centerof-ricefield

To the second year students

2005-08-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

Now I have finished English Teaching Methodologies 2 and 3. I wrote about my reflection, so I am glad if you refer to this.
First, we mainly studied some second language acquisition in English Teaching Methodologies 2. We used a textbook called Second Language Acquisition. The book was very difficult for me. You may not be able to understand all. But I think it's OK. I think the important thing is to understand outline. To do so, you will have to read the textbook before class.
You will teach English to elementary school students (Nakano Elementary School) again. You must know about this because you have finished English Teaching Methodologies 1. I think you had better have new ideas about lesson, for example games. If you have good ideas, please try them!
Second, we studied English Teaching methodologies and communicated with classmates and current teachers through our blogs. Also, we taught English to foreign people who don't speak English. We did them in English Teaching Methodologies 3. We often used blogs in this semester. Each member had a blog and commented each other. It was very useful because I could know many other's opinion. So you had better comment on other's blog as many as you can.
Finally, the classes were very meaningful for me. I want you to make good use of the class. If you have a question, please ask me. I hope you will do your best. Good luck!!!!

Team KMKM's Lesson

2005-07-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

☆Good points
Team KMKM's pictures were good and efficient. For example, KMKM members drew a map when they introduced where they were from. It was easy to understand the place. Also, they drew Disney pictures when they did short play. They played each role of characters very well, so the students would be interested in their lesson.
Team KMKM said the purpose of today's class first. Therefore the students must have had preparation for the class.
practicing numbers was good. First, all the students practiced numbers. Second, they practiced them more quickly. Third, each of students practiced them for theirselves. Many patterns of practice are very good because the students are not bored with practice.
"Interview" activity was really fun. It was a communicative activity.
The most interesting thing was "consolidation". Check test was not about writing but about listening. Through the lesson, Team KMKM did many activities, speaking, writing, listening and reading. So I learned a lot of things from their lesson.

☆Things could have been better
They could speak more slowly when they practiced numbers. If they speak more slowly, students can be easy to understand numbers.
Students should repeat the phone number after they interviewed the other persons. If they do this, they can confirm what the other person said.

Anyway, I enjoyed their lesson very much. Thanks, Team KMKM!

Team Y's Lesson

2005-07-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

Good points
All of team Y's members spoke loudly, clearly and cheerfully. It is good for the students to understand easily.
One of good points is warm-up. They used phrases which the students could understand, for example, "Nice to meet you". In addition, they used phrases which the students were going to learn in the class, "This is my friend Å`". So, the students must have guessed what they learn today's lesson.
The students practiced reading sentences in textbook after they learned meaning of new words. It was good because the students would practice the sentences while they understood them.
They used "Mimi-cry" when the students practiced the sentences. "Mimi-cry" was one of good ideas for practicing.

Things could have been better
Team Y asked the students the meaning of new words first. We knew the meaning, but students in junior high school will learn it for the first time. So I think they cannot answer the questions.
I think Team Y had better emphasize the difference between "He is Å`" and "She is Å`" because a student did not seem understand it clearly. TeamY can call on students (a boy and a girl), and can show the example, "He is Å`" and "she is Å`". It is my suggestion, but I think it is difficult to teach the difference..

Key Points For Teaching Grammar

2005-06-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

1. Key points for teaching grammar
I think "Key Point 6:Free situations are important" is useful for students. Teachers tend to teach grammar one-sidedly, and students tend to learn grammar passively. But students will be able to learn grammar actively and spontaneously in free situation. So, I feel free situation is important.
On the other hand, I think "Beehive" is not useful so much. Even if all students in classroom work at the same time, not all the students understand the grammar and do the activity.

2. Ideas for introducing new grammar
I think real things and real information are useful. Through using real things and real information, students can understand easily. Also, students will be interesting in new grammar.
I think "Use dolls" is effective for elementary school students, but not effective for junior high school students. Some junior high school students are shy, so they may feel strange the introduction.

3. Ideas for practicing new grammar
I think "conversion" is effective. Students can practice both affirmative sentences and interrogative sentences. This idea is useful and efficient.

4. Ideas for communicative activities
I think "Matching game" is useful. Students use communicative phrases, for example, "How about you?" "Let's go together." So, I think it is a good communicative activity for students.
"Questionnaire" is good, but it is like one-sided. A student only ask a question and the other student only answer the question. I think it is not communication.

Team DHC2's Lesson

2005-06-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed Team DHC2's lesson. There were many good things.
First, they spoke loudly and clearly. Also, they spoke slowly and emphasize the point of the lesson. So I think it made the students easy to understand.
Second, short play was good. They used real things. Their expression and gesture was great! Therefore, the students concentrated on them and were interested in the new material.
Third, they hardly spoke Japanese. I think using only English is difficult, but the students (especially the guest students) seemed to understand what to do.
The thing which could have been was practice. They repeted "Do you 〜？" over and over again. Repetition is important, but it was too long. So the students might have been tired. I think they could do more activities which the students can practice on their own.
Anyway, I think all the students enjoyed their lesson in a relaxed atmosphere. Thank you!!

Team A's Lesson

2005-06-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

I am a member of Team A.
First, good point was warm-up. We tried to use phrases which the students learned in the last class. So, I think the students could understand easily.
Second, good point was introduction. We did short play again and again because we wanted the students to guess the difference between "This is 〜." and "That is 〜."
On the other hand, our lesson had things could have been better.
We introduced how to use "This is a 〜." and "That is a 〜.". But it was not meaningful, because the students will not use them in their real life. So we should introduce more communicative use. For example, "This is my friend, 〜." and "That is our classroom."
Anyway, I learned a lot of things from our lesson. So I hope to improve my teaching skills gradually through the class.

