Total words: 101

I’m teaching an advanced class yet again. This week one of my lessons from last semester was not very good. I needed to replace the second hour so I decided to add another TV show to the mix. This time I chose Corner Gas - A Canadian sit com that just got picked up by an American network. This show is funny, very unique, and I can guarantee that students have never seen it before.

The handout is in pdf format - Corner Gas Whataphobia. If you want an MSpublisher format send an email and I’ll get it to you.

Total words: 1006

A few weeks ago at the KOTESOL conference I attended a presentation by Scott Miles promoting a new book teaching Reading titled Essential Reading. I walked away from that presentation interested in the book and determined to trial it with my students. I used the material with two different first year classes.

Teachers in Japan attending next weeks JALT conference will want to watch Mr. Miles’ presentation.  I have spoken with Scott and confirmed that each attendee will recieve a free copy of the level three book.  The entire series is edited by Mr. Miles and the third book was written by him as well. If you do attend please say hi and let Scott know you heard about the book from my blog.

Below is what I wrote about Miles’ presentation:

The next presentation I attended was also done by a friend, Scott Miles. Scott is the author and series editor on a new series of books teaching reading skills. The series is titled Essential Reading and is designed in a unique way. It’s targetting specifically EFL students in an Asian context. The readings were chosen to be engaging and relevant to Asians at the university level, i.e. material that they would be interested in reading on their own. Each of the readings was also written in a way that it would provide information that students were unlikely to know previously despite being familiar wiht some of the topics. Furthermore the readings were selected to elicit an emotional response and as Scott put it, this means that sometimes “they are not entirely safe”. But if they students respond emotionally they are definitely engaged. Finally there is support for ER built in. There are excerpts from graded readers and each book also has 2-3 graded short stories at the back. All attendees came away with a free copy of book 3.

I have the level three book which according to Mr. Miles in his presentation would likely be good for freshmen students in Korea. I chose to do half of unit two (Punishment) and all of unit three (Extensive Reading).Additionally when teaching I did not have access to the teachers book nor did I do anything special to prepare the material. I ran through the material sequentially and alloted time for each section and did not supplement or change anything.

Total words: 326

In January I talked briefly about bubbleply. I am now using it after having rediscovered it. This semester I am teaching a course titled “Teaching English through the Internet” to English Education Majors. I originally thought the course was going to be internet oriented and general skills but just before the semester started found out that it was for the English Education department. I have since taken a new approach on my course.

I now introduce various web sites and resources to the students and have them use the sites. This is then followed up by a brief discussion about how they could be used in language education as well as some of the pedegogy behind my suggestions or usage. I have told the students that many of the sites introduced in the class will be oriented to adults since they are adults and I do not (re: never) teach children. I am aware that most of my students, teachers in training, will be teaching in public schools so I do try to find sites that can be used at all levels from grade school up to high school.

Anyhow on Wednesdays class this coming week we will be looking at bubblely which I feel has many different potential approaches in the classroom. Bubbleply takes a youtube video and allows you to add a variety of speech, thought, narration, or subtitle bubbles to it. clearly this gives the teacher opportunites to annotate a video, add English subtitles to aid in listening comprehension, add thought bubbles for comedy or even have students find a video of their own to bubblply for task based English use. My students will be finding their own youtube video to bubbleply and then adding it to their class blogs.

Enjoy the sample I prepared for them to watch on Wedesday. You can watch the original YouTube video here or just turn off the bubbles on the bubbleply player if you want.

Total words: 290

I’ve put together a lesson for my advanced class on the pilot episode of Lost. Actually it’s only the first half of the pilot. The pilot episode is 2 hours, really 90 minutes, and my classes are only 100 minutes long. It will take the whole two hour class just do what I’ve got planned in for the first half of the pilot and even then it will be tight and rushed.

If students want to see the rest, the can buy the DVDs, borrow them from the library, or acquire them some other way. I’ve watched TV/Movies in the past strait through and you always end up with students sleeping in class. Now when I teach using video I regularly stop the video and have discussion time - usually every 10-15 minutes. This way it keeps everyone awake and is really more about language learning as you are checking listening comprehension, idioms, difficult vocabulary and any number of other aspects.

