eisensei

Another week, another post...

2010-05-17T18:15:00.004+09:00

Hey everyone,

I’ve realized that I haven’t introduced my Monday and Friday classes, so today I will quickly go through my morning courses for those days.

Monday Morning = Friday Morning = Last Semester

Actually, these courses are pretty much the same as last semester. I had planned to do both classes in a computer room, but unfortunately, due to various reasons, it did not happen, so this semester I am in a regular classroom, but it is not too bad because it gives me a change from being in the computer room most of the time.

I had planned to do more focused listening activities like those I do in my other classes which take place in the computer room, but as that is pretty much impossible, I try to give them the regular listening practice that is done with a CD player. However, before I have them listen to a dialogue, I dictate the questions. The textbook also has, depending on the unit, some extra listening practice which I also use. Finally, I have students make their own conversation and present it after a specified time limit during which they have to practice and remember the dialogue. Here is an example:

As you can see, I give students a lot of support, but I encourage them to use their own ideas as much as possible.

So, just to recap, both Monday and Friday morning communication classes follow this pattern:

Review Test
Question Dictation
Listening Comprehension
Conversation Practice
Listening Activity
Conversation Construction and Presentation

Impression so far

I think the class is going well overall, but it would be interesting to try this in the computer room as I could have them do more extensive listening and dictation-type activities. I guess in many ways, I am focusing more on students’ passive understanding rather than active this year, and I know that some of you may not agree with such a style, but honestly, I like this new direction, and it will be interesting to see the class evaluation in the future. Actually, maybe it might be a good idea to get their opinion sooner, but as I read on ELT news a while back, consistency is important and I agree with that. If I have to completely change a class midway, wouldn’t that interrupt everything?

Cheers,
eisensei

Thank you for your comments everyone!

2010-05-11T17:00:00.000+09:00

Whoops, I almost forgot. Thank you Darren, Karenne, Fernando and Angela for your comments on my last blog post commentaphobia. It’s nice to hear that you have felt or still feel the way I do. Recently, things have been busy, so I haven’t really been keeping up with what’s been going on, but I hope I can get back on the horse soon.

Cheers,
eisensei

eisensei is not dead...yet

2010-05-11T16:48:00.003+09:00

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I posted anything about my classes, but to be honest, I am attempting something quite different this semester, something which doesn't give me a lot to talk about in the way I used to last year. For example in today's class, which focuses on academic English, I have my students work individually in a computer room. I give them a short quiz based on the academic word list in the beginning of class based on example sentences that I record and post on my site for them to listen to, and then I give them a handout that explains in detail what they have to do. Here is the handout I give them. If they do not finish before the end of class, I give them a deadline by which they have to submit the work.

Lesson Guide

Academic English – Unit 3 Life Sciences
May 11, 2010

Read all steps before you start!

1. Do pages 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 B.

2. Correct your answers.

3. Put your book away, and go to my webpage, ********************************

4. Under ‘Basic Skills for the TOEFL iBT – Dictation Unit 3’, click on listening file.

5. Do the dictation in your notebook. Double space.

6. Check your dictation with your book. Use a COLOR pen (red, green etc).

7. Give me your notebook.

8. On the same webpage, click on Academic Word List Official Homepage. Then click on Sublist 3.

9. Read all the words. Look up the words that you don’t know in your dictionary.

10. Go back to my webpage. Under ‘Academic Word List - Vocabulary Listening Practice WORD LIST 3 Vocabulary’ click on the listening file. Listen and repeat.

11. Go back to the AWL Sublist 3.

12. Choose ONE exercise from each group (total SIX exercises) and answer the questions. Make sure you answer all questions correctly (A correct answer will have the :-) symbol).

13. Copy and paste all exercises in Microsoft Office Word.

14. Save your file as, 03 ACAD ENG AWL 3 FIRST NAME LAST NAME STUDENT NUMBER.

15. Email me the file as an attachment.

16. Then go back to the same webpage and under ‘Academic Word List - Vocabulary Listening Practice WORD LIST 3 Example Sentences’ click on the listening file. Listen and repeat.

NOTE:
If you do not finish, the deadline is 1 PM Friday May 14, 2010.
NOTE:
Put your textbook work and your dictation in the SAME notebook.
NOTE:
On Tuesday May 18, 2010, there will be a REVIEW TEST for AWL Sublist 3.

Impression?

My overall impression so far is that I think this works quite well. This was our 3rd class following this style and after working out the initial bugs, for example, in the first class, there was too much to do, so I had to reduce the amount, and then there was getting students use to the format of the class, using computers and so on, I think things are now running smoothly. First of all, students are getting very intensive listening practice with the dictation I provide for them. The textbook is at a level that requires some preview before class, which some students are actually doing; in the past, this number would almost be non-existent. They are also able to learn much academic vocabulary in context as well as through example sentences provided on a website I have them use. Also, this style of class allows all students to finish even if some have to work throughout the week to do so. This would not be so easy to do if I gave instructions and time limits orally in class. Finally, as there are answer keys available, students are able to self-correct their work and get immediate feedback.

Cheers,
eisensei

Commentaphobia - Is there a cure?

2010-04-23T17:04:00.002+09:00

Hi all,

I know I haven’t been writing about my classes yet, but things have been busy this week, and to be honest, I don’t see things slowing down any time soon, so what I may actually do is make one post, possibly on Fridays summarizing the weeks up’s and down’s. It will be my own personal digest, if you well. However, today I will not be writing about my classes, but I have a question, which I am just going to go right ahead and ask because it has been bugging me for some time.

Why can I not make comments?

That is my question for today. I just read a great article from Mike Guest about research papers, and I wanted to make a comment, but no matter how hard I tried, after about an hour (Yes, an hour!) I gave up. And this is not the first time this has happened to me. It’s really bizarre. I start writing; I edit; I erase; I go do something else; I come back and try again; ultimately, I turn off my computer. I don’t mean to be a lurker, as I think that is what I would be called, but what is it exactly that stops me from finishing my comment and clicking that send button? Have any of you had this experience? How did you overcome this problem?

Cheers,
eisensei

Changes

2010-04-15T17:52:00.002+09:00

Hi everyone!

My second day of the new academic year is over. I just finished my 4-skill class. So far I have about 18 students, but I think that may increase next week.

CLASS STRUCTURE

The textbook we will be using has a DVD with exercises and videos and that will be what we will be focusing on the most. The exercises can also be saved, so I will have them do the activities in class and email me their results. Another activity I hope to include is a dictation – students will watch the included video and try to transcribe it. Of course, there will be some names that may be difficult for them, but I will provide that information in advance. Therefore the structure of the class will run mainly like this:

1. Students will work through selected activities on the DVD and in the textbook; the results of the activities completed on the DVD will be submitted to me via email, while the textbook activities will be written out in their notebooks.
2. Students will watch the DVD and transcribe what they hear. This will also be done in their notebooks, which will be submitted to me each week.

However, like I wrote earlier today, as this is the first time to use this book and to follow this kind of plan, there may be necessary modifications that I will have to make.

TODAY’S CLASS

I followed the same plan as this morning, so I won’t go into any detail. I started thinking however after today’s class that maybe I should have done introductions, but I think I have a good reason why I am leaving that until next class – there will be more or fewer students next week as students can still change classes, and there are always some students who take the wrong class etc. I think therefore that just explaining the course this week and then waiting until next week to really get into introductions may be a good strategy. What do you think?

Cheers,
eisensei

SYLLABUS

このプリントは重要です！紛失しないでください

***************************
Classroom: **************************
Time: 4:20 – 5:50 Thursday
Instructor: *******************************
E-mail: ******************************
OFFICE: ************************

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

World English (Cengage)
Earphones or headphones
Dictionary
Notebook

NOTE: Students who do not bring these items will lose points.

GOALS:

By the end of the course, you should:
-have a larger vocabulary
-have a better ability in all 4 skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)

SCHEDULE:

April
15 ORIENTATION
22

May
6
13
20
27

June
3
10 TEST 1
17
24

July
1
8
15
22
29 TEST 2

GRADES:

Grades will be based upon the following criteria:

*Attendance
Participation
Weekly Quizzes
Midterm Test
Final Test

*If you come at 4:35 or later, you will be marked absent.
*If you are absent 3 times, you will receive an F.
*If you are absent for a valid reason, you must give me that reason in writing by 1:00 PM Friday. If you fail to give me this notice of absence, you will be marked absent.

Reading, Writing, Listening! Oh my!

2010-04-15T11:25:00.003+09:00

Hello everyone!

Well, I just had my second class of the semester. This class focuses primarily on reading and writing, but this year I’ve decided to include some listening as well. Unlike yesterday’s class which has only eight students, this one has thirty-eight, but for this class in particular, it’s common. Something I think I forgot to mention yesterday is that both of these classes are open to first and second-year students, although first-year students are predominant. Also, like yesterday’s class, I am conducting this one in a computer room. Actually, with the exception of textbook and primary focus, TOEIC vs Reading/Writiing, this class will be fairly similar in structure.

CLASS STRUCTURE:

Independent Listening with MLH

Students will go online and register to be able to listen to the class audio files independently. Macmillan Language House has a great service called My School; all you have to do is request it and you have access to your own personal page that students can access, too. I wanted to have students do the listening activities independently because it allows them to focus more on the task than if I had them do it as a group where some students would be at a distance from the stereo. Furthermore, this allows me to check their ability, give feedback and evaluate their performance more easily as they will be expected to hand in the work they do.

Once they have registered for the page, they will have to listen independently to a short paragraph, which will also act as a model paragraph for the writing task later. They will listen and repeat after the audio; they will have headphones or earphones, so the amount of embarrassment experienced will be reduced somewhat (I say reduced because I think some will still be shy even if no one can hear them.).

SIDENOTE on EMBARRASSMENT

What I refer to is the feeling some students have when they have to read or speak in front of others. I have had some students speak more quietly than usual, and I’ve even had one who turned red. Of course, I tried as much as possible to encourage a relaxed atmosphere, but for some students it is still difficult to perform such tasks, hence I decided to try such a task this year.

CLASS STRUCTURE CNTD:

Textbook focus

After practicing the paragraph alone, they will then practice with a partner, changing the highlighted words in the paragraph with ones provided in the book. Next, they have about two writing activities that will be written out in their notebooks. These activities mainly consist of comprehension and grammar or vocabulary questions. Once they finish that, there may be one or two listening questions, depending on the chapter, that will have to do on their own. Again they will write the answers in the notebook. Finally, they will have to write a short paragraph based on the theme of the chapter, and that too will be written in their notebooks. Finally, these notebooks will be submitted to me for review at the end of class.

Internet Focus

Honestly, I am not sure if they will be able to complete all of what I am planning to have them do since I have not done this before, but once they finish the textbook tasks, they will have to go on-line again to the academic word list practice site where they will have to work through the list and some of the questions for that list. I will also expect them to email me this work as this will be included in their grade.

TODAY’S CLASS:

I won’t go into very much detail about what I did because today’s class followed the same pattern as yesterday’s class with the exception of having them write down their information in Excel. However, I was able to get this information (name and student number) via a questionnaire I distributed to find out which units they would like to do this semester. I did this because there will only be 12 classes this semester (two classes will be tests, and today’s class was orientation) and one of those 12 will focus on introductions. Therefore, that only leaves 11 classes, but there are fourteen units, so I had them choose them, which I think is better than me choosing them. It also allows me to get an idea of their interests, which is important, too. Next week will be the real start and I’ll be able to get a better idea of who my students are and what they can do. I will also be able to see how my plan will work, but of course, like all tentative plans, I’m sure that some things will probably have to be altered, but that’s one of the ways we learn how to teach, isn’t it? Trial and Error?

Cheers,
eisensei

SYLLABUS:

このプリントは重要です！紛失しないでください

**********************************
Classroom: ********************************
Time: 10:40 – 12:10 Thursday
Instructor: ******************************
E-mail: ********************************
OFFICE: ***************************

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

New Easy Writing (MLH)
Earphones or headphones
Dictionary
Notebook

NOTE: Students who do not bring these items will lose points.

WEBSITE:

Academic Word List (http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com)
New Easy Writing (http://www.mlh.co.jp/sp/school?type=28)

GOALS:

By the end of the course, you should:
-be able to write a short paragraph on various topics
-have a larger vocabulary
-have a better listening ability

SCHEDULE:

April
15 ORIENTATION
22 Unit 1 Introductions

May
6
13
20
27

June
3
10 TEST 1
17
24

July
1
8
15
22
29 TEST 2

GRADES:

Grades will be based upon the following criteria:

*Attendance
Participation
Weekly Quizzes
Vocabulary Exercises
Midterm Test
Final Test

*If you come at 10:55 or later, you will be marked absent.
*If you are absent 3 times, you will receive an F.
*If you are absent for a valid reason, you must give me that reason in writing by 1:00 PM Friday. If you fail to give me this notice of absence, you will be marked absent.

It begins...

2010-04-14T10:01:00.004+09:00

Hello everyone!

Well, I've officially started my second year today. My first class of the new academic year was an advanced TOEIC preparation class. This class only has 8 students so far, so it should be an interesting semester. Also, unlike last year, I am conducting this class in a computer room. There are three reasons that I decided to do this:

1. Academic Word List
There is a very good site, in my opinion, that has all the lists plus loads of questions to practice the vocabulary with immediate feedback.

2. Listening Practice
I think sites such as VOA or Breaking News English are good for practicing listening comprehension.

3. Email
Something that I am considering trying, although I am not sure if it will work well since it is my first time to try this, is have the students email me at the end of class vocabulary lists of words that they did not know. I would then take these lists and make vocabulary quizzes for the students based on the most frequent words in their lists.

CLASS STRUCTURE

Like the email idea above, I am not sure how this will work out either, but each class will follow a similar structure.

1. TEXTBOOK
Students will first work through the textbook (see below), but it is up to the student to choose the order; I have given them complete freedom in this matter. As they finish each question, they will submit their answers for marking, which I will do in class since there are so few students (one of the many advantages of a small class). Next, they will go back through the questions, highlighting the words they did not know. They will then make a list of those words with Japanese translation using Excel.

2. AWL
After a certain time, they will be expected to go online to work on the AWL, first starting with list 1 and so on. They will have to go through the vocabulary making sure they know the pronunciation, part of speech and meaning in Japanese of those words they don't know, and they will include these words in their list as well. After that, they will work through the questions on the website. Each list has 6 groups of 3 sets of 10 questions, so I am thinking of asking them to do only 1 set from each group. Also if there is time, I will ask them to add the words they don't know from the questions to the list they have already made that class.

3. INTERNET LISTENING (COOL DOWN TASK)
Finally, they will email me this list and with the remainder of the time they will listen to an article from VOA or BNE. This will not only give them some listening practice, but it will also work as a post-task activity, or more importantly, a way to relax a little after having worked so intensively.

TODAY'S CLASS

The purpose of today's class was to explain the course. I first introduced myself, stating explicitly what we would be doing in the course. I then had them write their names on cards with a marker - these cards will be placed on the computer they use to help me remember their names. I also had them hold these cards in front of them and I took a picture of them in pairs. Again, this was also for the purpose of remembering their names. Since there are so few students, however, I am quite confident that forgetting names in this class will not be a problem.

Once I finished taking their photos, I went through the syllabus (see below) explaining things in more detail, stopping at certain times to ask them if they had any questions. I also told them that if they ever had any questions they could email me or come to my office. Finally, I had them enter some personal information into the computer that I will use to make the student list for this class.

Well, I think that is it for today. Things are going to be busier for me this year, so I really can't spend so much time writing these, but I will do my best to continue them throughout the year. For those of you who are starting like me, good luck and all the best this year!

Cheers,
eisensei

-------------------------CLASS SYLLABUS-------------------------

このプリントは重要です！紛失しないでください

*******************************
Classroom: ***********************************
Time: 9:00 – 10:30 Wednesday
Instructor: ********************************
E-mail: **************************************
OFFICE: ********************************************

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

Reading Guide to the TOEIC Test (Thomson)
Earphones or headphones
Dictionary

NOTE: Students who do not bring these items will lose points.

Academic Word List (http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com)

GOALS:

By the end of the course, you should:
-be able to improve your TOEIC score, especially in the reading section
-have a larger vocabulary

SCHEDULE:

April
14 ORIENTATION
21
28

May
12
19
26

June
2
9 TEST 1
16
23
30

July
7
14
28

August
4 TEST 2

GRADES:

Grades will be based upon the following criteria:

*Attendance
Participation
Weekly Quizzes
Vocabulary Exercises
Midterm Test
Final Test
TOEIC Test Score

*If you come at 9:15 or later, you will be marked absent.
*If you are absent 3 times, you will receive an F.
*If you are absent for a valid reason, you must give me that reason in writing by 1:00 PM Thursday. If you fail to give me this notice of absence, you will be marked absent.

Belated thank you's and a groovy article

2010-04-02T13:54:00.004+09:00

A belated thank you

First of all, sorry for not doing this sooner, but I would to thank everyone for their comments on my last post. I really appreciated all the advice and the fact that I am not the only one who can be completely open with students. I especially liked Barbara’s comment about sharing information, which I now try to keep in mind when talking with students.

A VERY good article

Every Friday, I receive ELTNEWS.COM’s weekly newsletter, and while I don’t always read it, I decided to take a look at this week’s articles and stumbled upon Mike Guest’s article, ESS- How Tomoyuki lost his groove. I won’t go into any details, but I highly recommend you read it if you already haven’t.

Cheers,
eisensei

Teacher-Student Relationship : How open is too open?

2010-03-15T21:13:00.005+09:00

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about something recently and would like to hear what you have to say about it.

Everyday we interact with our students in and out of class. Over time we may build relationships with some of our students, some closer than others. Some of us may even go out from time to time with some of those students and obviously discuss various topics, some of which may revolve around you, as some students are curious to know more about their teacher.

My question is therefore,

How open is too open?

What I mean is how much should we let our students know about ourselves as a person? Of course there is a limit, but beyond the obvious, how open should we be with our students?

Cheers,
eisensei

The ROBOT EFL Revolution?

2010-03-08T22:45:00.003+09:00

Hi everyone,

I know I just posted not too long ago, but I was just taking a look at the David English House e-mail newsletter when I stumbled across the following article:

Robots to Replace Native English Teachers

What do you think? Can we be replaced?

Cheers,
eisensei

Discussing pragmatics now are we?

2010-03-08T21:11:00.006+09:00

Hi everyone!

I just had my first official discussion meeting with a grad school classmate, and I think things went really well. We discussed a variety of topics including the dummy operator verb ‘do’, which Leech (2006) explains as follows:

"[T]he verb do, used as an auxiliary, is often called the dummy operator because it has no meaning of its own but exists simply to fill the 'slot' of operator when an operator is needed to form (for example) negative or interrogative sentences. In a similar way, it can be called a dummy subject when it fills the subject slot in sentences like: It's a pity that they wasted so much time."

We also did an analysis of a small dialogue based on the properties of everyday language as stated in Peter Grundy’s book Doing Pragmatics (2008). For those of you who are unfamiliar with these properties, there are nine in total:

1. Appropriateness
-Use of the most appropriate language for the given context
2. Non-literal or indirect meaning
3. Inference
4. Indeterminacy
-Ambiguous or unclear utterances, which leads the addressee to infer its meaning
5. Context
6. Relevance
-Understanding an utterance by choosing its most relevant meaning for the context in which it was uttered
7. Accommodation
-Background information, often cultural
8. Reflexivity
-Advice, or information a speaker provides to facilitate the understanding of his or her utterance
9. Misfires
-Misunderstandings

And here is the dialogue we used for the analysis:

A: Are you an exchange student?
B: No, I'm a teacher here.
A: Oh. Where are you from?
B: I'm from Canada.
A: Nice.

Although we have already discussed our own analyses, if you are interested in pragmatics, or if you happen to be studying it as well, just go ahead and leave a comment and tell me, “How would you analyze this dialogue?”

Cheers,
Eisensei

References:

Leech, Geoffrey N. (2006) A Glossary of English Grammar (Edinburgh University Press).
Grundy, Peter (2008) Doing Pragmatics (Hodder Education)

PS. Although I used Leech’s book as a reference, I actually found the quote for the dummy operator verb here on About.com, but was unsure as to how to make such a reference, so went with the original source. If anyone knows how to make such a reference, or if anyone knows of a resource for explaining such references, please let me know and I can make the changes.

Coming out of blogger hibernation

2010-03-03T17:45:00.011+09:00

Hello, everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe that it has almost been a month since my last post. Why haven't I been posting? Well, honestly, my reasons are pretty much the same as those Martin Tuttle gave on his blog last month - except for the baby part. I was quite surprised to stumble upon his post yesterday when checking my Google Reader, something I need to do more, and see that there was someone else who felt the same way. So thanks to you Mr. Tuttle, I've decided to try to post more often despite not having classes. Of course, I will begin posting regularly again from April when my classes start, but until then, I will try to keep myself in the blogosphere as much as possible. So tonight, for my comeback, if you will, I have prepared, what will probably be my biggest post - I would like to present the self-access language learning center that I have set up at the university where I am currently teaching. I hope you enjoy it and I welcome all your comments.

Cheers,
eisensei

PS: Maybe I don't need to say this, but just in case, please click on the photos, graphs etc to enlarge them.

--------------------------------------------

SAC - Introduction

Since the 1960s and 1970s, when the first resource centers and self-access systems were developed, the notion of self-access has prospered, both as theory and practice. Self-access centers are now common in many countries, and Japan is no exception (Jones, J.F. 1995; Gremmo, M., Riley, P. 1995). In order to clarify the goal of such a self-access center, Sheerin explains:

“The primary aim of such facilities is to enable learning to take place independently of teaching. Students are able to choose and use self-access material on their own and the material gives them the ability to correct or assess their own performance. By using such a self-access facility, students are able to direct their own learning.”

(Sheerin, 1989: 3)

The type of self-access system that I have set up is that of the ‘supermarket’ system, which offers the learner the opportunity to look around and choose what to study (Miller, L., Rogerson-Revell, P. 1993). Ultimately, I would like to have the students themselves organize, control, and maintain the center with the teacher’s role being that of an advisor or guidance counselor.

References

Gremmo, M. & Riley, P. (1995) Autonomy, self-direction and self access in language teaching and learning: the history of an idea. System, 23(2):151-164.
Jones, J.F., (1995) Self-access and culture: retreating from autonomy. ELT Journal, 49(3):228-234.
Miller, L. & Rogerson-Revell, P. (1993) Self-access systems. ELT Journal, 47(3): 228-233.
Sheerin, S. (1990) Self-Access (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

History of SAC

June 2009
I distributed a survey to all my students to find out which materials they would like to have in the center.
Using this data, I proposed the idea of setting up a self-access center at the departmental meeting.

July and August 2009
A budget was created for the project.
I started discussing floor plans and materials with my student volunteer staff.

