Yes it’s true - I do let my students watch episodes/parts of episodes of Friends with Korean subtitles. Why? Let me summarise the case for the prosecution. Then my defence!

Prosecution:

“I think you are lazy & unprofessional!”

“You are probably just walking in, hitting the remote and relaxing - THAT’S NOT TEACHING!!”

“Allowing Korean subtitles is copping out and depriving sts of valuable English input! ”

“Episodes of Friends often include material which is unsuitable for kids!”

“If you must use this method, you should use English subtitles at all times or no subtitles at all!”

“This is just entertainment! Studying English shouldn’t be like this!”

“Of course the students love it, but who wouldn’t be a popular teacher if we were all to do this?”

The Defence

Let me set the record straight. I would never allow my kids to see an episode or even part of an episode where sex/an inappropriate subject is discussed or hinted at visually.

It’s true that especially in a lot of the early episodes, the humour is derived from sexual topics but I’d never use these.

Many episodes are innocent and the humour is based on misunderstandings and character quirks.

Additionally, it is possible to follow one of the three story strands in isolation to the others if the others are iffy by use of the fast forward button!

There is no question of just hitting the remote! Students should get a worksheet with vocab and questions for discussion. Homework is often to summarise one of the story strands as an English writing assignment.

At low levels, KORSUBS allow us to get through the passage quickly and get to discussion. Also, we often do focus on one or two dialogues with English subs.

Yes of course it’s very funny and predictably, you may think I bask in the reflected glory of the comedic genius of Matt Perry or David Schwimmer. However in Korea, I have found that since kids lives have been made miserable by the barrage of tests and the pressure of their well-meaning but hopelessly unrealistic parents, a child’s introduction to the learning of English should be as fun as we can make it. First impressions last!

A Korean child’s world is very small. They only know about school, family and friends. We need to give them something fun to talk about. Kids love stories and they love funny characters.

Using a show like Friends allows us to talk about these 6 characters and for once, the kids are actually interested and motivated to speak! Beats dull Korean grammar classes by a country mile!

We can learn to describe character differences, learn adjectives, talk about how to solve problems, how to predict behaviour etc etc.

The kids do scream with laughter and it is a joy to watch but there is no lesson where there is no language teaching going on.

I only use this type of lesson maybe once a week, not every day!

I certainly can see the potential for abuse in the hands of amateurs/wingers and I do appreciate the concerns of parents/teachers who are sceptical but you’ll all just have to trust me!!

Once, in a fuzz of self-doubt, I did actually remove this method from my list and the response was emphatic.

Conclusion

Yes, I do know it looks unprofessional but I will continue to use this method.  I’m sure you’ll take your own view and yes of course I am a huge fan of the show! It is very difficult to win Koreans over on the method and it does help to have been in the teaching game for such a long time.

Personally I think if you are mature and are prepared to work hard and be realistic in your goals - it is a valid method in small doses. If anyone out there is brave enough to try it, I do think you can great results.

Beware: there is a lot of work involved!

I have found that when a lesson doesn’t work, it is often because one or more of the fundamentals have gone out the window! In my humble opinion, omission of the fundamentals include things like the following: Do you agree?

No warmer - no atmosphere established! They were like zombies! Also, latecomers frustrated me!

No proper language input given -  necessary for sts to complete the task either before (PPP) or after (TBA). I just didn’t think it through!I discovered after the fact that they needed to know how to say something that I didn’t pre-teach…

No error correction. I forgot that!

Inadequate speaking opportunity for the student. I interfered too much! We ran out of time before I got my productive result…

No help with pron. Forgot that!

No adequate prep time given before I expected a speaking performance from them. (ie no pairwork/small groupwork) I failed to put myself in their shoes!

Blah, blah, blah! Teacher talks too much! - After all, it’s all about me!

No timing! No variety of task types! Boooring! - I couldn’t be bothered to find the materials!

This list is not by any means exhaustive but I do think these are cardinal sins, as it were.

One thing’s for damn sure - without thinking/planning, I find I’m bound to commit one of these sins! Whaddayafink?

With any short or medium sized text, all you have to do is split it into two (photocopy & chop) and give each half to 2 students (Student A and Student B).

Get each student to read their half and highlight the key points, preferably with a highlighter pen. Tell each st that the objective is to include some new words/expressions in their highlights.

Next, get all your student As together and get them to talk about their half together and agree about what the main points are. Sit with them and help them with vocab & structures which would be helpful. Do the same with the student Bs.

