Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PeterDragon]

So, my school has never had a foreign teacher before, ergo the students have never had to practice speaking. When I arrived here, I immediately got the rock star treatment, of course. White people are MAGICAL creatures that half of my students had only ever seen on TV! Anyway...

After spending a couple of weeks getting a feel for class, curriculum, and student ability, I decided to institute 20 minutes of conversation. I ask every student one or two questions, and they have to answer me in complete sentences. They HATE it. They listen to each other with trepidation and respond with fear or embarrassment when it's their turn. A few of them slipped through the cracks and can neither understand or speak English. I have my co-teacher act as an interpreter for those kids and I slowly walk them through the proper English response when they answer. You cna cut the tension in the room with a knife when I'm doing this.

My question is---- SHOULD I be doing this? I'm technically only bringing them up to the level of work they should be doing, per the curriculum, but I don't want to put the kids through this agony if it won't help any of them. Any experienced teachers have an opinion on this? Is there a better way to get everyone talking for about half the period?

[The_Conservative]

[chris_J2]

Many of the public school lessons have role play activities, complete with masks & magic wands etc, which my students always enjoyed. (The winning group always got a small chocalate bar to share too, so that probabaly helped!)

Anyway, try using role play to build up their confidence.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It might be better to get them more comfortable with you first. What ages are they?

Often group responses work better.

[Atavistic]

How many students?

Are they only talking to YOU? What do the other students do while they're talking to you? Do they just watch?

I know people argue that kids who can't speak English perfectly shouldn't practice together, BUT have them practice in small pairs and groups. They are less under pressure than dead on with you and the whole class staring at them.

Also use the magic marker stick and the like. They love that.

[Rapacious Mr. Batstove]

Dude! You are just putting massive pressure on them and setting them up for failure.

Think

Pair

Share.

Start with a basic question on the board.

E.g What's your favourite animal? Get them to repeat it.

Provide (write) some basic answers. E.g. My favourite animal is the dog. I like dogs best. Get them to repeat it.

Then tell the students to work in pairs. A and B. Each student practices asking the question and giving the answer.

After the pair work. Shut them up and walk around the room asking the same questions to random students. They will feel MUCH more confident and will give the right answer 99% of the time. Smart students can extend themselves and surprise you here sometimes.


New Question. Repeat TPS.

I do this most lessons with great sucess. 4 questions takes about 15 minutes.

[mindmetoo]

I wonder at times if this mania for answering with just a noun is related to Korean. It's a pretty word language when you add in verbs and markers. It seems to me Koreans tend to answer with a single words if possible.

"Get your ass in gear!"
"Dude, hurry up!"

vs

"bali! bali!"

[PeterDragon]

They're in middle school. Your suggestions are right; I need to pair them more, but so far I've had trouble coming up with decent ideas. Honestly, the textbook is way above the abilities of most of them. It's pretty much a slightly badly written version of a textbook you might see in an American Junior High. It leaves no room for basic questions, instead focusing on the interpretation and creation of short essays. It's too dense to easily be conducive of games. If I had my way I'd scrap the entire book in favor of something easier, but I am required to teach the book. The problem is, even with pairing, the class size is just big enough that most of the kids are just stuck silent/watching.

My co-teacher recognizes the disparity between their level and the required text. She actually offered me a copy of Oxford's Let's Go 1 as a suggested supplement to teach them the basics. Since they meet twice a week, I'm thinking of devoting only one session a week to the required text, and the other section to the Oxford basic text, which is much more user friendly and much more conducive of games. And I also want to cut telling them the actual definitions of advanced words like "ironic", "diorama" from my job description--- they don't understand enough English to understand any simpler breakdown of the words; my Korean co-teacher is already explaining those words to them in her section, why should I have to re-explain it?

Hmmm..... I think I'm hatching a plan. I should run it past my co-teacher. She's been flexible so far.

[Dome Vans]

[bosintang]