Of the six categories of classroom speaking activities introduced by Harmer (pages 348-353), choose one and briefly discuss its use (or lack of use) in Korean classrooms.
As for me, I think Simulations and role-plays are highest in rank to use in a classroom speaking activities. Because aside from developing fluency in speaking skill of the students, it helps them also to become more creative, expressive in anything not only in a language itself but as a whole. But according to Harmer, these activity have recently gone through a period of relative unpopularity, yet this is a pity since they have three distinct advantages: 1. They can be good fun and are thus motivating.
2. They allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinions and behaviour without having to take responsibility for what they say in the way that they do when they are speaking for themselves.
3. By broadening the world of the classroom to include the world outside, thay allow students to use a much wider range of language than some more task-centered activities may do. The reason of the unpopularity of these activities may be because some teachers are not creative enough or do not have enough courage and interest to initiate these to the students or teachers can not get away from the old/traditional way of teaching. Or in other words, teachers are lazy in creating such atmosphere in the classroom and they are not after the benefits that the learners' could get out of these, BUT they are just after their own BENEFITS.
Discussion is one of most korean EFL learners wanted in English classroom because it has been lack of use in Korean classrooms. Hamer suggests specific method doing discussion for speaking. Buzz groups, instant comment and formal debates and unplanned discussion including reaching a consensus for improving English speaking in the classroom. Especially, First , Instant comment is that the teachers use photographies (introducing topics at any range of a lesson and nominating students to say the first thing that comes into their head. This method can attract the students attention and get various creative ideas from the Korean teenage students. Of course students' interests We Korean teachers in the conversation class in English , they are using this technique but students tend to respond their first coming- ideas in korean. Before responding in English, the students will be needed in language forms or how to jump to english. Second, Korean EFL learners are needed to train for formal debates by speaking. This method is lack of use in Korean classroom even not only in Korean but also in English. I think using Hamer's method " Balloon Debate" will be fun and improve discussion skill in speaking, the method is based on a scenario in which number of people are traveling basket of a hot-air ballon. Students take on the role of a real-life person, either living or historical. With present curriculum of public school, the frequcey to use this method in the class will be just few times just for fun, not until stdents get the skill of discussion really.
Acting from script could give good influence on students. They learning correct English and they can feel that acting activity is fun way to study English. When I was a student, my teacher tried to make us do acting with script. So she chose a script from a book and told us to read that loudly first. But from the beginning, it didn’t work very well because there are several level students and some of students didn’t wanted roll-playing. Like this, sometimes it took long time to prepare before perform it. And it’s not easy to choose right leveled script if there were different leveled students in one class. And sometimes some of students don’t to do the activity.
It is very difficult for me to get my older students to interact with each other openly in the classroom. Most of the time I refuse to give up but I admittingly take the easy way out sometimes. I love stimulating real life encounters whenever I can, so naturally C6 was my top choice. Many of my students are very creative so simulation role-plays provide an outlet for them(physically, emotionally and intellectually). The higher level shy students are naturally drawn into the creative bubble and the lower level English students (some of whome are very creative) are helped along but their team members. Much like Harmer, I believe it is very important to "broaden the world of the classroom to include the world outside". It shows the students that English can be fun and useful as well as entertaining.
Among the activities, role-play is a good way to improve students' speaking ability in Korean classrooms. For the beginners, such as elementary school students, the scene of the role-play is given to the students. They just need to act out it memorizing the lines of the scene, but they also can revise it a little by adding or changing the sentences. The role play have to include the main expressions that are taught in the lesson. They just act out the play by memorizing after watching role-play scene, but students feel very interested and motivated while acting out. For the intermediate level students like secondary school students, the teacher gives them the background or the situation that they have to play, then they write their script for themselves. Before role-playing, they have to practice it in group, then they can have confidence about playing. Finally, they act out it in front of the whole classmates and take feedback about it from classmates or teacher. In Korean classroom, it's possible for elementary school students to perform this activity but in secondary school, it seems a bit difficult to use it in class since they are more focused on paper test. But I think we should use this activity to enhance students' speaking ability if possible.
