Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: English With Jennifer, EVO, intrinsic motivation, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, praising students, USA Learns
Last week in my team’s EVO session Branka Marceta took the lead and shared a valuable online resource for independent learners, U.S.A. Learns. The U.S. Department of Education funded this collection of professionally-designed presentations and exercises on basic and intermediate topics. The three programs on the site aim to support immigrants in the U.S., but many of the skills covered are those that all learners need to master.
What’s great about the context in which such resources are being shared is the discussion threads that develop among EVO participants. For example, by just reading one exchange between Branka and a participant, I was prompted to think of all the ways we can encourage our students in their studies, especially when some or all of their studies are done online. The more responsibility a learner has to study independently, the more important motivation becomes.
Much has been written about setting personal learning goals to build intrinsic motivation. What else can be done? Branka gave a list of recommended practices to motivate and support students, and the one I found to be very original was the use of e-cards. I’ve actually received some e-cards from students who wanted either to thank me or send holiday greetings, but I never thought about using e-cards as a way to motivate them as learners. Indeed, most e-card sites have a whole category for encouragement and support. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? The occasional personalized e-card could be very effective, especially if timed right after a noticeable improvement or commendable effort. “I love teaching conversation class, and this week I especially enjoyed your contributions. Thank you and great job!” – or – “I just corrected your make-up test. Your score jumped up by 15%. Awesome effort!”
Have you discovered creative ways to inspire your students? Please share them.
Filed under: Conversation, Grammar | Tags: comparative forms, comparative structures, comparatives adjectives, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, proverbs, the more the merrier
I’ve been asked to create a video on comparative adjectives for my YouTube channel. The request came from a viewer who wants to be able to construct sentences like the more, the merrier. Such a saying certainly can confuse a learner. We teach them that a sentence has a subject and a verb, but then they encounter this structure with comparative forms and wonder what it means and why it’s correct.
I think the best way to explain the more, the merrier is to focus on the meaning. That will shed light on the form. The meaning is when there are more people, it’s merrier (more fun). The structure expresses cause and effect. The comma separates the two halves, and the complete thought is sometimes abbreviated in form. It can be as short as the + comparative adjective, the +comparative adjective as in the more, the merrier. Other times we at least mention the subjects, but omit the verb forms of be: The bigger the child, the bigger the problems. The important thing for students to understand is the implied meaning. Of course, in original statements – in contrast with proverbs or clichés – we tend to spell it all out: The harder I try to talk to Jerry about his problems, the more he pushes me away. In these sentences, it’s important for students to note the word order. (Contrast: If I try harder to talk to Jerry about his problems, he pushes me away even more. Here the comparatives follow the subject-verb.)
Ideas for practice:
- [Understanding form] Write out full sentences using various structures to express cause-effect. Students must rewrite the sentences using the + comparative adjective, the + comparative adjective. Discuss variations. Examples:
- If you finish sooner, that will be better. > The sooner (you finish), the better.
- When they are bigger, they fall harder. > The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
- [Understanding meaning] Use proverbs and other common sayings that model this structure. Mix up the halves and let students create their own matches. As long as they can explain the meaning, the matches should be accepted. At the end, identify the matches as they are truly used in English.
The sooner the merrier.
The more the more they stay the same.
The more things change the better.
Possible matches from the above combinations:
- (Original but logical match) The more things change, the better. = (Student’s explanation) “If there’s a lot of change, it’s good. The more changes there are, the better everything is.”
- (Standard) The more things change, the more they stay the same. = (Student’s explanation) “Things may change a lot in people’s lives, but people and the world in general stay the same.”
- [Understanding use] (1) Have students apply a proverb or cliché to their own lives. They may recall a situation from the past or describe a present situation. Provide your own model to set the right tone (personal but not overly intimate): “A friend asked me to join her for dinner, and when I arrived, I found out she had invited a few others people. I was surprised, but in the end I thought the more, the merrier.” (2) Alternatively, you could pose questions based on popular sayings. Example: “The sooner you start, the sooner you finish.” Does this saying describe your work or study habits?
Source:
Marjorie Fuchs, Margaret Bonner, Miriam Westheimer. Focus on Grammar: An intermediate course for reference and practice. Longman, 2000.
