Teaching Websites and Resources I use in my own classes

Teaching Resources for ESL Teachers

A quick post about some resources from around the Internet  that I use for my own classes when I'm in need of a bit of inspiration.

Classroom Resources for ESL Teachers

ESL Speaking-  The ultimate site for ESL speaking games and activities, as well as ESL textbook recommendations.

Breaking News English - My go to site for any kind of current events ESL conversation or ESL discussion class. I like the short 2-page mini lessons, but they also have full lesson plans here.

ESL Writing -Also a great site for lesson plans specifically for ESL writing classes. My favorite ones actually are the ESL listening lesson plans, which are perfect for an hour-long class.

Speaking Activities That Don't Suck- Lots of ready-to-go speaking activities and games for ESL classes that you don't have to put a lot of thought into. Perfect if you get a last minute class thrown at you and you're in a bit of a time crunch.

Presentation Expressions -If you teach presentations or public speaking, you'll want to check out this site (and also buy yourself this book: Speaking of Speech: Basic Presentation Skills for Beginners).

Business English Pod -My favorite site for business English and interview preparation. They have paid content, but much of it is free and you can probably get by with just that for your lessons with a bit of preparation by you.

ESL Trivia and Word Puzzles- I love to do a warm-up brain-teaser at the beginning of every class and this is the best book I've found with puzzles and trivia geared specifically to ESL students. The stuff around the Internet either has language that is too difficult or is geared to kids.

Don't forget to sign-up for 40 free ESL games and activities delivered straight to your inbox.

ESL Textbook Reviews

One question that I often see tossed around on the Facebook groups related to language teaching is what textbook other teachers like.  I have a site called ESL Textbook Reviews that talks about my specific choices and I'll also list a few of them here. 

General 4 Skills Textbooks:



Academic Writing



Public Speaking and Presentations

Speaking of Speech Videos

Whenever I teach presentations and public speaking, I use the most fabulous Speaking of Speech: Basic Presentation Skills for Beginners.  Today, I had a moment of panic because I somehow lost my USB stick with all the videos on it.  But, never fear!  Youtube saved the day as someone helpfully uploaded them all.  Thank you Mr. Kim, whoever you are.

Speaking of Speech Videos on Youtube.

The Small Stuff that Matters: Ditch the Microphone

A small Sunday morning mini-rant.  When I go into classrooms that only have 30 or 40 desks filling up the entire space, there is always a microphone that has been put to obvious use.  Like it's actually sitting on the podium or something like that.  It always makes me wonder why.  Who actually has such a small voice that they can't project it enough for a class of 30 people?  Does anyone actually just stand at the podium and lecture the entire time?  Does anyone actually like holding a microphone for 75 minutes?  Most importantly, do students actually LIKE listening to a voice that is microphone projected, with a low-quality sound system and crappy microphone? 

It's all just so strange to me.  I've never used a microphone, even with classes of 40 or 50.  But, maybe my style is just kind of different.  I INSIST on absolute silence if I'm talking because I refuse to yell over the students.  I quite rarely write down things like answers to questions in the book so students ACTUALLY have to listen to what I'm saying in order to get the information that they need.  I also INSIST that students sit in the first few rows if it is a really large classroom, without a bunch of empty space because I refuse to yell over them.  I also tell them that I will never use a microphone so if their hearing is poor, they really should sit at the front of the classroom.

Anyway, isn't part of the job of "professor" at a university to be at least decent at public speaking?  The microphone/podium warrior just doesn't seem to cut it, in my world.

It's that time of year...Speaking Tests!

There are various ways for language teachers to do speaking tests, all of which have their positives and negatives.  Here's my brief summary:

1-1 interviews with the teacher.  This method is generally thought to have the highest validity, since no weaker student affect the stronger student in a negative way.  However, I think there are more negatives than positives:

1. The power dynamic which can come into play

2. The necessity to have students, alone in an office or classroom.  This is something that I'll always try to avoid if possible.

3. Exhaustion on the part of a teacher.  It just simply takes a lot of time and mental energy.

4. The teacher needs to serve as examiner and conversation partner, which can get tricky at times, especially at the end of a long day of tests.

Conversations/role-plays among students, usually 1-1 while the teacher just listens/observes.  The big negative of this one is that a weaker student can affect a stronger student, and although the teacher accounts for this in grading, it can often be seen as "not fair" in the student's eyes.  However, there are lost of positives:

1. No power dynamics

2. It can at least partly replicate "real" conversation, where the people are at a similar level of English ability. 

3. The teacher can just focus on listening and not have to act as a conversation partner.

4. Students often feel less nervous with at least one other person in the room besides the teacher.

Presentations, alone or in a group.  These are perhaps the easiest on the part of the teacher to administer, especially in groups.  You can "test" a group of 30 students in as little as a single 1.5 hour class.  The negatives are that it doesn't replicate "conversation" at all and this is most often what courses consist of at Korean universities.  But, if the teacher actually spends time teaching students how to do presentations, it can be a valuable life-skill that students can take with them throughout their lives.


So what am I doing?  3 of my classes with have presentations and the other one will have a conversation with another student, who will be selected randomly.  It's my first time in a long time teaching "conversation" to really high-level students, so it's an experiment of sorts.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Here's the book I used to help prepare my students for the presentation exam:

Public Speaking for ESL Students

Presentations for ESL Students

It's seems like at my uni I've become somewhat of a presentation guru.  I keep getting classes that require me to teach them, which actually makes me very happy, especially because I've been using the most fabulous Speaking of Speech: Basic Presentation Skills for Beginners.

