Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

It was a shock, but not really a surprise, when my FAO said I had to fill the next couple of days with extra oral lessons since the students had their exam dates pushed back.

Strapped for ideas since I used nearly every topic imaginable over this year, I decided to delay and not plan any lessons. 5 minutes before class starts I whip out an old adult lesson plan on colloquial expressions and run up to the copier room. I do the lesson and much to my surprise, it's the best one I've had all year.

The teens were really absorbed in the language, actively participating, having fun, laughing, taking down copious notes, and asking questions in class. To see any of the above is excellent, but it's usually quite rare for the students I teach.

In short we went over phrases such as: you know, actually, like, uh-huh, stuff like that, and also the Canadian eh. Using the lexical approach I gave context, collocations, and functions on how these expressions work. We then did some practice.

The next bit was to go over native-like pronunciation and how we condense phrases into single words and change their sound. A classic example is 'going to --> gonna' and 'want to --> wanna'.

Also, 'Do you want to see a movie' becomes 'Jawanasee a movie' 'What do you think about The Matrix' becomes "Whadayathink about The Matrix'

As there was more time to kill, I had about 10 phrases I got from a DVD and we collocated those. Almost all of them have the word 'it' in them, for example: It happens, It's a deal, That's it, Got it, It's alright, I'm loving it, and It's all good.

Related to this, I've seen colleagues who do DVD lessons and follow a similar format to extracting colloquial English from the context. Upon thinking about it, that's the kind of English that most native speakers use anyway.

Steve

[lozwich]

Yoink! One lesson idea successfully "borrowed" from struelle!

That sounds like a great idea!

My students are always fascinated when I occasionally slip in a "no worries" without even noticing. Its something we Aussies say after thanks, and a couple of other uses, and my students think its the wackiest thing they've ever heard!

I generally find that they like colloquial expressions, and knowing the different words for things in the various 'Englishes' more than the rest of the grammar and nuts and bolts of the language. Like you say, its more authentic, and I think they appreciate that.

Have a great day!
Lozwich.

[gtidey]

definitley, (you dont understand how long i spent trying to work out how to spell that.i gave up.) people talk about "book french, book spanish" etc, but i dont think theres any language where there are so many contractions and slang. the only tricky thing is that there are sooo many colloquialisms that you couldnt possibly cover them all.

i keep thinking that it would be a good idea to do one off coc'kney, geordie, brummy, etc lessons if the chance was there. im sure those would be fun lessons.

[mihabarboric]

I definitely agree with you. When I was still in high school we were using Headway books and one of the lessons included various native speakers reading short descriptions of their hometowns. After ten years I still remember the Irish guy talking about 'Liffey water'. On the other hand some students found it rather frustrating, as they had problems understanding speakers using RP.

[Ludwig]

[phillipmccavety]

"Classic Example" is just about right......"can of worms" is waaaay off the mark.
Every practitioner of truncated pronunciation automatically knows the difference between the convoluted examples supplied by our Germane Teacher, Ludo.(are there many Germanes in HongKong?)
As Struelle posted, "wanna" and "gonna" were a mere fraction of what he was talking about.
I think that teaching slang and/or colloquial language is important. I speak slowly and correctly in class, but I occasionally slip up and throw in the odd expression. Then I have to explain myself. It's not hard to explain. I usually use the KISS principle...Keep It Simple,Stupid.
AVEAGOODWEEGEND, everybody.........Now, THAT'S germane!!

[Ludwig]

[kimo]

[Ludwig]

[worth]

nevermind

[lajzar]

[johnslat]

Dear lajzar,
I suppose it could mean:

Somebody has to invite Mary. Who do YOU want to invite Mary to the party.

But then, of course, the "wanna" would be inappropriate, for the same reason it would be in Number 3.
Regards,
John

[FGT]

Thank you Johnslat. I hadn't noticed it before, but, as always, you are right.

Reminds me of the clothes label "Gob London", I've always wondered how you do that. (In UK slang "gob" is something like expectorate, as in "Totti got suspended for gobbing")

[lajzar]

[leeroy]

Anyway...

I suspect students respond to colloquial English as it represents a side of the language which is relatively well interwound with culture, social status and other aspects of social identity. This has its good and bad points...

In London, I might enunciate

"I have three brothers" as

"I 'av free bruvvaz".

Here, I'm not only conveying the factual information (family statistics, I suppose) - I'm also saying "Here is where I am from" and "This is the social class that I belong to".

When I say "Alright geezer!", I am saying "Hello" but implying a lot more about the backgrounds of and relationship between myself and the recipient. Here is where the line blurs between linguistics, culture and identity. Is it ever appropriate for a Chinese guy in London to say "Alright geezer"?

In any case, colloquial language is often very regional, class and gender specific. Learning it requires a lot of this kind of background knowledge - I can see how for students this is more interesting than (say) doing the gap-fill on p.57. In real life, I use colloquial English far more than the various forms of "Standard English" taught in text books. Students (especially ones in London) understand this - they know there is a gap between the Real English heard on buses and the sterilised, watered down version provided in the class.