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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 3, 2004 0:59:43 GMT 7
Unlike most of you, I have no subtantial experience as a teacher, and have only been here for a third of a year. I am busting my ass to teach my kids better English- who's willing to let children down? (Don't answer) It's been a steep learning curve. Fortunately I have a lot of support: downright vicious vice-principal holding me to high standards, Chinese teachers who lend a ton of advice, and admin that backs me up whenever it matters. My point, and I have one (to steal shamelessly from the world's funniest lesbian), is this: I am being paid for two things: 1. ;D Attract more students. I smile and wave a lot; hell, I'm Canadian, amiability is a disease. 2. Get these kids actually USING English effectively, not just parroting lines from their textbooks. I've scoured Dave's for games; I've stolen more from the teachers here; I've invented some of my own, with varying results The worst are the English 900 kids (grades 5 and 6). They want to drone from the book , and play bingo. They've shown a terrifying skill at forgetting old lessons, and look appalled when I ask them a question they didn't anticipate. Much as I enjoy scaring them I am not giving them the best teaching. My adults are doing okay, the young 'uns too, but these older primary kids are not. Any suggestions? Their dialogue skills MUST improve.
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
Posts: 3,915
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Post by Ruth on Mar 3, 2004 5:29:39 GMT 7
I'm a rookie too, so be warned before you take any advice from me. I've worked with kids either professionally or as a volunteer my entire adult life (i.e. long time), but never as a real (my mother's term) teacher in a classroom. (Mom was a real, been-to-teachers-college teacher.) In my naivety I thought what I was teaching regarding Thanksgiving and Christmas, and all the new words that came with the lessons, were sinking in. After the break - turns out not much stuck. Not even 'Santa Claus!' I was crushed (And Crippler made a great appearance as the big guy in red, too. What's wrong with these kids?) Received some books on a method called Total Physical Response (TPR). A guy named Asher developed the method. The idea is to get the students making physical responses to new vocabulary. Right brain, left brain stuff. 'Stand up. Sit down. Point to the window.' As they observe you, hear your command, and model it, somehow it sinks in better. Once they have enough command words, they can begin on the storytelling. Also have a book on TPR Storytelling. The authors are Ray and Seely. Using new vocabulary, you tell a very simple story and have kids act it out. The story is bizarre - i.e. 'A girl wants a broken chair. She goes to Nome, Alaska. She does not find a broken chair. She is sad.' It continues. The kids help you add to it. All the time you are asking many questions about each sentence in the story. (i.e. Is there a girl? Is there a boy or girl? Does the girl want a broken chair?, etc.) The class is responding with one word answers. The goal is to have the target words said about 100 times during the class. It has been used since the late 80's to teach German, Spanish, and French to high school students in the States. Also ESL. I tried it for the first time in my 2 classes yesterday. The students were enthused, although a student from the class below us came to say we were making too much noise (that would be the 'jump quickly' part). ;D I think this just might work. Have to wait awhile to judge the long term results, but Asher's research is extensive. Question: has anyone else tried this method? If so, how does it work teaching students in China? I can't teach the pure way because my students have been exposed to English grammar through the drill method for years but I'm going to do my best to get them talking. Books I've read so far: Fluency Through TPR Storytelling by Blaine Ray & Contee Seely; Instructor's Notebook How to Apply TPR for Best Results by Ramiro Garcia; and Learning Another Language Through Actions by James J. Asher. Question: Has anyone read any other good books on this method?
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 3, 2004 11:42:22 GMT 7
TPR- point well taken. My translater in class studied it, and applies it in her classes. I've adopted some, as have all the teachers here. Students love any excuse to caper around, and words sink in quickly. My best example: she introduced a rhyme to the tune of Frere Jacques, with accompanying actions. Walking walking, walking walking, hop hop hop, hop hop hop, running running running, running running running, STOP! (whereupon the students must freeze in position). Sure enough, the little urchins learned Walk, Hop, Run and Stop quickly. Inadvertantly, my students learned Green Pepper from the stinky face I put on every time I mentioned it (green pepper tastes like hurt). This method is trickier to apply to older students (never mind adults). But thanks all the same, Ruth. You've reminded me of one method staring me right in the face.
