Korean Job Discussion Forums

marlow · Joined: 06 Feb 2005

I'm going to be doing middle school free talking classes. I see several classes, and each class I see only once per week for twenty minutes.

I have the students assigned to groups of four to six. They will talk in their group for twenty minutes. NO Korean speaking. The problem is that this will go over like a lead balloon if I just say, "Talk!"

Any ideas for activities I can use to get them speaking? Oh yeah, they're all boys.

bosintang · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 10:53 pm Post subject: Re: Middle School Free Talking

chronicpride · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

You can check out this site for conversational prompts on various subjects, and copy/paste the ones onto a separate list that you think will be more befitting to their level.

If you only have 20 minutes, you can spend the first 10 going back and forth with students using the list, and they also have to choose and ask a question back to you. Then when they get into a rhythm of confidence, you can break them into pairs for the final 10 minutes and they use the list for QA conversation with each other, while you walk around the classroom and assess/interject.

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Put up photos of pop stars and have them describe them, etc.

Oh, here's a fun one to try with boys:

If I had a date with Boa I would....?

Kimchieluver · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

My suggestion is to first do an ice-breaking class. Ask them about what sports they like, what computer games they like, who is their favorite wrestler and soccer player, do they play a musical instrument, favorite North American movie star, favorite TV channel, plus anything else you can think of. Sorry for the run on sentence (in a wee bit of a hurry).

After you get to know that, you can get themes for discusion. Just try to remember who says what. Then you can ask them questions about things they are interested in. Another good thing to do is ask about what they did on the weekend, holiday, when they go to bed on Saturday night.

ladyandthetramp · Joined: 21 Nov 2003

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I agree, 20 minutes of 'free talking' for all but the gifted middle school students is going to be totally impossible. Try and structure stuff around topics that they are learning already.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

ladyandthetramp · Joined: 21 Nov 2003

capebretoncanadian · Joined: 20 Feb 2005

You are a lucky man....every Tuesday and Thursday at my school is 4 eighty minute sessions of free talking classes with children of all levels, sometimes it is fun.......others nightmarish....makes you think on your feet!!.........if nothing else......my tip........turn the speaking into a game of some sort

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

20 minutes? How many students? Level?

Seems like if they could just make a few sentences each that would be a good class.

You can have basic level kids just repeat sentences you say. They might struggle with that. They have to listen to your sentence of 8-12 words and try to repeat it correctly. Then a few minutes later you could ask them to say it again from memory. Ha ha, sounds cruel... I might try that later myself. (no writing it down!)

marlow · Joined: 06 Feb 2005

There are about 30-35 students per class. I have them in groups of 4-6 students because it will never work with a large group.

They are first and second year middle school boys. I want them to speak in English, no matter how broken or imperfect, as I believe they don't feel they can create original speech in English, and I know they can.

They need some sort of starting point, and an incentive to continue a conversation.

In elementary school I used coached card games, but the cards were in the student's books. We studied some language, and they played games with the cards speaking the target language the whole time.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Marlow, not to sound like an angel of doom but given my experience (I've taught this age group for a year) free talking classes with that level and size of class just won't work. You're going to have to structure a class otherwise they are just going to run riot.

I suggest work on formulating basic sentences.

Eg. i'm interested in.... blah blah. practice that and some possible answers with pictures to help explain for the first half of the lesson. next part get them to practice the sentence by asking the other students in their team.

memory game. this is very labor intensive but my students enjoy it. make up a se of about 10 pairs of cards with pictuers uring the target language. Place the cards face down and the students pick two up. If they match they must use the target language to get the cards. eg.. she's boa. she's a singer from korea. champion is the one with the most cards.

Cherry Ripe · Joined: 14 Sep 2004

Sometimes I wonder what Koreans really mean when they ask for 'free talking'. I think what it translates to is: "Stuff we do with a native speaker that is not related in any way to what the Korean English teachers teach us. We particularly don't want straight grammar." In any case it's a bit of a misnomer, firstly because talking in English to a native speaker usually isn't 'free' in any sense of the word ( Laughing

). Unless the Korean students are really good they will not be able to converse 'freely' - at middle school level they will be able to string together a few words to make simple sentences - if you're lucky! One suggestion: I'd bring in some pictures and get them talking about what they can see, what the people are doing etc. From that you can get the students into pairs; one student dictates, the other draws etc. I guess it's a matter of starting with a lot of support from you and gradually working their way to greater independence...