This post is about The Art of Teaching English. (Like I really know anything about that after two weeks, haha. But then, I have already taught 39 classes and already have picked up some things and have something to say.)
Each week I teach a wide range of levels. I don't teach raw beginners, but my lowest level classes are fairly low; I also teach the most advanced level 'discussion' style classes, though only a couple of them. I have some repeat classes in a week, so though I may teach 27 classes a week, I teach only 17 'unique' classes. It must be admitted that the second or third 'repeat' class in a week tends to get a better lesson than the first, as I think of things I should have done the first time.
Subject matter
I also teach a variety of subject matter in a week. For example, some of the classes I have taught this week included:
There were a few others, I can't remember them all. I kind of peek in the textbook in the few minutes before class to remind myself 'oh yeah, this is a lesson about reporting speech', or whatever.
We have two main types of lesson - 'function' based and 'grammar' based. So you might have a 'function' based lesson on a theme like 'ordering food' or 'talking about jobs'. And you might have a 'grammar' based lesson on a theme like 'using words like 'could I' and 'may I' to ask permission', etc.
*(This was really fun. For example, do you say 'I would rather he had persuaded me...' or 'I would rather he persuaded me...' Well, personally, I would never make such a horrendous sentence to begin with, but if I did, I would say the first one. But I think it's actually the second one which is grammatically correct.)
Questions
I encourage questions in my classes. I like answering questions. The thing is, the lessons can be a little bit formulaic*, so I think there is more value to be found where I can find things I can actually teach.
*(Note that the point of our lessons is to give students the opportunity to speak English. That is the main goal, because Japanese students famously learn a lot of English grammar and writing at school, but have virtually no practice speaking it, and so can't use it well at all. That's why our classes are aimed at activities to get the students speaking. They essentially 'teach' themselves the main grammar points at home before class, then they come in and we practise them.)
But yeah, I think it adds a little value if I am paying enough attention to what I'm teaching so that I can find points to emphasise, although I am not required to do that. Then I can point to a particular phrase in a dialogue and check if students understand it. Or I can mention an idiom used in the listening exercise - eg today I remember explaining 'needle in a haystack' and 'talked my ear off'. Or I can point to a particular sentence on a drill card and ask questions to make sure they understand it. Or show them a note on the grammar page and add my own view on it.
So yeah, I encourage questions, because I want to feel like students are learning from me and having their difficulties answered, not just having speaking time. I tend to think that when you're learning a language, sometimes what you need most is someone to bring your questions to. Sometimes the students are too shy to ask questions when I ask the class 'any questions?' but I can usually get a question out of them if I ask while everyone is practising speaking to each other - then they don't feel 'in the spotlight' or like they are holding up the class.
So I've had a few this week. Most of them I can answer easily. For example, we were talking about jobs, and in the book was the example sentence structure:
It's kind of/really boring.
They asked if 'kind of' and 'really' meant the same thing. That was easy to answer and explain and I said that 'kind of boring' meant that it was often, but not always, boring. Then they asked if 'kind of boring' and 'kind of exciting' meant the same thing (a logical question, actually, if you think of 'kind of boring' as meaning 'boring 50% of the time). So I explained that 'kind of boring' meant that it was 'more boring than not boring' (in fact I wrote up a random percentage, 60% boring, since these nuances are often most easily explained in percentages).
So yeah, lots of things like that, which you never think about in daily life. You just hope that you don't think of too many random answers 'off the cuff' and end up teaching them ridiculous things!
I did have one question today that kind of stumped me.
Example problem...
We were looking at probability - should and must. The book, you see, had given a kind of 'possibility line', with 'not certain - could/might/may', 'somewhat certain - should/shouldn't', 'almost certain - must/must not' and 'most certain - will, won't, can't, couldn't'.
The problem is, these words aren't all interchangeable, and some can be used in some situations where others can't. Like, you can say 'it could/should/might/will rain later today' but it's rare to say 'it must rain later today'.
My student was having trouble understanding the nuances of the difference between should and must. Well, you can't blame him. For example:
If the doorbell rings, you can say 'that must be the pizza delivery guy' or 'that should be the pizza delivery guy'.
If you go shopping you can say 'one of these shops must sell computers' or 'one of these shops should sell computers'.
