The Internet is your Oyster

This is an article that I've written for an upcoming Kotesol article.  Enjoy your preview :)
 
I know that many teachers come to Korea just for a year but that that year somehow turns into two, then three, and four, and eventually you find yourself with a spouse, children, a car, pets and more things that you could ever hope to stuff into those two suitcases that you brought here.  In those first and second years, I would venture a guess that most of us were probably harmless, but ineffective teachers.  I know that I most certainly was.  However as time goes by, teaching becomes more than just how we make money, and most of us genuinely want to improve our teaching skills so that we can help our students actually learn and improve their skills for wherever life will take them.  

One of the best ways that I’ve found to improve my teaching is by taking advantage of the resources available on the Internet.  In this case, the ESL Internet world truly is your oyster, and you really should be grabbing the opportunities given to you.  These days, the Internet serves as the great equalizer, giving a chance for all teachers in Korea to make an impact.  I will give three (easy!) examples of how you can do it.

 Reinventing the Wheel

One of my favorite time-saving tricks for the busy teacher is not reinventing the wheel.  For example, if I’m teaching a lesson on superlatives/comparatives, I’ll search on Google for “superlative comparative ESL.”  As you’re typing, you’ll see, “games, activities, worksheets” pop up.  Just click on whatever you’re looking for and you’ll be directed to a wealth of resources for that particular lesson, usually for free.  I can often find a fabulous worksheet, activity idea, game, or even complete lesson plans in less than five minutes.  And I’ve found numerous new things to help me keep my classes interesting and engaging, which is often a little hard to do year after year.      

 Professional Development

In terms of professional development, I use the Internet almost exclusively (with a little bit of Kotesol too!)  I love listening to Podcasts while I’m on the subway or exercising and some of my favorite ones that are relevant to English teachers are: ESL etc, Edgycation, ESL Teacher Talk, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips, and Public Speaker’s Quick and Dirty Tips.  Just search on Itunes.

I also try to read at least one or two ESL teaching theory related things once a week.  Some of the sites I like are: Heads up English, An Introduction to Task-Based Teaching by David Nunan, and Learning for Life.  Take the ideas that you read about and incorporate them into your teaching, talk to your colleagues about them, or better yet, blog about them.
 
Blogging

Speaking of blogging, five long years ago I started a blog about teaching, mostly as a way to force myself to think more deeply about what I was doing in the classroom instead of just drifting along from semester to semester as it easy to sometimes do (My Life: Teaching in a Korean University  www.eslteacherinkorea.blogspot.com).  It has served that purpose but it’s done a lot more as well.  I’ve been inspired to present some of the ideas that I’ve developed on the blog at Kotesol conferences.  I’ve made lots of interesting contacts throughout the ESL world, even some of the more famous people (mostly through my textbook reviews).  I’ve been able to help lots of people by answering their questions that they send me.  I’ve compiled a resource for myself (and hopefully others) of lesson plans, games and activity ideas.  I use the search bar on my blog a lot to find a certain game, or Internet site, or book that I know I’ve blogged about but can’t quite remember what it is.  And finally, I’m pretty sure that I’ve become a better teacher though doing it.  A little self-reflection on the good and the bad is a practice that is useful for anyone in a classroom.

ESL Textbook Reviews

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

Review: Active English Discussion

I recently used this book by Andrew Finch for the aviation class that I previously talked about, and I've also used it for a more intensive conversation class that met 4 times/week over the course of a semester.  I've used other books in the series for kids classes as well.

I think the book is okay, but not great and I'll probably not use it again, if I have a choice about it.  I'll review some things I like and some things I don't like:

Like:

1. It's Korea-based, which makes for more interesting topics of interest to my students.

2. There are a variety of activities to do.

Don't like:

1. The readings are way too long for a discussion book.  You could spend a whole 50 minute class on the reading, and never get into the discussion.  You could actually use the readings for a reading comprehension class. 

2. A lot of the topics are old-news.  Family, school life, etc have all been covered by every basic textbook the students have previously studied. 

3.  For a discussion class, I like short, concise units.  Like 2 pages.  This book used about 8 pages/unit.  It's almost impossible to cover it one class, but to continue the topic into the next class is kind of weird too.  Just awkward.

Evaluation...Alternative Style

At the recent Kotesol conference my biggest frustration was the lack of practical stuff that I could actually use in my classroom.  Academics just seemed to blab on about their research findings in a confusing kind of way that really made no sense to me.  And, I consider myself a well-educated, academic kind of person conversant in stats and scientific method.  So if I didn't get it....well then, you know....  Perhaps the fault is with me for choosing sessions poorly. Or perhaps it was the fault of the organizers for organizing a conference heavy on the academics when most of the people attending were actual classroom practitioners.  Anyway, enough beating on that dead horse.

