Film Critiques

Chantal, Italian tutor extraordinaire, has an excellent activity that gets her students watching and discussing Italian cinema. Here's how she explains it:

I have students print out the trailer poster of a movie they like or have seen and research everything they can about the movie. They then bring it to class and give a brief synopsis of the movie in Italian, of course. The other students will carry on asking questions about the movie, i.e. about the sound track, reviews written, where were these published, by whom, etc.

So, the students learn about Italian cinema outside of class as they watch and research Italian films. They then use the language both in a presentation, as they give a synopsis and some information about the film to their classmates, and then conversationally, as they respond to their classmates' questions.

What a great activity. Wonderful job, Chantal.

Turn Left at the Cathedral

Here's a wonderful classroom idea from Galina, our new Russian tutor. For a class studying directions, she printed copies of Moscow's subway system. She also printed photos and descriptions (in Russian) of some famous sites and attractions around the city, noting the nearest subway station to each. Students then had to give each other directions to the different sites, using the subway map as a guide.

This activity not only provided the students with a task in which their new language felt relevant, it also gave them a bit of a cultural tie-in as they learned about Moscow.

Excellent job, Galina!

Fashion Magazines in Class!

Our newest Portuguese Tutor, Mandy, has an excellent classroom idea that I'm happy to be able to share. In a chapter in which students were studying vocabulary dealing with shopping and fashion, Mandy brought fashion magazines from Brazil to share with her students. The students read articles and discussed them - all in Portuguese - and then designed their own advertisements for the magazine. Here are some examples of the students' work:

Mandy's students really enjoyed reading authentic magazines from Brazil, and had a great time applying their new vocabulary both in conversation and in a written project to be included in their portfolios. Wonderful job, Mandy!

Best Practices: Using Personal Photos in Class

Have you ever noticed that students pay more attention when you're talking about yourself or just 'chatting' with them in the language? My theory is that students tune-in when the language is actually being put to a real social use - if they pay attention, they might learn something about you or another student that they didn't already know.

Muna uses this tactic brilliantly in her Arabic classes. Last week, she used her own family photographs to review some new vocabulary with her students. Here's a sample of what she did:

1. Students first reviewed some family-related vocabulary by drawing the family tree of a fictional character (one of the characters from the book's video resources) on the board. Students labeled each person by name, relationship to the central character, and profession. Muna and the students worked together all in Arabic until the family tree was correct.

2. Muna then showed the students a photograph of her own family and talked about each person shown - their name, their relationship to her, their profession, where they lived...

3. In a second family photograph, Muna again talked about the people shown. Since some people appeared in both photos, this gave Muna the chance to repeat much of the information and vocabulary in a way that felt relevant and natural.

4. A third photo was shown and discussed, again with many of the same people pictured.

5. When Muna took out the fourth photo, it was time for the students to do the talking. She asked them about the identities of the people shown - their names, their relationships to her, their professions, and any of the details she'd shared about them. The students identified the people in several more photographs, and all students were involved in providing as many details as they could remember and correcting one another.

6. Students then worked together to draw and label Muna's family tree on the board.

7. Finally, students talked about their own family members, and were asked questions about their families and the families of their classmates.

8. The students' assignment for the next class is to bring family photos to describe and discuss with their classmates.

The students and Muna all used ONLY ARABIC during the whole activity, and all students were fully involved in the discussions. Wonderful job, Muna! I plan to use my own family photographs with every class learning to talk about their families and professions from now on... thanks for sharing.

Using Facebook for Class Assignments

Ever wish you could match your students with actual native-speakers for outside-of-class practice? Jae, our Korean tutor, is using Facebook to do just that. Jae has a Facebook profile for his Korean classes (which he keeps professional), and gives his students assignments to post comments in Korean on the main page. His Korean friends then comment back in Korean, and correct mistakes.

For example, the assignment might be for students to give directions in Korean to their favorite Korean restaurant, using GPC Dunwoody as the starting point. Students log-on to Facebook, post their directions, and then get responses from native-speakers of Korean. The assignments often spark long conversations, and many of the students have become real-life friends with their Facebook friends.

This is a wonderful way to get the students involved and using their language skills outside of class to actually engage in a new community and make new friends. Great work, Jae!

Great Chinese Class!

