Reading Emails in Class

In my search to find authentic readings that are accessible to my students, I've sometimes raided my own email account. For example, when students are studying travel and vacation terminology, I've printed some correspondences between myself and different hotels in Argentina. Of course, the students might not know all the vocabulary included, but hopefully they can understand enough to discuss the main points. As with any reading, the steps are usually as follows:


1. Skim for Context: Students are prompted to skim the text for context clues. They should be able to immediately identify the text as an email, and can probably guess from the subject line that they are looking at questions about a hotel and the responses.
2. Read for Main Idea: Students read the text individually for the main idea. Their basic comprehension is then tested. Who is writing each email? What are the client's main concerns? What points are highlighted by the hotel? What tone is used in each email - are they polite or rude, formal or informal? How can the students tell?
3. Read for Details: Students read the text again (possibly taking turns reading aloud), this time looking at more detailed information. They then answer specific questions, either in oral or written form. Is there a double room available? What are the hotel amenities? What dates will the guests be staying? Is there a price difference for different types of rooms?

Once the students have a good understanding of the text (they don't need to know a direct translation for every term or phrase, but should have a good grasp of the meaning of the emails), there are different things the class can do for an extension. They can get into groups and discuss different emails from different hotels, and decide which they would recommend. You can visit the hotel's website and see if the information is the same. Students can discuss if they like the hotel and why, or write their own emails to a hotel requesting information.

Thank you to Galina, who did a similar activity with her Russian 1001 class this week and reminded me of this source of authentic readings.

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!

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...

Listening Practices with the BBC

For anyone looking to hone their language skills by listening to authentic news casts, the BBC can be a great resource. The BBC has news services for several of our languages, including: Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and Russian. For each of these languages, you'll be able to find short videos on a diversity of topics - all narrated by native-speakers of the language of study. Since the news casts are short, students can watch them several times in order to get a general understanding of the topic discussed, or to listen for specific information and answer comprehension questions designed for their level. For example, students of Portuguese 1001 might watch the following video:



As students watch and listen, they might try to answer the following questions (to be written and answered in Portuguese, of course):
1. What is the crocodile's name?
2. What country is he from?
3. How much does he weigh?
4. What is the name of his human best friend?
5. How old is the crocodile?
6. Where are the residents of the village going to put the crocodile's body?

A class of 1002 students might watch the same video, but answer more complex questions and use the past tense (a useful modification to the practice, since the poor crocodile has passed away).

For our Category IV languages, short news videos can still be useful. We can design simple listening tasks for these students, like 'listen five times and write down all the numbers you hear', or 'describe all the people shown using at least seven different adjectives.'

If you have any other ideas of how short news casts might be used in class, or if you have a specific video you'd like to share, leave a note in the comments!

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!

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.

Five-Minute Conversations and Mock Exams

Final exams are just around the corner, and most of our students have just six more class periods in which to prepare for the big day. In these last few classes, they should be in high-gear - drilling their speaking abilities non-stop. Here are a couple of ways to help students feel prepared:

Five-Minute Conversations:
Remind students that the most important thing in the oral exam is to be able to express their ideas in the target language without resorting to English. If they can chat about the topics covered throughout the semester in the language of study, they'll do well on the oral exam. One way to help them fell prepared is to do a quick brain-storm of the topics covered (introductions, classes, family, vacation and weekend plans, giving directions, weather expressions, etc.), and then having students pair-up. Put five minutes on a timer, and then have the pairs of students talk about anything they want in the target language - without any English. Don't let them look-up words or ask you for vocabulary- they won't be able to on the test. Don't stop them or correct their mistakes during the five minutes of conversation, but do take notes. When the five minutes are over, point out some things that you heard that were good, and the most common mistakes. Then have students find a new partner, and have another five-minute timed conversation. You can do this drill a couple of times each class period from now until test time, keeping the drills fun and fast-paced. Encourage students to do these practices together outside of class as well.


Mock Exams:
Sometimes it helps students feel calm on test day if they have a good sense of what will happen. Particularly for our 1001 students, the final exam can seem a bit daunting, and it helps to know exactly where to go and what the procedure will be when they get there. One way to reassure students is to set-up mock exams. You can reserve the Language Lab for your class period. Then, give students a written assignment to do at the desks, like writing a pair of paragraphs or working on their study guide if the examiner has provided one. One by one, have the students come meet with you for a conversation in the language of study. Have them introduce themselves, and then talk with them in the target language about the topics studied. If they've studied giving directions, for example, ask students to tell you how to get to different places around campus. If they've studied family expressions, have them describe their family to you. Do not try to tell students what grade they should expect on the exam, even if they ask. Also, make sure they know that the content of the written practice and questions you ask are not the same as the exam. Remind them that the point of the practice is just to give them a sense of what to expect on exam day - where to go and what to do. This should help them to feel less nervous when test day rolls around.

Do you have any other ways to help your students feel confident and prepared? If so, leave them in the comments.

Music and Poetry Writing Warm-Up

Since April is National Poetry Month, next week I plan to try a new musical warm-up with my class - this time leading into a poetry-writing exercise. This is how it will work:

1. Students will listen to a song, filling-in missing words. Since we're studying the different uses of two verbs that both translate to "to be" in English, the song I've chosen includes lots of repetition of these two verbs.

2. We'll read the song's lyrics aloud, and students will summarize the song in 'plain prose' - in Spanish, of course. (It's easy, since the song could be simply summarized as 'the man singing likes a woman, but she does not like him, so he is sad.')

