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.

Vocab Lesson

So, I wasn't able to teach much vocabulary last week. I was planning on teaching it towards the end of the week but I got sick and had to cancel most of classes on Thurs/Fri. Therefore, I incorporate vocabulary into a lesson today in my session with the 5th grader. The topic of today's lesson was: I'm sick. The goal was for him to be able to talk about his symptoms and correctly guess what someone's ailment is. By the end of the hour, he was able to do so, using I am ..., I have ... and I ....

As a warm up, I asked him why I missed last week's session, and told him about my ailment and symptoms. Then, I used a mind map in the beginning to get a gist of how much vocabulary he already knew. To my relief, he knew what a mind map was and so I didn't have to explain what it is to him. In the middle, I wrote SICK and he wrote illnesses and symptoms (new word). The ones he wrote on his own were words already in his word bank. I presented new words like, vomit and fever. I can't remember how many new words there were. I'll have to take a look at the sheet. In the article written by Nation, it said that only a few words should be introduced. I think I exceeded that quota. Even though we practiced (charades/guessing game), words like fever and symptom weren't retained in the production stage (role-play). It may have been due to the fact that the practice activities didn't really go as planned. This week being our second week together, I think he's gotten a lot more relaxed and is more comfortable with me so he goofs around a lot more and can't seem to concentrate. I know, children have short attention spans. Therefore, he couldn't focus and didn't really want to follow my rules. He didn't stick to the words on the sheet and started to talk about other ailments, like memory loss (amnesia). I had to try so hard to get him focused. It was a little exhuasting.

Overall, I think the vocabulary exercises were successful and enjoyable. If I were to teach it again, I might prepare pictures (I think children like pictures) and do a mind map with pictures and talking, instead of writing.

Microteaching: Presentation

I HATE watching myself and listening to my voice. Makes me cringe.

Anyhow, here's the self-reflection for my MT from class this past Saturday. I know Tom told us to not include the Preview but it felt awkward not setting up the context, and I wanted/needed to introduce the words: death penalty, in favor of, against. I thought the preview stage would only last for about a minute but actually went on for three minutes. As you can see, the topic was death penalty, and the reading was about a person's view of the death penalty. The reading activities were supposed to be like the following: read for gist, scan for vocab, read for details. Unfortunately, due to time, I couldn't get to the detailed comprehension section.

After watching my previous video, I've realized that I talk more than I intend to. People in my class can probably tell that I on the quiet side and that I don't mind talking. So, I've always thought the amount of my T-talk wouldn't be a problem. However, in the previous clip, I seem to talk a lot more than I need to. So, I've tried to be more conscientious of my T-talk time.

I think the positive aspects of my teaching style are that I use simple instructions and easy words. Also, I think that my T-talk time has decreased in comparison to the previous video. Also, I think I was fairly successful in creating a comfortable atmosphere for the students. Also, I used the WB as planned, in order to write the new vocabulary and expressions introduced. Other MIC techniques that I think I used quite successfully are pointing to text/WB and gesturing (underlining). The students were given opportunities to talk to each other and to the class/ teacher. I probably could've given the students more opportunities to talk amongst each other. I don't think I had much problem with my T-talk. I don't think I spoke spoke two or more sentences before giving students a chance to speak. I might be incorrect here. Perhaps I subconsciously ignored the excessive utterances produced by me. Actually, I did speak a bit when giving instructions, but is it possible not to?

A big fault I found from watching this MT video: too much evaluative t-talk. too much. I was unable to find any instances of communicative t-talk. I've tried to limit the amount of 'good' and 'very good' in my lessons, and it is evident in this video, but I still do it. Now, I need to work on producing communicative t-talk. It's hard to be communicative in these types of lesson though. Help me, Heidi! In the vocabulary part, where Paul gave an incorrect answer, I could've asked "Does everyone agree with Paul?" or something of that sort. While I'm on the subject of the vocabulary activity done in class, I think it was designed/ executed poorly. I could've just had the students share and compare answers with another pair, and then have me go over the words they were still confused on. It would've been more efficient. Another part I need to improve on is doing comprehension checks. I need to make sure the students understand the instructions by doing comprehension checks.