Teaching Korean Adults English

Question

I teach a Korean bussness class.  Untill recently, I thought they enjoyed class, but I have learned that it is a save face culture, and I did not know they were borred unitll I heard it from my director who is Korean herself, but understands westerners enought to give me this information.   They had told me that they wanted to do certain things, like role play, dictation, and repeating me for pronouciation practice, and some other things, and I thought I would give them just that so they would learn and be happy.  For you expirenced people who might be wondering what kind of a teacher I am, I have only been teaching for since the first part of October, so I do not have much expirence yet.   As far as their  English goes it is good enought to where they can understand me without a translator, but far from perfect.   I am wondering if anybody knows some good games that adults would like.   Any Ideas would be helpfull.

Mike in Japan · Accepted Answer

I guess it depends on the age of the students.
Much as I hate to say it, entertaining students is an important part of keeping them satisfied. There are various ways and styles to do this, and it is not easy to explain how here. Try sitting in on a few lessons with other teachers.
Try to vary the content from lesson to lesson. This may be difficult if you are working from an assigned textbook. In my opinion pronunciation should be a part of every lesson. Correct really bad pronunciation whenever you hear it. You could also think up some funny tongue twisters.
I usually start each lesson with some free conversation (asking each student what they have been doing etc. ) this is OK for most students, but beware, some may not lead very interesting lives, so they may be embarassed at revealing too much about their personal lifestyle, or they may simply be bored with having been asked this question at the beginning of every English lesson they have ever had. Another good way to start is by asking students to write one or two questions for another classmember or for you (you should also write some for them). Also ask if they have any questions about English itself. So, the free or question prompted conversation can be used to loosen-up the students before the lesson itself.
Move on to your lesson, but wherever possible try to go off on brief tangents (I stress brief). These tangiential excursions should be used to personalise the lesson ie 'Has that ever happened to you Su?, How about you K?, Have you ever had a bad experience like that at an airport Lee? I remember once in Mongolia ...... But keep these short, and return to your lesson plan.
Remember, your job is to encourage them to use English.
Try to keep track of the new vocab etc that you have covered that is NOT in the lesson plan, and where possible revise it near the end of the lesson.
Finally you can finish the class with some more free conversation; "What will you do after class M? What will you have for dinner Z?
Inject humour and entertainment at every possible opportunity during the lesson (depending on the nature of your students).

Well this is only a very rough guide and all students are different and have different wants and needs. I'm absolutely positive other teachers have other ways of teaching. I hope some other teachers may give us some other tips for keeping students stimulated.
A final word. From my own experience games can be a real time waster. Use them at your own risk.
Cheers

Teaching Korean Adults English

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