[little sage]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I am not currently employed as a teacher. I'm studying Korean at a university right now and it's giving me a fresh perspective on what it's like on the other side of the classroom, so to speak.

I guess I would call myself a high-beginner in Korean. My listening class I think is the most useful class every day, and in it we regularly do a set of activities that I have not used as a teacher in my English classes. Maybe other teachers are doing this, and if so I would say you are on the right track.

FIRST, haul out the tape deck and play one or two short conversations.

NEXT, rewind. Repeat.

NEXT, rewind. Repeat the conversations line by line and have students repeat chorally. Boring, you say? NO! Very, very useful to build confidence in new structures and expressions.

NEXT, the teacher asks random students some comprehension questions.

AFTER comprehension has been verified, we pair off and practice the same dialogues with a partner. Some of us have taken notes, most of us have not, so it's kind of ad lib but following the guideline of the models.

NEXT, the teacher calls on random people to reenact the dialogues openly in class. This can be quite funny when students substitute in their own personal information.

FINALLY, after everyone has practiced the dialogues out loud, the teacher asks a few random students to summarize each one.

I know that before I had lived through this type of class, I would not have planned this kind of lesson. I admit is sounds dry. But it has been so, so useful I felt like I need to let somebody know.

[purple sparkler]

It sounds very useful- my class currently needs to practice role-play for an exam, and this seems an excellent way to practice their listening too...

[little sage]

Let me know how it goes. Actually, I still haven't had the chance to teach this activity, I've only done it as a student, like I said.

Good luck with it!

Karen

[kpan217]

Hi Karen! Thanks so much for sharing your insights as a student. It's been too long since I've participated in any listening activity like this, so it never occurred how helpful it could be. Some feedback for you: I decided to try it out recently, and was fairly confident that the students would benefit from it, if really afraid that they'd be bored. I think it worked out pretty well though. When it came time to let them practice the dialogues, the more advanced students toyed with te details and the less advanced students focused on the existing dialogue (printed in a book the students already had to buy, so actually you gave me a new way to teach those lessons, which were boring). I like to roam the classroom while they work in groups, and this exercise gave me a great opportunity to pinpoint specific pronunciation/tone/stress issues that I can address later.

So, just wanted to let you know how it went for me. It filled a 2-hour span in a surprisingly meaningful way. How often do you have a listening class like this?

[little sage]

Quote kpan217

I decided to try it out recently, and was fairly confident that the students would benefit from it, if really afraid that they'd be bored. I think it worked out pretty well though. When it came time to let them practice the dialogues, the more advanced students toyed with te details and the less advanced students focused on the existing dialogue.

So, just wanted to let you know how it went for me. It filled a 2-hour span in a surprisingly meaningful way. How often do you have a listening class like this?

Hi there,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not studying Korean anymore, but we had listening class for 50 minutes 5 days a week. I'm surprised you filled 2 hours with it, but I know time went by really quickly for me as a student.

I liked hearing how different levels of students made use of the activity in different ways. Very cool!

Again, thanks for letting me know how it went.

Karen

[corelli69]

Hi, I'm a Spanish teacher and it happened that I did this exercise with my students yesterday . It worked well, but it was difficult for them. They were not very confident without a sheet to read out.

[absentiment]

Hi, I'm teaching at a university in China, and pretty new to teaching at that. The method you described is almost spot on what I do in my classroom on most days (I use my laptop and play recorded mp3 files instead), but I was afraid it was too dry or boring for my students (and so I've mixed in games and outdoor lessons occasionally). Seeing it verified from someone else is very helpful though, and thank you for that.

[LaÜxX]

Quote absentiment

Hi, I'm teaching at a university in China, and pretty new to teaching at that. The method you described is almost spot on what I do in my classroom on most days (I use my laptop and play recorded mp3 files instead), but I was afraid it was too dry or boring for my students (and so I've mixed in games and outdoor lessons occasionally). Seeing it verified from someone else is very helpful though, and thank you for that.

Hi,
I thought the idea of the Mp3 files was quite good... where do you get these files from?? Does anyone know of a good place to get authentic English convos?

Thank ya

[Jaine]

do you think it would work for High School students?

[Luidavinci]

Quote LaÜxX

Hi,
I thought the idea of the Mp3 files was quite good... where do you get these files from?? Does anyone know of a good place to get authentic English convos?

Thank ya

I feel that a good place to get "authentic conversations" is through reality shows. I am working on my Business English TESOL specialization and decided to get "The Apprentice" on DVD. You can get it really cheap on Amazon.com or on Ebay.com. I spent under $5 (including shipping) for the entire first season on DVD. Hope this is helpful!

Happy New Year!
Kind Regards,
~Luis

[Luidavinci]

Quote Jaine

do you think it would work for High School students?

There's no reason why it shouldn't. If you can find a good movie or TV show on DVD or even a YouTube video with good conversation in it, you should be able to keep their attention. You might even have some questions prepared ahead of time so that you know that they students are paying attention and comprehending the material.

It probably would not hurt to go over other potential responses to questions featured in the dialog in order to give the students a variety of options to choose from and to establish confidence.

Hope this is helpful.

Kind Regards,
~Luis

[Luidavinci]

This is such a great exercise! Thank you for suggesting this!

Kind Regards,
~Luis