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
Posts: 3,915
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Post by Ruth on Mar 3, 2004 17:22:10 GMT 7
Con, are you saying a Chinese language teacher is using this method? If so, I think that's fabulous. If it really works, can we start a revolution in the English Education Dept?
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Post by Steiner on Mar 3, 2004 21:56:41 GMT 7
can we start a revolution in the English Education Dept? Sure. First, we mobilize the students to humiliate, beat, and kill the teachers.... Oh . . . not that kind of revolution. My wife learns well through TPR when we study Chinese. As with everything, it helps some students more than others. The advantage is that even those who learn better in other ways are up moving around and can't sleep or read comic books.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 4, 2004 21:41:01 GMT 7
In my Speaking and Listening class today one of my students asked if the students could speak less. They bore each other and the Chinese teachers can make them talk, whereas what they want from me is to hear me talk!! Is he just trying to get out of talking (for a chatty student) in a very charming way (he was carrying my heavy bags at the time ) or genuinely expressing a valid view???
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 4, 2004 21:47:03 GMT 7
I got the same request today- from the parents. They want me to talk to the older students more. The adult classes also want to hear my voice a lot: they say it helps more than any exercises I give them. Conversation: getting paid for that which I spent all spare funds in my pub to do for free.
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Mar 5, 2004 15:47:22 GMT 7
I have been using Rhymes from Boggles word eg I wear it and it rhymes with cat. Great for listening pronunciation and thinking and so on. As you know I teach 28 classes a week the same lesson and it is great, by the last class I have it down on pat. This is how I teach grade 1 juniors First "students do not talk when I am talking (glare ) Second "do not play with your pens or make noise with your pens Third " Bring pens paper and books to class and your name card. (glare) Now don't stand up "" Todays topic. topic means what we are going to talk about. What was last week's topic. Yes Willy, Animals, see me after class I want to change your name. I move the class fast, everything is related to my language focus and I use my body when I say the word. I reinforce everything. Last week was, I want to, I have to, I wish. I played Nina simone at the end, I wish I knew how it would feel to be free which had a lot of the language we were using and I sang at the top of my lungs while miming the words fortunately I have a great voice and the children are taken aback and think I made the recording hee hee Don't be over ambitious. Slowly slowly gets the monkey or something like that
PS Con I like your attitude
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Wolf
Charter Member and Old Chum
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
Posts: 1,150
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Post by Wolf on Mar 8, 2004 9:36:55 GMT 7
I got the same request today- from the parents. They want me to talk to the older students more. The adult classes also want to hear my voice a lot: they say it helps more than any exercises I give them. I've never taught children, but from what I've read on discussion boards thus far, I'd say that, as a general rule, what is best for the kids' education is often the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the parents ask for. It's really easy to just let the teacher talk. However, the students aren't really doing much to develop their own communication skills that way. Passively sit there, "listen" and not communicate? I really don't see how that can be helpful to a student. Sorry, I don't have any useful comments as I don't teach kids.
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 9, 2004 23:25:03 GMT 7
Update: Last week I scooped some questions off the 'net and put them to my students. Some didn't work; Only 1 had a pet, or had EVER had a pet. What's the farthest you've travelled? 1-word answers, or "I don't know" How long have you gone to your hairdresser? Okay, who cuts your hair? "A woman"; "a man" What's the longest your hair has been? Hand gestures. Does this count as TPR? I scored on who's been to the hospital the most times? Now they had to summon all the pigeon English in their scrawny bodies to reply. It was slow- each student took too long to answer, and the other kids talked (at least they were talking about how to answer me in English- I think ). I also got the chance totell them stories of all my childhood injuries, including the one where I set myself on fire playing with matches. Good material, and I had to give them several new words for them to understand the story: scab, scar, et.al. and I threw in the old "Dodo" routine (Mr. Bean's name in China ). I assigned all the new words as homework. All well and good, but as clumsy a child as I was, I'm running out of war wounds. Next i'll tell them about the time my building burnt down, but stories ain't enough. I need crap these kids will want to discuss. I haven't been 10 years old in a long time, and I'm clueless as to what to feed them. I can bullpoo my way through this week with what I have now, but ANY topics that won't get me arrested would be appreciated.
