Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Changed]

This may be lengthy and winding...

I am a recent college grad from the US, majoring in English. I have no teaching experience. I have applied with EPIK, and things seem to be going smoothly (so far). I have two interviews lined up for early next week- if they go smoothly, I could be in Korea in August.

That being said, let me reiterate: I have NO teaching experience. My main motivation for trying to become an ESL teacher was the travel. Now, as I get closer to securing a job, I'm starting to realize that being an effective teacher is more important than anything else. I do have respect for (good) teachers; in turn, I feel as if I need to be the best teacher possible.

Am I going to be able to hold my own in a classroom? I have no experience with lesson planning, classroom discipline, etc... Will having a Bachelors degree in English, as well as a desire to be the best teacher possible, be enough? Finally, will I be provided with materials (books, handouts, etc...) or will I need to provide all of these materials for the class? Are the lessons planned out by school administration? Do they also decided what the goals for the year are?

I just asked about 11ty questions, so I don't expect them all to be answered. Can somebody just throw me a life preserver?!

[Kikomom]

Two things:

1. I think there's a certain logic that after having seventeen years of experience sitting in a classroom, college grads should by now have a pretty good idea of what a good teacher brings to their students. That you made it this far tells them that you've survived many classroom settings and know what it takes.

2. One of the main goals is to give the Korean students an english voice to learn to understand by listening. To see for themselves how English is communicated. The exposure to this is going to help them see the way pronunciation is with a native accent versus the accent they hear from their Korean teachers. One word at a time, building up to sentence structure, thought progression will help them start to make sense of what they hear thru the media, movies, tv, etc.

Good luck!

[Rteacher]

Making learning fun for your target learners is a key to teaching-English- as-a-foreign-language success. A lot of good suggestions were made on this thread ....
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=2067042&highlight=#2067042

[Fishead soup]

Get a copy of these textbooks Side by Side, and Interchange. Tell Me More and Keep Talking by Andrew Finch. These are also available online. Even if you can't teach these textbooks are very user friendly and will make teaching very easy. Look through the books and think of ways to teach. These books also come with teachers manuals these are useful

Go to a community center and see if they offer ESL to immigrants. If they do ask to Observe classes.

Go online and Check out these sites Bogglesworld has great materials that you can photo copy.

[Big Pun Lives]

As long as you don't show up drunk and you are on time you will be fine. Make sure you bring lots of stickers and candy with you.

- Big Pun

[frankly speaking]

Remember that your English degree is not what you are teaching here. You are not teaching literature criticism or creative writing. You will need a strong knowledge of functional grammar. How to explain to someone that doesn't understand your language why and how we use words and phrases. I suggest ingore suggestions about getting EFL textbooks and instead prepare getting books that actually discuss about EFL teaching.

How Languages are Learned, Nina Spada. The other good one is Teaching by Principles.

As far as classroom management. Do some volunteer work at an afterschool or a summer program.

Good luck.

Personally, I think that you are doing better than most but I still would like to see people think about the teaching skills before they actually apply for a job.

Most of the people that complain and have serious problems teaching EFL are the same that say that all you need to be is white, young and breathing.

[climber159]

In another thread it was pointed out to me that the public school administration doesn't want experienced teachers. And, they don't care about people doing midnight runs. (I wonder if that means they're encouraged.)

You'll be fine. Public school is mostly about keeping the kids in their seats and entertained. Learning something is just a bonus. Hagwons are all about keeping the parents happy. Keep the kids entertained in the classroom and send them home with lots a homework (but not too much).

The difficult problems occur outside of the classroom with the hagwon director, VP, co-teachers, subway adjummas, banks, girlfriend's father, etc.

[Fishead soup]

[frankly speaking]

What is impractical about suggesting books that actually discuss how to teach, how to prepare material and how to design curriculum?

How do you even know that the textbooks that you choose are of actual benefit in the classroom if you don't know about 2nd language acquisition or about teaching methodologies or approaches.

If all you want the OP to be is a voice puppet, then by all means disregard practical advice about learning something about actual teaching.

Giving suggestions for random EFL class books that may or may not be appropriate for the age level or ability of students is impractical in my opinion.

I do agree with Fish head about learning how to steer away from the Konglish derived curriculum that is in place.

The two books that I suggested offer some good practical advice on how to develop a lesson for the EFL classroom.

How to take material and turn it into an interactive lesson that does more than just repeat after some white monkey like fishhead.

I suspect that he is another punter with a BA in nothing relevant who came to korea and taught for 2 1/2 years. Wow is that experience. Only in Korea do you find teachers with less than 3 years experience talking as if they actually know what the heck they are doing.

Most teachers that I work with have more than 10 years experience and we all agree that it takes at least 5 years before you really have figured out anything.

1st year head up your ass.
2nd year think that you know what you are doing
3rd year reflect a little and try to adjust the major mistakes that you did your first two years
4th year start rebuilding and redifining yourself as a teacher
5th year teach with a little balance and some humility.

to the OP.

Do your best to learn and get as much experience in the next few months before coming over. When you get here and start teaching, just relax don't stress about things. Don't get defensive or arrogant and just do your best. You will do fine. You seem to have a good attitude and that goes a long way.

[gregoriomills]

OP-
people will be able to give much better specific advice if/when you post what level you will be teaching.

[EvanD85]

If you want to be a good teacher and can be entertaining/friendly to your kids, you can boil it all down to just a few things.

1. Everything you do has a purpose

No good teacher comes in and says "you know what'd be neat? If we did THIS!" and just does something for the hell of it. There's a goal behind it somewhere.

2. Every purpose must be measured in some way (class discussion, one-on-one discussion, worksheets, tests, quizzes, games, papers, whatever)

Keep in mind if you want each student to succeed, you need some way to look at them all individually. I myself have made the mistake of seeing an entire class all raising their hands and being completely aware of what I'm teaching only to realize there is a kid somewhere in the back that has slipped past my radar and shut down because s/he didn't get it in the beginning. Just imagine there's some kid who doesn't know anything and you have to find out which one it is without embarassing them, and find a clever way to do it.

3. Everything has to change

Having a system is great (sit down, talk, quiz over what we talked about, talk, game... or some other system, whatever you like). What isn't great is having the exact same class every day. Spice it up a bit from time to time to keep the kids on their toes; don't give a "fill in the blank" worksheet after you have a discussion, don't always ask the kids questions or always give a speech to the class or always do anything. Keep it fresh.

You could go into a classroom with rock band and have them all rocking out every day of the year and they'd eventually get bored of it.


I haven't taught in Korea yet; all my experience is with high schoolers in America. There are probably some veterans rolling their eyes at the above, but in essence, if you follow those three guidelines you are doing a good job.

Set goals, evaluate the goals, and keep it interesting.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Just because someone offers you the job doesn't mean you should except it. That said, you'll never know if you're cut out to teach until you try it and the school(s) you get through EPIK is very much a crapshoot - it could be a dream teaching gig or a school no foreigner could teach effectively at.

[mld]