Korean Job Discussion Forums

[okelleyas]

So, I'm currently teaching elementary and middle school at a hagwon. I was just asked to do a one hour class twice a week of an adult conversation class...but the catch is that it starts tomorrow. If you guys could help with last minute easy ideas for the first two classes, then I'll be able to adequately prepare over the weekend for the rest of the classes. Any suggestions? [I have no idea the ability of these adults]

[brauggi]

start with getting-to-know you exercises. it'll give you a chance to learn names and also get a feel for what English Proficiency you're working with. Once you feel you've got a guage of how much the students know, you can springboard the conversation to something appropriate. are the students businesspeople? university students? hobbyists? a mix?

or if you haven't been told, prepare a grab-bag of your most adaptable (proficiency-wise) conversation activities and use the first day of class as your opportunity to make a list of things to teach in future lessons based on what you hear during those activities.

I've found that asking students what they'd like you to teach them almost never yields anything productive, so getting students to demonstrate where the holes are always works better for me.

congratulations on getting an adult class, by the way. I'm still stateside trying to find a gig teaching teenagers or older. I've got 3.5 years with adults here and an MATESOL, but so far, nobody has responded even to say buzz off.

[le-paul]

cut, paste and edit from the following website;

http://iteslj.org/questions/

saved me a ton of work once...

[Whistleblower]

What you need to do is get yourself a good methodology book to help you learn the basics. I suggest "Teaching Unplugged" by Meddings and Thornbury. Some of the ideas there for dogme-style learning is useful for all communicative based lessons.

A lesson that is from the book: