If you care about the environment, then let's hope you speak English! Or maybe POSTECH is just trying to keep foreigners off the road, under the guise of being green...?
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Energy Conservation - in English only, please!
If you care about the environment, then let's hope you speak English! Or maybe POSTECH is just trying to keep foreigners off the road, under the guise of being green...?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mid-term Time
It's that time of year again, when EPIK teachers across the country breath a collective sigh of relief and hagwon teachers shoot collective evil eye darts at EPIK teachers. Exam time! For high school teachers at least, this means half-days of little or no work supervising students as they write their mid-terms.
Though for many of us EPIKers, the start of exams actually spells the end of easy street - the week before exams most of my classes are canceled to give teachers an opportunity to catch students up on material yet to be covered in the curriculum. Sometimes students will choose not to have class at all, opting instead for a period of "self-study".
This morning students took their English exam. I snagged a copy of the 1st and 3rd grade tests, and thought I'd share some of the exam Qs with you here, just in case you were wondering what Korean students are actually supposed to be learning. This will also give you a good idea of the disparity between students' "testing level" and their "speaking level." Though most people would say that the latter is a more important skill when it comes to language, it matters little to Korean students, since it's not on the test.
The majority of my students, even some of those in high-level ("testing level") classes, struggle to put a single sentence together. One common scenario takes place each day as hey line up outside of the classroom door. They look at me with blank faces, pointing at the door and motioning for me to open it. I pretend I don't understand, and invariably one of them will yell "Door!" or "Open!" I gaze back at them blankly, and say "What door?" or "You want me to open what?" They continue to mumble to each other until someone finally steps up and says "Open the door, please," at which point I unlock the door and let them into the classroom. Sometimes they will forget the "please," and depending on how long it has taken them to form this simple sentence, I'll let it slide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some sample test questions from the first (fresh/soph) and third (senior) grade mid-term exams. Go ahead, test yourself!
1st grade sample Q's:
8. According to the following passage, why don't Calvaria tree seeds germinate?
In some cases two species are so dependent upon each other that if one becomes extinct, the other will as well. This nearly happened with trees that relied on the now-extinct Dodo birds. They once roamed Mauritius, a tropical island located in the Indian Ocean. However, they became extinct during the late 19th century. They were over-hunted by humans and other animals. After they disappeared, the Calvaria tree soon stopped sprouting seeds. Scientists finally concluded that, for the seeds of the Calvaria tree to sprout, they needed to first be digested by the Dodo bird.
1. As the seeds were too old to sprout in desert.
2. As two species are so dependent on each other.
3. As the Dodo birds ate all the seeds of Calvaria tree.
4. As the Dodo birds roamed Mauritius, a tropical island.
5. As the Dodo birds did not digest the Calvaria tree seeds.
14. Which underlined word is incorrect?
A highway was 1 built through our suburb some months ago. After that, the noise at our sports field was so unbearable that 2 complaints led the authorities to hold a public hearing. I outlined ow the noise 3 affected our games, and ended by telling officials the only time it was quiet enough to play was between 4 pm and 6 pm. One official 4 eyed me doubtfully and said "I don't understand that. Traffic is 5 smoothest between four and six." "You're right," I said. "That's when it isn't moving well."
18. Which of the following underlined phrases is incorrect?
New Zealand is 1 a little larger than the UK. Its largest city, Auckland, has over one million people living in it. 2 In area, though, Auckland is about twice 3 as big as London, England, which has a population of 7.2 million people. You can see easily that Auckland is 4 less crowded than London. There are fewer cars, too, but more boats. In fact, Auckland is called the "City of Sails" because more people own sailboats there than in 5 any other cities in the world.
3rd Grade Sample Q's:
Page 1: Definitions. Select the appropriate word from the word bank below to fit the definition.
Word bank: network, prosperous, contraction, progress, utter, emit, grab, cultivate, let go over, expert, intense, stagger, habitat, instinct, puzzled, organize, sink, surge, disturb...
