Every semester I have to adjust to new classes, but this semster I also have a new home and a new school. As some of you know, I'm no longer a teacher trainer with SMU-TESOL. I now teach at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
It's a big change from teaching graduate level SLA and practicum courses to teaching English conversation, composition, and debate. The students seem a little more nervous and hesitant which makes me realize that if I push my undergrads as hard as I pushed my teacher trainees, I might do more harm than good.
Still, the classes I've met in this first week of school have impressed me. I'd be lying if I said the students seem as excited as I am, but they do have positive attitudes. I can tell that they are happy to be where they are. That's at least one thing we have in common!
Extra credit assignments will be written reports applying ideas from SLA class to a lesson you have taught and/or planned. Reports will be published on this blog so that other teachers can benefit from the analysis.
Step 1: Summarize a lesson. This could be a lesson from your own teaching experience or it can come from one of your methodology lesson plans.
Step 2: Analyze the lesson's theoretical foundation by applying ideas we've discussed in SLA.
Notes: The summary should be fewer than 200 words. The analysis should be 500 words or more. The conclusion should be fewer than 200 words. Reports should consist of paragraphs under headings. Possible headings:
I. Overview of the lesson
II. Theoretical justification of the activities
A. Right hemisphere participation
B. The Affective Filter, anxiety, and motivation
C. Input and Output
III. Conclusion
The headings above are not required (you may use any headings you like) but should give you an idea about the form I expect. Extra credit assignments should be emailed to jtrotta@gmail.com attached as word (.doc) files. The due date is Monday, December 4th, 2006.
I had a student come up to me and ask for extra reading so she can prepare for grad school. I asked her what she wanted to study specifically so that I could recommend the most appropriate books. She said, "SLA."
Well since I'm the SLA teacher in our graduate certificate program, that made me quite happy. I know that she may have made up her mind long before she stepped into my class, but I also know that I might have inspired her. One thing I know for sure is that I didn't squash her dreams. That's something since the classroom is often a discouraging place, especially when exams and grades are involved as they are in our TESOL program.
Observation time is coming again. In a few days my teaching style will be on display and up for critique. I suppose I'm more confident than I should be, but my student evaluations last semester (my first at SMU-TESOL) were almost oo good to be true.
Well it feels great to work hard and see that your efforts are appreciated. But it also probably makes me a little too confident and the past 3 weeks I'm not sure I've been doing my best at being critical of myself in order to get better.
Hopefully, I'll snap myself out of dreamland. I don't want the observer from the University of Maryland to do it for me.
So in a few hours I begin teaching. Part of me is certainly sorry that vacation is over a month earlier than it would be if I were still teaching in a regular university program (the normal sememster starts in September but our program starts in August). However, part of me is looking forward to having a regular schedule again since I seem better able to get work done and budget my time when part of each day is dictated to me.
Anyway, I should have more stories to tell soon.
One of my new responsibilities as a lead teacher is to prepare student booklets. This week I need to work on 3: one for SLA, one for the SLA part-time class, and one for the academic skills part-time class.
Honestly, I'm not looking forward to this. I love being in the classroom, but sitting in front of a computer creating booklets can be fairly tedious.
Today a couple of my colleagues and I were in a meeting preparing for next semester when a student interrupts to hand in a paper. My colleague says "It's a little late."
The student says she didn't know the article was due at noon (it was 1:30) but my colleague called her on that little fib: "It was written on the assignment, right at the top, in big bold letters. Plus I wrote it on the board and told you in class."
The student continued protesting, insisting that she didn't deserve to lose any points because she didn't know about the deadline. My colleague said that she would deduct a few points because the assignment was late.
Eventually, the student turns her back, says "I just think this is ridiculous," and slams the door on her way out.
Now we're talking about a graduate student here, a teacher in training. How could she not know better?
Final exam season here. In a few minutes I have to proctor another 2 hour exam. I can usually read a few pages of my newest travel book, but mostly I'm pretty vigilant. There are so many students in a such a big room and the other proctors are pretty vigilant so I try to pay attention to the test-takers for 2 hours but it's ahrd (and boring). Anyway, time to go do it.
As the university semester here in Korea winds down, my former colleague using the grammar message board told me that he's had a great semester getting his students to interact with native speakers online.
