Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thu_tinh]

I'm in middle school with 40 kids in each class. All the students range from very low to very high. What do I usually do? Lecture on short points, show examples, have students work on the assignment and then they would present in class, sometimes its something they created, and sometimes dialogues they make up.
But now my coteacher told me I have to teach 'conversation' and I'm not 100% sure what that is anymore here in Korea. She wants me to drill dialogues into the students mind instead of letting them feel free to create their own. As well she wants to focus more on reading articles and answering questions.
So how do you teach conversation in your 40 student classes with mixed levels?

[Fishead soup]

With those numbers you should be coteaching every class. When you have two teachers teaching forty students that gives you a 1-20 student teacher ratio.

When you introduce a new dialogue use lots of Choral repetition. Then have the students practice the dialogue with the person sitting next to them. At first some kids are going to just piss away the time. But if both teachers are policing the class properly, you'll get much more dialogue out of you're students than playing Jeopardy.

[jeffkim1972]

it's impossible to teach conversation to 40 kids simultaneously. That coteacher is an idiot.

[butlerian]

[LuckyNomad]

Here's what I do. I try to focus their thinking into a general direction without limiting what they can say.

Here's 1 example that has worked well for me:
I divide the white board into 4 squares. Each square is labled Important/Necessary, Important/unnecessary, unimportant/necessary, unimportant/unnecessary.
After explaining the words, I ask them to tell me what things belong in each category. They can say anything, books, friendship, the sun, nuclear weapons, as long as they can explain themselves.
The students tell me something like, "the sun is necessary and important."
I ask, "why?" "Because if no sun, we die." You can move on to the next student with their hand up, or you can illicit more of an argument from the student or students by asking follow on questions. "What if we lived under the ground?"
The students with little speaking ability can say things like, "garbage is unnecessary and unimportant." Smarter students can say things like, "gravity, electricity, pollution, etc."

The purpose is to let them use all the vocabulary and grammar that they've already learned, yet never got a chance to use in their regular english classes. They get lectured about english grammar and vocabulary 4 times a week. Your class should be more focused towards practical and natural application of everything that they already know.

[thu_tinh]

well i've mentioned to her about how drilling dialogues would not help students very much in real situations. they followed a script once she made up, and when i asked another question that wasn't on that script the students got confused and she lost her placed and got very angry.
therefore I am not sure what or how to teach the students here in Korea anymore.

[jeffkim1972]

[postfundie]

[Juregen]

Don't drill dialouges!

Man, that is really the worst possible thing to do ...

why not make a topic of debate, create a con pro and moderator team, and let them Debate. Give them a week to prepare or something. Give them necessary documentation. All then they have to do is read th material and form their opinions.

after the discussion the rest of the classroom can participate in the debate

[dogshed]

I use a variety of different methods to divide the kids into pairs or small groups. I try to mix them up so they aren't always talking to the same people. Usually they talk the last 15 minutes of the class using the days lesson, but I'm not picky about that as long as they are speaking English. The teacher and I walk around the room to make sure they are speaking English and to inject some questions of our own.

[FistFace]

It's easy...

Stand at the front of the room and say:

"Dokdo belongs to Japan, Anton Ohno is the best skater in the world, Warcraft sucks almost as bad as D-war, and Koreans are the most immorally sexual people after the Japanese."

Oh, and then remind them that everything good that ever developed here was due to Japan and the USA.

That will get someone talking.

[thu_tinh]

so....all you experience middle school teachers...how do you teach conversation to the students?
I always try to do something similar to the textbook but now that is being thrown out the window.

[ddeubel]

TT,

I would suggest flashcards - rather than go into so many other ways of "teaching" conversation.

Take a ppt, print view and print 6 per page. Give the set to a group who cut them out and then they have flashcards for games.

Do a whole class demonstration, teams against teams. (print out a whole page for one flashcard, big style and stick to a green board).

Use a sentence / question structure to give them guidance for the controlled conversation (and that is how you teach conversation, controlled and as they develop, provide more opportunity for open ended conversation).

Example -- flashcards are places.

Did you go shopping at the _________ this weekend?

Yes, I did. (student gives matching card) No I didn't. Get lost! (student picks up an extra card and loses turn).

Lots of variations, hundreds.....on my batcave, you can find powerpoint presentations for any subject family/clothes/animals/verbs etc....take one, then make the flashcards and TEACH conversation.

DD

[bosintang]

thu_tinh: still kicking at the same middle-school I see!

I think your teachers telling you they want you to teach conversation is their way of telling you they're not happy with your lessons. Seriously, they should be taking a larger role in your lesson-planning. You're just a co-teacher. They seem to have high expectations but don't want to help you.

[Steve Schertzer]

You don't teach conversation, you HAVE a conversation. You teach English. This is why I don't do so-called conversation classes. I let people know right off the bat that this is an English class, not a conversation class. It's that simple.