Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grotto]

I have a bit of a dilemma.

I was just informed that the grade 3 students are not allowed to see writing. Only pictures and oral, no ABC's. As I have five grade three classes to teach every Tuesday any information would be appreciated.

Thanks

[peppermint]

Let the fun begin! You won't be allowed to let the grade 4's do any real writing either.

Kids that age have fantastic memories, and songs work really well, especially if there's hand movement. Head and Shoulders knees and toes, Three little monkeys, and baby bumblebee are my kids favorites.

If you can sneak it in, kizclub.com has some good alphabet worksheets with practice lines for letter writing and a section to color the picture.

BTW, the actual curriculum will fill in around 90% of your class time if you use it well.

[justagirl]

Did anyone else want to break out laughing when they read this post? I mean, come on--3rd graders "aren't allowed" to look at written English? That is so stupid! ha ha ha--like the written word will make the 10 year olds spontaneously combust or be detrimental to their learning...

[peppermint]

One of the joys of public school. My school is pretty cool about it, but other schools aren't. I think the theory is that it will interfere with their Korean language skills.

[Grotto]

The not reading or writing for the first three years is a concept in English teaching. I don't agree with it but it is their curriculum so I will abide by it.

I just am trying to think of ways to get the students involved away from the textbook while still complementing it.

Does anyone know any good flashcard sites that you can download from?

[crazylemongirl]

you have to pay but

www.eslkidstuff.com

has great graphics for kids. I use them with my first graders and they love them.

[pecan]

You condemn them, but I doubt you have any experience in the field. Their reason is very sound, and it is completely logical.

Instead of making fun of something you do not understand, why not take some time to read about it! Sounds crazy, I know, but you might come to agree with the practice.

Babies have little to no exposure to written words for several years, and they learn to speak without difficulty.

Use chants, action songs, TPR, etc. to teach your children.

Please be mindful of your students and encourage any and all approximations at learning the target language.

I wish I could teach your young children.

Nut

[prosodic]

The problem is that a rigid policy against using the written language is that it does not accomodate different learning styles. While most young children learn a language well through aural media only, others may learn better visually.

Personally, I am a visual learner. I have a much easier time with written Korean than spoken Korean. If I had to learn Korean only through conversation, I would probably get lost. I remember written words better than words that I hear and therefore I learn conversational Korean best by reading dialogues. Admittedly, I am an adult, but the same was true for me when I was a child with my native English. My verbal skills improved dramatically when I started to read.

The policy of the public schools may be fine for the majority of children, but imposes a severe hindrance to those children who do not learn best through aural media. By the way, pedagogical studies have proven that learning is best achieved when multiple senses are involved because each sense reinforces the other in the learner's memory.

That being said, there is no sense in trying to persuade to change their policies.

[Grotto]

It amazes me how fast disagree turned into condemn.

Followed up by an assumption that I have no experience.

Then another slap putting words in my mouth...I never made fun of them and I don't see any other posters making fun of them either. Then another assumption that I dont know anything about this methodology.

Pecan come off your pedestal and join us mere mortals. It ticks me off when someone assumes things and speaks condescendingly to people they dont know.

I have an Ed degree! Do you?
I have experience teaching! Do you?
I have read up on this method! Have you?
I just dont agree with it! Do you?

By preventing students from learning the written word you are blocking off a whole other set of kinesthetic learning.

I believe that the reason they dont want students learning English writing early on is that it is so much easier to use and more expressive than Korean. If children learn this early on it will be the deathnell of the Korean written word. The way Korea is embracing English I could see Korean writing going the way of Latin..only studied by university students. Of course that is true of many languages on the planet. English has gone from one of the least spoken languages on the planet to one of the most spoken most used languages.

The world language pool is dying out as we become a global village. The language of the internet is English, the language of transportation is English, the language of medicine is English. As English becomes used more globally other languages will die out. A sad fact.

[Dawn]

[kylehawkins2000]

Most of the current linguistic pedagogy and theory say that 'whole language' is the best was to approach literacy. Exposing children to a wide variety of language usage across the curriculum is probably the most effective way to ensure that the greatest number of students are learning to their highest potential.

A balanced approach incorporating songs, chants, TPR, writing, choral reading, individual reading to self and groups, guided reading, self-directed reading, phonics and grammer exercises, free speaking, in which each of the various categories overlap and complement each other is the most effective way to teach in my opinion.

Alot of the 'learning theories' that hogwans adopt are just gimmicks that are used to promote and advertise their hogwan as having the 'lastest and greatest' new teaching methods. In reality they generally ignore or are ignorant of the most popular and effective pedogogy.

[GRK]

Dawn

As kindy isn't my area (although linguistics is) I am interested in any specifics you may like to post on this forum. As you have obviously had success in teaching this age group I'm sure the non-kindy people could benefit from your experience. Theories may abound but practical advice is what most teachers will benefit from. I have some theories of my own but have not done a great deal of research in this area and do not have lengthy experience with little kids either. And to anyone else who has a sound background in this field, all info welcome.
Thanks.

[prosodic]

[tomato]

Hello, Grotto!

I hope this helps:

music activities. A xylophone is well worth an investment of 10000 weon. I have a collection of easy children's songs which I gathered in the United States. Send me your snail mail address and I'll send you a copy. Betcha there are several kids in your school who can read music like crazy.

picture books in English. I especially like picture books with a repeated pattern in the text. For this reason, Creative Teaching Press is my favorite publisher. Kim and Johnson's seems to be the English bookstore with the widest selection of books by this publisher. Take the subway to #18, take exit #1, and it is on the second floor of the building in front of you.

picture books in Korean. Is your Korean good enough to read children's picture books? There are a lot of good ones. I like to translate Korean picture books and read them in English.

I'm not sure whether deferring reading and writing is good or bad.
In my effort to learn Korean, the weakest of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) is listening. This may be because I can't adjust to the insecurity of not having a printed page in front of me. I wonder how I would do if I had had Korean instruction with deferred reading and writing.

Incidentally, did you know that you can find pictures of almost anything you want through the Google search engine? Enter the noun of your choice, click on �̹���, and click on ���� �˻�.

[Scott in HK]

Pecan...

I am doing my masters work in how young learners develop their English language skills as a second language. Not allowing them to read or write is neither logical nor sound, rather is goes against everything we know about how to learn a language.

Grotto..the picture books are a good idea if you can't allow them to actually see or use English...get them involve in retelling activities and acitve questioning. Both will help them along with their English.