Ju Won, Cho (WB) said.. I choose example 3 My home town. In this activity, the whole class is involved in a matching game which involves reading and talking to others in order to solve a puzzle. Students need to know words about the directions such as north, south, west and east .. and various places in order to play. The teacher makes sure that the students know them before this activity. The teacher makes copies of a map of our neighborhood in which eight towns are marked with a dog but not named. Students are also given eight town maps of which the following are the first two. Based on the information on their card, each students now writes the name of their town in the correct place on the map, and draws a line between that place and the appropriate town plan. This game finishes when each student has a complete set of place names with lines linking them to the correct plans. This game will obviously work best with students who do not have speaking skill and are interested in learning more. It uses an information gap to create the necessary conditions for communication but shares the information around many more than two people.
Jung Eun, Choi (WB) said... As an English teacher for young learners, I usually use simulation and role-play in the class. Young learners seem to be interested in that they are in various situations. We have the class named "Theme class" once a month. In the class I set some environment like a market and a clinic and so on. Then they can become a doctor and a vendor. Of course they practice what they say in the situation beforehand. The dialogue can be changed according to students' age and level. This activity also can bring conviction to the children who are shy in front of others. I know it's getting difficult to apply this kind of activities for the students in upper level. But real English can be learned in the real situation. We don't have to be shy when we are learning.^^
I would choose 'Communication games' in Korean classrooms, because students can review what they have learned through playing games and they can also be motivated. Especially, students find it much more exciting when they play games from popular TV shows. For instance, in 'Taboo' students make a group of four. Each student takes a turn and picks an English word card and gives clues to his members without mentioning that word. They try to guess as many as they can in a limited time, and they score one point for each word they guessed correctly. The team with the highest score wins the game. Not all lessons need to be fun, but if you use the game efficiently, it will help students to be more interested.
Of classroom speaking activities, some discussion activities are commonly used in Korean classroom and others are not. Considering range of discussion, from highly formal whole-group staged events to informal small-group interactions, informal small-group interactions are used much more in Korean classroom. For instance, buzz groups and instant comment are commonly used because teacher can use these activities without preparing students for discussion in advance. However, formal debates are less commonly used in Korea classroom because they requires preparing what to say in advance, further background knowledge and high speaking ability. Even though teachers might not plan to use discussion, some discussion just happens in the middle of lesson.
It makes little sense to talk about skill in isolation since, as Eli Hinkel points out, in meaningful communication, people employ incremental language skills not in isolation, but in tandem'(Hinkel 2006:113). In other words, that means the natural processes of skill-mixing should be achieved in learning. Specially Korea is not ESL but EFL. So Korea's environment don't nearly exposure in English. I want to discuss about questionnaires. Because these are useful. First, by being pre-planned, questionnaires ensure that both questioner and respondent have something to say to each other. Next, these are the basis to teacher for how to teach, prepared talks and materials etc. I think these certainly need for increasing not only successful speaking but also English 4skills in Korea's English classroom.
English teachers try to use 'Simulation and role-play'. When I was an elementary school student, I couldn't lean English in the classroom. And I never thought about role-play in the classroom when I was a middle school student. But now Korean English class is changed. The source of trouble is teaching to speak. So introduction of 'Simulation and role-play' activity is good way to teach English. I use this activity when I teach. It is useful in the class. It makes student speaking English with courage. And make them focus in class.
From my experience, prepared talks are the most difficult part in speaking activities for both teacher and student in Korea. This is because many students with different level of spoken English are mixed in a large class. Hammer, however, suggests a couple of efficient way to work out these problems. First of all, we need to invest some time in the procedures and process they are involved in. It is a good ideat to allow students to rehearse their presentations with their partners. Seconly, Hammer recommend teacher to get the listeners to give feedback on what the speaker has said. A combination of two way communication between speakers and listeners may help Korean students with shy personality to get involved in presentation.
