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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: My students answer the question: Why is English important? |
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... I took a vote on the most popular recurring answers. The top two were: (drumroll please...)
2nd PLACE
"I don't know."
1st PLACE
"Because Lee Myung Bak is president." Stated with a sarcastic grimace and mocking tone.
Runner up, as selected by the teacher
Because the Simpsons in in English. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:20 am Post subject: |
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| Do students ever know why this or that is important or not? |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:26 am Post subject: |
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It is very entertaining to note the sudden drop in 2MB's popularity among students  |
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Bryan
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:37 am Post subject: |
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This is something you should cover on your first day with your students, otherwise they won't know why they're doing what they're doing.
My best teachers would always do something like a short speech on why history helps us, or poll us for the reasons why we were studying French (out loud). |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:43 am Post subject: |
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By coincidence I've been asking all my students the same question this week. Mostly they parroted the textbook (its addressed in the first unit of our 3rd-year MS text -- "People in many countries use it," "Its the language of global communication," etc) but I also got "I want to travel," "I want a good job," "Because theres a test," as well as the Lee Myung Bak response.
My favorite: "So I can talk to you." |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| Juregen wrote: |
| Do students ever know why this or that is important or not? |
Mine sure seem not to for the msot part. I got a small handful of very intelligent answers that didn't seem to parrot the book, at least not to my knowledge.
The most intelligently pragmatic answer I got:
"The foreigner population in Korea is rising." |
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OiGirl
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: Hoke-y-gun
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| schwa wrote: |
| My favorite: "So I can talk to you." |
That's so sweet!  |
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NightSky
Joined: 19 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| from my adult student tonight I got "so I can improve my self-esteem". which I thought was cool... |
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Netz
Joined: 11 Oct 2004
Location: a parallel universe where people and places seem to be the exact opposite of "normal"
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:39 am Post subject: |
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Somewhere in the back of thier brain (becuase it's been drilled into thier head) is:
..so I can
pass this test
get in this school
get this degree
get this job
ad infinitum.
It's the same reason Korean parents take their kids on a vacation to the US, and the highlight of the excursion is a trip to some Ivy league university, so the 12 year old can kiss the foundation stone of the library at Yale (so he can hopefully attend there someday).
But I�m sure Korean kids don�t have hardly any stress associated with learning English, especially since playing hangman is super fun. |
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sargx
Joined: 29 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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I ask this to my high school students, responses are varied:
Why learn english?
"Teacher is sexy."
"You want tea with me?"
"Sexy girls"
"I am man."
"I like smoking." |
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