Korean Job Discussion Forums

Koreabound2004 · Joined: 19 Nov 2003

Ok...need to vent. I have been teaching public high school students for the past two weeks.
Some classes I teach with a coteacher and they tell me what to do. Other classes are "conversation" classes. Just me and the kids. However, I have never taught prior to this, and thought to get convo going I would just play games of sorts.
Well, long story short, I have been told that my classes are too easy for them, I am supposedly teaching their highest level students...anyway. They hardly understand simple game instructions, and seem not to be able to follow the "easy" stuff.
BUT, I was told that they want to pick a topic, and just talk about it with me. I can't see that working, anybody doing this...how to go about it exactly? My fear is that, the conversation will not continue to flow for 50 mins. Any suggestions. This Friday we are talking about Chusok for example....

peppermint · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:18 pm Post subject:

Give it a try, but have a back up plan for that day- a game or something. If it fails miserably- don't give up, but scale back. Tell them that they can have 10 or 15 minutes for freetalking after the other stuff is done. Maybe give them more structure to work within. Give them lots of questions, or an easy reading passage to discuss.

CanadaCommando · Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Location: People's Republic of C.C.

I start every class by throwing a "Question of the Day" up on the board, then get the students to respond.

Sometimes, the whole class gets into it. Other times, it dies a slow death after 5 minutes of prodding. Usually kids like it though, and it gives the higher level kids a challenge (to explain their thoughts in a more complex way).

All said and done, in most cases I found that the free talking last about 15 minutes or so...however some topics got them going for an entire block practically.

Some fun questions I have used that lasted a long while:
While Korea ever unify?
Do you WANT to serve in the Korean Army?
How do you feel about the American soldiers being in Seoul?
etc etc

Some surprising answers, both in ability and opinion. I sometimes shape these questions around my lessons- we are doing opinions and arguments right now, so each question is reformed into an opinion, and students have to agree or disagree, and give their reasoning....

Sometimes the question goes NOWHERE, and I just smile, erase it from the board, and start my normal lesson.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

Keep it easy and guided...Korean HS students levels are not high.

canukteacher · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul, Korea

Let them try, and they'll soon find out how difficult it is to carry on a 50 minute conversation in English. Keep in mind that it is the students who should be filling in the 50 mins. with English conv. not you.

Look for some conv/discussion books. They read about the topic, and then have a series of questions to anwer. I have used these types of books with adults and they work. I have no idea what is on the marke to HS students. Check out a bookstore.

CT

pecan · Joined: 01 Jul 2004

Research some interesting and light articles from Dear Abby that contain some useful expressions, pronunciation points, vocabulary, etc. Go over the vocabulary and do some prereading strategies with your students before you introduce each article. Let the students offer up some advice without going into the advice that Dear Abby offered.

Obviously, you will need to prepare the lesson material and guide them along, but two interesting articles can easily fill your class period, help build their vocabulary, improve their reading ability, pronounciation, etc. Moreover, if it is something they are interested in, it may help them to develop their reasoning skills in how better to deal with situation in their daily lives.

Nut

peppermint · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:55 pm Post subject:

What I'd find is that a lot of the situations in Dear Abby are ones that Korean teens simply can't relate to.

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

They love to talk about their favorite Korean stars. If you have a way to do it, bring up a photo of any popular Korean pop/movie star like Kang-Do-Won, etc., or some female star. These type of dicussions can easily branch into plastic surgery discussion, etc.

Find topics relevant to them, and sprinkle it with interesting English vocabulary.

Add some difficult vocabulary words. Find a TOEIC book filled with difficult words and find some of those to fit the topic of the day. Give them a list beforehand, and make them fill in the definitions, etc.

Teaching 35 high school students at a time when many of them don't understand how to hold a basic conversation past, "How are you" is difficult. Break them into smaller groups or a table of maybe 6. Each table should have a "captain" to help you keep control.

pecan · Joined: 01 Jul 2004

If you think that your students are incapable of relating to issues about growing up, family life, appearance, school life, suicide, teenage pregnancy, money, etc., I feel for your students.

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20040831

I am not going to reseach the articles for you, but there are plenty that students could get into.

"What I find is that a lot of the responses, I just can not relate to."

Nut

HamuHamu · Joined: 01 May 2003 Location: Seoul

I had to teach 30 minute adult free-talking conversation classes, and I found taht some of this helped..... although at an adult level, they were there because the WANTED to be there, and they were not shy about voicing an opinion, they jsut didn't have the language soemtimes to explain themselves.

Anyway - each class, (until they got sued to it) I reviewed phrases like:

"I fully disagree, because...", "I agree with ___ but not with _____, because..." and "I fully agree, because..."

I taught them things like "I think, I feel, I see" and how to use it in sentences.

Often I grouped them randomly (pull a coloured paper out of a hat) and said "red group MUST come up with sentences to SUPPORT this statement, Purple group MUST find reasons to disagree with this statement..." At an adult level it was interesting because often ppl would be in the "opposite" group so it led to ppl being challenged by what they had to argue.

Often I would put "yes" "no" "maybe so" on a wall and make them go to one wall...that was their group to discuss with. I think it might be harder in Korea, and at an adolecent age groups because there is a tendancy to follow the "in crowd" and you may have everyone run to the same wall....hence telling them what to "argue" might not work.

At beginner levels, I gave them 10 minutes to discuss and come up with an argument, and let them converse in their first language, while I monitored and provided additional language that they needed. They knew that when it was time to talk as a class, only English was acceptable.

I find that giving students time to discuss their thoughts for a few minutes with others, especially at adolecent level, they won't be as embarrased to speak in front of EVERYONE if they at least have the support of a few friends. And, by being "told" which side they have to support, they can always tell their friends later in the the cafeteria that they don't REALLY think that, they only said it because that was what they HAD to say. At that age, it's all about what their friends think and what makes them "fit in" right?

In some cases when the groups didn't seem to be "discussing" well, I would write phrases or sentences on the board of what I thought could be good ideas to support both sides of an argument; I never said which side the sentences belonged to, I just let them read and try to sort it out. It gave them something to start with....

I dunno....maybe it would help.....?

Koreabound2004 · Joined: 19 Nov 2003

Thanks for all of your replies. Here's the plan I came up with.....

I am thinking of giving them an article about Chusok, getting them to take turns reading it aloud to me. Then, I have picked out difficult words out of the article, which I will ask them to define. I then want to ask them to use their word in a sentence, and read both the definition and sentence to the class. After everyone is done, I will ask them questions related to the article. Do you think this will work? Also, I plan to do the same lesson for grade 10's and grade 11's...how can I vary it for the levels, doing a minimal amount of work?

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

There's actually a book out there called small group discussion topics for korean high school students. It's by jack martire.

Also puzzles and riddles are always fun as well. Music, movies are also good topics. I also recommend that you look at perhaps getting a couple of conversation books with interesting topics in it. American headway has some cool stuff in it which you can make harder depending on the level.