Page six of the handout was originally developed by Gord Sellar who shared it with me via email a couple of months ago. I dropped one section of what he did with his since his focus was different, but kept the majority of it. You will see his name on page six but no link to his blog since he asked the students not be told about his blog.

For the record I am aware that the picture I chose on page six is from season three, I used it anyhow because I think it is a great image. I hope you find this handout useful. If you would like to make changes let me know and I can email you the original file in MSpublisher format.

lost-pilot.pdf

Total words: 222

What is the best method for learning a language? or for that matter teaching a language? In my experience most students have one method of learning and that involves heavy usage of rote memorization. They seem to think that language is knowledged that can be memorized and not a skill to be acquired and/or improved. I spend a lot of time in my classes trying to build awareness of the difference but am not sure how effective I am. I have written on this before and if you were to search my blog you would find several entries, but two come to mind: Lead a Horse to Water and Learner Autonomy.

This semester I’ve been changing things up a bit. This week we’re going to take a general look at what students can do to improve their command of English. To that end I’ve prepared a hand out that I feel will be effective. If you like it, feel free to use it. I’m also looking for some critical feedback from readers.

The file is in PDF format. If you would like the original (MS Publisher) let me know and I’ll send it to you.
best_method_for_learning_english.pdf

update
I could have written How do English learners teach us? but I didn’t. It was written by a Taiwanese English learner and university professor.

Total words: 238

Next week is special listening week for my freshmen classes. During this week we don’t use the textbook but rather do a number of listening exercises and talk about how to improve listening and various resources including podcasts & audio books. I have a couple of activities from the past that I decided to scrap because I wasn’t satisfied with them. This semester I’m replacing them with a 25 minute lesson around a music video by Twisted Sister. 

Total words: 106

This is a lesson for advanced students on Internet Piracy. Using the website mentioned here, I have saved all the youtube videos to my harddrive so I don’t have to worry about lack of internet during class. I will be teaching this class today and hope it goes well. If anyone uses the lesson I would of course like to know how it goes for you.

piracy.pdf (393kb)

Enjoy
update
Too bloody difficult. It seems I’m going to have to adjust my expectations down for this class. They could do the discussions but the documentary (only 10 minutes) was too difficult even with two viewings.

Total words: 225

As mentioned previously I have been planning a lesson using Van Halen’s video Hot for Teacher. I’ve finished the lesson but am unsure of whether to proceed with teaching it. The order of the handout is not in the same order that I would be teaching it. The class is for advanced students and is all male. Feedback appreciated - the hand out is here in pdf format hot_for_teacher.pdf

for the record, this lesson is going to be taught 28 hours from now, quick feedback needed.
Update in the extended entry

Total words: 197

I’m a big fan of games or game like activities in the class assuming they are done for educational purposes and not just to waste time. I have created several of my own games and modified several others from resource packs for teachers. However this card game has taken it to another level. Visit GoKorea and download the sentence building card game. The rules for the game are two pages at font size 9 so it does seem to be overly complicated. I’m not sure I would be able to invest the time to play this with my students. If however a teacher was able to use the game multiple times with the same class then it would probably be a worthwhile venture.

Found this game via this thread on Dave’s Cafe. If anyone plays it, I would love to hear how it goes with your classes. I used to play Magic: The Gathering regularly before I left Canada to come to Korea and think this is a great concept for EFL/ESL. At one point I was also considering developing a role-playing game for EFL students but stopped. Perhaps it’s time to think about that again.

Total words: 161

I’ll be going over the unreal conditional this week. I’ve got a couple of great activities that I regularly do for this sort of lesson. I decided this time around to add another one. Last week was special listening week and that got me inspired to use If I had a $1,000,000 by Barenaked Ladies. This is a great upbeat song that uses the target langauge repeatedly.

I’m not going to do a cloze or gap-fill with this, though the song easily lends itself to that sort of activity. Instead I’m going to focus on generating conversation and fluency after having done some focus on form earlier. This will be a great way to lighten the class mood and enjoy some music the students have probably never heard before.

I’ve uploaded the PDF (226kb). If you have MSpublisher and would like to modify the file to your own needs send me an email and I’ll pass on the original file.