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Post by Gonzo Journalist on Mar 18, 2004 4:46:35 GMT 7
Oral English Assessment Indicators. Sample question:"What's your name?"
Grade Indicator A "That's an interesting question, though hardly germane to the current line of discourse. What do you mean by 'name', exactly? Give an example?" This student's English name is, of course, Bertie.
B "My name is Mao Li Qi, but my English name is Sony Playstation 2"
C "There are three people in my family, my mother, my father, and I. We love......."
NFI [No m'kaying Idea] Student looks wildly Stage R and L. "Shenme?? Ta shuo shenme?"
UC [Unclassified] "My name is Mao the east is red five year plan great long hall of the people tractor factory running dog paper tiger Wei. Me dad was something of a Commie, if you know what I mean."
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
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Post by roaming kiwi on Mar 18, 2004 17:46:07 GMT 7
Here's some possible suggestions (they sure aren't the answers!): To get them talking: I use "think-pair-share" in every lesson. It's less threatening for the kiddies (and works for all ages: 0-100) and allows time for self/pair correction and support... Here's the latest thingee I've done... 1. Questions are placed on the board: Who is he? What's he doing? What do you think he's thinking?.... 2. 5 pictures of something are placed around the room (so all ss can see the same thing - I usually do this before without mentioning anything to ss) 3. SS are asked to think about the questions on the board as they look at the picture. 4. Discuss the questions with their next to neighbour. (in English, duh!) I give them about 1 full minute and wander around listening covertly. 5. I then go "oooookaaaayyyy" to get their attention and ask the first question -usually a ss will always call out their answer. I pause for about 10 seconds, beyond that I gesture to someone who I know had good answers and batter my eyelids and nod reassuringly....bingo! an answer... 6. By this time asking the following questions and getting an answer is usually no problem. Many times I just skip telling the kids to think, it is assumed and I always give them time to do this (about 10 seconds) before telling them to pair up. Con, have you tried the pyramid exercise? It's fantastic when you've set it up and staged it well....This following example was used in an Oral English class. It's "think-pair-share" in the grandest form using lists. Plus the ss can build on prior-knowledge and use all the 4 skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Set-up: I usually use a picture to set the scene - asking ss what they see, describe it....In one particular class I wanted them to tell me the 5 best qualities of a great English teacher. I could've gone for the throat and asked them, but bugger that, it wouldn't be as fun as this.... I hardly ever give answers. One of my mentor teachers back in NZ always fired questions which really made the ss think (she was the HOD of Music - but the stuff applies here too). But, I digress... After asking the basic questions about the picture I ask the ss tougher ones like, "How are the ss reacting to the teacher? " (of course you would grade your language!), "How is the teacher keeping the ss interested?"... The last question is where I'll get the target language (the qualities of the teacher) they may need further prodding, but usually not. I jot about 3 on the board, then ask "What are all these words/phrases describing about the Teacher?" Usually one of them yells "qualities" - up it goes on the board -Joy! I then write on the board: "What are the 5 best qualities of a great English Teacher?" Next, I tell them to get their pen and their paper and write what they think. Usually about 5 minutes. On the board: Share your list with the person beside you and explain your choices. (or something like that) Another 5 minutes... On the board: Decide on the best 5 qualities. Next I hold my paws up with fingers spread and say - you have 10 qualities. You only want 5..... and point to the board. Another 5 minutes. Then I group them into 4's and get them to share and explain their choices (5 minutes) then decide (5 minutes) Then I group them into 8's....then 16's (I haven't done this yet!) When they're in the last grouping, I give them a big piece of paper and a marker pen and they write their best 5. But, it doesn't stop there... They pick the oldest and youngest in each group (2 minutes gone...) and they take their sheet and swap with another group. They must explain their choices and the others must ask "why?".... As a round-off, I get the mites to give me the sheets and I tell them how wonderful they are and how the information is excellent, blah blah (I'm honest 'though) - and I stick them on the wall to remind them of their goal - for they are trainee teachers. However, you can do this for behaviour ("What are the 5 best qualities of a great student? " ) or just for the hell of it "what are the 5 best tasting foods?".... Whatever you do, don't rush the instructions. Probably the biggest point I'm trying to make is to avoid freaking the kid out. I try to avoid putting them on the spot (unless they really piss me off - cell-phones, looking at me funny....). Safety in numbers, me-mateys. Also - this bullpoo about wanting us to do all the talking - tell them shove their heads further up their arses (thanks Hamish for this line). When we get run out of the country (for learning English may be as fleeting as the great rush to learn Russian...) who will they be talking to? Us? Nope. They will be doing most of their talking to each other - so they better get used to it. Also, I reckon that China will develop it's own hybrid of English (not this synthetic Chinglish stuff that no-one understands) but a genuine form of the English tongue. Linguistic evolution. However, they need to be aware that it won't be understood outside their neck of the woods - like Scottish-English, Strong kiwi accents, Hamish.... But, I digress, and I have a sore throat from licking the boots of superior officers... grumble grumble....