I choose "simulation and role-play". It is very useful for improving communication skill. Above of all, it can take out anxiety about responsibility of speech. And having another character help students to stimulate imagination. However, in Korean classroom, teacher have to prepare carefully. Korean student may not act well in another character because of think about themselves. In addition, they may not know about that character. So, we have to provide some source for simulating. If Teacher prepare it carefully, it can work well in class. And students feel fun, and can motivate for future or past activity. However, we have to be careful that it can be disorder. So, we have to explain exactly what activity is and what skill it can improve for students. This course can help students motivate in the activity.
I choose Acting of classroom speaking activities to discuss its use or lack of use. Teacher uses dialogues for students to teach speaking English with acting out in middle or high school of Korea. In my case, I took speaking test using short dialogue when I was an undergraduate student. I think that there are a lot of problems because students can speak in English what they acquired. They just can memorize expression of dialogue, but they cannot improve their speaking skill like a native. There is not enough time in English class, so it is not easy that teacher use playscripts to teach speaking in English. If there are much more English teacher in school, students will be able to learn speaking through playscripts(It includes appropriate stress, intonation, speed and correct pronounciation), and students also will be able to speak real Englsh.
YangSook(WA), Kim said, Harmer's 6 speaking activities of text book are almost important and useful activities to enhance students' speaking ability in teaching English at School. In my opinion, Simulation and Role-play are my favorite mothod which is used in speaking activity in my class. They can great experiences from simulation and role-play, Students simulate a real life encounter as if they were doing so in the real world. They can act out the simulation as themselves or take on the role of a completely different character and express thoughts and feelings they do not necessarily share. Learning that obtained through role-play wouldn't never forget it. It's their only enjoyable source in English class, especially from another activities. While they have a role-play, they usually tried to memory & speak some useful expression and basic words which are used in role-play. Teacher should allow them to speak creative expression or inappropriate sentences in some situation. Also we have to make more role-play situation, this can make them more practice.
Eun mi Lee said.. I think a good way “Simulation and Role-play”. Student seems to be interested in that they try to act a real situation. In the classroom I make some environment like department and airport. Etc. Sometimes students act famous character. Example, cartoon character and movie star. Nowadays in Korea wants to improve for English skill that it makes an English environment like an English zone. When students are doing simulations and role-plays, they need to know situation lots of information about the background for them. Also they can understand a script. This activity important thing is participation. Students can be good fun and are motivating. Also they allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinion and By widening the world of the classroom to include the world outside.
I think "Acting from a script" is the useful activity in Speaking lesson. When teachers teach speaking English, just repeat after teachers' speaking. That's all. But this activity is active and interesting. Students can develop their speaking ability and their writing ability. However, that activity is too much active for Korean student class. Actually Korean classroom is too inactive, so that activity is not proper. If teacher and students overcome this difficulty that Korean class is very stillness, we can use this activity well. I think Korean classroom need to overcome static atmosphere. This "Acting from a script" activity is fun and interesting. It is important for teacher to overact when she or he speaking some dialogues. Maybe this activity will be able to motivate that students have confidence about speaking English.
For me and my elementary students, simulation and role-play are the most popular activities in class. Simulation and role-play is good way to practice pronunciations. Once students get roles, they are fascinated by their characters, so they try their best to be like the real character. Then, surprisingly, their pronunciations change more correctly, more fluently. Secondly, simulation and role-play is very useful way to memorize sentences and words. It's really hard to make students remember new words and sentence patterns. But, after several times doing this activities, all of the students who participate in, pick up every sentences and words. Lastly, students can be more creative through this activities. I can see they add some more expressions, sentences and words that they've learned to the originals. Sometimes they suggest me much more fitting and suitable situations that I've never thought about. Their originality make learning English more fun and effective.
