The first week back

This term I am placing emphasis on vocabulary. I have given all of the students the 1000 most common words in English. They had the task of highlighting any words that they didn't know well and then they wrote it in a sentence. This week we concentrated on only the first 500 words (the first sheet). We also played some vocabularly games. Next week I plan to focus on the second sheet and get the students to recognise how the words are formed and how they can be changed into verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. I would like the students to be competent at using these words because we will then start to focus on the TOEIC vocabulary as well as some other academic vocabulary.

Fourteen students from the University of Otago TESOL class came last Tuesday to meet the CEE students over morning tea. On Wednesday the TESOL class sat and watched while two teachers each taught for about 40 minutes to the CEE students. The first student was from Palestine and taught about his culture. The second student taught about the weather. This class will continue every Wednesday from 10-12 for the term. It is a good way for the students to interact with people of their own age - with a purpose.

I have finally got a Smartboard in my classroom. A Smartboard is an interactive whiteboard. It means that I can touch the screen and do all sorts of wonderful things - changing sentences around, produce pronunciation activities, etc. It is a valuable tool to have in the classroom and hopefully the students can also see the benefit of its use.

Jaffa Race

Hi everyone,

Here is a link to the Jaffa Race on the 17th of July. Please come along!!

http://www.parentscentre.org.nz/taieri/JaffaRace.asp

olive harvest - 1 degree all day at Tarras

Hoar Frost at - 4 degrees midday in Alexandra.

Telephone calls, Questions about English

This is from: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa040801a.htm

Even though you start understanding a language better, it is always difficult to talk on the phone in that language. You can't use gestures, which help a lot most of the time. Also, you can't see the other person's facial expressions or reactions. You have to listen very carefully to what the other person says. Talking on the phone in Japanese might be especially harder, since there are some formal phrases customarily used in phone conversations. (The Japanese normally talk very politely on the phone unless talking with a friend.) Let's learn common expressions used on the phone. Don't be intimidated by phone calls. Practice makes perfect!

English ability (some questions)

I know that the students are getting frustrated about their English. It's difficult to know if you are improving in English because unlike the TOEIC test, which gives you a grade, conversational English is difficult to assess for the students. I think that videoing and showing the students what they are like goes some way towards giving them their first assessment. Talking about English, such as the questions below also gives the students to chance to air their frustrations and talk about them IN ENGLISH. Feedback about how well they are doing also helps a great deal. Since the students are soon going to be going on a break I would like them to go away feeling as though they are improving and can improve further by taking responsibility themselves.

Today, I also want to ask you some questions about your English.

1. Do you think that you are getting better at English.

2. What do you think you are getting better at in English, for example, pronunciation, grammar, vocabularly, etc?

3. What are you going to try to improve in for the next week?

4. What frustrates you with learning English?

5. What do you think is the hardest thing about learning English? For example, not understanding fast talk, not having topics to talk about, etc.

Now you think of some questions............let's write them on the board.

Involving families in plans - conversations

Tomorrow in class, we are going to do a task on student's communicating their plans to their homestay parents. These are simple plans that the students probably decide to do on the spur of the moment, but I think that the students need to understand that it is considerate to communicate their plans, so that they don't interfere with family arrangements. I would like to teach the process of how plans need to be thought through, so that everybody understands what is going to happen, when, where, and who with.

Stage 1
I plan to introduce the topic of "planning" by writing it on the board and then write up one example, such as, "you want to go to town." I will then pass the markers to the students and get them to elicit some of their own personal topics. If there are not many topics forthcoming then I'll add a few from the list below. I will then choose one of the topics and get the students to sub-topic what they should do in order to make their plan succeed. For example, if the topic was "you want to go to town," then the sub-topics would be: arrange the time - there and back, check the bus timetable for there and back, make sure that you tell your host family.

Stage 2
Complications arise if the time that the students arrange falls over dinner time, or some other time which disturbs some set family routine or plan for that day. Therefore, more sub-topics need to be organised for the plan to succeed. Obviously, if the student's arrangements are over dinner time, then the students need to have a further sub-topic (or routine) to explain to their host families what they plan to do. For example, a sub-topic might be added to the above list, like, "explain to host family that I plan to have dinner in town," "decide what restaurant to eat at," "check that I have enough money," etc.

Stage 3
Students now need to be taught the language associated with stages one through three.I will do this by getting students to elicit what they think they should say. One student will write this up on the board with the class's assistance.

Stage 4
Role plays can now be written individually by the students using the above topics, sub-topics and language expressions.

Stage 5
Role plays will be checked by me and then practised by the students.

Stage 6
I plan to video record the students doing the role plays for listening practise and use it as a class discussion/evaluation/class check later.