October 2009
The room for the SAC was renovated.
I ordered the necessary materials for the SAC, ie furniture, DVD players, books etc.
I presented the SAC to students at the department orientation and asked for volunteers.

October 2009 – February 2010
In one of my classes, I had students make supplemental materials for the graded readers available in the SAC.

January 2010
The materials arrived.
I started to get the room ready, ie assembling shelves, arranging materials etc, together with the student volunteer staff.

February 2010
We conducted trial opening of the SAC, which is still underway.
At the end of the semester, I discussed the SAC in all of my classes.
The staff and I made and put up posters to advertise the SAC.

March 2010
I presented the SAC to a group of professors.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Plans for 2010/2011

I intend to re-distribute a modified questionnaire to all students.
I will try to recruit new staff including more exchange students.
I will announce via memo the opening of the SAC to all faculty members in order to request support and materials.
I will allocate two courses to SAC material preparation
Spring Semester - Audio/Visual
Fall Semester – Reading

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Survey for SAC and Survey Results (June 2009)

I used a bilingual survey with a 6-point Likert scale, with 1 being ‘No, not at all.’ and 6 being ‘Yes, I would really be interested.’ I also asked them to write their name, sex and age.

Key

Peach – 6 (Yes, I would be really interested.)
Purple – 5 (Yes, I would be interested.)
Pale Blue – 4 (Yes, I would be a little interested.)
Pale Yellow – 3 (No, I don’t think I would be interested.)
Burgundy – 2 (No, I wouldn’t be interested.)
Lavender – 1 (No, I wouldn’t be interested at all.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Floor Plan

---------------------------------------------------------------------

SAC Assistant Responsibilities

-tidying
-checking out materials
-answering questions related to the center/materials
-checking inventory
-selecting materials
-making displays/posters
-planning events
-inputting data
-peer exchange

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Materials Available in the SAC

---------------------------------------------------------------------

SAC Material Preparation - Activity Making Process

1. Choose a chapter. Any chapter is OK, but the first chapter may be the best to use.
2. Write out the chapter using Word.
3. Read the chapter.
4. Write down any words you don’t know or any words you think students may not know.
5. Use a dictionary to find out each word’s part of speech (noun, verb, etc), and meaning (Japanese, English or both).
6. Choose the order of the activities you will make, and begin making them.
7. Once you have completed the activities, read the rest of the book.
8. Write down any words you don’t know or any words you think students may not know.
9. Use a dictionary to find out each word’s part of speech (noun, verb, etc), and meaning (Japanese, English or both).

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The SAC

Is it the end or is it just the beginning?

2010-02-05T17:25:00.003+09:00

First of all, just in case any of you was wondering what happened to me this past week, allow me to explain. There are two reasons mainly:

END OF SEMESTER

Well this does not really necessitate any explanation as I’m sure most of you are full aware how busy it gets at the end, preparing tests, collecting reports, marking and grading, both which I still haven’t finished, but will try to over the next two weeks.

SELF-ACCESS LANGUAGE LEARNING CENTER

It took me a year, but it’s finally coming to fruition – the university’s first SAC. Next week will be the trial opening, so a lot of my time was taken up with last minute preparations and meetings; actually, I’m still not quite ready, but tomorrow I will have one more meeting that should do the job. I will not really get into any detail yet as to what I’m doing because over the next two months I will not have any classes, so this will give me something to write about until then!

MONDAY’S LAST COMMUNICATION CLASS

This actually was my final class for the semester since the rest of the week was scheduled for tests. I started with the review as usual, and then did the listening comprehension with the textbook’s dialogue (the theme was leaving a party or a dinner). However, what I did next was different from what I had done in Friday’s class – I wrote on the blackboard the situation, ‘You are at a party or someone’s house for dinner’. I then wrote the following question, ‘What are some reasons you can give for having to leave?’ Now I chose to do the listening comprehension first in order to present the context more clearly, but also to give them some examples/ideas, unlike what I did in Thursday’s class, and which I should have done. I then gave them about 5 to 10 minutes to write down as many ideas as possible in pairs. As I walked around, I noticed that many students were using the same expression, ‘I have to’, so I wrote that on the board and asked them to think of different ways to say the same thing. When the time was up, I started asking students to write their reasons on the board, one per student. Once all the students had a turn, I went through the reasons correcting where necessary and by the time we finished this, the class was over. Now I corrected the sentences myself because this was our last class, but in the future, I could collect these and have them work on these sentences the following week. I was also thinking that using something like Facebook or Mixi could help facilitate the sentence collection as I could just have each student immediately post their sentence, something else to think about for next year.

MY TWO FAVORITE EXAMPLES

Although there were many different and good reasons, like feeling ill or an angry mother, the reasons that I liked were actually reasons that perhaps one shouldn’t use when a guest. These were:

I have to go because I’m bored.
I must go because there is a TV show that I have to watch.

Now, with friends, the second one could be possible, but I think for no situation would the first one be OK. These examples gave me an idea for next time – perhaps I could first ask them for good reasons, and then ask them for bad ones and maybe even ask them why those reasons are considered inappropriate. It may also be interesting to have students rank the good reasons in order from worst to best. Finally, I could have students make conversations based on these examples.

IT’S OK TO TAKE MORE THAN ONE CLASS FOR ONE LESSON

I think this is one thing I have learned from this class, and will try to consider in the future. Until now, I usually have one lesson for one class, with the exception of review which usually takes the form of a review test, but after this lesson, I realized that there is so much material and so many possibilities that it would be very difficult if not impossible to get through it all in a 90 minute lesson, and since I’m not under any obligation to finish a certain amount of chapters in a semester, I shouldn’t worry if a lesson goes over one class. Of course, I should probably avoid taking four or five classes for one lesson, but perhaps that could be possible. What do you think? Come to think of it, though, my composition class was something like that because students were continually working through the semester without really having a clearly defined end or beginning.

I think I will stop here because I really need to set a time limit for how long I write. Perhaps more shorter blogs might be the answer, but I really do have to organize my time or it’s game over. Next week I will talk about my impressions of my first year as a full-time teacher, my class evaluations that I received from students and the SAC. Until then, have a good weekend!

MESSAGES

Karenne, thanks for tagging me and your message about Martin's article, but I have question – for the tagging game, I am supposed to introduce two people I know, but I only know you and Darren, so what should I do? Can I introduce two people I don’t know?

Darren, thanks for the comment on commenting. I think my blog already has the functions you mentioned, but I will check again.

Charles, thanks for linking me. When I get the time I will visit your blog and link you to my site.

Cheers,
eisensei

A Dogme ELT Play in 2 Acts

2010-01-28T19:41:00.004+09:00

Could this be my first step into Dogme ELT? – ACT 1

General English - Thursday

So Thursday is now officially over. Today we looked at hopes and intentions. First, I gave them a review quiz, which took the students some time to finish on account of its length – the students had to put 20 sentences in order to make the dialogue that we did last week. Once finished though, I did something quite different - I told them to put their books away. I then had them choose a color marker, but I did not allow two students sitting together to have the same color. Once everyone had markers, I told them to find a partner with the same color. After everyone had done this, I wrote hopes and intentions on the board and introduced the topic. I then asked them to think of ways to talk about such things, ie the future. Immediately, many students started asking one another what they had to do, meaning that they did not exactly get it, or rather I did not explain it well enough, so I wrote an example on the board; I chose ‘will’ first because I thought that it would make things clear for them, but also I expected that they would write this one first, and I really wanted them to think of other expressions. I gave them between 5 and 10 minutes to think of different expressions, but really I should have only given them 5 (I think I will be a timer for next year because this will make keeping time much simpler) because the more time students have the more they will speak in Japanese although students were speaking Japanese from the beginning, something that we all have experienced and struggled with I’m sure.

Intermission 1

Actually, if there are any blogs or articles on getting students to use English more – I don’t expect students to speak 100% of the time in class, although there may be some teachers who can get their students to do this, and if there are, I would love to hear from them – I would greatly appreciate any links to such sites. Anyway, let’s get back to the story.

Intermission 2

Actually though, one more thing I have to mention, and I would love to hear from other teachers about this, but I am considering making it mandatory to bring supplies such as notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers and especially dictionaries and that if students fail to bring these things, I am thinking of docking points or some other kind of punishment. I know, I don’t like the punishment word either, but each semester I tell students in the beginning to bring these things, but still I see students come to class without such things, and some students even seem proud to have nothing, and it always makes me wonder, ‘What are you intending to do here if you don’t have the necessities?’ because even with Dogme ELT, such things are necessary, am I right? I suppose I could remind students each week, but I am not sure if that would really work. Of course, it’s not everyone, fortunately, but I can’t help feel that there are more students like this than there should be.

Could this be my first step into Dogme ELT? – ACT 2

While they were writing, I walked around observing what students wrote, helping them when necessary. For example, some students had written ‘I wish’, so I explained that we don’t use this for future hopes and intentions. After their time was up, I had students come up to the board and write down the different expressions. Some of them were the following:

I’m planning to…
I’m going to…
I’d like to…
I hope to…
I want to…
I desire to…
My dream is to…
Etc

I then gave them another 10 minutes, although I think they had more than that (again, I need to buy a timer) to write down their hopes, intentions, and dreams for the spring break, for next year and for five years later. Some students could not think of such things at first, but after some support they were able to. One student was struggling to come up with ideas, but I told the student that one’s hopes, dreams and intentions didn’t always have to be big, but even the little ones were important, and the student immediately started writing many things. Finally, I had each student come up to the front of class to present what they would like to do for each time period. Again some of the hopes and intentions were on a small scale, such as learning how to cook a certain dish, and others were on a much larger one, for example one student wanted to stop war. Once everyone had finished, I praised them for their ideas, and I repeated what I had told the student earlier about the importance of all dreams and hopes, big and small, because they were their dreams and hopes. I was then going to finish with a short dialogue that focused on hopes and intentions when one of my students asked me what my hopes and dreams were, a question that I greatly appreciated because it showed the student being active. Here is what I said more or less:

I would like to learn Italian. Honestly, I don’t know why, but I love the way it sounds. However, between Japanese and French and other things, I am not sure if I have the time, but it would be nice to know even a few words. My dream is to be a musician. Yes, I’ve said it. A long time ago I played for 200 people, some of whom cried when they heard my song (I am not joking), and ever since, I’ve wanted, and still do, to become a musician. However, my immediate goal is to read more and learn more about teaching so that I can become a better teacher.

By the time we finished, there was not enough time for the dialogue, so I talked about their test and then let them go.

Self-Feedback

One thing that I did not do was to note their mistakes. I think I did not do this because I wanted to focus on their ideas, and also it was the last class, but I think in the future, I would take in their posters, write out their sentences on a handout and the following week have them look at their sentences to see if they could find their mistakes, and then correct them together. Another thing I should have done was to ask them explicitly to try and use the new expressions because not many of them did so far as I could tell. Many used ‘want to’, ‘will’, ‘going to’ and ‘would like to’, but I think they already knew these, so unfortunately we missed a good opportunity to practice the new expressions. Of course, there were the time limits, too, which should have been enforced better. I probably should have been clearer about their posters telling them explicitly just to write the phrases because many just read their sentences straight from their posters. Another thing that perhaps could have been interesting was to have the students write an example for each expression as a way to practice the expressions before they presented. I’m also thinking that maybe I should have done the listening task first as it would have given them a better context for hopes and intentions. I’m sure there are many other things I could say, if I thought about it long enough, but I still have some work that I must finish for tomorrow, so I will have to stop here. I think in the end though, that this lesson went fairly well, and I think the students enjoyed it, which is important, but that there are some bugs to be worked out, but as with most new things, that is to be expected.

Cheers,
eisensei

What will the autonomous learner think of next?

2010-01-28T14:45:00.003+09:00

Last Thursday Reading and Writing Class and How to Get Students to Ask Questions

Well, today was the last reading and writing class for the year, well not really the last because we have a test next week, but I never really count test day as a class. The activities for the lesson included a final worksheet on the indefinite and definite articles, a reading exercise, a sentence correction activity, a worksheet on ‘be going to’ and a writing task which asked the students to talk about what they would do during the break. After they students received their package and started working, I walked around telling them that if they had any questions, they could ask me; only one student did though. Of course I could add the adverb unfortunately, but the fact that one student asked me a question would be enough to end the previous sentence with fortunately, I think. Also, at the end, two students asked me about the difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’ and when it is needed. Now, this was written in Japanese on the handout, but as I’ve come to realize, perhaps a more direct approach to teaching the articles may be in order. However, that said, I think that students should try to ask more questions, even if it is after class. If I continue this lesson style next year, I will try a modified version of Karenne’s advice (again, thanks Karenne!) of having students ask me questions. However, as the students choose the order in which they do the activities, it may be difficult to ask students after each activity for questions if they don’t understand, especially if you have almost 40 students, so what might be a good idea in this class would be to have students email me, or write questions down and submit them before leaving (an idea that stemmed from Karenne’s advice). Perhaps in this way, students may feel more comfortable asking me things.

Was this really learner autonomy?

I am asking myself this question because it is a valid one, and perhaps some or maybe all of you are thinking that just giving the students a choice in what order to do the activities does not really constitute learner autonomy, and after conducting such a lesson for a year, I would probably agree with you. However, if we consider this as the first step to fostering learner autonomy, then maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Of course, I now have to ask myself, ‘Ok, if this was the first step, then what next?’ to which I do have some ideas, such as giving students complete freedom in what they write about or having students choose what they would like to focus on/review next class and prepare that for them. However, these ideas still seem to be teacher focused to me, the latter more so than the former I should say, as they all come from me and not from the students. The more I think about it, though, perhaps what is really needed is a compromise between complete autonomy and complete teacher control. I know that it is important for students to take control of their learning in order to become fully autonomous learners, but I also know that not all students are interested in such control, let’s be honest, so maybe giving them the choice, with the guidance of the teacher, of course, of what to focus on based on materials provided by the teacher may be an idea to try, and by encouraging students to make opportunities for learning such as going to a library/SAC, going on-line etc, might just be the next step needed for fostering more learner autonomy in this class.

Would you like to come over for some Dogme ELT? Maybe you could ask me about disappearing sounds after?

2010-01-25T12:05:00.001+09:00

Monday Foreign Communication

Today's lesson followed Friday's plan. We started with review, and then I dictated some questions. After looking at their answers we practiced the conversation and then the key expressions together. Next, we did task 2, a fill-in-the-blank task, which I had them practice in pairs afterward. Once finished, we did the conversation construction activity. After that, we moved on to Part B of disappearing sounds, which asked them to find the linking sounds. While they were working I wrote the sentences on the board and then had them come up to write in the answers, again making sure beforehand that their answers were OK. I finally had the students repeat after me first slowly with all sounds present and unlinked and then more quickly including all disappearing and linking sounds.

A hint of Dogmeism at the end of the tunnel

I think I had my first Dogme idea in class today (I should mention that I may have had ideas in the past, but at that time I had not known what Dogme ELT was, or wasn’t really thinking about it.). Today’s unit focused on inviting, making excuses, reasons for not going and finally making plans. I was going through the unit when it occurred to me that perhaps instead of having the students go through the expressions in the book, maybe I should have them first think of ways to invite someone, and make excuses for not being able to go. Now, I am not exactly sure where I was in the unit, but unfortunately, I did not try this out, and I think the main reason was that it was not part of the lesson, it would have been spontaneous, and since I had certain things to get done, I did not want to jeopardize that. I know that I may have missed a good opportunity to try something new here, but on the bright side, I think I may have something to try in the future, especially if I go with this book again, and if I am worried that such an activity may take up too much class time, I can always assign some of the book for homework. What do you think? Was this a Dogme moment?

After class

As I was cleaning the board, one of my students asked me a great question. One of the examples that was a tag question, went as follows:

John and Mary are coming, aren’t they?

Now, in class I did not mention that the ‘g’ could disappear, I am not sure why, but maybe it had slipped my mind, although since today was the sixth time to use this handout because this activity took two classes to finish, and I used it in three classes, I am really not sure how it could have slipped my mind, or why no one had mentioned it until now, but anyway, she asked me if in fact the ‘g’ could disappear, which I answered yes, but added that it was less common than say the ‘d’ disappearing from the word ‘and’. However, I am thinking that I probably should not have said that because perhaps the disappearing ‘g’ is in fact just as common as the other disappearing sounds, although personally, I would probably omit the ‘d’ from ‘and’ or the ‘t’ from ‘right’ for example more often than I would omit the ‘g’ from ‘talking’ or ‘studying’. Anyway, I am getting away from the point I am trying to make, but what I am trying to say is that I wish my students would come out more and ask questions during class and not wait until the end of class, although I do appreciate questions at any time because it shows me that they are interested, curious and active in their learning. I know it must be hard when there are 30 or 40 people in the class, but it would be nice to be asked questions more often. Unfortunately, from my experience, most students tend not to do so, and despite me asking them explicitly to ask questions when they don’t know or understand something, they hesitate. I am sure I am not the only one who has experienced such a class, but how have you dealt with this?

Leavin' so soon? But we just started learning about linking and disappearing sounds.

2010-01-25T11:20:00.004+09:00

Friday Foreign Communication

I am only getting around to posting Friday’s class because I was quite busy on Friday. This was our last class for the semester, as the next class will be the final exam. As usual, we started with a review test, and then we looked at unit 15, the last unit in the book, which focused on the end of an evening when it’s time to go. I dictated some questions, and after answering them, I had them repeat after the CD. We then practiced several expressions in the textbook covering the basics on how to end an evening, how to keep a guest longer and how to finally say goodbye. I first had them repeat after me, and then I had them read and repeat after each other. By the time we finished we only had about 30 minutes left, so I had them do task 4 in the textbook which was a conversation construction task similar to the ones I had been making. I gave them about 7 minutes to practice and remember the conversation, but as the time was almost up, I noticed that some students were still having difficulty remembering the dialogue, so I gave them a couple extra minutes before having several pairs present. Finally, as we did not have enough time to look at the pronunciation activity – contrastive stress – I gave them the outline of the test.

Pronunciation

Thinking back to the contrastive stress worksheet, it made me reconsider what I had been doing this semester with regarding to pronunciation teaching. I have come to believe that what is really important for them is not so much word stress or contrastive stress, but rather linking and disappearing sounds because they are more pertinent for listening comprehension in that they are ubiquitous in all utterances whereas something such as contrastive stress is not. I also think that having only one class a week is not enough really to help students understand the rules because they are in fact rules and once you know them or at least are fully aware of them, I think listening to English can become easier for some students. Of course there are still things such as slang and vocabulary which need to be dealt with, but perhaps if a student can grasp such topics as linking and disappearing sounds, he or she may be able to catch these words better, and thus further their understanding. I think therefore that next year, I may focus more of my lessons on those two aspects of listening comprehension. I could focus on these things in class, and then assign listening homework, or have the students find something they like, and ask them to try to highlight those links and disappearing sounds for next class. It may be an idea that just might work.

Do Canadians really say 'aboot' for 'about'? And other general stuff.

2010-01-21T19:14:00.006+09:00

Thursday General English

Today's lesson followed the same format I've been using recently, namely review of last week, followed by comprehension questions on a dialogue, a pair work conversation task and finally pronunciation practice.

The unit's theme was Life Stories, ie learning how to talk about one's life, however, I think if I were a teacher trainer, I would have failed myself because I did not get the students to talk about themselves and despite the other chapters being somewhat distant from the students, eg restaurant talk and shopping, talking about one's life up to now could have been interesting, and at the same time easy for them to do because they would have known most of the vocabulary necessary considering it's about their hometowns, schools etc. Obviously, they would not have been able to practice all the vocabulary considering the book looks at one's life from birth to death, with things such as marriage and children, but they could have talked about where they were born, what their hometown was like, what they think of the place they live now etc. I am not sure why I only thought of it now, perhaps I was too focused on the usual lesson plan to think of including something like that. Although I haven’t decided on whether or not to change books next year, if I do continue using this one, I will definitely include that activity, although I will probably have them ask each other questions and perhaps present their partner at the end because if not, the students may revert to Japanese thus rendering such an opportunity less effective for speaking practice.

Contrastive Stress

The pronunciation today was contrastive stress. I think everyone knows what this is, but just in case, and hey, it gives me a chance to try to explain it in my own words, simply put, it’s the stress we use to signal the contrast between elements in an utterance or a dialogue, so for example,

A: Is this my pen?
B: No, it’s MY pen.

The extra stress, or prominence as it is called falls on MY in order to highlight the fact that it is not your pen but mine, the two items in opposition.

The task was quite straightforward – students had to underline the word that received the most stress in the responses to various statements and questions. After having them write the answers on the board, I had different pairs practice aloud the short dialogue, and then we practiced together. I also had them use hand gestures to help them understand the ‘extra’ stress that the contrasting word gets.

I have a question ‘aboot’ the listening

Since the pronunciation did not take so long, we had time to do the listening in the book before the class ended. However, I was surprised by what a heard – Canadian English, but it felt forced, especially on the word ‘about’, which sounded like ‘aboot’. Now, I am Canadian, but I really have to ask you all, and especially the Canadians out there, do we really say, ‘aboot’? Is it common because personally I have only heard it in comedy and never when talking with other Canadians. Of course, I have never been to British Columbia, and I haven’t spent much time in Quebec or Ontario or the other provinces for that matter, mainly stayed on the East Coast of Canada, something I hope to remedy in the future, but are there Canadians who say ‘Let’s talk aboot your life’?

One final note

I decided to add this here because I only thought of it now. It’s interesting that students don’t ask questions although I ask them to especially when they don’t know something. I’m referring to the comprehension questions. I made up nine questions and I dictated them quite quickly to illustrate the disappearing sounds and linking sounds that I have been teaching. I also did this in the hope that students would ask for clarification, which some do, but for some reason, for the following question, no one asked,

Who is Pedro?

The answer was George’s best friend, but when I asked the student whom I had asked for the answer to spell it, she couldn’t. I then asked the whole class, but no one seemed to know, so I had them as a class to work it out, which in itself was a great activity, but why didn’t they ask me to spell Pedro, when they asked me to spell George? It really makes me wonder, but I can’t for the life of me think as to why they didn’t.

What would you do if you won 10 billion yen?

2010-01-21T18:03:00.003+09:00

Thursday Reading and Writing Class

Today’s lesson consisted of a reading activity, two worksheets on the conditional, a writing task using the conditional, and another sentence correction. Following last week’s model, I prepared packages and placed them on desks, asking students to sit where they saw a package. If I continue this style of lesson in the future, I will definitely have packages because it is a great time-saving device, and I really can’t say why I didn’t think of it sooner. I also tried something different which I think worked well, too – I asked students explicitly to submit work as they finished instead of waiting until the end to submit everyone at once. I chose to do this for two reasons, the first being that it freed up space on their desks, which may or may not interfere with their work, but hey, a clean desk is better, isn’t? The second reason was that towards the end I am usually looking at students’ paragraphs, so I can’t always see what’s going on, so this was a way to ensure that students did not copy from someone, although I am fairly sure no one has done it yet; let’s just consider it a preventative measure if you will, because you can never know.

