Intonation is key! Encouraging learners to bounce

Having 'learned' the vocabulary & structure - third person + be + adjective - to describe how someone is  feeling...and also expanding with 'negative' information with our trusted Everybody Up 2 text book, sorted out word order & spelling heads down if you like; time to take it out for a road test!

Aim of this exercise/task was to make the exchanges real, really quick, making output not only 'correct' but interesting to the listener. To achieve that, I insisted the speaker point to the object card, but look at their listener. In a way, the speaker takes a snapshot of the phrase they are going to use from the card, and uses language independent of the support from memory. I really pushed my students to 'bounce' intonation across their complete utterances (not words 'one by one' drone), and even the most reluctant/shy felt able to let rip as the room was so noisy/fast moving & supportive (want to win the game, after all!).

Beauty of this kind of task is the non-speaker has time to listen to peers, practice what they are going to say & get things organised in their heads...and then cope with the need to repeat, go again etc (which is actually reassuring because they 'can do the first few more easily & focus on the far end of the table - listening to the other group?!). Tip = put the tough words in the middle so you can "pause" and model eg 'excited' with everyone's attention. Monitor subtly - cough if intonation not so great, wave an arm to encourage MORE oomph (technical term!), gesture encouragement (saying something breaks the flow) to inactive players 'on a break', and really encourage every student to have a go! 

I think this worked well - our learners usually need something to break the monotony of their school classes to get back to making English real, really useful, with really English speaking powers. What do you think?

 

No, I'm not fine!

"How are you? ""How are you."

Try again. "No. How are you?" "Oh. I'm fine."

How's he? 

And that's the end of the conversation for most Japanese students - get out of the conversation as quickly & as 'safely' as possible, with a generic response & no fuss. Certainly no extension, or attempt to broaden the scope - like enquire after the speaker's health. It's SO frustrating! Especially when I hear the inquirer react with "Oh good". Agghh!

So, I love unit 1 of Everybody Up 2, because we can break that mould. Here we meet 10 different emotions/feeling, none of them "fine" (which has lost all meaning). After this, require a 'proper' answer, every class, and a 'pass it on' reflex...either return the question, or turn to the next student as a round the room drill. Also, insist on different responses. And add a negative ( eg "I'm happy. I'm not sad."). Extension for bonus points in ay Cambridge speaking test!

Doing the same thing again...but it's a game?!

And sit down. Coats off (it's winter), rehydrate (in summer), blow noses (hayfever season)...

Teacher switches the grammar into a memory challenge; "How's Yuki?" Listening to other people? Becoming flexible with grammatical structures? "She's happy. She's not sad." 

And...every time, insist on meaningful, melodic intonation across utterances; prevent false starts/heads down...avoid 'speed of the slowest' answering as a group.

Mood meter

Personalise this - draw pictures into the back cover of the workbook is my favourite ploy. As a class, make a mood meter for the doorway (reminder, entrance routine etc).

Check spelling? In a way - but use the picture dictionary to start more extension.

Drill it to bits (pardon the pun) - another job for wordwall, again doing more with less. Embedding learning so it becomes a reflex, not an allergy!

A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?

Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.

 

Talking Heads - young learners introducing themselves confidently

 

 With the new school year, we've found a few new classmates to get to know, and new books to get used to. Great opportunity to brush off an old favourite, Chatterkids app, to record our voices over our super cute self-portraits. Very easily done, and learners keen to 'bling' their pictures and rehearse their output, and willing to speak up with the anonymity cloak! 

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