Once again, I want to invite anyone to come use the forum, free. I hire native speakers to maintain conversations with anyone posting in the Tell us about yourself forum. We've seen some pretty good learning experiences:
Here's one learner who got some good practice discussing music. Another learner shared some thoughts on Korean culture, specifically Parents' Day in Korea. All in all, we just see lots of interesting exchanges develop. This is language learning, making it meaningful and having fun with it (do I sound like Krashen?).
Anyway, invite your studnets to come join the fun. I'll make sure they have native speakers to speak with.
Some of my previous students have lept in touch which is great, but of course most haven't. So it was a pleasant surprise when in the middle of interviewing applicant to the SMU-TESOL program, a former student from Catholic University walked in. We didn't ahve a chance to catch up or anything but it wass till nice to see a familiar face and who knows, she may be my student with SMU-TESOL next year.
When I wrote about teaching culture in an EFL class, I mentioned toward the bottom that I had a problem with students giving me too many compliments.
Then recently, a researcher asked me for my most memorable experience teaching English in Korea. I thought for a moment. There really is one experience that sticks out because it made me so uncomfortable. It was related to the being called handsome problem.
During a midterm or final oral exam a few years back, a group of students had chosen their 10 year reunion for their roleplay topic. I thought it was a fine idea until I learned that in the future, I had divorced my wife in order to marry one of the students.
Honestly, I was shocked that they had chosen such an inappropriate topic. I tried to laugh, but what I really wanted to do was fail them. Looking back, I think I should have stopped them, explained that the topic was inappropriate, and told them to start over.
Interestingly, I thought I had left all that behind me when I left Catholic University for Sookmyung Women's University TESOL program. In my teacher training position, I deal with students who have earned undergrad degrees. Many have teaching positions or other jobs. Plus I'm losing my hair!
For 8 weeks or so I was right. No compliments on my eyes or being handsome, just the occasional compliment on a suit or necktie or shirt. Anyway, then in one practicum class students were microteaching a lesson on comparisons. One model sentence they used was "Mr. Trotta is more handsome than Mr. xyz" (Mr. xyz is another teacher in the program). Again, I was struck by how entirely inappropriate Korean students sometimes are.
To quote what I posted here on June 15, 2004, "I honestly don’t know if Korean teachers receive compliments about their physical appearance. Do learners do it because it is acceptable in their culture? Or do they do it because they think it is acceptable in my culture?"
I didn't expect too much from evaluations, but I was looking forward to some useful comments since most of my students are teachers. I really didn't get too many useful ones, but one has stuck in my mind: "Don't orget about the low-level students like me".
It's always an issue with a group that has mixed proficiencies (as most groups do). We have to remember to teach to the weaker students since they need our help more than the stronger students (and the stronger students might get something out of the class as we teach to the weaker students anyway).
Well it may be a few more days before I'm back on schedule as I still have about half of my 110 SLA midterms to correct. I know I won't be winning any awards for most updated blog here (although possibly on my travel blog which I do update daily or more) The 15 objective questions don't take much time, but the 3 essays are another story.
Anyway, it's always nice to read good work and I jsut awarded a 99 to a good student who performed really well. Interestingly, her quiz score was in the A- or B+ range so you wouldn't normally expect a near-perfect midterm. Reading her essays made my day. Hopefully that will give me the motivation I need to do the 50 or so I have left...
As a warm-up for a lesson on coursebook evaluation today we were reviewing 6 principles of CLT, one of them being "Students discover their own learning styles and strategies." Seemed pretty standard so I didn't give any special consideration on how to explain that one. This was supposed to be a review.
In one class, it was. But another class had no idea what this meant. I explained, "Think about MI and right brain activation. A book should encourage students to reflect on how they learn best." I checked.
A student said, "So a book has to activate multiple intelligences?".
I answered, "That's only half of it. Students also have to think about which intelligences work best for them."
They had trouble getting this concept. I tried giving a few examples but I could see I wasn't getting anywhere. Giving exmaples is especially hard since so few books do this well. I agve the example of students taking a MI quiz or discussiong learning styles.
We still didn't seem to be getting anywhere. We worked through the entire ten minute break but no luck. So I'll probably try again later. Any advice? How would you explain this concept of CLT and relate it to coursebook evaluation?
A Korean student recently emailed me after receiving a very poor grade on a homework assignment. The grade was due to answers being copied out of journals. The student asked: is reading journals and paraphrasing the ideas a good way to answer homework questions?