The advantage of changing is that it brings fresh ideas to the staff and students. There is always room to improve, and the freedom of seeing what works and doesn’t is great for the students. The downside to the course book is that a teacher should not feel like a slave in the classroom. A teacher that feels like a slave can not reach their full potential. One has to have freedom to be a successful teacher.
There are six catergories of classroom speaking activities. 1)Acting from a script 2)communication game 3)Discussion 4)prepared talked 5)Questionnaires 6)simulation and role-play I choose acting from a script Students are working on play or playscripts. They should treat it as real acting. Acting can make students motivating and providing'transformative and emancipatory learning experiences. Drama can help student confidence,contextualise language,develop students empathy for other characters,involve students in appropriate problem solving and engage them. Drama practises gesture,facial expression,eye contact and movement,proxemics and prosody.
If we can give students time to work on thier dialogues, they gain much more from the whole experience.
I choose simulation and role-play. Students can role-play at the end of their semester. They can use famous stories or fairy tales which have words and dialogues they have learned. Role-play can be used to encourage general oral fluency. And there are more elaborate simulations in Korea. We can call it "English Village" or "English Camp". Korean students can experience English culture through the simulation. There can be lots of booths such as immigration area, a cafeteria, a shop, a bank(they can exchange some money), etc. Students can simulate as if they are in the real world.
I would like to speak my personal thought in general idea(that I think) Just throwing more English class activities at students is not good enough. Integrating a small number of subjects into the language classes could be a solution. What you can do is construct good teaching modules with activities, which means teachers do not need to speak very much at the beginning. Teachers become like a conductor of an orchestra, not an opera singer. There is no reason you can't start in Korean to explain the rationale or something, and switch into English to do activities to learn it, and then have some form of assessment at the end, back in Korean. What teachers need to make sure of is that they don't damage the cognitive abilities of the broad range of children to learn the subjects by focusing too much on the language itself
As for me, I think Simulations and role-plays are highest in rank to use in a classroom speaking activities. Because aside from developing fluency in speaking skill of the students, it helps them also to become more creative, expressive in anything not only in a language itself but as a whole. But according to Harmer, these activity have recently gone through a period of relative unpopularity, yet this is a pity since they have three distinct advantages:
ReplyDelete1. They can be good fun and are thus motivating.
2. They allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinions and behaviour without having to take responsibility for what they say in the way that they do when they are speaking for themselves.
3. By broadening the world of the classroom to include the world outside, thay allow students to use a much wider range of language than some more task-centered activities may do.
The reason of the unpopularity of these activities may be because some teachers are not creative enough or do not have enough courage and interest to initiate these to the students or teachers can not get away from the old/traditional way of teaching. Or in other words, teachers are lazy in creating such atmosphere in the classroom and they are not after the benefits that the learners' could get out of these, BUT they are just after their own BENEFITS.
Discussion is one of most korean EFL learners wanted in English classroom because it has been lack of use in Korean classrooms.
ReplyDeleteHamer suggests specific method doing discussion for speaking. Buzz groups, instant comment and formal debates and unplanned discussion including reaching a consensus for improving English speaking in the classroom.
Especially, First , Instant comment is that the teachers use photographies (introducing topics at any range of a lesson and nominating students to say the first thing that comes into their head. This method can attract the students attention and get various creative ideas from the Korean teenage students. Of course students' interests We Korean teachers in the conversation class in English , they are using this technique but students tend to respond their first coming- ideas in korean. Before responding in English, the students will be needed in language forms or how to jump to english. Second, Korean EFL learners are needed to train for formal debates by speaking. This method is lack of use in Korean classroom even not only in Korean but also in English. I think using Hamer's method " Balloon Debate" will be fun and improve discussion skill in speaking, the method is based on a scenario in which number of people are traveling basket of a hot-air ballon. Students take on the role of a real-life person, either living or historical. With present curriculum of public school, the frequcey to use this method in the class will be just few times just for fun, not until stdents get the skill of discussion really.
