ICC - Fail

My ICC microteaching this past Saturday was horrible, just horrible. Things didn’t go as I had planned. I thought I had to teach the preview in order to pre-teach ‘superstition’, but I should’ve listened to Corinne and just pretended as if the preview had already taken place and start with the presentation. Because the preview took up too much time, I couldn’t even introduce the language items that I had wanted to, and I couldn’t show the class the entire video about superstitions. It was just horrible. I wish I could turn back time to Saturday and redo the microteaching all over again!

The overall goal of the lesson was to introduce the first conditional tense so that the students could talk about superstitions of their own or other cultures. However, I didn’t really get the opportunity to introduce the first conditional, failing to accomplish what I had set out to do.  I wanted the students to extract information from the video clip on superstitions and organize into action/result. And then, I would introduce the first conditional by eliciting from the students or modeling it.  As you can see… that didn’t happen. T_T

I don’t think my MIC techniques were as horrible as the presentation itself. It doesn’t mean that I did a good job. I used the WB to help students understand. Unfortunately, I think my t-talk was all over the place.

Reflecting ... (METH)

Johnston #4:

It’s already been three years since I’ve graduated from college, and I’ve been in Korea for about a year and half of it. So, compared to some/most of the people in class, I’m very inexperienced and have had a very short professional life. I was introduced to teaching on a whim and after some exposure to it, I became interested in it and decided to continue to follow the path. Ever since I was young, I’ve never had a strong desire to pursue anything, yes, quite sad, I know. I was interested in a couple of things but never loved doing anything. After high school, I went on to college and studied business management and finance to please my parents. Unfortunately, my sophomore and junior years were the worst years of my life. I was very stressed and my health deteriorated greatly. (I had to get my gallbladder removed after my sophomore year because of gallstones.) I couldn’t function without several cups of coffee, I was turning into a horrible person, I became very cynical, etc. Basically, I wasn’t happy. After graduating, I knew I didn’t want to be that type of person. I took a year and basically did nothing except think about what to do in the future and what type of life I wanted to lead. After that period, I decided to give engineering a try since math has always been my forte. Before embarking on the journey, I wanted to take a trip to Korea to see my relatives and friends, and that’s when things changed. I got an opportunity to teach English at a university, and really enjoyed it. I got curious about it and continued working and enrolled in the STG program. I’ve realized that one my strengths which has helped me develop is that I’m a good observer of details. Unfortunately, one of my weaknesses is that I have a horrible memory, so unless I jot things down, I forget them five minutes later. Interestingly, after I started teaching English in Korea, my personality changed for the better. Yes, the person I am is better than the person I used to be. It might be hard to believe. ^^ People say that I smile more than I used to, which might be a behavior conditioned from having to smile while teaching. But, I do think I’m happier now. And I think that is what has guided my decisions in my career path and in life. Sure, there are days when I ask myself why I chose this path, but I’m not ever truly unhappy. And there are days when I want to teach the easy and simple way. I can’t lie, there are days when I do exactly that. And then, I get hit by the waves of guilt. 

[I sort of went on and on about my life after college. I'm sorry if I bored you and if it wasn't relevant to the question...]

#5:

I don’t think I have enough experience nor exposure to the educational institutions. I’ve never worked as an in-house, full-time instructor/teacher, and I’ve worked a little over a year. I guess the only time I’ve felt at the least marginalized was due to my ethnicity, being Korean and looking like a Korean. It’s happened during the hiring process at language centers run by Koreans. After a successful interview, the awkward discussion about pay rate inevitably follows. At three different hagwons (run by Koreans), they told me the same thing: We pay __(amount)__ to the 원어민 teachers (native speakers), so paying you __(amount)__ is quite a lot. So, even though I’ve lived in the States, all my life, I’m not viewed as being 100% native/foreigner. In a way, it’s negative but I think there’s also a positive side to it. I’ve never really felt like an ‘outsider’ amongst teachers or the administration because I’ve been able to ‘fit in’ in both contexts. In terms of having freedom to do what I want in the classroom, I don’t know if I’ve been marginalized in that sense. At the hagwon I’m working part-time at, I’m given a lesson plan/teacher’s manual to follow but given enough freedom to change the details. However, I can’t make decisions on what the student learns.  In my private classes, I have a lot more power, actually, too much to be honest. I can create the curriculum, lessons, the format, etc. (everything), and there really isn’t anyone who monitors me, which I think is dangerous. [There’s a recruiter who finds me potential students (and gets a portion of my paycheck).] So, I can understand how non-native teachers may feel, which might be why they’re pushed to teaching English in a teacher-fronted, grammar-focused setting with the goal of acing an exam. It seems like people want ‘native speakers’ to teach communicative English and ‘non-native speakers’ to teach how to do well on exams. And then, there are native speakers who look like non-native speakers. I always stress that I’ve lived in the States my entire life and that actually speaking English well is different from teaching English well. Also, another reason why I feel as if I haven’t been marginalized that much is because of my education background. Korean society places high value on education, and I was fortunate enough to graduate from a good university (don’t take it the wrong way). It’s quite funny that they think that my degree in a totally different area would make a good teacher just because I graduated from a good school. It’s helped me get my foot in the door and was only possible because I was in Korea. However, there’s the other side of the coin – the quizzical look I get from them: And, what made you want to teach English here?! That’s a story for another time.

