Planning the lesson. Last week one of my students mentioned an interest in Tatort. I love Tatort and watch it every week, so I thought we might do something with that. Or maybe something with articles (definite or otherwise)? I've wanted to use correction tape to make a gap fill on the fly and thought maybe articles would be a good choice. Assuming she has a problem with them. Always lots of articles lying around. This week is one on one, so I'd like to stick to something very specific to her. Maybe expressions with "like"? Or perhaps there's a preconceived lesson available via One Stop English? I've had good luck with their news stories in the past.
Starting the lesson. She's late. That can happen.
T: Hi, how are you?
S: /gʊt/
T: /gʊd/?
S: well...
T: (mimes uncertainty)
S: Tja geht so
T: So ... you feel okay? (falling tone dragging out "kay")
S: yeah, okay (copying intonation)
She did her homework from last week. That's a good start. Prepare five questions to ask her new English learning partner. She shows me the questions. I mime uncertain displeasure about the first one. She wondered about it too. She then improves it, by herself, making it more grammatically correct.
We work out the pronunciation of "married". How many syllables? How many sounds? Using an IPA chart (Sound Foundations), she points, I vocalize, she works out which sounds are part of the word and which aren't. We work away from "Marie Ed" through "merry Ed" toward "mare reed".
She watched Tatort. That's an even better start. Did she like it? It was langweilig. I board "boring". Does she like the /konʃtɑnts/ series? No, it's not lebendig (boarded lively). Maybe revisit -ed and -ing adjectives? What about Ms. Blum? Is she lively? How would you describe her? More adjectives are added to the board. We talk about other inspectors. Thiel is a slob. New word. Boerne is well-groomed. Cenk Batu is closed and secretive. We work up a list of about 12 adjectives.
Probably we should work with the assembled adjectives. More decisions about a word is supposed to help retention. So we sort them into positive and negative lists then compare our lists. She reads her lists out loud, and I make notes about pronunciation.
T: How many syllables in "competent"?
S: Eight.
T: Syllables?
S: (mimes confusion)
T: Silben?
S: three
T: Right (pointing to fingers) /kɑːm/ /pə/ /tent/. Listen /'kɑːmpətent/. Where's the stress? /'kɑːmpətənt/
S: first sylable
T: And in German?
S: (thinking) last
So, what inspector do you like? Lannert? Me too. Hard not to like Lannert. I write two questions on the board:
What does Lannert like?
What is Lannert like?
Does she have any guess about what the difference might be? One is grammatically wrong she suggests. No, I counter, both are okay grammatically, but they have different meanings. She recognizes the first one, but isn't sure what the second could mean.
Working from known to unknown, We set about answering the first one. His car, his work, his partner, etc. I answer the second one. Friendly, secretive, honest. She understands it is a question about character traits.
Going for a little personalization and repetition of our discussion about Tatort inspectors, I ask her what her sister is like. She looks at the board wondering if she should say friendly or dancing. Friendly she decides. I'm a little surprised by the delay. I ask about her boss at work, and ask the same question. She uses some of the adjectives on the board.
We still have time left. We expand on expressions with "like". I add a question to the board:
What does Lannert look like?
I read the question, pointing to my eyes when saying "look". I answer the question. He's short, blond, fit, has a large nose, etc. We expand to George Michael (her favorite) and "sound", snake and "taste". She finds this interesting and new and tells me so.
Unfortunately she'll be gone for the next 4 weeks, but asked me what she could do in the mean time. I suggested graded readers. She found graded readers that come with a CD. Even better I said.
Now your turn. What did you like / dislike? Where would you take a different turn?
The class started with a disappointment in that one of the two students didn't show up. Well at least he called. Unfortunately, he was going to bring a bit of technical text with questions ala "A Question of Content" (Teaching Unplugged p. 58). Having studied Mechanical Engineering I was looking forward to a change from the real estate contracts another student of mine likes to bring. Fortunately, the other student did bring his text and questions. Unfortunately, it was a text we'd already read. Luckily I had forgotten the article already, and before I asked him to refresh my memory, I was able to flip his copy over so he couldn't consult it.
T: I don't remember. What was it about?
S: A coffee shop in Amsterdam.
T: (I hesitate) A real coffee shop, or a place where you smoke pot?
S: A coffee shop. You know, where you buy coffee.
T: Oh. Because there are also coffee shops where you smoke pot.
S: Please, what is pot?
T: Marijuana? (An answer as much as a question. Does he know what Marijuana is. Probably)
Probably I shouldn't even bring it up. On the other hand ... After covering "get stoned", "get drunk", and "pot", we went on to his questions. He read them; I wrote them on the board:
- How old is the daughter from Edith?
- Where are you come from?
- How many hours do you work every week?
