Filed under: Pronunciation, Vocabulary | Tags: English With Jennifer, good speech models, historical speeches, inaugural address, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, political speeches, Pronunciation
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States has marked the start of a new period for Americans. The positive energy from January 20 remains strong, and the upcoming Presidents’ Day on February 16 will serve as one more occasion to recall those leaders, past and present, who commanded with wisdom and inspiration.
Presidential speeches are carefully constructed and often delivered with great oratory skill. I’ve used past inaugural addresses in the pronunciation classroom to practice public speaking. Speeches by Kennedy and Reagan were received well and allowed for heartfelt interpretations by advanced students. The use of these authentic sources brings history and culture into the classroom. The high level of vocabulary also tests learners’ passive if not active knowledge. Well chosen excerpts let the students understand the essence of the speech without losing time by trying to understand all the themes contained within the address. Furthermore, with shorter passages and more opportunities to reread, you can focus on specific skills, such as intonation and sentence stress.
The Internet offers full-length copies of many famous presidential speeches, and in some cases videos are also available. Start your search for the perfect presidential model with these sites:
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: classroom aids, classroom essentials, classroom props, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, realia, teaching tips, teaching tools
Whenever I enter a classroom, I must have a bottle of water in my hand and some tissue in my pocket because I’m prone to a dry cough and the occasional sneeze. But what about real classroom aids? What is essential? What is convenient to have on hand?
I’ve known teachers to keep a variety of items in their classrooms, from clever gadgets to completely unexpected props: a soccer ball, a stopwatch, puppets, a radio, and a foot-tall Godzilla action figure, to name a few. All were incorporated into language lessons.
What’s in your classroom? What do you feel lost without? What do you like to keep in your so-called bag of tricks? Here’s my own list – a baker’s dozen. These are items I’d like to have on hand in order to teach any lesson on any given day:
- Board (with markers and an eraser)
- Clock (with a second hand)
- Dictionary (two copies from different publishers, ideally)
- Scratch paper
- Pens (for myself as well as for forgetful students)
- CD player/ stereo
- Magazines (with lots of photos)
- Scissors
- Tape
- World map
- Dice (for games and activities)
- Small container (box, bag, hat, etc.)
- Markers (for impromptu projects)
Filed under: Classroom Tips, Methodology | Tags: classroom movement, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, posture, teacher's body language, to sit or not to sit
How much time do you spend on your feet while teaching? Do you feel it’s better for a teacher to remain standing for the duration of a lesson? Let’s consider reasons for standing and sitting:
We sit to:
- promote discussion among students and take the focus off of us;
- allow solo work or independent work to be completed without distraction;
- read/ listen to a long passage with the class;
- be next to a student for a private consultation.
We stand to:
- present at the board;
- command and hold attention during an explanation or anecdote;
- monitor group or pair work;
- guide a whole class exercise or activity.
The truth is that I’ve observed good teaching done from a chair and from a lecture stand. Part of the matter lies in one’s teaching style. Even so, I’d argue for an appropriate balance, with the scale tipping slightly in favor of being on your feet…not planted to the ground, but with some movement. After all, teaching takes both the teacher and the student on a journey, one that has more in common with hiking than driving. And while one could compare a teacher’s job to what is done behind the steering wheel, I think having options like cruise control and GPS would take all the fun and art out of teaching.
Filed under: Grammar, Methodology | Tags: classroom atmosphere, English With Jennifer, Grammar, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, reasons why students hate grammar, supportive atmosphere
(Continued)
Here they are – the top 5 reasons:
5. They equate having good grammar with mastering terminology. Advice: Remind grammar lovers and grammar haters alike that knowing terminology isn’t the same as being able to use grammatical structures. Knowing terminology places more reference tools in the learner’s hands, but discourage memorization for the sake of memorization. The grammar lovers who focus too much on terminology will eventually (and likely with great disillusion) understand that skills and not terms allow for communication. The so-called grammar haters should rejoice over the fact that you won’t be quizzing them on memorized terms but rather assessing their ability to communicate accurately.
4. They don’t like doing grammar homework. Advice: As you do with classroom activities, make homework assignments meaningful and manageable. Emphasize the need to reinforce what is learned in the classroom through independent practice; learning is a shared responsibility. (See my entry on 5 Ways to Get Students to Do Their Homework.)
3. They don’t see the practicality of studying grammar. Advice: Some students have great fluency if not accuracy in their oral expression and feel hampered when forced to think of grammar when speaking. Other students simply prefer to learn grammar indirectly and not from a book or in a grammar class. In any case, you can point out that grammar classes provide the opportunity to efficiently clarify misunderstandings and learn structures that might otherwise go unnoticed. Knowledge is good. Accurate knowledge is better. Accurate use of the knowledge is ideal; it’s what makes communication effective.
