Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Winterkalte]

I was trained by CELTA and my typical lesson goes something like this:
1. Start with Lead-in activity to get students interested in the lesson’s topic and comfortable talking.
2. Pre-Teach vocabulary that they will eventually encounter in a listening or reading text.
3. Give students the listening or reading text.
4. Ask students questions about the reading/listening text in a certain way, that their answers should contain the target language, but most likely won’t.
5. Briefly teach the students the grammar or functional language of the target language.
6. Ask students the same questions as before, but this time they are able to use the target language correctly.
7. End the lesson by giving the students a fun controlled practice or freer activity where they use the target language.

This is how I was trained to teach and from watching videos online, this is how adult EFL classes seem to be taught in the rest of the world, especially in Europe. However from my limited adult teaching experience in Korea, it seems Korean adults have their own ideas of how English should be taught. They pretty much just want to have free talking conversation every class.

So far I’ve been pretty good at selling the reading/listening and grammar and making most of the students want to learn it, considering they came into the class wanting free conversation. I at least assume they are interested in it, because they are taking notes on everything I say. The students will tell me my lessons are exciting. However, sometimes I get an adult that will sit and pout throughout the whole lesson because the class is not doing free talking, never to be seen again after that lesson.

So like I said before, from my personal experience, it seems like the majority of Korean adults are just interested in having free talking. I’ve only taught at two adult hagwons so I don’t know if this is the norm. My question is, does anybody else that teaches adults in Korea have a similar experience? If you taught adults in other countries, do they act the same way? I’m interviewing for adult jobs right now, and I’m wondering if this is what I have to expect if I keep teaching in Korea. I’ve already had one interview that told me if I try to teach grammar/reading/listening in class, I will scare away all the students.

[edwardcatflap]

I've found pretty much the opposite actually. In my experience Korean adults won't put up with free talking for a lesson and usually want a bit of structure. It might depend on how the courses and the institutes are marketed, however.

[beentheredonethat777]

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So like I said before, from my personal experience, it seems like the majority of Korean adults are just interested in having free talking. I’ve only taught at two adult hagwons so I don’t know if this is the norm.[/b]

Yes, This is the norm. I have taught several adults classes. They want to have fun and just talk!
They're paying money to have bragging rights. "I'm studying English with a foreigner." "I'm on my way to English class." This is kind of their "free time" especially if they have kids or are married. Many are learning as a hobby. Hobbies should be fun, enjoyable, and relaxing activities.[/b]

My question is, does anybody else that teaches adults in Korea have a similar experience?

Yes. Please ignore the things you were taught in CELTA, not applicable here. same with TESOL, etc., usually doesn't work out in real life teaching.

Quote:

[b] If you taught adults in other countries, do they act the same way?

I've also taught adult ESL classes in America. On my evaluations at the end of the semester, all of the students (from 17 different countries) said they loved the free talk/conversation days the best.[/b]

I’m interviewing for adult jobs right now, and I’m wondering if this is what I have to expect if I keep teaching in Korea.

Yes. Unless a school specifically requires/tells you to teach grammar as a part of a set syllabus, it is usually not welcomed.

I’ve already had one interview that told me if I try to teach grammar/reading/listening in class, I will scare away all the students.[/quote]
This is true. On the first day of my class in Korea, my boss said, "Whatever you do, don't teach any grammar lessons in the adult classes. I heeded his advice. The students had fun trying to speak English.The class kept growing until there were no more seats. On reflection, I think it was more like an "after dinner" social club.IMHO

On a different note, when I was teaching Presentation Skills, as a part of my Business English classes, grammar was discussed on a daily basis, non-stop, because it was required, requested, and a very necessary skill for the company leaders. In fact, the class was called ;DEVELOP GOOD GRAMMAR SKILLS, in the advertising bulletin!

I hope this helps!

I have used books in all of my adult classes that had daily topics; we had structure, but ,not "rigid-learn this or else"kind of sessions.

I really miss teaching adults.