Acting from script could give good influence on students. They learning correct English and they can feel that acting activity is fun way to study English.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a student, my teacher tried to make us do acting with script. So she chose a script from a book and told us to read that loudly first. But from the beginning, it didn’t work very well because there are several level students and some of students didn’t wanted roll-playing.
Like this, sometimes it took long time to prepare before perform it. And it’s not easy to choose right leveled script if there were different leveled students in one class. And sometimes some of students don’t to do the activity.
It is very difficult for me to get my older students to interact with each other openly in the classroom. Most of the time I refuse to give up but I admittingly take the easy way out sometimes. I love stimulating real life encounters whenever I can, so naturally C6 was my top choice. Many of my students are very creative so simulation role-plays provide an outlet for them(physically, emotionally and intellectually). The higher level shy students are naturally drawn into the creative bubble and the lower level English students (some of whome are very creative) are helped along but their team members. Much like Harmer, I believe it is very important to "broaden the world of the classroom to include the world outside". It shows the students that English can be fun and useful as well as entertaining.
ReplyDeleteAmong the activities, role-play is a good way to improve students' speaking ability in Korean classrooms. For the beginners, such as elementary school students, the scene of the role-play is given to the students. They just need to act out it memorizing the lines of the scene, but they also can revise it a little by adding or changing the sentences. The role play have to include the main expressions that are taught in the lesson. They just act out the play by memorizing after watching role-play scene, but students feel very interested and motivated while acting out.
ReplyDeleteFor the intermediate level students like secondary school students, the teacher gives them the background or the situation that they have to play, then they write their script for themselves. Before role-playing, they have to practice it in group, then they can have confidence about playing. Finally, they act out it in front of the whole classmates and take feedback about it from classmates or teacher.
In Korean classroom, it's possible for elementary school students to perform this activity but in secondary school, it seems a bit difficult to use it in class since they are more focused on paper test. But I think we should use this activity to enhance students' speaking ability if possible.
Ju Won, Cho (WB) said..
ReplyDeleteI choose example 3 My home town. In this activity, the whole class is involved in a matching game which involves reading and talking to others in order to solve a puzzle. Students need to know words about the directions such as north, south, west and east .. and various places in order to play. The teacher makes sure that the students know them before this activity.
The teacher makes copies of a map of our neighborhood in which eight towns are marked with a dog but not named. Students are also given eight town maps of which the following are the first two. Based on the information on their card, each students now writes the name of their town in the correct place on the map, and draws a line between that place and the appropriate town plan. This game finishes when each student has a complete set of place names with lines linking them to the correct plans.
This game will obviously work best with students who do not have speaking skill and are interested in learning more. It uses an information gap to create the necessary conditions for communication but shares the information around many more than two people.
Jung Eun, Choi (WB) said...
ReplyDeleteAs an English teacher for young learners, I usually use simulation and role-play in the class. Young learners seem to be interested in that they are in various situations. We have the class named "Theme class" once a month. In the class I set some environment like a market and a clinic and so on. Then they can become a doctor and a vendor. Of course they practice what they say in the situation beforehand. The dialogue can be changed according to students' age and level.
This activity also can bring conviction to the children who are shy in front of others. I know it's getting difficult to apply this kind of activities for the students in upper level. But real English can be learned in the real situation. We don't have to be shy when we are learning.^^
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI would choose 'Communication games' in Korean classrooms, because students can review what they have learned through playing games and they can also be motivated. Especially, students find it much more exciting when they play games from popular TV shows. For instance, in 'Taboo' students make a group of four. Each student takes a turn and picks an English word card and gives clues to his members without mentioning that word. They try to guess as many as they can in a limited time, and they score one point for each word they guessed correctly. The team with the highest score wins the game. Not all lessons need to be fun, but if you use the game efficiently, it will help students to be more interested.
ReplyDeleteOf classroom speaking activities, some discussion activities are commonly used in Korean classroom and others are not.