- (don't remember the original here)
I highlighted the sections I thought were problematic, he corrected them to:
- How old is Edith's daughter?
- Where is she from?
- How many hours does she work every week?
- Why kind of problems do you have in your coffee shop?
I answered the questions, he told me if I was right or not. Then he had other questions for me.
S: What means /rɔbed/?
[Note to self: maybe work on -ed endings, but does this article have enough examples?]
T: What does /rɑbd/ mean?
T: /rɑbd/ means someone took something from them.
S: And /θiːfes/?
T: /θiːvz/ is the plural of /θiːf/. More than one /θiːf/. Two /θiːvz/.
S: /θiːf/?
T: If I steal something, I'm a thief.
S: ...
T: Ein Dieb.
S: And what is a Räuber in English?
T: robber.
S: And what is the difference? Robber? Thief?
T: What's the difference between Räuber and Dieb?
S: Okay.
Then we went on to the pronunciation of "civil servant". Ever since watching the video where Adrian Underhill introduces his approach to pronunciation I've been going over the sounds of English (AmE version) using the chart linked to in this P is for Phonemic Chart post by Scott Thornbury. This has made pronunciation problems a joy to correct. Much much easier than:
S: /rɔbed/
T: no. /rɑbd/
S: /rɑbed/
T: /rɑ/ /b/ /d/
S: /ra/ /bɪ/ /də/ The store was /ra/ /bɪ/ /də/.
Just point at the chart. Tap out what the student says, tap out what we're hoping to hear. The student doesn't have to guess at what you are trying to correct. The student doesn't end up copying an over-articulated pronunciation from a increasingly frustrated teacher pfaffing about searching for ways to highlight a specific problem they have with the way a student pronounced a word. I feel more and more relaxed just thinking about it. Just tap, tap, tap.... /rɑbd/. Can even go into the BrE variation /rɒbd/ which I then mispronounce as /rɔbd/. Its all caught/cot to me.
I digress. The article did seem to have enough examples of words with -ed endings, so he took the left column and I the right. After we were finished I thought to write them on the board, but knowing I wanted him to group the words based on how I pronounced them, we wrote them on little scraps of paper. We came up with named, combined, opened, renovated, smoked, allowed, discussed, liked, robbed, offered, and complicated.
I asked him to put the words into groups based on how they sounded as I read them. He put them into groups based on how many syllables they contained. Interesting. Okay let's focus on the group with named, liked, smoked, and offered. Did he hear a difference?
T: Focus on the ending.
S: oh... some sound like /t/ and others like /d/
T: Right!
T: Now what about combined, renovated, allowed, discussed, offered, complicated?
S: oh ... /ted/ and /d/
T: right, /tɪd/ and /d/
I wrote the three sound groups on the board, and then added each of the words under its related sound as a summary of what we'd already done. And then I asked him to come up with a rule. He knows about voiced and voiceless and the relationship between /t/ and /d/, so I thought he could invent a rule. He wanted to know what "rule" meant. I wrote "rule" on the board, hoping he knew the word in written form. No luck.
T: "Regel".
S: oh, Regel.
T: You probably know a lot about rules, since you work in quality assurance.
S: oh yes, we have a lot of rules.
I drew his attention to the sounds before the -ed endings in the /t/ and /d/ groups. Was /k/ voiced or unvoiced? Feel your throat. Yes, unvoiced. /m/? /b/? /s/? Is /d/ voiced or unvoiced? What about /t/? A rule was born. Then we addressed the /ɪd/ group. And then he had to go. Football practice started in 30 minutes. As homework I asked him to find or think of 5 words for each of the 3 groups.
While packing his things, he causally asked what he should do after his last lesson next week. We added learning on your own to the list of topics. Then he casually and for the first time mentioned that he'd really like to have enough confidence to speak in meetings. One on one with other non-native speakers was no problem, but in a group he's afraid to speak. Not really something we can cover in a few seconds as he finishes packing his things, but I added it to the syllabus for next week. Maybe both the students will show up, and we can simulate a meeting at his company.
Now it's your turn. What would you (do/have done) differently? What strengths and weaknesses of the lesson came to mind as you read? What did you like? What didn't you like?
Another one-to-one lesson with my oldest living A1 student. Started by talking about the weekend and studying English. She talked and I helped her scaffolded the conversation. Sometimes this meant I told her a word she didn't know, sometimes I tried to get her to remember a word I'm sure she did know. She wanted to say "I didn't study English on the weekend", but instead "I haven't on the weekend English learned…learn…is that right…ist das richtig? Ich wollte sagen, ich habe nicht gelernt" came out.
