Yesterday's class was fun. The students were all rejuvenated after the break. The first thing Katie had them do was a surprise speaking presentation. They had two minutes to prepare speeches about their breaks using past tense verbs and sequence words. She said they would have to do something like this on the TOEFL or IELTS, so it was good practice. I wonder how she graded them.
Next, she had them do a cloze activity in their packet on past tense verbs. They worked in groups of two and three while Katie and I monitored them. Katie had me go over the answers at the end. I had each person spell each verb out loud, which Katie said was good--Arabs have trouble with spelling. Classroom management is still an adjustment, though. The class and I agreed to start with the Bhutanese student and go around the room, with each person saying one answer. Yet the moment I called on him, everyone else started talking. After a little while, the class settled into the proper routine. Katie said I should have told everyone else to be quiet from the beginning, though. In Arab culture, students call things out and work together.
When I monitored the students, many of them had trouble with words that change tense according to vowel: hang/hung, choose/chose, etc. I wonder why we didn't spend more time on pronunciation in the speaking/listening class, because I'm not sure they can hear the difference between each two vowels. One student said /hang/ (in IPA), which is neither "hang" nor "hung." Another student had a good question: is "read" pronounced the same in present and past tense? We did read the list of present and past tense verbs aloud together once, but it seems like they need more help.
We did another activity out of a grammar book by Betty Schrampfer Azar. One person would tell someone else to do something. The other person would do it, and then the first person would ask him or her what he or she had done. The other person would describe it in past tense. The students worked in pairs, then as a whole class. It was fun for them to move around, I think.
The last activity of the day was to talk about the 18-24-year-old brain. We flipped to a reading in the textbook about that. It was interesting that the students admitted the brain at that age is not fully developed. I looked at the book during break, and I like that this chapter has a study skills theme. Katie said she doesn't like its focus on intonation, however--Arabs tend to be good at that.
Next, she had them do a cloze activity in their packet on past tense verbs. They worked in groups of two and three while Katie and I monitored them. Katie had me go over the answers at the end. I had each person spell each verb out loud, which Katie said was good--Arabs have trouble with spelling. Classroom management is still an adjustment, though. The class and I agreed to start with the Bhutanese student and go around the room, with each person saying one answer. Yet the moment I called on him, everyone else started talking. After a little while, the class settled into the proper routine. Katie said I should have told everyone else to be quiet from the beginning, though. In Arab culture, students call things out and work together.
When I monitored the students, many of them had trouble with words that change tense according to vowel: hang/hung, choose/chose, etc. I wonder why we didn't spend more time on pronunciation in the speaking/listening class, because I'm not sure they can hear the difference between each two vowels. One student said /hang/ (in IPA), which is neither "hang" nor "hung." Another student had a good question: is "read" pronounced the same in present and past tense? We did read the list of present and past tense verbs aloud together once, but it seems like they need more help.
We did another activity out of a grammar book by Betty Schrampfer Azar. One person would tell someone else to do something. The other person would do it, and then the first person would ask him or her what he or she had done. The other person would describe it in past tense. The students worked in pairs, then as a whole class. It was fun for them to move around, I think.
The last activity of the day was to talk about the 18-24-year-old brain. We flipped to a reading in the textbook about that. It was interesting that the students admitted the brain at that age is not fully developed. I looked at the book during break, and I like that this chapter has a study skills theme. Katie said she doesn't like its focus on intonation, however--Arabs tend to be good at that.
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