3. Since the song includes similes and metaphors using the 'to be' verb, I'll have students then write their own love poems in Spanish, following the same model presented by the song: A) a description of  the poem's recipient - 'you are ....' B) a description of the poem's author - 'I am like a...' and C) a description of how the author feels when the beloved person is near/far. (Of course, these types of statements will force the students to use the two being verbs, and I can walk-around and correct their mistakes before the poems are read to the class).

Since we've studied weather expressions, some food vocabulary, words that describe different emotions, etc., I'm going to have students use only words they already know when writing their poems. I'm hoping this provides some fun examples, and a good review of past vocabulary and grammatical structures. When students are finished, we'll have them recite their masterpieces, and vote on our favorites. I'll let you know how it goes...

If you have any other ideas for good warm-ups involving music or poetry, please leave them in the comments! Have a great weekend!

The Realia Project: Images for Class

A nice (and easy) way to include some culture into a language practice can be to have students simply discuss a photo or advertisement from one of your countries of study. Russian tutors can bring photos of Moscow, for example, and give a different photo to each student. Beginning-level students can describe the photograph with simple sentences, while more advanced students can either use the photos to invent travel advertisements or as a jumping-off point for fictional stories they invent about the people and places pictured. Of course, this gives the tutor an excellent opportunity to discuss the real places or traditions shown, and hopefully encourages interest from students to learn more.

If you are looking for an easy way to get photos to use in class, The Realia Project is a good resource. Typing "Moscow" into the quick search on their site provided 150 images, each with a brief description. Of course, Google Images works well too...

How else have you used photographs in your classes?

TPR: Total Physical Response

This short video describes a language teaching technique called TPR (total physical response), demonstrates some lessons in which it is used, and discusses some of its advantages:



Of course, since we only meet with our students twice a week, our expectation must remain that they study new vocabulary, grammar concepts, and dialogues at home and come to class already prepared to try to use the language, not just listen and understand. Still, TPR can be used as a method to get students talking in the language as well, such as in the video segment where they give one another instructions. TPR can be a great way to practice new structured patterns that require a lot of repetition, without making the class feel boring.

What do you think? Is this a technique that you could use in class? Do you already use some sort of TPR in your classes?

Show 'n Tell

In order to encourage our students to say more than a few words at a time in the target language, I sometimes like to assign short ‘show-and-tell’ presentations. Here are the instructions as I’ve written them for my 1001 students:

After a short practice session, each student will present a five or six-sentence description in Spanish of a visual they’ve brought to share with the class. Each student should be prepared to show a visual and explain its importance. Your presentation should be entirely in Spanish and given without the aid of notes. For example, a student might bring a photograph of a family member and describe that person to the class.

Some ideas of possible topics include:
1. A photograph of members of your family – tell who is pictured, describe each person briefly, and tell something that each person likes to do.
2. A Spanish-language song, artist, or album you like – tell where the artist is from, briefly describe the artist, tell how old she/he is, and say something about his/her style.
3. A page out of your weekly planner – tell something you do on each day of the week, and give the time for which it is scheduled.
4. A photo of yourself at a Salsa Night - describe the club where Salsa Night is held, tell where it is in Atlanta, tell the time it opens, and what days and times there is Salsa dancing.
5. A menu from your favorite Mexican restaurant – tell its name, where it is, when it opens, what you like to eat there, and a brief description of the restaurant.

Students must prepare in advance, since they have to bring a visual, but I encourage students to simply speak about the item they’ve brought, rather than trying to memorize a prepared speech word-for-word.

Some Fun Class Activities

Vocabulary and Writing Practice

Preparation:
Prepare a set of index cards with new and old vocabulary words. Make sure that each word is written on two different note cards.

In Class:
1. Shuffle cards.
2. Students draw a card each.
3. Have students look for the other person with the vocabulary word.
4. In their small groups, students define their word and write as many sentences as possible that includes their word until you stop them.
5. Afterward, students write their sentences and definition on the board.

Extra:
6. The other students could check for mistakes in the sentences.
7. The group with the least amount of errors “wins”

Reading, Speaking, Listening

Preparation:
Choose some sentences from a reading passage or a dialogue students have recently studied. Write them on slips of paper with one half sentences being on one slip of paper. Have enough slips of paper for your entire class.

In-Class:
1. Students stand and mingle. They read their half sentences to one another until they find the second half of their sentence.
2. Once they find their match, all sentences are read out.
3. Students form a line in the order of how the sentences appeared in the text.
4. Tutor reads the original text and student re-arrange themselves to correct any mistakes.

Study Tips for Students

It may not solve all of your students' problems, but there are some good study tips in this New York Times article.

Apparently, students better remember what they've learned if they change their location from time to time - sometimes studying in the library, sometimes in a busy cafe, and sometimes at home, for example. Also, frequent practice tests help students retain what they've learned.

So, next time you see your students start to glaze-over, perhaps a pop-quiz will help. Even if not counted toward their grade, the act of trying to remember new information and skills will actually help students reinforce what they've learned. Or have your students change their seats, or take them to the language lab for a class period. It seems like an occasional change of scenery can help us make new connections with what we're learning and serves as a quick memory boost.

For more ideas on how to help our students study (and how to study better ourselves), check out the whole article.

NYT Article Gives Some Teaching Tips

The New York Times Sunday Magazine recently ran an article on teaching techniques which featured a series of short videos. Of course, not all of the techniques are applicable to our program, but I enjoyed watching what other teachers are doing and some of the ideas are good ones. Go check out the videos, if you have the time, and leave your own ideas in the comments!