Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lindsay316]

I have an interview scheduled for next week, and the school has asked me to prepare a mock lesson. I've been working on it, but I'm a little nervous about it. I was hoping some of you would be willing to share some pointers.

It's a university position teaching business English. I guess the thing I'm the most nervous about is that I generally like to have a very interactive, discussion-based classroom. My lectures are usually peppered with questions to engage the students. Would such an approach be appropriate in a Skype interview/mock lesson? I am certainly capable of just straight lecturing, but I don't know if it would be better to show them an example of my true teaching style. I just don't want to stand there asking my interviewers a bunch of questions if that would be a weird thing to do. Any tips? Thanks!

[bojangles]

I'm not familair with the university setting, but... a lot will depend on the proficiency level of your 'mock' students, the class size-eh, and their age-ee;for 'mock' teaching I'd focus on speaking and writing in the form of a self introduction;I like to call it"Name-tag Day":tear a piece of paper in half and fold it into three's and give one to each student;on there they can write their name-hometown-age--fav. hobby,etc.;you can then use it as a script for a brief question & answer conversation with them; I like to use a lot of props and signs to show and tell them and pass around(any age);for larger classes I'd recommend a microphone;and music,music,music(any age);there's only one song that will fit here:"Money" by Pink Floyd;

p.s. handing out and collecting the nametags are good ways to interact(albeit briefly)with each student, learn their names, and review/correct their work with them.

Lastly;the biggest obstacle for Korean learners is pronunciation. I place a lot of emphasis here throughout every lesson.

...That's my 2 cents. Now, where's my penny?

[bojangles]

Just re-read your post and noticed "Skype" Interview Mock Lesson.

Missed that the first time.

I'd just do what you normally do and forget about "Name-tag Day."
LoL

good luck!

[lifeinkorea]

Maybe you should give an answer key to the interviewer, so when you ask the questions they know what answers you are expecting.

This might be better than testing their listening skills and you don't want to get rejected because they can't remember what you say.

Most of these interviews after all are just confirming what is in your resume. A lecture with questions sounds over their head.

[lindsay316]

Thanks for the responses. I'm also wondering about my choice of topic. It's for a business English program, and I picked a business English topic I normally teach--the interview. I started thinking about it more, and I'm wondering if that's a bad topic. It seems unlikely that my students would be applying for jobs in English, and I don't want it to seem like I think that Korean students would have to go to America to get jobs or something. Should I be worried about that, or do you think they're more concerned with how I present the content than what it actually is?