Making sentences...

I had some difficulty with a game I thought would work out well. The idea of the game is that people have to make a story based on the information that is presented to them. I started with, "I came to KNU to teach a class." The student I called on had trouble saying that she tripped over the desk. This game continued to be a struggle, so I moved on to the next activity.

In the next class, I had people get in groups. This worked a little better. But it was still difficult to get students to make a story. A lot of times students would make one sentence. But it was difficult for them to make a continuous story. I helped them by giving them an example using words like but, then and so.

This experience is something I've experienced often in the two-and-a-half years that I've lived in Korea. It seems that the most difficult thing is for students to make sentences. I tend to see my job as "forcing" students to speak in English. But in some cases, it seems that students still need me to hold their hand. That is to say, they need me to continue to teach them grammar.

This is difficult since my Korean level is still not on par with the level needed to do this. I think a common problem students have is a lack of motivation. Or perhaps it is the fact that the situation is not real. I find free-talking to be more comfortable because it is really conversation with a small group of people. I wonder what I can do between the rock and the hard place where the students and I are. I see the rock as the requirement that students take this class whether they want to or not and the hard place is the fact that students have not been trained well about how to make a sentence.

If you are one of my students, how do you rate yourself as well as your fellow students on this matter? Are there things I can do to improve your ability to communicate in English?