Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pest2]

I have this one public Elementary school class -- only 1 per week, thank God -- in which I am supposed to teach 1st and 2nd grade kids who only know A B C D E... (and then they cant get past that). They dont speak English at all... not even hello and goodbye. There is no text book. Despite the notice that the district office gave to all the schools in the area stipulating that a Korean co-teacher must be present in all classes for "coteaching", this school provides no such coteacher.

I SHOULD probably complain that the school is not providing a coteacher... But one of the problems is that the Korean teachers at this school all speak zero English as well.. I cant even express to them that I want them to be in the class to begin with... and then if they are in the class, the only thing they might be good for would be stopping the kids from poking each other's eyes out with a pencil... They wont be able to help the kids understand directions to games or intructions to in class exercises... Today, for example, I was going to try to teach, "Simon says".. but I didnt have the capacity to make them understand without a common language.

I know that in my TESOL class, they'd have said that its possible and even better to teach students without using thier native language. However, this seems to work alot better when the students are older and at least understand they should put forth thier own effort to learn... these are just some young kids.

Anyone got any ideas?

[ilovebdt]

Hi

How many children are in your class?

ilovebdt

[pest2]

[bosintang]

Pick up a copy of Teaching English to Children in Asia by David Paul. It's available at Bandis & Lunis bookstore at the COEX.

Do you have a curriculum or are you on your own?

Some basics:
Be consistent. Use a basket of activities. Have enough activities that you can switch up enough so that the students don't get bored ,but not too many activities that you overwhelm the students or have to be constantly having to teach new activities.
- Teach classroom language. Get the students familiar with that before moving on. Every student should know basic classroom commands and items in the class before doing anything else.
- Smile. Have fun. Be confident. Make your students feel comfortable. Students at that age are very sensitive to your body language and if they read frustration from you, they will get frustrated.

[Alyallen]

That sucks. I have a coteacher for my 1 and 2 grade classes and it's still a bit of a stuggle.

Perhaps you could do TPR. If they see you do it, then hopefully they would follow. I also taught my class "Head and Shoulders," I suppose that song has a bit of TPR type flavor in it.

If they can't even say hi or bye, I suppose you could just say hi "blah blah blah" and do it to all the kids and see if they get clued in to what you are trying to do.

My class has 13 students and right now all we are doing are songs. They can't read so it's a lot of "repeat after me repeat after me repeat after me" but they are catching on. Try head and shoulders...that might be a good first step in the right direction.

Good luck!
Alyallen

[pest2]

I am totally on my own, and since I cant communicate with anyone at that school, all the information I have about the students comes from inferences I made from teaching them.

The textbook is a good idea for the next time I go to Seoul (I work in Gangwondo).

What kind of activities?

I tried teaching some classroom commands and they get some such as "Sit" and "quiet".. .but more complicated ones like "raise your hand" might be impossible without some Korean language.

Fortunately, Ive been teaching awhile and unlike when I first started, I dont get easily un-nerved in front of the classes now... yes, though, that is good advice. Dont let them see you get frustrated or flustered. This class is a challenge for that.

[ilovebdt]

[pest2]

I guess TPR is "total physical response"? Honestly, I've never used it before and dont know that much about it (most of my experience before now was teaching 10-60 year old students... never had students so young).
How does TPR work?

[pest2]

OK, Now I see TPR (posted the above one just before you posted yours so I didnt have time to read it).

[ajuma]

If you can possibly find the Sesame Street book "Big Bird's Yellow Book" along with the tape, (if you buy only one, get the teacher's book). It's for non-readers/non-speakers. Lots of songs and chants and teaches things in a logical order. You'll be amazed at how fast the kids pick things up.

And DO use "Head, Shoulders". It's a good warm-up and you can add some verses of your own. I've got the ones I used somewhere...PM me if you want them.

[pest2]

these are some great suggestions. Thanks everyone!

[pest2]

these are some great suggestions. Thanks everyone!

[jajdude]

Cannot communicate with anyone at the school? Not one single person has enough English? That should never happen. What if you have a real problem or concern?

For kids with zero English I'd recommend flashcards/pictures... though you'll need quite a lot. Any cards with pictures are good. Got to start with phonics I figure: something like "A...A... airplane, B...B... banana.." If you know a little Korean it would help. There are quite a lot of words that are the same in both languages, though pronunciation may differ. Maybe that is a good starting point. "It's a computer (computuh immnida)"

Good luck.

[CanadianK]

I feel your pain- I have 4 classes every morning of zero-english ages 4-6 and we even had to show them HOW to wash their hands; they're so little. We don't "do" co-teachers at our school either.

BUT I have found that if you're making flashcards to be consistent with characters and teaching the classroom language.
Ex) Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, Im a boy, (they can't say girl yet so everyone's a boy right now).
-We have a boy and a girl card and I make them kinda dance around and point to it, sing songs about it and pretty much do the same thing every day for weeks on end.
-I walk them up & down the hallways to show "line up", bathroom, walking, be nice, etc etc

Mostly I think that it's just going to be a LOT of repetition for about the first 2 months. And you have to be smiley. I'm not smiley by nature so that's why when my boss always tells me I look sick/tired I have to bite my cheek to keep from screaming- it's because of YOOUUUU.

Good luck

[I-am-me]

flash cards, flash cards, flash cards, games, games games, repitition, repitition, repitition.