The Conditional

Today’s conditional writing task asked the question, ‘What would you do if you won a billion yen?’ I got a lot of great answers such as, ‘I would save it’, or ‘I would give it to charity’, but there were some answers that I really liked such as ‘I would buy an island’, or ‘I would buy a castle’, and there was even one answer that said, ‘I would waste it’, if I remember correctly. The reason why I like these answers is not that they’re different, unique, but that those students used their imagination and broke away from such answers such as buying clothes, a house etc. Actually, I just got an idea - it may be interesting, if I have time of course, to look through the paragraphs counting the things that they said they would do and post them as a sort of top ten list of things my students would do if they won 10 billion yen. Actually, what would YOU do if you won 10 billion yen (about $109 million US, 78 million euros, $115 million CAN)? I think I would probably donate some of it, but a recording studio with lots of instruments in a nice, old castle with a well-stocked wine cellar on an island does have a nice ring to it. Anyway, getting back to the subject, the paragraphs were fairly well written, although many students thought that using would in the first sentence meant that they could just use the simple present in the remainder of the paragraph. Now that I think about it though, this could be interference from their L1, Japanese, because they don’t express the conditional with modals as we do, and often in Japanese, it would be, directly translated, ‘If…, I want to…’, which is what some of my students wrote. However, since I have the students show me their rough draft before they go on to write the final draft, I was able to point this out to them through explicit feedback. I may not have mentioned this, but for the other activities, although some will have explanations written, I only discuss the writing task with them. Of course, if students have questions about a certain task, they can ask me, but unfortunately most do not, which kind of makes me think that perhaps they hesitate asking me for some reason, despite me telling them that they could at any time ask me questions. Hmmm, maybe I should be more explicit next time.

Textbook Dilemma

As for the textbook decision, I have found a textbook that I like, but I am wondering if I really should go with it next year considering that I spent my first year building up a repertoire of materials. Actually, that reminds me, I was talking about this with my wife the other day that I tend to change books or lessons between semesters quite often. I am not sure why though. I guess the main reason is that I didn’t like the textbook for various reasons, but even the textbook is not that bad, and I’ve all these activities and materials, I still think of changing it for the next time, and often go back to the start. Interestingly enough, I also tend not to use the materials I’ve made from one semester to another, although there have been times when I have, for example with my reading and writing class, but even now, as I wrote above, I am thinking of using a book that will probably make it difficult to use those materials, or maybe it won’t? I suppose I could just modify them and that shouldn’t be difficult, now should it? Maybe I have made up my mind after all.

Last stop for TOEIC Town! All aboard! + Reply to Darren's Comment about Dogme ELT

2010-01-20T14:41:00.003+09:00

Wednesday TOEIC

Today we had our final class since the last two will be use for TOEIC mock tests. We looked at unit 28, the final unit on Part 7, which focused on forms/charts/tables/emails-a slightly different double passage question type, and probably the hardest for students. The tips were skimming the questions and choosing which passage to look at to find the answer. The chapter also focused on the different parts of the charts/forms/emails/tables in order to help students understand better where to look.

We started the class with the weekly vocabulary review. However, this time I gave them some individual study time to prepare before putting them into pairs. I think this worked better, but since it seems that many are not taking the time to work on the lists outside of class, I think quizzes or homework would be a solution; as I explained in a previous post, next year I will not base their mark solely on their test scores, but make participation a prominent part.

After we finished, we corrected Unit 21 Quiz, which was homework, but again I noticed that some had not finished, so once again, next time, I will ask them to submit the homework, if I give them such work to do. I may also ask students to help me with corrections as it may also help them review more.

Next, we began unit 28 and we went through the unit as we normally do, so I will not really explain the lesson in detail. We just did task 1 and task 2 which focused on the answering skills for the type of question mentioned above, and then they did the mini-quiz. After correcting the mini-quiz, I set Unit 28 Quiz for homework as well as vocabulary lists for next week. I did this because the listening part of the mock test will not take the full class, so before or after we finish, we can do some final review before the reading part of the mock test the final class.

Change

I have pretty much decided that I will change the format of the lesson starting with the textbook, which for reasons explained previously - those being the length and difficulty - I will not use it again. As stated above, I am probably going to include homework that will have to be submitted and perhaps vocabulary quizzes to encourage students to study a little more. However, I have recently been considering two other things that could help students with regards to the TOEIC – the AWL and computers.

How might I use the AWL and computers in a TOEIC class you ask?

First of all, the AWL can be used for TOEIC, but it can also help with tests such as IELTS or TOEFL, which for those students who would like to go abroad, they would be required. Now, I haven’t searched extensively, but I have found one site that has online practice of the AWL, which I could have students use. There are quite a few exercises on this site, so I could let the students choose which activities that they would like to do, and let them work through the lists at their own pace. As for the actual words, I could have them make an online blog, or have them join facebook (I would have them join MIXI, but I cannot register as I don’t have a cell phone! I wonder how many of you were saying, ‘What? No cell phone? How is that possible? :)), and have the students post new words perhaps with its information or even have them try to write or find examples. Of course, I would have to look into how to do something like that because I have no experience with administrating a group like that, but perhaps it would be worth a try. As for listening practice, I could upload files for them to listen to (they would need headphones, of course, but I think most would), or have links to sites such as VOA, but of course, depending on the site, I would have to make up activities for them to use and that would limit their choice in what to listen to. This brings up the question of the textbook, but if I still wanted to use a textbook, I could have part of the class for that and then give them the rest of the class to work on their own.

Assessment/Evaluation Considerations

As for assessment, well I would have to think about this more, but perhaps I could still have quizzes, or I could give them a quota to meet each week, for example, you have to listen to so many recordings, or you have to show me that you studied so many words, that sort of thing. Of course, if I go this route, I will have some things to check out, and I’m sure that some things may not run smoothly in the beginning, but maybe it’s worth a shot.

Dogme and Renaming People

Since I was writing this post, I thought that I might as well respond to Darren, previously Daniel in my mind. I’m sorry about that; I have no idea why I was calling you Daniel, even referring to you as Daniel to my wife, but rest assured, I will not do it again.

I think you’re absolutely right about how Dogme like most new ways of thinking takes time to get used to, and how from my own experiences and preferences, it may be intimidating, and probably scary to try Dogme, especially since my classes tend to be big ones (25 to 40+) students. However, it is reassuring to hear someone else using such a method in a similar environment, and as you and Karenne have said, if I remember correctly, it doesn’t have to be the class, but it can be incorporated into it, so in that way it probably wouldn’t be as intimidating. That said though, it would be great to say Dogme in action with a large group, as I tend to be a visual learner, and as they say nowadays, ‘A webinar is worth a thousand on-line articles or is that twitters, or maybe its blogs?’. Anyway, I think many others out there, too, would appreciate such a demonstration to see how it can work. One last question though, Darren, before I go and buy or borrow the book (Yes, I’ve decided to go for it), since I assume you have tried Dogme ELT in your classes, and assuming many, but not all of your students are similar to mine in that they tend to use Japanese a lot and can be quiet, how do they react to Dogme ELT?

Cheers,
eisensei

Two questions about Dogme that kind of dog me.

2010-01-19T16:53:00.002+09:00

Today, I watched Daniel’s interview with Scott Thornbury, which I thought was great, by the way, but it brought up some more questions, especially regarding materials and assessment.

Materials

I know that one aspect of Dogme from what I’ve read so far is the provision of materials by students. However, from my own experience students tend not to do what you ask them to do or perhaps they forget, but I remember one time a few years ago, I had asked students to bring their favorite possession to talk about for the next class. Unfortunately, only a handful of students out of a class around 25 or so brought something, which of course resulted in students presenting things such as an eraser, or other school supplies, if my memory serves me well; I could be wrong though as I said this was a few years back. I think some students did use an article of clothing which was OK, but it would have been nice if they had brought something that they chose after careful consideration. I was also probably hoping that if they had brought something they would have prepared some of the English that they would need, although from what I gather, Dogme seems to focus on spontaneous English. Again, I could be wrong. The question then is what can a teacher do in order to be confident that when asked, students bring the necessary materials? Should I dock points if they come unprepared? But is that the best solution? Perhaps, everyone has already experienced the above situation and perhaps it can never be avoided especially in large classrooms, so maybe I shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

Assessment

The second concern involves assessment. My main sources of assessment and evaluation come from quizzes, midterm and final exams, attendance, participation and in-class activities usually in the form of worksheets that I collect to mark. Sometimes I also have presentations. Now, I remember in Daniel’s interview that Scott first replied ‘None’ to his question about what kind of testing should be used, but then went on to mention different testing methods, integrative, holistic, skills and how that it was difficult to do, but not impossible, with such tests as the Cambridge proficiency test being available. As I am always curious about how other teachers assess/evaluate their students, I started to think, ‘Well, how would one really evaluate/assess students in such a class?’ Can tests still be incorporated in such a method such as Dogme ELT, or would class-by-class evaluations based on presentations and participation be used, or would portfolios be possible? I would assume that the evaluation would be somewhat subjective, but it would be interesting to hear about other teachers’ evaluation schemes. I’m starting to think that I should buy Scott’s book, Teaching Unplugged, but with all the reading I have to do, especially now that I am in grad school, I am not sure if I would have the time, and besides, what better way to learn about such a method than discussing it with one’s peers, right?

Would you be so kind as to not be so polite when you talk me, dear?

2010-01-18T18:05:00.003+09:00

Monday – Foreign Communication Class

Today was my first Monday class of 2010, and I think it went well. As I have already mentioned before, Monday’s and Friday’s classes follow the same pattern except that Monday’s class is about two weeks behind. So today, we started with a review quiz of unit 9 on apologizing. This took a little while longer than expected, but this may have been due to the fact that for the fill-in-the-blank exercise, I did not give them a clue (I usually give them the first letter). The second question was a sentence reordering type, which was also a little harder than usual because some questions had two sentences rather than just the one.

After collecting the tests, I dictated the questions for unit 11, a unit on polite English and requests. As usual, I put the questions and answers on the board for everyone to see. Next, I wrote four requests, well one could be called a command, on the board and asked them which one would be the most polite and which one would be the least polite. Here are the requests/command:

Can you open the door?
Would you be so kind as to open the door, please?
Could you open the door?
Open the door.

I then asked them to look at the utterances and tell me what differences they could find. The answer I was looking for was length, as it is common in English to lengthen a request to make it more polite. However, I accepted two other responses regarding the lack of a question mark, and the difference in modal verbs because they, too, are necessary for politeness.

The next activity was from the book – it was a fill-in-the-blank dictation task. There were four questions, and the students seemed to have no problem with this activity except for the last question whose answer was ‘I’m wondering if you could…’ which I had to play a third time because many students could not catch it. I have to say though that despite the book having ‘I’m wondering if…’ I feel that this is somewhat strange, and that personally, I would say ‘I was wondering if…’ However, this may just be a case of idiolect. Which one would you use?

After we had corrected this task, I handed out the conversation construction worksheets and gave them 6 minutes to practice and remember the conversation that they had to make. This brings up a question that I have been thinking about and should really research – How much time would you say a student needs to remember 3 or 4 fairly short lines of a conversation? I would think that between 5 to 10 minutes would be enough, but let me know what you think.

Once we finished the presentations, I handed out the worksheet on disappearing sounds. I told them that knowing about these sounds would be helpful when listening to English because I think we can all agree that English has many such sounds. First, I wrote an example on the board:

I can’t come tonight.

I then circled the two final t’s of can't and tonight, and had them repeat after me first slowly, pronouncing all sounds clearly, and then quickly reducing the t’s. I gave them enough time to work on with a partner, about 5 or so minutes, and then I went around the room checking their answers before having them go up to the board to write them. After that, I had them again repeat each sentence/question twice, first slowly and clearly and then quickly with the disappearing sounds.

Dogme ELT Video

I would like to mention that Part 7 A and B have been re-uploaded to youtube (thank you Nicole!), so I have embedded them into my previous blog on that subject.

Thank you!

I would finally like to thank everyone for their comments/links and for becoming a follower. I know I have responded to the comments individually, but I thought I’d give another shout out to you all.

Cheers,
eisensei

Dogme EL-what-T?

2010-01-15T15:21:00.006+09:00

Today I had no classes due to the entrance exam preparation, so I wasn't intending to post, but I was checking my blogs when I noticed a comment from Karenne (thank you!) on my post from yesterday in which I was talking about whether or not to go with a textbook. She said that she doesn't like textbooks and that she practices Dogme ELT. Now, I had never heard of Dogme ELT, so I did some research on the subject and thought that maybe I could post what I found so that others like me who don't know exactly what Dogme ELT is can learn for themselves.

What is Dogme ELT?

Simply put, it is the practice of teaching without depending on books, technology etc and only using what is at hand in the classroom. It is also a style of teaching that is learner-focused in that the lessons evolve from the students' contributions.

Is it for me?

I'm not sure. While the ideas of breaking free from such teaching tools as computers and course books and focusing the lesson on the learner are quite appealing, I am not sure if this would be a method that would work for me because despite my qualms about textbooks, they do have their advantages, and when I don't use a textbook my style of teaching usually consists of various worksheets and handouts, so I am not sure if I would be ready to abandon them completely. However, I am sure that one could incorporate such a method into one's style to mix it up a little and give variety to the course and in this way, it may be an interesting addition to one's repertoire, especially in a speaking class. I would be very interested to hear teachers' experiences with using Dogme ELT and how it worked for them, especially those teachers teaching a homogeneous group of learners, as I get the feeling that Dogme ELT would be better suited to a more heterogeneous group, but I could be wrong.

Further Information

I found a video, a 'webinar' actually, offered by a site called English Central, discussing a book written by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings entitled "Teaching Unplugged" about Dogme ELT which also gives some example activities. Interestingly, I had to do some hunting to find the different parts of the webinar, but unfortunately, part 7 seems to have disappeared from the Internet, so if anyone knows where I could find it, let me know so I can post it here.

Thank You

I would also like to thank Karenne for becoming my first follower ever. I greatly appreciate it, and also thanks for the information on blog publishing!

Cheers,
eisensei

I need a vacation to recover from the vacation I took to recover from my vacation.

2010-01-14T18:02:00.002+09:00

Well, this post will probably be shorter than usual because first of all we followed the recent pattern of book followed by pronunciation and second, today's class went fairly smoothly, perhaps ideally may even be a word I could use to describe it. We started with the review test, and then I dictated eight questions about the dialogue. As I asked students to repeat the questions, I wrote them on the board so everyone could see them in case they weren't sure. After getting the answers and writing those on the board, too, I had them repeat once after the CD with books open, and then with books closed, the latter being harder, which was to be expected. Next, I had them do the exchange; I gave them between 5 to 7 minutes to practice and memorize the dialogue before having them present. I did do something different though - I chose which dialogue each pair would do because often you have most groups choosing the same dialogue, and it's always a good idea to have different patterns. After their time was up, I had several groups present, some doing better than others with regards to memorizing the lines, which I can and cannot understand because the conversations are short giving each partner about 3 lines to remember, but then again, short-term memory can easily vary, but perhaps the main reason is lack of concentration in trying to remember the lines. After finishing the presentations, I told them that we would do the pronunciation next because I wasn't sure if we would have time to do both that and the listening in the textbook. I told them that if we had time we would come back to the book. As in Friday's class, I simply reviewed the handout from before the break, well actually, we hadn't finished part B of the handout, so it was necessary to complete that, but we also reviewed part A because it had been a couple of weeks since we last looked at it, and by the time we finished, it was time to go. I think today's lesson went surprisingly smoothly, but it was probably due to the fact that I did not stray from the content, and I made sure I had time to complete what I had planned.

As for the textbook situation, I still haven't decided whether or not I will continue using this book next year. I'm really can't make up my mind because, honestly, the themes are not so interesting, or even relevant at times, and since there are only 12 units, you can't really skip them, right? Also, you can't really modify the units, or well, maybe I could, but then it leaves me wondering if I really need to use a textbook, especially if I am going to modify the unit or add my own units to replace those that aren't so interesting. I should mention here though, that I will get the students' opinions at the end of the course and see what they thought of it, but when I say that the book is not interesting, it really is my opinion that I am expressing, so as long as the students are interested, there should be no problem, right? But then again, if the teacher finds something boring, it may affect the way he or she teaches that particular lesson, am I wrong? However, I do find the dialogues, the listening activities and the exchanges good for the students, and considering the time it would take to make such materials, the textbook is good in that sense. Another problem I have been having with the book is that I am only doing a quarter and sometimes less than that each week. This is mainly due to the pronunciation practice I include in the lesson, so in the future it may be an idea to eliminate the pronunciation and focus more on the textbook, but I think the pronunciation is quite important for students especially for listening to music etc and honestly, repeating such activities in several of my classes is not a bad idea because the more you practice the more you should retain, right? I think I'm rambling because looking back at this paragraph, my thoughts are going all over the place, but this is what I feel when I think about the textbook - it has good points and bad points, and despite its bad points the potential for this book to be a better than usual textbook is there. Now, it is interesting that while I was writing that sentence, I was thinking the opposite, and actually thinking that perhaps a book that focuses more on conversation strategies may be better as the chances of students actually using such strategies are higher in an EFL setting than going shopping or eating out or giving directions. Wouldn't you agree? I guess I had a lot to say after all, and it also seems that the book debate is still far from over.

And remember kids, every Thursday is Autonomy Day!

2010-01-14T14:10:00.007+09:00

Today was my first reading/writing class of 2010. I tried something a little different with regards to the handouts and I think it worked out well. Until now, I would have them come up and collect the different sheets, but today I put them all together in a package and put them on desks and told students to sit where they saw a package. I think this worked much better because students did not have to take time waiting to get the sheets, and sometimes someone might not collect all the sheets etc, so I will continue this next class as well. I also told them that once they were finished they could leave so many students started right away.

For today's writing assignment I had them write about what they did during the winter break. This time they had to start from the beginning and brainstorm ideas before writing unlike before when all they had to do was write the first draft because we had taken an earlier class to brainstorm ideas for the themes that had to write about. I had to explain though that they needed to start with step 1 because I observed several students starting step 2 without brainstorming. However, this does bring up a point - is brainstorming really effective when writing a short paragraph of 5 to 8 lines? Perhaps if I were writing an essay, I might brainstorm beforehand, but for such a short text, is it really necessary?

The grammar activities for today focused on prepositions for time (on, in, at) and the past tense, especially the irregular verbs. The former task was a sentence correction, while the latter was a fill-in-the-blank.

I also gave them another review task for the indefinite and definite articles because students were still making mistakes with them. Honestly, when I was making this task the other day, I started thinking that maybe in the future I might make such an activity a temporary part of the class. What I mean by that is that maybe I will have, say, five review worksheets on the difference between the articles, and over the course of the semester hand them out. In this way students may come to have a better understanding of their usage than if we only did it one time and moved on. This would also be useful for other grammar points that students often have problems with.

The next activity pretty much comes from the above idea - the sentence correction task. This semester especially, I have been giving them a task each week in the hope that they may start to notice certain common mistakes. The tasks are usually based on mistakes I find in their writing samples, but sometimes I make it up myself. Of course, their understanding or noticing of these misktakes really depends on whether or not they actually look at the work when handed back. Perhaps in the future it may be a good idea to take a few minutes to explain or at least ask some students to read the answers so that everyone will have had the chance to take a look at their work again. However, this would be an explicit focus in which case students may not fully take in the information whereas if they noticed on their own, the chances of retaining the knowledge would be greater.

The last activity for the day was another reading task. I won't really explain this as it is pretty much straightforward.

I think overall today's lesson went well, although towards the end some students became a little noisy because many were finishing at the same time. Also, since I asked them to show me their first drafts, they had to wait in line, which easily leads students to talk with those next to them. However, some students stayed despite being finished and talked to their friends, so as not to disrupt other students who were still working, I asked them to leave. Other than that time the students quietly worked away.

This week I have been talking about changing textbooks and this class is no exception, except that I am thinking of using a book again instead of my own materials. I have found one that looks good, but as with all textbooks, you never know what they are really like until you use them in class. I also know that I have been trying to give students as much freedom as possible - although that freedom is really only limited to choice in order of doing the tasks, so one could easily ask whether or not I am really helping students build autonomy - so using a textbook would potentially put control squarely back on me. Of course, I could have students choose the order of the units, but it would be challenging to actually give them choice within each chapter. Furthermore, I have taken two semesters to make my own materials, and although things are not always perfect, going with a textbook would mean not being able to use those materials which I took a lot of time to work on. However, depending on how long it would take to do a chapter, I could easily incorporate some of my materials, especially the reading and sentence correction tasks. I think I will need some more time to consider what to do for this class, but if I do decide to go with a textbook, I will have to order them soon because books tend to take a long time to arrive.

Hip hip vocabulary! Hip hip vocabulary!

2010-01-13T18:24:00.002+09:00

Today was our first class back from the break. We started with a vocabulary review, but unfortunately many, if not most of the students had not finished, so I had to rearrange those who were with those who weren't so that everyone could get some practice. I wish students would take vocabulary learning more seriously, but alas they do not, even after explaining to them almost each week the importance of vocabulary for such a test such as the TOEIC. I told them today to register for the test because they have to take it, but I am worried that some will be cramming for it, which is not such a good idea.

After we finished the review, we looked at their homework, again many were not finished or so it seemed. I first had them repeat the words after me before correcting the homework.

Next, we started unit 21, another chapter focusing on Part 7 of the test. This time we looked at the 'NOT' questions, the hardest type on the test. The strategy for these is to leave them to last and do the other easier questions first so that you can get some information to help answer these questions. After looking at this strategy in some detail, we did the mini-test. Finally, I gave them the rest of the class to study vocabulary from the unit that they did not know. I told them to review the lists for next week, but I am not so confident they will. I also assigned Unit 21 Quiz for next week. Next class will also be the last class and we will focus on Part 7 one more time; the last two classes will be for the mock test.

I think I've made my decision regarding the textbook – I am going to try another. I feel that this textbook is too long for 15 classes, and it may be better to have a little more Japanese support. I think though that it will be a good idea to keep teaching the test strategies found in the text, so it may be challenging to incorporate such ideas in the text that I am looking at because it is structured in a much different way. For example, there are no strategies at all, and each chapter is not just one part as the current book; actually, the chapters are not divided into parts at all, but each chapter may have a listening and reading part and the rest is made up of vocabulary and other activities. However, there is a little more Japanese and it is structured so that one can finish in a semester. Another thing I will do, which will also be challenging, is to give them tests and make them part of their score because this semester I have been going with a marking scheme that is based on their actual test scores, which means that even if I assign homework, many are not doing it perhaps because they feel that it is not part of the grade. Maybe then, having homework and quizzes part of the mark should encourage students to actually do the work. The only setback is that to give them such quizzes I would have to make the tests when really, the students should be learning words that they do not know, not words that I give them; something that I will have to work out if I choose to go this way.

