Archive for the ‘TEFL’ Category

Hi Bruce, welcome back to TEFLtastic. It’s a shame we never get anyone from TEFL International contributing to TEFL.net when it isn’t connected to teacher training. Let me know if any of your trainers are interested in writing book reviews or articles for us.

I am certain that can be arranged!

For Part Three, I’d like to do an update on what has changed in TEFL International and in the TEFL world more generally since your last comment in Interview Part Two on 28 July this year. I haven’t been following all the various stories very closely, so apologies if you have to repeat some things you’ve said many times elsewhere but I guess most people reading are in the same situation as me. I’ll ask for your comments on things I’ve heard, and then give you a chance to mention other things. 

OK

There are some reports of trouble with the immigration police connected to a TEFL International course in China- any information or comments?

I heard it all second hand but this is what I know.  In April 2008 the visa laws in China changed leading up to the Olympics.  Some people got caught in the cracks, the Course Administrator really failed (failed might be too strong of a term as it was a difficult if not impossible situation) and the police closed down the school.

I was unhappy with the way the CA handled things and I relieved him of his duties.  I immediately resolved the situation and we began offering legal courses the following month.

I have publicly posted on several websites about this situation and asked that if anyone feels they were cheated in some way that they should contact me directly or contact the BBB.

Can’t you just contact the course participants directly through their contact details and offer everyone a refund or whatever?

The accusation was not about one specific course.  (more…)

I’ve been very busy deep in the dark chaotic depths of the TEFLtastic Worksheets pages, and have also found time for a few of the usual articles. If useful stuff that makes your life easier is not your thing, will be back to the usual trivia here on the main page soon…

Articles

15 ways to start an adult lesson

15 ways to finish a preschool English lesson

15 more ways to boost your teaching confidence (as promised- not often I actually write something I planned to…)

Worksheets and lesson plans

A much expanded Market Leader worksheets and lesson plans page

Business Past Continuous and Personality Accusations game (THE classic Past Continuous game- not my original idea, but don’t know any other online or Business English versions)

Business English Needs Analysis ranking task

Crime Vocabulary storytelling game

Complaints roleplays

Pingu Will for predictions video worksheet 1 (3 more available on the Video Worksheets page, but can’t be bothered giving each link)

Passives guess the country game

Active/ Passive True/ False quiz

Trends and conditionals discussion and grammar presentation

Rules and regulations pictionary (mainly passive forms)

Second conditional chain writing (consequences) game

Passives disasters storytelling

Second conditional supernatural error correction and discussion

Supernatural modals of possibility discussion

Special occasions reported speech cultural differences guessing game and discussion

Talking of TEFL jargon (as I was two posts ago, the brief aside in between is apparently technically called an “insertion sequence”, fnaah fnaah), am I the only one to notice that since Scott Thornbury wrote “An A to Z of ELT” his other books have suddenly become full of more jargon than you can shake a dictionary at? Has he discovered a marketing method that is even better than the recent tendancy of textbooks to “just happen to mention” graded readers and dictionaries from the same publisher?

I’m presently enjoying the feast of jargon that is Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy, a book you can read a surprisingly large amount of by clicking on the top link on this Google search page.

“I sweated blood over my master’s degree, and now here I am lumped together with all those youngsters who don’t even know what a preposition is” (more…)

adjacency pairs- the strange connection between students being sat beside each other in the first lesson and forming couples

back channelling- TEFL euphemism for shirt lifting

boundary marker-use of textbooks to stake out territory on a desk

caretaker talk- (more…)

“Sole Mates” from “The Grammar Activity Book”

Tie words that go together (such as collocations) to different students’ shoelaces. They then walk around putting their feet next to each other to try to match them up. If they make an incorrect pair, they have to take off their shoes and put them in the “lost soles” pile until (at that point I stopped reading…) Also useable (?) for dependant prepositions, verb patterns etc.

This was by far the nuttiest idea in the book, but certainly not the only one that made me go “What??” On the positive side, there are few ideas in the book that you would have seen anywhere else. On the negative side, there are at times very good reasons why no one had written those ideas down…

Continuing my occasional series (as occasional as reality coming into TEFL theory):

“…it is relatively rare for language teachers to negotiate overall learning goals with their classes at the beginning of courses in an open, direct manner. However… it is commonplace for language teachers to adjust their lesson goals in accordance with student needs in a subtle, ongoing way.”

