Korean Job Discussion Forums

turtlepi1 · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

I can sort of relate...I am about to walk into a "conversation" class that consists of one student...*duh* (grade 2 middle school...great kid but we have been doing an hour and a half for 5 weeks now...)

Find something he likes and shoot the shit for a while.
Try to build a grammar point (can't stand, don't like, etc) in and try to add some new vocabulary that he actually retains...

Consider your main mission to make him more comfortable talking...so at first it doesn't matter what you are actually teaching him...try to get him talking...then over time you can build lessons around what he likes to do.
(if you aren't good at the chit chat, then this approach will likely fail and you will need a good structured lesson...)
(I'll think a little about it...for you AND me...)

Unless of course there is a specific outcome from the class...(yeah like anyone ever answers that question in Korea....)

the eye · Joined: 29 Jan 2004

your first step is to choose a texbook. not that you would want to use it ALL the time, but private lessons do need structure.

be professional, develope your own curriculum. there are so many things you can do, it boggles my mind.
if the kid has a computer in the room, you can use it for listening exercises as well. BBC kids etc...there are tons of resources.

otherwise, look at bogglesworld.com for some ideas. do situational exercises, roll playing.
also, there is a sticky here on dave's, maybe in the FAQ, that covers useful teaching websites.

i really don't get why this is so difficult.

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

There's lots of good stuff you can do..

-Newpaper articles are a good start but make sure it's going to be something that he's interested in and instead of just asking him if he understands the words ask him to tell you what it's about. This is also a very useful way to teach graded readers. This way you get both comprehension and communication. Also, ask thought provoking questions in order to get conversation flowing.

You could do role-playing...

ie. A: You are phoning to order pizza
B: You sell pitas not pizza

A: Call and tell your boss that you can't come into work because you are sick
B: You suspect A is bluffing

A: Invite A to go somewhere this weekend
B: Politely decline A's offer.

If the student is of a intermediate or higher level then you can get some free flowing role play conversations going on and can easily fill an hour on just two of these. If the student doesn't know what to say then you'll probably need to model a conversation for him or model some phrases for him. If the student makes a glaring grammatical error then stop him and teach that.

I have one student whose comprehension and vocabulary is spectacular but he has major grammar problems so we do oral grammar drills. ie. I ask a questions such as 1)what will you do tomorrow afternoon? 2) What did you do last night? 3) It's 10 o'clock right now, what time will out lesson be finished at? etc. maybe ten questions or so that cover a few different topics + tenses. I write down his answers word by word and we go over them together.

With one student I spend the last 15-20 minutes of each lesson by letting him chose any topic he wants. We then write a dialog together in which I try to elicit conversation phrases from him. Once we finish we practise it a couple times....tons of fun and not too much pressure.