Finally get a student A to sit opposite a student B and get each to tell their half to the other (student A starts of course)

Encourage sts to interrupt each other along the way with clarifying questions if something is not clear. Threaten them that the listener might have to retell to you what they have heard from their partner if you sense the listener is not really listening!

Finish off with useful feedback and Bob’s yer uncle!

If your local bookstore stocks the book series called “Can you believe it?” at all 3 levels, you’re in for a treat and easy way to get students talking. These books are based on little 6-picture cartoon-like stories. All you have to do is photocopy the picture stories and laminate them. If you do this with all the stories, you’ll end up with about 60!

Now of course in the book, these picture stories are designed to assist the learning of idioms and listening. I really recommend using the whole book proper with your students, but be careful. Lots of students have private English teachers with whom this series is very popular so they might have used it before…

However to possess a wad of these laminated picture cards is priceless. So many speaking tasks involve reading difficult and confusing instructions first for both you and them but here you just have visual prompts! Just give a picture story to each small group and get them to talk about what the story should be. Then they have to tell their story to the rest of the class. Next of course you can let the others see the pictures which each group had to work with and see if the others would have told it differently!

You should of course sit with each group in the prep stage and give useful vocab/structures. At the end of each performance, you can get each group to teach the others any useful language they learned from you. It’s also great if you can encourage the students to incorporate dialogue and acting in their storytelling!!

Finish off with language feedback (error correction) and Bob’s yer uncle.

Although this series is great source of picture stories, it’s not the only one and you will be able to find picture stories like these from many sources.

The main point is, this is a great and easy way to induce speech at any level, it is collaborative and allows the students to use what language they have to tell the story and is therefore a form of task-based lesson. What I mean is it is a welcome break from PPP where you teach the language that you want to get out of them first and then hope they will be good little Pavlov dogs…

Sick of having your well planned lessons interrupted by late arrivals? Students seem wordless and unmotivated? Bring back the warmer!

Many teachers forget that one of the most practical reasons for a warmer is that it allows for late arrivals. We all hate having to have to give instructions over and over again to every student who arrives late.

Also, if we can get everyone laughing and in a good mood, it helps enormously. It doesn’t have to serve a linguistic purpose like revision of the previous lesson’s work, although of course that’s great if it does. It can just be a mood lightener. My favourite is the good old yes-no game, as most students love the challenge.

In case you don’t know this old chestnut, the rules are simple. T asks st to answer his barrage of questions without ever saying yes or no. If they say it, they lose. Then the next student gets a chance. Follow up each question with “really?” or just repeat the last word of their answer with interrogative intonation and invariably you get your man! If your students get good at it, simply introduce more rules like:

No nodding or shaking their head!
No repeating the same answer twice!
10 second time limit on an answer!

If you get a really good student-opponent, try taking him off course with questions for a while which don’t require yes or no answers, and when the time is right, fire in your polar interrogative and you’ll catch your fish!

Students love to think they can beat the teacher. First time up, you can usually catch them all out in no time. Don’t agree to playing again till the next lesson!

When you’ve caught them all out, provoke them by comparing them to stupid fish who take the hook without giving the fisherman a fight!!

The beauty of this warmer is it’s more or less failsafe, exciting, motivating and requires no prep/materials.

Whatever you do, don’t neglect the warmer. It’s not just a gambit dreamed up by a TEFL guru/author to sound smart and if nothing else it will allow for latecomers and can really get a good atmosphere going. With higher levels, get them to question you and for maximum comedy value, let them catch you out occasionally!

If you find that the students’ concentration tails off towards the end of the lesson due to clock-watching, pressure to get ready for the next lesson etc, use these activities as warm-downs as well.

It’s not easy to write this kind of post without coming across as obsequious, but sod it! Previous posts on this blog have featured Mike’s heroes in different fields and will continue to do so. I reckon all of us admire skilled practitioners in different areas. From the world of EFL blogging, let’s have a look at the giants and compare the ace bloggers.

Fledgling EFL bloggers like me who are interested in good EFL blogging will probably keep coming up against 2 names - Sandy McManus and Alex Case. So who’s the best?

In my opinion it’s pretty hard to decide. They are both brilliant in their own way. Here’s Mike’s rundown on each - in Boxing parlance - the tale of the tape:

Alex “15 ways to…” Case

For sheer industry and dedication, this guy reigns supreme. While most of us blog from time to time when the mood takes us, Alex has the discipline. You’ll find a new post there with amazing dedication and it’s always informative. Just reading back through that huge back catalogue of posts on almost everything Efl-connected under the sun is invariably must-read stuff for teachers and especially new ones - if you didn’t do proper teacher training (and you know my feelings about that readers…) reading his blog would tide you over until you did.

