Sunday, January 20, 2008
Possible compromise
I've been thinking, perhaps I could let Nina and Anton have copies of the text from the beginning, and I can read it to them (no point at all in getting them to read a new, meaningless text) , get across the meaning, and then get them to turn the texts over, face down, and we can go oral and do some productive practice.
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11 comments:
Dennis, this "second time's the charm" approach to blogging re zero English teaching will be fun. Hope your students stay.
You didn't say what first language, and I think that might impact the compromise you're thinking of. In general though, I think that your reading to them while they follow along with their finger sliding along under the words should be a success. Among my students are Arabic speakers who have some fluency in spoken English but are deeply in trouble with reading. I'm trying the read-aloud, listen to someone else etc approach. One fellow can even read and pronounce what he's reading but he gets nowhere with silent reading. I'm thinking that he, unless he hears himself, he can't get it. Rosemary
Oops. Could you take out that "he" in front of the can't!
Thought of something else while I was clicking. Having a book adds authenticity and a good feeling to being a learner, I think. And, you could record what you're reading so that they could read along at home. Just be sure it's what we call in the US among non-ESL teachers - expressive reading (use of sentence stress to convey meaning). I know I'm preaching to the choir, but your blog is going to go out to the world. Thanks again for inviting us in.
Dear Dennis,
I'll follow with interest your new blogging adventures. This is an exciting one! You could post some videos here and ask them very basic questions. They could reply in the comment area. There are so many ideas for this space and I'm eager to know what you'll be doing.
Beijos.
I found it!
Rosemary. Thanks for commenting. Nina is Russian, but speaks fluent German. Anton is German and has a few words and phrases of English. I've just been to dinner with the two of them, and others, and Nina told us that Anton makes her practice the days of th week etc. as soon as she gets up. He is trying to improve her pronunciation.
Rosemary. Feel free to make comments at any level or from whatever angle occurs to you. As you point out, I've made this blog common property. Everything except spam, flaming and advertising goes.
Carla,
Delighted to read you here. I don't think Nina and Anton are very energetically online, but you do remind me to think outside the box and be adventurous. Read you around.
(See you around).
Nina. Great to read you here. Extra points for finding me!
Hi, I've been reading you through dogme and i've just found this Take2 blog. i'm so glad to read your so very open thoughts about your teaching... and it's funny to picture your classes. i teach small children up to the ages of 10. And I always (its like a rule)give them sound first, and written word/text later. most of them have the same reaction as your student Nina. They WANT to see the words. they're always asking me to 'write it on the board'. They stop asking for it when context becomes clear enough. And quite often, this happens only through chanting, role-playing and uncomplicated use of realia. Is it that different for grown-ups? Of course my Ss first language is portuguese, not german, and portuguese has totally diferent sounds for letters, and a very strange intonation for starters..
Rosemary, Thanks for your comments. I don't think I can edit them, which is just as well, I think. It would be bad if a blog owner could doctor comments!
Ani ?
Blogger is being lazy and is not informing me when people comment. I must check my RSS feed. Nina was alone this week and I think she begins to see the sense of training her ears first, and getting the text at the end as a reward!
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