Job Discussion Forums

[MersiNYC]

there?? would love some input:

http://www.globaltefl.net/summer/summer05.html

It is my first time teaching EFL in a foreign school.

The programs are 3 and 4 weeks. Any suggestions on outlines for what to teach in such a short period of time? I'm a little nervous.

They want conversational and spoken English with games and such. It is supposed to be "fun" at a camp.

Any suggestions and or input is appreciated-- please post or email me at:

[email protected]

Also, if anyone is going would love to chat about it.

[kev7161]

Make sure you check my response to your other thread over in China Off Topic. Formerly known as HelenChinaTEFL (or maybe it's just another co-company to throw people off the scent), this is one organization you should run away from as fast as you can. I sent you a personal email stating this, but I have made this my mission while I'm in China to warn as many people as possible away from this group. Unorganized and undisciplined, only fools rush in.

[ahopfe]

Summer English Camps can be fun but they can also be alot of work.

I was at a Summer School last Summer and we had to produce a Shakesphere play with the students , Very Rewarding but a lot of work

My students had OK English but they were 13-14 years old.


Best of luck


Anthony

[MersiNYC]

Sounds great so far. What do I bring with me, and what should I teach.

I hear they like games. Suggestions? Conversational and Listening games mostly...if you have some good ones...

either post them or email?

[email protected]

[laodeng]

A most difficult and potentially discouraging way to start your China experience . . .

[naturegirl321]

6 to 7 hours a day of teaching is a lot, especially with teens, don't forget you have to do lesson plans as well.
There have got to be better English summer camps, anyone know of some?

[woza17]

The above posters are right. I have done 5 camps so far and am on to my 6th next week. It is a long time to spend each day with the students so games that drill the language are a must. At the moment I am putting together teaching material for the camp next week. Fun, is the operative word at these camps. Most important is get the kids to do the work, involve them. I think it's a bit difficult over this forum to workshop ideas to their fullest.
Last summer camp my TA did a Shakespeare play with the kids I did the Wizard of Oz, his was brilliant, he really got it out of the kids, mine I thought was a bit trite in comparison. I learnt to never underestimate the children.
Go and search on the internet there are some really great ideas. One of the best games I found was the flyswatter game on Daves cookbook. It is an absolute winner and it's so adaptable to every level.
Cheers

[cflan]

Hi, I have to chime in to agree with Kevin about GLobalTEFL. They did in deed change their name this year. I also worked for them in the Summer 2004 program, at the Quzhou & Hangzhou camps. My servies were hired out to yet another agency (in Quzhou) which did NOT abide by the agreement that I'd signed with HelenTEFL (huge classes of 60+ students & the school provided meals although most of the teachers had requested the meal allowance). I found the upper management (John Zhou) to be completely unresponsive to all requents for adjustments.
Additionally, he had promised that he would be able to change money for teachers & this proved untrue. (To be fair, I have to mention that some teachers reported having marvelous times: great hotel facilities, light teaching loads, etc)

--chris

[ola_zajac]

Cflan you frightened me! I applied to teach on GLobalTEFL Summer Camp
and was accepted. can you give me more details? What is Ok about them and what sucks?

[ChinaMovieMagic]

I'm now in Guizhou, w/my friends at www.unknownchina.com
We're planning on developing--with a licensed school --a Summer Camp bringing together
*foreign kids
*foreign backpackers
*foreign teachers of English
*foreign students of Chinese
*Chinese kids

...to SHARE EXPERIENCES while traveling thru Guizhou and/or JiuZhaiGou..while doing (Mulan etc.)movie-based Role Plays in Minority Villages...

China's kids deserve better than what they're getting
in Summer Camp. It pains my heart to see little kids with nervous twitches.

For more INFO, PM me.
-----------------------------------------------------

MOVIE MAGIC--A LEARNING COMMUNITY
for Learners of English
for Learners of Mandarin


WATCH/SEE & HEAR/LISTEN brief movie segments

DESCRIBE/HEAR others describing the movie scenes

ROLE PLAY movie scenes

DISCUSS movie scenes

REMEMBER the experience

LISTEN later to audio tapes of discussions/role plays
======================================================
(Community Language Learning practices will be an
element in the Movie Magic experience.
See http://www.nknu.edu.tw/~eng/etweb/meth-cll-1.htm)

In Stage I, the maximum security state, each learner
expresses what he wants to say in the native language
with the teacher's help of translating it into he
target language in chucks. He then says the sentence to
the other students, knowing the teacher is available
for assistance. These chunks are recorded, and when
they are played, it sounds like a fluid conversation.
Later, a transcript consists of the conversation, and
mother tongue equivalents are written beneath the
target language words. This transcript becomes a "text"
for the class use.