1. Which option below refers to a different person?
A teenage boy played 1his new rock album for his father, who was a classical music fan. The father declared that this was terrific music, and 2he began to explain why he found it artistically admirable. Rather than being pleased, the boy was annoyed. "Can't I have anything to myself?" 3he asked. 4He wanted, in the matter of music, to feel that 5he was the expert and his father was taking it over. In the matters of music, clothes, or ways of talking, the parents' purpose may not be to control but to feel solidarity with their children. Yet the children may experience their parents' moves to accept or imitate their behavior as a power-based invasion.
10. Choose the number where the selected sentence would be most appropriate.
However, these superficial judgements are usually revised after a longer exposure to the foreigner's speech.
We judge a foreigner's knowledge of our language by the number and sort of mistakes he makes. ( 1 ) We are inclined to think he knows our language quite well if he does not make many mistakes. ( 2 ) It does not usually occur to us that he may be avoiding taking risks and confining himself to doing only what he knows he can do right. ( 3 ) A person who does not have expert knowledge probably judges a foreigner's ability in his language by how good the foreigner's pronunciation is or by how hesitantly he speaks. ( 4 ) He tends to assume that poor pronunciation is equal to a general lack of knowledge of the language, and that broken speech is confined to those who do not know the language well. ( 5 )
23. Choose the appropriate selection to fill in the blank.
Children don't need all of their time schedule. I am a stay-at-home mom with an eight-year-old and a six-year-old. I don't schedule play dates. My girls don't go to dance, gymnastics, piano lessons, or sports camp. They don't want to, and that's fine with me. They play outside in the daytime and do absolutely nothing structured: they go for walks, ride bikes, go to the beach, a park, or a picnic. My acquaintances worry for them, but they need not. My two girls always stay curious about the things aorund them. Sometimes they give an ingenious solution to a problem others can't imagine. I think this could be achieved _______.
1. by playing competently with peers
2. by expressing their negative feelings
3. by interacting positively with other peers
4. by getting the opportunity to think on their own
5. by going to sports camp which attract their interest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are just a few of the questions on the midterm, which is written collectively by all of the grade's English teachers (except me). Most of them choose passages out of the textbook and re-word them to confuse the students. Some of the teachers run their questions by me before submitting them, to ensure that they make sense. Others don't, with sometimes hilariously confusing results. On one exam, a teacher wrote a question in which the student had to choose between "immigrate" and "emigrate" in 5 different places. The way the passage was worded, either word would have worked in every single instance. Luckily another teacher brought the question to me before the test went to the printer, and we fixed it.
Though for many of us EPIKers, the start of exams actually spells the end of easy street - the week before exams most of my classes are canceled to give teachers an opportunity to catch students up on material yet to be covered in the curriculum. Sometimes students will choose not to have class at all, opting instead for a period of "self-study".
This morning students took their English exam. I snagged a copy of the 1st and 3rd grade tests, and thought I'd share some of the exam Qs with you here, just in case you were wondering what Korean students are actually supposed to be learning. This will also give you a good idea of the disparity between students' "testing level" and their "speaking level." Though most people would say that the latter is a more important skill when it comes to language, it matters little to Korean students, since it's not on the test.
The majority of my students, even some of those in high-level ("testing level") classes, struggle to put a single sentence together. One common scenario takes place each day as hey line up outside of the classroom door. They look at me with blank faces, pointing at the door and motioning for me to open it. I pretend I don't understand, and invariably one of them will yell "Door!" or "Open!" I gaze back at them blankly, and say "What door?" or "You want me to open what?" They continue to mumble to each other until someone finally steps up and says "Open the door, please," at which point I unlock the door and let them into the classroom. Sometimes they will forget the "please," and depending on how long it has taken them to form this simple sentence, I'll let it slide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some sample test questions from the first (fresh/soph) and third (senior) grade mid-term exams. Go ahead, test yourself!
1st grade sample Q's:
8. According to the following passage, why don't Calvaria tree seeds germinate?
In some cases two species are so dependent upon each other that if one becomes extinct, the other will as well. This nearly happened with trees that relied on the now-extinct Dodo birds. They once roamed Mauritius, a tropical island located in the Indian Ocean. However, they became extinct during the late 19th century. They were over-hunted by humans and other animals. After they disappeared, the Calvaria tree soon stopped sprouting seeds. Scientists finally concluded that, for the seeds of the Calvaria tree to sprout, they needed to first be digested by the Dodo bird.