The Experience of Language Teaching pg 164

Thank the Lord (and Lady Rose M Senior of TEFL) for this book, which is turning out to be more readable than the “popular” linguistics book “Lost for Words” by John Humphreys. 

The question that a whole book of TEFL reality checks has posed to me more than any other is, why does the DELTA take none of this reality of what good teachers do into account? Understood with the CELTA as it’s all about basics, but if most experienced teachers don’t stick to lesson plans and rely on instinct, how is one supposed to put that on a Diploma lesson plan?? And looking at it another way, what is the chance of them saying “Yes, your impeccably planned lesson to produce self motivated learners was fine in theory, but if you were a really experienced teacher you just would’ve been slipping that in as the best times came up”?

Backwards dialogues

Students write a dialogue and then read it out starting with the last line, then the second to last line and last line, then the last three lines etc- working their way towards the beginning of the dialogue until the other students in the class guess what the situation of the conversation is, e.g. who the telephone conversation is between or which kind of shop it is taking place in.

 ”Borrowed” from Clockwise Upper Intermediate Teacher’s Resource Pack, where it is explained much more clearly than this. Not much else to recommend that book (although the textbook is okay and the lower level teacher’s resource packs seem better), so keep reading here instead as I rip off every book in my new teacher’s room library and write up all the highlights here.

Common differences in words that are the similar in Japanese and Korean

-tsu in Japanese is often -r in Korean, especially at the end of a word
chilmun = 質問 - shitsumon = question
yokshiri = 浴室 - yokushitsu = bathroom
susul = 手術 - shujutsu = operation (medical)
chumal = 週末 - shumatsu = weekend

A Japanese –ku has a very quiet vowel sound, and almost sounds like the –k that it is usually written as in Korean
set’akki = 洗濯機 - sentakuki = washing machine
sukpak= 宿泊 - shukuhaku= accommodation
yaksok = 約束- yakusoku = promise/appointment
toch’ak =到着- touchaku = arrival

Korean does not have lengthened vowels (written in Japanese as the vowel repeated, u after an o, or a dash)
kosok bosu = 高速バス - kousoku basu = long distance bus
chusa = 注射 - chuusha = injection
muryo = 無料 - muryou = free (no charge)
magarin = マーガリン - maagarin = margarine (pronounced in Japanese and Korean with a hard g)
chumun = 注文 - chuumon = order (in a restaurant)
chuch’a = 駐車 - chuusha = parking
toch’ak =到着- touchaku = arrival

Korean uses the pronunciation from Chinese for a single word when in Japanese that pronunciation is only used in compounds
hae = 日 - hi = sun (in Japanese, usually 太陽 - “taiyo”)
mal = 馬 - ma = horse (as a separate word rather than as part of a compound, the Japanese usually say “uma”)
yaku = 薬 - yaku = drugs/ medicines (except when used in compounds, Japanese usually pronounce that kanji “kusuri”)
san = 山 - san = mountain (as in Fuji-san, as a single word in Japanese it is pronounced “yama”)

Korean does not have sha, shu and sho sounds (only shi)
suri = 修理 - shuuri = repairs
kasu = 歌手 - kashu = singer
sajin = 写真 - shashin = photo
soryu = 書類 - shorui = documents

An initial h- or f- sound in Japanese is often p- or b- in Korean (even though Korean has initial h words)
ban = 半 - han = half
piso = 秘書 - hisho = secretary
pibu = 皮膚 - hifu = skin
p’yojune = 標準 - hyoujun = standard
pando = 半島 - hantou = peninsular (literally- half island)
podo = 歩道 - hodou = footpath
t’aep’ung = 台風 - taihuu = typhoon

t and d are often switched
toro = 道路 - douro = road
sokto = 速度 - sokudo = speed

b and p are often switched
shinbu = 新婦 - shinpu = bride

20. Put them through brain surgery and cut the nerves involved in translation

19. Put them through brain surgery and cut out the part of the brain used in speaking L1

18. Apply an electric shock every time they translate

17. Shout at them, and preferably make them cry, every time they translate

16. Make them ashamed of their own language

Or alternatively, try one of the 15 more sensible tips I have saved for the more sensible parts of TEFL.net:

15 ways to stop students translating