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Message: <blockquote data-quote="buddhafrog" data-source="post: 5511483" data-attributes="member: 86605">I do it as a tutor out of my house with classes of b/t 2~4 students.  We play D&D once or twice a week and the other days are spent with traditional ESL communication classes.  I started playing D&D with one advanced class but soon the other kids were understandably in awe of that crazy thing I was doing with that first class.  They would stand at the classroom door, look at all the minis and maps and dice and maybe a gargantuan dragon or two and just marvel at what the hell was going on.Since then I've started games with each of my classes, even one quite low level elementary school class.  I tailor it a lot to meet their English level, but they all "get" it.  And they love it beyond anything I've seen with ESL before.I used to do a lot of custom work for the students - making my own magic cards to pass out, creating all of my own Power Cards with more accessible language, write up the character sheets using my customization of Shado's custom Character sheets (<a href="http://www.dragonavenue.com/downloads/Shados_4e_DnD_Character_Sheet.pdf" target="_blank">great design</a>), took cool photos of their minis to add to their character sheets, etc.  It was pretty awesome, but now that I have so many classes going, I'm streamlining it more and just trying to keep the games alive and engaging for the students.  I still use my customization of Shado's, but the others I've generally stopped.  Of course, the students still love the game.Japan is similar to Korea in that students are a little too worried about making mistakes and too self-conscious - but Korea is a little worse.  It really limits ESL students communication skills.  Practice - including being willing to make mistakes - is key.  D&D provides that environment better than anything else I've seen.  In addition, all manner of grammar and situations are discussed and players want to communicate their ideas and be a part of the story.  I also use D&D as part of their homework assignments and try to make it more part of the class lessons.90% of my students here in Korea, the world's computer game mecca, will say they'd much rather play D&D than another video game.  I had one student who got his "entire class" to play an rpg during their free time using d6's and characters such as "businessman."  Awesomeness.If I ever got back into private school ESL teaching, with my experience here I'm confident I could convince the director to use D&D as an advance and/or reward class.  I've thought about ways to make this work... even thinking about opening that school myself.Let me know if you have any questions.  Good luck gaming.</blockquote>

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