaching a class.

WHat should I do between now and then? I have about 2-3 weeks before I jet off.

How should I conduct my 1st class?

Ultimately, I feel like I've dropped myself in a bit of a puddle. Epik says that no tecahing experience is necessary. but thinking things through I might actually wet myself.

Help guys!

[GreenlightmeansGO]

Check your private messages.

[Ya-ta Boy]

You will almost certainly be teaching beginning level students, no matter what their age.

1. Go to your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy of an ESL beginner book, like Side-by-Side or whatever is available. Then use your computer to find activities and worksheets on teaching each of the grammar points in that book. You'll begin to get familiar with what resources (and there are many) are available on the internet.

2. There are great grammar explanations here on Dave's to help you refresh your memory.

3. There are hundreds of classroom activities here on Dave's. The only problem is that they are listed by snappy titles that don't tell you what they are for. Spend a few hours reading through them, keeping a list of interesting ones under some kind of category name so you can find them later.

4. Browse through the bookstore for any titles about actually teaching. Buy it and read it. Twice.

5. An easy, low stress, first day activity is to have small groups (2-3) write 3 or 4 questions to ask you.

[husker]

First-Relax, most EPIKers were in the same boat, or close to being in the same boat.

Second-Go to http://epikforum.org/ and click on "Forums" and scroll down to lessons. Much to choose from.

Third-Just Google "ESL games". LOTS to dig through and pick from.

Fourth-You'll get ideas and sources during orientation/training

Fifth-Did I mention to relax?

[khyber]

Unless things have changed, there is also a weeklong orientation that should calm the butterflies a bit.
Don't worry. You will also be working with a co-teacher. Just keep a good attitude and don't sweat it!

[yeremy]

I'm in EPIK in Gyoungbuk. I have one suggestion for you.

Go to a large bookstore and look for How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer. It's a great book for first time EFL teachers. If it is not in your local bookstore, have them order it or try an ESL bookstore. Alta Books in California is a famous ESL bookstore. You should be able to get it there. A second book by Jeremy Harmer is the Practice of English Language Teaching. That is a great resource book which will provide a wide overview of EFL teaching practices.

Relax. You won't know officially what level and where you will be teaching at until the last day of the EPIK Orientation. You will be better off getting ahold of a decent book about how to teach EFL and read that cover-to-cover and then go to the orientation and learn as much as you can.

One really good website that many EPIK teachers use is www.bogglesworldesl.com. That has many resources and worksheets for you to use. Harmer's books have a good list of EFL teaching links. The www.epikforum.org site is good, but you have to know how to use those lesson plans, which Harmer's books will help you with.

A textbook series I have used with high school students is Expressions by David Nunan. I also like Nunan's Go For It! series. Prof. Andrew Finch, who is at a university in Daegu, is a well known EFL author and teacher. You can find his web site if you do either a Yahoo or Google search.

Whatever you do, I also would like to suggest that you take a KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) approach. Just do your best and enjoy what you do in the classroom. Don't worry if you make a mistake or mistakes. Learn from them and move on. Teaching is something you both study to do and learn from doing and trying things. Good luck.

[DrOctagon]