ReplyDeleteConsidering range of discussion, from highly formal whole-group staged events to informal small-group interactions, informal small-group interactions are used much more in Korean classroom. For instance, buzz groups and instant comment are commonly used because teacher can use these activities without preparing students for discussion in advance. However, formal debates are less commonly used in Korea classroom because they requires preparing what to say in advance, further background knowledge and high speaking ability. Even though teachers might not plan to use discussion, some discussion just happens in the middle of lesson.
It makes little sense to talk about skill in isolation since, as Eli Hinkel points out, in meaningful communication, people employ incremental language skills not in isolation, but in tandem'(Hinkel 2006:113). In other words, that means the natural processes of skill-mixing should be achieved in learning. Specially Korea is not ESL but EFL. So Korea's environment don't nearly exposure in English. I want to discuss about questionnaires. Because these are useful. First, by being pre-planned, questionnaires ensure that both questioner and respondent have something to say to each other. Next, these are the basis to teacher for how to teach, prepared talks and materials etc. I think these certainly need for increasing not only successful speaking but also English 4skills in Korea's English classroom.
ReplyDeleteEnglish teachers try to use 'Simulation and role-play'. When I was an elementary school student, I couldn't lean English in the classroom. And I never thought about role-play in the classroom when I was a middle school student. But now Korean English class is changed. The source of trouble is teaching to speak. So introduction of 'Simulation and role-play' activity is good way to teach English.
ReplyDeleteI use this activity when I teach. It is useful in the class. It makes student speaking English with courage. And make them focus in class.
From my experience, prepared talks are the most difficult part in speaking activities for both teacher and student in Korea. This is because many students with different level of spoken English are mixed in a large class. Hammer, however, suggests a couple of efficient way to work out these problems.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, we need to invest some time in the procedures and process they are involved in. It is a good ideat to allow students to rehearse their presentations with their partners.
Seconly, Hammer recommend teacher to get the listeners to give feedback on what the speaker has said.
A combination of two way communication between speakers and listeners may help Korean students with shy personality to get involved in presentation.
I choose "simulation and role-play". It is very useful for improving communication skill. Above of all, it can take out anxiety about responsibility of speech. And having another character help students to stimulate imagination.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in Korean classroom, teacher have to prepare carefully. Korean student may not act well in another character because of think about themselves. In addition, they may not know about that character. So, we have to provide some source for simulating. If Teacher prepare it carefully, it can work well in class. And students feel fun, and can motivate for future or past activity. However, we have to be careful that it can be disorder. So, we have to explain exactly what activity is and what skill it can improve for students. This course can help students motivate in the activity.
I choose Acting of classroom speaking activities to discuss its use or lack of use.
ReplyDeleteTeacher uses dialogues for students to teach speaking English with acting out in middle or high school of Korea. In my case, I took speaking test using short dialogue when I was an undergraduate student.
I think that there are a lot of problems because students can speak in English what they acquired. They just can memorize expression of dialogue, but they cannot improve their speaking skill like a native.
There is not enough time in English class, so it is not easy that teacher use playscripts to teach speaking in English. If there are much more English teacher in school, students will be able to learn speaking through playscripts(It includes appropriate stress, intonation, speed and correct pronounciation), and students also will be able to speak real Englsh.
YangSook(WA), Kim said,
ReplyDeleteHarmer's 6 speaking activities of text book are almost important and useful activities to enhance students' speaking ability in teaching English at School.
In my opinion, Simulation and Role-play are my favorite mothod which is used in speaking activity in my class. They can great experiences from simulation and role-play, Students simulate a real life encounter as if they were doing so in the real world. They can act out the simulation as themselves or take on the role of a completely different character and express thoughts and feelings they do not necessarily share.
Learning that obtained through role-play wouldn't never forget it. It's their only enjoyable source in English class, especially from another activities. While they have a role-play, they usually tried to memory & speak some useful expression and basic words which are used in role-play. Teacher should allow them to speak creative expression or inappropriate sentences in some situation. Also we have to make more role-play situation, this can make them more practice.