First class back and already a long weekend.

2010-01-08T14:00:00.006+09:00

Happy New Year and all the best for 2010!

I had my first class for the new year today, and I think things went well despite the students looking a little tired, but who can blame them? I started the class off by wishing them all a Happy New Year before giving them a short review quiz. I then introduced the topic of the day - Inviting and Making Plans after which I dictated four questions for the dialogue in the book. As usual, I wrote the questions and answers on the board to allow everyone to write them down. Next, I had them repeat after the CD. After that, we did Task 2, a fill-in-the-blank dictation activity. After we finished, I told them to practice with a partner. There was an odd number of students, so I sat with one of them to even it out. I don't always do this because it obviously impedes me from observing the students, but at the same time, it allows all students to have an equal amount of time practicing because if you were to put three students together for a dialogue for two, there's a chance, especially if you give them a time limit, that they will not finish. By the time we finished this activity, I noticed that our time was running out, so instead of doing the second part of Task 2 which was answering questions on the dialogue that had just practiced, I handed out the conversation construction worksheets and gave them five minutes to get ready. Actually, I gave them more than that, but I find that 10 minutes is too long, but it also seems now that even 5 minutes is not short enough to prohibit students from speaking in Japanese about unrelated topics and with different partners! When I do notice that, I ask them if they are ready which helps them get back to work. I also tend to choose those pairs who aren't working on task to present, but I just don't spring it on them; I usually hint at the fact that they will probably be on the list to present, and sometimes even first. However, I should also add that not everyone gets distracted and that most, from my own observations, tend to stay on task, or maybe they're just good at hiding it!

The remainder of the class, we reviewed disappearing and linking sounds. I did this because first, we did not have time in the last class to finish both parts of this worksheet, and second two weeks had passed since we last did it, so some much needed review was in order. I had also planned to look at contrastive stress, but by the time we finished the review, we did not have enough time, so I told them we would do that next class (I will talk about this at that time). This of course means that I might have to make something extra for Monday's class if we are able to finish the disappearing sounds handout in our next class. However, since our first class for the new year will be January 18, perhaps I should review the linking sounds that they did before the break. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I was just going to post this when I had a thought. Obviously, I will have to think about this further, but it may be an idea to split the chapter into halves instead of doing one chapter a week. I think some teachers already do this, and honestly, I used to do exactly that when I was teaching at a language school. Of course, at such schools you may have students for a long time, so this was the main reason for doing it, but it may be worth considering, especially since I am not just using the textbook, but using the pronunciation activities as well, and as I have said before, sometimes I'm not able to finish everything completely, and there have been times when I'm sure I've had to rush it, when I was hoping to spend more time on the topic at hand. Perhaps if I reorganize my lesson plans, I may be able to do certain topics in more detail, although the setback is that I will not be able to do as many topics, but one could argue that not all topics are necessary. Hmmm...I guess I have one more thing to consider then, don't I?

Last class for 2009, but everything did not seem so fine.

2009-12-21T10:44:00.002+09:00

Well, I realize now that I need to double-check my lesson plan and materials because today, my students were supposed to have a review quiz. Let me go back to Friday evening when I was preparing. I usually do the same thing in both classes because the textbook is the same and the students are different so there is no risk of repetition. Friday I made sure everything was ready, all materials copied etc, but failed to print and make copies of the quiz. I guess the reason for this was that unlike most weeks, I did not have any extra copies of Friday's quiz (the date of course is different, but at least it reminds me to make Monday's), so as they say, 'Out of sight, out of mind'. Well, Monday I arrive and I am heading to class when I realize that I don't have a quiz for them. However, I think that I in fact did not have a test for Monday because the week after the midterm test, there was no quiz, and I confuse this date with today, so I thought that this was the week after the midterm test for Monday's class when it was not (I hope you're with me so far). Due to lack of time, I decide not to have a test and give them an early Xmas present. However, during class, I checked my folders while the students were working on a task, and I noticed that there actually was a quiz, and that I had completely forgotten about it and then confused that with thinking something else. Honestly, I was going to check before class, but I decided not to because there was no time, and I thought there was no test and that I would have to make one! I am now slapping my forehead and shouting 'Doh!' as in the likes of Homer Simpson. Perhaps another reason for this confusion besides not having the copy with the others is the fact that Friday's class is about one week ahead, so while we did unit 9 today, Friday's class has finished that and the next one and will be doing the third one after the break, so maybe it was only time before this happened, but in any case, it was probably not having the copy that did it. Fortunately, this was the first time, and it will be the last time because from now on, I will check my folders and make sure that everything is in order because every week cannot be Xmas.

As for today's class, other than that slight bump in the road, it went well. Again, I followed Friday's plan starting with the textbook before the pronunciation. Today's topic was apologizing. I also wrote the questions for the listening comprehension on the board again - something that I will do from now on for reasons stated in previous posts. Once we finished that we moved on to the listening part of last week's pronunciation - linking sounds 1. Finally, we did the second linking sounds worksheet, and from my observations, most of them could figure out where the linking sounds were. I also went around checking their answers like in Friday's class before having them go up to the board to write the answers. We practiced the pronunciation, especially the last sentence 'Did you drop Paul off at the airport?' because it has so many linking sounds, and I wished them a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year and let them go.

Since this will be last post for 2009, I will now take the time to wish all of you out there a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year and all the best for 2010!

Would you be so kind as to tell me if I am suffering from spontaneous combustion? Thank you.

2009-12-18T12:59:00.005+09:00

Today I continued the pattern of textbook followed by pronunciation practice. We started immediately with the review, and then I dictated them questions for the dialogue. However, this time I wrote the questions on the board. I did this so that everyone would be able to get the questions because before when I would ask them orally, some would speak very softly, so it was obvious that not everyone could hear it. I also explained the meaning of block just in case not everyone understood what it meant. After listening to the dialogue about three times, I asked individual students for their answers and wrote them on the board as well. After that, we practiced the conversation as a group.

Next, we continued with task 2, a fill-in-the-blank dictation exercise. I played this about two times, and then asked them individually for the answers, writing them on the board, too. I then did something a little spontaneous, despite what I wrote yesterday, but it worked fairly well. I wrote five requests on the board and asked them to put the requests in order from least polite to most polite. The only problem with this was that two of the sentences were very close in politeness, so next time I should make sure that all sentences can be easily placed in order. Again, as this was spontaneous, I did not have adequate time to consider which requests I was writing. Here are the requests I wrote:

Open the door.
Can you open the door?
Would you mind opening the door?
Could you open the door, please?
Would you be so kind as to open the door, please?

The requests in bold are the ones that posed me the problem because I think they are quite similar in regards to politeness. However, with the added please, 'Could you open the door?' would probably be considered more polite, although it is more direct than 'Would you mind...?'. As you can see, I should have excluded one of these had I wanted to make it a clear distinction.

By this time, I noticed that we did not have enough time to do task three, so I gave them the conversation construction worksheets. I gave them about 7 minutes to practice before I called up a few pairs to present; this time I called up four pairs due to time constraints.

Finally, I handed out the pronunciation worksheets and explained the task using an example on the board. I gave them five minutes to work on it with a partner and then started asking students to go up and write the answers on the board. However, unlike yesterday, I walked around choosing students and helped them with the answers before having them go up to the board. This way I could save a little time. After all the answers were on the board, I had them repeat each sentence after me; for some of the sentences I wrote a sort of pronunciation key on the board. For example, for 'called her', I wrote, 'calder'.

I think today's class went well, although I need to be more careful with doing things on the fly. Honestly, I am not sure why I don't think of those activities when I'm planning; they seem to come to me just at that time. Like yesterday's class though, I still haven't decided if I will continue this book next year or not. With the exception of the listening, most of what I use is my own materials or adapted materials from the book. However, having the Japanese explanation may be advantageous in that those students who actually review or prepare at home can have some support that an all English textbook does not provide. In any case, as long as I don't go off the lesson plan - although considering that it is based on the book; we are still using it, just expanding on it, so it's not that bad - I think I will have enough time to do both the book and the pronunciation, so I think I will continue this pattern from now on.

I shoulda asktim abou disappearin sounz.

2009-12-17T19:12:00.004+09:00

Today I did what I said I would do - change the order of the lesson, first doing the book then the pronunciation. I think it worked well, but I now know that no matter what order I choose, I have to manage my time better because we were unable to finish the pronunciation. This was due to being spontaneous, and I am completely aware of this because after finishing the listening comprehension in the chapter, I had them work through the conversation with a partner looking for linking sounds, a sort of review, and then I had them write the linking sounds on the board. If I had my time back I should have left that until the end of the class when we were completely finished what was planned, and if there was enough time to do such an activity. I do think it was a good activity, but misplaced resulting in not being able to complete the pronunciation component. However, if I had used fewer sentences, maybe 10 instead of 12, or if I had not added the second part asking them to find the linking sounds after finding the disappearing sounds, which was today's focus, we may have been able to finish in the time we had, but in the end it was because I was spontaneous.

Honestly, this brings up something that I may not have said, but it seems that in this particular class, I am never satisfied with my teaching or how the class goes. I cannot put my finger on it, but something just doesn't feel right. Perhaps it's the textbook, I'm not sure, but each week is almost the same - I leave with a sense of dissatisfaction, not a deep sense mind you, but I always feel I could have done better or if I had only done that or if I had only taken less time to do that; it's as if I feel inexperienced in this class despite using a fairly easy-to-use textbook, which leads me to think that perhaps the textbook is causing this, or maybe it's due to lack of preparation, but I prepare for this class, going through the chapter for that week making sure I know what each task is about, choosing the order in which I do them etc, but when I enter the class it's as if that preparation disappears or goes away just at that particular time. I wonder if any teachers out there have experienced this sort of thing or even going through a similar ordeal now. I would be interested in hearing from you.

Anyway, today's chapter focused on invitations and making plans. I started the class with a review of last week, then moved on to dictating questions for the listening comprehension. Once we finished I had them look for linking sounds as mentioned above. After that, I had them practice and remember a short conversation with a partner. Next, I did something new, something planned, not spontaneous though - a pair work activity provided in the book. Each partner had a schedule and they had to ask each other questions about the plans in the schedule to find six differences between them. I gave them five minutes to do this before checking their answers (Actually, I think maybe one of my problems is time limits. Maybe I should try being stricter when it comes to time limits next time because now that I think about it, I tell them that they have a certain amount of time, but I don't always enforce it, which may be one of the reasons behind why I feel the way I so often do in this class. Another thing I need to do is specify the goals because recently I have noticed that I do so orally, but I should be writing them on the board to make them clear for everyone. Hopefully, these little things will help improve my sense of satisfaction with this course). By the time we finished this, I knew we did not have much time for the pronunciation, but I thought that if I gave them less time to work on it, 5 minutes as opposed to 10, but perhaps 10 minutes would have been too long anyway, we would have enough time to go over the answers, which in fact we did, only we did not have enough time to do part B, that being looking for linking sounds. However, I told them we would review this next class, so I will be able to do this at that time and besides, after a two-week break, a good review of disappearing and linking sounds will be in order.

What do you mean good sir by this word you use constantly autonomy?

2009-12-17T18:36:00.003+09:00

Well, I had my last reading class for the year today. I was surprised to see some many students absent. I am not sure why they were absent, maybe it was because of going home, but honestly, isn't it still early to be heading home for the holidays, especially when most will go home only for New Year's? A mystery indeed, my good Watson.

Anyway, today's lesson followed the same pattern, except this time I did not have them come up to get the handouts, but instead I had several students hand them out. I did this because I thought it may give them a little more time to work because when they come up for the handouts, there is usually a long line and people have to wait resulting in a waste of precious time. I told them that once they got their papers, they could start, which most of them did; some had to be 'encouraged' to start.

Today's class consisted of an exercise on adverbs of frequency, a review of the articles 'a' and 'the', this time with a Japanese explanation, a reading activity, a sentence correction activity, and finally a writing activity, this week's theme being 'hobby'. This week was also the last class for the students being able to jump right into the writing part. In our next class, they will have to brainstorm first before writing. I haven't looked at the article work yet, but I hope that the explanation was clear enough to help them understand better the usage of the articles. I also simplified the sentence correction worksheet in that I provided two sentences one correct and one incorrect and asked them to choose the correct sentence. I thought that maybe seeing them both would make picking out the mistakes easier. I guess what I tried to do today was make it challenging, but at the same time, not overwhelming, and also more conducive to finishing on time, and they all did; actually, I think even the last to finish finished early.

One thing though that I have to reinforce next time is the quasi-rule of telling me when they are finished before they leave because I had to remind them of that again today. It's obvious why I want them to tell me because if they didn't I would have chaos with students leaving and me not knowing if they have submitted everything or not. It's also a way to let me say goodbye to them as well, something which I think is important. Other than that, I think this class style is going well, but one thing I just remembered, I need to make sure to ask them if they have any questions regarding the material before they leave. I think that if I don't, I run a serious risk of having students leave with the potential of not fulling understanding what they have done. However, what we are doing is not so difficult, ie the adverbs, and I am looking at their paragraphs to check them before submission, but it's better to ask than not because to assume that all students understand completely the grammar handouts, because that is really what I am thinking about, even with a Japanese explanation is foolish, and actually to think of it careless. There I said it. What I need to do then next time is ask them when they are submitting their work if they have any questions or if they are OK with the work to check if they are in fact clear on what they've done, and if they're not, to help them with any problems they may have.

How many words can you spell with TOEIC?

2009-12-17T18:04:00.004+09:00

Yesterday was surprisingly busy, so that's why I am only getting around to yesterday's TOEIC class notes today.

I started the class off with something new - a pair work vocabulary review exercise. I asked the students to take out the word list that they made last class and to exchange it with their partner. I then told them to ask questions such as 'How do you say (word) in English or Japanese?' and 'What part of speech is (word)?' I gave them about 5 minutes to do this, and while they were doing so, I walked around observing. It seems, unfortunately, that many did not review since last class because many of the students could not remember the words they had written down last week, so what I did for next class was I told them to complete the word list for the chapter we did yesterday, which I will get to in a moment, and show it to me after the break. I also reminded them not to forget to bring the lists as some students had done so. I decided to do this activity from now on because they need vocabulary for the test, and whether they don't want to or not, they need to review the vocabulary. Actually, that sentence made me think of looking into purchasing some books on vocabulary especially those written by Paul Nation. Although I could definitely get some useful information from them, I think that in the end, if students don't review at home through things such as lists, cards, notebooks or reading, any theory pretty well goes out the window. Wouldn't you agree? Nevertheless, I think I will try this next year as well and perhaps even in some of my other classes because most of my students will probably end up taking the TOEIC test at some point, so it may well be worth starting early.

Moving on to the chapter, we looked at another chapter on Part 7. This time we focused on the inference questions and how to better answer them using information learned from other more easier questions. As I mentioned before, vocabulary questions and specific information (positive) questions are the easiest to answer, and doing those first can help you with the harder ones such as the inference questions. This chapter also focused on using key information to help with such questions. As expected, this part of the test is definitely the most challenging for students and this is also where vocabulary is vital. Unfortunately, we did not have much time after completing the unit to adequately start the vocabulary list, but I told them to work on it at home and show it to me in the new year.

I still haven't decided what I am going to do about the textbook next year, but I am leaning towards changing it because despite the useful tactics, which I could easily give them myself, the book seems to be difficult for many, which may be due to the fact it's all in English. Of course, if everyone reviewed and/or prepared in advance, it may not be so difficult. In the end though, the book is just too long even following the advice the book gives for such a class. One book I am considering is by Cengage; it's a series separated by different scores, the most advanced being 730, but the one I would be trying is 650 if I remember correctly. I have received the sample, but have not really looked at it, so that is something I should try to do soon. This book is shorter than the one I am using now, and there is some Japanese support which may help students more in the long run. No matter what book I choose to use though, I will definitely be focusing on vocabulary from now on.

Sometimes putting your pants on backwards can be rewarding.

2009-12-14T12:23:00.002+09:00

Today I tried what I said I would do last week – change the order of how I did the lesson. Well, I think it worked well. I first started with the conversation, then key expressions followed by a fill-in-the-blank-dictation question in the chapter. Next, I had them do a sentence pair work dictation activity before I had them make a conversation. Once we had this completed, I handed out the linking sounds worksheet, but due to having to pass back their tests, and the fact we only had 10 minutes left, I decided to leave the second part of the pronunciation – the listening component – to next class, thus further providing evidence against trying to do too much pronunciation work in one class. Of course, if I hadn’t passed back their work and tests, and if I had started earlier – it took me a couple of minutes to set up my computer, again proving that I need to be there a little before 9 – I probably would have had enough time to do the listening. However, I will do it next week, and it will be a sort of review for them, so it’s not that terrible.

I think that doing the class this way will work much better because the main focus is on conversation and since they bought the book, focusing on that should technically be my first priority. Furthermore, doing the pronunciation first can be risky in that I tend to take too much time on it. I also think that working through the textbook first when students still have more energy, and then the pronunciation may be better because they need more energy to concentrate on the conversation and the grammar involved in the expressions being learned whereas with the pronunciation, it takes less effort as the activity usually only involves highlighting pronunciation. Furthermore, since we have less time to work on it as it towards the end of the class, there is a little more pressure to work through the task at a faster pace. Therefore, students have less time to dillydally and get off track as they may do if we had more time. Also, as the activity is mainly to familiarize the student with the pronunciation, this length of time is optimal as it now becomes a supplementary exercise to the conversation practice and not the primary focus. I will now try this in my Thursday class and see how it goes, but so far the results have been quite promising.

What you have, sir, is a textbook case of coalescent assimilation.

2009-12-11T12:41:00.004+09:00

Well, today I changed the order of the lesson plan. Actually, I was kind of forced to, but in the end it worked out well, I think. What happened was that I thought I had copied the pronunciation section for this class, but when I was gathering my things to go to class, I realized that I didn't. On top of that, I had forgotten my photocopying card, so what I did was start the class with the review and then start the next chapter instead of the pronunciation. I did this because I knew that photocopying the pronunciation handout after the review test in order to maintain the order of the lesson would take time away from the class, and since I had planned to have them do another conversation construction activity, I decided that it would be best to photocopy the handout then.

After collecting the review quiz, I told them that we would be starting the book first, and to keep them closed because I was going to dictate some questions. I also told them at this point that we would be focusing on apologies in this class. After dictating the questions, I let them listen to the CD 3 times, and then I asked them for their answers. Next, I gave them the worksheet with the expressions for apologizing and responding to an apology and asked them to separate them in the table provided. I was going to have them come up to the board to write the answers, but I decided not to because it would take too much time, so I asked for their answers orally. After that, I had them do a listening task in the book. Then I had them go back to the beginning of the chapter where there were some key expressions and had them repeat after me before assigning the conversation construction activity. While they were practicing, I went to photocopy the pronunciation worksheet (I gave them about 10 minutes to practice and memorize the conversation, so I had enough time to do this). After I came back, I walked around to observe and make sure there were no questions, and then I asked several pairs to present their conversation in front of the class. Finally, we looked at the pronunciation worksheet. I did this differently from yesterday mainly because of how yesterday went, but also because I did not have a lot time. I did have them though come up to the board, and I did have them repeat before and after assimilation, but this was mainly as a group and not individually. I also did not go around asking students to repeat after me as I had done yesterday. I think this way the activity worked much better.

I think that considering this class style worked much better, I will try this on Monday and then on Thursday, and see how it goes. Also, I will try to have them review linked sounds more from now on, using the dialogues in the textbook because I think that only once a week is not enough and the more practice they can get, the better.

Can you link it?

2009-12-10T18:14:00.003+09:00

Well today, after we finished the review test, we looked at the second installment of linking sounds, which focused on elongated articulation, and a nice sounding term coalescent assimilation. In case you don't know what this is - I had to look it up myself - it's a type of reciprocal assimilation. In a nutshell, two sounds make a third new sound. This type of assimilation often happens when you have a final alveolar consonant like /s/ or /z/ followed by initial palatal /y/. For example, 'Is that your book' sounds like 'Is tha chour book'. I really find this fascinating, and also consider it important for students, especially those who like watching movies or TV shows, or listening to music in English. Understanding these processes can help a student improve their listening comprehension. Of course, once a week is not enough, but at least being familiar with the subject is still better than not encountering at all, right?

For this activity, I first had them find the links in each sentence. I then went through the two separate groups, first the coalescent assimilation, then the elongated articulation. For the first group, I had them write the answers on the board, for example 'that your' and then I had them pronounce only the first word before pronouncing the entire phrase illustrating the change in sound. Once we went through all the phrases, I had them practice the sentences as a whole. I then did a very similar thing with the elongated articulation, but I realize now that I should have used a piece of paper - as I heard a student say towards the end of the activity - because for this group, I had them write the answers on the board, 'can't tell' for example, and then I had them pronounce can't, and I wanted them to notice the puff of air when they fully articulate the 't' sound before practicing the whole phrase to show them that the 't' in 'can't' is no longer pronounced strongly, but is connected to the initial alveolar stop /t/ of the juxtaposed word, hence the elongation, but many students could not feel the air on their hands, or perhaps they did not really understand what I wanted them to do, so it did not work as planned. Next time, I will try the paper, or perhaps I should avoid that part completely, and perhaps have them repeat after me, then using the board, show them how the final alveolar stop melts into the initial alveolar stop (I should mention here that there are different sounds that can be elongated, but for lack of time, I will use only this one). In any case, I think this task will need some further consideration.

After we did this, I dictated some true or false questions based on the dialogue, which in turn, we listened to. Once we corrected that, I had them do the exchange, whereby they had to practice and memorize a short conversation. I again gave them about 10 minutes and then called on several groups to present.

Overall I think today's class was OK, not great, but OK. I think the hand thing, which was sort of spontaneous, was not clear, but that can happen when you try to do something on the fly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, it's important not to let it get to you, and move on. I also think that I again took too long with the pronunciation, and perhaps it might be better to leave it at the end. However, I think doing the pronunciation is still better at the beginning; I just have to be careful to watch the time. For example, for the sentences, i should give them five minutes maximum because it is only reading and underlining parts of sentences. Then take five minutes to have them come up to write the answers, and then another five minutes to practice. I think perhaps it might not be so much a question of taking too much time, but maybe I am trying to do too much at once. I just realized that if you have two groups and each group of sentences takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete, there's your 30 minutes gone right there. Perhaps I need to consider fewer examples and spread out the concepts, so that I can have more time to work on the book, something that I feel that I am really not focusing on. Each chapter has about 8 pages, but I only ever get around to finishing the first two. Not a very good record is it? Next class, I will make less time for the pronunciation, and try to do more of the textbook. Perhaps, doing the listening comprehension (the questions I make for the dialogue), then asking them to find the linked sounds in the text might be a good start. Then I could try the listening task in the book before having them do the exchange. I will see how that goes next week. Something else I might want to consider though is going with a more listening/pronunciation focused textbook. Of course, the current textbook could just be too easy for them, as this is not impossible, so perhaps a harder level may be more appropriate. Maybe it's just not interesting for them; I think I have mentioned this before. Perhaps it might be worthwhile looking for something better, what I mean is, something that may be closer to their interests. I just got the idea that having them use movies or TV dramas for listening comprehension, especially ones with subtitles may be something to look into. The more I think about it, the more I think that it might be better to use a different textbook, or maybe no textbook at all. However, for the time being, considering I do have this textbook, and I should use it since they bought it, I will try the above plan next week and see if things improve.