Alex is a mature and sensible blogger. Kind of like that brother type teacher you wish you had in your staffroom who can bail you out of any troublespot with ideas and activities tried and tested from years of blood, sweat and tears in the field. There is absolutely nowhere better to go to get ideas for classroom activities and insights. This comes from Mike, going into his 13th year in EFL with the cuts and bruises to prove it and who from time to time thought he’d seen it all.

Alex is not as funny as Sandy, but can be hilarious when he wants to be. He is witty, honest and sincere and pretty noble with it, as evidenced by the episodes with one particular crazy individual who launched a mindless attack on his blog without justification. Those of us with shorter fuses could never be so polite. Alex replies to questions too and comes over as a real stand-up bloke. I’m sure I’ll have a pint with him sometime soon and convince ‘im that Arsenal are best …

Sandy McManus

I’ve never laughed out loud more often than when reading this blog. Sandy can be cruel but by ‘eck he’s funny. His searing invective can leave you breathless and desperately trying to stitch your sides back together. This blog is more concerned with exposing TEFL shysters and the ridiculous side of the business. Pretentious DoSs, dictator owners and crap teachers all get both barrels in these posts, but it’s sooooooo funny. The more so for experienced teachers who, like him, have been around the block a few times. Sandy is just as seasoned and qualified as Alex and what he needs to do is somehow import his old posts into the archives of his new one so that new bloggers don’t miss out on the posts of the past. Not to do so would be a great shame.

What made his original blog unique I thought was this weird cast of characters who added their comments. I hope some of them return. With names like Shaun Ryder, Dr Kim and various others, the comments and his retorts were sometimes as funny as the blogs…

So what’s the verdict in the battle of the bloggers. Perhaps you can let me know. From what I can tell, they both admire each other. I’d have it an honourable draw, but to be honest it’s not really comparing like with like. There are some very funny efl blogs out there now - but to pretenders to Sandy’s throne - and perhaps in his words - they can F*** 0ff!

Rock on guys…

The Mikester

In Daegu, and certainly in Suseung-gu, you actually have to beat off taxi drivers trying to get your business! I have to walk across one road to get to my hagwon and the only thing that makes it difficult is having to constantly refuse aggressive taxi drivers. They are also ridiculously cheap. You can get pretty far on 1800 won…

Ok. Back to the business of EFL. I’ve been considering lately what are the key ingredients for a good EFL teacher. When I was a DoS for a year, I was able to put my ideas to the test. Here are my results. I can’t really rank them:

Personality

Almost all the best teachers I’ve observed have been bright, cheerful and funny in the classroom. It’s very difficult to compensate for these attributes if you don’t have them, although I’ve seen it done. It’s common sense really that students respond much better to a big classroom persona than a big dull dud! I’ve even seen a few people who are pretty quiet and reserved outside the classroom but who just morph into someone else when they get in there. At the end of the day, this is the best natural advantage a teacher can have. All my role models tended to be a bit cheeky, brave (i.e. not in awe of the students as paying customers) confident and even a bit in-your-face…

Experience

There’s nothing quite like screwing up to show you what works and what does not. All the more so if it was in front of your DoS, or if you got negative feedback. The best teachers get feedback regularly and aren’t scared of it. Often, the best teachers come from schools where they were obliged to open themselves up for criticism. This is probably why there’s so much snobbery around the CELTA/DELTA qualifications as these folk weren’t scared of being shot down to earn their stripes.

Sensitivity/Adaptability

I reckon a good teacher knows how to tell when students are bored or not. The best teachers are often pretty self-critical and have their radar switched on in the classroom as to whether everyone’s being involved or not and that students are improving and learning new things. They also know how to respond when an activity is not working and are good at monitoring the atmosphere. The worst teachers tend to blame the students all the time. This is not to downplay the reality of difficult, rude, lazy or unmotivated students.

Qualifications

I think the fact that someone has bothered to get trained properly tells you a lot. They have at the very least put time and money into their career. From this you know that they don’t reckon efl teaching is something that just anyone can do because they are a native speaker. Of course there are crap teachers who are well-qualified as we all know, but it will always be a question worth asking why a teacher felt they didn’t need professional training.

I think the first ever Christian music CD I bought was by Steven Curtis Chapman - and played it on my first ever CD player. Great guy, amazing voice! Pretty distraught to read of the death of his little adopted daughter Maria Sue in an accident. Here she is washing up with Steven in one of his video blog entries. What a gorgeous little angel she is and no doubt she’s having fun with her heavenly Father now. God bless her family.