Eun mi Lee said..
ReplyDeleteI think a good way “Simulation and Role-play”. Student seems to be interested in that they try to act a real situation. In the classroom I make some environment like department and airport. Etc. Sometimes students act famous character. Example, cartoon character and movie star.
Nowadays in Korea wants to improve for English skill that it makes an English environment like an English zone. When students are doing simulations and role-plays, they need to know situation lots of information about the background for them. Also they can understand a script. This activity important thing is participation. Students can be good fun and are motivating. Also they allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinion and By widening the world of the classroom to include the world outside.
I think "Acting from a script" is the useful activity in Speaking lesson. When teachers teach speaking English, just repeat after teachers' speaking. That's all. But this activity is active and interesting. Students can develop their speaking ability and their writing ability. However, that activity is too much active for Korean student class. Actually Korean classroom is too inactive, so that activity is not proper. If teacher and students overcome this difficulty that Korean class is very stillness, we can use this activity well. I think Korean classroom need to overcome static atmosphere. This "Acting from a script" activity is fun and interesting. It is important for teacher to overact when she or he speaking some dialogues.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this activity will be able to motivate that students have confidence about speaking English.
For me and my elementary students, simulation and role-play are the most popular activities in class.
ReplyDeleteSimulation and role-play is good way to practice pronunciations. Once students get roles, they are fascinated by their characters, so they try their best to be like the real character. Then, surprisingly, their pronunciations change more correctly, more fluently.
Secondly, simulation and role-play is very useful way to memorize sentences and words. It's really hard to make students remember new words and sentence patterns. But, after several times doing this activities, all of the students who participate in, pick up every sentences and words.
Lastly, students can be more creative through this activities. I can see they add some more expressions, sentences and words that they've learned to the originals. Sometimes they suggest me much more fitting and suitable situations that I've never thought about. Their originality make learning English more fun and effective.
The advantage of changing is that it brings fresh ideas to the staff and students. There is always room to improve, and the freedom of seeing what works and doesn’t is great for the students. The downside to the course book is that a teacher should not feel like a slave in the classroom. A teacher that feels like a slave can not reach their full potential. One has to have freedom to be a successful teacher.
ReplyDeleteTae-Sook Byeon said...
ReplyDeleteThere are six catergories of classroom speaking activities.
1)Acting from a script
2)communication game
3)Discussion
4)prepared talked
5)Questionnaires
6)simulation and role-play
I choose acting from a script
Students are working on play or playscripts.
They should treat it as real acting.
Acting can make students motivating and providing'transformative and emancipatory learning experiences.
Drama can help student confidence,contextualise language,develop students empathy for other characters,involve students in appropriate problem solving and engage them.
Drama practises gesture,facial expression,eye contact and movement,proxemics and prosody.
If we can give students time to work on thier dialogues, they gain much more from the whole experience.
I choose simulation and role-play. Students can role-play at the end of their semester. They can use famous stories or fairy tales which have words and dialogues they have learned. Role-play can be used to encourage general oral fluency.
ReplyDeleteAnd there are more elaborate simulations in Korea. We can call it "English Village" or "English Camp". Korean students can experience English culture through the simulation. There can be lots of booths such as immigration area, a cafeteria, a shop, a bank(they can exchange some money), etc. Students can simulate as if they are in the real world.
I would like to speak my personal thought in general idea(that I think) Just throwing more English class activities at students is not good enough. Integrating a small number of subjects into the language classes could be a solution. What you can do is construct good teaching modules with activities, which means teachers do not need to speak very much at the beginning. Teachers become like a conductor of an orchestra, not an opera singer. There is no reason you can't start in Korean to explain the rationale or something, and switch into English to do activities to learn it, and then have some form of assessment at the end, back in Korean. What teachers need to make sure of is that they don't damage the cognitive abilities of the broad range of children to learn the subjects by focusing too much on the language itself
ReplyDelete