Instructor: Kim Tae-in, Visiting Lecturer (Invited), and others
How many students took the course?
Approximately 30 students
What was the class format?
We conducted live classes online. Of the 12 total classes, 9 were held with all students together, and for the remaining 3, the class was divided into groups of 6 for small-group sessions.
It seems you were able to implement various initiatives unique to online language classes. Could you please tell us more about the specific goals and content of these initiatives?
I believe we were able to turn the constraint of online classes into an opportunity. As mentioned above, we held three small-group classes. By limiting the number of students in each session to six, we were able to conduct conversation practice much more efficiently than would have been possible in a physical classroom (though it was a bit tough for me as the teacher...). This conversation practice was conducted entirely in Korean and followed the flow below.
Look at an advertisement, guess what it is promoting, and discuss it.
Present slang words used by young people in Korea today, guess their meanings, and discuss them.
Discuss a Korean person they would like to meet.
Please tell us about the students' reactions and the effectiveness of the course.
Because the classes were online, students practiced their pronunciation with their microphones muted (during full-class sessions). I would just give instructions like, "This expression is very important, so let's memorize this sentence as it is," or "Listen carefully to my pronunciation and intonation, and try saying it three times. If you've memorized it, close your eyes and say it five times." On the other side of the screen, the students worked hard, practicing their pronunciation and trying to memorize the phrases. Of course, I also made an effort to call on as many students as possible for pronunciation and conversation practice, and sometimes I would introduce topics during the class that I thought would interest them. As a result of these various efforts to maintain the students' concentration, I believe they all studied just as hard as they would have in a class on campus (or perhaps even harder).