Topics to plan
You want to go to town.

You want to go to the movies.

You want to buy a pack of cards.

You want to go to your friend's house.

You have been invited to stay the night at your friend's house.

You have been invited for dinner at your friend's house.

Telephone conversations - Listening and pronunciation practise

Today, I rang the students from my colleagues phone. Each student had to go into my office and answer the phone. I gave each student a message to perform. They had to use strategies (if they needed to) to correctly understand my message. They returned to class and carried out the messsage, eg. could you please tell Soma that I will meet him at four o'clock at the Bill Robertson Library, etc.

The students then checked with me that their message was correct. I then got the students to write down the conversation in their books. I checked the conversations and then the students recorded them on a cassette tape. Once all the students had done this, I got different pairs to listen to one conversation and write the conversation down in their books. The students had to listen very carefully to all of the details. I then got the students to write the conversations on the blog. I intend to now go through the written conversations and put them up on the whiteboard (through the data projector) and put on the tonal shifts and highlight some pronunciation on one of the conversations. I will then get the students to look at the conversations that they wrote in their books and write in the tonal shifts using arrows and marks to show emphasis, etc.

The Task:

1. Telephone conversation with me.
2. Wrote down the message.
3. Told the message to the other students.
4. Wrote down the whole conversation.
5. Recorded the conversation.
6. Wrote the conversation out neatly.
7. Listen to a different conversation and write it out neatly.
8. Checked the conversation for correctness.
9. Pronunciation practise.

The aim of the task is to practise listening to phone messages, give information (transactional), and practise pronunciation.

The next task is to get students to make up their own phone conversations and practise them using the same process as above.

One of the students had to cancel their hair appointment using the phone. Here is the conversation that we used, below.

HD: Welcome to [hairdresser's name], you're speaking with Susie,

S: Oh, hi, this is [student's name],

HD: Oh, hi, what can I do for you?

S: um, I was wanting to cancel my appointment.

HD: Sure, when was your appointment?

S: um, this Wednesday at four forty five.

HD: Ok, what was your name?

S: Um, [student's name]

HD: Sorry could you spell that please.

S: Sure, it's [........]

HD: Sure, ok, that's fine, no problem.

S: Ok, sorry about that, thank you, bye.

HD: Ok, see you later.

Greetings - role plays

Thank you for responding to the feedback callout. It's been really helpful.

Today in class we did greetings:

S: Hi, _______ I'm home

HP: Oh, hi ________ did you have a good day?

S: Yeah, it was ok, just the usual, but yeah, nothing really special. How was your day?

HP: Oh, yeah, not bad, just the usual.

S: ok, hey, um, I'm just going to change my clothes, so I'll talk to you later.

HP: Ok, see you soon.

S: yeah, see you soon.

We went through these conversations in role plays. I video taped all of the role plays and then we had a discussion about what was good and needed to be improved. A lot of the time, the students were too slow to respond, so we then had to look again at the safety strategies, for example, "Oh, um, sorry I'm a bit nervous, but um, anyway I'' be back soon, just a minute," or words to that effect.

I also got the students to write a conversation like the one above. I will go through these conversations with all of the students in class.

I will also teach the students about how to write and format texts, explaining when they will be home, where they are, etc. I did this with the students a long time ago, so hopefully, this will only be review, but still good for extensions.

Thanks again for the feedback - already it has changed and given me fresh ideas for what to teach.

Homework + Japanese Topics

I am trying to get the students responsible for their own learning, so decided to firstly get them, for homework, to write down a diary of what they do during the day. Hopefully, the students will be able to reflect on whether or not what they are doing is valuable to their study on the programme. I'm not going to judge what is good or bad, but rather, try to elicit some discussion around time management and how students could perhaps orient themselves towards achieving goals before they return to Japan next year. It would be awful if the students regret that they didn't do something near the end of the programme (as I have often heard before).

In class today, we talked about some Japanese topics - for example, teruterubouzu, seijin no hi, etc. These are common names that label particular cultural aspects in Japan and so are known to the students. The trick for the students is to maneuver the conversation around to explain this topic - no mean feat, I can tell you now.

We also looked at more expressions that I use in the class to "manage." For example, "ok, let's move to the back of the class," etc.

Start, Stop - Expressions

Today, the students got into two lines facing each other.
One line are the homestay parents and one line are the students. The parents have to ask their students, "how was your weekend," or, "how was church," "how was the winter carnival?" etc. One student was the time keeper and had to use the following expressions.

Students are starting to take responsibility for all of the English used in the classroom.

Ok, one minute starting from now.

Ok, stop - well done! um, everybody move around, please.