Speak in Full Sentences!!

I don't have trouble getting my students to speak. I've heard horror stories about some students who are so timid and embarassed that they absolutely refuse to speak. Luckily, I've never taught such students. The problem I have with some of my students is that they don't speak in full sentences. I can't tell if they don't want to or if they just keep on forgetting. I used to say "Full sentence, please" or something of that sort in the beginning, but after a couple of failed attempts, I gave up.

I have the most trouble with my fifth-grade student. I think that he doesn't want to speak in full sentences, and I don't want to force him to do something he doesn't want to do. However, other teachers have told me a benefit of speaking in full sentences is that the learners become more aware of grammar. I've told him "One more time, but full sentence." And, I've tried to elicit full sentences by saying the first word. However, it doesn't always work. On the other hand, speaking in full sentences doesn't seem very natural. I know that I don't speak in full sentences all the time. Actually, I don't think I use full sentences when I'm outside of the classroom.

So.. two questions..
Should I push my students to speak in full sentences?
If so, how?!?!?!

[I think this post is a cry for help.. I've been having a hard time eliciting full sentences from my fifth grader.]

Improving pronunciation is a long and hard process

This past week, I included some pronunciation activities in my lessons with the 5^th grade student. I haven’t really worked on pronunciation previous to this week. So, I think he was a bit taken aback when I started put a lot of attention on pronunciation.

On Monday, I worked on [th] sound. I thought about drawing a picture, like we had practiced in class, but my illustrations are so horrendous. I was afraid I might scare him a bit with my monster-like drawings. So, I used my hands to show the position of the teeth and tongue. The issue with his [th] was that he placed his tongue behind his teeth. So, whenever he would make that sound, his tongue started out by touching the backs of his teeth, generating a [d] sound as a result. After modeling and using my hands to demonstrate, he got a little better. I felt bad because I knew he was trying his best, but kept on falling short. When I look back, I realize I should’ve praised him a lot more for even a minor improvement. My expectations were too high. We also worked on the phrase “How’s it going?” I told him to make it more fluid instead of saying each word individually. So, it would sound something like: Howsit going?, of course with a rising intonation. And we also worked on saying ‘invented electricity’. He put too much stress on the first ‘e’ of ‘electricity’. At fist, he didn’t realize what he was doing. So, I told him to pretend the first ‘e’ didn’t exist. After practicing it that way, he heard the difference. For homework, I told him to write 15 words with the [th] sound and practice saying those words.

On Tuesday, we worked on “Have you ever” à “Vyu-ever”. I realized everything is better and easier when shown in writing. At first, I told him to follow what I was saying. He didn’t hear the difference and didn’t know what I was doing. So, I said “Have you ever been to a zoo” but really stressed each word of the phrase ‘have you ever’. And then I said “Vyu-ever been to a zoo?” I then asked him if he heard a difference. He said that he did but didn’t really know how to repeat it. So, I wrote: ‘Vyu-ever’ on the computer so that he could see. There was a quizzical expression on his face at first, and then it sunk it. I asked him to practice it. At first, it was a little awkward and he kept on trying to you ‘have you’. But, after more practicing, he got better. It was quite successful and fun. I’ve never taught pronunciation of phrases. I’ve never really thought about it actually. That’s why I think last week ‘s Methodology class was really useful and insightful. I plan on focusing on pronunciation more often in my classes!

On Wednesday, we warmed up by reviewing "Have you ever..." During that activity, although he got the grammatical part correct, he forgot the pronunciation work we did the previous day!!! And so I made a [v] sound by saying "v...." but there was still a blank look on his face. After I said "Vyu...", he said "Ohh yeahhh! That!" 

On a side note: I wanted to do the chopsticks activity for his [r] and [l], but he didn’t seem to have an issue differentiating those two phonemes (?). It was quite a bummer. T_T

ICC - Personal Space

So… I thought I had recorded the culture lesson, but upon checking my phone after finishing the lesson, only 30 seconds were recorded. I guess the stop button was pressed after I had placed the phone against the wall. I was so distraught because I think the lesson went pretty well, not a dismal fail.

The source of culture for this lesson was a HSBC commercial about personal space on a subway and a person’s ability to adapt. The commercial is quiet funny and enjoyable for all. The student enjoyed it and found it entertaining. The basic plot of the commercial: An Asian man falls asleep on a white man’s shoulder on a suabbway train in New York City. The purpose of this activity was for the student to be aware of the differences of personal space in America and Korea, and to realize adapting is an important aspect of life, especially when finding oneself in another country/culture.