2. They are overwhelmed by the volume of information. Advice: Grammar books can be intimidating…even for teachers. Some heavy reference books with fine print tend to overload my brain after five minutes of reading. For students, even the visually engaging textbooks can fail to disguise the amount of grammar contained within. It’s our job to present that grammar in digestible chunks. (See my entry on 5 Ways to Improve Your Grammar Presentation.)
1. They lack confidence in their ability to use grammar for communication. Advice: Too many learners are quick to criticize themselves and their English skills. A common reason for not liking grammar is: “I’m not good at it.” It’s our job to help build the learner’s confidence in his or her abilities. As stated above, we need to foster a supportive atmosphere and make all tasks manageable.
Filed under: Grammar, Methodology | Tags: classroom atmosphere, English With Jennifer, Grammar, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, student attitudes, why students hate grammar
If you observe a student experiencing frustration in your grammar class, you shouldn’t immediately conclude that your teaching is at fault. A number of reasons could explain the student’s feelings, not all of which are related to your approach and strategies for teaching grammar. Consider the following:
10. They had a negative experience in the past with another teacher. Advice: Foster a fun, supportive atmosphere that will help make unpleasant memories fade.
9. They had a negative experience in the past while trying to study grammar on their own. Advice: The same as above. Also, encourage both cooperative learning and independent study so they know the benefits of collaboration yet realize that independent effort is a good and necessary component of language learning.
8. They aren’t placed in the right level. Advice: Placement exams aren’t always accurate especially if a student doesn’t perform well on standardized tests. Let a student’s performance in class and in homework be the true indicator.
7. They aren’t engaged by the material being used. Advice: Know your students. Do you need to supplement the assigned material to cater to their interests? Can you modify textbook activities to make them relevant to your students’ purposes for learning English?
6. Their frustration is directed toward grammar lessons, not grammar as a subject. Advice: Do you always approach grammar topics in the same manner? Does your basic lesson format ever change? You may need to experiment more so that students sometimes experience the format they are most comfortable with and other times are stretched (not yanked) into a format that tests their flexibility as learners.
Can you predict what I’ll list as the top five reasons? You’ll find out in my next post!
[To Be Continued]
Filed under: Reading | Tags: English With Jennifer, giving directions, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, life skills, map reading, practical skills
As follow-up to my previous entry, I’d like to offer one more activity to teach real life skills to ESL students: map reading.
Level: Low Intermediate
STEP 1 – Get copies of real street maps for your city or town. The number of maps will dictate how many small groups there will be. Pass out the maps, one to each group.
STEP 2 – Give them a starting point and name a destination, for example, from the school to city hall. Use exact addresses if possible. Students must plot a course, writing down the directions as if they were driving.
STEP 3 – Compare their directions to directions provided from an online source such as Google Maps or MapQuest.com. Ideally, the students should access these sites themselves and make the comparison. Another possibility is for you to print out copies ahead of time and pass them out at this point.
Have them repeat this exercise for a number of destinations as time allows.
Filed under: Grammar, Reading | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, modal verbs, reading signs, reading skills, Tana Hoban
Part of an ESL teacher’s job is to help the language learner better function in the host country. One important skill to have is reading signs. They’re everywhere, and the information they convey does not apply to drivers alone. Consider the simplest of signs: ENTRANCE ONLY, NO SMOKING, EMERGENCY EXIT: Alarm will sound. Then there are more detailed signs about fines for trespassing, the danger of guard dog, lanes merging on a highway, etc.
Thankfully, there are alternatives to stealing public property, carting real signs into your classroom, and showing them to your students. Yahoo images has plenty of photos to select from. You can download and print out 10-12 signs for classroom use. I recently discovered an interesting compilation of signs by Tana Hoban. See if your local library has this title available: I Read Signs. (Children’s Literature)
You can tie this reading activity in with a grammar lesson on modal verbs. As you show each sign to the class, provide a choice of two modal verbs (or modal-like expressions). Have them write their interpretation. Require them to write at least one sentence per sign, but the challenge is to write two.
EXAMPLE-
The sign reads: SLOW…CHILDREN AT PLAY
You provide two prompts: MUST / CAN’T
Possible interpretations by students: “You must drive slowly because children play on this street.” / “Drivers can’t go fast because there are children playing here.”
Filed under: Conversation, Grammar, Listening, Methodology | Tags: cinematic collocations, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, music in the classroom, song lyrics, teaching through music
Music is a powerful medium. Why not bring it into the classroom? While we shouldn’t attempt to turn an English grammar presentation into an aria, we can certainly use music to aid our instruction. For example, in a past entry I presented the activity Cinematic Collocations, in which students’ creativity is stimulated by an excerpt from a film soundtrack, and then in groups they use targeted vocabulary to write a film plot. Here are three additional ways to use music in the classroom:
- Listening/ Pronunciation. Choose a song that targets sounds or clusters of sounds you’ve practiced in class. The lyrics to Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel are full of words with /l/ and /r/, a common difficulty for Asian speakers in particular. As a class, listen once. Pass out the lyrics and review them. Listen again. Practice pronunciation. Listen a third time and encourage students to sing along. Need a slower and more clearly sung song? Try Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. There’s plenty of opportunity to practice /l/.