Team T's Lesson

2005-06-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

All members of Team T spoke loudly, clearly and cheerfully. There was a good atmosphere in classroom, so the student would relax and enjoy learning English.
Repitition is one of the good points. Team T didn't repeat pronunciation with students. After Team T pronounced, the student pronounced individually. Team T showed a gesture to have the student pronounce.
I think conclusion was good to check student's comprehension.

Team T had better do role play more slowly because the student sometimes couldn't understand what Team T said.
Team T used both English and Japanese. It was good, but too many times. So the student might have confused a little. I think Team T had better consider balance and timing of using Japanese.
I think Team T's lesson was very good, but I felt there were too many things which students should learn the day. It may be good to lessen contents which students should learn.

Junior High School Grammar

2005-05-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

助動詞(can) was easiest for me to understand because the main verb don't need to change. The verb almost change because of tense and the third person, but the auxiliary verb do not change because of them. So it was easiest to understand as a student.
不定詞 was most difficult for me to understand. 不定詞 has many 用法, for example, 名詞的用法, 形容詞的用法，副詞的用法. I could not understand the differences of the uses when I was a student.
As a teacher, I will teach 規則動詞の過去形 with confidence. The regular verb has a rule when it was changed into the past tense. Based on the rule, I will teach it with confidence.
As a teacher, 不定詞 will be difficult for me. I understand 不定詞 vaguely but don't understand theoretically. If a teacher don't understand 不定詞 completely, he or she can't teach 疑問詞＋不定詞(how＋to). So I think teachers have to have much knowledge of English grammar to teach with confidence.

Reflection on Sniffle's Lesson

2005-05-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

☆What I particularly liked about Sniffle' lesson
First good point is repetition. They repeted number over and over again when they taught number to the students. It is good for the students because they could confirm how to pronounce and how to count numbers.
Second is using pictures. They used pictures (humburger, juice, money) when they demonstrated how to order. The pictures were visiable, so the students would understand easily.
Third is increasing students' speaking speed. Sniffle pointed at numbers and the students read out. They enjoyed and concentrated on reading out the number.
☆A few things that they might try doing differently in the future
They could more use the dialogue. I think Sniffle's lesson is very good for teaching number but I don't think they can use number in real situation. So, they could use role playing.
I think they could emphasize differense between thirteen and thirty, fourteen and forty, fifteen and fifty. Their pronunciations are different. If Sniffle pronounce them more slowly, the students will be able to understand the differenses.
They could use more examples. They used the plural form. "One pen. Two pens. One book. Two books." It was good but the students may not completely understand the plural form, because there are not examples " three, four, five...". So they could use more examples.

Working with Input

2005-05-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

Which points of this lesson did you agree with or find helpful and why?
Which points of this lesson did you disagree with or did not find helpful and why?

I agree with 3points.
First is to talk about familiar topics. It is helpful when using new vocabulary. Learners will be able to relate those topics and learn more vocabularies by talking about familiar topics.
Second are pictures and charts. They are useful. Gestures are also useful. I think it is hard for learners to understand just listening to new vocabulary. Pictures, charts and gestures are very effective because they are visiable. They make learners easy to understand.
Third are translations. I think they are helpful because learners can easily understand the meanings of new words by translations. But important thing is balance. Under use is not so good but niether is overuse. Learners may not have the power of guess by overuse.

I disagree with traditional vocabulary learning. It is efficient, but it is easy to forget. In addition, it is redundant, so learners will be bored the learning. Learners will not learn actively without interesting, so I don't think traditional vocabulary learning is helpful.

First Spanish class

2005-05-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

(1)
At first, it was hard to understand what the teacher said because I had never heard Spanish before. I gradually understood what he said, but only words. The teacher wrote his family members' names on a blackboard, so it made me easy to understand. The teacher spoke a word again and again, and spoke slowly. Moreover, we pronounced Spanish words after the teacher pronounced. I could easily remember them by pronouncing.

(2)
I learned some new words about family. For example, Padre, Madre, hijo and so on. I hardly learned new grammar in Spanish. "Mi padre es ~." "Mi madre es ~." I learned only this grammar.

(3)
I thought about my school days. When I began to study English in junior high school, I had hopes and fears. I was very nervous in Spanish class at first, but I gradually enjoyed the class. I think enjoyment is very essential for learners. If learners enloy learning foreign language, they will want to learn more and more, so first class is important.

Questions to current English teachers

2005-04-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Question1
I think it is difficult to teach foreign language. What are difficult things when you teach English?

Question2
What do you care about when you teach English to the students?

Question3
I think teachers should keep studying Englsh to teach the students it. How do you study Englsh as a teacher?

My ideal teacher

2005-04-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

My favorite English teacher was Ms. Ishizuka. She was my English teacher when I was a junior high school student. She could speak English and Korean fluently, and she married Korean. So she used to talk about American and Korean cultures. In Japan, English teachers mainly teach grammar, but she strongly taught speaking to us. Her class was very interesting for me, so she was my favorite English teacher. she said that it is important to try to communicate with other people even if you can't speak English well. I can't forget this words.
As a teacher, my greatest strength will be observasion. I think I'm observant, so I will be able to look around each of students and teach them personally. In addition, I can speak loudly and clearly, so I think students can easily understand what I said.
As a teacher, my greatest weakness will be the lack of knowledge. I don't have enough knowledge about various things. If I have a lot of knowledge, I can teach many things to the students. So I want to have many experiences and a lot of knowledge.