Filed under: Listening, Pronunciation, Writing | Tags: accents, dialects, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, speech files
A private student of mine recently requested that we talk about accents. He saved me the trouble of searching for material to base our discussion on by sending me links to sources he found interesting. One of them included audio files of various Australian accents. This didn’t surprise me since that’s currently his country of residence. I love listening to varieties of English, so I enjoyed familiarizing myself with the files. I came up with discussion questions for my student, but almost automatically, I began to think of other possibilities the audio recordings lend themselves to for language learners in general.
Take a look at the audio illustrations that folks at Macquarie University have compiled. There are more than a dozen statements read aloud by various speakers. How can you make use of these files in the classroom? What ideas can you come up with? Here are a few that I thought of:
- Dictation. Classic exercise. Could be more effective if first done individually, and then in pairs after a second listening. One pair could volunteer to write their text on the board, and a third and final listening would follow to confirm their accuracy.
- Dictation and creative writing. Make the activity more meaningful by asking students to provide more context for one-line from the site. Personally, I’d love to write a mini story based on this one: “They noticed that the door of the hunting lodge stood ajar and they grabbed their guns in fear.”[1] Two men from two different regions read that sentence. The first is fairly dramatic. I’d play both audio files, have the students write down what they hear, correct their work, and then ask them to work with a partner to add one line before and two or three lines after.
- Infer rhythmic patterns. Are you ready to teach a lesson on sentence stress? You could play a few audio samples like these, which are all one-liners. Play the clips, show the transcripts on the board, and then have students listen again to identify the stressed words. Guide them to make accurate conclusions about content words (e.g. nouns) and function words (e.g. articles).
I must thank my student for asking me to explore the links he sent. It brought to my attention yet another amazing resource that’s just a click away: audio recordings of accents in English. Here are some additional sites you might find useful:
- The Speech Accent Archive. I loved browsing via their map feature. I listened to my hometown dialect as and samples from several other places in the U.S. and Canada. The man from St. Louis, by the way, provides a nice model for thought groups.
- International Dialects of English Archives. Some recordings are rather lengthy, but you could use only an excerpt. Check out the clip recorded by a man from Martinique. Within the first two minutes or so, he tells a story about a woman who took a goose to the vet. You could transcribe the story partially, challenging students to complete it. Alternatively, they could simply listen, and in stages do both summarizing and predicting.
[1] http://clas.mq.edu.au/voices/audio-illustrations
Filed under: professional development | Tags: Electronic Village Online, English With Jennifer, ESLnote.com, EVO, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, My Video Classroom
I love to emphasize the importance of viewing colleagues as a resource. Two heads are almost always better than one. In past postings I promoted Yahoo Groups, Wikis, and social bookmarking as ways to interact and exchange information with other teachers. With so many resources online and off, it can certainly be a time-saver to know the most useful discoveries other teachers have made. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve witness the power of sharing as a member of an EVO session.
Have you joined the Electronic Village Online (EVO)? Although the sessions are in Week 4, it’s still not too late to join. Three full weeks of supportive and fruitful exchanges remain. My EVO team created a database for our 100+ participants. The database is called Video Website to Share, and so far 31 files have been added. Each address is accompanied by a short description of the site. Take for example the site ESLnotes.com. Its creator, Raymond Weschler, has compiled a convenient resource for teachers who wish to use film in their lessons. A long list of recommended movies suitable for ELLs includes plot summaries, character lists, and teacher’s notes (glossary and discussion questions). What a find!
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, viewpoint adverbs
- To practice the difference between adverbs of manner and viewpoint adverbs. Post 5-6 large photos that lend themselves to telling a story (ads from a magazine, clip art, or images on Flickr – for a successful search use actions as key words like argue, kiss, talk, smile). In pairs students must chose 3 photos. For each photo, they must write two sentences about the picture using one of the viewpoint adverbs already presented. One models the use of an adverb of manner, and the other models the use of a viewpoint adverb. Suggested adverbs: clearly, frankly, hopefully, naturally, sadly, strangely. Provide a model.
The man in the red shirt cannot see clearly without his glasses.
Clearly, this is a friendly gathering.
Image from Creative Commons on Flickr
- To understand the semantics of viewpoint adverbs. Select a text with at least three different viewpoint adverbs (blog, news article, lyrics, etc.) Have students identify whether a given adverb expresses a degree of certainty (apparently, certainly), an evaluation (luckily, unfortunately), or other form of comment (basically, generally). Model:
Tunison, Michael. Fantasy Issues: Scoring Meachem’s Return TD. Go2Media: 2010.
