I am currently teaching English as a foreign language at a middle school in Korea. One of my classes is specifically focused on Grammar and speaking. I have had a hard time designing this language course because of two factors. The first is the difference of English proficiency level. Some of the students have lived and studied abroad in the U.S.A, so their English level is very high. Others, on the other hand, wanted to learn grammar and speaking with no background knowledge. Since there is a huge language gap, it is hard to set a goal and design my course. Currently, I am assuming the level of the entire class is intermediate, so I have started to design specific lessons targeting their needs.
While reading these two chapters, I realized that my experience as a second language learner, and as a teacher, are absolutely affecting the designs of my lesson plans. I noticed that most of my students were shy in showing me their expectations for my class. When I was a student, I also did not say in which way I wanted to learn English, so the instruction was absolutely teacher-centered. This did not help me learn the language, but only got me scared of making mistakes. That is why I thought the student-centered approach would be effective in acquiring English. However, the lower-level students felt that my class was not easy to follow, and they wanted me to teach the grammar step by step. They are not satisfied, but the high-level students are. I am still struggling to fix this dilemma. It is hard for me to meet all my student's needs at the same time.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
About me!
Hello, everyone?
My name is Ja Eun Kim and I am so excited to learn about Curriculum Design for TESOL with you.
Since I was nine years old, I have been interested in English and I ended up getting into a teacher's college, which is Hongik University in Seoul with English Education major. After I graduated with the teaching credential for secondary schools(my target teaching level) in 2006, I started working at several schools as an English teacher.
The first school was a middle school in Seoul. I worked there for about a year and a half. A level of the students that I taught was intermediate and some of them were very poor at English grammar. I still remember that I spent a lot of time planning lessons with various materials such as visual aids.
The second school, which I worked at, was a private Christian High School in California, U.S.A. I got offered a teaching job while I was volunteering as a ESL Camp chaperone. The principal of the high school hired me as an English grammar instructor for 3 years. (December in 2007 up to June in 2010.)
The third school that I am currently working at is another middle school in Seoul.
I am teaching English to 9th graders and I have so much fun with my new students.
I am so happy whenever I find the students getting interested in English itself.
Since I am teaching English to the students, I have often found that curriculum has changed a lot. When I was a learner, the focus of the curriculum was just reading, grammar, and writing. I remember there were spelling quizzes and grammar questions, but not speaking(dialogue) or listening. We always had to be under pressure of memorizing and studying for tests or quizzes and English was one of the major difficult and boring subject to many people.
Today, however, the curriculum has various sections such as dialogue, listening, reading, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, writing, further reading comprehension, introducing different cultures. Now all these various sections are intergrated in a one language, English, which is the global language.
As a result, the new curriculum helps the students learn English focused not only on reading and writing, but also on speaking (by understanding its cultuer) and listening.
Since technologies have been developed these days, I feel I need to use some devices for my classes, too. However, I am not good at those technologies and I always got stuck. I only use text messages, electronic dictionary, subway map, and sometimes videocalling on my cell phone. I do not use internet access on it. I always thought my cell phone could distract my class, so I have never brought my phone with me while teaching in class.
While taking a curriculum design course in this quarter, I would like to learn how to use mobile technologies for my language teaching in a different way. I want my classes to be more productive and fun to learn English and I am sure using technologies will interest the students in some way, too. I can't wait!
My name is Ja Eun Kim and I am so excited to learn about Curriculum Design for TESOL with you.
Since I was nine years old, I have been interested in English and I ended up getting into a teacher's college, which is Hongik University in Seoul with English Education major. After I graduated with the teaching credential for secondary schools(my target teaching level) in 2006, I started working at several schools as an English teacher.
The first school was a middle school in Seoul. I worked there for about a year and a half. A level of the students that I taught was intermediate and some of them were very poor at English grammar. I still remember that I spent a lot of time planning lessons with various materials such as visual aids.
The second school, which I worked at, was a private Christian High School in California, U.S.A. I got offered a teaching job while I was volunteering as a ESL Camp chaperone. The principal of the high school hired me as an English grammar instructor for 3 years. (December in 2007 up to June in 2010.)
The third school that I am currently working at is another middle school in Seoul.
I am teaching English to 9th graders and I have so much fun with my new students.
I am so happy whenever I find the students getting interested in English itself.
Since I am teaching English to the students, I have often found that curriculum has changed a lot. When I was a learner, the focus of the curriculum was just reading, grammar, and writing. I remember there were spelling quizzes and grammar questions, but not speaking(dialogue) or listening. We always had to be under pressure of memorizing and studying for tests or quizzes and English was one of the major difficult and boring subject to many people.
Today, however, the curriculum has various sections such as dialogue, listening, reading, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, writing, further reading comprehension, introducing different cultures. Now all these various sections are intergrated in a one language, English, which is the global language.
As a result, the new curriculum helps the students learn English focused not only on reading and writing, but also on speaking (by understanding its cultuer) and listening.
Since technologies have been developed these days, I feel I need to use some devices for my classes, too. However, I am not good at those technologies and I always got stuck. I only use text messages, electronic dictionary, subway map, and sometimes videocalling on my cell phone. I do not use internet access on it. I always thought my cell phone could distract my class, so I have never brought my phone with me while teaching in class.
While taking a curriculum design course in this quarter, I would like to learn how to use mobile technologies for my language teaching in a different way. I want my classes to be more productive and fun to learn English and I am sure using technologies will interest the students in some way, too. I can't wait!
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