Job Discussion Forums

[soapdodger]

Does anyone else use hypnotic technique in the classroom? I find it makes the job alot easier. Here's a lesson I use frequently....

Look into my eyes. Look into my eyes. Not round the eyes, into the eyes. Right, you're under. You will believe that the next 90 minutes was the most fantastic English lesson you have ever had and that you have learned all the stuff in Unit 9 from page 120 to 124, done a brilliant communication roleplay with your partner and laughed like a drain throughout. After the lesson you will take the long exercise worksheet home and work hard until you have completed it all. You will also tell everyone you can, especially the owner of the school, what a marvellous teacher I am, and pass my mobile phone number, which is at the bottom of the worksheet, to all your friends with the recommendation that I am the best teacher ever and really worth having private lessons with regardless of the cost. And sleeep!

I then spend the rest of the lesson playing GTA Vice City on my laptop. Really, as a pedagogical aid, hypnotism can't be beaten!

[Phil_K]

Good to hear your original comments again Soapdodger!

Seriously, there is a point in all this. First of all, some schools are using Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP), which is loosely related to the technique you mention.

Regarding hypnotism, I've often wondered whether this could be used in some form. The problem is that people misunderstand what hypnotism is. It isn't that conjuring trick that people do on stage. In real hyponotism, the subject is fully awake and it is a question of getting them on to your wavelength before "manipulating" them into doing what you want. It can be used in business negotiations, for example, and I don't see why it couldn't be used in education. Just needs a little research by Soapdodger and Phil_K and other people who are prepared to "think out of the box".

As it happens, I currently have an ebook on my hard drive which teaches this technique. Must get round to reading it sometime...

[zeke0606]

soapdodger

I like your style!

Would you please tell me what this means, "...laughed like a drain throughout."

I've never seen or heard of a drain laughing and I thought that I'd seen most everything this world had to offer.

Zeke

[gaijinalways]

I sometimes use yoga in some of my classes as a physical break for students. Some of them are surprised that I am more flexible than some of them, some 25 years my junior. Hey, whatever works.

[soapdodger]

Well spotted Phil. Yes, there is a more serious aspect to this. I was reading some stuff on the net prior to posting that about hypnosis and suggestion and it became clear that effective communication - that is, implanting your message into the recipient's thinking and gaining acceptance for it, which is what we want to do when teaching a subject - depends alot on techniques which hypnotists use, whether effective communicators are actually aware of what they are doing or not. It is certainly not necessary to put your class into a trance ( but, oh, that would be fun!), but some verbal methods of making them more relaxed and receptive could be very effective in getting more done. Find that ebook and give it a read !

Zeke - to laugh like a drain is fairly well established in English English, I don't know about US, and is a simile based on the gurgling noise of water sounding like laughter. My personal favourite, though, is from Derek and Clive ( Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore) : "I haven't laughed so much since Granny caught her t*t in the mangle!"

[ecocks]

What's a mangle?

By any chance is it part of an old-fashioned washing machine? Americans have THAT one - but we call it a wringer.

[soapdodger]

Indeed it is! The scenario appeals to my vivid imagination!

[soapdodger]

Not in any way related, but it had to be displayed somewhere

[Llamalicious]

Close, soapie, but I must insist on Derek and Clive accuracy:

"we have not laughed so much since Grandma died
or Auntie Mabel caught her left t_t in the mangle"

From the incomparable song Jump, You F_cker, Jump. Oh great, now I'll be singing it all day...

P.S. Thanks for the letter posted above. Genius.

[soapdodger]

Yes, I had a feeling it wasn't spot on as I haven't heard that one, which is truly brilliant, for ages. Glad you like the letter, it just had to be given a wider audience!

[MELEE]

Suddenly, Monday is a little less bleak...

Thanks guys.

[soapdodger]

While we're at it, I expect one or two teachers might enjoy www.engrish.com