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit one of Jung Jung's Chinese 1001 classes and was impressed by her well-structured lesson plan. She's generously given me permission to share, so take a look:

1. As the students arrived, they were immediately given a practice in which they were asked to write-out various months, dates, and times in characters. This was a great review for the students, and got them working as soon as they entered the classroom.

2. After letting the students work for a few minutes, Jung Jung pulled out a calendar from Taiwan. She then pointed to different dates on the calendar and asked students, in Chinese, for the indicated date. This gave students the opportunity to practice saying aloud the months and days as well as prompting them to formulate their responses quickly. Jung Jung also pointed out some of the beautiful photos of Taiwan, giving the students a sense of the landscape.

3. She then quickly shifted to asking students about their ages and birthdays. The questions were quick-paced and conversational, and Jung Jung's encouraging attitude made all students comfortable participating. When a student struggled, she pulled out a set of flashcards and quickly reviewed the numbers with the group by having the students look at the character and say the proper number, and then to count without looking at the characters.

To read more of Jung Jung's lesson, click below...

The Story Shuffle

Here's an activity that I observed in Shane's Chinese 1001 class this week:

1. When the students arrived, they saw a mixed-up story on the board (all in Chinese) and were told they had five minutes to put it into the proper order.

2. The students went to the board, each with a marker, and confronted three columns of text. For example, students doing a story shuffle in English might see...

Tomorrow, October 8th        Hank went to the store             that she finds in the classroom.
Yesterday, October 6th         Egli is eating five cookies          but he will leave hungry.
Today, October 7th              Hank will look for the cookies   and bought seven cookies.

3. As the students worked together, Shane reviewed some written assignments that students had completed at home, pulling students aside one-by-one to review their mistakes with them. As one student worked with Shane, the others continued their group work at the board.

4. After all students had reviewed their work with Shane, he told them that it was time for them to read him the story in the right order. Each student read a different sentence.

Students doing the English-language version above would read the following:
Student One: "Yesterday, October 6th, Hank went to the store and bought seven cookies."
Student Two: "Today, October 7th, Egli is eating five cookies that she finds in the classroom."
Student Three: "Tomorrow, October 8th, Hank will look for the cookies, but he will leave hungry."

After the students had read the story in the correct order (and had their pronunciation mistakes corrected), Shane asked them questions about it in Chinese (When did Hank buy cookies? Who eats the cookies? Egli, are cookies your favorite food? How many cookies will Hank find in the classroom?) Shane used the students' names and information about them in the story, and the students really enjoyed the activity.

Great activity, Shane - and nice job using time spent on group-work to quietly work with individual students as well. Nicely done!

Spectacular Classes: Props, Realia, and Visual Aids

This fabulous Chinese 1001 class, courtesy of Ying, is full of examples of how to use visual cues and props in the classroom. Take a look at the videos below:

1.

In the above video, Ying has students help her fill-in a family tree. Students supply the vocabulary, and are prompted and corrected with a variety of written, auditory, and physical prompts. Notice how Ying has a student match her hand gestures to represent the tones.

2.

Next, students answer questions and work on perfecting their pronunciation.

3.

The activity quickly transitions to a practice with Ying's own family photo, where students are told about the people in the photo and are asked follow-up questions. Notice that questions and responses are all in Chinese - including prompts, corrections, and praise.

4.

With new topic to practice, a new prop is introduced. Notice how the students are expected to already know the vocabulary - Ying is making sure that the students have it right, correcting their mistakes, and then making sure that students can use the vocabulary to answer questions and give information.

5.

Notice that all instructions are given in Chinese. Ying accompanies her instructions to the students with visual prompts, like hand motions, but does not translate. Even when a student comes into the lesson late, a potential distraction, Ying does not interrupt the flow of the lesson. Rather, she simply motions that he come in and join the other students (there will be time for English-language reminders about the importance of being in class on time after the period is over, when it does not interfere with the other students' learning and can be done one-on-one).

The use of props, realia, and visual aids are beautifully employed in Ying's class. The photograph and calendar both help students make a connection between the words and the ideas they represent, and serve as useful tools that help Ying keep the class all in Chinese and free of translations.

Ying, great work! Thank you so much for sharing!

