Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smee]

Hi, I'm sure this has been covered before. I'm teaching classroom English to the homeroom teachers at my school. They will be expected to devise their own English lesson plans starting on Monday, as my county decided that it's up to the homeroom teachers, and not me, to lead the class. WIth few exceptions, they want no part of leading these classes, and they are happy sharing responsibility. And, with almost no exceptions, they aren't interested in learning or using English at all. Not that I hold it against them, but it makes my job pretty difficult . . . especially since the teachers can be more unruly and outspoken than their elementary school students.

Anyway, their English abilities range from basically no functional English whatsoever to . . . a little better than basically no functional English whatsoever. The thing is, they know most of the classroom English phrases, as they're printed in their textbooks, available online, and reinforced during their training sessions. There are a million-and-a-half resouces available in Korean for Koreans, so there's little new material I can present. So I'm looking for a fun way to jog their memories.

My first class was on Thursday, and it failed horribly. I showed them a few games that they could use in the classroom to teach classroom English to students, and I took a few of the basic phrases and showed them how sentence stress works. However, they weren't really into it, and most weren't listening. Any tips? Should I teach a mock lesson? Should I just do listen and repeat? I'm kind of at a loss here, and this class is veering dangerously toward nightmare territory.

Thanks.

edit: I'm to teach only classroom English, which is why the earlier suggestion of breakingnewsenglish.com or current events won't really work. Any other tips?

[butlerian]

Try www.finchpark.com/books

[mrsquirrel]

Teach them a lessons as you would teach the students (teachers as the students)

Then give them a copy of the lesson and let them replicate it in homeroom.

[ddeubel]

Smee,

You might try these conversation starters, Tell Us About cards that they can use in small groups. Just put my set up electronically. In a different thread someone was looking for something like this ..... so finally got around to it. (I forget who and the thread) . But these would work, sit them in small groups and let them jog their memories by trying to use english through talking about their own lives.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/9cd74f53-9e35-4a0d-b5e5-e947689e4984/Tell-Us-About-Cards

Directly at this link or in my teaching folder. I also have a cool video in my karaoke folder. They'd love the songs, Korean but with translations. From a musicfest. Even a waygook who sings in Korean. Really cool.

Also lots more new stuff in all folders and especially writing.

Good luck.

DD

[ddeubel]

I changed the link re the above and made it more teacher/printer friendly. Also see in the same folder, the Finish it off card game, where students finish off sentences in small group discussion.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/42359713-bbc8-4eeb-99bb-72e2b7255006/Tell-Us-About--Discussion-Card-Game

I also will start bi weekly uploading onto the more video folder, the CBBC podcast of both sports and news. Great stuff and EFL friendly. Loads quick and plays fast. Good resource for current events and current, stylish real English in the classroom.

DD

[mrsquirrel]

http://www.esnips.com/doc%20P2P/Warez

Message I am getting when trying to connect to your stuff.

[spliff]

Think ya gotta join ole bud...

[passport220]

Here is another resourse along the lines of ddeubel's suggestion:
"Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom"
http://iteslj.org/questions/

[JeJuJitsu]

Give them an ass-load of homework. When they don't have it complete, they will skip class to save face. Within weeks, the class will be forgotten. Do however chat and laugh with them in the office as often as possible.

[ChuckECheese]

[indokimi]

I would recommend using choral repetition. It may sound really boring and a year ago I would have never used it, but it really works to improve participation, increase confidence and increase fluency. I am a teacher-trainer in a well-known university and the curriculum we use requires us to use "classroom interactions" as a way to increase fluency and proficiency. This means that the class is very teacher fronted (liked by Korean students) and the teacher directs the students' interactions. For example, the teacher asks students to repeat (chorally and/or individually), ask another student a question (modeled by the teacher), answer comprehension questions, summarize instructions or content that has been presented, and more. For teaching teachers how to use accurate classroom language I would recommend having them repeat chorally, individually, ask others W-h questions about the classroom language that you model. You might also want to present a few activities and have them "teach" each other in jigsaw groups to practice what you have just presented (using the exact same language). You might also teach them to teach their students to use the same interactions (repeat, S-S questions, T-S questions, TSST questions) etc.
Hope this helps