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Post by burlives on Mar 18, 2004 18:44:23 GMT 7
Q: "How's it going?" A: "Yes."
A thousand times. I suppose positive answers in the face of confusion just is drill into them.
But that's putative adults -- 20+ years. I don't know what kids do.
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Post by Hamish on Mar 18, 2004 20:13:57 GMT 7
However, they need to be aware that it won't be understood outside their neck of the woods - like Scottish-English, Strong kiwi accents, Hamish.... hey, Hey, HEY!!!! @#$%%$#@!! God DAMN! The one liner I have for this... But, gentle person that I am...
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 18, 2004 21:19:52 GMT 7
I discovered tonight that an eminent professor who oversees the Master's students at the "Native University" (have y'all heard of it? It's apparently very la-de-da) is coming on Saturday to give a lecture on Learning English to us teachers, plus all the parents that show up at 5Y a pop. 2 thoughts: 1. Since they're paying her 5000 RMB for a two hour speech, they're gonna take a bath. 2. Far more importantly, since it affects Me, she may very well take in my afternoon class with the 11 year-old zombies. Picture a bad review from the likes of her. Kiwi, you've saved my bacon! I'll whip up a lesson plan around the concept. If you want anyone killed, just say the word.
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Post by Gonzo Journalist on Mar 19, 2004 12:42:13 GMT 7
I doubt if Con's principal's "high standards" extend to education. Just income and face. This idea of being thrown into a classroom on the basis of being a "native speaker" gets me all edgy. Where do the Cons of EFL begin in this situation? Often by copying the methodology they experienced as students at school/college, which isn't necessarily bad, but one can fall into the trap of finding something comfortable and sticking with it, and then essentially coming up with a different activity for each lesson: hard work, but the kids enjoy it, and it looks good if Principal Skinner or Inspector Chalmers wander in. But what are the kids actually learning, apart from the incidental and accidental? Surely people don't study and practice for years to become "expert" if it's as easy as that.
I read comments elsewhere from people such as Rhonda who say they're doing "a good job", despite no training. Their opinion only. The students would be the proof, not their ability to run an orderly classroom. Arnie S. did that, and the people of California thought he could do the same for them. Some teacher. Some class. Rant over. Con isn't the subject of this: he just gave me the idea. Compulsory teacher training from proper teacher educators for all putative teachers.
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Crippler
Barfly
Beware the conspiracy!
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Post by Crippler on Mar 19, 2004 19:02:33 GMT 7
One major problem I have seen in most of the recruiting corners is the only criteria that seems to matter is the native tongue of the teacher. This is regardless of the intended audience. Oh, you see things like wanting to be around young children, or energetic, or even TEFL wanted. However, most are not able to distinguish between effective methods of teaching kindergarten vs. adults or Primary vs. High School. In, fact many of the mills I see advertising want someone to teach all age levels anytime they are asked. I have been an adult educator for many years and have a lot of experience with adolescents as well. Other than raising my own children, I have zilch experience working with young children. I am wise enough to know my weaknesses.