I edged my way in with "almost right…I understand what you mean…We can improve that". We're talking about last weekend, so we need the simple past. Listen, "I didn't learn English on the weekend". Now repeat. What else didn't you do? Did you dance?
her: dance? tanzen? ob ich getanzt habe?
me: yes, that's right. Did you dance?
her: No no I didn't dance. D-A-N-C-E…is that right?
me: Yes. You could ask "How do you spell that?" "How do you spell dance?" Let's practice. Listen "how do you spell dance?". Repeat.
her: how do you spell dance? D-A-N-C-E. What does spell mean?
I think she knows what spell means. I don't want to give her the translation. I've given her the translation before. Perhaps box through with some examples.
me: Ask me "How do you spell..." (I point to a word on her paper)
her: E-A-S
me: No. Say "How do you spell easter?"
her: How do you spell easter?
me: E-A-S
her: Oh! Buchstabieren!
me: Yes, that's right.
So…Did you dance on the weekend? "No, I have…I didn't dance on the weekend". Did you drive a car? "I didn't drive a car on the weekend". I draw a substitution table on paper, she copies to her notes. "I didn't (learn English | dance | drive a car) on the weekend." What else didn't you do? Add 2 more things to your list. She didn't read a book or go for a walk. Now…you said "I didn't learn English on the weekend", there's a better word than "learn". Can you think of a different word? She thinks. I'm pretty certain she knows and wonder what benefit might come of me telling her again. Probably no benefit. But she's not guessing either. Hangman? She could use practice with the alphabet anyhow. Five spaces on the board.
me: Okay, guess a letter
her: I don't understand
me: You guess a letter, and if it is in the word I write it here (gesture to board)
her: You want me to guess a letter?
me: Yes
her: Any letter?
me: Yes
her: s
me: yes that's in the word.
Game continues until she has spelled study. "Oh! study" she says, and continues "I haven't study on the weekend". "You didn't study on the weekend" I repeat. "I didn't study on the weekend" she repeats. "No problem" I say.
The rest of the lesson consisted of her sorting the letters of the alphabet into groups based on how they sounded and then some practice spelling words. A group for each of train, tree, egg, bike, phone, boot, & car. We had similar problems with apparent lack of understanding followed immediately by demonstrations of understanding. I'm really not sure what's at work there. In the end, we used an information gap activity to practice spelling. We both had a grid of words and had to ask each other "What's number (1 | 2 | 3 …)?" and "How do you spell (that | it)?".
Certainly I've left out swaths of the lesson, but that was the rough shape of things. So…my appeal on you, dear reader, is to tell me what you noticed while reading. At what points would you have taken things in another direction? What language would you have selected to focus on? What would you have done with that selected language in class? How would you have guided the student in working on/with that language?
I finally made a worksheet and used it in class. Well, started using it. My two students have now taken a break for two weeks. I don't think the worksheet was to blame. The text was born out of a suggestion by one of my students that they should write stories using the new vocabulary words that came up in class. I agreed. That sounded like a great idea! She countered that the vocabulary words didn't seem related, and I should bring in a different set of words next week. I agreed. That sounded like a great idea!
My first thought was to find something on onestopenglish. No good. Then I thought maybe a news story. Then I thought about a class I had earlier in the week where my only student told me about his Saturday. Perfect. Well, the vocabulary was perhaps a bit too specfic to his needs. I know…I'll write something myself.
Something that will be engaging, could be a model for them, we could learn some new words, they could study the text a little through some controlled practice and then we could activate their new language with some uncontrolled practice. I guess I did learn something at my CELTA course. (Was that in the class or aftwards? Or later when I read that Harmer book we all had to buy. No matter.) Armed with ESA, TTT, PPP, a host of other acronyms, memories of another class, and a few guardian lessons from onestopenglish I set forth and produced:
I'm sure the pedagogical underpinnings of the worksheet will be clear to everyone, but let me explain a little anyhow. I started with the text. I chose to write about last Saturday, because I think my students ought to be able to do this by now, and if they can't, then I suppose we should keep trying until they can.
The highlighted words were chosen because I thought they were unknown words that were important to the story and easily described with known words. Following the notion that it would help to activate a schemata or two and pre-teach some lexis, I borrowed the idea for exercise A from a guardian new story lesson at onestopenglish. Luckily they don't have a patent on the idea of a gap fill.
The second exercise came from what I learned about standard reading sequences. This is the "Give them a reason to read" step. These are "scanning questions". Finally it occured to me that many of the verbs I used were irregular. This was naturally also the case when my other student described his day. You really can't get through your day without verbs that are irregular, phrasal or both. It seemed to me that recognizing the past simple form would be more beneficial than looking it up, so that's how I arranged this study part.
I didn't include any controlled practice. I'm not really sure what that would look like. The classics would be sentance, word, and letter jumbles. For example, put the sentances, words, letters in the right order to form a comprehsible paragraph sentance or word. Parts E & F are for in class discussion, and I expect them to do part F themselves at home.