1. As the seeds were too old to sprout in desert.
2. As two species are so dependent on each other.
3. As the Dodo birds ate all the seeds of Calvaria tree.
4. As the Dodo birds roamed Mauritius, a tropical island.
5. As the Dodo birds did not digest the Calvaria tree seeds.
14. Which underlined word is incorrect?
A highway was 1 built through our suburb some months ago. After that, the noise at our sports field was so unbearable that 2 complaints led the authorities to hold a public hearing. I outlined ow the noise 3 affected our games, and ended by telling officials the only time it was quiet enough to play was between 4 pm and 6 pm. One official 4 eyed me doubtfully and said "I don't understand that. Traffic is 5 smoothest between four and six." "You're right," I said. "That's when it isn't moving well."
18. Which of the following underlined phrases is incorrect?
New Zealand is 1 a little larger than the UK. Its largest city, Auckland, has over one million people living in it. 2 In area, though, Auckland is about twice 3 as big as London, England, which has a population of 7.2 million people. You can see easily that Auckland is 4 less crowded than London. There are fewer cars, too, but more boats. In fact, Auckland is called the "City of Sails" because more people own sailboats there than in 5 any other cities in the world.
3rd Grade Sample Q's:
Page 1: Definitions. Select the appropriate word from the word bank below to fit the definition.
Word bank: network, prosperous, contraction, progress, utter, emit, grab, cultivate, let go over, expert, intense, stagger, habitat, instinct, puzzled, organize, sink, surge, disturb...
1. Which option below refers to a different person?
A teenage boy played 1his new rock album for his father, who was a classical music fan. The father declared that this was terrific music, and 2he began to explain why he found it artistically admirable. Rather than being pleased, the boy was annoyed. "Can't I have anything to myself?" 3he asked. 4He wanted, in the matter of music, to feel that 5he was the expert and his father was taking it over. In the matters of music, clothes, or ways of talking, the parents' purpose may not be to control but to feel solidarity with their children. Yet the children may experience their parents' moves to accept or imitate their behavior as a power-based invasion.
10. Choose the number where the selected sentence would be most appropriate.
However, these superficial judgements are usually revised after a longer exposure to the foreigner's speech.
We judge a foreigner's knowledge of our language by the number and sort of mistakes he makes. ( 1 ) We are inclined to think he knows our language quite well if he does not make many mistakes. ( 2 ) It does not usually occur to us that he may be avoiding taking risks and confining himself to doing only what he knows he can do right. ( 3 ) A person who does not have expert knowledge probably judges a foreigner's ability in his language by how good the foreigner's pronunciation is or by how hesitantly he speaks. ( 4 ) He tends to assume that poor pronunciation is equal to a general lack of knowledge of the language, and that broken speech is confined to those who do not know the language well. ( 5 )
23. Choose the appropriate selection to fill in the blank.
Children don't need all of their time schedule. I am a stay-at-home mom with an eight-year-old and a six-year-old. I don't schedule play dates. My girls don't go to dance, gymnastics, piano lessons, or sports camp. They don't want to, and that's fine with me. They play outside in the daytime and do absolutely nothing structured: they go for walks, ride bikes, go to the beach, a park, or a picnic. My acquaintances worry for them, but they need not. My two girls always stay curious about the things aorund them. Sometimes they give an ingenious solution to a problem others can't imagine. I think this could be achieved _______.
1. by playing competently with peers
2. by expressing their negative feelings
3. by interacting positively with other peers
4. by getting the opportunity to think on their own
5. by going to sports camp which attract their interest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are just a few of the questions on the midterm, which is written collectively by all of the grade's English teachers (except me). Most of them choose passages out of the textbook and re-word them to confuse the students. Some of the teachers run their questions by me before submitting them, to ensure that they make sense. Others don't, with sometimes hilariously confusing results. On one exam, a teacher wrote a question in which the student had to choose between "immigrate" and "emigrate" in 5 different places. The way the passage was worded, either word would have worked in every single instance. Luckily another teacher brought the question to me before the test went to the printer, and we fixed it.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Identities!
