Korean Job Discussion Forums

[T-J]

I haven't seen this subject come up yet. My son is in first grade this year, Korean PS system. I'm curious what the NET is going to do with him when third grade comes around and he or she has a native English speaker in their class.

Do you ignore him and focus on the other thirty odd students that need instruction? Do you utilize his abilities to be a class helper? Do you tailor truly grade appropriate materials for him to work on independently?

Interested to see what the thoughts are out there. Has anyone had this experience?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Forget the NET; it's the KET who's going to be right freaked out.

[KYC]

Almost each class in ps has one or two students whose levels are much higher than their peers. Unfortunately, I don't tailor my lesson to fit specific needs of each individual student. All my games/activities are based on team work, so the advanced students usually help their classmates. Or I designate certain students to translate some of what I say (they're pretty happy to do it actually). Or sometimes I let them lead the listen and repeat sections or parts of my powerpoint. They seem to enjoy it.

[Otherside]

Similar to what KYC said.

At my school there are definitly some higher level students in each class. (But then again, looking at the elementary curriculum, it doesn't take all that much to be a "higher level" student").

When we have group activities those students prove very useful as a proxy to help me explain instructions and clarify some issues on a group-based level. I'm obviously not going to make them my assistant on a class-wide basis as my co-teacher would then be out of a job.

If I had a native-level student in my class, I'd pretty give him a free pass, but I'd encourage him to use the time to read some of the English books from our English library, of which there are many that are level appropriate.

In a public school setting with 30+ kids in a class, more than that can't be expected. Your son will be arriving at the class with a better level of English than 90% of my students will have after 10 years of study, so to expend the time and effort on him would be to the detriment of the rest of the students (who actually need the instruction).

[ekul]

I had a filipino student who was perfectly fluent in speaking, yet his writing was pretty diabolical. He spoke Korean fluently as well so I didn't really understand his situation. I'm pretty sure even a kid that is a native speaker has plenty to learn if they are only in the third grade. I'd try and give them higher level vocabulary and grammar.

[WendyRose]

I utilize those students have have higher English-speaking skills. I'll often ask for volunteers to translate game/activity rules/instructions and they are the ones that raise their hands. If nobody raises their hands, I call on them.

I also have a "little teacher" in each of my classes. They are nominated by their peers and will be the leaders in listen/repeat exercises, etc.

[D.D.]

I have about 5 students that are fluent. Three are Korean that never have left the country and the other two lived overseas. The two who lived outside of Korea don't talk much as they want to hide their English abilities.

Two of the Korean's who are self taught here in Korea help me out with translation. This has pissed off one of my co-teachers. For the most part all five don't want the other kids knowing they are fluent.

[bogey666]

[T-J]

He was born in the States,and attended Kindergarten there. We have always spoken both Korean and English at home, we attended a Korean church on Sundays and had some Korean friends. So he really is bilingual. His writing and speaking skills were a little behind when we first came back to Korea though.

A year of kindergarten again here and some extra tutoring and he is pretty much up to speed on the Korean. His friends didn't even believe his dad was American until I brought him to school one day.

Interesting comments so far. Please keep them coming.

[lifeinkorea]

Here is an interesting video. The lady is bit of a nutter, but she does bring up some interesting points. Fast forward a minute to start with and you'll get the basic outline of what the whole video is about. From there, you can watch the whole thing or skip parts when they get too one-sided.

Basically, she is talking about how students can "demonstrate" abilities instead of laying the responsibility on the teacher to teach different levels. After that, it's all conspiracy talk LOL

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7398714418354815608

[Ruraljuror]

I teach at a fancy-pants private elementary school, and we have quite a few students who have lived in an English speaking country or went to school there for enough time that they are 100% fluent English speakers. They get the same lesson that everyone else gets, but I definitely expect better work from them...if it's a writing assignment and I can tell they are just giving it 50% of their attention I will call them on it and refuse to accept it until it's up to the standards of a native speaker, but I always make sure to compliment them at the same time by saying something like "Oh, you're a very good writer, you can do much better than this."

Same thing with class participation...they are super enthusiastic in my class and want to answer every question, but I won't call on them unless there is NO ONE else with their hand raised. If I can sense they are getting frustrated that they aren't getting called on, I will tell them that their English is much much much better than everyone else's, and I want to give the other students a chance. They seem to understand that, and are suitably pacified by the flattery.

[tzechuk]

[elavndrc]

I have a few students in my classes that are native English speakers but most of them don't actively participate since they know it already. Most of the students in my school aren't too good at English so they make fun of them a lot...some of the native kids even try to pretend they don't know and speak English in a Korean accent so as not to draw attention to themselves.

I let them do whatever they want. The KETs usually pick them out to translate and answer questions but if they don't want to picked on...I usually leave them alone.

[bogey666]

[espoir]

In one of my classes I had a student who spent the last 12 years of his life in cali, usa. Obviously his english was perfect and he had absolutely no problems.

The only problem being, my school is a vocational high school and the english level of the students is at about a grade 4 middle school level and thats being generous. So I'm only teaching these kids very basic stuff and I could see this kid being absolutely bored out of his mind.

Well thankfully all the other students already knew of his fluent english ability so i used him as my co-teacher for that class. (my actual co-teacher never liked to show up or only showed up for 15min half way through before leaving) He seemed to like this role and it provided a break from the mundane. Unfortuantely he's in the third grade this year and I only teach the first 2 grades of high school. It was nice having a "co-teacher" who actually spoke english and understood all the slang and sayings of a native speaker.