Helping Students Prepare for the Final Exam

As I've watched students come in and out of their oral exams this week, I've been considering ways we can help them feel prepared on test day - both linguistically and emotionally. Here are some ideas for future semesters, to help all students feel ready to do their best on the final exam:

1. Our exams are performance based, so as long as students can show what they know, they are likely to do well. As a tip before students go into the exam, I've been reminding them that whatever they can say in the target language earns them points - even if it is to ask the examiner to repeat something. Their main objective is simply to keep the conversation going in the target language. The more practice they have doing this in class, the more natural it will feel during the exam. So, make them speak the target language in class - even just to say 'what?' or 'could you repeat that?' They may not like it at first, but it will help on test day.

2. Just like the oral proficiency exam given by ACTFL, our oral exams are meant to determine how well our students can express themselves in their new language. Accuracy is important, but far more important is their ability to express ideas - even if they make some mistakes. Here is the advice that ACTFL gives to students about to take their oral proficiency exam, and it is good advice for our students too:

When taking the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), listen carefully to the questions asked by the interviewer before answering. When answering, give as detailed a response as possible. Saying little to avoid making mistakes will not improve your rating. If you do not know a specific term in the target language, describe it and try to avoid making up words. (If you do not use the tested language or a slang term, do not be surprised if the interviewer asks you to describe what that word means in the target language).

3. Being able to guess meaning from context is an important skill for beginning students. They are unlikely to understand every single word said to them in the language of study, but can they catch enough to understand the overall idea? Let them practice this skill during class by not always acting as a human dictionary. If a student asks what a word means, see if they can figure it out for themselves, based on what they do know. Some educated guessing can earn big points on an exam.

4. Remind them to leave nothing blank. If they only know one word on a written exam question, they should take a guess at that question's meaning and answer anyway. Better to try for the partial credit, and they just might know more than they realize.

Is there anything else we all should be doing to help students prepare? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

And finally, happy last day of the Spring 2011 semester! Congratulations on a great job, despite the occasional weather-induced chaos! Have a happy summer, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all this fall.

Spectacular Classes: Act it Out

In one of the most energetic and fun classes I've seen, members of Jen's Chinese 1001 class perform a dialogue. Notice how they do not simply say the lines, but accompany the words with the proper gestures and actions:

Some of the wonderful techniques Jen employes here include:

1. She has students get up and act out the scene. By acting out the dialogue rather than just saying it, student are more likely to remember it - for some reason, matching words with movements seems to help with memory (think TPR).
2. Acting out the scene also gives students a sense of how useful the vocabulary they've learned can be, giving them an example of how they could actually manage 'real life' situations with the language they've acquired.
3. Jen has allowed the students to add funny details to the scene, keeping them engaged and letting them use the language to express their own personalities. She gave them a task - greet your guests politely, conduct introductions, and offer a beverage - but students still had room to be a bit creative within that framework.
4. When the scene was finished, Jen encouraged the students and pointed out what they'd done well as well as what they should practice. Then the next group presented their scene.
5. Notice how much fun the students are having!

Great class, great tutor! Thanks, Jen!

Spectacular Classes: Draw a Card

Some of our amazing language tutors have agreed to let us film parts of their classes, generously sharing their ideas and techniques! So, without further ado, I welcome you to the Spectacular Classes Series!

In this video, some of Adesi's Italian 1001 students sit before a pile of index cards. Each card has a word or short phrase written on it, in Italian, but the cards are face-down, so that students cannot read them ahead of time. One by one, students draw a card and read the phrase aloud. The student is then challenged to say as much about the word or topic in Italian as they can. Watch how it works:

Notice some of the great techniques Adesi puts to use:
1. She encourages the student with nods and smiles, showing she understands and is engaged in what the student is saying.
2. She conducts the practice all in Italian.
3. When a mistake is made, Adesi corrects the mistake and has the student repeat the proper phrasing. Adesi does not let a mistake become a distraction, nor does she embarrass the student. Correction, repetition, and then the activity continues - fast-paced and fun.
4. When the student starts to pause between phrases, Adesi asks some related follow-up questions.

Great work, Adesi!

P.S. - You might have noticed the music playing quietly in the background. Adesi is also trying a technique in which instrumental music with a defined rhythm is played quietly during the class. The music is intended to help students focus, and to make connections with the rhythms of the language. She'll let us know how the experiment goes, and will share more information if it proves to help students.