Job Discussion Forums

[FreakingTea]

I teach uni oral English, and I allow my students to use their dictionaries. I would like, however, to reduce their reliance on complicated vocabulary that they have to look up, and would like to help them learn strategies to make the most of their competency levels as is.

As I see it, they can learn lists of vocabulary to use on exams in their own time, because they can learn that anywhere. I want to try and give them skills rather than just knowledge. How to talk around a word you can't think of, how to use tone to create meaning, how to convert parts of speech (turn a verb into an adjective, etc.), things like that. Ways to convey a wider range of thoughts with simple language if necessary.

Of course they should continue to learn more difficult words and forms, but those won't be of any use if a student can't improvise as soon as memory fails them.

Is this a good approach to take for my classes? Do you have any suggestions? What are some activities you like to use for this purpose? Keep in mind I've got the standard bolted-down rows classrooms with no multimedia facilities.

[Non Sequitur]

Helping fluency is a big part of our task.
Students asking and answering questions in a cocktail mingle setting is an excellent activity, but impossible in the bolted down format.
Is there an open stairwell or similar area away from other classrooms you can use?

[FreakingTea]

[rogerwilco]

[Harbin]

[doogsville]

[Non Sequitur]

[FreakingTea]

I could see a few of my classes getting into that kind of activity, but most of them would probably stand around and chat in Chinese. It sounds like the kind of activity that would work well for motivated students at a slightly higher level, or at least a different learning philosophy. I only have oral English classes. Some of the other FTs at my school have business English and so on. I hope I get something different next semester, but I can't hope too hard...

What are some small group or classroom activities for helping fluency that you've tried? I'm going to try and make up some of my own for next week.

[Non Sequitur]

[A593186]

[wonderingjoesmith]

Communication of ideas is the issue in my classrooms. One thing is the interference of the first language; another one is the way locals convey their messages. Chinese mainlanders are grown to match foreign words for their own, and it seems they use their own language ambiguously. These are, to my knowledge, the factors that not only hinder their progress in English but also in communication as they appear to have so many dialects too.

To improve the Middle Kingdom students in the area of communication, in my professional opinion, it is necessary to provide them with the right communication skills tools first of all. Then, practicing using active vocabulary rather than either passive one or some new words is, again in my view, the way to become competent.

[roadwalker]

[teenoso]

Communication is not improved, IMO, if students use words like 'delectable'. If someone in England said this , you would look askance - because it is not idiomatic, everyday English. 'Yummy' is idiomatic ,but of course in many contexts childish .
"That makes zero sense " (A____) is the kind of idiomatic expression that students should be learning. But dictionaries are not the place students find these expressions.
Incidentally , I am always wary of the dictionaries students have on their phones - often they are just wrong, or outdated, or full of Chinglish.


Small groups can work when the students can easily face each other, and the teacher can move around the groups. Best perhaps when the groups each work on a different problem or task connected to a topic, and then report back to the whole class at the end.

Anything that gets them moving around the class (surveys or mingles) work well , even if the desks and chairs are bolted down. Use the aisles, front of class, and outside corridor if necessary.

[Denim-Maniac]

[mw182006]