A trip to autonomy

2009-12-10T15:50:00.001+09:00

Today was the second class where I had them work on their own, choosing the order in which they did the tasks. Today’s class included a worksheet on the difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’, a reading exercise, another sentence correction task and their second paragraph with the theme of ‘favorite trip’. I think overall it seems that the students are doing well with this style of class, but it will take a little more observation to really see how they are doing. It might also be necessary to talk to some of them individually to see how they are doing. I think though that the paragraph and the reading are two things that are well-suited to such a class because both activities do not really require the full teaching support that say a grammar item may require. Of course, if I were teaching a reading skill, then yes, I would have to work more closely with the students, but the main reason behind such reading activity is to give them some practice in reading English that possibly many don’t do outside of class.

The sentence corrections as well, do not demand full teacher contact as I have noticed that most students when given the answer key automatically understand where the errors were made, and even some exclaim this fact with an ‘Oh, yeah!’, something which makes me happy to hear.

I think the only activity that needed my attention was the grammar activity on the difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’. Now, with the exception of one student asking me to explain this difference, no one else came up to me to ask for such help. Perhaps they already understood, or perhaps they did not think they could ask me. In the latter case, I will definitely tell the students that if they have any questions, they can ask me because I am there to help them. I could also provide a little more support by including a short explanation on the worksheet for such grammar activities. However, I don’t think that this would be necessary for all grammar points, for example simple present tense or adverbs, but for something such as this, I think I should have explained it before having them start or as I mentioned above, provide a concise explanation. In any case, I realize now that today’s grammar needs to be modified, especially if I decide to use again in such a class in the future.

I feel that this post is more of a defense for choosing to go with this style, but I have to say that until last week, the class has been teacher-focused in that I have clearly explained how to write a paragraph from topic to concluding sentence and have given them practice in using sequence words and in other grammar points, so they do have the tools to work on their own. I definitely would not start this type of class from the beginning unless I had a very clearly explained textbook that students could use on their own, but even then, I think that this type of class should be introduced at a later time once students have become accustomed to writing and reading some English. Perhaps I should even consider slowly integrating this style into the class and not starting it so suddenly so to speak because I am sure some teachers would consider what I did to be just that, and I would have to agree with you somewhat. However, what we are doing in class has not changed; I have just given them the freedom to choose what to do and how long to do it. Perhaps in that case, it is not such a problem. I just have to make sure that there is always enough explanation for the students and that students know that they can ask me questions if they need to.

T-T-T-TOEIC!

2009-12-09T19:31:00.002+09:00

I started the class by asking individual students about the question types for review. I then had them do exercise 3. Before we started though, I had several students read aloud the tactics for part 7. After correcting the exercise, I handed back their answer sheets, and gave them 12 minutes to complete the mini-test. I gave them an extra couple of minutes since many were not finished, and then we corrected it together. I first asked them which question they should start with explaining that some questions are easier to answer depending on type and furthermore, answering easier questions first can give them extra help for the harder ones and thus give them extra time. Once the mini-test had been corrected, I gave them a vocabulary notebook worksheet and asked them to fill it in with any words they did not know. I decided to do this today because students need vocabulary to do well on the test, and having them do such a list in class at least gives them something to work with outside of class. Even if they don't review vocabulary at home, at least this also gives them a chance to do so.

At 10h15 I asked the students if they had finished unit 7 quiz, but since many hadn't, I told them to continue working on vocabulary or for those who had not yet finished, to do either vocabulary or quiz 7. I told them that next week we would be looking at unit 14, which also focuses on part 7 of the test, something they need practice more.

Something I am considering doing next year if possible, is having this class in the TOEIC center, a new online center for practicing the TOEIC that will be up and running in April. With such a center, students could work on the test at their own pace, and I could be there to give advice or support if needed. The only obstacle is that there will only be 16 computers, and this semester I have more than 20, so unless I can get permission to cut the class down to 16, I may have to reconsider this option. Another thing I could do is focus on the reading section particularly part 7. It might be challenging to find a variety of part 7 type questions, but I could focus each class on one question having them do vocabulary practice afterward or I could use a TOEIC vocabulary book and make lists based on that to give them, and have quizzes each week. I should not forget either that I will be receiving some samples of other TOEIC texts, so there might be something I could use there. I guess I still have a lot of bugs to work out, but I guess that is to be expected considering this is my first time teaching such a class.

Thank you Friday! You shouldn't have.

2009-12-04T16:15:00.003+09:00

Today we started right away with the pronunciation – linking sounds. I followed the same plan as Thursday's class.

Once we finished we began unit 7. I dictated first some questions for a listening, and then I had them practice in pairs. Next, I had them repeat some key expressions in the book after me while asking some students where the linking sounds were. After that, I gave them five minutes to practice and memorize a conversation. I only gave them 5 minutes because the conversation was only short. After their time was up, I called upon several pairs to present.

After we finished, I decided to go with the pairwork dictee activity, instead of doing task 2 and 3 in the book, task 2 was a dictation and task 3 was a matching exercise. As they completed the task, I told them to look for linked sounds, and finally had students come up to the board again writing out the words with the linking sound.

Today was only the first part of what is normally called connected speech. I will also look at deletion and coalescent assimilation or blending of sounds. After I finish these, I will move on to intonation to end the semester.

Although I have not decided about whether to change books or not in my general English course, I think I will not be using this textbook next year. I do like the Japanese support and the themes are useful, perhaps not so interesting, but I won’t know that until I ask my students, but I’ve had to make a lot of extra materials to go with the book, and the conversations are too short, and there really should be more listening. Of course, this is my opinion, and since I prefer listening, I tend to dislike a book lacking in such activities. Honestly, I was thinking of going with the textbook I am currently using in my general English class in this class next year; what I am considering is going with book 1 and 2 for the communication classes both semesters and books 3 and 4 in the general English class each semester because the class is intended for second years and up. However, as I have already discussed earlier, the topics aren’t so relevant at times, and it does lack the conversation strategies, although I could add them myself, but if I have to do that it leads me back to the question – Should I really use a book if I am going to make the activities myself and end up only using a small percentage of it? Of course the answer I am getting is leaning to no. On the bright side, I am happy to be thinking of this now and not in February because the earlier I start, the more time I have to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each book, and thus be able to better choose a textbook that will work well for my class.

Hey, wa tchit man! Tha t'sa linkin soun dyou go tthere.

2009-12-03T18:34:00.004+09:00

Tonight we started with pronunciation practice. This class's focus was on linking sounds, especially between consonants and vowels. I first had them in pairs find the linked sounds, then had them write the answers on the board. I then had them practice the linked sounds with me several times, first sounds only then sentence. Next, we did a listening and I called for individual answers. I finally asked them for the rule, which I received almost immediately.

Next, I dictated questions and had them listen to the CD. After, I had them practice the conversation with books closed, then in pairs with books open. Then I had them change partners for the exchange activity (I modified this activity and made it a role playing one where students have to remember and present the dialogue.).

Once we finished presenting, there was not enough time to move on, so I passed back their tests.

I was having second thoughts recently about this book, but I think there is plenty in each chapter for the students, maybe too much, but if I cut the pronunciation, we should have more than enough time to do more of the book. However, I think if I organize the pronunciation activities better so that they take less time, I may be able to get more of the book done. The only setback about the book, though, is I am skeptical as to how relative it is to the students. I am really about making it personal, and some of the topics are not so relevant (directions, shopping), but perhaps it may be a good idea to alter those chapters and make them more relevant and interesting to the students. I guess I still have some things to consider.

Learner Autonomy? Well, sort of.

2009-12-03T18:26:00.003+09:00

Today was the start of the more autonomous classes. Until today, I would select the order and I would control how much time would be spent, when to start, when to finish etc. However, today, I had them come up and get all the worksheets for the class. I then told them that they could choose the order of the activities and how long to work on them, but that they had to show me what they did, and that they had to finish everything before the end of class.

Today’s class was the start of the paragraph writing, too. I had taught the different parts of the paragraph and brainstorming, so they should have all the tools to write a paragraph. Today’s theme was ‘My Saturday’, but I noticed that for some reason some students had chosen other themes. However, I did not ask them to start over, but instead, told them to do the theme another class. Honestly, perhaps it may be a good idea to let them choose the theme to work on, too. I also explained that they had to write a first draft, check it and then show it to me before going on to write the final draft. I think though that this may need clarifying because many students seemed not to check it for I could see no markings on some papers.

In the end, I think the class went well. Some students took the full class to finish, but those who finished early, I let go. I think the main reason why some students took a long time is that they need to organize their time more, something perhaps that I could discuss in the next class. From now until the final class, I will conduct the class in this manner, having them write a paragraph each week, and for the last three classes, a paragraph based on something in which they are interested. How I intend to do this is by giving them a list of ideas based on the survey I conducted in the beginning of the semester, and students will be able to choose three topics that interest them the most and write about that.

Long time no blog.

2009-11-30T17:44:00.001+09:00

Hello everyone! It’s been about a week since I last posted, but I have a good reason for that, or should I say several! First, as I mentioned in my last post, the rest of the week I had tests, so nothing really to comment on there. Then last Monday was a holiday. Tuesday I had work, but no scheduled classes, and from Wednesday to Saturday I had to be away for personal reasons, so there you have it! Fortunately, things are now back to normal, and I can restart this blog, although I have to say that it might be best to combine both Monday’s and Friday’s communication classes because I rarely change the lesson plan unless something really doesn’t work in one class. Anyway perhaps for now, I will continue as is, so here we go.

As usual, we started with the review quiz (they were scheduled to have a test today, but had to be rescheduled). After the review quiz was finished and taken in, I handed back their homework and then handed out the sentence stress handout. I then had them choose different partners because they tend to sit with the same person all the time, and I think it is important to have them meet other students. I gave them enough time to work on it in pairs, and while they were working, I wrote the questions on the board. I then had individual students come up and write in the stress. I was quite happy to see that for the most part, students knew what was stressed and what wasn’t. Next, I had them in pairs read and repeat after one another. I sat with one student because there was an odd number. After that, I had them take out the handout from last class, and I wrote a table on the board with the words stressed and unstressed. I then wrote different parts of speech on the board and asked them what parts are usually stressed and which aren’t. Again I was happy to notice that students caught on to the question right away, and most could finish in the time allotted. I then called on individual students to tell me whether or not a specific part was stressed or not.

Once we had finished the sentence stress, I told them about next class’s topic – connected speech. Then we started unit 6 in the textbook. First, I dictated six questions for a listening comprehension activity and then we practiced the conversation first together and then in pairs, again I worked with a student. Finally, I had them do a sentence unscramble activity to give them some example questions to ask, as this chapter’s focus was on asking questions to show interest.

I thought today that maybe in the future if I continue to use this book or if I continue the pronunciation tasks, I should make complete units, so that one week is pronunciation and the other a chapter in the book, or it may be better to reduce the number of sentences for the practice. I think the pronunciation although only once a week is still valuable to the students, but at the same time, not using or hardly using the textbook does not seem good either, so perhaps the reduction method may be the best way. Of course, it really depends on whether I will use the book next year or not and even if I will use a book in my classes, something which I will have to decide soon I think.

Come on TOEIC, mock me!

2009-11-18T11:19:00.003+09:00

Today I gave them the choice of finishing part 7 first or doing the mock test, and they chose the mock test. Since the test is longer than one class, I divided it up into the listening and reading section. The listening takes 45 minutes to complete and the reading 75. Once the test finished, I had them correct their answers, and then convert their raw scores to the scaled scores to see how well they did. I then collected them for my own reference, and will give them back next week. I collected them mainly to see or at least get an idea of what students found difficult. This will help me decide how to continue with the textbook, ie whether to focus on listening or to continue as I have, listening then reading. Finally, I let them go as there was not enough time to do Unit 7’s mini-test and correct it. Next week, we will do the reading part and the following week, we will finish part 7 and continue with the book.

One thing I noticed is that there really should be a break after a certain point. I mean 45 minutes and then 75 minutes is a really long time to be sitting in one place listening to and reading English. I can imagine that even for a native speaker this can be trying. Maybe a break every 20 minutes could help.

I will also mention here that this week there won't be as many posts because many of my classes will have a midterm test, so there won't be anything to discuss really. As for the SAC class and Friday's advanced TOEIC class, I have decided not to continue posting because each class is almost the same. However, if something changes, or I do have something to comment about regarding those classes, I will make a post.

What is a synonym for rejoinder anyway?

2009-11-16T10:42:00.002+09:00

We started the review quiz around 9:10, and after collecting it we began the sentence stress. I wrote on the board that stressed words carry important information, and I told the students to write this down. I then asked for a volunteer to come up and write in the stress. I then illustrated a sentence without stress with a robotic voice. After, I gave them the worksheet and told them to work in pairs. After several minutes I read the sentences aloud, and then asked students to come up to write in the stress. I then had them repeat after me one last time. I also told them about the unstressed 'and'.

Next, I introduced the rejoinder expressions by having a volunteer come up and read a sentence to which I said nothing the first time and then with a rejoinder the next. I told them that it was important to use these expressions in order to show the speaker you are listening and interested. After this, I did the listening comprehension and then practiced the conversation as a group.

Next, we practiced the rejoinder expressions in the book. I also demonstrated that facial features were important when using these expressions as with the wrong facial expression the sentiment can be completely negated. I then gave them a crossword puzzle to practice the expressions before having them construct their own dialogue. For this activity I gave them a handout with a pre-fabricated dialogue where they could change certain words and expressions. I also told them to use their imagination if they wanted. I gave them 10 minutes to do this and to remember it, and then I had some pairs present.

I think I will definitely continue the dialogue construction practice in class because it seems to be going well so far. Something I would probably do differently next time is instead of the crossword which really just practices students’ memory of the expressions, maybe an activity where they would have to choose the correct expression for the situation would be more appropriate. Even a simple fill-in-the-blank exercise could suffice for this, but I think that students could benefit from this pre-task activity despite the fact that the dialogue construction activity already has the expressions provided. Perhaps then, it may be an idea to have them build one dialogue with my support and then ask them maybe with a different partner, to build another one without the aid. That way they would have to use the expressions learned in class and thus such a pre-task activity would help them.

Constructing Creative Competence

2009-11-13T17:09:00.005+09:00

We started with review, which did not take very long, and then we moved on to sentence stress. I gave them enough time to finish before reading the questions aloud for them. I then had several students come up and write in the stress. I then did something different – I wrote different grammar groups on the board, noun, verb etc and asked them to look at both handouts this week's and last week's and try to figure out which words were stressed and which were not. This was a little difficult for some, but I think this was mainly due to the question. Perhaps it may have been better if I provided the question as a handout. However, there were some who understood and when I asked for the answers there were no problems. As for the verbs though, I did not go into modal verbs because that could have been confusing, so I just listed the verbs afterward telling them that they were exceptions and that usually they are not usually stressed.

This activity took a lot of time, and honestly with some extension activities, I could see it as a potential class. I really think that next year in my Oral Communication class, I will make it more pronunciation focused. I am sure that there are books available, and I could add my own materials, or even if I have enough, I could make it myself.

Once the sentence stress activity was finished, I told them that next class, we would focus on connected speech. Then I dictated questions for the listening comprehension as usual, and after checking the answers, had them first practice with the CD, then in pairs. Next, I handed out the question activity – a reordering exercise that helped them acquire some ideas for follow-up questions, which was the main focus of this unit. Unfortunately, due to the pronunciation component, I had to stop here in order to discuss the test next week.

One thing that I have decided to do in my communication classes is try to do more activities like the one in unit 4, if I remember correctly, a dialogue construction activity. However, unlike the book, I will give them some examples to choose, but also the option to freely try other ideas to make it more interesting for them. I have already made up such activities for both Monday’s and Friday’s classes and will try them next time. Of course, that will also mean that I will have to try to cut down on the amount of time for the pronunciation practice because I will try to get the students to remember the conversation they have made before presenting it, which can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to complete, since I will probably give them 10 minutes to practice and remember with their partner before calling on pairs to present. If, however, I feel that this is too much time, I will reduce it, but really, 10 minutes to create, practice and remember a dialogue, even a short one, can be time consuming for some.

Tired of being stressed, are we? How about some intonation then?

2009-11-12T18:00:00.005+09:00

We started with review. The students did not have as much difficulty with this review quiz as they had last week. I collected it, and then handed out the sentence stress handout. I told them this time to use the same size dots for the stressed words to simply it for them. I thought that using different size dots may be more confusing and since I just wanted to focus on the stress, I thought it would be better to go with something simpler after all. I gave them enough time to work on it in pairs and then I read the questions aloud. I also told them to think about what the important words were. I then had them come up again to the board to write in the stress. Finally, I had them repeat after me before having them repeat after one another in pairs. I told them that next class we would focus on blending sounds.

Next, I dictated many questions, the most so far, and I played the CD twice. I then had them repeat after me instead of the CD.

After that, I gave them a crossword to practice some vocabulary necessary for shopping. This activity was more for fun than for actual educational purposes because although the students had some difficulty, the vocabulary itself was not so difficult for them. By the time we finished this activity, we did not have enough time to go further in the book, so I stopped there and told them what to review for the test next week.

I think overall this class went well, but I think that the pronunciation activity may be taking too much of the class time. However, next class we will be looking at blended sounds (I have to look up what it’s actually called because I am fairly sure there is a name for it), and I don’t think this will take as long as the sentence stress. I will also have to refigure the pronunciation component of the course because I had been considering continuing the sentence stress for one or two classes more and then moving on to intonation, but I think the way I am going is that I will look at blended sounds and maybe focus on that for one or two classes and then maybe look at contrastive stress, and finally, focus the rest of the semester on intonation. Honestly, now that I think about it, this semester’s pronunciation component has been greatly influenced by Cambridge University Press’s Teaching Pronunciation. I just realized that the order in which I am introducing things is quite similar to how it is outlined in that book, but simplified of course. It’s interesting, but I think I really find sentence stress and intonation well, interesting. I think it may be because it is still quite challenging for me, but more than other EFL subjects, I think I could spend hours practicing and thinking about this and not get tired of it.

There's a storm brewing in my brain!

2009-11-12T14:41:00.003+09:00

I started off with review. This took them a little longer to finish because there was a little more writing involved. Once finished I had students hand out the first sequence word activity, and I explained how these words are useful when writing. I then gave them some time to complete the first activity, a fill in the blank exercise, and after, I asked several students to give me their answers. I then asked students what the topic sentence and concluding sentence was for each paragraph. This activity seemed to be easy for them, but really it was only meant as a warm-up because the next exercise was much more challenging – first, they had to put the sentences in the correct order, then, using the sequence words, they had to rewrite the sentences in the form of a paragraph. I did not give them a time limit, but I walked around observing them and once it seemed that the majority had finished, I gave them the answer key. I then wrote the sequence words on the board explaining that we usually don't mix second and third with next and then.

After that, I handed out the brainstorming activity and asked someone from last semester to tell me what brainstorming meant. I then told them that it was very important to write down as many ideas as possible for a topic before writing. Next, I gave them 10 minutes to write down ideas for three topics, topics that we will work on in the next few weeks. Once the time was up, I collected the brainstorming handouts in order to make sure they would have them for the next class. Finally, I talked about the midterm test telling them what they should focus on, and then let them go.

Can I audit TOEIC's accounts?

2009-11-11T11:35:00.000+09:00

We started as usual with their homework, quizzes 5 and 6. I think if I go with this book in the future, I may only assign one unit per week. I am also thinking now that one unit a class may be enough. I could try something like the following: Start off correcting work, repetition drills for pronunciation, then move on to the unit in question, its mini-quiz and finally vocabulary study, a sort of self-study component. I think the final component may especially be useful because for many of the students in this class, vocabulary seems to be the biggest challenge for them, and so would be vital to focus on this as much as possible. Another thing, too, that I should look into is a smaller version of the book. What I mean is that some publishers will provide a split version of a particular textbook. The book I am using now has 28 units and considering I am only at unit 7, there is definitely no way of finishing the whole book, despite my ambitious attempt at doing two units per class, something which I now know is quite much for the students. I think therefore that a split version (14 units) would be more logical for a 15-week course. That reminds me – I still have to confirm whether or not I will be teaching this class in the spring because if I am I should start thinking about the class and what I will do in it. Of course, I should not forget this semester either for I am only half way through it!

After finishing each quiz, I had them repeat the vocabulary after me for pronunciation practice. I also told them again to circle any words they don’t know and to look them up later. We then continued with unit 6’s mini-test before moving on to unit 7. In this unit, which focuses on part 7 of the TOEIC, we looked at the typical question types found therein and which ones to start with. The four types ranked easiest to hardest are 1) specific information (positive), 2) vocabulary, 3) main idea/inference and 4) specific information (negative). In this unit we learned how to distinguish which questions are type 1 and then we looked at the questions and answers more closely to pick out the key words to aid in finding the answer. We got about halfway, up to the tactic about looking for key words, when our time ran out, which goes back to what I said earlier about doing one unit per class. Next time, we will complete unit 7 and look at their homework, quiz 7, which is found in the back. Also, we will have our first mock test, the listening part only though, because there is not enough time to do all 7 parts in one class. I intend to do the listening part and have them correct it in class; I probably won’t ask them for the answers like usual but rather give them the answer key along with the transcripts. Then we will move on to unit 7 for the remainder of the class and the following week, I will give them the reading part.

How's your memory?

2009-11-09T11:48:00.000+09:00

I had a lot of work today, so by the time I passed everything out, it was close to 9h15. Once I passed back their work, I had them do the review test. I told them to be careful of spelling because some of the words I put on the test were a little easy to misspell. After they had finished, I asked several students how to say different Japanese dishes in English. I also explained the difference between deep-fried and fried, as this can sometimes be confusing as a result of first language interference. In Japanese, for example, the word ‘furai’ is often used to mean ‘deep-fry’, so some students will say ‘fry’ as a result. Next, I moved on to the three-syllable word stress patterns. I did not give them examples but used hand gestures to illustrate the two patterns we were focusing on today. As in Friday's class, I practiced the stress patterns with a listening activity, and similarly, the students seemed to have no problems with the stress. After the listening, I had them repeat after me.

