Korean Job Discussion Forums

[daz1979]

Hi,

A brief background:

I have been teaching in Korea for the past 6 years, 1 year in a hagwon and 5 years at public schools. This year, my wife and I have decided to set-up our own language school (hagwon). Initially, our plan was to organise Immersion English Camps, taking small groups of students to England every summer and winter. However, the BOE have rejected our business on legality issues, due to the fact that we are not a full-time place of education. With this in mind, coupled with the fact we have been considering the idea for some time, we have decided to take the plunge and open a small school and have the camps as an extension of our business.

Obviously, having worked in Korea for a number of years, I have a lot of ideas for the school and how I intend for it to be managed. However, I am reaching out and looking for further ideas from the teaching community.


So............


Having worked with the same books for the past 5 years of public school, I feel a little out of touch with potential curriculums that we could offer. So far, we have been looking at:


Phonics: MONSTER PHONICS. We like this book. However, I'm sure there are other series of phonics books that are potentially better for our students.

Reading: I have always used DR SEUSS to compliment phonics study and find that students have fun reading them and following the videos that can be found on youtube etc etc. I have also had some success with MEDIA PLUS DVD's for more difficult reading tasks.

Conversation & General Course Books - There are so many great & terrible books on the market and I honestly have no idea what to choose. I like the look of CUTTING EDGE and the new TOTAL ENGLISH. However, I would love to hear other teacher input regarding suitable course books.

NEAT - Again, this is something that I have not had the opportunity to teach, as yet. It seems that REALLY NEAT is a well respected book. Does anyone have any other suggestions that I can research?

Business English - Although my degree/major is in Business Management and Marketing Strategies. Actually teaching Business English is something I do not have experience with and an area where there is so much choice in possible textbooks. I was looking at MARKET LEADER with more recent news articles for new case studies. Can anyone suggest other avenues to explore?



I'm confident that being a foreign owned hagwon who also organise overseas language programs, we offer something very different to other local schools nearby. However, I obviously want to offer the best possible curriculum on the market and would be very grateful for any suggestions that you could provide that have been successful for your own classes.


No SIDE BY SIDE or LETS GO suggestions PLEASE!!


Many thanks in advance

[ren546]

I'm not really that familiar with children's books, but I know you can contact the publishers directly and get examination copies (for review) of whatever books they have on offer, along with teacher resources in some cases. For free. I've done this myself for university classes, both here and in North America. Since your prospective students will likely all have to buy the textbooks you choose, the companies should be very interested in providing this service to you.

[schwa]

No substantive suggestions, sorry, but your mention of Dr Seuss is spot on. Best supplement for young students ever. I learned to read from his books & they planted a lifelong love of reading. Raised my own kids on them. Korean kids take to him instantly too.

Best luck in your endeavors.

[daz1979]

[busanliving]

I'm curious why you say no Let's go? Won't you need a concrete programme for young beginner learners?

[Whistleblower]

Here are my views regarding coursebooks below:

Cutting Edge (General English) - Anything but cutting edge. These coursebooks are usually quite progressive in terms of the delivery of grammar but I find them quite prescriptive and I find them rather old fashioned.

English Unlimited (General English) - These coursebooks are great and are aligned towards the Common European Framework. They can be easily adapted and the flow and structure provides teachers and students the opportunity to learn more than the grammar/vocabulary within the boundaries of them. I would highly recommend them and the tasks are very engaging for learners. I have trialled them with a group of learners and they enjoyed the activities.

Natural English (General English) - The aim for this set of coursebooks is to deliver more natural and colloquial English. The cartoons in the beginning of each chapter are interesting but they quickly soon lose their appeal. The activities are predictable but they are better than some of the more traditional coursebooks (Cutting Edge, Total English, etc).

Let's Go (Young Learners) - These coursebooks are engaging for YLs and the learners start to enjoy the characters in them. There are numerous activities available for the teacher to supplement with the coursebook but with many YL coursebooks, it is best to get all the supplementary coursebooks/workbooks/etc to get the best of them. Overall, useful which can provide project work for learners (self-created though).

Kid's Box (Young Learners) - This is, in my opinion, the best YL coursebook on the market at the moment. The DVD's can be used within the lesson and there are some great games which could be shown on an IWB. The activities are great and the kids love the chapters. The characters are engaging with some wonderful projects to develop. I used this for 7 months and the kids loved the arts and crafts which supplemented the learning aims. Again, you need all the workbooks, teacher guide, etc to get the best out of these. The coursebooks include phonics but it is best to get a supplementary book on phonics to get the best out of it.

Primary Box (Young Learners) - The photocopiable resources from this pack are great and I would highly recommend that you get all the books:

a. Primary Activity Box
b. Primary Communication Box
c. Primary Curriculum Box
d. Primary Grammar Box
e. Primary Music Box
f. Primary Pronunciation Box
g. Primary Reading Box
h. Primary Vocabulary Box

These are definitely well worth the investment if you can get them and keep them close to hand. They can be used to supplement chapters/topics in coursebooks and even teenagers like to use some of the activities. With some of the games, it is best to laminate and use card after photocopying. Again highly recommended.

As with Business English coursebooks, I would recommend Market Leader, Global or Business Benchmark. They are much of the same. They all teach functional language and it is best to supplement with photocopiable resources when possible. Some of the additional resources which I recommend for business courses include:

a. Business Vocabulary in Use (all levels)
b. Cambridge Business English Activities (highly recommended)
c. Communicating Across Cultures
d. Decisionmaker
e. Grammar for Business

As you can see, I much prefer the Cambridge University Press publications as above, but some other good books can be sourced from other publishers such as Oxford University Press or Scholastic.

I hope this helps and should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask for more help.

[daz1979]

[daz1979]

[Whistleblower]