This is going to be full of teacher geekery. Sorry. I just can't help myself.
I have office hours on Wednesday evenings for an hour and a half, for students with questions, students who simply want extra practice, and students who need to make up missed quizzes. I had several students come in for office hours today. One did not understand part of what we discussed in her class last time: This, That, These and Those. What it boiled down to was a simple linguistics problem. The Russian letter that looks like a backwards N sounds like "eee" and it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as the letter "i". Because of this transliteration, words containing the letter "i" are often mispronounced (ex: the word "give" often ends up sounding like "geeev"; "him" "heeem" etc.) Conversely, words with the double-e are often misspelled (even the most advanced of our students often write "slip" when they mean "sleep"). Anyhow, in class, we discussed This v. That before moving on to These v. Those. My student had written "this" on her paper, but somehow neglected to write "these" (yes, I did write them on the board, and yes, these words are in her book, but this was one of my sickly students, so probably all pistons weren't firing...). Anyhow, when I began the discussion on These v. That, she simply assumed that when I said "These" I meant the word "this" which she had written on her paper. No wonder she was confused!
Students seem to really enjoy it when I bring real American things into class. I have had a lot of success with songs and with photographs. The AH is also full of various American items, collected over the years for use in class, including a set of ten Denny’s menus. Now, I like Denny’s and despite the fact that it's essentially an unhealthy grease-pit, I rather frequently find myself craving Denny’s fare. Looking at the full color photographs of Denny’s food featured in the menu definitely sets the mouth a-watering. These menus are also very different from the usual Russian menus, which are, in general, mere lists of foods and prices, sometimes with descriptions, sometimes without. Anyhow, I have decided that even though my VEMZ class is a business English class, they are going to learn about going to Denny’s. Well, okay... they are going to learn about going to restaurants in general, with Denny’s as the example. The way I see it, if they are ever traveling in the States on business, they may very well get asked out to dinner by a colleague, and are going to need to know what to do. Of course, as these students are at a very low level of English, I have to keep it simple. The grammar points I'm focusing on are "do you like" and "would you like to". I wrote up a nifty little dialog exercise, although once I finished, I realized it could make for a totally cheesy Denny’s commercial. What do you think? I think my VEMZ class is about to learn why so many Americans are so overweight.
1. Ed: Sarah, ________ you _______ to go to Denny’s after work?
Sarah: I _________ like to, but I have to work late.
2. Ed: Anne, ________ you want to go to Denny’s after work?
Anne: I don’t know. What type of food do they serve?
Ed: Everything! _______ you ______ eggs?
3. Anne: No, I _________. I ___________ like breakfast food.
Ed: ________ you ______ to eat hamburgers?
Anne: They have hamburgers? I ________ love to come!
4. Anne: Hey, Tom, _____ you _______ to come to Denny’s with us?
Tom: I ________ love to! Denny’s is my favorite restaurant.
5. Sue: Why ______ you want to go to Denny’s? I can’t stand that place!
Tom: Why ________ you like Denny’s?
Sue: I ________ like the food, because it is very greasy.
6. Tom: Well, I love greasy food! What kinds of food _____ you _____?
Sue: I ______ healthy food. I love salads.
Tom: ________ you like a Garden Chicken Salad?
Sue: Denny’s serves Garden Chicken Salads? I __________ love one!
Songs used in class so far this week: The World is Not Enough (hereinafter abbreviated as TWINE) by Garbage and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips.
TWINE did not work very well. My students did recognize that it came from a James Bond movie, which did lead to a very short discussion of the film (namely which JB film was it, did they see it and did they like it); however, as far as discussion of the lyrics or introduction into grammar it was not that great. The main problem was that there simply is not a coherent plot or storyline within the lyrics. I wanted to introduce "not enough," but how do you explain what the song *means* by "the world is not enough"?
I was disappointed in the reception of Yoshimi. This is another of my favorite songs and it is simply so weird! (Perhaps it was too weird??) It is sung slowly and clearly, and most of the words are familiar to the students (and the strange words and the meaning of the song are easily explained). The class seemed disinterested. Of course, this class contained my sickest students, so that might be one reason why no one got ecstatic over Yoshimi karate chopping some evil, man-eating robots. I do think it worked for introducing "those" though: "You won't let those robots eat me, Yoshimi..."