Next, we moved on to the textbook. I dictated the questions before having them listen for the answers. I then had them repeat the vocabulary after me, and then had them in pairs practice the question, 'How do you say (Japanese) in English?' I told them to do this as quickly as possible. Once finished, we moved on to the final task, a dialogue construction task. I told them to choose one of the patterns provided and remember the conversation. I gave them 10 minutes to memorize the dialogue and then I asked some of them to present in front of the class. I did not ask everyone, but I noted those whom I asked and next time, I will choose different students. I should mention that although I had asked them to choose one of the patterns, some pairs chose to use their own ideas or to mix the ideas in the book, things which I really appreciated. Finally, as there was some time left over, I had them do a listening and a dictation activity, a sort of cool down activity to follow the dialogue practice.

After today, I am thinking that having them do more activities such as the one we did today where they had to make and remember a conversation might not be a bad idea to continue. Although the textbook does not always provide this activity, it may nevertheless be something which I could try to make each week and have them do. I think it would not only give them some conversation practice, but it may also help them remember the expressions or the conversation strategies a little more. In the end, I think that if the textbook only had longer listening and perhaps more of these conversation tasks, I might appreciate it more.

AWL or a textbook? Which way to go?

2009-11-09T11:34:00.001+09:00

I am still debating whether or not I should continue writing this class’s blog because every week it is almost the same thing. We start with their homework, move on to the vocabulary and finally with the time left over, we work on the textbook. The only thing we did differently today, and something which I will probably continue to do, was pronunciation practice. After we finished one page of corrections, I had them repeat each sentence after me, pointing out the stressed words and intonation of each sentence. Honestly, I would like to try this out in my other TOEIC class, and perhaps all classes, but the biggest challenge is class size. My Friday class has only 6 students, so it is a little easier to do, and observing them is no problem either. Furthermore, if I want to hear them individually, there are few enough students that this is possible. Imagine trying to do that with 30 or 40 students – I don’t think so.

However, one concern I am having with this class is that I think I should focus a little more on the book. Of course vocabulary is important, but since I got them to buy the book, I feel that not using it is a waste of money. That said though, this is the advanced class, so they have taken the test at least once, and I think most of them have taken it more than that, so perhaps giving them test practice as what the book does may be redundant because they already know pretty much how the test works. What they may need more after all is in fact vocabulary. I am thinking more and more now that next year, I may not use a textbook in this course. I will, however, give them mock tests because I think practicing the whole test is important as it can show me what they need to focus on. Actually, (sorry for my rambling) I may need a textbook after all because part five can be practiced with the AWL, but part 7 especially really needs focused practice, something that may be easier done with a textbook. Am I back to square one then? Hmm…maybe.

Is that right? Wow! How awful!

2009-11-09T11:19:00.002+09:00

I had intended to do Friday’s blogs over the weekend, but for some mysterious reason my Internet decided to stop working this weekend, so here I am, Monday posting the blogs.

As usual, I started with the review test. It took a little longer for them all to finish because this time I made it a little longer; the tests so far have been quite short, and I am thinking that making them a little longer might be better because it will give them a chance to review more of the material.

Next, I began sentence stress. As I was considering after the general English class, I decided not to use the different size dots for the stress, but simply a big dot for stressed words, and I gave them the option of using a small dot for the unstressed ones. Also, like in Thursday’s class, this activity took some time (around 25 minutes from introduction to completion and practice). Similarly, the students did not have so much trouble with the stress, but I will continue to focus on sentence stress nevertheless because I think only one time is really not enough, especially if that is the only time they look at such a subject.

Today’s unit focused on rejoinders, expressions used to show interest, to react to what the speaker is saying. I did not use the word rejoinders, as many students would not know what this was, and besides, the textbook I am using explains it in Japanese, one of the reasons why I chose this particular book. We started the unit with comprehension questions that I dictated. I then had them repeat the conversation after the CD. We then practiced the expressions as a group (I also talked about facial expression and how it was important to match the rejoinder to the appropriate facial expression for effect.) before continuing with the next activity, a crossword puzzle based on the expressions (Unfortunately, I cannot provide a copy of the activity due to an error that results with paint when I try to copy and paste it.). For this activity, I had them close their books, naturally.

After correcting the vocabulary, we did a listening activity in the book that asked the students to put a check where they heard the rejoinders. I then asked them to listen again and write them down. Finally, I had the students practice the conversation with a partner, taking turns to be the one who used the rejoinders. By the time we finished this, there was not enough time to move on, so I let them go.

I am so sentence stressed! Aren't you?

2009-11-05T18:32:00.002+09:00

Tonight’s class was able to start right away thanks to my students helping me with the desk arrangement. After passing back their work, we did the review quiz, which I think this time turned out to be harder than usual. It was a reordering exercise, and perhaps I had too many sentences for them. However, if they had reviewed, I am sure that they would not have had any problems with the activity.

Once I collected the quizzes, I started the sentence stress. I wrote a sentence on the board and had one student come up and write in the stress. I then had them repeat the sentence after me. I then gave them a worksheet with 10 sentences and told them to write in the stress telling them to be careful of syllables. I also told them to use different size dots because although there can be several words in a sentence that are stressed, usually one will be a little more stressed than the other(s) because it will be the most important part of that sentence. I gave them about 10 minutes or so, and walked around observing, giving advice where necessary. I then wrote the sentences on the board and had students come up to write the answers. Actually, upon writing this and after careful consideration, I am not sure if having them use different size dots for the stress was the best idea. Furthermore, when I asked the student to come up and write in the stress at the beginning, I am thinking more and more now that I should have had him use the same size dots because in the end, I simply wanted to focus on those words which were stressed, and adding this extra element - although I did find it in Cambridge University Press’s Teaching Pronunciation, which probably lead me to trying it - may have unnecessarily complicated things. I think it may have been better therefore to have them understand first which words were stressed and perhaps at a later time introduce such extra information. That said, it seemed that overall, most students did not have much trouble with understanding where the stress went even though they may not have been able to explain exactly why. I did, however, explicitly mention afterward that certain words are unstressed, but I did not go into any deep explanation, which may have been for the best, for as they say - if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

The sentence stress activity took quite a bit of time, but I consider it important for students so I am not so worried about that. Once we finished, I told them that we would practice this again next week, and then moved on to the textbook. With books closed, I dictated the questions, this time we did a true or false exercise, and I played the CD twice. Next, I had them repeat after the CD with their books open. I also highlighted a couple of parts of the dialogue especially those showing confusion. I had the students repeat after me as a group and then individually; I mentioned that facial expression was also important for saying these expressions and I wanted to see if they could do it.

Finally, we did something a little different – we played a vocabulary game. I put them into groups of four, and asked them to choose a leader. I then asked them to do rock, paper, scissors to see who would go first, but actually, I know now that the English version of this game does not work well with such a task, although the Japanese version works very well – perhaps there is a way to do it in English, but I do not know the way. Once we had decided who would go first, I had them pick a number from 1 to 15, each number corresponding to a clue about a place, a store actually. I then told them the clue and they had to decide what the place was. If they got it right, I gave them the total points of the number they chose. I think this game worked well, but it may have been more exciting if I had one person stand up from each group and have them raise their hand or something to be able to answer first. What I actually did was give each group a chance to pick a number, so that was fair for all, but the other way may been more enjoyable for the class. By the time we finished the game, the class was over. Honestly, I would have liked to have had them do the exchange because we did do listening with the conversation and some conversation practice each week is important, but we did start the sentence stress and as last semester, the sentence stress tasks tend to take time especially at the beginning.

Do you know your TS's, SD's and CS's?

2009-11-05T12:45:00.000+09:00

Today there were many students absent; I am assuming the flu, but I am not sure. As always, I started by passing back their work. I also asked those in the back to move to the front. After passing back their work, I gave them the review test. I noticed from glancing at the review tests that some students were finding the parts of the paragraph difficult, but hopefully today's lesson helped clarify that. Of course, now that we have looked at the parts of the paragraph, we will start next class with some free writing exercises, so that will also give those students still having problems with the paragraph structure further practice.

The test took about 10 minutes and after collecting, I explained once more the parts of the paragraph this time introducing the concluding sentence. I then had them do an activity where they had to choose the best concluding sentence for each paragraph. Afterward, I asked students what the topic sentence was. I then gave them the next activity which reviewed all of the parts; they had to write out the topic sentence, the supporting details and finally the concluding sentence. Once finished, I asked several students to read me their answers. Although there seemed to be some students who had problems with the paragraph on the review test, there were no problems with this exercise, so what may have happened is that they needed to be reminded of the paragraph and once they were, it quickly came back to them.

By the time we finished these two activities, there was not enough time for the reading and the conjunction activity, so I gave them a choice, and they chose conjunctions. They had to rewrite sentences using the conjunction ‘so’ and ‘because’. Before they began I explicitly told them that ‘so’ requires a comma, but ‘because’ does not. I also told them that these conjunctions are written in the lower case. Once they were all finished, I asked several students to read out their answers. I then wrote on the board the usage of so and because and had them write it down. Finally, I let them go a little earlier because there was not enough time to do the reading.

I have to say that since I started giving them the choice, I have always found it interesting that they never choose the reading. I can only speculate as to why they do this, but every time the majority, and it is really the majority, not a slight margin, chooses the other activity. Of course, this does not mean that they can avoid the reading forever because next class, I intend to do this activity, and since they chose not to do it this week, I will probably not give them the choice the next class because reading is important for this class – it not only helps them to practice skimming and scanning techniques, but it also can help them with vocabulary building. However, for the latter purpose, it might be a good idea to give them an activity to help them practice the vocabulary because many of them may not review the reading later, and so the chance for vocabulary building is lost.

Why aren't there words like TOEICy or TOEICness?

2009-11-04T10:50:00.000+09:00

Today, we finished unit 5 and unit 6 of the book. Both of these units corresponded to parts five and six of the TOEIC test, part 5 being the fill in the blank at the sentence level type and part 6 being the same thing, but at the text level. These units focused on using clues in the question to decide the part of speech and then the correct verb form. Part five also included the 2-pass method, which refers to time management. Test-takers are recommended to answer the easy questions first, and then go back after to answer the harder ones. They are also recommended not to spend more than 30 seconds on a question and to answer all questions, even if it is only guessing the answer. I can understand this and even support this tactic because if you leave out an answer, you will have no chance of getting the extra point if you so happen to be correct. Also, answering incorrectly does not affect your score, so what is the harm in trying?

I started unit 5 by reminding them of the tips focused on in the chapter. I then had them work in pairs on a question that asked them to choose which part of speech was being asked for. After I got their answers individually, I had them go on and answer the questions choosing the best answer from the list provided. Next, I gave them back their answer sheets and had them do the mini-test. I told them to try to use the 2-pass method and gave them a maximum of six minutes to complete the questions. Afterward, we went back through the questions, and I had them repeat some of the harder words after me. I also told them to circle those words that they found difficult so that they could come back later and review.

We then moved on to unit 6. I did not go into too much detail about verb choice because I thought they would have no problem, but it turned out that this was harder for them than expected. Next time, if I use this book, I should probably go through the examples, explaining the difference between them. I should mention here that there were eight questions – the first four were based on present simple or present continuous and the other four were on the past simple or past continuous. Also, two of these questions I thought could have either the simple or continuous tense although the answer key did not suggest this. I think that I may have to come up with my own ideas so that we can avoid this confusion, or simply skip over those problematic questions. The second task, however, was not as difficult and we were able to finish quickly. I decided to stop here and not go on because we only had ten minutes. Instead, I asked them to go back through units 5 and 6 and write down any new words that they had encountered that day. I also took the opportunity to reiterate the importance of vocabulary for the test and that they should review as much as possible. Finally, I set the quizzes for homework and let them go.

I think that in the future, and possibly during this semester, I might give them a handout that they can use to note down their vocabulary words because some use a notebook and others scrap paper, but perhaps an actual worksheet might be more encouraging in the sense that it may feel more like a real activity. Also, writing on scrap paper can be dangerous because it is easily misplaced or discarded. It may be interesting to try something like this: give them the worksheet this week and have them fill it out with words they don’t know. Then the following week give them a new worksheet and collect the old one. I could then use the data from the old worksheet to make up a review test to give them the following week. Of course, this may be time consuming because I would have to search all the lists and compile a vocabulary list for the quiz, but it may be a good way to help them review vocabulary. However, if I have the lists at home, they won’t be able to prepare for it, so that idea may not be so good after all. Perhaps then it may be better to use the vocabulary from the quizzes that they have been doing because if anything, it would give them another chance to review, something which is important for such a test.

I am finally out of the woods!

2009-11-02T16:54:00.000+09:00

Today's class went fairly well. It went much more smoothly than Friday's class. I think that may have been due to the fact that this was my second time, so I knew more of what to expect, ie I was prepared. It was not only that though, it was the flow, too. Things just felt in place and I felt that my transitions from one activity to the next were better than it had been in other classes in the past couple of weeks. Of course, I don’t feel sick anymore, although on Saturday I had a little bicycle accident, but nothing broken, so I think today I was in a more energetic mood, and to be honest, for a Monday morning class, I think they are also quite lively, which I think always helps.

We started with the review, which did not take too long, and then moved on to the word stress review. This time I had one member of each pair come up to check the answers, which I thought was more effective than doing it as a group. However, once everyone had come up we practiced the pronunciation as a group.

Once the word stress was completed, I dictated some questions to them. I changed one of the questions this time because last time I asked the question: Where are they? However, it was quite difficult to know the answer just by listening, so I went with something a little easier. I then asked individual students for their answers, and then had them repeat after the CD. I then asked them to practice the conversation with a partner for a couple of minutes before asking different pairs to come up to the front to present. I also mentioned to them to use their energy and to consider themselves actors and actresses to help them with pronunciation and intonation. I think this encouragement worked well because the pairs I chose did not just read from the book in a monotone manner, but they actually tried to read it in a more affective manner.

After that, I had them repeat after me some expressions that they can use if they don’t understand what someone says. I did not go into any deep explanation because many of the questions had been introduced in the first class as classroom English, so this was more of a review than anything for them.

Next, we did a short dictation activity in the book. There were three conversations and they had to listen and fill in the blanks. I then asked them to practice each conversation with their partner.

I then had two students hand out the vocabulary worksheet and before I had them start I had them repeat the words after me. This activity did not take them too long to finish, so while I was asking them for the answers, I would ask them questions such as ‘Do you like…?’ or ‘Do you often eat…?’ I probably should not have continued to do this so much because by the time we finished there was not a lot of time left for the final conversation practice. What I had planned was to have them memorize the conversation using what they liked and then choose some pairs to present, but this time I just got them to practice and I walked around asking certain pairs to present for me individually.

I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the TOEIC test.

2009-11-02T16:50:00.000+09:00

I will continue making this post although it will be fairly short from now on because the class format does not vary that much. We usually go through the homework together, then the new list of vocabulary, followed by the textbook. I also encourage a lot of free talking due to the small number of students, but it usually just ends up me doing most of the talking. Perhaps in future classes, I will try to reduce the amount of teacher talk and focus a little more on the book. However, after this semester, I am debating whether I will continue to use a textbook or not because there are a lot of questions that I can use for the academic word list on-line, and if I can come up with some test-style questions on my own, it may not be necessary to ask students to buy a textbook, although finding TOEIC type questions is easier said than done. In the end though, I consider vocabulary to be the biggest thing and with such a small class, some speaking activities, even if it is only read an article and talk about it orally, may be good practice for them for the TOEIC.

Something I was just thinking about while writing this post is that I probably should do review tests or review homework because each work we are going through about 60 words, which is a huge amount for them. Giving them review every month may therefore be quite helpful for them.

Finally, and this sort of comes from a TOEIC video I watched a while back, it may be a good idea to have them repeat after me a lot, to help them with their pronunciation and also listening. Of course, if I decide to do this, I will have to make sure there is enough time each week for such a task, but I don’t think that it would be so hard to do. I guess I had more to write than I was expecting, and now I have some things to consider before next class.

To use a textbook, or not to use a textbook, that is the question.

2009-11-02T16:12:00.000+09:00

This was the second last class of the week of illness and pain, but really by the time I had this class, I was feeling much better although I was still taking medicine for my cold.

I started off by passing back their work and explaining once again the absentee slip system. I then asked them to clear off their desks and I gave them the review quiz. Although in my general English class, I played a game, I was expecting everyone to show up in this class, which would make it challenging to conduct such a game, so I went with a listening instead. Before we started, I used hand gestures getting them to repeat after me, the two patterns in focus for that lesson. I then read the words only once and they had to circle the correct stress pattern. I then asked them individually to give me their answer using the gestures learned. Again, they seemed to have a good grasp of the stress patterns, so I told them that we would start sentence stress next class.

Next, I dictated questions and got them to read them back to me to check their understanding. I then played the CD twice and asked for their answers individually. After that, I had them repeat after the CD. Once that was finished I got them to practice the vocabulary on the next page with a partner using the question, ‘How do you say this in English?’ I gave them about 10 minutes, but most were finished earlier, so we moved on.

What I should have done next was task 5 asking them to memorize the dialogue and after have them present, but instead, I had them do tasks 2 to 4, the first two being a listening, and the last a writing exercise using adverbs. The writing exercise was used because after the listening, there really wasn’t enough time to look at the conversation practice task. I think the writing exercise was also too easy for them, and could have been used more as a question answer type activity. I think in Monday’s class therefore, I will try to make an activity with the vocabulary and then from there head on to the final task and only come back to the listening if there is time. I noticed and perhaps a little too late that the listening was quite short, both activities were completed in under 10 minutes, so I think it would be a good idea to leave them until the end because something I am noticing is that in this class, I am not really giving them enough speaking practice, even if it only controlled, it is still better than nothing.

I have to admit that I think the further you go on in this book, the more there is to do as this unit is a good example. Having a section on frequency adverbs and likes/dislikes is quite a bit for one unit, and now that I know that it is better to make up some supplementary activities (I did not do any for this week, but will try for the next) instead of following the book directly, something which perhaps the authors want you to do, you can easily have a couple of lessons there or perhaps rather, it might be a good idea to try to have two 40 minute sections, one focused on likes and dislikes and the other focusing on adverbs. I say this now because there is only one conversation per unit and for me it would be more ideal to have a model dialogue for each section that I were intending to focus on. It could simply be then a question of choice – perhaps the authors do not intend for you to do everything and that you can pick and choose what to do. Unfortunately, there is not much written in the teacher’s guide about this so I can only speculate. However, looking carefully at the textbook, it is probably meant to go through task after task, but as I stated previously, I will try to supplement the book because despite wanting the students to use the book since they bought it, it is also important to make it interesting for them as well, and some parts of the book are just not that invigorating, and furthermore, students tend to like pair work, and that is something else lacking in this text – well, there are pair work activities, don’t get me wrong, but I think that maybe a few more would have been better. Honestly, the more I write this, the more I can’t help feel that it would be better if I made a textbook, but I’ll leave that to another post.

So, where do you wanna go?

2009-11-02T15:37:00.001+09:00

Due to my students’ aid in arranging the chairs, I was able to start the class on time. As with all classes that week, I started off by reminding them all about the absentee slip, and then passed back their work. Next, we did the review test, which did not take that long. I then introduced the two stress patterns that we would learn that day. However, this time I tried something different. I asked them to get into groups to play a game. I then placed chairs in rows of two in the middle of the room. I had them choose a leader and then the first person to start. I had this person stand facing the front with the chairs behind each person. I then explained that I would be saying words with either type 1 or type 2 stress pattern. I said I would give them five seconds to sit down on the chair corresponding to that stress pattern. The members of each team who got the right answer would receive a point. After playing for a while, I reduced the time to three seconds, and even had them close their eyes so as not to see what the others were doing. However, in the end, I realized that most all had a good grasp of word stress. The idea for the game was interesting and the students seemed to like it, but it was not as challenging as I had hoped since almost every time everyone got the correct pattern. Once we stopped the game, I had them help me put the desks back and then I gave them the list of words so that they could write in the patterns before moving on. I also said that next week (this week now) we would move on to sentence stress.

Next, we began the unit on places around town and in your neighborhood. I dictated several questions and then had them listen to the CD. Once finished, I decided to move on to the next page and the exchange activity. Here, I did something different as well because instead of asking them to simply practice the conversations, I asked them to memorize a conversation of their choice and afterward they would present it before the class. I gave them about 10 minutes to do this, but I probably could have given them less to make it more challenging.

I finished the class with a modified version of the speaking section. I increased the questions and adapted them to the students’ lives in the city. I had them work on the questions together and then asked them individually for answers.

I think that this class was one of the better ones so far this semester because I felt more confident in what I was doing, I felt prepared and also the students seemed to enjoy themselves and we did not completely focus on the book. I think that in the future classes, I should try to maintain this style of lesson and not worry so much if I cannot do most of the book.

Writing, We Love Writing, Lots and Lots of Writing

2009-10-30T16:50:00.000+09:00

There were many students absent today, probably due to the influenza virus rampaging many areas of Japan right now. I am not sure if what I had was the flu or not, but I am better for the most part. Of course, I am apprehensive of being back because when you are surrounded by so many different students, it is not too hard to pick up something different and considering my fragile state, it makes it that much easier.

Anyway, enough about my cold. Today I did not change their seating arrangements; I did ask those in the back to come forward, but that's all. I then passed back their work from last week, then reminded them about the absentee slip. I then had them clear off their desks and had them do the review quiz. Next, I drew the hamburger on the board, explaining that the top is the main idea or topic, and that it is important to have supporting details, which I referred to as extra information to support the big or main idea. In the future I will stop using the term supporting details because I think it just confuses the matter, and simply saying extra information or ideas about the topic may be a little clearer. I then had them do two activities about the supporting details, one where they had to distinguish the topic sentence from the supporting details and another which had them write out the supporting details and count them from an full paragraph. Once we corrected this, I had them do the reading from last week and by the time they were finished, there was not enough time to do anything else, so I let them go early.

I think the class ran smoothly despite having a cold, but there are some things I have noticed that I should try to resolve. First of all, I think the wording I use for the parts of the paragraph needs to be reconsidered, even if only a little. If I am going to use topic sentence, which is what teachers commonly use, it may be better to let students know what it is in Japanese. As for supporting details, it may be better to use things such as extra information about topic etc as the words supporting and details may be difficult to understand. Next, I think the second task took too much time. Perhaps I did not need them to write out the supporting details. I think this idea came from a textbook, or I may have thought that having them write out the sentences would help them understand what supporting details were better, but now that I think about it, it may have been better to do something like give a topic and a list of various sentences and have them select the appropriate sentences to go with that topic. This kind of activity could have be used after completing a more simplified, say count the supporting details only, task 2. This would provide students with more steps leading up to the final goal of understanding better that supporting details are related and necessary for the topic.

One other thing that is more related to time management is that although I showed up on time, we did not start the review until 15 minutes later. From the time I arrived to that time, I only set up my computer, passed back work and reminded them of the absentee slips. Now, there are normally 40 students, so handing back work can take time, but does it really take that much? I didn’t notice until looking at my notes. It may be a good idea then to wait until the end of class, or leave them for students to come up and get later. However, the problem with that is that some students may not come and get their work. This is something that I should try to render in the future, but then again, is it something I really should worry about? Shouldn’t I really be concerned with achieving the goals of the class?