So, a session from Bita Tangestanifar from Sookmyung Women's University about alternative assessment was like a much needed fresh air.  I'm pretty weary of the traditional speaking/written grammar and vocab test characteristic of the modern world.  And I think these postmodern students might be as well.  I've talked to many of my coworkers about this and their ideas don't really seem any better.  One of them makes students memorize some random great American speech.  Others have students prepare and memorize a conversation.  Others do a presentation in groups of 4 or 5.  None of these struck me as any better than what I'm currently doing for various reasons. 

Bita mentioned three ways that she has done alternative assessment in her classrooms: podcasts (either alone or group), chat and penpals.  The chat and penpal thing would have had significant appeal to me if I didn't teach 9 classes of 25 students.  The logistics of it would just be staggering.  Bita has a good thing going where she only teaches 50 or so students/semester. 

However, the podcast thing seemed like something I could feasibly do in my classes.  Like the students have to do 5, 2 minute podcasts over the semester.  I could grade all these without going crazy.  Or, they could do it in groups to make it even easier for me. 

I need to think further on this whole thing, but at the very least I plan to include the podcast/chat/penpal ideas in my planned portfolio creation as a way of assessment. 

The Post-modern teacher

This post is inspired by Andrew Finch, who gave my favorite presentation of the Kotesol Conference this past weekend.  He talked about postmodernism and how it relates to teaching ESL.  I wish I had a handout, but sadly, they only had 50 for a room of about 500 people.  So, here's hoping the memory still has a wee bit of elasticity left.  Oh wait, maybe I'll use my postmodern skills to think of an alternative way to get the information.  Hmmm....think, think.  Wait!  I don't need to store information in my brain anymore or on paper anymore because I have my old friend Google.  "Postmodern Andrew Finch."  Ah yes, #1.

Basically, he was saying that in this constantly changing world, the actual facts we can give a student will no longer be relevant at some point in the future.  The best thing that we can offer students is to teach them how to teach themselves. 

Students these days are living and thinking and doing life in a postmodern kind of way.  And teachers are caught up in the modern world of tests, textbooks and competition should be replaced by collaboration, English learning through pop culture and assessment using portfolios.  And the most effective learning will be student centered and directed, not the teacher as expert kind of thing.

So how does this translate into my class?  I'm going to introduce the portfolio style of assessment for next year.  I think I'll come up with about 20-30 potential assignments the students could do.  They can choose to do as many as they want but I'll suggest a minimum amount in order to get a "C."  I'll probably assign a significant amount of the final grade to it: say 40 or 50%.  This way, if a student doesn't do it, they'll fail the class.  These assignments could range from making a video in English and putting it on youtube, to writing an introduction of yourself, complete with pictures, to making an English resume.   I'll put these assignments on a class website.  I'll try to meet with each student 2 or 3 times over the semester to track their progress and offer some feedback on what they've done so far.

I'm kind of excited!  This could be really fun for me, and for the students I think.

Kotesol Conference...the good

So the good things:

1. Networking opportunities abounded.  If you were in the market for a uni job, then this would definitely have been the place to be.

2. The venue was ideal.  Sookmyung university is the perfect place to hold a conference, very close to major public transport points and a plethora of food and drink options just outside the main gate. 

3. The students volunteers were great.  They could speak English very well and were quite helpful.

4. Some engaging presentations.  I particularly enjoyed Andrew Finch on Postmodernism, as well as Paul Nation on Vocab Acquisition. I also attended one about alternative assessment by someone who wasn't a luminary but came away with a few helpful ideas.  I'll talk about them in a later post.

Kotesol Conference...the bad

So I've just returned home from a busy weekend at the annual Kotesol Conference in Seoul.  I liked a lot of things but I have a few complaints.  I'll start with the complaints first and then end on a positive note, since I'm such an optimistic person :)

1. Registration.  Why should your desk be so hard to find?  The one arrow pointing the way could have led up the stairs, or just straight.  I chose straight and was quite lost.

2. Registration, part 2.  Thank your for having my name-tag in a nice, organized pile since I pre-registered.  Except maybe you should have told me that I needed to go around the corner and  down the stairs to pick up my little package.  Good thing I overheard some other confused guy asking what to do. In fact,  it's almost like you could have given me my nametag AND my package at the same time.

3. Speakers.  Hit and miss most definitely.  The conference seemed pretty heavy on people just presenting findings from their research.  Since I'm all about practical, apply it to the classroom kind of thing, I felt extremely frustrated.  And I even asked a couple of questions along this line, and got: "Oh, I don't really know off the top of my head."  So, if someone does all this research about the most effective ways to to teach ESL and can't give me a couple of activities for the classroom, do they really even know what they're talking about?  A total waste of my time.