When you quote a journal you have to use "quotation marks" and then explain the quote in your own words. To be honest, I didn't see many paraphrases or explantions in your homework. I saw mostly quotes.
As you know, in a graduate level program quotes are not enough. You need to contribute your own ideas. So my best advice is to share your ideas whan writing about a subject.
Actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays:
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15 They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
27. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
28. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
I wish I knew where these came from, but all I know is they were emailed to someone on a football messageboard I frequent...
So on my English Grammar forum, I have native speakers interacting with language learners. Anyway, you're invited to send students from anywhere in the world to register for the forums and begin talking with the native speakers and the other students. Here's a good example of a learner pushing his/her language to the limit while trying to explain Korean age.
The best part is that the grammar forums like the verb tense & voice are there and students sometimes take advantage of these on their own. Give learners a chance to be independent and some will take it...
One of the things I love about my new teacher trainer position at SMU-TESOL is that there is a system in place. Every teacher uses it and the idea (like it always is with content based instruction) is to help students improve English proficiency as they study course content.
I've had lots of expereince with CBI, but never in a program that puts as much emphasis on getting individual students to take turns and error correction as SMU-TESOL.
I'll try to go into more detail later, but here's a quick example. I introduce the outline for todays's lesson. I ask a student to be the teacher and intorduce today's lesson (I probbaly write an outline on the board with a few key words to help). If the student makes a mistake I correct it (since I've already modeled the language).
It certainly puts more emphasis on accuracy than classes I'm used to teaching which focus largely on fuency. I'm sure people have had different experiences, but when I did task-based CBI classes in the past, I didn't do a lot of specific error correction when students spoke (I did on written work and I tried to prepare worksheets based on errors I overheard in class) because correcting one student in front of the class seemed too harsh (it might raise the affective filter).
I've just finished marking two of my six classes today. I've already gotten my first complaint (a double complaint via email and text message).
The student has a reason to complain (just not to me). His girlfriend received similar marks but she got a B+ while he got a C+. Why?
My response (via email since I don't know how to text message): There's only one reason: the grading curve. As you know I have to add up students' points and rank them. There were only 5 points separating you and XXXX and only two more points would have put you in the B+ range. Naturally I would like to raise your grade, but I can not do this unless the university drops the curve for our class.
I asked my students to come up with roleplay topics they would like to cover in our Intercultural Communication class. I wanted them to think about differences between Korean culture and other cultures. Here's what they came up with:
1. Korean/Tahiti greeting expectations
2. Korean/Indian food culture (beef)
3. Korean/French food culture (dog meat)
4. Korean student/Canadian teacher (Korean embarrassed that her parents are divorced)
5. Korean/American food culture (America buys a hot dog on the street and Korean doesn’t understand)
6. Canadian man/Korean woman (Korean expects the man to pay her bill in a restaurant – she expects to buy coffee and a gift)
7. Korean/American exchange student (American says Professor Kim and Korean has to explain Korean culture and help the American apologize to his professor)
8. Old Korean/foreigner (foreigner doesn’t bow)
9. Korean/American (after a group discussion the American finds the Korean alone and crying – the American doesn’t understand why the Korean didn’t express her feelings during the discussion)
10. Korean/Indian bus driver (the Korean has to wait 40 minutes for the bus to come and complains to the driver)
11. Korean/American (American tries to tip in a Korean restaurant)
12. Korean/American (Korean doesn’t think girls should be smoking on a public street)
13. Korean/American (American doesn’t want to share a bowl of soup with everyone at the table).
14. Korean/American (Korean does not think people should make out in public)
15. Korean/American (Korean doesn’t understand the way Americans line up in public restrooms)
16. Korean/Indian (Korean person can not get chopsticks in India and must eat with hands)
17. Korean/British (British person blows her nose during dinner)
18. American/Korean (professor and students go out to dinner and Koreans are surprised that the professor doesn’t pay for them)
19. Korean/American (American brings alcohol to a party and the Korean host is insulted)
20. Korean/American (Korean touches the American’s baby)
21. Korean/Japanese (Korean gives an umbrella)
22. Korean/Arab (Korean eats all the food on his plate embarrassing the Arab host)
23. Korean/Spanish (Korean visits during siesta)
24. Korean/American (2 Korean women get mistaken for lesbians)
25. Korean/American (old Korean wants American’s seat on the subway)
26. Korean/Japanese (Korean girls wants to hug the Japanese girl, hold her hand, and walk to the bathroom together)
27. Korean/American (Korean asks about age and salary)
The class then voted on their favorites and numbers 6, 13, and 27 appealed to the most people. I will be posting details on each or linking to completed roleplay cards at some point, with the possible exception of #19. Most students in my class said that Koreans would not ahve been insulted in a situation where a guest brought something over to a dinner party. The student who made this suggestion felt that the Korean would be insulted because the gift insinuated the Korean was too poor to provide for the guest.
