Please allow me to introduce myself.

Today was my second Monday foreign communication class because last Monday was a holiday. I try to do the same things in both my Monday and Friday communication classes, so their posts will probably resemble closely to one another; nevertheless I will continue both posts.

I got to class a little earlier and so was able to start on time. I had everyone clear off their desks and then passed out the review quiz. I gave them five minutes, but they all had finished before the time was up, so I collected them and moved on to the word stress. In Friday’s class, I had used clapping to designate the syllable stress, but this time I tried stomping, and I think it actually worked better. I had students stand up for the corrections and as in Friday’s class, chose one student who would say the answer and then everyone would repeat after him or her.

At around 9:30 we started the textbook with a listening activity. I dictated the questions first and then had students read them aloud to make sure they all had the correct questions. I then played the conversation 2 times and after asked individual students for answers. Next, I had students repeat after the CD with their books opened. Once we finished this, I had them get in pairs and practice the conversation asking them to change partners three times. Finally, I had them close their books and practice the conversation with the CD.

I then had them open their books to the expressions for starting a conversation with a stranger. I explained the importance of each one, having the students repeat the expression after me. Next, I had them do task 1, an activity where they had to replace simple answers with longer ones, a strategy to keep a conversation going. It did not take them that long to finish, so I went around asking them individually to give me the answers. I then had them practice the conversation in pairs. After that, we continued with the expressions for self-introduction, and I had them do a repetition activity. One student would read out sentences in random order, and the other would repeat.

To the end the class, we did a listening activity. The students had to listen for certain information such as name, nickname, job etc. I played this about 3 times, and then asked students to come up and fill in a table I had written on the board.

I think this class went well, but I did not have enough time to do the pair work dictation activity I had planned. I don’t mind so much though because although this activity is important, it is more supplementary than anything. Of course, next week’s pair work activity will be more important as it combines the components that we will learn in that class, so I will have to try to make a little more time for that, but if I have to end up setting the second part as I did in Friday’s class, that’s OK, too.

Well, I think that is it for this post. If you'd like to leave a comment, by all means please do!

Cheers,
eisensei