Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (51 page)

Many words in Italian end in a vowel so the students often add an extra vowel sound to the ends of words. They pronounce the words ‘read’ and ‘reader’

almost identically, for example. Use the cutting gesture during the lesson to remind them to cut the ending.

Grammar and syntax problems

There is a recurring error caused by students confusing the infinitive form of a verb (such as to go) when it should be the gerund (going). Remind students how to use ‘enjoy’ as it comes up in the lesson: ‘I enjoy reading’; not ‘I enjoy to read’.

The English class in London

In this class there are four nationalities among the students in equal numbers.

They are Brazilian, Japanese, Colombian and South Korean. I don’t speak the languages of any of these students so I can only use my observations of them and fellow countrymen to predict errors. In addition to linguistic problems faced by the students due to L1 interference, there are other cultural characteristics which I need to take into account to get the best out of everyone.

Most of the students need to broaden the range of tenses they use and include more modal verbs, so while monitoring I will make an effort to check their progress in these areas. I can also encourage them to modify the examples they give me to include these points.

As the students all have different problems they should be able to assist each other. It’s important to mix them up so that each pair is made up of different nationalities, ideally one South American and one Asian. Before the role play, students can inform their partners of particular problems they have so that the acting examiner can be on the look out for these points. The peers can correct each other during feedback sessions too.

Problems for Korean students

Most of the Korean students make mistakes with /p/ and /f/, getting the two sounds confused. They need to practise drilling these words but I can use the Colombian and Brazilian students to help model words such as
favourite
/

pevrit/ and
fiction
/pikʃən/.

This group of students have a tendency to focus more on grammar than fluency. Remind them to be coherent and use linking words. Ask the examiner in the role play stage to listen out for this.

Chapter 22: Distinguishing Monolingual and Multi-lingual Classes
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Problems for Japanese students

The Japanese students pronounce every syllable with equal length and stress, so they can sound a little like robots. Monitor and drill intonation and get students to mark the stress on all the vocabulary listed in the course book. They can also underline key words in their notes so they give them more emphasis when speaking.

Read
/lid/ is a key word in this lesson but these students have difficulty with the letter ‘r’, so show and exaggerate the mouth position for this word.

Being overly polite is a hindrance for some of the students. Encourage them to be bold and not to apologise too frequently. Explain that formal and traditional gestures like bowing and receiving things with both hands are unnecessary but not objectionable.

When they’re unsure, some of the Japanese students say ‘Huh!’ in what looks like a startled manner from an English speaking perspective. This response needs to be softened. Memorising some of the expressions from this lesson will give the students something to say in response to any question.

Problems for Colombian students

My Colombian students are all university undergraduates from the same college. They stick together a lot and break into Spanish whenever they can get away with it.

Students put an initial /e/ before words which begin with ‘s’, such as
sports
/

espɔrt/ and
science
/esaiens/. Apart from the initial vowel, I predict that students will pronounce
science in
a Spanish way because of the Latin connection /ʃiens/.

Problems for Brazilian students

Collectively the Brazilians are the most outgoing and vocal. They sometimes intimidate the other groups, especially the Asian students, simply because they speak up more readily. If others wait for a convenient moment to speak they find it difficult to get a word in sometimes. This manner brings a lively atmosphere to the classroom though.

They have some ingrained bad habits that will lose them marks such as:

✓

Omitting the auxiliary verb:
What you think?
instead of
What do you
think?

✓

Making adjectives plural to match nouns:
bigs books
instead of
big books
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Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?

Part VI

The Part of Tens

In this part . . .

It’s a
For Dummies
book, so it’s bound to have a Part of Tens. This part consists of a couple of chapters

containing ten bite-sized chunks of valuable info you can

dip into as and when you feel the need. Here I touch on

how to liven up your lessons with games and activities

and how to make the best use of the multitude of TEFL

resources out there.

Chapter 23

Ten Ways to Liven Up

an English Lesson

In This Chapter

▶ Varying your resources

▶ Giving students a chance to show off

▶ Adapting your teaching style

This chapter contains suggestions for injecting something different into your lessons when you feel things have become a bit a flat. It happens to the best of teachers sometimes, but with a little thought you can get things back on track.

Bring in Real-World Objects

In TEFL, sometimes you want to bring real items – called
realia
in the biz –

into the classroom to help teach a particular point. These items may include clothing, food, household items or even a musical instrument.

Lugging these things into class isn’t as easy as showing a picture or offering a definition, but the advantage is that students are more likely to remember the day the teacher came to school with a potato in her handbag than the day she pointed to one in a book. Students will want to pick the item up, play with it and generally make a connection with something three dimensional.

As well as using realia for teaching new vocabulary, you can also use it to practise what the students already know. Take prepositions: A toy car moving through a Lego town is very engaging for young learners, and as one child plays with the car, the others can describe what’s happening or give instructions inevitably using prepositions. Even adults prefer using real maps from places they dream of visiting than pretend ones mocked up for the classroom.

