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n3ptne
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Location: Poh*A*ng City
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 Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:55 am Post subject: Free talking help! |
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Ok...
So, can someone enlighten me as to the actual usefulness of a Free Talking session? I see its benefit for students who actually possess a command of the English language... but what about 13yr olds who don't?
Oh, and please, I know theres probably other threads that discuss this, but I don't have the time right now to scour the site (at a PC Cafe and tight on cash).
Anyway, what should I do? Just make small talk and BS with them? I like the classes... just feel inadequate at them. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:48 am Post subject: |
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Free talking with 13 year olds? You gotta be kidding. I guess one thing you can do is bring in newspaper articles and have them read them. You can "free talk" about vocabulary words they don't know. In fact there's a website you should see: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/. It has new articles and lesson plans made from the newspaper every day.
If the kids' levels are high enough, try the book Talk, Talk, Talk (1) from LISKorea. It has lots of varied activities for guided free talking. For instance lesson 2, which I used tonight, shows a bunch of gadgets (a compass, a first-aid kit, a calculator, a credit card) and asks students to talk about what they are for. You can ask lots of follow up questions like "where would you find one?" and "who normally uses one?". Other sections of the book include a lesson with fifty different "Do you like...?" questions, several lessons where you are given answers and have to make up "Wh-" questions, and so on.[/url] |
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Binch Lover
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:19 am Post subject: |
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| I once had to teach a free talk class with 6 year olds! Sometimes I really think this country is all a big joke and there's a hidden camera watching us (or possibly just me). |
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Lizara
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:57 am Post subject: |
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| 6? Wow. I think my youngest is 8 and the oldest is maybe 10. It's far from being my favourite class. |
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forgesteel
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:17 am Post subject: 'freetalking' with six-year olds? yeah, me too... |
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| Binch Lover wrote: |
| I once had to teach a free talk class with 6 year olds! Sometimes I really think this country is all a big joke and there's a hidden camera watching us (or possibly just me). |
I read the poster b1tch1ng about 'freetalking with a 13 year old,' smirked ruefully, then was glad to hear another (not just me, thank Goddess!) has had 6 year olds for freetalkers. 
13-year olds have the conceptual ability to at least /try/ to carry on a sensible conversation that doesn't constantly jump from one subject to another midsentance.
By the way, is that Korean age six or Western age six? Big difference (worlds of difference, I'd imagine) at this young age.
Unless they were raised in an English speaking country, or with parents who had fluency, I can't see that this makes much sense.
Imagine doing 'freetalking' with a 6-year old who speaks the same langauge as you! Not easy. The 6-year old has the mentality of a six-year old for Ch1ist's sake! How could this possibly be considered 'free?' How much can you talk about with a 6-year old before becoming terminally bored?!
It's really quite presumptuous! 'Free-talking,' no matter how you define such a stupid term, is for people with a certain level of fluency, a level that no six-year old can conceivably possess, barring a somewhat gifted 6 year old that was raised in an English speaking country. Even in this case, I'd harbor some serious doubts and reservations on the prospect.
I know a few 6-year olds in America, back home where I live. The amount of 'freetalking' one can do with them is fairly limited, even if you know their parents, and are close to them and have their trust, and are willing to talk about Mickey Mouse things that six-year olds can relate to. What of some scary foreigner who is in no way related to mommy?!
I can only imagine that the intended messages are the following possibilitites that explain such bizarre practices:
1. We want you to be more creative and less robotic, so stop following the book, and come up with something on your own. We'll call this plan of ours the freetalking lesson.
2. We want to flatter this child'd mother by putting them in a class totally unsuited to their actual level.
A combination of 1 and 2?
Who knows, maybe there's more to this than meets the eye. I'd love to hear what others might have to say on the topic. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I've had plenty of 13-year olds I could have a fluent conversation with. Only two of them had spent any time in an English-speaking country. Unfortunately one of them has decided to disguise her true ability and play dumb a bit. |
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forgesteel
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:59 am Post subject: 13 v. 6 |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
| I've had plenty of 13-year olds I could have a fluent conversation with. Only two of them had spent any time in an English-speaking country. Unfortunately one of them has decided to disguise her true ability and play dumb a bit. |
Sure, thirteen-year olds are a blast! They can talk about nearly anything. Six-year olds? Night and day! |
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I_Am_Wrong
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: whatever
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:51 am Post subject: |
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Just bring in things that you think 13 year olds might be interested in. Funny stories, jokes, conversation board games (check www.bogglesworld.com) magazine pictures. Also, choose free talking topics and create a list of questions that might be common about the topic and maybe even a short dialogue about it. Once the kids start talking, take notes because then you can find points where they're weak or need to learn new language. Then you can teach these things as you go along.
just my 20 won... |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
| I've had plenty of 13-year olds I could have a fluent conversation with. Only two of them had spent any time in an English-speaking country. Unfortunately one of them has decided to disguise her true ability and play dumb a bit. |
I would say the challenge is to find something *all* the students can talk about. I have one student who apparently has a Korean-American tutor on weekends, and this guy has taught him all the words about pro wrestling (the kid's hobby) and online gambling (the tutor's hobby?) - but none of the other kids can or would want to talk about it. That's why I think you've got to use a book or handouts, or something. Certainly you could make some kind of plan yourself, but it's got to be "guided free talking". |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| I would say the challenge is to find something *all* the students can talk about. [snip] Certainly you could make some kind of plan yourself, but it's got to be "guided free talking". |
Yeah. Most of my kids were really interested in science, and a good number of them were excellent debaters. We had some good discussions about whether television was good or bad, and whether ghosts were real. One girl was strongly opposed to any belief in ghosts and spent the class trying to make us see the error of our ways. And she was really quite clever.
Ironically though, what all but one of them (out of 45 or so) needed the most help with was expressing themselves in writing. |
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