a walk downtown

[Miz]

Hi, everybody

Just wanted to share an activity I did today, whose results were better than I’d predicted... I suddenly realized something: our students learn English in classroom and acquire vocabulary by associating the words to their respective translations or pictures in the course book. Once they’re out the door (well, most of them), they feel there’s no need to think about English anymore until next class. So, to these students, English becomes something rather surreal, not part of their “real world”. I started to think about it closely after taking my girls for a walk downtown. We had a deal to speak only English (and they really kept their word). So, it was a beautiful sunny day and there was a lot to see and comment on. People walking, waiting for the bus, a man selling boxes of strawberries. And they were so enthusiastic, recognizing everything they had learned in real things. It was as if they experiencing everything under the foreign language perspective for the first time. Things were colorful, moving, concrete. We entered clothe stores and they touched the clothes and commented on the prices. They had a great time at a music store, talking about their favorite bands and showing CD’s to each other, as well as talking about their favorite movies at a video rental store. Finally, we all ate chocolate cake at a bakery, still smalltalking in English.

It was great, the closest to genuine communication we’ve ever gotten.

I assume some of you have already tried something like this, so that’s nothing new...
For those who haven’t, try it. Your students can surprise you. Some of mine were more open to speak today than ever.

Regards!
Milena