While different universities sometimes have different grading systems, I think this is worth sharing because what we consider a good grade is sometimes what our students consider the worst grade possible.
At Catholic University grades go A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D, F. I thought that meant things were pretty much the same as in the US with the obvious difference being no A-, B-, C-, D- grades. The other day i found out I was wrong.
Students can drop a grade of C+ or lower. A grade of B or higher is on their record permanently. While a few of my students said they were satisfied after receiving a B, many more said that a B meant the teacher didn't like them because a B is the lowest grade that must stay on the student's record.
I recently received Barnga: a simulation game on cultural clashes. I had oredered it from Amazon for my intercultural communication class but now I'm thinking about returning it.
Initially I was insulted that they actually charged money for this. All you get are 6 or so different sets of rules to a simple card game. The differences include trump suits and ace-high or ace-low.
Students get into groups and play their version of the game. Then switch to a new group game with different rules. They cannot read the rules or speak to each other though non verbal communication is allowed. Students become frustrated as you ahve people playing the same cards by different rules and are unable to discuss the differences.
This is supposed to demonstrate how different cultures operate under different rules, but I wonder if students really need a card game to understand this. I think they already know.
I recently got an email from a student who wants her grade lowered from a B+ to a C+. A B+ stays on your academic record forever, but a C+ can be replaced when you retake the course.
However, the university makes changing a grade extraordinarily difficult after a day or two. This semester grades were due Friday. Then Monday grades could be changed easily. After Monday, changing grades means submitting all the student work and signing a paper that says the teacher made a bad mistake and promises never to do it again or something like that.
Here's a weird story about a high school student expelled from school and brought up on charges for throwing up (allegedly intentionally) on a Spanish teacher. Now I'm no legal expert, but how can anyone prove that the kid threw up intentionally?
An interesting article about a teacher who wrote an essay for his fourth grade class about how badly they behaved and then asked them to complete an assignment: "Make sure you tell me why I need to treat you a certain way," the assignment reads. "I want to make sure that I no longer cheat and act unfairly."
Apparently he was mad because the 4th graders thought he was cheating to help another class win a spelling bee. I think the teacher has to look at what he did to be perceived as a cheater rather than place the blame on students.
I finally got my coursebooks for the semester. Mos of them I'm seeing for the first time ever since I had to choose them in a hurry. I only got my final schedule the day syllabuses were due! So far I'm not sure I like Oxford Business English: Business Vision but will keep you posted.
So my new director and coordinator just finished observing us teachers. I was the first, and I think my observation went fairly well. Here are some things that helped me:
1. Show off. Don't just teach from the book, show off one of your more creative activities, preferably one you'e made.
2. Use a familiar activity. The game I was doing with my students is the same one I had played with 5 different classes previously. Reduce the chances of some unexpected problem by doing something you're very comfortable with.
3. Explain the theory behind your choices on the lesson plan or observation form. I know that before observing my class my directors were expecting something brilliant. I had explained that the game was there for linguistic input and reduced affective filter as per Krashen's monitor model. I explained that there would be a grammar drill for homework for a more cognitive approach to grammar teaching, because Krashen's acquisition emphasis didn't do enough to promote accuracy, etc.
The game wasn't a communicative one, so without the explanation they might have been wondering if it was a waste of time; students didn't need to produce much English. I would ahve been self conscious about the lack of communication if I hadn't explained myself (and dropped a few key names and words) on the observation form.
4. Smile and have fun. Look like you enjoy your job!
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So we didn't get very far revising the definitions I wrote about last time. But we did get somewhere. First, we copied the APA references from my previous post into MS Word. The I realized that the italics and indentations didn't come out on the web (rookie mistake) so we fixed the references. Then, each student found a quote they liked from the source, did an in text reference, APA style (this required very explicit instruction from me; it seemed like I was doing the work for them). Also each student explained the quote in their own words.
