Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Korea4me]

I am teaching an intensive "free talking" class to grade 5 and 6 students. It's a 40 min class everyday. The problem is that the students have very low level communication abilities. The school didn't want me to use a book because the students wouldn't be able to finish it in 1 month. I tried using Taliking Talking, Children's Talk but all these are too high level!!! The students can just speak "My favorite......is......" What on earth can I do with them????? Any help would be much appreciated.

[kermo]

There's a few games you could try (I've never done a "free talking class" so I don't know if you're even allowed to use games) but yesterday we had fun with "Throw a Question, Catch an Answer."

We pulled our chairs into a circle, then threw a big balloon in the air. The one who threw it asked any question they could think of, and the one who caught it had to answer within 5 seconds. If your students are more advanced, you can play with a strict time limit, ejecting kids from the game if they can't think of a question/answer quickly enough or if they repeat another student.

There's also a great game called Taboo, which I have described elsewhere...
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=40258&highlight=
(it's my second post on that page)

[Ya-ta Boy]

You have to cheat.

Since the powers that be consider finishing a book in one month to be the #1 virtue, which means they know nothing about what they are doing, then you have to do an end run.

Students at the level you describe need guided practice...they have to walk before they can run.

Solution: You choose a book. Make copies of pages for handouts. Think about what is discussed in the thread about using textbooks. Don't tell the boss you are using a book. If asked, you are making handouts. Which is not a lie.

Good luck.

[joe_doufu]

The "fifty fifty" series are pretty good for talking tasks. For instance, they'll have a bunch of cartoon people (a he, a she, and a they) and each student has half of the information for each. So they must ask each other questions: "where is she from? what's his name? where do they live?". If you can convince them not to look at each other's pages and not to use English, they can produce pretty good unstructured communication... they can get the information any way they like, in any order, without having to ask grammatically perfect questions. also they have to ask "spelling?" or "one more time please?" in order to get the info. they have lots of kinda fun tasks like that.

[deessell]

[EFLtrainer]

[crazylemongirl]

Free talking classes are actually a 'we don't know what the hell should go on this class'

Thus you can do whatever the hell you want. Except for the high intermediate/advanced students free talking for more than a question or two is a complete waste of time.

Get a book and photocopy.
Learn a song.
Do some artwork
Do some musical movement classes.

[EFLtrainer]

I have to disagre with lemongirl, but they are a challenge in many cases. That's why providing a structure to it, a direction, a form is very helpful. Jut saying, "Let's talk about why you say ��dong�� so often," isn't going to fly. Well, that topic actually might.... Hey, there's an idea. You know the lists of the many uses for the F word? Maybe you could do the same with dong....

If you are having to actually run a 40 minute conversation, well, first they need something to talk about. That's why I like the debate format so much.

Have them brainstorm as a group on a topic they know something about. Notice I didn't say a topic they like. There aren't very many, so this will get you into trouble at some point. You assist the brainstorming, but try to draw most of the points made out of them. Use questions. If you can plan ahead, give them some materials or, should a miracle occur, let them use the internet for some research.

Two groups, pro and con. Assign students to present part of the argument, students to defend the point, and for rebuttal. Every student must have a role.

You are the moderator with lower groups. With intermediate and advanced you can assign that role, too.

Some key points:

Keep your expectations in line with the students' abilities. You aren't seeking perfection, just communication.

Realize that the first time you do this you are likely teaching the process as much as anything. It's OK to spend a class period doing that. You can walk them through the whole process. Heck, even use pre-made script for this. Actually show them, literally, what you want them to do and let them have time to practice.

Don't assume your kids can't do that; it assumes they are stupid. If kids of the same age in your country can do it, so can these kids. (I've used it with kids as young as second grade. In korea.) They may need more practice or teaching of process, but that's an issue of experience, not ability or intelligence. Keep in mind that you aren't teaching them communication, you are teaching them how to do it in English. If your students, as a group, "can't", it' quite likely that you simply don't know how to get them to.

At the end of the debate actually do score it. Let them know before you start what the criteria are, e.g., logical arguments, style/presentation, depth and breadth of their info/arguments, etc.

Don't use the same groups day after day if you do this more than once.

Good luck,

EFLtrainer