Even in classes that are not really dedicated to speeches, but which fall under the general umbrellas of "conversation" or "whatever the hell you want to teach," I'll try to slip in a little public speaking and presentations.  Here's why:

1. It's a concrete set of skills which students can hold onto and use at a later date.

2. It helps increase confidence when speaking English.  Things like eye contact and speaking loud enough are important, even in general conversation.

3. Presentations at job interviews are big these days in Korea.

4. I'd far rather listen to some (well done!) presentations for the speaking portion of a midterm or final exam than actually engage in 1-1 conversations with over a hundred students, which leaves me exhausted for weeks.




If you're mostly teaching ESL conversation classes, you'll probably find this website really helpful: ESL Speaking: Games, Activities and Resources,

A review of a not-so-recent conference presentation of mine

A very flattering review of my presentation at a Kotesol conference last year, which I just discovered.  Find it at LivingLearning.  And, as an aside, I'll be doing another presentation on a topic of some sort on April 12th in Busan, so mark your calendars!

Come see my presentation on Teaching Public Speaking and Presentation Skills!

I'm considering changing the name of this blog from, "My Life: Teaching in a Korean University" to "The rarely updated, yet still fabulous blog about teaching in a Korean University."  Thoughts?

Anyway, the real news is that I'll be giving a presentation at the Kotesol Fall Mini-Conference in Busan next weekend (Saturday, Sept. 14th) at the Pusan University of Foreign Studies (PUFS).  The conference runs from 2-5:15ish, but you can see my presentation at 4:00.  I'll be talking about how to teach presentation and public speaking skills.  It's "101" style so perfect for those who've never taught it before.  It's free and everyone is welcome, even non-Kotesol members.  Hope to see you there.  And of course: all the information found here.   

Check out my #1 book for teaching presentations and public speaking: Speaking of Speech.

A Perfect Storm of Goodness

In my recent presentation and public speaking class, I got the highest evaluation score that I've ever received in a class: 98%.  It was my first time teaching this type of class, so the potential was definitely there for it to be not as fabulous as it could have been. However, there was a perfect storm of motivated, friendly students, interesting content that the students had never studied before, a teacher excited to teach something besides beginner conversation, and a most fabulous book (thanks Kotesol Facebook site for the rec's).  Speaking of Speech by David Harrington.  I really, truly cannot say enough good things about it.  Go get it.  And, also check out Presentation Expressions which is something I most definitely wish I'd found before teaching this class.

 

Interesting Results from my Presentation Class

This semester, I taught a presentation class for the first time, and actually it was only my second time teaching a content course (the first one was a social issues class last year). Yesterday was our last class, and as kind of a wrap up, I got the students to share with the class something they really liked, or something they learned from the class. And then something that they found challenging/difficult or didn't like. And I'm also reading their journals too, where they had to talk about similar kinds of stuff.

Surprisingly, almost all the students mentioned that doing speeches in English was quite difficult and that for some, it was the first time they'd ever spoken English in front of a large group or in front of Koreans.  And, some of them mentioned learning a lot of new vocabulary as well, which was interesting.  Neither the actual English, nor the vocab were a focus of anything I did for this class.  I didn't correct a single grammar mistake the entire time (purposely!)

I expected most of them to say that standing up in front of people, or that something like speaking loudly, or using gestures was what they found difficult. But, not really.

Anyway, the learning vocab/improving their English ability kind of makes sense if you take into account Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input theory. The students in this class listened to a total of about 120 speeches (!!!), all at their own level. That's A LOT OF input and it makes sense that they'd learn some new vocabulary this way. Interesting.

Another thing that the students mentioned was that they were happy to have a skill to take them with in the future, for job interviews, presentations in other classes, at work, etc.

If you're looking for a textbook to use when teaching presentations or public speaking, by far my favorite one is Speaking of Speech: Basic Presentation Skills for Beginners. It's at an ideal level for university students in Korea and covers all the basics.

ESL Textbook Reviews

Check out one of my other sites: ESL Textbook Reviews.  It's just updated with a couple new additions.

Content Classes

This year, I was given a class called, "Open Discussion" or "Advanced Conversation" or "Skillful Speaking."  Who really knows actually.  It was a lost in translation moment.  Anyway, what I took from that was that I could basically just do whatever I wanted, that I would have around 15 students, and that most of them would be somewhat advanced, especially considering that it's an elective class.  I chose to do a "Speech Class," because it was something that I'd never taught before, and that I thought could actually be quite helpful for the students, for their lives, and presentations that they have to do in their other classes.

I love this class for a lot of reasons, but here are a few:

1. The students are actually really into it.  Like they've basically covered every single topic that one could "conversate" about, and so an English class that doesn't involve this is a nice change of pace (for me too!)

2. It's a sneaky way to teach new vocab.  Like I'm sure none of these students knew words like: "gestures, voice inflection, posture," but now they do.

3.  It's also a sneaky way to teach listening/speaking/reading.  They do all of these things each class, but kind of forget they're doing it because the content is the focus. 

4. They take some skills away with them besides English.  Like how to make a good PPT, or how to speak with confidence in front of a group.