Jeonju North Joella KOTESOL are excited to announce our upcoming workshop which will be held on on Saturday, May 21st from 2:45pm - 5:00pm. It will offer some very worthwhile and beneficial professional development, allow you to meet our welcoming and enthusiastic team and network with other like minded teachers/educators. We will finish the session with a prize draw followed by dinner. We look forward to seeing you then.
Teaching on Diversity in Korean TEFL Environments
- Melissa Watkins
For four semesters, I’ve had the privilege of teaching an extracurricular course entitled “Culture and Conversation” to Korean learners of English language. The course is intended to help students who want to live or study abroad or engage with the growing numbers of non-ethnic Korean residents develop a vocabulary and comfort level useful for navigating unfamiliar cultural experiences and meeting new people.
Through the experience, I have been inspired to develop a framework for discussing diversity appropriately in a mono-cultural, non-native English speaking environment that sensitively addresses global concerns in a rapidly, but recently, globalizing Korea. The presentation will cover the following points;
• Creating a safe space for sensitive discussions.
• Creating context and guiding students in discussion techniques.
• Making vocabulary relatable, not rote.
• Giving students speaking space
• Effectively using games and role-play activities
I intend to present via guided discussion and really help presentation attendees develop their own tactics for creating a space for diversity in their own classrooms. I will also give a mini-demo of a popular lecture on stereotypes and prejudice that has proven to be highly effective with Korean students, time permitting.
Jigsaw Activities: Controlled Conversations in Teams
- Phil Owen
Students learn English by using English. Therefore every teacher needs a variety of activities which get the students using English with each other. “Jigsaw Activities” do just that.
In a Jigsaw activity, students work in teams of four or five, with four or five teams working at the same time. Each team has specific information which the other teams need. The activity requires half of the team members to go from group to group collecting information and reporting back to the team’s “base.”
It sounds simple – and it is. But it requires that students talk to each other and remember and report what they have heard. It also requires students to be up and walking around the classroom. A simple reading or skimming task can be the basis for the activity; a writing task can be added if desired. Students get to use all “four skills.”
Jigsaws are ideal for shy or low-level students who need support to become more active. They can be made harder and even serve as pre-reading activity for upper-level students. Whatever the level of the class, jigsaws get students engaged, active and moving.
In this workshop, we’ll experience a jigsaw, see some other examples, discuss how to put one together, and how it might be changed to suit students of different levels.
Phil Owen, MSEd, MDiv, got his start in teaching English in graduate school at UCLA and taught in several programs in the US. Phil moved to Korea in 1999 to work at Kunsan National University Language Education Center. A year later, he joined the English Department as a visiting professor and has been there since. He teaches conversation and writing, mostly to English majors, and various topics to graduate students. Phil served as Korea TESOL National President (’07-‘08) and Chair of the International Conference (‘12). Currently, he is the treasurer for Jeonju-North Jeolla Chapter.