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 20, 2004 0:18:09 GMT 7
First, great points, both of you, and no offense taken. Second, a caveat: This school is a Mom-andPop outfit. The headmaster (boyfriend) handles the "income and face", i.e. budget, promotions, shining up the gov't and army, etc; he never meddles with teaching- he's a businessman, not a teacher, and can't even speak English. The vice-principle (girlfriend) holds executive authority over the educational standards; and she's the best teacher here. Her standards are high: I know whether I've taught badly by whether she's screaming at me. She monitors my classes closely, except for my 6th grade classes, both of which take place while she is also teaching. Hence my wretched state with them. Third, I agree wholeheartedly: it's a shame that any schmuck who doesn't look Chinese, claims to be from an anglophone country, and can conjugate a verb can stand in front of children and waste their time, trust and money. As Gonzo said, an Education degree takes 4 years for a reason. My school has hired a couple of lemons in the past, and for all the teaching support I have here, the verdict on me's not in yet. But there are two things y'all haven't thought of. Foistly, there may be plenty of foreign teachers in the major cities, but many outlying communities have none at all, and not for lack of trying. When I posted my resume at Dave's I was brutally candid about my qualifications, and lack thereof, and still received 30 offers! The Chinese demand is so huge that the cardinal qualification to teach English is the willingness to come here in the first place. Not a fertile climate for quality standards. The other thing: have you talked to Chinese people lately? Ones with degrees in English? Sure, they can read and write, but their English conversation is appalling. They can study all they want, but so long as they speak English with other Chinese, the results "must to be" Chinglish. A native speaker knocks the dents out of unnatural English. Even if I (to use the only handy example) was completely useless in class, at the very least the teachers would get the benefit of conversing in the way English is REALLY spoken, not how the Chinese "urally" butcher it, despite their best efforts. Again, no offense taken. This is a serious issue, if you think speaking English is serious. For teaching support outside of one's own school, there's a big hole. Thank god for Dave's, and for here.
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Post by burlives on Mar 20, 2004 1:40:08 GMT 7
The other thing: have you talked to Chinese people lately? Ones with degrees in English? Sure, they can read and write, but their English conversation is appalling. They can study all they want, but so long as they speak English with other Chinese, the results "must to be" Chinglish. A native speaker knocks the dents out of unnatural English. Even if I (to use the only handy example) was completely useless in class, at the very least the teachers would get the benefit of conversing in the way English is REALLY spoken, not how the Chinese "urally" butcher it, despite their best efforts. Not sure, dude. Chinese speak with the English they learned in middle school. By the time of university they have a lot of English to use, much more than they show, but few, really few, tools for the deployment of that language. Comprehension, idea development, reasoning structures, none of that is obviously part of English as Chinese know it, and I think it fairly directly hampers their ability to speak. That side of communication may not even be a part of Chinese communications. Chinese seem to trade words with each other as a kind of give-and-take along lines of force inside the relevant relationship, as opposed to, say, engaging in the construction of an idea. So when one stops to think about it, just what are the Chinese trying to improve by chatting with foreigners? They often state it to be pronunciation and vocabulary. Seriously, why would one waste the time of a real human being for such a goal? Really, why do they talk to us? I often hear it claimed that English is a tool of communication, and it often sounds as if the speaker thinks there might somewhere be a language that isn't a tool of communication. If you're teaching, teach cognition. It might be one of the gifts that comes with English.
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Post by Gonzo Journalist on Mar 20, 2004 4:54:00 GMT 7
Linguist types tell us a second [L2] language is learned in much the same way as a first [L1]; which means that decent modelling in the early learning stages is critical. As Burl points out, by the time they enter college / uni, their errors are fossilised, and beyond hope of the kind of repair we can offer in just a few hours a week. Gradual improvement is the most reasonable thing we can hope for. Students who are willing to speak whatever standard of English, but who refused to open their mouths when you started would be one indicator of improvement. However, a good driver isn't necessarily a good mechanic, and you do need to be a mechanic to know where these students are coming from linguistically, and what you need to do to help them. We need native speakers at kindergarten level They don't need to be teachers even. Save them for later.
