Job Discussion Forums

[shmooj]

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a young and naive teacher developed a lesson based on a brief biography of Ringo Starr. The teacher created a cloze passage from this and recorded himself reading the passage on tape so that the student (Managing Director of Samsung UK Ltd - a dedicated Beatles fan) could fill in the blanks.

Tape: "... and so he was called Ringo because of the rings he wore."

At this point the student stopped the tape himself (early stages of autonomy), stood up from his desk, pulled a cigarette from his silver case and lit it. He stared out of the huge glass windows across the well manicured lawns of Samsung's pride and joy in the the UK. "The Ringziwor", he muttered, "The Ringziwor. The Ringziwor?" He made it sound like a creature from Through the Looking Glass.

He turned to me with a puzzled look, "Tell me. What is Ringziwor?"

Some years later, this, by now much less naive teacher welcomes students to their Friday evening class. It has been a long day at the end of a long week. He is tired. They are tired. Let's get it over with he thinks and begins thus:

"First of all, what did you do at the weekend?"

Silence..... until a woman to his left says "Festival."

"Good good. Where was it? What kind of festival? Who did you go with?"

Silence. Puzzled look. "Festival."

"Yes. Where?"

"Where was the festival?"

"Yes"

Silence.

[return to the class after 15 minutes of more of the same.]

Student: "Eeeeeeeeeeeeh you don''t go festival!!!!???"
T: "No."
S: "But you say you go festival!!!!"
T: "No, I didn't."

Long, long think.

T: [with despair] Oh no, sorry, I said "First of all!"

Anyone else met the beast that is connected speech?

[Scott in HK]

When I first started teaching...I had a student ask me once what a 'safternoon' was....I told him that there was no such word...and he insisted that I used it all the time...

The safternoon....this afternoon....

First hint to me that I need to ennuciate a little more clearly in the classroom....

[Celeste]

A friend of mine was telling me about an experience she had with a french immersion grade 2 class in Canada. Apparently one of the kids had a Quebecois father and learned other vocabulary at home. My friend had the kids write journals and when marking the one student's journal came across the word unsiput. When she asked the child what it meant, he replied "a little bit". ( un petit peut ).

[Roger]

First lesson on Monday:
T: "Tell me, what did you do on the weekend?"
S: "You mean this weekend, or last weekend?"

[Roger]

First lesson on Monday:
T: "Tell me, what did you do on the weekend?"
S: "You mean this weekend, or last weekend?"

[shmooj]

That wasn't connected speech... start your own thread!

[Ben Round de Bloc]

It's not uncommon for a number of our students to start their first written assignment with firstable if they haven't previously seen first of all written somewhere.

[shmooj]

Wow Ben. What do they call that - connected writing

[MELEE]

In my first year in Mexico, I gave a short workshop on linking and connected speach to a group of 10 local high school English teachers. (I taught at ECC in Japan, who at least at that time, had a heavy emphasis on teaching connected speach). After my workshop, a teacher with nearly 20 years experience in Mexico led them in another workshop. He later told me, that they asked him, if I had made all that up. They didn't believe that English was spoken that way.

[jud]

I think I'll throttle the next student who, when we're spelling and I remind them, E like Echo (they're in the military) ask, "Eeh? ilaikeko?"