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Part VI: The Part of Tens

If you are working for a language school, find out if there a stock of realia and keep it topped up by bringing in things you don’t need anymore.

Step Outside the Classroom

Whether you can leave the classroom behind for a while and get out into the real world depends on the context you find yourself teaching in. However, in most cases you can at least escape to the garden or local town.

The fact is that when the language you are learning is associated with a new situation it can suddenly feel fresh again. So, it may never have occurred to a student to ask the word for sky, traffic light or market stall before because there had never been anyone to speak English to around these things. By getting outside, the students associate English with a wider range of situations, not just a classroom.

If you are teaching in an English speaking country, you do a lesson or two building up to a visit to the local courthouse, a place of historical interest or even a café offering typical dishes. Even something as mundane as an English breakfast is fascinating to someone from overseas. The opportunity to speak English to a ‘real’ person under the watchful eye of their teacher is enough capture the students’ attention. The motivation to learn comes much more easily when the grammar or vocabulary you are teaching concerns a real event.

In a non-English speaking country, you can still find examples of English words on hoardings and notices. Or perhaps the students can take you for a traditional drink or snack. They are likely to be very proud of their culture and make every attempt to explain and translate to initiate you. As long as you create a structure by noting the vocabulary/grammar appropriate to the situation and going over it beforehand or afterwards, the students will see the lesson as purposeful.

Take your students out on the street in their town. Have them find as many English words as they can in ten minutes, then see whether they understand what the words they mean.

Browse the Net

The worldwide web is an absolute gift to teachers and a large proportion of it is in English! As with the two previous points, the internet is a way to bring the real world into your lessons.

Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Liven Up an English Lesson

337

Students can do their research online instead of using a dictionary or depending on you. In addition, they can interact with other people in selected chat rooms and discussion forums. It gives students a thrill to know that outsiders understand their English too and that they can post information in their new found second language for all the world to see.

If you have internet access in the classroom, or if you have taken your class to the Information Technology room as part of your lesson, it is your responsibility to make sure that students are not looking at offensive websites.

Start a Project

There comes a time when students want to take more control of their learning. Perhaps your students have their own interests which they would like to explore in English – anything from football, movies, music, fashion and more.

Whatever their interest, it is liberating for students to do a presentation or wall display around it then share their efforts with their classmates.

You can also have student tackle projects in small groups with each student adopting a different role. Teenagers, for example, often enjoy putting together a class magazine with a wide variety of articles, interviews, surveys and artwork.

Establish a regular time for sharing or preparing project work. Make it part of the class routine.

Let the Students Teach

English lessons tend to follow the same pattern: teachers teach and students practise. But for a change, how about giving the students the board pens and seeing how well they rise to the challenge?

There are always restless individuals who struggle to sit still and listen. And what about those know-alls who interrupt you at every turn? Well, these students are ideal candidates for a bit of role reversal. Or, you could give all the students a chance to have a go by giving everyone a 10 minute teaching slot over several lessons.

Students don’t need to teach the whole class; more timid students can teach their partner or a small group.

To be fair, you need to back up whatever they teach by thorough checks and feedback sessions.

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Part VI: The Part of Tens

Starting Out with ‘Once Upon a Time’

Story-telling is part of every culture in the world and is something you do frequently in day to day life. It combines human interest and clear settings for language practice. So, help your students develop this skill by giving them lots of opportunities to tell their favourite anecdotes and tales.

To be honest, because most people struggle to make a story interesting in a foreign language, the first attempt at storytelling might be rather subdued.

Interestingly though, things start to change if the same story is repeated two or three times. Students increase in confidence and fluency, and in between each telling they tend to check or note points which they have realised they need. Whereas most people don’t mind repeating their favourite tales, it is rather boring to hear the same story over and over. So, the best way to get around this is to change the pairings of students each time the story is told.

You will find that with each re-telling they get livelier and more accurate to boot.

Use traditional fairy stories, urban legends, jokes or your autobiography as resources.

When you think about it, native speakers learn to appreciate stories right from when they are toddlers and long before they are able to tell stories themselves. What does this imply? Basically that if you tell your students stories, even ones which contain some new words or grammar, they will enjoy it because the overall meaning is clear and interesting.

Open Up Your Life

As you’re from a different background (race, nationality, religion, and so on) to your students, they are bound to be more than a little curious about what goes on in your life. Feed them a few simple titbits about your life and you’ll find that students can’t wait to learn more.

You might wonder what kind of information is safe to reveal. Your hobbies and interests are a good place to start. Bring in some realia or photographs for the class to examine. Even if the class don’t share your passion for, say, hiking, they will have something to talk to you about. It is surprising how a lack of cultural knowledge can really stifle conversation. So your students may need to know which topics are safe to discuss with you.