Korean Job Discussion Forums

[warmachinenkorea]

Been asked before but the search function isn't working.

I'm tired of using the textbooks. My kids are bored and the teacher just thinks it's great. I need some conversation books for MS 1,2, and 3.

Anyone have any recommendations. I teach in a rural area with varied abilities

[different]

In general, conversation books absolutely blow. They are embarrassing to use.

You're better off making your own communicative activities, if you can think of them, but good ones are hard to think of. I don't blame you if you can't think of any. Most of the ideas on the internet are rubbish, by the way.

If you're free to use your own materials, a couple resource books that might be useful are Penny Ur's "Discussions That Work", "Grammar Practice Activities", and "5-Minute Activities". Question/answer sheets can be useful (make sure the students answer in full sentences), and taboo is a good fluency game students can play in groups.

But if the dumb parents insist on using a TEXTBOOK, a book called "Fifty-Fifty" is sorta OK. Or a NON-CONVERSATION book could benefit the students. Maybe you could use a reading book instead, and then give question/answer sheets with questions related to the reading, or make a taboo game using vocabulary from the reading. I can't emphasize enough how bad most conversation books suck d***.

Some of these conversation books are written by famous, respected ESL authors and researchers. IT DON'T MEAN A THING. Maybe their books work (somewhat) with their highly-motivated students at Ivory Tower University, but not at a hagwon.

I'll add that speaking is BY FAR the hardest aspect of language to "teach", so foreign teachers that have to teach conversation are at a steep disadvantage as far as gaining the students' (and Korean society's) respect. Some hagwons don't even have conversation classes because they're seen as a waste of time.

Good luck.