Thread: Students for whom being Mr Nice Guy just doesn't work

Quote: Originally Posted by aware5 Hey, don't over rationalise/intellectualise Korean students. They are mostly immature, usually will only co-operate with teachers under explicit or implicit threats of punishment/penalties, have been well trained by school age to do things the Korean way and that doesn't include foreigners in the loop. There's not much going on in the heads of a lot of them during our English classes except...

then don't slip into friendly mode. you are her teacher, not her friend. you don't owe her friendship. be hard on her. if it is the only thing that works then continue. hopefully, after spending enough classes kneeling in a stress position, she'll come around, if not, so be it, the ball is in her court.

Quote: Originally Posted by aware5 Hey, don't over rationalise/intellectualise Korean students. They are mostly immature, usually will only co-operate with teachers under explicit or implicit threats of punishment/penalties, have been well trained by school age to do things the Korean way and that doesn't include foreigners in the loop. There's not much going on in the heads of a lot of them during our English classes except...

What a loser. Doesn't live in Korea but keeps coming back to trawl around. You're just pissed off because you're a weirdo who loves seeing schoolboys groping each other and concentrating on gay little dances to do at the festival in front of other boys.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yu_Bum_suk I don't want her to feel like I'm singling her out or picking on her, and she gets into enough trouble already with the other teachers. Then go the other way. Sit down and talk to her one-on-one. Suss out the situation with her and explain to her exactly what you said above. Treat her like a person rather than the troublemaker the other teachers think of her as. I've had students respond...

Here's what I'm trying. With my Korean teacher I'm telling the students that research shows that a punishment - reward system lowers achievement for complex learning tasks like learning a language. Stopping the class and reexplaining can be a gentle punishment for misbehavior. The message has to be repeated often. I also ask the Korean teacher to tell the students that I'm not telling them to be quiet to be mean or...

I restart the lesson from the beginning. When I walk in the door, we start with listening to the "story" that they're supposed to be working on. Then there's a repeat exercise to check their pronunciation, followed by a vocabulary drill. If all goes well, this takes all of 6-8 minutes, depending on the level, then we get started. If we don't get past the vocabulary drill, we restart with the listen exercise....

I;ve got two answers. Here's the first one, which is used in a good hagwon or a PS with a good co-teacher. 1) Be active and try to make the work interesting. 2) Keep it structured. Do this, then do that. Next do this. Korean kids can't handle freedom in a hierarchical society, so they goof off. 3) Vary from 2 if it's beneficial, like when something genuinely funny happens and you feel like laughing as well. 4) Positive...

I would suggest being firm, but not emotional. Is there anything in the immediate environment that seems to enable the goofing-off, besides the friendly demeanor? Can you change where she sits? Can you be more specific about the kind of behaviour you want to change? What exactly is she doing?

Quote: Originally Posted by Yu_Bum_suk Do you have any students who just simply don't respond when you try to be nice Yep. Quote: Originally Posted by Yu_Bum_suk Has anyone come up with a good approach for this type of pupil? Nah.