Letter from a reader- Resistance to games
Will ponder on this and try to get something down myself at the weekend, but was hoping others could also help to with advice, recommended books and links etc:
“Hi there Alex.
My name is H***** ************ and I have only been in D********, *********** Province (Korea) for three weeks. I teach at D******** High School. I am the first foreign teacher ever employed at this school and obviously smething of a novelty. My challenges are the following; It is a public school and most of the learners are not really interested in learning to speak English. The level of English in the classes vary from zero to beginner. They get drilled with grammar by their Korean teachers, whose command of English ranges from bad to pre-intermediate. I have tried various games but they simply don’t understand and the co-teachers don’t seem to buy into that style of teaching. They want me to teach them to “speak English’ but the students do not have a clue as to what I am saying most of the time. I’ve tried rearranging the classroom seating arrangements to encourage group work but the teachers just move the tables and chairs back to the conventional setting. It is very difficult to to teach to kids and they just stare at you, or worse, ignore you and carry on with whatever they were doing (talking to friends).
How should I approach this situation?
Some advice will be appreciated :))
Thanks
H”
March 25th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
If the co-teachers are not being cooperative then have them provide suggestions on how to improve your lesson plans. The key to success in this case is to get the co-teachers on your side.
this will involve some flattery and pursuasion. Work with them not against them. You are supposed to be a teacher, which means that you should theoretically be able to communicate with learners who have weak skills. High school students may not want to listen to you and peer pressure may encourage silence. But your co-teacher is an adult and their job is to work with you and whether they want to or not they should be prepared to help you. Work with them.
Have you written out complete lesson plans to share with the teacher? when I prepare my own lesson plans they take a full A4 page and sometimes two. Do that and let the teacher see it in advance so they can be prepared to help you with classroom management and/or translating instructions to the students.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I will think over this and try to offer some more suggestions when I have something concrete in mind that might work.
Just for now be consoled that you are in one of the worst situations to achieve any results and many many people would just cut their losses and run away!
If you can stick it out and achieve even the smallest of victories you will have done a really good thing for the school and the kids who go to it, now and in the future.
Korean teachers are hidebound to say the least and any innovations you make will be regarded skeptically or even hostilely. Don’t give up. Try and get one teacher on your side, try to explain what you’re doing and why and ask for suggestions about how to get to there. That teacher can ‘maybe’ be a Trojan horse to subvert the rest of them. Maybe.
Learn enough Korean to give your own instructions ASAP – a tall order I know. Meanwhile. work hard on non-verbal communication and start really simply – even if it’s stuff the kids should have learned at Elementary school…this builds confidence.
Really – your situation is one for a back to basics TEFL approach and not one where you should give in (as so many do) and either head for the exit or adopt the Korean staff’s ‘non-teaching’ methods.
Try to get hold of a book called ‘Practical Techniques’ by Michael Lewis. It has a lot of reminders of how to do things in difficult circumstances.
Good luck. I feel for you…
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:12 am
Thanks for sharing your concern. I hope you will get over it.
I am a Korean living in the States.
You might want to consider using Disney children’s animation clips. Most of the Korean kids, I guess, already saw many of them. Inviting them to something visual that they already know might increase students’ interest and motivation. I would like to hear more about what happens in your class. Thanks!
April 4th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I put a fair bit of thought into this and was all ready to write a reply, but then realised that he wasn’t even reading despite two reminder emails from me. This has happened in about 50% of all the “Letter from a reader” cases, I wonder what on earth that’s about…
May 26th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I totally sympathize with you. I’ve had Korean students too. There’s this one student that I have whom I think was just forced by his parents to study English. I’ve tried also games, computer stuff but no can do. Finally, I’ve found his button. When we started talking about Naruto (a famous Japanese anime), he can’t stop talking. It’s really about connecting with the students. Finding about what makes them tick. Best of luck!