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
Posts: 264
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Post by roaming kiwi on Mar 20, 2004 7:40:37 GMT 7
Well, in the place of the missing "education" of the native teachers I thought I'd put the following up. Mind you, it could go in the dimly-lit room downstairs... It's not meant to piss people off - it's to help you fullas when you are facing the mob... Much of what's here will already by known, but it may help in deciding on your oral English lessons - nothing wrong with doing a little 10 minute slot of pronunciation each lesson...After all, they want to say what they mean. "I sink" "Really, Rambo? You're sinking?" Also (and I've been guilty of this) - "they're butchering my language!". Damn straight they are. Mind you, Chinese feels foul and strange in my mouth (I mean the language you dirty boys), and I muck it up. I'm doing my best to butcher theirs. Whaddaya mean I have to have to roll the "r"?! Problems for the Chinese in speaking English: (Discovered by both personal observation of consistant errors and from "Learner English" ed. Swan & Smith CUP 1987/2002) 1 /v/ th - both voiced and un-voiced. 2 Final consonants (over pronounced) 3 Consonant clusters (too slow) 4 Rhythm and stress 5 Weak forms (not used, or weaker word dropped) 6a Intonation: Chinese: sentence intonation shows little variation. 6b English: use of intonation patterns to affect the meaning of the whole statement 7 Juncture: learners separate English words rather than joining them smoothly into a "stream of speech¡¨. 8 Vowels - confusion or inability to do it 'cause it isn't in the Chinese language - first of the pair is correct, second is their pronunciation. „P Eat, it; bean, bin „P Fool, full; Luke, look „P Cap, carp; cup, kep „P Shot, short; shout, shut „P dipthongs are often too short Some ideas to help: 1. about half of the consonants go in pairs - same mouth only voiced or un-voiced. /f/ and /v/ If they can't get the /v/ I go for the /f/ and show them that this is the mouth I want - not the /w/. /th/ poke your tongue out! All of the Chinese language is done with the tongue behind the teeth - so poke out those tongues babies! Also, I show them with my hands. Right hand is the teeth, left hand is the tongue. I curl my left hand's fingers up over the teeth (and show them with my own tongue over my teeth) then release - the place where the tongue touches the teeth is about how far the tongue must go out. Then /tthh/ ! It's also a quick movement so you need to pull the left hand away quickly. 2. Over pronunced last consonants. "think-ah" "hav-ah" "big-ah". The poor wee mites don't have final consonants. (That sounds rather Imperial! ) Tell them to whisper the last consonant in isolation and work the offending word backwards.... "g" - it almost sounds like you are blowing bubbles "ig" "big" over exaggerate the "b". 3-8: What do you guys do? This post is just to get you thinking about what we can do rather than just waltzing in to a class and saying "so, what shall we talk about today?" I also work with an old karate philosophy (I knew it would come in handy). We were taught to do the movements by using big exaggerated motions. These were an art-form in themselves, and were meant to be crisp or smooth accordingly. When it came to sparring (fighting), because you had learnt the movements in the exaggerated form, you were able to fight far more effectively because your body knew the underlying essence of what it had to do without thinking and under pressure. If we had gone straight for the sparring, we would have fought to avoid the punch for the head but our bodies wouldn't have had the muscular memory of what to do so the fight would be sloppy and desperate. At the moment, our ss have been chucked into the fight without been give a fair chance. However, it would probably be counter-productive to teach nothing but pronunciation - the vocab would leak out the otherside! I suggest setting up a slot that focusses on a particular weakness in every lesson that they can think about, and more importantly, use in the remaining class-time. Just some thoughts for those young rookies out there.
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
Posts: 264
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Post by roaming kiwi on Mar 20, 2004 8:13:59 GMT 7
It's 8.30 in the morning. I'm quietly musing over Raoul's supping my coffee and sniffing the gentle wafting of our open drains. Another morning in China...
Hark - what's that noise. 'tis Telephone calling my name.
"WHAT!"
"Oh, Hamish me ole pal"
"Yes, yes, the Chinese language doesn't stick out it's..."
"tongue - stop interrupting me"
"Yes we do!"
"Try it"
"No, look in the mirror"
"At your tongue! Jeez Hamish"
"See that little tiny pink thing. Your tongue dammit - look higher!"
"Of course your tongue isn't sticking the WHOLE way out!" "Hamish? Hamish?"
