I just one a copy of Imagine That! - Mental imagery in the EFL classroom by Jane Arnold, Herbert Puchta and Mario Rinvolucri. Having attended a couple of workshops run by the great Mario, I have to confess to finding some of it a bit Rinvoludicrous. I've also worried that if I ask my students to imagine that they're trees and describe what it feels like, they'd think me one cassette short of a language lab.
However, there's nothing like a free book to open your mind, and in the spirit of humanising my language teaching, I wondered if anyone here had tried the touchy-feely stuff, and if so, how did it go?
Touchy-feely English as a Foreign Language
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JuanTwoThree
- Posts: 947
- Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:30 am
- Location: Spain
In the spirit of principled eclecticism I don't think anything can be ruled out. I've tried those "catch your falling partner" warmers and lots of soft ball throwing when there's been a spiky group that needs a bit of esprit de corps and lightening up.
There are also those cod character analysis things like palm reading (Keep Talking?) tree-drawing and that "pick up the glass, talk to a bear, come to a wall, go through the door?" thing that's in various text books.
These are nothing compared with the far freakier elements of the Mario ideas bank:
"Between now and our next class, each time you switch a light on or off, please note your state of mind and what you are thinking about. Come to class ready to report.
Bring a dozen resonant objects to class. Before you lay them out, ask the students to close their eyes. Strike each and ask the students to describe the qualities of each sound and to guess the substances struck"
I feel that the risk is that you end up doing a stupendous class or a fall-flat class, which means there is a huge emotional investment in the class working. It might be better to settle for slightly workmanlike but more or less guaranteed successful classes than take a chance.
There is also the ego-trip factor. Teacher as showman? Why are you really doing this type of class?
But hltmag got lots of good stuff, let it be said.
There are also those cod character analysis things like palm reading (Keep Talking?) tree-drawing and that "pick up the glass, talk to a bear, come to a wall, go through the door?" thing that's in various text books.
These are nothing compared with the far freakier elements of the Mario ideas bank:
"Between now and our next class, each time you switch a light on or off, please note your state of mind and what you are thinking about. Come to class ready to report.
Bring a dozen resonant objects to class. Before you lay them out, ask the students to close their eyes. Strike each and ask the students to describe the qualities of each sound and to guess the substances struck"
I feel that the risk is that you end up doing a stupendous class or a fall-flat class, which means there is a huge emotional investment in the class working. It might be better to settle for slightly workmanlike but more or less guaranteed successful classes than take a chance.
There is also the ego-trip factor. Teacher as showman? Why are you really doing this type of class?
But hltmag got lots of good stuff, let it be said.
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woodcutter
- Posts: 1303
- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: London
Some students will like it, some won't. If the class in general likes it, I'm all for it. The trouble is that such edu-gurus act as if everyone will like it, and that if they don't like it, it will be the fault of the grumpy teacher who presented it badly. We are seldom genuinely encouraged to work with the students in front of us, warts and all. We have to turn them into futuristic beings of wonder, as well as teach a language.
That's cultural tolerance for you, ESL style.
That's cultural tolerance for you, ESL style.