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flaco
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 30
Location: Brooklyn
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 Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 2:20 am Post subject: grammar |
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during the AEON interview process, lesson demonstration etc., should i worry about questions regarding the more obscure rules of english grammar? present perfect blah, blah...
if so, is there a text to get to brush up on this stuff? been awhile... |
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Canuck2112
Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Posts: 239
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| My AEON test was a complete joke. There was no mention of specific grammar rules, just a few sentences you had to correct. You also had to write a paragraph about the difference between "I am going" and "I will be going". |
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einsenundnullen
Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 7:25 am Post subject: |
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Sounds very similar to the test I took at an Interac interview. Theirs
also included spelling.
Chris |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
should i worry about questions regarding the more obscure rules of english grammar? present perfect blah, blah...
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I never knew present pefect was obscure English grammar.
BTW don't sweat the small stuff. A good reference book is Michael Swan's Practical English Grammar. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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I wouldn't worry about your future employer throwing you curves but you can bet your butt your students will if you get over here. And you'll look (and feel) a complete dork while they run rings around you. Best to know as much as you can, not for the interview, but to take the work in Japan seriously if you are serious about coming here.
Gordon beat me to it too... obscure??? Present perfect is probably the tense that sorts the men/women out from the boys/girls when it comes to teaching English |
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cangel
Joined: 12 May 2003
Posts: 74
Location: Jeonju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| One thing the Japanese education emphasizes in their English curriculum is grammar. Grammar is concrete. You learn the rules and you plug them in and everything should work out fine. Just like everything in their education system, it's all about rote memorization, much like programming a computer. As such, your students may have a better grasp of grammar then you. If this should be the case, you might want to improve your grammar so you don't look foolish. |
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flaco
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 30
Location: Brooklyn
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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ok, well... maybe i should have cited the "present continuous conditional" as my obscure example... i guess it has been a long time since i've thought about present perfect... didn't mean to offend...
anyway, i DO take this seriously and i DO want to be prepared to answer my students' grammar questions as articulately as possible. i'm just looking for ways to brush up on this stuff.
anyway, thanks for the advice. |
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april
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 83
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Flaco, like the other posters said, I can guarantee you that your students will know all the rules and names of English grammar.
~ Except they won't know how to use it!! ~
This is where *you* run rings around *them*. So just keep that in mind when teaching and don't feel intimidated by lack of knowledge of your own language.
Oh but of course do study! I'm using "English Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy. btw - I *hate* grammar! Grrr.... |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 8:03 am Post subject: |
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| april wrote: |
~ Except they won't know how to use it!! ~ |
Not 100% true april... they won't know how to use it appropriately.
This is where functional grammar comes in and this has been the key to success with my students teaching grammar in Japan. For every grammar tense students know how to form it but they don't know in what situation they should use it.
An analogy
Imagine someone in a boiler suit with a huge box of tools. They look the part. You say to them, "Hey, there's a srew loose here." They hand you a hammer. You look puzzled and repeat it slowly once more. They look ashamed and pass you a wrench. Now everything is a mess so you say "No, I need a screwdriver!" They pass you one and you get the job done but you realise they really don't know what they are doing though they have all the tools they need.
I have used this analogy countless times with students and always to their benefit. I tell them they entered school with a big toolbox labelled "English". Over the years, various teachers and textbooks dumped tools in and, instead of explaining what to use them for, explained what they were and how the tools themselves fit together. This is the BIG problem with the approach at school.
So, they have the tools. THey can conjugate verbs till the cows come home but they are still trying to fix a tap with a pickaxe.
What you need to do is unpack their toolkit a tool at a time and show them how it is used in context with plenty of examples. And don't forget that a screwdriver, while mostly for screws, can also be used to take off the lid from a tin of paint. In other words, some grammar can be used for a multitude of different purposes and students need to know essential ones as well, later on, as peripheral ones.
So, find yourself an excellent Functional Grammar resource like Discover English by Bolitho and Thompson and work through it. It will blow you away how little you know and how English is used. You will learn fast. Swan is also good but you aren't going to get through that before Kingdom Come. It is a reference only really.
Remember the toolkit analogy and you won't go far wrong. |
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