Professional development | Who's that? A class of 'true' beginners – WSI

I was happy to see the students from my level-checking class return to the social class directly after. In it, I could work more on points from the level-checking class: possessive pronouns and the verb to be.

I scaffolded the social class before practice. 

Narrative:–

To warm-up, I put 'is this your passport? Yes, it is' on some paper then cut it into individual words, shuffled and handed them to the learners. I signalled they should stand holding the paper in order to produce a correct sentence, they should un-jumble it. After a few minutes they succeeded and I placed the pieces, in sight, along the base of the white-board.

Whiteboard: 'name', 'job', 'nationality', and 'marital status'. I elicited from the class the complete question for each, i.e. what's your name – what's your job – what's your nationality – are you married or single?

I then gestured they practise in pairs.

We were encountering some production problems still, after after about ten minutes, so I highlighted, remodelled and drilled it well and signalled they practise again in new pairs.

I marked several columns onto the white-board adjacent 'name', 'job', 'nationality', and 'marital status', and marked learners' names across the top.

Placing several markers on each table I signalled they come up to the board and complete the remaining rows from memory. 

They were able to complete the table.

I now wrote 'who's ... ?' on the board and elicited the complete question 'who's that?' and 'who's this?' shortly before clarifying the differing demonstratives 'this' and 'that' by repeating and pointing hither and thither of where I stood.

Demonstrating roles A and B I said 'who's that?' pointing at a learner, changing position I answered  'that's (learner).' We moved into a controlled-practice stage of the class. With a bit of remodelling and facial expression at the sound of incorrect utterances to keep things on track, it was working well, with learners using the scaffolding we'd built on the board to complete their utterances.

While this was going on, I went about looking through newspapers and magazines around the room in search of possible photographs of any recognisable personality and found one for each learner.

One at a time, the they each stood in front of the class, chested the newspaper photograph and asked 'who's this?' The class chanted back the name, nationality, occupation and marital status of the important types before them, in a much less-controlled way, giving them great practice of the target language and confidence.


I'm looking forward to the next class with these students.


Who's that?

Sights fixed on scanner

Looking for a cheap, standard computer scanner at the moment.

Professional development | Book Club class no.1 – WSI

Book Club class was opened well tonight with learners discussing meaningfully by the end of it some poetry given to them on hand-outs. 

Without a great deal of planning, and still tired from the meticulous planing warranted by last week's series of workshop-esque classes titled 'job interview success', I think I did alright, considering. With only a lesson sketch and one good resource Literature by Alan Duff & Alan Maley, I left staging, timing, classroom management, etc. to be what they might.

Narrative:-

Learners listened to a recording, ex YouTube, of their local subterranean railway, trying to identify the sound. 'Highway! Train! Car!' were suggested, before finally, 'the subway!' After this, they could even guess which railway line it was, 'blue line A!' 

Keeping the lights dimmed I asked the group to work around and find five billboards I had printed on A4 and stuck up around the room, to read them closely and find one they liked. 

They seemed to be enjoying themselves. After five minutes I seated them in groups of four.

I prompted them to recreate their favourite billboards, in groups, from memory, drawing it if they wished onto a piece of paper. Note, even though this was all preparatory and a sort of warm-up, some wanted to know which part of the billboard they were 'meant' to discuss and 'must' write down, I told them simply to discuss what they had seen; I think this kind of gradual comprehension of the topic is alright if it means they are more immersed in it later, as it becomes less mysterious and abstract.

I set up the billboards at the front of the class in full view and conducted short plenary feedback. Learners reported their general likes and dislikes about them.

We then talked briefly about whether there were any interesting billboards in their city that might contain poetry. One described a long, interesting Quino comic strip extending along a long subway tunnel; another mentioned a heritage montage at an historic railway station.

The poetry hand-outs I had prepared were now ready to be handed out (short poems that could potentially be displayed on public transport, as printed in my resource Literature). 