Basically, the activities of Stage II and III are like
those of Stage I. They repeat similar steps again and
again by talking to each other and directly to the
class with the teacher's assistance all the time.

At Stage IV learners are now able to speak freely in
the second language. Because learners feel more
confident in the group and in the second language, the
teacher feels free to make corrections in or
pronunciation and grammar to help them with complex
structures, but corrections only happen when the
students show the needs.

At Stage V the teacher intervenes to correct errors and
to add idioms and more native-like constructions, but
only when the learners feel comfortable with the target
languag--both psychologically and linguistically.

Members ROLE PLAY scenes, based upon the movie as well
as based upon one's own creativity.


Movie Magic Summer Camp: Key Principles

*Second language acquisition occurs when
comprehensible input is delivered in a low-anxiety
situation, when real messages of real interest are
transmitted and understood.
(Krashen)

*It has become evident to many teachers of ESL
students that most of the available texts and
materials are based on artificial sequencing of
grammatical structures and stilted, often irrelevant,
dialogues and topics.
(Rodriguez and White)


Key Elements

*high ratio of native/advanced English speakers to
English learners

*a bilingual Mandarin-English environment--bringing
together Chinese interested in improving their
English, as well as foreigners

*a variety of activities available for the
participants
(1)free conversation
(2)viewing/discussion of movie/movie segment
(3)discussion of movie reviews
(4)movie-based role plays
(5)a wide range of other activities--Theatre Games,
discussion topics, public speaking training, Karaoke
singing


One difficulty with English conversation
centers/corners is that the unstructured dynamic
frequently loses focus. The members and conversation
partners often experience the awkward feeling of a
first date--trying to think of things to say, having
uncomfortable periods of silence, wishing they were
somewhere else.

DVD movies will be an essential
element for this project.
All members will share the
experience of viewing the film, so conversation will
have a common focus. In addition, we can offer:
*a wide range of movie reviews for each
movie--promoting vocabulary development/critical
thinking/active discussions
(available at www.imdb.com)
*movie scripts
(available at www.script-o-rama.com)

Over the years, L2 teachers have developed a wide
range of communicative techniques based upon the
creative use of movie segments, such as:

VIEWING COMPREHENSION (with sound off)
DIALOGUE BUILDING (with sound off)
AURAL ONLY PREDICTION (with sound only)
PREDICTIVE VIEWING--What will happen?
REVERSE PREDICTION--What happened before the sequence
seen?
JIGSAW VIEWING (Only half the viewers see the
sequence, and they relate it to those who haven't.
Replay it to compare.)

Such approaches can create an enhanced learning
environment, in harmony with Krashen's principles:
*A RICH VARIETY OF COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT
*A LOW-ANXIETY SITUATION
*REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST

A short (1 to 3 minutes) close-captioned (if
available) descriptive video (if available)movie
segment offers the learner a synergistic schemata of
opportunities for comprehensible INPUT. The visual
images themselves are comprehensible and are stored
in the students' memories as EXPERIENCES, rather than as a language lesson that must be "studied/learned" because the teacher will test the students for their ability to "remember" the lesson. A schematic tapestry of English words becomes associated with the movie's images and emotions. Plot, character, emotion--these are the 'hooks' by which the language becomes comprehensible input and stored intake. This dynamic is quite different from the artificial approaches typically used--vocabulary lists, linear progressions in grammar complexity etc.)

To use another metaphor, the memories of the movie
segment can be seen as gravitational schemata which
can attract and retain words associated with the
images. As the learner thinks of a scene, an
ever-expanding constellation of words and sentences
can become linked in the memory with a pleasant
(LOW-ANXIETY) experience, rich with REAL MESSAGES OF
REAL INTEREST. As the learner thinks of one character,
a tremendous variety of adjectives and actions can
become part of the schemata.