[matthagwon]

[mayorhaggar]

[edwardcatflap]

[Unposter]

My suggestion, and not just for you, but for all teachers, is to listen as much to your students as you possibly can within the acceptable confines of your position.

As a teacher, you should certainly suggest good and novel ways to study but in the end you need to reach your students and if your students do not like your approach, you are not doing them much good.

My other suggestion is to remember that there is always more than one approach to teaching your students. You should not get too fixated on this is the formula and I have to follow it exactly.

Good teaching is more of an art. You need to know how to tweak things and get just the right recipe for each individual class.

This is one of things I like best about teaching in Korea - at least in my personal experience - there is a lot more latitude to try new things and make little changes to improve the education of your students.

In the end, you need to ask yourself, do you want to teach your students that there is only one way to do things or do you want them to think for themselves and learn to communicate their interests and needs?

[edwardcatflap]

[Unposter]

While I agree that Korean students mostly give generic answers and that it can be hard to please all the students in a class, I do want to say three things.

1. I think Edward is reading far too much into what I said to suggest it is the absence of structure, just a different structure.

2. And, I think this is the most important one. If it is just one person suggesting this, sure, you do not have to follow but if the class is making this suggestion to you, you need to listen. By the class, I mean many people are suggesting this to you. This is where good judgement comes into play but if a significant number of people in a class are making a suggestion, it is probably better to listen. Don't be afraid to listen to your students.

3. Ultimately, you are the teacher and it is your decision - just take responsibility for whatever you decide.

Regardless, there really are multiple approaches and finding the right one for any given class is one of the most important responsibilities for a teacher.

Good luck and let us know how it goes for you.

[Winterkalte]

Thanks for the input guys.

I will consider trying to do somewhat free talking style classes, but try to make it structured to set me apart from the untrained teachers that just walk into the classroom blind and 'wing it'.
I've been reading a book called "Teaching Unplugged" by Scott Thornbury but haven't tried this technique in the classroom yet. If you haven't heard of teaching unplugged, it's basically about teaching English without using any materials, this includes coursebooks. Teaching unplugged is not the same as winging it, it is the very opposite in fact. Jeremy Harmer gives a good lecture on the pros and cons of this method here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJWT0oaX9V0

Today a student told me that she enjoys my classes because other teachers use course books that are very boring. I told her that I actually use a course book too, but I use it as a guide for the lesson. I don't actually teach out of the book. I just use the ideas and activities in the book to present my lesson. The students don't have a copy of the book.
My school gives me absolute freedom to teach the class however I see fit. I've been using the Straightforward books by Jim Scrivener that I bought myself. The teacher guides come with all these extra lead-in activities, games, and hand outs. It has really helped me cut down on my lesson planning time, and made my job a lot easier. If your school gives you complete teaching freedom, I recommend investing in these books. They're expensive, but you can get them cheap on ebay.

I had one more question about teaching adults and that is attendance. Is it common for adults to come and go so often? I know they are not children forced to go to every class by their parents. I have a core group of loyal students, and then there are some that show up for a month, never to be seen again. I wonder if it's because I did something wrong (like not doing free talking), or if that is just the norm when teaching adults. Does this happen to both the good and bad teachers? In Korea or abroad? Fortunately, my boss doesn't put any pressure on me to keep the enrollment numbers up, but this could be a problem with future jobs.

[edwardcatflap]

[tate]

Adults like to play games. You can use the same games for elementary and adults a lot of the time. Think of a game where they have to use the target language in a competitive manner against other teams. Have to it take up 60 or 70 percent of the class. Give ot a shot and see how it goes.

In my experience adults can often be more into the games than kids.

[Jodami]

[tate]

Jodami, do you teach adults here? For how many years have you been teaching adults?

Also those aren't the right type of games. I'm talking about games that encourage communication between the class and that encourages the usage of the target vocabulary. Have you tried a game like that with adult students and found it didn't work?

Or were you just taking the piss? Do you actually teach children and have never taught adults, but think you know that you're talking about?

[schwa]

Chain, yanked.