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willy

I have been reading �Testing my mystery students ~ Help� and it makes me think of the classes I cal the stone class I have tried every thing I can think of. 3 of them are my bosses brothers so I see ther out of school too, they are a starter class but they wont evean try there schors anr not to bad. They are worse than the wild kids .

khmerhit · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:07 pm Post subject:

How can they be worse than the wild kids?

If they dont talk, they dont talk.

If you put them in pairs, they might talk.

If you give them interactive games and exercises, they might talk.

If you scare them with questions, they wont talk.

my tuppenceworth

kh

willy · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:13 pm Post subject:

been ther tryed that
thanks

khmerhit · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:18 pm Post subject:

Wiily--Thanks for the whiskey! Wow.

Have you tried the telephone game? Directions. Use prepositions. Map on the board. S1 must guide S2 by telephone across the city to their meetingplace. For lower intermediate.

tuppenceworth

kh

willy · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:38 pm Post subject:

Hu tell me more. Phone? I will try any thing evean the local teachers can�t get them to talk.

O and that�s Scotch (single malt) not whiskey much better!!

khmerhit · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:48 pm Post subject:

OK, you pre-teach the prepositions of place, plus expressions like turn left turn right straight ahead etc.

Draw a big street map on the board, or get two girls to do it, preferably a familiar place.

then you set up the scenario, like a date or a meeting. girl-boy is obviously best if theyre shy, it makes them laff.

Now you mark the spot of each one at different ends of the map, give them imaginary telephones and tell one student to direct the other to where they have arranged to meet at a certain time. You can get a third student to monitor the walker's progress with a dotted line on the map.

It takes some improvising but it works, and they have to talk. Best with a small class of pairs, otherwise give out a photocopied map perhaps, then get them to prepare their routes, then present.

howz that?

Thanks for the single malt. Im going to Edinburgh in June and shall take it along with me, mate. Coals to Newcastle like.

willy · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:56 pm Post subject:

ok, and i will try that and let you know.
have a good trip i only get to go to singaporefor 10 days...

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

This might sound a bit unprofessional and wont work in some types of institutions (the ones i avoid) but ... if they dont want to talk (especially in pair/group work) ,call their bluff. Tell them that it doesnt bother you. If anyone's going to lose out, it's them. If you can hack total silence for a few seconds (minutes, occassionally) with 35 pairs of eyes staring at you (ie they're trying to call YOUR bluff cos they don't want to do anything) while you stand at the front smiling (especially after you know you've explained the task well and that they all understood what they should do), it wont take them long to realise your serious.
After all, we get paid at the end of the month and they dont.
Basil

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

Shouting dictation.
Normal mutual dictation [any text that has part written for (a) and part written for (b). Divide phrases and sentences into bite size but meaningless chunks] but then have them paired with a student on the opposite side of the room, not next to them; and, play LOUD rock music. They have to shout to get their part across. Make it competitive, a race.

After that all inhibitions are lost.

Clancy · Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 162

Carrot and Stick

Works like a charm.

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

Where do you put the carrot and the stick? Very Happy

willy · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:25 pm Post subject:

call their bluff. Tell them that it doesnt bother you. If anyone's going to lose out, it's them. If you can hack total silence for a few seconds (minutes, occassionally[/quote]

HA, TIRED THAT EVAN SENT THEM HOME, :30 EARLY, STILL NO USE.(AND THESE ARE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS)
THE CARROT THING MITE WORK, BUT WHERE TO PUT IT?? AND HOW TO GET IT THERE???

Shouting dictation. ???? BUT THEY WONT TALK????

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

call their bluff, as i suggested, for the WHOLE lesson. uv done ur part. they should do thiers. id refuse to do thier part. they have no reason to complain. they sound just like a bunch of slackers
alternatively, stop trying to get them to talk. go through watever book ur using by following teacher bk instructions (skipping oral practice exercises) and giving a lot of wb tasks. this might be good for u cos ull never have to prepare a lesson for them and gives u more time to read a novel yll their working.

basil

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

If it's possible to work out the cost of tuition by the hour, you could try standing there in silence for two minutes then announcing how much that just cost each of them (won't work if they are boss's family and getting the lessons as a freebie, though!).

Some of the small group tuition I do at present is paid at a very high hourly rate - about UK30.00 - so a variation on the above that I use is to tell them how much I will be paid for sitting in silence for two minutes.

Snoopy · Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 185

Years ago, when teaching French in the UK, I had a number of students in my GCSE class who never spoke a word. When it came to their speaking test, they exploded into French and most of them got the top grade.