Job Discussion Forums

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

It also depends on the teacher's personality. I for one feel totally uncomfortable using songs and games in class. I did t once 12 years ago and that was it. Besides, songs and games are only marginally relevant in learning English.

cangringo · Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Posts: 327 Location: Vancouver, Canada

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Heh, heh, I was only commenting on singing earlier, but almost all my students like the pictionary 'exercises'! Great puzzlers, using pictures to transmit ideas.

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

I was a student on the receiving end (almost 20 years ago!). My 3rd year Russian teacher tried to make us sing an old song (that Russians of her generation might have been nostalgic for) called "Vernisazh". We did the gritted teeth, I took the lesson and never tried to force my adults to sing.

Some do try to sing songs in my class - I leave that up to them. My young teen girls requested and got Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". Some adult songs by famous singers are actually popular among adults - here Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Queen, etc will all receive serious consideration for attempted karaoke.

If you feel no emotional connection to a song, why would you want to sing it?

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

I'm pointing out the obvious I guess...but you can use songs in class without singing them.

And pictionary is a good point - this is a game that adults (well, almost) everywhere play in their own lives without feeling insulted.

cangringo · Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Posts: 327 Location: Vancouver, Canada

whoops I meant to say that about singing...you don't have to sing the song of course. I don't sing it but I use them and find them helpful...unless of course they have a lot of ain't or other language that isn't really used.

John Hall · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject:

yaramaz · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:42 am Post subject:

Not necessarily, because my Turkish beginner claasses have been gorgeous with their alphabet singing and still mix up their As an Ys and Cs and so forth .

John Hall · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:50 am Post subject:

The trick is to get them to be conscious of which letters they get wrong, to get them to stop before saying the problematic letter, recall the song, and then say the letter. Of course, this works better for letters near the beginning of the alphabet. There's too much of the song to recall to get to "Y"!