And there is not a lot of difference between the two statements, except that 'must' is slightly more certain.
But then in other sentences, you can use these same words, but the sentences have a more different meaning, eg:
'This should be their best game' has a somewhat different meaning to 'This must be their best game'.
And then you have sentences that are completely different, eg:
'He should be a musician' vs 'He must be a musician'
I have thought through this quite carefully now and have a better answer to give the student next time we meet, but at the time it was hard to think of a good answer 'off the cuff'.
Classroom English
In some ways it's easier to pitch your English level to the lower level beginner's classes, than to the higher level beginner and lower level intermediate. That's because with the lower levels, you know you need to be very simple and use no difficult or unnecessary words.
So you will sound like this:
'Please look at the picture. What is he doing? What is this? Good! And what is this?'
'You are at a party. You are talking about jobs. Person A, please ask about person B's job. Person B, please respond. For example... 'Hi! What do you do?'' etc...
And you will need to elicit all keywords before every activity. For example, next week my lower beginner's class has the topic 'asking simple questions about the past'. (Eg, 'did he go scuba diving?', 'was he scared?', 'was it sunny?' etc). There is an exercise where they have to ask simple questions, and their partner will answer them based on a picture. Eg, 'did John go to the beach?' 'Yes, he went to the beach.' For lower beginners, you know that before you do this exercise, you should go through each picture and make sure everyone knows that this picture is of 'the beach', this one is 'surfing', this one is of 'scuba diving', etc.
But with higher beginners and low intermediate, sometimes it's hard to judge exactly where to aim. You feel like you can use slightly more complex language and they will understand, but sometimes you don't know when they understand or don't understand. Sometimes you don't want to patronise them by going through lots of simplistic pictures if it's obvious what they are. But then later they will stumble over one or two questions and you'll realise you should have done it.
Private Lesson
I have one private lesson. It's okay, I don't mind it at all. I like the student. The problem is that the private lesson course he is doing is far higher than his level.
For example, he can barely understand me when I say simple things like 'last weekend was very fun' and 'Will your store be very busy?' Yet in this course he is trying to memorise set phrases like "I'm sorry, the stock manager is currently unavailable. However, if you'd like, I can take a message and he will return your call'."
It's a bit sad and futile, because you know that if a real English-speaking client rang and deviated from the script my student has memorised, he would be in in over his head. And I try to mix it up slightly - change the name, the time, the request, etc - but there's only so much I can do, because his level is too low for me to actually explain phrases or concepts in English. All we can do is kind of go over set phrases, reading and re-reading them aloud, practising intonation and pronunciation, etc.
Australian accents
Most of the characters who speak on the CDs have a kind of generic American accent, but a few speak different accents, to 'mix it up' a little. There is an Australian girl in one of the advanced books, but her accent is unspeakably vile. I already told one of my classes I think her voice is annoying, and a disgrace to Australia, and they laughed (I think they agreed with me). She sounds a bit like Toni Collette in Australian Story, only more so.
Speaking of my accent, I've only had two comments.
The first was from a lady who said that when she heard I was from Australia, she thought I would be unintelligible and speak in a kind of mumbling drawl (she didn't use those words but that was the gist of it), but that in fact, I spoke very clearly. Hahaha! We have a reputation abroad.
The second was when I asked a guy 'did you have a late night too?' He couldn't understand the question. 'Late night,' I kept repeating, with slightly different prounciation. Everyone looked at each other blankly. 'Nought?' repeated the student. I wrote 'late night' on the board. They said it was my accent. I tried to say it in an American accent but it came out even more Australian than before. Oh well. :) That particular class (which was also the one in which I dissed the CD dialogue girl's hideous Australian accent) is one of my favourites. :)
Favourite classes
When I started, I was apprehensive about Saturdays. On weekdays I have 4, 5 or 6 classes a day; on Saturday I have 7. But the other foreign teacher here said he loves Saturdays; they're his favourite day because there's no 'dead time'. I thought 'well, if he really does like them, they can't be that bad'. And actually, they're not. I think they'll be my favourite day too. The thing is, I have no bad classes on Saturday. Somehow, every class is quite lively and enjoyable; on weekdays, it's kind of 50-50.
No comments:
Post a Comment