I think this showed students how things work in Western academia. You find good information in a source, include it, reference it, and explain it.
I ahd my students define "civil society" and "NGO". Today we're going to work on revising those definitions starting with the work they've already done and this stuff below. Hopefully by comparing my references with their own, students will be able to create a list of references. Then we'll work on citing them in text.
1.
NGOs
Fisher J. (1998). Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World.
West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press. Retrieved September 4, 2004 from
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=85952031
2.
Civil Society
Hearn, F. (1997). Moral Order and Social Disorder: The American Search for Civil Society.
New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Retrieved September 3, 2004 from
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=65316769
For the last couple of years I've been recording my students oral exams. I told students if you have a problem with your grade we'll listen to it again and see. Never had a problem (and must ahve given over a thousand tests) so this semester I didn't record the tests.
Now students are complaining: I said this, I said that, give me more points for using this grammar, etc.
From now on I will always record the oral tests.
So I have done the "Tower Block" activity from one of Jill Hadfield's communicative activities books. Basically each student gets a card with information which could include the student's major and neighbors' majors. Students then had to determine where in the apartment they lived by finding their neighbors.
The problem was that there was lots of extra information and vocabulary built into the cards that was totally useless - students didn't need it to complete the task. Foe example one might say - You don't like your neighbor who majors in economics because his/her budgie is always cheeping. So we've got this tough vocab, that never gets used. All the student has to do is find the economics major. All this information about who you like and dislike is useless in terms of completing the task.
There also seems to be some sort of effort to turn this into a role-play. Stuff like "You don't get on well with your roomate" or on another card "You'd like to move." Who cares? Students can't do anything with this information.
I think what I'm going to do next time is have students prepare their own information sheets with majors, pets, and hobbies. Then sort them out into some Apartment rooms and prepare role-cards - You live next to an economics student who likes playing the piano and has a dog. The task, figuring out where in the apartment you live, is a good one, but why use impersonal information instead of the students' own information? And why include information that's completely useless for students to complete the task?
So the NGO class I've been writing about met for the first time two days ago. We went over the syllabus and I had students (in groups of 3) write interview questions for each other. That pretty much took the 50 minutes so I assigned the homework: bring in definitions for "NGO" and "civil society" and bring in the sources of each definition. Next class will meet for two hours and we'll do the interviews introductions and then go over the homework. I'm thinking I'll put each word on the board and students will tell me important elements of the definition. I was thinking about putting students in groups and comparing definitions but that wouldn't really match my goals...
What should come out of this:
1. Elements of a definition (not all are necessary and I'm not sure which ones we'll have when we're done)
- general classification
- description
- process (how it works)
- example
- comparison/contrast
- value (how is it important?)
- word origin
2. Using and acknowledging sources. We'll make a list of sources that were used for whatever we end up with on the board. Students' homework will be to prepare a "References" page with each source listed in APA form. Naturally we'll go over APA style in class.
So in previous semesters we would meet three hours (1 hour = 50 minutes) a week and go through New Interchange 1-8 one semester and then 9-16 in the next semester. Well the New Interchange part is staying the same, but we now have two hours a week to do it. A semester is 32 hours of class time. Subtract midterm and finals week and you get 28 hours. Then there will be a day or two at the beginning of each semester doing "getting to know you" activities. Then there's vacation days (only one this semester, but there are usually more). Anyway, this semester I figure I have about 25 hours to cover 8 chapters in the book. Since there's no indication that language learning can be rushed, I wonder just how much my students will benefit from my class and how I can optimize so few hours so much coursebook for the best learning.
So I wrote recently about my newest EAP/CBI course and I just got some official information including the title and a brief description:
American Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations
This seminar studies the roles and strategies of NGOs in shaping public opinion and government policies on major social and international issues of peace, environment, civil liberties and civil rights in America.
