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moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I will not accept an "apology" in those terms.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I am not referring to TPR.

I am referring to coordinating physical movement with another activity in the classroom in order to facilitate memory. Don't ask me why it works--but research shows that it does--and the researchers don't seem to know wh, either--at least the ones whose stuff I have read.

Another example, which is appropriate for basic level students who are having trouble with the different sounds of the endings of regular verbs in simple past is to designate the corners of the room as "D", "T", "ID" ending sounds and have them run to the corners of the room to indicate the appropriate sound while working with activities with past tense verbs. Note: This should be a short activity--no more than 3 or 4 minutes. It can be used at any time to recycle the sounds, or when you notice an error on the order of "I wach-ed tv yesterday afternoon".

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I don't know about your bigger class, but I have done it with 30.

Are the desks bolted to the floor so that you can't clear them out of the way?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

No, they are not, but you'll have to trust me. There isn't room. Besides desks which barely allow a person to pass between (sometimes less than a foot), the floor is cluttered with gym bags, festival stuff, boxes, and other things. And, in my smaller classes (25 kids), the room is only about 12 feet by 20 feet. Zero space.

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

If I were you I would ask for a bigger room, indicating that the research shows that certain kinds of kinestetic activities promote better learning....

I don't know what else to suggest.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Paul,
Trust me. It's been asked. Like I wrote earlier, logistically and physically impossible.

Starglass1 · Joined: 14 Feb 2005 Posts: 9 Location: The Amalfi Coast

ETS who manage the TOEFL will be changing the testing format of the TOEFL in the autumn of 2005. I would keep a close eye on their website to see if your materials will be suitable for the changes and to familiarize yourself with the new testing format.

www.ets.org

Best,
River

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:01 pm Post subject:

I'll be teaching a TOEFL prep class to pre-uni students whose scores average 300-350. All of the materials we have are geared towards the 400+ level, so I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas, as this will be my first TOEFL class. Also, our budget is exhausted, so ordering new materials is not an option. I have checked out some of the online resources, but again, this seems a bit over their heads.

Some of the ideas posted here are great (aside from the usual bickering Wink

). Has anyone had success with this type of class and low level students?

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

When I started flipping through this thread, I saw the name moonraven... and winced. Thank God it's just an old thread. Cool

If the students are scoring as low as 300, they are not anywhere near ready for TOEFL teaching; you could get a higher score through lucky guessing. They sound like pre-intermediate level students, not advanced level.
You may want to go back to your school and ask them to rethink this. I wouldn't offer an introductory level class for TOEFL to anyone scoring less than about 400-425.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

I have had my students do various activities to improve reading; scanning and skimming for both for gist and details. You can do piecemeal readins where students have different sections of the same reading and must verbally share some information to answer all the questions (also works on listening and speaking).

Another thing for reading comprehension sections, also brought in related information to strengthen the background knowledge on some of the topics we were using in a TOEFL prep text. For example I brought in Murakami information and pictures as an example of a Japanese pop artist when we looked at an Andy Warhol and Pop art article.

I also had students work on eliminating answers and analyzing the answers by type to get an idea of the types of questions asked in the listening comprehension sections. They would try to generate their own questions and show the reasoning behind why their questions were related to the answers. In addition, students analyzed the answers to determine if they could discern a pattern in the answers, especially useful for the longer listening passages.

Also, I had students work on grammatical questions and explain why the answer they chose was the best, including what rules governed their decisison-making. You can have your students work on the same questions for comparison, or work on different ones. Afterwards of course, I would give the correct answers and try and lead them to deduce why that text provided answer was the best choice for each question.

I'll try and see if I can hunt up the outline for this course, as I taught it about three years ago.

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy