Oral Skills Reading

So I was looking at the different activities (MCM 106-109) and I got to thinking, always a problem, I know. Anyway, discussion, speech, conversation even role play all make sense. However, I have a problem with role play. We all talk about it as if it were authentic speech, but it's not. In role plays there are two possible ways they can go: prewritten, or made-up on the spot. A pre-written one is not going to promote the thinking that is needed to produce spontaneous speech and often the phrases are stilted and no-one would talk the way the participants do. The other version is so full of pressure, not only does the student have to "perform" but they don't have the script...is this too much pressure? I know that I LOVE to act, but I HATE to role play.
For the record, I do see the value of pre-written scripts when working on certain speech acts etc, I just find them awkwardly written...even when I'm the author.

I also thought about the taped dialogue journals. I could see them being done as pod-casts. However, I do not see me ever making use of them in my classes.

Class 2/16

In spite of a rocky start to class for me, this was a good session. Stephanie and I had so many more activities that focused on different types of lessons. We probably could have taught for another hour. It is interesting how much time we spend actively and passively listening. Then there are so many different goals in our listening-to process for communication, to gain information, to take commands etc. Stephanie and I came up with a lot of ideas, but then the class provided us with more reasons. I had merely looked at processing from aural to written, then Chao raised the idea of negotiating for meaning. She needed to ask for repetition, this was an aspect that I hadn't thought of. The lesson brought out the ideas from the reading that we wanted and more. I felt it was a very successful lesson. My only real regret is forgetting to go over the rules for Simon Says.

Reading on Listening

I thought about the listening and it made me think of minimal pair work. That is "simply" listening and repeating, however it is listening with a very specific purpose. I also thought about how I always try to give my students a reason/goal with reading I also try to have something in a listening exercise. If my students are giving speeches then the audience has to write down a plus and a minus with specific things that were good or needed work. That way they have to pay attention to how the others are speaking. I like that listening lessons lend themselves to entertaining activities such as games and stories, rather than lecture...although that is a huge part as well.

2/9

Rachel and Stephanie did a nice job presenting the material. Their power point was worth the wait, because they used a good amount of humor.
I wish we would've had more time to edit or LPs because they were not very much changed from last week and I don't think it was a good example of how we would really leave directions for a sub.

Reading Week 5

I found the section on vocabulary acquisition to be interesting. (MCM) I especially was interested in the figures-500 words leads to frustration because everything is new, yet 2000 words (most commonly used) allow someone the chance to read and be able to access the unfamiliar words through context clues and have very few words that must be looked up. Then 3000 words for academic purposes. It fascinates me that a person could function in a culture with so few words; and surprises me that people ever thought 500 words would allow someone to continue on their own. I think the learning strategies are good reinforcement for what makes sense to me.

Finally I think that collocations are hard to teach.

Class Feb 2

Rachel and I presented last week. I thought it was interesting that the things she and I found so very bizarre did not seem to have phased the rest of the class. It also struck me that some of the questions we posed were for discussion, not for right and wrong answers. However, people were expecting right or wrong answers. In a discussion often the point is to talk about ideas and generate more ideas. Hearing what someone else thinks gives us a different perspective and a chance to change our own thinking. We brought the candy to encourage talking, but people spoke anyway. I liked that almost everyone in the class actually contributed to the discussion. I truly liked that some people who rarely speak up added to the discussion. I also liked that working with Rachel we were both able to bring in things that weren't in the reading. We had different ideas that we bounced off each other. I felt it was a successful class.

In looking at the group activity we worked on the rest of class I find it interesting that no two groups saw the same destination. Having such a variety of approaches it made it difficult to "judge" what was written by each other group. None of the groups wrote up their plan with enough detail for a sub. With that in mind I could have told each group, mine included, that they were failures in the planning for a sub stage. This makes me think of another thing. As a sub, I don't care at all about WHY the class is doing something, I merely want to know what and how. If the topic is very important to the development of the class I really hope that the teacher will be re-doing the entire lesson, because I do not have the background to cover the topic with enough competency to merit having done it in most cases.

Readings Week 4

In the readings this week there were many comparisons of cultures. I know I've written about wait time after questions before, but I'm wondering why this was not addressed in the reading. As we know wait time varies by culture and even within a culture by age.
If the appropriate wait time in a standard classroom, no ESL students, is 20 to 30 seconds, how does that affect an ESL class?
Are we quick to jump in? Having too much dead air? If native speakers need 30 seconds to respond, then if it is an L2 doesn't that mean that more time would be appropriate?

Why was this not addressed? the book discussed people being found rude or using inappropriate language for a situation. However, we are going to teach...shouldn't we know how long to wait for a response?