Ahh, another satisfying morning in golden hued Baoding.
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Post by Hamish on Mar 20, 2004 8:38:27 GMT 7
BITCH!
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Post by burlives on Mar 20, 2004 18:34:31 GMT 7
1 /v/ th - both voiced and un-voiced. That one's fun. I have a class full of 20-year-olds putting their fingers on their noses and their thumbs under their chins with the instructions that their tongue must touch their finger when they say "mouthhhhhh". I tell them English is disgusting, it's a vulgar tongue. Class singsong with actions. The stressed words are given their stress by requiring them to be spoken with exaggerated arm movements. The students need to be ready for that. Anger. A: Where were you last night! B: I was out. A: Oh! Who with? B: With Joan. A: Oh, I hate you. Happiness. A: I’ve got the job! B: Oh, that’s wonderful. (Plus a little lecture on the different meaning if I've is stressed.) Frustration. A: Please stop that noise. B: I won’t be long. A: It’s annoying me. B: Just hang on. A: I said stop it! I had this exercise which I did as a warm-up but which should have been part of a bigger program: A man walks into a bar, orders a drink, and then requests: A: Ice and lemon, please! B: I haven’t got any ice! A: Everyone’s got some ice. B: I haven’t got any ice! A: Please give me some ice! B: I haven’t got any ice! A: Not even a little bit of ice? B: I haven’t got any ice! The bartender's a bit of a one-act show but he has to use stress to convey his message. (So does "A" but that's Secret English Business) Done as a class singsong and as an individual stand-up-and-shout. And so on. These days in Writing classes I don't hand out materials. I require the materials to be dictated. I have one sheet printed with big letters and it goes around the class with each student reading one line twice. Dictation by the many for the many. I tell them traditional dictation is too feudal. I have found that the little bastards will either play along or they will read furiously, stumble out their part, and then write as much as they could memorise. Or they will crouch over to read, letting their partner write furiously. When they get to new words, I've found that they are incapable of or just refuse to sound out words syllable by syllable. The stare furiously with wrinkled brow and then blurt out something with the same letters. I don't know what to do about that. All activities lifted unceremoniously from Conversation, Rob Nolasco & Lois Arthur, Oxford University Press, 1987.
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Post by burlives on Mar 22, 2004 23:30:21 GMT 7
So today I had two Oral classes with twenty students each of average physical age 20 years.
It starts like this:
A page worth of 24pt text broken into lines according to my standard speaking rythmn is circulated. Each student to dictate one line thrice, the rest to write that one line once.
Two disciplines are required of the students: first, no one should tell anyone which line is theirs, they should find it themselves according to what they have heard; second, unfamiliar words are to sounded out syllable by syllable. Both disciplines are quite unfamiliar to the poor luvs.
I claimed to the students that a syllable is in general a consonant or group of consonants followed by a vowel, but sometimes a syllable is something else. "Immigration" was a troublesome word last week; "rely", which the students all want to pronounce "really", was this week's winner.
I claimed to the students that there are about 50 basic syllables in English. Where I got 50, I forget. Maybe I was thinking phonemes. I claimed syllables broadly follow the consonant+vowel rule but basically just learning them is a good choice. And how do you learn them? Why, by practice, such as by following the discipline suggested for this exercise, start reading!
The sound units they rely on to make words all seem to occur only in their heads and seem not to be the same as a native speaker would employ, judging by the furrowed brows followed by the explosion from their mouths of some inbred cousin of the completed word they are supposed to speak. They will not make the sounds slowly. I know it's just a bad, now deeply ingrained habit, but any one got any tips?
I broke off one dictation to have a sign-song. I wrote on the board "the sounds of Ing-ah-lish are foooooo-lish" and asked them to repeat after me, making it more foolsh with each repetition. With one class, it had the desired effect. With another class it broke the tension but didn't make a dent in speaking habit.
(The text they are dictating to each other finishes on a question raised by the content of the text. The next part of the lesson is, in small groups find ten answers to that question. They get quite pissed off at the end when I tell them, finally, I want their best answer from those ten. It's an exercise in how to do supposedly disciplined brainstorming.)
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