Korean Job Discussion Forums

[War Eagle]

My advanced adult conversation class has been centered around news articles and debate topcis for quite some time. I would like to mix it up a little by introducing video once a week. My problem is what to watch.

I want a good variety of things to show. However, I need to be able to keep the attention of the students for 10 minutes or so, and it must be something we can talk about for the remainder of the class.

On Monday and Tuesday of next week I am going to take them short clips of some material I find appropriate so they can vote. So far, I have had the following ideas:

The Office
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
ted.com speeches
Movies (but at 10-15 min a day, that may go too slow)

Have any of you tried these ideas and been successful, failed, etc.? Are there any other ideas that have worked (or failed) in your classes?

[lifeinkorea]

Movies are so personal, it is hard to please everyone. You should ask students and have them suggest what kinds of movies they want to see. They may not know the titles, but you need to spend a few lessons on how to talk and express their opinions about movies.

Since November, I have started using movies. I try to let the students choose after I describe the main ideas of the movies. You can stagger classes so they watch near the end, and that way they can stick around to watch the rest of the movie. I think at least 30 minutes a day is better.

Have worksheets written out so they are also doing something while they watch. They should keep track of characters' names, characteristics, important scenes, etc...

For intermediate level students, they can stop after 30 minutes and then go back and look at parts they don't understand or finish the worksheet.

For you, make out a list of important vocabulary words in the movie the students probably don't know. This could include slang or unfamiliar phrases. Then quiz them after they watch to see if they remember hearing them. If not, go to the parts in the movie where those words are used and replay them. See if they can understand the meaning without you telling them first.

For one movie, I used one word a day for that section we watched. Then we discussed how that one word related to the part we watched.

For confusing scenes, either explain them before watching or tell them 2 or more ways to interpret each scene. After watching, see which ones they relate to.

[Hotpants]

Journeymanpictures channel on YouTube is worth checking out - it has a lot of REALLY interesting documentary/news shorts (from a few mins to 45 mins) from issues around the world - so much content for discussion in them.

[The Hammer]

These short clips are great for discussion:

Words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HfwkArpvU&feature=related

16 Moments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVPalNZD_I

Remind Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo4u4JJAPGk

Google
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfV6RzE30&feature=related

[War Eagle]

Thanks for the suggesstions. They are great and I will reply when I have time.

[War Eagle]

I really liked the journeyman pictures channel. There are a lot of helpful ideas and topics there. The issues are a little more serious than I was looking for, but very helpful nonetheless.

The short clips I found very interesting and I can definately use them. I am just not sure how I could fill a whole class with the material. It's purely a discussion class and we do no writing/worksheets at all. This is at the request of the students.

The comedy I selected did not go over well on the first trial day. Unfortunately, they didn't understand a lot of the jokes. I was assuming since they were high level they would, but I was wrong.

Of the ones I selected, The Daily Show was the biggest success. However, they had a hard time following a lot of it because of how fast the speaking can be at times.

Please, if anyone has other suggesstions, I would love to hear them.