Korean Job Discussion Forums

[withnail]

I've had great success with this little framework:

1. I think...(opinion)
2. because...(reason)
3. for example...(case)
4. so...(restatement)

Whatever the topic of your lesson/textbook, make a short list of open-ended discussion questions (not too many) and print them out to give to sts. Arrange your sts in groups of 4 or 6. Make the questions as easy to understand as you can. Check that everyone understands the questions by going round the little groups and assisting.

Encourage them to answer each other using the above schema. Drill it and model a specimen question and answer first to exemplify.

For lower levels just try to get them using 1 & 2.

[ddeubel]

P a u s e


echo echo echo echo echo echo

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[withnail]

???

What say you Dave?

[withnail]

[oldtactics]

I agree with your original post - I teach highschool girls and the beginning of the semester, our conversations consisted of "How are you?" and them responding with "happy", "tired", etc. As time has gone on, I've started asking them -why- they felt that way, or during discussions about their weekend, asking them to tell me why they went shopping, or how they felt in Seoul, etc etc. I find now they're prepared for me to elaborate on the original question and they're making sentences much more comfortably than at the beginning of the semester. Makes me a lil' bit proud *tear*

[withnail]

Glad to hear that!

I also stress to my students the need for the subject verb object sentence structure as well when I hear something like :"Teacher my desk no paper!"

One of the most useful things you can do is to keep insisting on English sentence structure and showing the difference between this and K grammar. You really have to insist on reformulation in the early stages.

[jinks]

[ddeubel]

withnail,

I was being half serious

The reason many students don't speak is that teachers are so damn good at it.

Research shows time and time again that the thing a teacher doesn't do enough is pause and wait for student response. This more than anything could encourage more student talk time.

But if you are in groups, what is needed is to "from the get go" , insist and teach students to speak like human beings. That means, insist that they reply back to you (echo) when you ask a question.

As in.

T: What did you do this weekend Soomin?
S: I studied.
(the teacher pauses) (the teacher waves to indicate a return question)
S: What did you do?
T: I sat around and picked the dead skin off my toes.

Further, questions should be taught explicitly from lesson 1!!!!!! They should not be something expected but never taught. Teach students how to form questions and you'll begin to have more "communication". Takes two to tango.

I have a handy sentence maker on EFL Classroom. Using the diagram, students can easily form questions. But with this, it is a matter of practice makes perfect.

The other consideration is the topic. If a student is REALLY interested, they might speak more. Volition is a major determiner of output. For example, if you are starving, you might try out your poor Korean rather than remain hungry. You have an investment in the language. Build this into your lessons through personalization and contextualization of the content.

My 3 cents worth.......

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[icnelly]

[withnail]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Easter Clark]