The aim of all this was, by first stimulating an everyday situation, to draw a connection between some written works they might see in public, outwards to the larger poems they now held, and towards a full-length article on the wider themes of dangers, difficulties, and delights on public transport, which, ultimately, prepared them for discussion in the next class (in the next class half of the learners who came to this one didn't show, and a new mix of learners did! who weren't really impressed by the theme. See here.).

Twenty or so minutes passed with learners reading the short poems, checking with peers and using dictionaries, and making notes. At this point all learners were quite engaged, including those who at first couldn't understand the warm-up task.

During feedback I could hear some really interesting interpretations of poems and we went over two or three lexemes as a class (below).

On the board I marked out three columns: difficulties; dangers; delights. Learners quickly gave me suggestions for these aspects of their own railway network, as by this time we had breached the 60-minute mark; another teacher came to collect a learner for their class. I stopped to hand out the reading text for the great discussion in the next class, newspaper article 'Crime and violence against Underground – Police plan new strategy to make the Tube safer.' Now they were now absolutely ready to read it, thinking of ways to improve their own network whilst reading. In fact, the entire lesson could have been a way to supply a purpose for reading that text, at home.

As I would see in the next class, of the learners who actually returned, none could find the time to read the text, and so the wider discussion never took place, nor did we bother reading the article.

board-work, café, restaurant, ocean – WSI

This picture was divided into two - students made comparisons between left and right.

Haiku poetry by unnamed – WSI

An Haiku poem. Translation into Japanese amended.

Friends Day - social class – WSI

Friends Day - social class – WSI

Some board-work from the class: the first is translated and the second reads life made us friends and our hearts made us brothers.

Phrasal or Prepositional?? – WSI

Last Friday I set out trying to teach phrasal verbs versus prepositional verbs in a 'complementary' class (language-focused class) with very little information provided in the teacher's manual at the institute. During the class I discovered some interesting things -not the least of which a slightly dazzled group of learners- including the many and varied types of what I know now as 'compound verbs'. So perhaps best to draw a rough line between them all to separate.

Some like to analyse the form of them and classify them under different 'types'. Others prefer to learn them as individual items of vocabulary.

The term 'phrasal verb' was first used in "Words and Idioms" (1925) by North American-born essayist, critic and literary perfectionist, Logan Pearsall Smith. Compound verbs have existed throughout the history of language are not exclusive to English. They are very common in all the languages of India, in Korean, Japanese and modern Greek, to name a few.. In Quichua-influenced Spanish, Ecuador, compound verbs have been innovated into the language

De rabia puso rompiendo la olla, 'In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.' (Lit. from anger put breaking the pot). Or, Botaremos matándote 'we will kill you.'

A 'prepositional verb' is a type 2 compound verb (or multiword verb). A compound verb is made up of a verb and a particle, be it a preposition and/ or an adverb (e.g. away, back, off, on, out). There also exist type 1, 3, 4 compound verbs.

Type 2 compound verbs need an object and this can't go between the verb and particle i.e. they are transitive and inseparable

She never asks me to look after her children. (NOT . . . look her children after.)

We were heading towards Sydney. (NOT *. . . heading Sydney towards.)

It is type 1 and type 3 that are phrasal verbs, which can be used in both a literal though more often than not, idiomatic or figurative sense i.e the meaning must be inferred and is elusive to the learner; it is not readily understood; it has a meaning which is different to the original verb. Learners often find phrasal verbs more challenging. A phrasal verb is made up of a verb and an adverb.


Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.

Type 1 compound verbs do not need an object i.e. they are intransitive

We got up early. The plane took off. 

Type 3 compound verbs need an object which can go between or after* the verb and particle i.e. they are intransitive and separable

Can you put my parents up if they come? 

Don't bring these problems up at the meeting.

*however, if the object is a pronoun we have to put it between the verb and the particle e.g. put them up; bring them up. (NOT put up them; bring up them.)



