Interview with Jackie Bolen: Teaching in Korea and ESL Games
Show Notes
In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, our guest is Jackie Bolen. Jackie taught English in South Korea at private institutes and universities for over ten years. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada where she does some teaching, writing, and various online things, including running her two websites, eslactivity.org and eslspeaking.org. She is both CELTA and DELTA certified and believes in the value of communicative, interactive language learning. She’s particularly interested in using games in the ESL classroom, and she’s published several books of games and resources for ESL teachers. In her spare time, Jackie is usually on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi she can find, which she says isn't that easy in Vancouver! She joins us on the show to discuss teaching in Korea and share tips for finding a job, and she offers some great advice on how to make the ESL classroom more fun.
“I’m all about student-centered teaching. I think anytime I can take two minutes to set up an activity and then students are interacting and talking with each other for 30 minutes, I can think, ‘I’ve done good work here.’ (. . .) So that’s always my goal.” ”
In this Episode
How Jackie decided she wanted to teach English and got her start
Why she decided on Korea as her initial teaching destination
How requirements for teaching in Korea were different in the past than they are now
Why university jobs in Korea are coveted and what qualifications a teacher needs to apply
What a “hagwon” is, and the pros and cons of teaching at one
What to look out for when applying for a job- potential red flags
Questions you should ask (and where you should look) to make sure the job you’re applying for is legitimate (https://www.waygook.org/)
The importance of using Facebook groups as a resource for checking out jobs
Checking out hagwon black lists to avoid scams/ unpleasant working situations
What daily life is like for a teacher in Korea
The expat community: activities and clubs
Saving money in Korea
Why Jackie decided to get CELTA certified after teaching for five years
Her experience on the CELTA course
How her years of teaching contributed to her success on the course
Her advice for prospective candidates: brush up on grammar!
Why knowing the grammar terminology makes the CELTA course much less stressful
Her experience on the DELTA course - how the DELTA exam helped her solidify her confidence in language analysis
“Pragmatic competence” (the term I couldn’t remember in our discussion of the DELTA exam)
The benefits of using games in the ESL classroom
Balancing the use of a textbook in class with time to play games
How to motivate students by getting them moving around
Why less teacher talk is an indication of a successful lesson
The feedback Jackie got on one of her first CELTA lessons and how this changed her teaching philosophy
One of her favorite interactive classroom activities: a class survey, or “find someone who” (you can download an example of it below!)
Why activities with a communicative goal are effective
How Jackie gets inspiration and ideas for her ESL resource books
Why she started two Facebook groups for ESL teachers: English Teachers Abroad and Resources for ESL/ EFL Teachers
Her favorite thing about the ELT industry
Why she spent most of her teaching career in Korea, and why she moved back to the United States
What she doesn’t love about the ELT industry
Her favorite travel destinations in Asia: Hong Kong, Laos, and Thailand
The resources Jackie offers, including her websites: https://www.eslactivity.org/, https://eslspeaking.org/, and her books on Amazon.