A Google search turns up some information I can use early on in the class: http://docs.lib.duke.edu/igo/guides/ngo/ has a clear description of NGOs and http://docs.lib.duke.edu/igo/guides/ngo/define.htm has a definition, categories, strengths, and weaknesses of NGOs. I'm beginning to think of a lesson in which students work in groups to define NGO. Each group reads its definition and other groups rank it. The winning group gets an extra point or some other prize. Then the students campare their own definitions to these from the Duke web pages. This one would have to be done carefully so as not to discourage students who will likely perceive that their definitions are not very good compared to the ones found on these web pages. However at the beginning of class I plan to give a little speech about how tasks must be completed in English because they are designed to facilitate language learning. Thus, while completing the task is important, the way in which a task is completed is even more important. The goal is to practice defining difficult concepts, and this is only the beginning - I wouldn't expect them to define the concepts as clearly as say the World Bank has.
My American History CBI class is finished. Next up is an NGO class for the University's American Studies department. I suppose I'll treat this as another EAP class with tasks related to NGOs in America and how they reflect and/or change society. It's a hefty topic and I just learned I'll be teaching it today (just got back from Penang, Malaysia) so I haven't got many ideas (something of a problem since I need to write a syllabus). Commnets on this are most welcome, and as things get going (like hopefully I'll have written a syllabus soon), I'll post updates here. I want to keep sort of an informal CBI journal detailing how I go about creating/planning/teaching this course.
Today I used an unbelievable story roleplay in which one student reports a story about Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman while the other students expresses disbelief. I wanted students to build a conversation using past simple, past progressive, and present perfect.
Taxi driver:
Today, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were running away from paparazzi when they got in your cab. You took them to LAX (Los Angeles airport). Tell your friend about what happened.Driver's friend:
Your friend is always making up stories about meeting celebrities. Politely tell your friend that you're tired of hearing make-believe stories.
I put drivers together to plan their story: "I was driving..." and friends together: "You've told me so many stories..." Then into pairs for the roleplay. Now there was interactions and students enjoyed it, but the interaction was lower quality than I would have liked. Each student would read his/her prepared story and then the interaction would be something like: "You're lying" "No I'm not" "You told me the same story yesterday" "I don't remember".
I did notice a few useful mistakes: "You was drinking a beer this morning?" "You are always tell me stories" but generally the interaction wasn't built on the structures I hoped it would be. I'm thinking about this as a revision:
Taxi driver:
Today, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were running away from paparazzi when they got in your cab. You took them to LAX (Los Angeles airport). Tell your friend about what happened. Your friend might not believe you because you sometimes make up stories to entertain your friend (who has a boring job). In fact, the last time you told a story (one month ago Drew Barrymore got into your cab) your friend didn't believe you even though you were telling the truth.Driver's friend:
Your friend was always making up stories about meeting celebrities until about a month ago. Last month s/he told you a story about meeting Drew Barrymore but you made your friend promise not to tell any more stories (this made your friend angry). Today your friend is claiming s/he met Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, but they've broken up. Politely tell your friend that you're tired of hearing make-believe stories.What do you think?
Posted by James Trotta at 2:55 PM | Comments (0)
So I recently finished up a semester at the university. Remember that American history EAP class roleplay I wrote about? And the American history essay questions?
Anyway, according to the university curve the top 5 students get A or lower. 6-12 get B or lower, 13-19 get C or lower, 20-23 get D or lower. I gave the maximum number os As, the maximum number of Bs, etc. So far I've gotten three complaints, all from students who haven't done a single homework assignment this semester. One of them copied her entire final essay from web sites (but was kind enough to tell me which ones).
What really annoys me is not that students want better grades but that students think I can give them. They know about the univeristy curve.
Last year I had an upper intermediate student who had some trouble with pronunciation. When I spoke ot her about the areas I thought she could improve by mimicing sounds on her own, I learned that I was wrong. She said that she couldn't improve with just a bit more practice because she was partially deaf. I had (still have) no idea how to help someone who can't hear certain sounds produce those sounds.
I bring it up because today I interviewed a student for placement in our university's summer program. He was in a wheelchair and I guess he had some sort of disability because his pronunciation was really difficult to understand. He understood the interview questions but there were several breakdowns. At one point he had to spell out "L-A-W" so that I could understand he was a law major. One of our teachers will have to understand him and help him make other students understand him. How do we do either of those things?
A good start might be to find out where the pronunciation issues come from. Is he partially deaf like my former student? Does he have less than average control of the muscles needed for speech?
Should he be in a high class where he may have a better chance of being understood? A low level class where the students have difficulty producing language (although for different reasons)?