Type 4 compound verbs need an object and have two particles which must stay together, a preposition and an adverb i.e. this type is transitive and insperable

You should look up to your parents. (NOT . . . look up parents to.)

The difference between compound verbs and other verbs followed by an adverb or preposition

In compound verbs the verbs and the particle(s) function as inseparable parts of a single unit of meaning. In the case of 'He made up a story' it would be nonsense to ask and answer questions about the individual components of the compound verb; to check the concepts of the individual parts:

1. What did he do? He made
2. In which direction? up
3. Up what? a story

In a straight forward combination of verb plus preposition or adverb (e.g. He ran up the stairs) we can ask and answer these questions

1. What did he do? He ran
2. In which direction? up
3. Up What? the stairs

note: depending on context the same combination of two words may sometimes be a compound verb or  sometimes not:

He looked up the meaning in the dictionary: look up is a compound verb.

He looked up and saw her smiling at him: up is an adverb saying where he looked.

bibliography~
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc
Grammar for English Language Teachers (2008) by Martin Parrott

Job Interview Success - Video! – WSI

http://vimeo.com/26475849

Job Interview Success Workshop - Part 3, lesson plan - WSI

Job Interview Success Workshop - Part 3, materials – WSI

modal verbs of certainty, a brief guide

board work "happy people - boy & girl" – WSI

My first efforts with this little Japanese book "Let's draw happy people" by Sachiko Umoto. Here we can see "boy" and "girl" helping me to elicit various sentences containing modal verbs of certainty, past and present. Good job guys!

Girl

She must be popular.

Boy
He might have been hungry.

Professional development | Job Interview Success Workshop - part 3 – WSI

report

Planning                                  | B | set more realistic times for lesson stages

Classroom Management             | A | Finished the 'encounter' early. Was better sorting papers/materials etc 

Use of Resources Aids               | A | Std-centred board activity was nice. chocolates worked well

Manner and Rapport                  | B | Still: eye contact! Definitely did more talking than listening between stages. Work on not shouting.. use intonation, projection

Dealing with Language Issues     | n/a| (lesson was task-based)

Dealing with Error                     | B | didn't have time to go over some things out of place on the board for job qualities/ skills task. Monitoring not that great hence mediocre feedback.

Dealing with Individuals            | A |

Achievement of Aims                | B | achieved aims of every stage but didn't complete every stage as planned        

Summary/ Wrap-up                   | A |

students' work for the 'job skills/qualities' activity

gaol!

Tonight in class I was prompted on the strange spelling of the word 'gaol' /dʒeɪl/. I wondered whether it was uniquely Australian i.e. that it might have undergone a change, etemologically speaking, in the UK and other places but retained its original form in the great southern land.

The word under trial and its partner in crime and phonetic twin 'jail' /dʒeɪl/ are in common usage, the former more so in British English and its varieties, and the latter in General American.

The word came into English in two forms during the Middle English period (c. 1150 to c. 1470), jaiole from Old French, and gaiole from Anglo-Norman French. Gaiole was originally pronounced with a hard g, as in 'goat'. Both were borrowed into (Middle) English from the language of the English nobility, the Anglo-Norman French, during that time. Read here about William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and subsequent Norman Conquest of England. Well, the other name for it is prison, which came into English via Old French prisun, from Latin prension.

'Jail' was probably adopted in the US during her great 19th-century spelling reformation. This was a period in which many words underwent orthographical change — it is beacuse of this period we have the two spelling standards today (read here about the interesting mix of standards extant in Canada). 

Its birthrights, if so, would be owed to Noah Webster (1758 - 1843), lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author, whose surname became (and still is) synonymous with 'dictionary' in the US, and who, it is said, fathered the reform. 

