Job Discussion Forums

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

I have some upcoming paired oral exams I will give in Japan, but I need to come up with some activities to keep the other 38 odd students busy while these are being conducted. Of course, some students will be practicing for their own orals, but knowing most students, I don't think they can or will do that for an extended period of time.

I am thinking of having them do some worksheet and short writing assignments, which could be done in pairs or individually depending on the task. I of course would greatly prefer activities that recycle and review some of the subjects they need to be familar with for their paired orals.

The subjects are:

About your home and neighborhood
Birthdays and holidays in Japan
Jobs (family members) and rountines
Directions (with a map copied from their textbook) and tasks to be done at those places (i.e. buy bread at the supermarket)

I am planning to give students a menu of activities and then let the pair choose (or I will choose) which one or two they will do.

Any suggesttions for activities related with the above? By the way, these subjects are drawn from the new Interchange Intro book.

Thanx in advance,

GA

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

Kootvela · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 513 Location: Lithuania

I agree that they should not choose what they want to do, otherwise they will not study to prepare for the exams. Why bother if you can do what you are best at?

Topics I would suggest:
1. Sports. Quite boring but well the Olympics are coming anyway.
2. Crime.
3. Food.
4. Ecology/Climate/Weather.
5. Politics.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Sorry the topics are already preselected based on the text and units we have covered this semester. Actually, some of the girls in the classes don't play or watch sports, so I decided to drop that topic.

I know Glenski, been thinking about that. I'll probably be in the same classroom, but well near the back (it's a pretty big lecture hall). That way I can stop and help out if need be as I have two weeks to finish the orals with 20 or so pairs per class. I wanted to make sure I have plenty of time, probably there will be two conversations per pair.

As to copying, I am far less concerned about that as some of the work may be done in pairs I'm more concerned with having at least 'controlled chaos' and having something that students know will be graded besides the oral exams.

Also for the grading, I plan to look mostly at pragmatic factors, with grammatical and structural factors having far less weight.