So I tried a new roleplay today with my EAP/CBI "American History and Sociocultural Values" class. Students acted as diplomats engaging in peace treaty negotiations; 2 As and 2 Bs would do the roleplay and at the end I asked them if they had negotiated a peace or if they were going to war. In my class, 4 of 5 groups succeded in negotiating a peace treaty.
Both A and B got this (all of which they were supposed to have read already because these are just excerpts from the homework):
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/history/ch4.htmBy 1807 the British had built their navy to more than 700 warships manned by nearly 150,000 sailors and marines. The massive force controlled the sea lanes: blockading French ports, protecting British commerce and maintaining the crucial links to Britain's colonies. Yet the men of the British fleet lived under such harsh conditions that it was impossible to obtain crews by free enlistment. Many sailors deserted and found refuge on U.S. vessels. In these circumstances, British officers regarded it as their right to search American ships and take off British subjects, to the great humiliation of the Americans. Moreover, British officers frequently impressed American seamen into their service.
President Jefferson decided to rely on economic pressure to force the British to back down. In December 1807 Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding all foreign commerce.... In a single year American exports fell to one-fifth of their former volume. Shipping interests were almost ruined by the measure, and discontent rose in New England and New York. Agricultural interests found that they too were suffering heavily, for prices dropped drastically when the Southern and Western farmers could not export their surplus grain, cotton, meat and tobacco.
The hope that the embargo would starve Great Britain into a change of policy failed.The US is preparing for war with Britain. The United States suffers from internal divisions. While the South and West favor war (northwestern settlers had suffered from attacks by Indians whom they believed had been incited by British agents in Canada), New York and New England oppose it because it will interfere with their commerce.
The US has fewer than 7,000 regular soldiers, distributed in widely scattered posts along the coast, near the Canadian border and in the remote interior. These soldiers need to be supported by the undisciplined militia of the states.
President James Madison has called on you to negotiate a peace treaty with Britain. It is up to you to avoid war. You need guarantees that Britain will not harm US shipping interests; Britain must not stop American ships for any reason and must apologize for removing sailors from American ships and offer compensation. Finally, Britain must protect American settlers from indigenous Canadians and property carried off by British soldiers during the Revolution should be restored or paid for.
British Parliament has chosen you to negotiate with the Americans. In order to avoid war, you must receive a guarantee that America will trade with Britain but not with France. The American must also promise not to move north into Canada or west of the Mississippi. Also America should stop seeking compensation for cargo seized, sailors taken from American ships, and items looted during the Revolutionary War.
B1: If you trade with ony us, not France, we will security.
A1: You mean you will guarantee our ships safety?
B1: Sure.
B2: No, wait a minute....
This is exactly the kind of negotiation for meaning that leads to language learning. This activity has the potential to be a huge success but students (at least mine today) need to be directed so as to make use of the time alloted for planning.
So I have a class of adult beginners. Most are high beginners, but a few are lower and a few are higher. The problem is that the higher ones have no confidence and say that everything is too hard. One activity was taken from Reason to Write and was just a few discussion questions about what types of people you admire and what makes a good hero. Everyone was able to answer the questions but they still complained it was too hard.
So next class was easier. We did some weather pictures, first matching the pic to the vocab and then saying what we liked to do in each kind of weather. Then I did the weather forecast listening exercise from p.83 of Teaching Listening Comprehension and everyone complained it was too hard - after they told me the right answers. First I'd asked them about the weather in the different parts of England. They got the answers right, but before I asked for answers, when I gave them time to talk it over with their partners, they just looked at each other like no one had heard anything. When I called for answers I got them... Then we did what was suggested in the book; I read an incorrect version and students listened for mistakes. They even heard all 7 mistakes but still told me it was too hard.
I was thinking about doing some easy things like decide which picture is being described or something, but somehow I get the feeling that's not what this group wants. I'm going to try some past simple/present perfect grammar dictations or maybe clozes next time. Then we're going to go out for dinner and drinks...
In semesters past, I would often tell students what we might do next class, but I don't remember ever being asked (unless the question was "Is there a test?"). However, this semester, just over three weeks old here in Korea, I've been asked a few times (in different classes) "What are we going to do next time?".
Either they're having more fun this semester and can hardly wait till next time and are already anticipating the next class, or I am coming across as disorganized. Or students are changing. Anyway, I'm left wondering what it all means (if anything).