[Commenting on a questionable touchdown.]
“But then Meachen is also an offensive player who didn’t come into the play as a member of the defense. Surely he should be credited as such. Luckily, there is a precedent and some leagues (but obviously not all) have a policy in place to cover such matters.”
- To put viewpoint adverbs into use. In advance, prepare slips of paper with suitable conversation topics. Suggestions: animal shelters, organic foods, living in a cold climate, credit card debt, the salaries of professional athletes. In class hold short discussions in small groups. You can call the activity Two-Minute Topics. The idea is for each student to state his or her opinion on a topic and allow for others to briefly comment as well – all in the course of two minutes. The initial speaker must make use of a viewpoint adverb. Example: In our city there’s obviously a need for animal shelters. Be sure the two-minute rule is observed so that each student gets a turn initiating a discussion on a selected topic.
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: adjuncts, adverbs, disjuncts, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, viewpoint adverbs
Recently what started as a search for a list of viewpoint adverbs led to an examination of their syntax and semantics. I began with information on websites and then went offline to read a very technical grammar reference book. The deeper I got, the more I struggled to keep all the groupings clear in my mind. As interesting as the analysis was, I began to wonder if I’d ever face the need to break the topic down in such detail for a student. For what it’s worth, here’s what I believe in teaching:
1) Avoiding the terms adjuncts v. disjuncts, I’d explain that some adverbs are part of the main idea. They can give necessary information, for example, about time or manner. Example 1 = (adjunct, adverb of manner) Cliff spoke frankly. Frankly tells us how Cliff spoke.
Other adverbs are set off from the rest of the sentence and do not modify a single word but rather “color” the entire sentence. Viewpoint adverbs belong to this second group. Example 2 = (disjunct, viewpoint adverb) Frankly, you can’t trust what Cliff says. Frankly is a comment on the whole idea of not being able to trust what Cliff says.
2) Viewpoint adverbs can be placed within the main idea, but are often set off by commas at the beginning or end. Examples: I honestly don’t know what to believe. / Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. When a new viewpoint adverb is learned, encourage students to note its position within a sentence.
3) It can be helpful to learn a new viewpoint adverb by pairing it with a familiar one according to their semantic role. For example, undoubtedly expresses certainty and is similar to obviously, certainly, and surely. Show students how one can be substituted with another and note any changes in formality. Example: Eve [undoubtedly, obviously, certainly, surely] has no need for financial assistance.
4) Some viewpoint adverbs are made-up. Some speakers (at least in American English) like to create words with –wise. Example: Eve has no financial worries, but healthwise she has some troubles.
5) Sometimes in conversation the word speaking is added after viewpoint adverbs. Example: Frankly speaking, I never trusted Cliff.
6) It’s not helpful to memorize a grocery list of viewpoint adverbs. Learn them in a meaningful context, such as a scene from a movie, a line from a song, or a conversation with a neighbor. This will help solidify the syntax and semantic roles of viewpoint adverbs.
In the next posting, I’ll offer an idea or two for meaningful practice with viewpoint adverbs.
Sources:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm
Greenbaum, Sidney and Randolph Quirk. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. Longman: 1990.
Filed under: Methodology, professional development | Tags: affective facotrs in the classroom, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, likability, teacher likability
Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll. I will leave the poll open for any newcomers in the future.
It is certainly clear that the majority believes a teacher’s likability plays a role in the learning process. As one viewer wrote, a student does not have to like a teacher to learn from him or her, but a teacher’s likability has the potential to influence learning. So let’s move on to the matter of how exactly likability affects learning and to what degree we should be concerned about our likability.
Do you worry about being liked by your students? Long before I began teaching online, I learned to accept that my personality and my teaching style would not be liked by everyone. When I was part of a teaching staff, I knew what made the school strong was that collectively we were liked by the students. Each one of us was someone’s favorite. As long as I knew I was doing my best and that the majority of learners in my classroom walked out satisfied, I did not worry about trying to convert everyone into a member of my fan club.
