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kidkensei
Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 36
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 Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:46 pm Post subject: Speech competition |
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Ok so Im an ALT working at a Junior Highschool and at the moment I feel like I could do more for the kids and the school. Here the primary agenda of English is , big surprise, teaching it for the tests. Instead of conversing and getting the kids to make meaning with the language I find myself just helping them prepare for testing, ensuring their knowledge of English static.
Its easy to give up saying the system is too rigid for me to keep trying. I don�t want to do this.
It occurred to me the other night that a speech competition might be an innovative way to give some kids with speaking ability some encouragement and motivation.
Under the pretense of a �speech competition� I would simply hand pick students that Ive seen so far with outstanding ability and have them attend additional classes once or twice a week. We could goof around, watch trailorpark boys and translate misfits lyrics all the while improving immensely their speaking ability. Somewhere down the road they could speak in front of their peers and teachers in the gym.
This is totally idealistic but what do you think?
Kensei |
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wayne432
Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 255
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| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:04 am Post subject: Re: Speech competition |
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| kidkensei wrote: |
| It occurred to me the other night that a speech competition might be an innovative way to give some kids with speaking ability some encouragement and motivation. |
If by encouragement and motivation, you mean scare the pants off of them by asking kids who are already shy to speak in front of a group of people. I think most would flat out reject the idea.
| kidkensei wrote: |
| Under the pretense of a �speech competition� I would simply hand pick students that Ive seen so far with outstanding ability and have them attend additional classes once or twice a week. |
I think that asking them to take another class or two on their already loaded schedules wouldn't fly well with them (regardless of what you plan in the classes).
You might find a diamond in the rough, but I think it probably wouldn't work out. |
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mc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Posts: 90
Location: Aichi, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| You call a speech competition "innovative"? Seriously??? |
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Mr_Monkey
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 661
Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu
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| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:53 am Post subject: Re: Speech competition |
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| kidkensei wrote: |
| Under the pretense of a �speech competition� I would simply hand pick students that Ive seen so far with outstanding ability and have them attend additional classes once or twice a week. We could goof around, watch trailorpark boys and translate misfits lyrics all the while improving immensely their speaking ability. Somewhere down the road they could speak in front of their peers and teachers in the gym. |
Resisting washback is an admirable goal - you clearly want to give your learners more than they are currently receiving, which should be applauded.
I have a couple of questions:
- Why focus on only the more able learners?
I suspect that you might face some resistance from your JET in that your idea as it stands now singles out certain students while communicating to others that they are somehow unworthy of special attention. In an education culture like Japan's this might not go down too well.
- How well-formulated are your goals?
| Quote: |
| We could goof around, watch trailorpark boys and translate misfits lyrics all the while improving immensely their speaking ability. Somewhere down the road they could speak in front of their peers and teachers in the gym. |
How will this improve their communicative competence? How would watching TV shows and translating lyrics prepare them to give a speech? The genre of "a speech" - long turn, high register, certain rhetorical techniques that aren't found in other genres: the ascending tricolon, for example, or rhetorical questions - is vastly different from the genres of language you specify above, to the extent that what you suggest as activities will in no way prepare the learners for the product you envisage.
Your goals need to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.
Have you considered some other kind of group-work that will involve the whole class? Some project work that all learners could be involved in and could contribute to? For example, working in groups - of, say, 5-6 learners - to negotiate and agree on a product - a handbook for visitors to your town perhaps - then encourage the learners to allocate roles within their group and work as a group to research and produce a pamphlet. This would integrate skills like reading and writing, and could easily be extended to include speaking and listening by encouraging the learners to produce audio-visual materials to go with it. The students who are best at speaking could be allocated the role of 'presenter' of the material. |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 2:39 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like yo uare a caring teacher  I slaute you
But, maybe the plan is a bit strange because you are sayig you wnat to tell students it is all about a speech contest and then you are goinf to do something completely different  What happens when you get lost of students who want to do a speech and not check out boys or whatever Also maybe soome students would want to do the conversation stuff that you want to do but would get turned off by speech contests and that means you woldn't get the stuedents that you are really looking for. Don you know what I mean? 
But keep up the good work, I like your motiveation! |
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