Students in the classroom

There are always about three or four students that come in during the morning (about 8:30-12) to study. If your student isn't doing anything, then perhaps you could suggest that since the classroom is open, they could come down and chat with me or their friends. I will also mark their journals if they have been writing them.

This might be a good opportunity for the students.

Kendo

I went to Logan Park gymnasium and saw Shunsuke and Soma participating in the Kendo tournament between Invercargill and Otago. It was really great to see the students mixing like this. (Shunsuke also has a very loud 'kiai'.)

Glow worm caves

Here are some photos taken at the entrance to the glow worm caves.
It's getting a bit dark, so they are little difficult to see.

Google translate

の作成は、学習者中心のアプローチ学生は、前のクラスで何かを見る。。。論文を書く学生は選択。SRAの読書室のあるトピックについての短いプレゼンテーションを行う学習戦略上のディスカッションはどのように聞いて活動を選択する方法から書籍を選択するしました。 1つの英語の文法、語彙、および1つの喜びのために、学生は英語で物事を説明するために、日本の文化知識を利用し、学生を取得いくつかの語彙や文法を教えること。会話のIRFのに使用します。限定的に使用教材の上にいくつか表示しています私は自分のクラスではありませんし、アイデアが、学生は自分の独自の学習のための責任を負うようにします。私が言っていると思う、あなたは人に魚を与えることができますし、それら日の食べ物を与えるが、もし彼らは生涯食べ物を持ってどのように魚し、それらを教える場合、私は学生しても大丈夫かもしれない英語を教えるおそらく1つの状況が、の場合どのようにして、生徒たち全体の生活のために学習される自分自身を教えることを教える多くの場面のように（または何かで）。

This is the Learner-Centred approach post that I translated using Google Translate on the right hand side of my blog. I did this because I wanted the students to know what approach I am trying to foster in class, as well as inform the staff at KTC.

TESOL Interaction

Creating a Learner-Centred Approach

1. Students review what they did in the previous class.
   
2. Discussion on learning strategies.
   
3. Journal writing
   
4. Students do a short presentation on a topic of their choice.
   
5. SRA Reading Lab
   
6. How to choose a listening activity.
   
7. How to choose books from the library. One for English grammar, vocabulary, and one for pleasure.
   
8. Students use their Japanese cultural knowledge to explain about things in English.
   
9. Get students to teach some vocabulary or grammar.
   
10. Use the IRF for conversations.
    
11. Limited use of course books.
    

Above are some of the ideas that I do in my class to make the student more responsible for their own learning. I think that the saying is; you can give a fish to a person and give them food for a day, but if you teach them how to fish then they have food for a lifetime.

 

If I teach the students English then they might be alright in maybe one situation, but if I teach them how to teach themselves then the students will be learning for their whole lives and in many situations (or something like this).

 

Another TOEIC link

Hi everyone, you may be interested in this web site that explains, with practical examples, the format of the TOEIC test. Of course all of the students are worried about the test, so anything to try to minimise this would be good. I find that talking about it and just saying that it's only a practise helps to some extent.

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/ets-toeic-practice.htm

(I don't know why, but for some reason, I can't seem to add in hypertext - hence the URL!)

Google Translate

On the top right side of this blog you will see "Google Translate." This is a really useful function. (It is set at the default of Spanish into English, but just click on the arrows and move it to what languages you want.) If you have any Japanese or English that you would like translated then copy and paste into it and click "translate." It gives a rough translation, but gets the message across. Maybe if you are really trying to explain something to your student and you can't seem to get your message across, then this might help.

TOEIC Listening Part

Next Wednesday, the students are going to be sitting a TOEIC test from 1-3pm.

I talked a little about the content of the TOEIC test before, but to give you more of an idea, here is a short video explaining just the listening part. When you finish the video you'll see that you will get prompts to watch other related videos. These will probably also give you an idea of what the test is about.

A Lovely Photo

More photos of the Cultural Food Festival

Recent Classes, TOEIC

The students have been busy doing some TESOL classes. The students have been coming into the class to see how to teach English. They usually come in on Wednesdays to teach the students for a couple of hours, but for the last couple of days the students have been going to the university to sit and talk to people interested in teaching English.

The students are going to be sitting a TOEIC exam soon. The TOEIC exam stands for Teaching Of English for International Communication. This exam is a multiple choice exam and only tests reading and listening. It is an important exam in Japan. the maximum score is 990, or 495 for reading and 495 for listening. The exam lasts for two hours. The academic vocabulary for the test is quite high, so some students will feel the strain. This is only a practise exam. I plan to do about eight with the students and they will then sit the real exam when they return to Japan.

For information on the TOEIC test, go to google and type in TOEIC or click Test of English for International Communication.

Cultural Food Festival (continued)

Cultural Food Festival

Today, the students made Japanese rice balls from 9-10am. It was really fun making the "onigiri." There was dried fish egg, dried vegetable, tuna and mayonaise, and pork mince, seaweed and carrot flavours.
The students carried their food over to the student cafeteria and served it with lots of other international food. The weather was great, so everybody ate outside.