Nevertheless, I definitely believe that a teacher’s likability plays a role in the learning process. A positive emotional connection between the teacher and a student is conducive to learning. If a student is somehow uncomfortable with or not very trusting of the teacher, the feelings can translate into a lack of reception. The instruction may not be fully absorbed, and the student may be less willing to produce in the target language. What is a disliked teacher to do in a setting where both the teacher and the student are locked into their roles for the duration of a course? Continue on. You should always teach with awareness of your students’ needs and interests, but you cannot change your personality or do a complete overhaul of your teaching style because one student does not like your lessons.
That is not to say that a teacher should never respond to feedback (verbal or nonverbal) by modifying his or her instruction. I mean to say that a student needs to give a teacher the chance to be helpful by using his or her chosen methods. Only after a fair chance has been given should there be discussion of modifying instruction. One mark of a good learner is the ability to learn from multiple sources and through different methods. If learners are committed to their language goals, they will try to adapt to the methods used by their teacher, even if they are not particularly fond of the teacher. With a hard-working student and a teacher who is dedicated, competent, and professional, learning can take place despite a lack of warmth a student feels towards the teacher.
We may not be liked by all the students who turn to us for instruction, but we can do our best to put our sensitivity aside and remember that the priority is on teaching and not gaining our students’ affection. If we become aware that a student is not fond of us, we can consider what if anything could be done to help the situation. We are obligated to maintain quality instruction, so we need to be reflective and open to evaluation by others.
Here are some tips that promote a healthy degree of concern when it comes to your likability:
- Allow for student feedback on your lessons. What you’re looking for isn’t evidence that they like you, but rather evidence that they’re learning from you.
- Reflect on and respond to feedback. In some cases, especially when feedback is given anonymously, you won’t be able to respond verbally, but you can make modifications in the classroom accordingly. Just remember: making adjustments to improve your teaching is one thing, but responding to complaints by throwing out practices you strongly believe in is another.
- Talk with your colleagues. If there is a method or strategy you believe in but are aware that at least one student doesn’t favor it, discuss its value objectively. Do other teachers support your practices? Do they recommend alternatives?
- Place importance on creating a positive and welcoming atmosphere, but don’t equate that with trying to get each and every student to be your best friend.
- Teach from your heart as much as from your brain. Competent teaching combined with genuine passion is powerful. At the very least, students will respect you if not like you.
Filed under: Methodology, professional development | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, teacher's likability
As I was watching an interview with Mike Marzio of Real English and Sarah Lilburn of The Daily English Show, I was prompted to give thought to the role a teacher’s likability plays in the learning process. The host of the interview, Jeff Lebow of EFL Bridges, asked his guests to give advice to others who are considering making their own instructional videos. Sarah, one of the first to go online with original ESL/ EFL videos, encouraged educators to make what they want and what they believe in. Someone is bound to like it and find it useful. Those are courageous words, because when a teacher like Sarah infuses her personality into an educational video, its success as an instructional tool largely depends on likability. Viewers want to learn from what they watch. They watch what they like. Fact: No one person can be liked by everyone. Luckily, Sarah has achieved a successful mix of personality and instructional content. Her solid following proves this.
In the online world of ESL/ EFL instruction, students today have such a wide choice of sources. Naturally, they gravitate toward the providers they like, but both Mike and Sarah confirmed that it’s not possible to win over all visitors to their channels. I myself have told viewers who are not overly supportive of (much less enthusiastic about) my work on YouTube that one advantage of the medium is that they can stop a video halfway through and look for another channel that is more to their liking. There is no offense in doing this (unless they post harsh criticism before leaving the web page). This contrasts with the classroom experience, where student behavior is regulated by etiquette, and one cannot simply stand up and walk out without causing disruption. Even so, no instructor either in a classroom or online is made happy by the fact that a student doesn’t like him or her.
So how much should we be concerned about our students liking us? Is it petty to think about this, or is the question relevant to the learning outcome?
I’ll continue this discussion in my next posting.
Filed under: Grammar, Writing | Tags: English With Jennifer, have to, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, modal auxiliaries, modal verbs, modals, must
Level: Illustrated below for advanced students, but possible to modify the activity for lower level students. Simply limit the number of functions and forms the students are exposed to.
STEP 1 – Prepare your own short stories and/ or copy the ones below. Each one should either lack a beginning or an ending. A question using either must or have to should prompt students to compose missing information. The stories should collectively model the functions, strength, and different levels of formality of must and have to.
