Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alison425]

I work for Gepik in Suwon at a wonderful high school BUT after 6 months I am no closer to really knowing how or what to teach these tired, non-English speaking kids. I know what I COULD teach but when the kids refuse to speak English and every language producing task, like write me one simple sentence ends up taking half the lesson, I really am hitting my head off a brick wall here.

There is absolutely nothing on-line that gives suggestions on HOW to teach large classes of teenagers in Korea (a large class being 42 mixed ability students). So I wondered if anyone out there could give me some advice.
Not even Gepik, with their 3 day induction, could give any helpful advice.

Thanks in advance guys.

[Fishead soup]

I think you are trying to hard to actually teach. Most public schools are edutaining. The students don't care you have zero influence on their grades. Use 2ne1 to motivate them a hot new sexy all girl groups you can get their video's on EFL Classroom 2.0 or on youtube. Most of songs include English subtitles. You can also get Korean pop songs entirely in English from Wondergirls.

[oldfatfarang]

I feel for you OP.
Are your students 'academic,' 'vocational,' or mixed?

Are they co-ed classes?

Popular themes for high school students are: fashion, movies, music, food, dancing etc.

I know that with some high school classes, nothing works - but you may get a response (speaking in Englisheee) if you try these themes.

Hint: Don't ever expect a Korean student to stand up / in front of class solo and give a speaking presentation. Concentrate on pairs/group work - and only later get them doing speaking presentations in pairs.

My vocational HS students are extremely demanding to teach/help with English. But I've got 2 good co-teachers (one wasn't, but has learned), and they give the kids stamp rewards for completing hand outs and speaking presentations. It works for about 80% of the kids - and that's as good as it gets. Some try, some don't. Some never will. Concentrate on the ones that try and forget the rest.

Also try a 5 min end-of-class reward of music videos for a good lesson.

Good luck.
And let us know what level your students are.

[Gary-Korea]

Hi Alison

I was in exactly the same boat as you about a year ago and I definately know teaching this age group can be frustrating. I teach at a technical high school in Suwon.

What helped me was getting my hands on a couple of decent textbooks and following a strong lesson structure so my kids knew what to expect in class. I would recommend English Communication 1 & 2 and also Speaking for Everyday Life 1 & 2. The second title has a lot of good activities for pairs and groups and both have conversations about different topics. These are published by Darakwon.

I would also say that candy is your friend! Rewarding students for good behaviour and participation in class goes along way. I also have an understanding with my classes that if they perform well and concentrate during our 'study' lessons then we can have a 'game' lesson every 3rd lesson. This provides motivation for them and can be very fun.

Finally, discuss with your co-teachers if your classes can form part of their final grade. I currently write about half of the English exam questions from the material that I teach in class. The students know this so if they don't take my class seriously then they are shooting themselves in the foot!

[alison425]

edutainer - I like that.

The kids are low - intermediate level. But each class has a mix of both. So just cos 2 kids out of 40 shout out an answer it doesn't mean that the others get it.

Thanks for the comments and advice. I just wondered if anyone out there could give me a specific example of how they might teach a class of 40. Has any technique worked at all. Like I say, I know the topics I can teach about and that they like to listen to music, I sometimes let them but after, they have nothing to say so really it was just keeping them occupied for 5 mins.

If it really is just a case of being their entertainer for 45 minutes a week then maybe I should just accept that and get on with it. But I kinda hoped that there was some subtle way of encouraging them to speak English though.

Cheers again guys

[Fishead soup]

I know I'll get a lot of people disagreeing with me on this but with that many students You're going to have to use lots of Choral Repetition. Although this could get a bit boring if you do it all the time. Pairwork in Korea tends to be somewhat robotic. After doing choral drilling assign one row one role and another row another role then have them switch. You can also assign one side of the room one role and another side of the room another role and have them switch.

Be warned these kinds of activities are very boring when used too much and will lose their effectiveness over time. If you are a reall strict teacher you can ride this for a whole semester however the kids will get pretty bored and act up.
You can mix these activities with the some pop song Karaoke activities my students really liked Emenem "I'm not afraid" This kind of song really appealls to rebelious boys you can get the shortened version of it on EFL
Classroom 2.0 that has no swearing.

[Gary-Korea]

Fishhead Soup I would be very interested to hear how you go about using the karaoke material in a class.

I tried an Avril Lavigne song with a couple of classes but it completely back-fired so I have steered clear from this sort of activity since then. I think I made the mistake of actually trying to 'teach' the song rather than just letting them enjoy it. I have a much better set of kids this year and I think they would appreciate this sort of thing a lot more.

Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Fishead soup]

[Gary-Korea]

Thats sounds pretty straightforward. I think I will try it with my kids after the mid-terms. Thanks for your help!

[Illysook]

It's the same way for many of us. Do your best, always have a handout, use powerpoints with interesting pictures. Give the kids plenty of examples of what you are looking for. I've noticed that one thing that they are particularly weak in is listening skills...and I don't mean that they don't want to listen. It's that learning a foreign language requires reading, writing, listening and speaking. They do the first two with their Korean teachers, and we assume that they should speak during conversation class, but they don't hear a lot of English actually being spoken.

Sites like RealEnglish.com or videos with English subtitles can be helpful. Then, although you can't always trust them to do pair or group work, you should give them the chance to do it, and during that time go around to each group to "help" them, and in this way they will be accountable for getting something done. Even so, you can't expect to win every day.

Sometimes, you plan a kick ass lesson and they want to sleep through it, other times, you pull something out of your butt and they think that it's great. Win or lose, you can always use the last 10 minutes to play a game like BAAM. Change the questions around each week and make some of them relate to past lessons, or interesting facts about your home town. The ones who want to learn and practice their English will get pretty excited about this stuff. The ones who don't give a flying monkey will continue with their naps. You care about the kids in the first category and you can't help those kids by getting angry at the other ones.

[oldfatfarang]