Ok, please change, um, this line is the homestay parents and this line is the students. Ok, please begin.

Snow

Toshi enjoyed the snow last week but playing with a 5 year old is very tiring. On the way home form Polytech each day Toshi tells us which classes were easy or hard.

Rugby

My student did not go to the Rugby but was keen when I told him how we could see it from the top of the hill with binoculars (new word). A strange experience listening to the crowd and being told "ball in posts" but he was not able to tell me which colour team had scored. I returned home quickly to get a couple of camp chairs and popped a bag of corn"to do things properly" and we sat for the whole match like that. Funny thing was I still didn't know the score until I looked on the computer. he said it was a good experience.

The Winning Sushi

Thanks to Bronwyn for organising the sushi contest. All of the students enjoyed it. Here are some photos of the occasion. It certainly will be a memory for the students to take home with them!

Sushi Contest

Contact Details

Polytechnic is now closed. I will try to keep this blog updated and if you want to get in touch with me then text or ring on 021732089.

Email me on mpryde@tekotago.ac.nz

Call the polytech on:

Phone: 03 477 3014 and then ask for extension 8639 or ask to speak to Michael Pryde
Fax: 03 471 6870
Freephone: 0800 762 786

So far, Soma and Daiki are the only students here, but I will give them the choice of staying warm in the classroom and using the computer or heading off home.

L11 TESOL PRACTICUM

View L11 TESOL PRACTICUM (SATELLITE) in a larger map

Map for the TESOL Practicum

View L11 TESOL PRACTICUM in a larger map

Conversations

The Game on Saturday Night

What did you think on Saturday?

What did you think of the game on Saturday?

un...It`s

I like Toshiaki`s haka more than the real Haka because Toshiaki`s haka is funny and yucky!!

I love the Allblacks because they had a haka and when I watched the game I was cheering um so it was very very exciting!! But the All blacks lost the game, so I felt a little sad. My throat was sore because I did a lot of cheering.

was cheering go blacks waving but when I go to the bath room it was very troublesome and sad so I couldn't see the Allblacks try. Then the Allblacks lost. I could spend a good time.That is about it.

It was a lot fun . Of course I saw the game the Allblacks and France.The children were very cute.The All blacks and France players were very dangerous.

I felt a little sad.

The body guards tackled one of the supporters, so I thought that it was really funny. Everybody laughed and took photos. Some people were also fighting because they were Allblacks supporters and they were angry, but I don't know why they were fighting.

New Zealand supporters throw beer cans, or bottles, so it's very dangerous, but in Japan that doesn't happen at all. Japanese supporters are more gentle than Newzy supporters. Japanese supporters also don't run onto the ground. In Japan the supporters have drums to support and sing chants.

When I was watching a fight in the stand, France made a try, so I didn't see it, but I heard the crowd cheer.

I couldn't choose.

I was in another place smoking, so I didn't see that happening.


I think that it was a great experience for me.


The mayor Peter Chin sang the NZ national anthem.

The entertainment was the boys ballet and the marching band and the kids rugby.

Was there any other entertainment? No there wasn't.

Yes, but they missed some tackles and missed the ball, but it was a great experience for me.

No, I didn't, but I heard that it was a good game, but disappointing for the All blacks.

Anyway, I've got to go to class, see you.

Maths - expressions to show that you understand

ar, yeah, I gottit.

oh, yes, I've got it.

Oh, ok, yeah, I understand.

oh, yeah, I knew that before.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, ok.

oh, I see

Smiling nodding body language eye contact over reaction\


Today in maths class we learnt about quadratic equations, oh yeah, it was quite difficult, but I like drawing so I quite liked this class. Um, yeah, we drew co-efficient graphs and then we drew a pra, parob, oh it's difficult to pronounce. Anyway, I like Richard, and it was a good class, yeah, ha ha.

Excellent Sushi

That is the best sushi I have tasted. We will try it at home as Toshi likes sushi. Thank you to Keiko and Yoko for the recipe.
The class did a great job of cleaning up afterwards. We will have to get Toshi to clean up every night:-)

Measuring Car Speeds

Today the students went outside to measure the speed of the cars. Students were placed in groups of three. One student would be the marker, one the writer and one the time keeper. One of the students would stand at one end of 25 metres and signal start. The other two students, which would be standing at the other end of the 25 metres would stop the watch when the car or truck went past the 25 metre mark. The time would be marked down. The students then went back into class and made a graph of the times.

From my email

Hey, this is an email directly posting into my blog. Cool, aye!! And you can do this as well. I'll try to show you this at the sushi contest.Good luck for making the sushi tomorrow.

See you soon,

Cheers,

Michael

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