Join us for a day of academic learning and socialising in Jinju.
We will be learning about how to use humour to discuss challenging topics in the classroom, such as climate change. In addition, we will be enjoying the beauty of the cherry blossoms in Gyeongnam, and walking around the famous Jinju Castle.
Saturday, 2025.04.05 / In person / Time TBD
Abstract
This presentation explores how humour and metaphor were used to discuss the difficult topic of climate change in a small class of Korean middle school ELLs in an academy (hagwon) during a debate and literature course. By using multiple metaphors associated with a single overarching metaphor, that of stopping a bus from speeding over a cliff, both climate change and commonly proposed solutions to it were explored in a humorous and novel way. This proved beneficial to both the students and the teacher, as the use of humour and metaphor bolstered the students’ motivation and positive emotion, provided support for multiple schemata, and helped decrease potential anxiety about global crises.
Speaker
Wesley Martin has been living in South Korea off and on for more than five years, and he is currently teaching at a private academy (hagwon). He also has experience teaching ESL and linguistics to a variety of backgrounds at the university level. He has studied several languages, including Spanish and Korean, and is most interested in teaching and learning vocabulary. He has an MA in linguistics from the University of Iowa.
To sign up, please email us at bgkotesol@gmail.com