I think influenza will probably be on the TOEIC test.

2009-10-29T15:12:00.000+09:00

After spending all day Tuesday in bed, taking medicine and eating soup, I thought I had enough energy to come back to work on Wednesday, but after the first class, I realized that if I really wanted to get over this bug, I needed to go home and rest, which I did shortly after this class.

We started the class with the unit 3 and 4 quizzes in the back of the book. I was happy to see that many of the students had finished the homework, but unlike the previous week where we quickly finished this section, it actually took half the class this time to finish. Considering my state, I can't say for sure, but students did seem exhausted, too, and considering what I had and what's going around, I wouldn't be surprised if many of them were in the early stages of catching something. Of course, the class is on a Wednesday morning, and if you are anything like me, you are not a morning person.

Anyway, the quizzes, despite taking a long time, are still quite important for the students, and should not be neglected because they need vocabulary for the TOEIC. I think, and I am sure I have already posted this, vocabulary is the biggest factor in improving your score, and I hope that over time my students will come to understand that and not before it is too late.

Once we finished each quiz, I also had them practice the pronunciation with me as well because it can help with the listening component as well. After both quizzes were corrected, we did the mini-test of unit 4 before starting unit 5, which focuses on part 5 or the fill in the blanks section of the test. In this unit we focused on discerning the part of speech being asked for in the question in order to make answer selection a little easier. I first asked some students to give me an example of part of speech and I wrote them on the board. I then had two students read the test tips on the page before asking them to work in pairs to decide which part of speech is required for the answer. We were able to work our way through this and onto the next exercise, which practiced this test strategy a little more when our time ran out.

Due to lack of time we were not able to finish the unit, and so I was unable to assign any homework, although I encouraged them to study the vocabulary they did not know. One thing that I may start doing in this class is giving them extra vocabulary quizzes on top of the homework. I know that it sounds much, but for the TOEIC, which is not an easy test, vocabulary, as well as hard work and effort are important if you want to get that score higher.

How do you say 'influenza' or whatever it was I had in Japanese?

2009-10-29T15:10:00.000+09:00

After 3 days battling what may have been the flu (I say may have been because although I suffered, I think the flu would have been much worse), I have recovered enough to be able to update my blog.

Before I begin, I should mention that most of what I say in Friday’s post will resemble quite a bit, if not perfectly, Monday’s post since I use the same textbook and activities in both.

I started this class by passing back their review quizzes, and then I reminded them about the absentee slip and the deadline for submission. I then had them do the review test for last week, and I followed that with the word stress. I was quite sore from the past weekend playing sports with students at an extracurricular event that I was not really able to stomp along with them, but chose different students to stomp out the stress and had the classmates repeat.

I then started the chapter in the same way as Friday walking around complimenting people on things, then asking them to write down as many things as possible that we can compliment someone on. At 9h45 I had them come up and write their answers on the board. Many of the students had used more tangible examples such as possessions, so I gave some different examples such as cooking or language to illustrate the intangibleness of what can be complimented on.

Next, I told them to keep their books closes, and I dictated these questions to them.

What are they talking about?
Who gave it to her?
Why did they give it to her?

There were only three questions because unfortunately, the dialogues in the textbook are rather short. Once they were finished I asked individual students for the questions to make sure they were OK before we listened. I then played the CD twice and took their answers orally. After that, I told them to practice the conversation four times before moving on.

The last activity of the day was the same one I had tried to do in Friday’s class, but ended up assigning as homework. I realize now that this activity does take a lot of time and maybe even too much time. The first part, the dictation, did not seem to take them too long to complete, but putting together the five conversations was very time consuming for many, and if I had not told them to stop so we could correct as a group, we would not have been able to finish on time. As I had wrote in Friday’s post, I gave them an example in the hope that it would clarify things, but it may only have done so slightly, although I may be too hard on myself because when I was walking around observing, many students seemed to know what to do; it was just that putting together the puzzle with so many pieces proved more challenging than anticipated. I think the task though, still has potential and that it may be better in the future to modify this activity, maybe reduce the number of dialogues, or practice some dialogues first, let them get the idea of the conversation pattern in their heads, and then let them try, and see if that helps them work through the task better.

My office is full of TOEIC

2009-10-25T17:33:00.000+09:00

Today's class followed the same format as the previous classes, but I think that next week will be different because I only gave them three worksheets instead of the six.

I made sure I had everything ready as I had said I would, so I was able to get there on time, but the room was a little too noisy, so I proposed to have the class in my office, and I told them to come here from next week. Moving to my office therefore meant that we did not start on time, but I think next week will be better.

Once we all got straightened away, I gave them the articles, and then we started correcting the questions. However, unlike the last couple of classes, I discussed a few more of the questions asking them what they thought or what they would do, just to get a little more speaking involved.

This took most of the class, so for the list, I had them repeat all the words with me first, and then asked them for parts of speech and for derivations. Once we finished, there was only a little time left, so I told them that we would pick up with the book next week, and since I gave them only half the workload, I think we will have more time to focus on it.

Much ado about homework

2009-10-25T17:27:00.000+09:00

I am only getting around to posting Friday's notes today because Friday and Saturday I was away.

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I think this may have been one of those weeks when things don't go according to plan because I have not been satisfied with my teaching this week. I think it may be due to formatting my computer as this interrupted my week schedule considerably; I know now that I should have waited until the weekend, but alas that is my personality.

Today I started by having them change seats. I did this in order to allow them to meet new people. I then asked them about the homework, but I realize now that I should have been clearer because only 4 (although to be honest, walking around, it seemed that many more had finished) had finished it, so I didn’t take it in as planned. Instead I handed out the quiz and then we reviewed the word stress (refer to the previous post for explanation). After explaining the rules and telling them to start, I noticed that some were still unsure as to what to do, so I explained it to them; other students asked their neighbors, which I don’t mind at all, and soon everyone was on their way. I told them that the fastest group to finish would get candy, so I must not forget that next week.

After that, I told them to take out last week’s pair work, which was supposed to have been done for homework, and after explaining what they had to do one more time, I asked them to do it then. I think this time things went well, so I know that it was due to lack of time that they did not understand the activity. On Monday I will be doing this activity so I have to make sure to give myself enough time to explain and them enough time to complete within the class because it was originally meant to be an in-class activity and not homework.

By the time we finished, it was around 10, so I had to skip some of the chapter. I first dictated some questions for the short introductory dialogue and then played the CD twice. I then asked them to quickly practice the conversation. After that, I had them close their books and repeat the key expressions after me. Next, I had them do the vocabulary activity – they had to match English to Japanese. This did not take them too much time and I just asked them individually how to say the English dishes in Japanese. This activity was a pre-task for the final task of the day – in pairs they had to make conversations based on a model dialogue using a menu where one person acted as a foreigner who did not understand Japanese, and the other the Japanese friend. I was a little surprised to see that many of them finished so quickly, so I asked some pairs to stand up and practice in front of class.

I think I may have chosen the wrong textbook or rather, a textbook that does not suit my teaching style because I prefer longer introductory conversations and more listening exercises as are found in yesterday's class. I did not have time to finish the chapter due to last week's homework, but if it weren't for that, I probably would have finished much earlier. Furthermore, the teacher's guide has no extra activities, only the answer key, which I think is not good for a textbook. Surely, I can make up materials on my own, and perhaps that is what the authors want, but a teacher's guide should definitely have more than this. However, maybe that is the problem – I am thinking that the textbook is enough, but it isn't, and I probably should have noticed that earlier, but as they say, better late than never.

Is time really free?

2009-10-23T13:18:00.000+09:00

My students really helped me today because when I arrived they were organizing the desks for me. As I noted in a previous post, finding time to arrange the desks was a real concern, but if they continue to do this for me, I'll be able to start the class on time.

Unfortunately though, this class didn't get off to a good start because I forgot the CD, and had to go back to get it. Now, the class had not started yet so that was OK, but I should have been better prepared. What was worse though, was that later on in the class, I realized I had left their work up in my office, and had to go back up to get it. They were working on something during this time, but still I couldn't believe having forgotten two things! I think it really interrupted my mental preparedness.

Before I continue to criticize myself, I should talk about what we did. Of course, as usual, we started with a review quiz. The students were able to finish quickly, so we moved on to the pronunciation. Today we focused on the review of initial and final stress in two-syllable words. I used the game from Hancock's Pronunciation Games by Cambridge to do this and I think it worked well. I was also pleased to see that they finished very quickly, or faster than I was expecting (which actually meant that I would have more time left; I thought that the activity would take about 15 minutes, but it only took 10). To practice the pronunciation, I had them stand up and we stomped the stress; the students seemed to enjoy this.

Next, I told the students to keep their books closed and I dictated some questions. I can usually make up questions on the spot, but for some reason, I had trouble, which made me realize that I have to prepare these questions ahead of time, not only because it is more professional, but also so that it doesn't throw me off my game, when I suddenly find out that it is not as easy to make up questions as I think. Once they had written down the questions, I asked some students to read me back the questions to check to make sure they had them before we listened. After that, I had them repeat after the CD, first with books opened, then practice with their partner, and then without books. What was strange was that I was making errors with something as simple as pushing pause, as I would cut off the CD too early for example.

However, the next activity seemed to work well, and it may be nice to try it again not only in this class, but in others as well. I chose two students to go up to the front of the class, and then I had them pick two students who would read their lines to them, and they would act out the conversation. Both groups did really well, and the whole class seemed to really take to it. Of course, it may have also depended on the students because some of the shier students may find this difficult to do, but it may be worth a try because the students are never alone as they are working with their classmates.

Next, we continued with a listening exercise. I played it about 2 times and then got them to tell me their answers. I then finished the class with a speaking activity where students had to ask each other yes or no questions about interests and abilities. I then walked around to see how they were answering, and even asking them questions at times, too. I then asked for a group consensus on whether they were artistic or athletic, two of the personality types used in the activity.

I realized that despite being prepared, because I really did prepare, writing out my lesson plan etc, I felt that I wasn’t mentally prepared. This could have been due to being busy the last couple of days with my computer or something else, but I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was teaching today. One thing that I have learned from this is that even if I think I am ready, I need to take time to make sure I really know what I am about to do, and prepare myself mentally for the upcoming task.

The topic is in the hamburger?

2009-10-22T18:47:00.000+09:00

I did something different today. I notice that many students tend to sit in the same place and usually, but not always, with the same person, so what I did before starting the class was separate them. I gave half the class an A and the other B, and told them to find a partner. This of course took a few minutes, and some students came while people were looking for a partner, so I matched them immediately with someone, but it worked out quite well.

Once they were seated I had them clear off their desks for the review quiz. I gave them about 10 minutes, but many were finished before the time was up. I then quickly reviewed the paragraph rules by asking individual students for them, and having students repeat after me. After that, I passed back their work from the previous week.

Around 11 I introduced, using both English and Japanese, the topic and my hamburger analogy for the paragraph. I explained how important the topic was and that it is usually introduced in the first sentence and that this was called the topic sentence. I then had them do an activity where they had to find the main idea or topic of a list of similar words. I then gave them five paragraphs and asked them first to take turns reading each paragraph aloud, then to work together to figure out what the topic was and what the topic sentence was. I did not give them a time limit, but walked around observing them and when it seemed that most of them had finished, I asked them individually to tell me what the topic and topic sentence were.

After finishing the activities, I was going to continue with the worksheet on and versus but, but realized that we did not have enough time to do that, the reading and the sentence correction, so I once again asked them to choose, and a huge majority wanted to do the worksheet on and versus but, so we did. Once the majority had finished, I asked students to come up and write the answers on the board. I then had students read the sentences aloud before asking them for the rules – namely, and is for two similar ideas, whereas but is for two contrasting ideas. Finally, I told them to review the worksheet on and versus but and the topic/topic sentence for next week’s test.

Looking back on today’s lesson, I think things went well. However, I think that some of my students had a little trouble with the idea of topic and topic sentence despite explaining to them in Japanese and English. This difficulty could be attributed to the foreignness of the concept as many students may not have studied this in high school, or it could have been due to my explanation – perhaps I should consider a written explanation in the future. However, on the bright side, we will continue to focus on this in upcoming classes since we will be looking at writing in more detail, so I am fairly confident that it will become easier for them. Speaking of the writing, I am also considering doing it a little differently in that I think I may have the students write on topics that interest them, especially those that they highlighted in the questionnaire I gave them. I think that writing about something you like will definitely make the writing process a little easier and hopefully enjoyable.

Diving into the SA SEA

2009-10-22T18:44:00.000+09:00

I am only getting around to writing this today because yesterday I formatted my computer, a very pleasant experience that I am sure that all of you have probably experienced at some time in your lives.

Before I start, I have to say that for this class, there really isn't a lot to say in terms of a lesson plan because the students choose what they do, how they do it and the pace at which they do it. My purpose is simply as guide, and I spend most of my time answering questions, giving advice as to how to go about doing certain things and making sure that students are focused on the task. Last week's class focused on typing the text out on the computer. Not everyone was able to finish, but the majority who did continued this week with vocabulary. The ones who did not finish the text last week, simply finished up what they were doing and then moved on. As was expected, some students were able to finish earlier than others, but I told them to continue with the activities. Next week, they will continue to work on their vocabulary if they are not finished or the activities.

I think that overall the class has gone well so far; the students are doing the work, and even helping each other with any problems they may have. In this class and the previous one, students were really only able to complete one task, but I have to say that the pace is good; students are focusing on what they are doing, and although there may be some talking, it is not really affecting their work. What I am noticing is that there is a growing sense of community among certain students (I say certain because due to the seating arrangements it is hard for all the students to be close, although I do have them sit closer to the front of the class, so there is no one isolated from the group). I also have to say that the number (17) of students does help a lot because this type of class may be a little harder if there were say 50 or 60 in the class. Finally, having an exchange student assist me in the class has also been very helpful and it would definitely be nice if I could have someone to help me out in future classes as well because I think that this may be the way I conduct this class from now on – of course, like any new style, it's important to test it, but if things continue the way they are, I think it will be a viable option.

Do you have any TOEIC?

2009-10-22T18:37:00.000+09:00

I know I should really try to post these the day of the class, but yesterday and even today were spent pretty much formatting my computer, so I did not have the time. Fortunately, the computer is back to to normal and completely refreshed for a new start!

Today we focused on listening strategies, mainly predicting context from key words skimmed from the question and answers for parts 3 and 4 of the TOEIC. However, before we started, we did unit 2's mini-test, which focused on part 2 of the test, and then looked at their vocabulary homework – vocabulary quizzes found at the back of the book. Once we had worked through this we started unit 3. I introduced the main focus of the chapter and then had a student read aloud the test tip. I then had them do question 2 which asked them to look for keywords in the questions and answers. I gave them about a minute to do this, then asked for their answers and followed that up with a short listening. We then did exercise 3, but we did not go through the key words, I just told them to skim the questions and answers for a minute before I played the CD; the mini-test was done in much the same fashion. Interestingly, I noticed that students had more trouble with the first two questions than with the mini-test. Considering that we only practiced twice before the mini-test, I don't think I can associate their improvement with that, but rather I think they were more comfortable with the vocabulary; also, one of the conversations used British English, and for many students this can be difficult to understand since many schools, maybe even most, focus on North American English. I did recommend that they listen to the BBC, but it may be a good idea to look for some simple British English listening sites to give them in the future. I also told them that vocabulary is extremely important and that the more they review and study vocabulary, the easier the listening will become. Of course, it is also important to listen to English as much as possible, but even if you can catch the word, if you don't know it or its related word ie synonym/antonym, you are really back to square one.

I will not really write out in detail what I did for unit 4 because Parts 3 and 4 are very similar and thus so are their chapters in this book. However, unlike chapter 3 I had them do the first question of chapter 4 which focused on paraphrasing, another common feature of the TOEIC. I also had students read the test tips aloud, but I skipped question 2 and went on with question 3. Again one conversation seemed easier for them than the other, which could be attributed to things such as lack of vocabulary and unfamiliarity with the situation in question. For example, the first announcement was clearer in my opinion than the second, which was someone, probably a chief or manager talking at a meeting about deadlines and a project.

Like last week, we did not have enough time to finish unit 4, so we will do that next class. Maybe it might be a good idea to continue in this way because it does give them some extra review each consecutive week.

One thing I am also noticing is that perhaps I am going to fast in this class; I am doing two lessons a class and that is possibly a lot of vocabulary for some. It may also be a good idea to give students the listening scripts afterward, so that they can see where they went wrong because despite the fact that I am explaining the answers orally, this may not be understood by all, so giving them the scripts may be a surefire way of helping them understand, while at the same time, giving them some new vocabulary.

Another thing that I cannot stress enough and I'll probably say this each week is that vocabulary is important and needs to be studied. This is only my third time if you count the advanced classes, but it is something that I have noticed each time – vocabulary is probably the biggest part, followed by the strategies. Some of you may disagree with me on that, but that is what I believe. Therefore, it may be a good idea to reconsider my classes and slow down a little more and focus on the scripts and vocabulary. Of course, that will mean that I will probably, no I will definitely have to reduce the amount of the textbook, which although something I would prefer not to do, since the students have bought the book and so there is a big part of me that would like to finish the majority of it, I will have to compromise and focus on each chapter more deeply, and see if that helps my students.

Please allow me to introduce myself.

2009-10-19T13:35:00.001+09:00

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

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...TOEIC!

2009-10-16T17:07:00.000+09:00

Today's class went better than last week because we were able to start earlier, but I have to admit that 10 minutes is not a lot of time to leave one class, get your things for another and make it there to start on time. However, I did notice today that there are some classrooms available close to my first period class, so it may be better to change rooms if possible. Also, I need to make sure that everything is photocopied because that can take time as well. Perhaps what I should try next time is to bring everything along with me so that I don't have to go upstairs at all. That way, I probably should be able to make it on time and not be so exhausted, as I've felt these two past Fridays. I must admit though, that I like having classes back to back because it frees up my Friday afternoons. Of course, I don't go home early or anything like that, but it is nice to have the afternoon to reflect on classes, prepare for next week or read, which is something I really have to catch up on, but isn't it common at the start of a new semester?

Well, today we started by correcting their homework. I had given them six pages of fill in the blank questions using the vocabulary from the academic word list. They all had their work done which was great. I did not choose anyone though, but asked them to volunteer answers. As we were correcting the work, I made comments where necessary regarding pronunciation or word usage particularly collocations. Once we finished, and this took a big chunk of the class, we moved on to the new list, again practicing pronunciation and having them do lexical derivations, mainly transposition. After this, I noticed that we had very little time, so we began correcting last week's work, but stopped halfway as we ran out of time.

This week I gave them the same amount of homework, but after today, I now realize that the homework, although important, takes up too much class time, so next week I will only give them half of the questions, and try to focus a little more on the book and see how that goes.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

My! What a lovely English class you have!

2009-10-16T16:57:00.000+09:00

I was surprised by today’s class because last night when I was preparing for it I was a little worried that there would not be enough material in the chapter to fill out a class without my own supplements. However, I was unable to complete the chapter, and even had to assign the final pair work activity as homework.

I arrived at the class around 9 and set up my computer. While waiting for the computer to come on, I wrote the goals for the class on the board and then went to the office to borrow a CD player (mine is not reliable anymore as it tends to skip). I then came back and passed back the work they did last week. This took more time than I was expecting, so we did not start review until 9:14; I gave them 10 minutes to complete it, but the majority had completed it before time was up, so I collected it and then moved on to the word stress (the document is on the previous post) following the same procedure as laid out in the post first introducing this activity. Actually, I just remembered that I did something a little different – I picked individual students to clap the stress and had the students repeat after that student.

Once finished, we moved on to chapter two which focused on compliments. I asked the students to think of what you can compliment someone on. Some students were not sure as to what to write, so I gave them some examples ie haircut etc. I probably gave this activity, considering it was a warm-up, too much time, so when I do this in Monday’s class (we are using the same book), I will tell them they only have 5 minutes. Once I felt they had enough time to think of ideas, I asked each student to write their example on the board, and there were many, and many of them great, like smile, fashion, etc. I then had them keep their books closed, and I dictated three questions (I was going to erase their examples but thought it better to leave them) for a listening activity - they had to listen to a short conversation and answer the questions. After they listened to the CD, I had them repeat the dialogue after me, and then asked them to read it in pairs. Next, we looked at some expressions for complimenting and some responses to compliments. I had them repeat after me telling them that how they said it and how they looked when they said it were important, as giving someone a compliment with a frown can actually mean the opposite. After practicing, I had them change partners and then had one person read sentences randomly to their partner, who listened and repeated.

By the time we finished this task, I realized I did not have a lot of time left. I decided to continue with task 2, a short dictation type listening activity, before going on to the pair work, but I probably should have started the pair work at that time omitting task 2, because we did not have enough time to finish it. I ended up setting it for homework, instead, along with review of pages 6 and 7 of chapter 2 for next week’s review quiz. The pair work was a modified version of the pair work dictation exercise in that this time, once they had finished, they were asked to make 6 different conversations, each consisting of three sentences. Unfortunately, this was one time when Japanese did not help clarify the activity and I know now that an example, which in the end I did write on the board, would have been clearer. Also, due to lack of time, I was not able to really explain what to do; again I thought the Japanese would be sufficient. Therefore, next time if I do something like this, I need to give myself more time to explain with examples. What I mean is that first, I should have asked them to do the first part and check their answers and then asked them to listen to me while I explained the next part. In short, I rushed a possibly good activity, something I need to be careful not to do again.

I have to say that I am amazed how quickly today’s class went by, and how I was wrong to think that there would not be enough in the chapter because it turned out to be quite the opposite. However, I could not help feeling that my students did not have so much speaking practice today, what I mean to say is that I don’t feel we really practiced how to compliment and how to respond to compliments. Indeed, we looked at different expressions and the homework asks that they make short dialogues of that nature, but there was really no in-class practice, so I think that in future classes, I need to try to focus more on that kind of actual practice, even if it means reducing or cutting out altogether another activity.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

Speaking Listening Speaking Listening

2009-10-16T15:51:00.000+09:00

Things have been very busy this week, but it was to be expected because we are still in the first few weeks of the semester. I think that from November, things will slow down a little, and I will hopefully have more time to post the same day as my class. Of course, the first few posts have also been quite lengthy, which takes time to write, but I think that eventually, I will be able to post them quickly. Honestly, I try to write notes during class (not this detailed of course), but I prefer to walk around and observe my students during activities, so it can be challenging to write anything until afterward, but it is not really a problem.

Well, yesterday’s class felt almost like a replay of last week’s class. I had two more new students join, but then, I had some students not show up, so I am not sure if that means they have decided not to take the course or if they were just absent. I will have to wait until next week to find out. I think that I may have to change the classroom, too, because there is a class in there before mine, and as I try to arrange desks to give the students enough space, and to give the space to get near them, I need time to do that. I asked students to help me, but I think the arrangement is something that should be done much earlier than 10 minutes before. I think that having so little time to arrange the room could cause me to start the class later than I want to, and also, having the room ready beforehand, you can feel more relaxed going in than if you have to go in just before class to do it. Therefore, I think I will try to find out if there are any other classrooms available and move there.

