[JRub88]

Hi all,
This year I'm teaching English to two students who recently moved the US from Korea. They are both 13 and in 7th grade. One of them (male) came here in February and he has been in my class since then, so she's familiar with me, the school, and the community. The other student (female) just came in August so she is not as familiar with everything.

My problem is, they are both extremely quiet. He isn't shy, per say, but he is very unmotivated to learn English (or anything for that matter). All he wants to do is sleep and play video games. She is shy, but very very smart. Her writing in English is nearly proficient. She is also extremely negative. She doesn't have any hobbies, or "like" anything. I try so hard to come up with conversation pieces but when they have no hobbies, it's very difficult.

They want nothing to do with each other, so having them to pair/share activities is like pulling teeth.

I've unfortunately been giving them mostly listening and writing activities, which are important, but in my opinion, not as important as speaking. But I can't actually force them to speak, so I don't know what else to do.

It's frustrating because they have the ability. Their English is not THAT limited, they just don't seem to care.

Any suggestions on how to get them to speak? Or any other activities that I can do besides just writing to keep them learning. The 45 minutes I spend with them torture for me because we sit their in silence.

[teacherkarla]

Maybe you can use their interests as the subject of your discussions. You can try playing the computer games they play. (I did that, and they said seonsaengnim is cool!) hehe! I used the characters as the subjects in the sentences. It made the class more interesting. -Teacher Karla