4. Speakers, part 2.  Why do so many of you have such poor time management skills?  Are you really teachers?  I find this quite hard to believe.  And do you really think reading off a powerpoint is a good way to do a presentation?   And do you think having at least a simple hand-out with your presentation outline or business card with your name and title and email would be a good thing?  No, you don't it seems. 

Anyway, some were so bad that I felt inspired to present at next year's conference.  Seriously.  I'm no star presenter but I'm sure I could a better job than them.  I have an idea about student motivation and reward systems that I'm working on now.

5. Scheduling.  At some points, there were only 3 concurrent sessions.  This is fine.  Except there were over 1000 participants at the event.  Now, basic math would tell me that I should have 3 classrooms with enough seating for at least 333 people in each one.  Perhaps even rooms for 400 or so because you never know what will be popular.  Perhaps you were as baffled as I was to find classrooms with only about 100 seats.  Strange.  And do you really think 50 handouts will be sufficient for all these people?  We could share with our 6 closest seat-mates?

Testing

So in an effort not to idle my summer away watching TV and doing other such useless things, I've begun a plan of self-improvement, covering various areas.  Part of this is a quest to improve upon my  teaching English abilities.  My plan is to watch a video or read an article of some sort, everyday and reflect on the ideas learned.  This article is from Dr. Andrew Finch called "Group Testing-Student-Designed Tests."  You can find it at Learning for Life in the academic corner.   While I'm not sure about the idea as a whole, one quote on page 2 got me thinking:

"Any test that is used in any English class must have a definite purpose, since tests are intrinsically threatening and can cause undesirable levels of anxiety and worry, which can harm the learning process."

In other articles of his I've read, he talks a lot about the classroom conditions necessary for a student to learn English.  One of the big ones is that it's relaxed and students don't feel stress.  I would most definitely agree.  I think "vibe" is hugely important in learning a second language.  If the classroom atmosphere is happy, fun, and friendly, students will want to interact with you and each other.  If it's stressful and scary, the last thing anyone will want to to do is open their mouth.

A couple years ago, I did a biweekly review test of the previous unit, at the start of the class.  And that semester things did not go so well in many of my classes but I could never quite figure out why.  I have a feeling that a test, to start every other class just led to too much stress in the classroom and no matter what I did, it just lingered even when the test was done.

So, what am I saying?  I'm considering doing away with written tests altogether for next semester as kind of an experiment.  I'm not sure how much students actually learn for the long-haul when studying for them.  On the other hand, interesting projects or assignments, alone or in a group seem to be much more helpful.  I'm thinking of a breakdown like this:

1. Participation/attendance =20%

2. Midterm speaking test (assignment?) =20%

3. Final exam speaking test (assignment?) =20%

4. Internet Homework.  I want to create forums and then post a question each week that they have to write up a few sentences in response to.

5. A group Project.  I'm thinking of getting the students to teach a 15 minute "review session" of each unit.

Textbook Selection

I'm thoroughly convinced that textbook selection can make or break a class. While an excellent teacher can overcome a bad textbook, or just plain not use it and do their own thing, in some situations there is nothing that can be done.

In the kids program that I teach in, most of the students are fluent (ish) and are quite articulate, even in their writing. But the textbooks we're using are ESL textbooks, designed for adults. Do dating and Bollywood movies have any relevance for a 10 year old kid in Korea? NO! By way of example, I used the exact same textbook for my conversational uni class last year that the elementary kids are using now. And it went over well with the uni students so just imagine how much elementary kids like it! And so I wonder why we're not using textbooks that are designed for native speaker kids in the USA, Canada or England. Maybe at two or three grade levels below where they're actually at in Korean school to account for the second language factor.

And the thing is, that the teachers are getting hassled by the power that be to teach exactly what is written on the syllabus. In some cases, using 3 different inappropriate books in a 45 minute class. I'm frustrated. And powerless. And thinking that this semester might be the end of teaching in this program. The money is not worth the stress of trying to make something interesting, engaging and fun out of something totally inappropriate.

Book Review: Active English Discussion

The Active English Discussion  series is put out by Pearson Longman, authored by Andrew Finch. He's an expat living in Korea, and the books are definitely geared toward the Korean market. In fact, they wouldn't make a lot of sense to those outside.

I've been using levels 1 and 2 for some classes, middle school students and an advanced university conversation class. They have been amazing for both groups and would work for high schoolers as well.

While there are a couple duds among the 20 topics, the majority are engaging, interesting and relevant and get some good conversations going. The best thing about the series is that they are amazing for multi-level classes. The questions are open-ended enough so that everyone can give an answer according to their ability and feel confident in it. And the readings are short enough so that even the weakest students can get a basic grasp of it and not get lost in the details.

I've been using one chapter for a 50 minute class and this is definitely not enough time. I could easily do 2 hours with all the material.

The students like it. It gets them talking. It's easy to teach because there's lots of interesting, varied activities. That's all I really need for a conversation class!