This is in harmony with the episode hypothesis, which states that "text (i.e. discourse in any form) will be easier to produce, understand, and recall to the extent that it is motivated and structured
episodically...these ideas lead to the supposition
that perhaps second language teaching would be more
successful if it incorporated principles of good story writing along with the benefits of sound linguistic analysis."
(Oller)

In addition to discussion of the movies, Members and
Dialogue Partners will also be active in role play
based upon the movie segments. In Why Drama Works: A
Psycholinguistic, Susan Stern at UCLA brings together a wide range of research relating to the power of role play for creating an enjoyable and effective second language environment:

*MOTIVATION "The purposefulness of dramatic activity
can provide a strong instrumental motivation for
language learning...Moulding emphasized that drama
provides the context for a meaningful exchange in
which participants see a reason to communicate, and
focuses on 'how to do things' with the language rather than on merely 'how to describe things.' Malley and Duff explained that language teaching has tended to kill motivation by divorcing the intellectual aspects of language (vocabulary + structures) from its body and emotions, limiting instruction to the former.
Dramatic techniques restore the body and emotions to
language learning, thereby restoring emotion."

*SELF-ESTEEM "An analogy between acting and martial
arts suggested by Via explains one way in which drama helps self-confidence. Just as a yell accompanies the strike in order to build the confidence and increase the energy of the attacker, so a strong and clear voice (necessary when performing) gives the language learner confidence. Drama also raises self-esteem by demonstrating to L2 learners that they are indeed capable of expressing themselves in realistic communicative settings."

*SENSITIVITY TO REJECTION "L2 learnwers who are afraid of what others may think of their less-than-perfect comand of the language will be inhibited in using it. This is especially true of adults. Several educators have found that drama creates a
non-threatening situation which can reduce and even
eliminate sensitivity to rejection."

*EMPATHY 'Guiora explains that emphathic capacity is
dependent upon the ability to partially and
temporarily suspend the functions that maintain one's separateness from others (usually called ego
boundaries)...Guiora et al. hypothesize that ability
to approximate native-like pronunciation in a second
language is related to the flexibility or permeability of one's ego boundaries.

*SPONTANEITY "Mann explains that persons in the
spontaneous state completely forget the existence of
the audience or cease to be completely about its
reactions...'In varying degrees the person in such a
state acts as though inspired. He draws on resources
which neither he nor his friends may have thought he had at his disposal.' If this state can be induced in L2 learners via drama, the usual gap between thought and statement which ceases to exist in the native language might cease to exist in the second language as well."

=====================================================

CHARACTERISTICS of a COMMUNITY

Sense of Shared Purpose
Respect for Differences
Agreement on Core Values
Acceptance
Participation
Trust
Communication
Collaboration
Commitment
Reciprocity
Conscious Choice
Accountability
Shared Responsibility
Efficacy
Equity
Perceived Skill
Openness
Cohesion

(The Center for the Study of Community in Santa Fe, New
Mexico
======================================================
"Communities are places or entities
where each member can give something,
where they can contribute something
that they feel especially able to give,
something that they are good at.
The gift from each member
is valued by the whole community
and all gifts are unique and individual.
The gift that community gives back to each member
is that of a role and a connection."

Ed Margarson
===================================================
Collaborative Learning Communities - the whole of these
parts - combines each of the individual elements listed
above into a vital, flourishing, and thriving living
system. Every living system in nature has the following
dynamics constantly at work to help it become a
continually growing and renewing system:


-interdependence of members
-nourishing relationships
-structure and pattern
-sustainability through feedback loops and recycling of
materials
-energy flow and cycles
-partnership, co-evolution and co-learning
-diversity through a variety of relationships and/or
approaches
-flexibility and permeable boundaries, as well as
-networks that are self-organizing, self-renewing.

What if we organized schools around these ecological
dynamics? Everything from teaching and learning in the
classroom to relationships with the community to
professional development of educators would change. In
order to create a collaborative learning community, one
needs to think and operate systemically. Systemic
thinking is based on:


whole rather than parts
relationships rather than individuals, or separated
objects
process rather than structure
networks rather than hierarchy
quality rather than quantity
sufficiency rather than scarcity
sustainability rather than exploitation
dynamic balance rather than constant growth
interdependence rather than independence
cooperation rather than competition
approximation rather than absolute truth
conservation rather than expansion, and
partnership rather than domination.