Model stories:
“The Worst Date Ever”
The evening was over, and Caroline couldn’t get into her house fast enough. She jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and didn’t look back. Peter quickly caught up with her, and cried, “Wait! Can I call you again?” Caroline’s eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in anger. “No,” she said.
What must have happened on Caroline and Peter’s date?
“Roommate Wanted”
Mike and Frank are roommates. Mike gets upset when Frank leaves the lights on after leaving a room, throws away food that’s only half-eaten, and takes long showers, which leaves little hot water for Mike’s shower. Mike has asked Frank to be careful about not wasting things, but Frank doesn’t seem to care.
How can Mike get Frank to understand he has to save food and resources, not waste them?
“No-Go”
Gina applied for a teaching position at a college. She was told that her one year of experience wasn’t enough. They were looking for someone with at least four more years of classroom experience. She wants to prove she can do the job, and wonders how to secure an interview.
How many years must candidates have worked to be qualified for the position?
“Wrong Attire”
Leo walks into the office, and all the heads turn. A few do their best not to laugh, but most of the workers simply look shocked. Leo’s best friend and co-worker quickly walks up to him and whispers, “What’s going on? Where’s the usual shirt and tie?”
What must Leo be wearing to make everyone respond this way?
“Meeting VIPs”
Thomas was excited to be in the same room with so many important people. He had already shaken hands with the Vice-President of the United States. Now he was about to greet a princess. He’d never spoken to royalty before. He suddenly got nervous since he didn’t know how exactly to greet her.
Does Thomas have to bow to the princess, or can he offer his hand?
[Note: It takes time to create these short situations, but you most certainly can recycle this activity with another group.]
STEP 2 – Students may work individually or in pairs to answer the questions in written form. Pair work nicely integrates speaking skills into the activity, but solo work would require each student to demonstrate his or her understanding of the target verbs.
Model [Based on story above]
“The Worst Date Ever”
Peter must have done something that really upset Caroline. He probably said something rude, or maybe he was too friendly with the waitress at the restaurant where he and Caroline had dinner.
STEP 3 – Have volunteers read the stories and their answers to the questions. Allow different variations to be shared.
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: English With Jennifer, expressing certainty, expressing necessity, have to, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, modal verbs, must
At the request of a fellow teacher, I’m going to review and expand on a posting I shared about one year ago titled Teaching Modal Verbs: Function, Strength, and Formality. This time around, I’d like to focus specifically on must and the modal-like expression have to.
Points to cover when teaching must and have to:
- They are equal in degree in the affirmative. They can express a high degree of necessity or certainty (close but not quite 100%).
You must/ have to pay before you pump gas into your car.
You must/ have to be crazy!
- Have to in the negative loses its strength and expresses the idea of choice, in other words, an action is not necessary but rather optional.
You have to pay before you pump gas into your car. = It’s necessary to pay before you pump gas into your car.
You don’t have to pay before you pump gas into your car. = It doesn’t matter if you pay before or after.
- When expressing necessity in the present, have to is preferred in informal (spoken) English and must is generally used in formal speech.
- When expressing necessity in the past, only have to is possible. Must have (+ past participle) expresses near certainty about the past.
[necessity] We must/have to take the test today. BUT We had to take the test yesterday.
[certainty] The professor must have been very pleased with everyone’s results because he was smiling when he handed back the graded tests.
NOTE: The exception to the above would be using must have (+ past participle) to state a requirement that must be met in order for additional action to be taken. In other words, necessary action was taken at some point in the past, and as a result, the party who performed that action may now proceed with his or her plan. Example: [from the University of Wisconsin webiste.]
Applicants must have earned at least 24 applicable semester credits prior to transfer. Applicants must have completed high-school-level algebra and plane geometry, college preparatory math, and two high-school years or two college semesters of the same foreign language.
- Speakers use not only shortened forms (contractions) of must and have (got) to, but also reduced forms*. The reduced forms are not considered correct in written form. Examples:
Must not = mustn’t (“You mustn’t tell anyone.”)
Must have = musta* (“You musta been really worried. Weren’t you?”)
Have (got) to = I’ve got to/ I got to/ I gotta* (“I gotta go.”)
Have to= hafta* (“I hafta to.”)
In the next posting, I’ll try to offer ideas for exercises and/ or an activity on this topic.
