Job Discussion Forums

[ouyang]

Atlas, one of my favorite lessons is to use excerpts from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and/or the Lerner & Lowe songs from My Fair Lady. This year I may even show the entire DVD.

One reason I do this is that Pygmalion is out of copyright and the script can be downloaded for free. I divide my class by gender, seating the boys in the front, and have them take turns reading Higgins and Eliza's lines in the scene where she comes to his home asking for English lessons.

I have used the songs "Wouldn't it be Loverly" and "Why Can't the English (teach their children how to speak)". The truth is some of the boys seem to find this lesson boring, although many of the girls seem to relish the chance to act, but more importantly I always enjoy listening to Rex Harrison complain about co ck ney English.

I find it interesting that the chinese have the same problem with "H's", dropping them where they're needed and adding them when their not. Here in Fujian they refer to JiangsHu, but you'll never here it pronounced that way there. However, both southern provinces drop the H in shi for ten, making it unnecessarily difficult to distinguish 10 from 4.

The Fujian ren also have problems saying soup sHoup, suit sHuit, soon sHoon, but I digress.

Anyway, I suggest samples from movies and songs to introduce the accents. If you like to mimic them as I do, then you can also have a good time encouraging your students to do so as well.

[Atlas]

Great advice, thanks ouyang!

I love that play. I played Alfred Doolittle in my high school production and did a bang on cockney accent for it but since then have forgotten everything!

[Multilingua]

Atlas,
Do your students have to talk to these people or only listen to them on a tape? If they interact, then what they may need is training on negotiating for meaning...I mean, asking questions about the received information, confirming, requesting clarification, spelling, etc.

Listening comprehension is more than just ears when it's interactive--they need to be able to clearly state which parts they understood, which parts they didn't, and communicate with the other person about any missing background information.

You may have a problem getting them to do this, because admitting that there is a gap in their comprehension AND identifying it AND requesting the other person to clarify MAY involve what they see as a loss of face. However, smiling and saying that you understand and then totally f-ing up a task because you really didn't understand and were too ashamed to say so is surely a bigger loss of face, right?

Hope this helps...

[Atlas]

Multilingua,
sooper dooper,

excellent.

I bet that's a big part of the problem. Another problem is that they are talking to people from all over the world, I mean, we all have that problem sometimes anyway. We do cover that information, but do we use it? I will now!

I asked a student once, what would you do if your boss asked you a question with words you didn't understand, for example, "Did you corroborate the information with the other department?"

She answered, "Yes, I did."

I asked her, how could you say yes if you didn't even understand the question? To which she replied, "Well naturally I would do everything my boss asked me to do, so I must have done it."



She couldn't get the illogic, or why I would have a problem with that answer. More likely she knew full well she was lying, but was presenting an innocent face, deflecting the accusation back upon the observer, as if it were my problem. And when a car hits a pedestrian, the driver yells at them and blames them. Efficiency? Irrelevant. It's Face. Snowjobs. I''ve got other students who slip away from the office when the boss is gone to take my class!

[Mister Al]

Mmmmm.....accents?

I sometimes say to my students near the end of my class and get them to write down what they hear

"aweraveribesttaeye".

The task is to work out what I'm saying. Great laugh!

So what does it mean then?