This week my lesson isn't as thrilling as $100k Pyramid, but it's still going pretty well. I call it "Identities."Lisa gave me a set of "identity cards" that she made and used last week. With the class separated on opposite sides of the room, half of the class gets a new identity (Karl, Jessica, Juan), and the other half gets a piece of paper. I tell them that they need to meet five new people and get to know some things about them, and we review questions they can ask to get to the specific information, like:
Birthday: "When is your birthday?", "When were you born?"
Place of birth: "Where were you born?"
Age: "How old are you?"
Hobby: "What do you like to do in your free time?", "What are your hobbies?"
etc.
As basic as this sounds, it's really tough for a lot of my students to formulate these questions without a prompt. If I ask them how they would ask someone about their siblings (and trust me, I explain the word "siblings"), they look at me with a blank face. "How many..." I say. "How many..." they repeat. I can see the wheels turning in their heads, churning through all of the English rules and formulas they've learned in the last 10 years. "How many brothers and sisters..." someone will say, after 2 or 3 minutes of silence. "Right," I say finally, "How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
After reviewing the questions, I pass out the identities and ask them to mingle and write down responses for up to five people (depending on time) before sitting back down. Once they are seated on their respective sides of the room, I tell them I want them to introduce me to the people they met. "Who did you meet?" I'll ask one student, who will look at their sheet and say, for example, "Karl." I'll look across the room and should "Where's Karl?" If they aren't paying attention this quickly gets everyone to look up. "Karl" raises his/her hand. "What's up, Karl?" I'll say. Back to the first student, "Tell me about Karl." They look back at their card. "He birthday is December nine." "His birthday is December ninth," I have them repeat. I review the use of personal pronouns (he/she) and possessive adjectives (his/her) and write examples on the board for them to review as I go around the room and ask different students to respond.
Koreans, in general, have a big problem with the difference. As one teacher told me after class, they first have to think of the gender of the person they're referring to. Then they have to think about the function of the word (adjective, pronoun) and finally the correct format for the gender and function. Though the Korean language does have pronouns and possessive adjectives like this (그 = he, 그녀 she, 그의 = his, 그녀의 her), my co-teacher told me that they're rarely used when speaking - they are only used when translating English directly into Korean or in the written language. Instead, they more often use the general word for "person" (사람), which carries no connotation of gender.
I can't fault the students for their own failures when it comes to speaking - the system of English education in Korea has stacked the odds against them. Their class lectures are conducted almost exclusively in Korean, the only exception being when a new vocabulary word is introduced, and even then it's sandwiched between lines of Korean, so it remains trapped, effectively, within the language structure of Korean. Students have difficulty developing a separate identity for the English language within this framework.
I also read recently that such different languages (grammatically, phonetically, etc) as English and Korean require over 2,000 study hours in order for a native speaker of one to gain proficiency in the other. More similar languages, like English and Spanish, or Korean and Japanese, require only about 360 study hours to reach the same level of fluency.
In any case, I feel like I'm starting to get a read on my students and can control them better. It makes a world of difference in the way they behave and how much they participate. I think at first I was more concerned with making sure the students had fun - one of our objectives as EPIK teachers, after all, is to cultivate interest among the students - than trying to make them participate. I think the students started to sense this, the same way that a dog smells your fear, and they started to take advantage of it. I can't say exactly how my attitude changed, but now I have no problem kicking a student out of the classroom after a few requests to participate. If they aren't interested in the activity we're doing, I'm not interested in having them in my class. Usually, after kicking a student out of a troublesome class, obnoxious students will reveal themselves to be nothing more than sheep in wolves' clothing - they roll over and purr, or do whatever sheep do to display defeat or obedience.
I was expecting some difficulty with "Identities," since it's a speaking activity and requires a certain amount of unsupervised conversation. Surprisingly, as long as the students have a reference point for questions, they are perfectly willing to participate in the activity. Sometimes I'll catch them taking shortcuts - saying "Birthday" instead of asking a question - but I'll remind them to ask questions and wait for them to correct themselves. With a little bit of encouragement they begin to see how easy it is.
