Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mick]

I work at a public elementary school and starting from next week I will have an English class for the other teachers. I've never taught adults before and am a little bit worried about how to go about this. I asked them if there was any specific topic they wanted me to cover but they said no. Has anyone else had experience of teaching their Korean colleagues and if so what topics did you cover and how did you cover them. Also would you recommend using a tect book and if so can anyone recommend any good text books for teaching adults. I want the class to be fun for the teachers. I'd really appreciate advice anyone can give.
Cheers

[kigolo1881]

Teach them as you would teach kids, korean teachers are even worse when it comes to concentration and participation.

I used to have a weekly 20 min session with them, half of them passed when it was their turn to speak or designated the Korean English teacher to speak out loud.

I tried to use simple and easy things, such as types of stores, how to call for information ( time, price, destination), etc... terms or sentences that are used in everyday life are much appreciated.

[shantaram]

Hi,

There are plenty of threads on this topic- around here somewhere! You'll find lots of recommendations about books.

I have had nothing but nightmares with these classes. Last year I started taking them and pitched my material to a really low level (or so I thought). I made a hand-out about taking a taxi trip after a night out, and out of twenty teachers, only one could read it and understand it.

This year I was assigned a co-teacher who cannot speak English, who attempted to take over the teachers' classes. I kept telling her that she needed to be with the class and not teaching it because I wanted to teach pronunciation, but in her mind her pronunciation was perfect. In the end I just told her her pronunciation wasn't very good. Next week I will be taking the class by myself again, for the first time all year. Talk about a lot of wasted time.

If there's one thing I've learned, teachers (here anyway) make poor students. They talk right through the class, announce they are leaving early and just go, won't do what you ask them to do.

Next week I am going to play a very simple game: My name is... and I like... then get teachers to say what the other teachers names were and what they liked, adding their own like to the list. Then I will let them go early. I'm going to start very small and am not going to decide my ambition until about a month into the classes. Until then, games all the way. Probably, no-one will turn up anyway.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

MOVIE ENGLISH..... I hear it works wonders.

[ilovebdt]

I would try and find out their levels and then plan accordingly.

ilovebdt

[butlerian]

[poet13]

If you can get your hands on a side-by-side, and take it slow, you'll be well ahead of the game.
A lot of my teachers also want to learn classroom English. I have walked by math class and heard in English, "Sit down, be quiet, and open your books." Awesome!....as long as they never ask me to teach math.

[albazalba]

I taught a teacher's class for a little while using the book Side by Side. Not a bad book, it outlines everything for you, all that is needed is an explanation at the beginning and then the teachers can practice the sentences with partners.
The teacher's classes were just like everyone described though. At first everyone was eager and excited for some free English lessons. But then interest faded once they realized there was effort involved, and they are now non-existant. So i would imagine that you will only teach the classes for a couple months and then the same thing will happen.

[passport220]

here is a previous thread on the topic with some suggestions and resources:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=81110&highlight=

[poet13]

albazalba....that's just about the funniest avatar i've ever seen. I just sat there for about three minutes watching it over and over, and then realized two co-workers were also watching it...

[albazalba]

hehe, yeah it's from "high fidelity" a great flick starring John Cusack (sp.?). Check it out, it was Jack Black's breakout role into the hollywood comedy scene (other roles before that were not as funny).

[icnelly]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Starting the teacher's class next Monday, and I'm hoping the levels are low. I know I have a few ringers though, as there are about 4-6 teachers who are at a conversational level; I'm really hoping they don't come, cuz they're going to bored out of their minds with: Hello my name is Park Jee Ho, and I'm Kim Jo Hee, etc.

Jizzo T Clown has a scanned copy of New Interchange 1 on his website. Check it out and take what you need from it. It's based on language functions rather than a grammatical syllabus, so it can be useful. People complain about it, and I'm sure there are good reasons, but still, it's better than nothing.

http://www.esnips.com/web/jtcefl

Make some listening activities with a karaoke player (www.karafun.com), and teach them a song too. I'm going to see if I can get em singing. High hopes I think, but worth a try.

[some waygug-in]

My class has mostly very low level students, but they all insist on having a conversation type class, except for one older guy who was sensible enough to ask for some low level dialogues and phrases to become part of the lesson.

What I do now is that I have the first part of class geared sort of low level, grammar kind of stuff.

Something like a couple of pages of Side by Side or something similar.


I do that for the first half hour. Then I have a short story (article) to read from a reading texbook called, "People, places and Things." I have them read through it (each person reads a sentence or so), then we do the few questions from the book and after that I have some group discussion questions vaguely related to the article.


So far, it seems to be working out OK. I hope this helps.

[Rteacher]

I only have four teachers that regularly attend, and I always provide snacks (big spender...)

We meet twice a week. On Mondays, I base it on Touchstone 2 (and give everyone a copy...)

On Wednesdays, we do "Free Talk" (but if I'm too tired I'll put on a DVD - they also love Disney's "High School Musical", and three of them have made copies of it...) They also ask me about my religious beliefs and meditation - which I'm never at a loss to elaborate on ...

[dogshed]

At one of my schools they canceled the class after meeting me.
I still get paid the same. No skin off my nose. These teachers
and staff spoke no English at all. I'm guessing that meeting
me in person and realizing that only one person in the room
could talk to me in English just scared them.

At the second school I let the teachers decide the curriculum.
That may have been a mistake. The most fluent teacher
picked things appropriate for her level and the other
teachers just felt left out. I tried to suggest that I come up
with assignments for the lower level speakers, but I may
have made that suggestion too late. One of the teachers
quit. On the other hand
maybe the suggestion that he study an assignment
before comming to class scared him.

The third teacher's class is eager to learn and are accepting
the idea that they study some concept or topic before
we cover it in class. They picked a topic and I said I would
bring an assignment for that topic next week and then
we would cover it the next week after they had a chance
to study it.