Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RufusW]

Elementary PS, grade 5/6. I usually teach Q&As along with vocabulary - so, for example, the current topic is "What do you want to do?" "I want to....."

I taught the first class "What do you want?", "I want [food]". I'll expand this next class by adding "to do" to the question and "to [+ verb]" to the answer. This seems a reasonable way to teach a Q&A and expand it.

Firstly, how effective do you think teaching Q&As like this is? I think teaching useful communicative phrases is a good way to teach blocks of language from which students should be able to expand. But I'm also wondering about my method...

All of my classes revolve around students creating mini-cards and playing simple games in pairs / the table.

So the game was one student asking the other "What do you want?" The other student says what they want and picks up a face down card. If they've picked what they wanted they get a point. I can usually get 15 minutes of them doing this and I can take the target language off the board in the last 5 minutes. They'll use the Q&A dozens of times.

I know the language isn't used directly as it would be in real life. But how effective do you think this is? As I say, nearly all my lessons now revolve around this type of activity.

[Fishead soup]

If they are Elementary school students get them in the circle toss a small ball around and ask basic wh questions. If there are two teachers in the room form two small circles with the KET teacher working with one and the NET working with another.

[lifeinkorea]

[Fishead soup]

[RufusW]

Throwing the ball is classic TEFL, but I found it hard to get done, there's also less frequent use of the target language than the card games. (Dividing 30 into 2 groups still has 15 kids in a circle).

lifeinkorea - try card games in tables. You can do it with nearly any vocab / Q&A. Simple things like finding pairs of upsidedown cards. They spend the first 15 mins making the cards and the rest of the time playing the game. My students have always been happy to do this.

But I'm still wondering about its true effectiveness.

[ddeubel]

Rufus,

I really applaud this kind of lesson. You are fostering learner independence (and that is what it is all about - cultivating self - learning and motivating students).

Further, you are scaffolding and getting them to learn by going from "something they know" to "something they need to master". The use of student made materials and pictures/manipulatives to provide context is great too.

What's great is that you've found something you believe works for you and your students. That routine is so necessary. Change the language content but keep the delivery the same for the most part. Students need that predictable agenda.

One other thing that is super is that you are teaching them to be communicative and teaching question making at an early stage. This is my major pet peeve of ELT. We usually learn basic vocab and the present tense (habitual and continuous) first. However - we should be learning questions and the past tense first. My experience tells me so. The majority of speech is in the past tense. A huge part of conversation and speaking hinges on question making (and that's why students with good paralinguistic skills seem to do so well in early language learning). Great that you are focusing on question making and giving those skills to communicate on a higher level later.

It's not easy to pull off - what you are doing. You need good classroom management skills, especially if it is a larger group. But it is well worth it.

The only addition is that I'd get the students up on their feet and mingling from time to time. Use the same cards but develop a few activities where they find matching partners etc... by walking about. We speak a lot on our feet and they have to learn to do that....

Cheers,

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[Demophobe]

I used this for that same language point some years ago.

You will need to preface this game with a list of available choices on the whiteboard. Make a list of nouns (countable nouns will need some explanation regarding the quantifier some, as will be the case for negatives: "don't want any") and infinitive verb forms. Failure to do this will result in a very low-scoring game, and a demotivated bunch of kids.

Cut up some A4 for use as cards.

Have the students write some noun or infinitive verb on the card, but tell them to keep what they write a secret.

Divide them into teams, and have one person from a team choose a person from the other team and ask: "Do you want _____ ?", trying to guess correctly what is written on the other students' card.

If the guess is correct, the other student will answer "Yes, I want _______". If incorrect, the other student would say "No, I don't want _______", and the game continues.

A correct guess becomes a point, and that card is given to the team that guessed correctly. The person who handed over their card gets a new one and writes something else on it, rejoining the game.

Great game for production of many different language points (target language is very flexible), requires almost no preparation and (in my case), the students really enjoyed it. Best of all, the teacher takes a sideline; once the students get the language and the method of the game, there is little for teacher to do, freeing them up to assist the perhaps weaker students.

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

Kids like learnign through pantomime and drama too.

You could drill them on the QnA -

Q. What do you want to do?
A. I want to + verb (with examples) = noun

Show a powerpoint with activities such as swimming, go campping, cook, study etc... Have half the class say the Q and the other half answer for each Q.

Then put them in teams and get a person from one team to act out an activity, really trying hard to use their acting skills, really act it out deliberately and in detail and then the first person to put their hand up and answer correctly, earn their team a point etc...

[some waygug-in]

[lovebug]

OP - i would also suggest working hard to really differentiate between I want (noun) and I want (infinitive verb). you'll find that a common mistake korean students make is to say something like, ''I want to computer" when they mean "I want TO PLAY a computer game."

many korean verbs are a noun plus hada (to do) so it's difficult for students here to really understand this lesson's target language.

i try to do as many incorrect ones as possible and have them correct me.
T: I want to a car?
Ss: I want to DRIVE a car!
T: I want to lunch?
Ss: I want to EAT lunch!

if a student in class says something like, "I want to money!" I'll say, "oh, you want to DANCE money?" "You want to EAT money?" and usually they'll correct themselves and fill in the verb they need.

color coding in your boardwork also helps. red for verbs and blue for nouns. it's easy then to point to the examples on the board and say, ''we need a red word here''. especially if they're really low level.