I started the activity by asking him how he gets to work à takes the subway. And then we discussed what bothers him when he takes the subway. I showed him the commercial without the sound at first, just to get him to look at the images. I paused at different parts and asked: What’s the Asian man doing? How does the white man feel? What’s the white man doing? And then, I played the commercial for a second time and asked these questions: Where does this take place? According to this commercial, what’s a personal capable of doing? And then, we had a discussion about why falling asleep on one’s shoulder isn’t acceptable in America and why it’s acceptable in Korea. It was interesting that he didn’t mention the notion of personal space. He mentioned collectivism and individualism. In Korea, it’s all about ‘us’ while in America, it’s all about ‘me’. So, I brought up personal space, and asked him how big his personal space is and how important it is. He said that it’s important and feels uncomfortable when someone invades his personal space. However, he doesn’t feel angry (?) like some people in America may.

We also talked about adapting to culture. He said that adapting is doable. So, I asked him if he could adapt to Indian culture. He said that he could. I asked him this: If he were to move to India and live there for five years, would he be willing to eat with his hands for every meal?  His answer was no. He said that he’d be willing to try it once, maybe twice, but he wouldn’t want to do it for every meal. He realized that adapting is possible but very difficult.

ICC Lesson 2 + Meth Reflection

The goal of this lesson was to make the student aware of the differences in eating customs in different countries. By the end of the lesson, I wanted him to discover that there is no abnormal custom. It’s just different. Different doesn’t mean wrong.

I opened up the lesson by showing him a picture of the universe so that I can introduce the word ‘universal’. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to think of the word ‘universe’. I think I took too much trying to wait for him to get ‘universe’. He said “stars… moon… planets… Earth… etc.” After 3 tries, I should’ve just told him it’s the universe. So, I introduced ‘universe’ and connected it to ‘universal’. I asked him “What is universal?”, “What does everyone do?” He couldn’t think of anything specific, so I gave assistance by asking if everyone plays computer games. Then, he was able to give answers. I wanted him to speak in full sentences, which is why I said, “Everyone sleeps, everyone …”, but he didn’t catch that. So, I stopped, which is why I’m just jotting down his one-word responses.

Introducing: ____________ is universal. The student filled in the blank using his responses from the brainstorming activity.

MIC techniques: I used the paper & pen à WB & marker. I used gestures, facial expressions and pointing to pictures.

When student has trouble thinking of something, I need to give him an example first. That way, it may be easier for the student to think of more. There’s a very long period of silence at around 4 min. So after a while, I ask him what people only in Korea do. After he gave his response, I used it to introduce ________________ is specific to _____________.

Show a photo of a family eating, and have student tell me what’s going on in the photo, using present continuous. In the first picture, I started out by asking him “What can you see in the picture?” and he replied “I can see …”. I wanted him to use present continuous so I asked him the following question “What are they doing?” and so he gave a response using present continuous. At around 7:10, I ask “How are they eating” and rephrased it to “What are they using?” The latter is more simple and easier for the student to respond to. I realized I need to be more selective and thoughtful when asking questions.

I provide assistance when he tries to utter a full sentence by either starting the sentence for him or saying the sentence with him.  Towards the end of the clip, at around 17 minutes, you can see that I try to get him to say “They use their hands in India” (I think). I chunk it for him, but he just says it in chunks.

I ask him to describe the photos to me. He had trouble coming up with descriptions so I provided assistance/scaffolding (?) by asking him specific questions.

How do they eat in India? à They’re eating with hands. I wanted him to say: In India, they eat with their hands. I should’ve modeled.

Error Correction:

·      S: They doesn’t has

o   I repeated his utterance and rose my intonation to suggest a question. He was able to correct the doesn’t to don’t pretty quickly. However, he didn’t catch the error of has. So, I did the same, I said has with a rising intonation. It took him a while to self correct this error. After a couple of failed attempts, I gave him assistance by mouthing ‘have’.

Improvements from previous lessons:

·      I don’t give as much evaluative feedback as before. In the past, I gave lots of praise (overdid it). I don’t think I did I overdid it in this lesson. Instead, I made it more conversational.

If I were to teach this lesson again, I think I would put more emphasis on the difference between present simple and present continuous. It seems like he had trouble differentiating those two. He used the incorrect tense on some occasions. I try not to talk about grammatical rules because I think he learns about the rules in school, so I want to make the session we have a little different from school.

The purpose of this lesson was to give him a little insight on the differences of eating customs amongst different cultures. Eating is a universal behavior but the way we eat is specific. I think that goal was achieved. The student was able to tell me the differences and the similarities. At the end, I asked him which one is normal. It was a trick question. He pointed to India and said that it wasn’t normal and that America and Japan were normal. There, I pointed out that India is normal, and that every country is different. So, eating one way may seem abnormal but it is normal within that culture. Interestingly, he got a bit defensive and said “I know…!”

Overall, I think this was successful. He got to learn/practice language and also learn about cultural differences. Also, I think it was appropriate for the student because he’s familiar with eating customs and is a pretty simple topic. The activity was also appropriate for him. Children and pictures go well together. If I were to do the same activity I used with my adult student, it may have been less interesting and boring for him. Actually, there was a video in the activity for the adult student, so he (5^th grader) may have enjoyed it.