Once the desks were in order, and the students had their books (I asked the students without books to go and buy them before class), we started with a review quiz of unit 1. It was a simple fill in the blank exercise, but I may increase the level of difficulty in the future. After that, we looked at the second installment of word stress focusing on words whose stress falls on the second syllable in two-syllable words. Next week, we will review both word initial and word final stress before moving on to three-syllable words the following week. I am very happy to say that the students seem to have a good understanding of word stress so far, but we will see how it goes next week with the review.

Next, we started unit 2, which focuses on daily activities. There are only 12 units in this book, so we have to do them all. Personally, I prefer to have more chapters, so that I can choose those to focus on, but since I am giving them two tests, there is enough material for each class, so it works out well. Something which I am considering though is having them choose the next unit, something that may be interesting to try next class.

I began by writing some questions on the board and then had them listen to the CD for the answers. After we had looked at the answers, we listened to the conversation as a class with books opened, and then I had them practice with a different partner. I then did something a little different – I chose three groups to practice the conversation in front of the class, and then I asked the class to vote on the best performance. I think the students liked this, and maybe I will try again choosing different pairs each time.

After that, we continued with vocabulary. The activity was simply matching expressions to its corresponding picture. I then asked students individually for the answers, and had them in pairs to use the vocabulary and simply tell their partner what they do on a day of their choosing. I walked around to make sure they were focused on the task and to provide support if necessary. We then did a short dictation – they had to listen to the CD and fill in the blanks. After we had corrected this, I had them stand up and walk around finding three different partners to practice the conversation each time choosing a different set of words. Finally, we did another listening exercise. They listened to a short dialogue, more like an interview and they had to answer several questions. This was a little difficult for some, so I played it about 3 times before asking them for their answers.

I think that this class went well overall, but I did not have enough time to do a speaking activity that I wanted to do. I think I may be able to overcome this by cutting out one of the dialogue practice activities because it would be better for them to ask questions to their partner than just simply reading a scripted dialogue. Of course, you could try to have them memorize the conversation and then practice in front of a small group; I am not sure how well it would work, but it may be something to try because then they have to do more than just read a text, they have to focus on what they are reading. It may also be worthwhile to skip the vocabulary component as well because many of the words they seem to already know (this textbook is only level 1). In future classes therefore, I should try to focus on more speaking activities, but maintain the amount of listening activities because that is something that I wanted to include more this semester and a big reason for going with a textbook. Obviously speaking is important in a class, but a good balance between the two is definitely key.

What do Jaws and the paragraph have in common?

2009-10-15T12:46:00.000+09:00

Today we looked at the paragraph, but first I passed back their homework and then started the review of capital letters. As mentioned earlier, I will try to review each week; I hope it will encourage some of them to review, but as with all classes some will and some will not.

Once I had collected the review quiz, I reviewed orally the rules which I think most could remember. I then wrote an incorrect paragraph on the board, and had them copy it down. I then asked students (mainly from last semester) if the paragraph was OK or not. I then had different students come up and circle the areas that were wrong. Next, I used humor to explain the capital letter rules. For indenting, I had everyone push air with their hands with me; for continuing a new sentence on the same line, I used some Japanese, saying that the new sentence was lonely and that it wanted to be next to someone upstairs; for writing past the end of the line, I used the story of Jaws, telling them to be careful or the word would be eaten, again using Japanese. Once we did this, I had some students hand out the practice, three paragraphs with both capital letter and paragraph rule errors and asked them to correct and rewrite them. I gave the students about 15 minutes for this, but most had finished around 10 minutes, so I had some students hand out the answers and asked them to self-correct their work.

Next, I had them in pairs correct some wrong sentences. I asked them to do it in pairs, but many chose to do it individually. I gave them about 10 minutes and then asked several of them to come up to the board. I told them not to worry if they made mistakes and to try their best. Once this was finished I had some other students pass out the answers. Interestingly, I had made a mistake and one student noticed it and told me, so I gave him a point. It may be interesting to try this in future classes, to make a mistake on purpose and see if anyone gets it.

Finally, I had students pass out the reading question and accompanying text. I gave them 10 minutes to complete and then collected them. Before they started, I told them to look at the questions and try to find those questions in the story without reading the whole thing. I haven’t corrected the work yet, but if I notice that many were unable to finish, I may try a more explicit approach to illustrating techniques such as skimming and scanning.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

Note: For the image files, you may have noticed that there are no lines. I am not sure why, but I use the paint program to make the image files, and when I copy and paste the word document into paint, the lines disappear.

The road to self-access is a long and winding one

2009-10-15T10:01:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I had my first actual self-access material development class. I say yesterday because I spent most of the evening trying to install/uninstall a program to no avail (I got rid of most of it, but it still lingers in my add/delete program window - it doesn't want to leave apparently!), so by the time I gave up (yes, I had to), it was time to head home or stay the night, something which I am not quite ready to do yet.

However, this particular class does not really need any detailed explanation as would demand the other classes I teach because I am really only there as guide, a counselor to help them with their questions and problems. If you are interested in what I am doing in this class, please take a look at the following post:

http://eisensei.blogspot.com/2009/10/and-now-for-sac-material-development.html

In the first class, I had asked students to come to my office before the second class, so that I could talk to them more about the class itself and also so that they could choose a book. In order to help them choose a book, I had them fill out a short questionnaire, but really what I had them do was choose something that would interest them even if it was a different genre from what they would normally read.

In yesterday's class, I distributed their books and told them to type out a chapter or a part of a chapter of their choosing; I recommended the first chapter, but tried to leave it up to them as much as possible. I should also mention again that I had gotten permission to use these books in this manner before the semester started. I told them that in this class they should try to finish typing out the chapter and if they had time, to start the vocabulary. Most of the students were only able to finish the typing, but that was OK. I then had them save their work in a folder and then had them email me the file of their work. This is something I will do each week as a check to see what and how much they are doing. If I sense that they are slacking or not doing enough (are they talking with their buddies etc) they will be marked absent. I know that this may be strict, but as long as they work and show me that they are doing as much as possible to the extent of their ability, they will be OK.

Next week, they will continue with the vocabulary lists and then move on to the activities. I have given them a handout with many activities (I won't upload the document because it is about 20 pages long), and have asked them to refer to that if they have questions about what activities to make. Of course, they can also ask me or what I hope, they will use their own creativity and imagination and surprise me. Hey, everyone likes surprises, right?

One final thing before I go, I am very fortunate to have an exchange student join this class. Honestly, I have never team taught a class, or rather team supervised, but I think he will be able to help me a lot. I really have a good feeling about this class, and I think we may get some great materials for the center. I think that I may have forgotten to mention this, but I have informed the students that their materials would be made available in the center although anonymously, so what they will be doing will be very useful and helpful to everyone here at the university, especially those who choose to use the center.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

Wow, that's a lot of TOEIC you got there!

2009-10-14T10:40:00.000+09:00

Things are finally on their way now. All of the books have arrived, even the teacher's guides and CDs, too. I was also very happy to see that almost everyone had the book this morning; today we had our first actual TOEIC lesson, and overall, I think it went well. I think though that I need to encourage students more to tell me when they don't understand, but I am sure that in time as long as I continue to encourage them, they will become more comfortable asking me questions. I understand that in a big class, it can be difficult to ask questions, and that is why I told them to come to my office or email me if they have a question or problem.

Today's plan was to complete both units 1 and 2, and I almost achieved that goal - I was unable to do unit 2's mini test, but I will do that next week. One problem I noticed is that I have to go to class earlier, not saying that I go late, but it's just that I get there at 9, but due to the time it takes to set up the computer etc, the class doesn't start until 9:10 or so, which is not cool. I will therefore try to go earlier next time and hopefully that will give me the time necessary to finish both units.

I should also explain the reasoning behind doing two units per class, which I know, does sound a bit much, but the textbook has 28 units, so doing only half of the book would be unfair to the students. The chapters are only short, too, so one chapter would really not take a whole class to complete, unless you have a substantial source of supplementary materials, which could be a future option. Furthermore, each chapter while focusing on a new topic, does build on the previous chapters, so the students will be able to review to a certain extent past material over the course of the semester. However, I should also mention that while I would like to finish two units a class, this goal is not set in stone, so if there is not enough time, it is not that big of a problem. This is also my first time to use this book with this number of students, so obviously, as we proceed through the book, I may probably have to make some modifications, as I get to know the students better. It may even be worthwhile talking to them at some point to get an idea of how the class is for them even if it is only informally, and of course individually, as I think this is the best way to really hear what they want to say.

Well, here is how the class went today. The main goals were to focus on using the photo to predict answers and thinking about the meaning of wh-questions for parts one and two of the listening test. This included brainstorming and distractors, two things which I emphasized as much as possible.

After setting up my computer and opening the necessary files (I keep my lesson plans on my computer), I introduced the unit and its goal. I then had a student read the first test tip aloud (I should mention again that I am using Tactics for the TOEIC by OUP, which has tips written throughout the book. I also encourage students to reread these at home and try to remember them.). I then explained brainstorming and had them do the language building component of unit 1 in pairs. I gave them about 5 minutes and then I asked for individual answers. Once finished I had another student read the next test tip, and then I had two more read the examples for the next activity. I then gave them 5 minutes again to write sentences about the photos using the vocabulary that they had just brainstormed. I then asked for different examples and wrote them on the board.

One thing I noticed is that in this book they were using family with a plural verb whereas I usually use it with a singular verb. When I was planning this lesson, I didn't notice this so it threw me off a bit. I looked it up in Swan's (1998) Practical English Usage and he states that "In British English, singular words like family..., which refer to groups of people, can be used with either singular or plural verbs and pronouns." It then goes on to say that, "In American English singular verbs are normally used with most of these nouns in all cases (though family can have a plural verb)." That is why I was not sure because coming from Canada, I usually use family with a singular verb. Next week, I will mention this difference to my students. I think this example should also be telling me to watch out for such things because the book I am using is published by OUP, so there may be other little differences as well.

After finishing exercises one and two, I had them do the mini test using an answer sheet similar to the actual one used on the test. I then went around asking different students for the answers, explaining why the other answers were false. I think that next time it may be better to give them the transcript once we have corrected the test so that they can actually see why the other answers were wrong. I did explain it, but perhaps doing so orally may be difficult for some to understand.

Once unit 1 was finished, I moved on to unit 2. It took me about 40 minutes to complete unit 1, so if I had started earlier I probably would have had enough time to do both units. I went through unit 2 in the same way, having students read the test tips and examples when necessary, and having them do some of the activities alone and the others in pairs. In this unit the main focus was on key words and distractors, something which I should definitely try to focus on in upcoming classes because the TOEIC test is full of them. According to Tactics for TOEIC (2007) there are three types of distractors:

1. You have the same word in the question and answer, but the meaning is different.
Ex: The question asks if you have been to Canada, but the answer says that Canada is a big country or it's cold in Canada or skiing in Canada is great.

2. The subjects of the question and answer may be related, but it does not answer the question.
Ex: The question is asking why you want a new car, but the answer is talking about how you think gasoline is too expensive.

3. The words have similar sounds, but are different.
Ex: copy and coffee, sheep and ship.

By the time we got to the mini test, time was up, so I told them that we would do that first next week. I also assigned homework - vocabulary practice - to be completed for next week. They have the answers in their books, but I am not sure if they will notice or not. However, what I am thinking of doing is giving them a review test each week based on that homework, but modified so as to make it different from the actual questions. I really hope that students do the homework because vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of the TOEIC, something which I have already discussed in class, and probably something which I should continue to emphasize throughout the course.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

And who said vocabulary wasn't important?

2009-10-09T18:31:00.000+09:00

Today I had a new student, but another had decided not to take the course, so I had only 4. I think that this will probably be the final number since this is the second week, and this is the advanced class, which is quite demanding for many students. I don't mind the low number though, because each student can get a lot of practice, and I can deal with questions and problems more closely as opposed to a bigger class.

I was unable to start on time because I had to do some extra photocopying for the new student and then the new student had no book along with another student from last week who had forgotten it, so I had to photocopy that for them. However, my book has all the answers written in, so I couldn't. Unfortunately, I did not notice until later that I could have used someone's book which I evidently did. However, this meant I had to leave to photocopy twice, but I did not really have a choice.

We started the academic word list at 11 and I had them repeat after one another. I then went through asking them for part of speech and then for its derivation. I really appreciated that they had all prepared beforehand, which shows that they are making an effort. Once finished I gave them the homework, some fill in the blank exercises and the new list (I will not post these here because you can find them on the academic word list website that I talked about in a previous post). I also gave them 3 newspaper articles from the Nikkei Weekly; this is not mandatory, but a business English newspaper can help with the TOEIC which is itself a business oriented English test.

At 11:50 I gave them 10 minutes to finish 46 questions. For the TOEIC time is important, so they really need to get use to answering quickly. Perhaps 10 minutes was a little too short, but 15 to 20 seconds per question is ideal for this kind of test.

Finally, at 12 we started to correct the questions, but I ran out of time, so I asked them if they would like to answer the questions next week or continue a little later, and they chose to wait until next week. I then took their work, and next week after the next academic word list and homework corrections, we will continue with those unanswered questions.

Notes, notes and more notes!

2009-10-09T18:22:00.000+09:00

Today I had my second foreign communication class. Before I started, I had arranged the desks with the help of the students, so that they would have space, and then I wrote the goals on the board. I also had a few new students, so I had them write their names and then I took their photos. I also gave them the syllabus, absentee slip and questionnaire to fill out and give me at a later time. Once that had been taken care of, I had them clear off their desks for the review quiz; I told them about last week that there would be a review test on the classroom English expressions. Besides the principal reason of review, I also have the review to help me keep attendance as I have them write down their name and number.

Next, we started the first of many activities focusing on word stress, sentence stress and intonation. Today I introduced word stress in two-syllable words. I wrote a one-syllable word on the board and then I hit the board once while saying the word. I then had students make a fist and knock on their desks while saying the word after me. I then wrote a two-syllable word on the board and repeated knocking twice. I also demonstrated the strong and week syllable of the word using some humor and gestures, presenting a strong syllable by pretending to flex and a weak one by acting really weak (this may of course be hard to picture, but I guess one way to think about it is to picture someone full of confidence followed by someone with no confidence at all, and that is pretty much what it was I was doing). I then had students pass out a worksheet with twenty words, most of which were taken from their book. I then gave them 10 minutes to complete the task, but many were finished before that. I then called on them individually to answer, asking them to clap loudly on the stressed syllable, and quietly on the unstressed syllable. I then had everyone repeat the answer after me. I noticed here that maybe I should have used fewer words because toward the end, some students looked a little tired. However, something like this, which students may not know very well, requires practice.

After the word stress activity, I started unit 1 of the textbook. It hasn't arrived yet, so I photocopied it for them. I first had them repeat the conversation after me and then I had them find a new partner and practice twice taking turns to read both roles. I also encouraged eye contact as much as possible. I then had them not look at the dialogue and repeat after me, which I have to say they did really well. After that, I talked about some of the expressions on the bottom of the page, expressions useful for starting up conversations. I used some Japanese, but said that if they were waiting in line or for a bus and they wanted to start a conversation with a foreigner, here were some ways they could do that. I also expressed that asking 'Are you American?' is not as appropriate as 'Where are you from?'.

Next, I had them do a fill in the blank activity in the book. They had to replace short one-word responses with something more substantial. After we had corrected this, I had them read it with their partner.

I then had them do a pair work dictation activity, which I have been using since the start of the year. I used many expressions from the textbook, which in pairs, one would have to read and the other would listen and write down the answer. I think this can be a great way to get them talking a little more and at the same time to encourage the use of classroom English, which I consider really important. I told them that once they had finished, they should check their answers, which they did. I also asked them as a class to tell me what certain words meant such as dormitory or convenience store. I will add here that this is what I did during the word stress activity, too, because there were many useful words that I felt many would not know.

Finally, I told them to review the conversation on page 2 and the expressions on page 3 for next week, as I will give them a review quiz on that material. I know that often many students would prefer to not have homework, but review is important, and while there are some students who don't need a reason to study, for many others, it is necessary.

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

Cheers,
eisensei

Generally General English

2009-10-09T18:14:00.000+09:00

I started this class a little late because there were more new students than I had expected, so I had to make extra photocopies. I also had the new students write their names, then I took their photos and gave them the information pertaining to the course.

Once I had finished, we started with the review of classroom English (The quiz can be found in the previous post). I told the new students to try the review despite being absent the other week. After the review, I started the word stress activity, which I explained in Friday's notes (Again, I should note that I am only writing Thursday's notes now because yesterday I had no time, and I thought it better to finish Friday while it was still fresh in my mind).

Next, we started unit 1 of the textbook. I still haven't received the teachers materials, but fortunately there is a student CD inclosed, so I used that. I first had them write down some questions about the conversation and then I played the CD for them, but had to stop and borrow another CD player because the one I had was not working. I played the CD twice and then asked individual students for the answers. I then had them repeat after me, and next, had them practice in pairs. I finally had them repeat without the book after the CD.

We then continued with exercise 3, which is a vocabulary exercise. It did not take them much time, but I asked them questions such as who works in a convenience store or who lives in a dormitory etc.

By the time we finished that, there was not much time left, so I had them do the pair work dictation, another activity that I have already talked about in another post. I finished the class by telling them to review exercise 2, the conversation, for next week. I also told the new students to buy the book, and everyone to bring a dictionary, pencil, paper and/or notebook and the book, of course, for next week.

Is today Thursday or Friday?

2009-10-09T17:58:00.000+09:00

I am only getting around to posting my two Thursday classes today because yesterday, I was so busy that I hardly had time to eat let alone post two classes. However, today, things cooled down a bit, so I was able to complete the notes for all the classes, both yesterday and today. Here are the notes for my Thursday reading and writing class.

Today I started by talking to those who were absent last week. I got their names/photos and gave them the information to bring to my office.

I then had them review classroom English with a small quiz, which I collected to correct for next week.

Next, I started the capital letters. I wrote an incorrect sentence on the board and asked them what was wrong with it. I asked several students to come up and circle the mistakes. I then had students hand out a worksheet and I gave them 10 minutes to rewrite some sentences with capital letter mistakes; the sentences were based on my own personal history of coming to Japan as an exchange student many years ago. I then asked several students to write just those words that were incorrect on the board. I then had them think of the rules for capitals, which I wrote on the board.

Next, I did something different; I gave them the choice of reading/paragraph, or sentence correction. They chose reading (18 said reading, 10 said paragraph, 2 said sentence correction, which may mean that I should have clarified what that was with an example on the board). I then had students hand out the worksheets and reading and explained true or false using myself as an example. I gave them 10 minutes to complete the questions. When they had finished I collected them, and then I gave them another choice: Do you want the teacher to read the story? I collected votes, and although the difference in responses was not so big, the majority asked me to read which I did.

Finally, I told them to review capital letters for next week and then let them go. There were some students who stayed behind and they helped me put the desks back where they were (I have already mentioned in another post that I try to get my students to help me with the desks to create a more cooperative, community spirit; what is nice is that there are some students who don't even need to be asked to help, they just do! I love that!)

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

Cheers,
eisensei

And now for the SAC material development class

2009-10-07T18:46:00.000+09:00

Today I had my seventh and final class. In this class, I have decided to have my students make materials for the SAC, which I hope to have up and running around January. I think that this will not only help them improve their English because they have to really understand the material, but it will also help me with material development, and of course it will help those who wish to use the center in the future.

Each class will mainly be the students working individually reading and preparing the chapter that they choose from one graded reader. I received permission to use the graded readers beforehand, so I don’t have to worry about copyright laws, which anyone who has experience with managing a SAC can tell you, it can be a real pain trying to understand what you can use and what you can’t. I good site though to start is the blog TEFLtastic by Alex Case. He really does a good job of explaining clearly all the do’s and don’ts of copyright. Here is the link:

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/tefl/copyright-and-the-tefl-teacher/

Moving on to the class - I arrived a little late due to having too much photocopying to do. I had heard that I would have around 40 students, and just the guide book alone was 20 pages! I thought I would have enough time, but boy was I wrong. Unfortunately, when I got to class, I had less than half the expected number, 18 actually, although that may increase next week, but you can just imagine all the paper I wasted! I really felt bad for all the trees, and I mean it. I wish I had known beforehand how many students I would actually have, but well, too late for that now isn’t it?

I started by having them write their names on the paper and taking their photo. I then gave out the syllabus and absentee slip. I explained to them about the SAC that I am planning and told them that they will be helping everyone by making materials for the center. After explaining the grade system (one of the students was clicking his mouse, seeming not to be paying attention, but when I confronted him about it, he said he was doing nothing; I think I may have to have a talk with him later because I really don't need his attitude during the whole semester) I had students hand out the three stories. I told them that there were three levels and that they had to read each one and circle the words they did not know. This activity was to help me know better what level they can try in the next class.

After they finished reading, I asked them individually which story they thought was most appropriate to their level. The majority of them said ET, but I think they can handle level 3. I think I may have made a mistake, too, in choosing ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ for level assessment because although graded at level 3, the names have not been modified, and that can make it seem difficult for students. I should have realized that before selecting it, but next time, I will make sure not to use that book.

As students were coming up, I handed them the booklet explaining how to make the resources with examples. Once everyone had the guide, I explained it to them again what they would be doing in class. I told them that they did not have to use all the materials and that they could use their own ideas for the materials. I finally gave them the questionnaire to fill out (Many of them had already received it in another class, but it makes it easier for me not having to search through piles of questionnaires from other classes, when it will only take them a minute or so to fill it out.) and told them to come to my office before Wednesday so that I could discuss which book they would start with first.

Next week, they will begin by typing out their selected chapters using Word and then they will have to make materials each week. One thing though that I probably should consider before next week is how many activities they will be required to make before going on to the next book. Perhaps five or six may be a good number, but actually I did tell them that the more materials they make the higher their grade will be, so by telling them how many activities to make each week, it would defeat the purpose of having them decide.

One thing that I have to say is that I think now that I should have translated the explanations to make it easier for them to understand. I had considered it, but decided not to in the end, but now I realize that it would have made things run much more smoothly. Also, I should have explained the center a little more in detail; I did at the beginning, but it was not until the end, when it finally dawned on one of the students that what we were really doing was making educational materials for the center that everyone seemed to really understand the purpose. I then explained to them that what they would be doing was very important because many future students will use their materials. I think that this could have all been clarified immediately if I had given them first a Japanese handout on the center followed by one on the class itself. Again it could probably be another case of overestimating their ability, something, which for some reason I feel like I am doing a lot this semester; or maybe it is because having reasonable expectations of my students may help them work harder whereas not expecting anything would create a negative mood, something that I would not want to have for the whole semester.

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

Cheers,
eisensei