I have office hours on Wednesday evenings for an hour and a half, for students with questions, students who simply want extra practice, and students who need to make up missed quizzes. I had several students come in for office hours today. One did not understand part of what we discussed in her class last time: This, That, These and Those. What it boiled down to was a simple linguistics problem. The Russian letter that looks like a backwards N sounds like "eee" and it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as the letter "i". Because of this transliteration, words containing the letter "i" are often mispronounced (ex: the word "give" often ends up sounding like "geeev"; "him" "heeem" etc.) Conversely, words with the double-e are often misspelled (even the most advanced of our students often write "slip" when they mean "sleep"). Anyhow, in class, we discussed This v. That before moving on to These v. Those. My student had written "this" on her paper, but somehow neglected to write "these" (yes, I did write them on the board, and yes, these words are in her book, but this was one of my sickly students, so probably all pistons weren't firing...). Anyhow, when I began the discussion on These v. That, she simply assumed that when I said "These" I meant the word "this" which she had written on her paper. No wonder she was confused!
Students seem to really enjoy it when I bring real American things into class. I have had a lot of success with songs and with photographs. The AH is also full of various American items, collected over the years for use in class, including a set of ten Denny’s menus. Now, I like Denny’s and despite the fact that it's essentially an unhealthy grease-pit, I rather frequently find myself craving Denny’s fare. Looking at the full color photographs of Denny’s food featured in the menu definitely sets the mouth a-watering. These menus are also very different from the usual Russian menus, which are, in general, mere lists of foods and prices, sometimes with descriptions, sometimes without. Anyhow, I have decided that even though my VEMZ class is a business English class, they are going to learn about going to Denny’s. Well, okay... they are going to learn about going to restaurants in general, with Denny’s as the example. The way I see it, if they are ever traveling in the States on business, they may very well get asked out to dinner by a colleague, and are going to need to know what to do. Of course, as these students are at a very low level of English, I have to keep it simple. The grammar points I'm focusing on are "do you like" and "would you like to". I wrote up a nifty little dialog exercise, although once I finished, I realized it could make for a totally cheesy Denny’s commercial. What do you think? I think my VEMZ class is about to learn why so many Americans are so overweight.
1. Ed: Sarah, ________ you _______ to go to Denny’s after work?
Sarah: I _________ like to, but I have to work late.
2. Ed: Anne, ________ you want to go to Denny’s after work?
Anne: I don’t know. What type of food do they serve?
Ed: Everything! _______ you ______ eggs?
3. Anne: No, I _________. I ___________ like breakfast food.
Ed: ________ you ______ to eat hamburgers?
Anne: They have hamburgers? I ________ love to come!
4. Anne: Hey, Tom, _____ you _______ to come to Denny’s with us?
Tom: I ________ love to! Denny’s is my favorite restaurant.
5. Sue: Why ______ you want to go to Denny’s? I can’t stand that place!
Tom: Why ________ you like Denny’s?
Sue: I ________ like the food, because it is very greasy.
6. Tom: Well, I love greasy food! What kinds of food _____ you _____?
Sue: I ______ healthy food. I love salads.
Tom: ________ you like a Garden Chicken Salad?
Sue: Denny’s serves Garden Chicken Salads? I __________ love one!
Songs used in class so far this week: The World is Not Enough (hereinafter abbreviated as TWINE) by Garbage and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips.
TWINE did not work very well. My students did recognize that it came from a James Bond movie, which did lead to a very short discussion of the film (namely which JB film was it, did they see it and did they like it); however, as far as discussion of the lyrics or introduction into grammar it was not that great. The main problem was that there simply is not a coherent plot or storyline within the lyrics. I wanted to introduce "not enough," but how do you explain what the song *means* by "the world is not enough"?
I was disappointed in the reception of Yoshimi. This is another of my favorite songs and it is simply so weird! (Perhaps it was too weird??) It is sung slowly and clearly, and most of the words are familiar to the students (and the strange words and the meaning of the song are easily explained). The class seemed disinterested. Of course, this class contained my sickest students, so that might be one reason why no one got ecstatic over Yoshimi karate chopping some evil, man-eating robots. I do think it worked for introducing "those" though: "You won't let those robots eat me, Yoshimi..."
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