- Listening/ Grammar. Songs illustrate meaningful use of grammar. Have you just covered modal verbs? Do students need more exposure to modals used in the past? Try listening to a song like Beverley Knight’s Woulda Coulda Shoulda. The lyrics are online, and the video is on YouTube. Give students a copy of the lyrics with all the modal verbs omitted. Their task is to fill in the blanks. Let them work together and give them a chance to hear the song at least twice. When the lyrics are complete, listen a final time.
- Listening/ Writing/ Conversation. From country ballads to Broadway hits, there are songs that tell powerful stories. Let your students listen to one and then have them write down a summary of what they heard. You can try Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car for this exercise. Ask: “Why is this song titled Fast Car? What is she singing about?” Once the summaries are written, students can compare their interpretations. Identify the main theme(s) of the song and discuss the problems the artist sings about.
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: English With Jennifer, JenniferESL, Jennifer Lebedev, Grammar, modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, teaching modal verbs, formal and informal English
Have you developed an approach to teaching modal verbs? I’ve found it most effective to focus on these three aspects:
- Function. What purpose(s) do these modal verbs serve? What do they express? Students will learn and retain grammar if they understand how it functions in communication. I strongly recommend presenting these auxiliary verbs in groups according to their communicative functions, the most basic ones being: necessity, certainty, and ability.
Consider the following as a guide:
(Note: I’ve included modal-like expressions.)
NECESSITY: must, have (got) to, cannot, be supposed to, had better, should, ought to, could, might, may
CERTAINTY: must, cannot, may, might, could, should, ought to, will, would
ABILITY: can, could, be able to
Other useful guides:
The Guide to Grammar and Writing by Capital Community College
Bob Wilson’s Grammar Aquarium
Once you’ve grouped the modal verbs according to their functions, you can then divide them further according to time frames. For example, we express a present ability with CAN and a past ability with COULD.
- Strength. Grammar books differ on the number of functions modal verbs have, but when you consider the aspect of strength, my three basic groupings hold true:
NECESSITY: must, have to (necessary)/ cannot (prohibited) > be supposed to (expected) > had better, should, ought to (advisable, with had better being very strong) > could, might (suggested) / may (permissible)
CERTAINTY: must , cannot, will ( nearly certain) > should, ought to, would (likely) > may, might, could (possible)
ABILITY: can, could, be able to (No difference in strength.)
- Formality. When teaching any language form, be sure to tell students about appropriacy. This applies to use of contractions (e.g., CANNOT v. CAN’T) and changes in pronunciation (/ʃʊd hæv/ v. /ʃʊd ə/). Explain that the level of formality can dictate a choice between two equivalent expressions. For example, when expressing certainty, HAVE TO is preferred in informal (spoken) English and MUST is generally used in formal speech. Furthermore, the degree of necessity or certainty may be weakened depending on how formal a relationship is. For instance, you may have a strong argument against your boss’s plan, but voicing it with certainty is disrespectful. Consider the difference: “That won’t work.” v. “That may not work.”
Filed under: Writing | Tags: an insect's view, creative writing, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, prepositions of location, spatial description, writing activity
Level: High intermediate – advanced
Writing Skills Focus: Describing a place.
Task: To write a spatial description from an insect’s point of view.
Step 1: Discuss the questions: If you had to live one day as an insect, what insect would you be? In what kind of place would it be most interesting? Safest?
Step 2: Read the model text.
The Ant and the Sandwich
I am a lucky ant. I climbed this big table, and on it I found a delicious sandwich. I must eat fast before the man returns for his lunch. I began at the bottom with a piece of white bread. It was soft and tasty, but the smell from above made me climb higher. On top of the bread was a piece of chicken. The meat was cold but wonderful. The taste was salty and smoky. The chicken was under a fresh tomato. It was good to eat something juicy after the chicken. I thought I was done, but then I found a slice of cheese and another slice of bread. Between the cheese and the bread was some mayonnaise. Yum! Right now I’m standing on top of the sandwich. The soft bread is a nice place to rest. I think I might have the time to eat my way down through the sandwich. But maybe I should just crawl down the side and get away before the man comes back.
Step 3: Pass out copies of the model text. Ask students to identify spatial markers: At the bottom, On top of, Between,… List additional ones on the board.
Step 4: Help students generate ideas for their own compositions. Magazine photos are great sources of inspiration. You can prepare a selection of scenes ahead of time: an office desk, a kitchen table, a bedroom closet, a train car, etc.
Step 5: Ask students to choose the objects they will describe and list them in a particular order (right to left, clockwise, from top to bottom, etc.) This will help them organize their thoughts and choose accurate vocabulary.
Step 6: Students will compose their texts using spatial markers. Supervise and assist as needed. Remind them to title their compositions accordingly.
Step 7: After an appropriate amount of revision, have students share their reports. You can post their descriptions with the accompanying photos on the board.