Part of the process involved choosing from a selection of etemological varients (in this case jaiole, gaiole, gaole, gayole) the alternative more in accord with pronunciation, in this case it would be  'jail'. 'Gaol', then, sustained its Anglo-Norman appearance in the UK. A further  example, offense, the General American spelling of 'offence', was derived from Old Fench offens (then Latin offensus), it must have seemed rather logical to adopt s in its spelling.

That 'jail' came about this way is only my hypothesis, but below are some more well known differences between spellings:

Examples of orthographical change* in order to more closely represent sound, are -ize (organize, realize, paralyze, utilize); -or (color, honor, ardor, fervor, neighbor); -er (certre, theater, liter). Also, tire, curb, clark, carburator, check (tyre, kerb, clerk, carburettor, cheque). Other simplifications can be seen in homophonic words such as 'practise' and 'practice', verb and noun (the two forms being sustained in British Englishes), also 'license', and so on. Removing double letters took place in words such as  'travelled', 'controllable', 'councelling' (traveled, controlable, counceling).

I guess it's time I had my own Webster! If at least to help highlight these differences to learners and help increase awareness.

bogeyman | boogeyman
arse           | ass  (my sympathies for the donkey)
moustache | mustache
pyjamas     | pajamas

...know of any more?

*the ending -cre as in words like acre, mediocre, massacre was preserved to protect the /k/ sound of the c

vocabulary - illnesses

I was asked for some examples of diseases today by an elementary student at Wall Street English, and my mind went completely blank.

disease /dɪ'zi:z/ (noun); diseases, diseased, diseasing, (to) disease.

statements of meaning-

= an illness
= an incorrectly functioning organ, system, structure
= an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism
= affects people, animals, plants (but also materials, such as tin, as in 'decomposition')
= resulting from genetic errors, infection, poisons, nutritional imbalance or deficiency, toxicity



negative check-

= virus (a kind of germ. causes disease. replicates itself. composed of NRA / DNA. ultrumicroscopic. in living things only. harms the host to which it's attached in order to, live, feed, benefit itself: is parasitic)


close synonyms- 

= illness
= sickness
= infirmity
= ailment 


antonym-

= health


examples-

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Alzheimer's disease. Anemia. Anthrax. Appendicitis. Arthritis.  Bronchitis. Bubonic plague. Cancer. Cerebral palsy. Chicken pox. Cholera. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Coronary heart disease. Congestive heart disease. Cow pox. Dengue. Diabetes.  Encephalitis. Ebola. Emphysema. Genital herpes. Gonorrhea. Gangrene. Hepatitis A,B,C,D,E. Huntington's disease. Hypothermia. Influenza. Common cold.  Jaundice. Lead poisoning. Lyme disease. Lymphoma. Malaria. Measles. Meningitis. Multiple sclerosis. Mumps. Muscular dystrophy. Osteoarthritis. Osteoporosis.  Parkinson's disease. Whooping cough (Pertussis). Plague. Polio. Rabies. Repetitive strain injury. Rheumatoid arthritis.  Rickets.  Scarlet fever.  Scurvy. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Shingles. Small pox. Tetanus. Tuberculosis. Typhoid fever. Warts. Yellow fever. To name a few...




how to present-

Elementary class
S1:   What means disease /'dɪzɪz/ ?
T:    Pronunciation -  /dɪ'zi:z/ - like see or read - [model stress] - can you say it?
S1:   Disease /dɪ'zi:z/ .
T:    Good - AIDS, cancer, Diabetes, Hepatitis are types of disease. 
S1:    Oh, yeah - thank you.

Intermediate class
S1:    Sorry, what does disease mean?
T:    Does anyone know that word - disease?
S2:     Sick. Ill.
T:     Yeah, okay, just ill? Or very ill?
S3:     Very ill.
T:    Usually for a short time or a long time?
S4: A long time.

phonemic chart, pronunciation guide – WSI

click here students. click the symbols to hear their sounds with given examples.

enjoy.

Job Interview Success Workshop - Part 2, materials – WSI