At some point I would like to finally do dictogloss in class. Maybe this text is a candidate at a later point after we've worked with it. Or the text the students themselves bring.
One of my students came late to class the other day. I had a few exercises planned that counted on the two of them talking with each other. For example fixing their homework based on some notes I'd made while discussing what could be improved. I also wanted to work through a news story and show them a related video. Then there was an activity based on the homework which included finding a bit of easy enjoyable text and writing comprehension questions.
Hmmm… where to start with only one student when my plans called for two. I asked him about his weekend. He tried to describe it, which was hard for him since most of the verbs he wanted to use were irregular and many words were new. One of my personal goals was to put everything on the board. I started a list on the far left side of the board. In the end the list included: magazine, lake, pond, dairy products, lactose, scoops of ice-cream, allergic, goat, sheep, exhausted, crocus, a lot of, a few. For the verbs, he either said the word in present tense, or asked me to translate a word. I wrote the past simple form on the board: walked, drank, ate, went, bought, sat, were, ordered, saw, rode. To work with the language he provided the base form for each of the past simple forms. I noted that we use the past form in positive statements, and the base in questions. Wrote up a little substitution table for Did you |walk…see| ? and provided two short answers: Yes, I did and No, I didn't.
I was just about to have him ask me about my weekend using this language when the other student walked in. Good that all that text was on the board. She tried to make sense of the words. The other student said it was a description what he did on Saturday. With this context things were more clear. I erased the verb base forms, and had her come up with them based on the past simple forms that were left. We clarified some of the new words, worked on pronunciation, and then reviewed the question, statement, and short answer forms. Finally…they asked me about my weekend. Actually only one of them did. The student who came late was busy copying down the board, even though they actually share notes from the course.
How do you get students to stop note taking and trying to provide the right 'controlled' answer and start exchanging information? What else would you have done with such a lesson?
I have a BE student who apparently has very little use for English at work. The last time she used English at work involved translating a technical document from her native language into English. I didn't know half the words she needed. I've stopped asking her if she's written any email, or made any phone calls, or attended any meetings lately where English was needed. We sometimes talk about business. She's reluctant, because she thinks even native speakers wouldn't understand her explanation.
Accepting over time that she doesn't need English at work, I thought maybe it would be good for her to use English elsewhere. For example her daughter is learning English at school, she goes on vacation to English speaking countries, there are a couple English language radio stations in our area, English language newspapers are easy to find. Live radio is a bit over her listening skill level. She helps her daughter with homework, but I bet that's lots of grammar. Can't vacation every week. I think she'd have to look up every tenth word in most papers or magazines. We talk about the benefits of extensive reading. A graded reader is perhaps a good place for her to start, but she can't even be bothered to get a good English language dictionary.
Then one day I saw the company newsletter. A nicely done mini-magazine. Glossy, pictures, company info presented in her native language and English. Perhaps this could be useful? My first impression of the English text was that it looks like it was translated. Hmmmm…it's better than nothing. Short articles. Lots of real connection to her work. Plenty of context. Sounds good.
She has a problem with the idea. She knows the content of the newsletter, and is likely to gloss over it she says. Then I remembered part of a presentation from Jason Renshaw where students start by selecting and copying down a reading text of their choosing. This is followed by the students inventing 'quiz' questions based on the text. So I modified the assignment. She should pick a story from the newsletter, preferably a short one, read it and come up with five questions that I have to answer. She accepted the challenge.
At the next lesson she was prepared with her five questions. So I guided her through using them and the text to teach me English. She asked me to read the text first and then she'd give me the questions to answer. I countered by saying she was supposed to show me the title first and ask me what I think the article is about. She conceded. We continued by playing twenty questions. In the end I didn't figure out the subject. She told me. Then I offered that she should let me look at the questions and ask me "Any new words?" – "Are the questions clear?". She complied. I then marked up the questions (WO,WW,SP,T, etc) and returned them. We worked together to correct the word order, replace words, fix spelling, and change tenses. Then I was ready. She wasn't sure how much time she should give me to answer the questions. I set the timer at 3 minutes. Barely finished in time. Then we discussed my answers, and she prompted me where I had missed something. When we disagreed on an answer we consulted the text directly and discussed it.
While working through the answers to her scanning questions, we almost broke out into general discussion. The horror! I steered us back to her scanning questions and noted questions for later discussion. In the end we had plenty to discuss based on the article. Was the direction taken by the company good or bad? Would she have made the same decision? Did she like the article?
In the end we discussed the "game" as she called it, and she decided to bring in something from a magazine she likes for our lesson next week. I'm looking forward to it.
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