It also helped that one half of the class was pitted against the other - I told the ones with identities not to reveal the answer unless the other student spoke in English. The classroom setup only improved the situation - since friends sit next to each other, they can't ask each other the questions. They have to talk to the students on the other side of the room. Whereas a good friend would just turn their card around and let you copy all of the answers, those other students don't have a problem holding out the answer until they hear some English.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Korea Teaching Resources
I haven't used many of these resources yet - as I do I will post reviews of them, or remove them if they're useless. I'll also update this post as I find better material. Let me know if you have any good resources for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - or teaching in general - and I'll post them here as well.
Websites
UsingEnglish.com - 141 free lesson plans & handouts (separated into beginner, intermediate, advanced), quizzes, a teacher forum, and a poll section where teachers can vote on the correct usage of debated terms. I imagine I'll be using this site when I'm short on time or don't feel like developing a lesson plan myself. Hopefully that's not SO often.
Dave's ESL Cafe - Ideas - Teacher-submitted ideas on everything, including disciplining your students, educational games to play, ice breakers, how to teach grammar, etc. Many of the ideas are geared toward kids, but there are hundreds here. If you can't use them exactly they'll definitely spark your imagination.
Crossword Puzzle Games - Simple template to create your own crossword puzzle, or browse their selection of puzzles already created.
▪ Phonics web site
http://www.starfall.com/
▪ Worksheets, songs, and flash cards
http://bogglesworldesl.com/
▪ English puzzle maker
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
▪ Korean lesson plans translated into English
http://gepik.ken.go.kr/r/bbs/board.php?bbs_code=k_e_teaching_05_0
▪ English worksheets, songs, phonics and games
http://www.genkienglish.net/
▪ 3D virtual Chat
http://www.lively.com/popular
▪ Chant
http://www.englishfork.com/play/song1-1.php
▪ Songs with lyrics
http://www.manythings.org/songs/
▪ Activity TV
http://www.activitytv.com
▪ English Listening Lounge
http://www.englishlistening.com/
▪ CNN News Pod casting services
http://edition.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
▪ I’m Reading
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/index/load.htm?f
▪ It’s fund to read
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-b/index/load.htm?f
▪ Learning English for kids
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-short.htm
▪ PBS Kids: Between the lions
http://pbskids.org/lions/
▪ CNN Interactive Story
http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/archives.html
Websites
UsingEnglish.com - 141 free lesson plans & handouts (separated into beginner, intermediate, advanced), quizzes, a teacher forum, and a poll section where teachers can vote on the correct usage of debated terms. I imagine I'll be using this site when I'm short on time or don't feel like developing a lesson plan myself. Hopefully that's not SO often.
Dave's ESL Cafe - Ideas - Teacher-submitted ideas on everything, including disciplining your students, educational games to play, ice breakers, how to teach grammar, etc. Many of the ideas are geared toward kids, but there are hundreds here. If you can't use them exactly they'll definitely spark your imagination.
Crossword Puzzle Games - Simple template to create your own crossword puzzle, or browse their selection of puzzles already created.
▪ Phonics web site
http://www.starfall.com/
▪ Worksheets, songs, and flash cards
http://bogglesworldesl.com/
▪ English puzzle maker
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
▪ Korean lesson plans translated into English
http://gepik.ken.go.kr/r/bbs/board.php?bbs_code=k_e_teaching_05_0
▪ English worksheets, songs, phonics and games
http://www.genkienglish.net/
▪ 3D virtual Chat
http://www.lively.com/popular
▪ Chant
http://www.englishfork.com/play/song1-1.php
▪ Songs with lyrics
http://www.manythings.org/songs/
▪ Activity TV
http://www.activitytv.com
▪ English Listening Lounge
http://www.englishlistening.com/
▪ CNN News Pod casting services
http://edition.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
▪ I’m Reading
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/index/load.htm?f
▪ It’s fund to read
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-b/index/load.htm?f
▪ Learning English for kids
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-short.htm
▪ PBS Kids: Between the lions
http://pbskids.org/lions/
▪ CNN Interactive Story
http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/archives.html
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
