BC0914: Teaching Tip

Pronunciation / Intonation

Pronunciation & intonation are very important elements when learning English. Placing stress on the correct syllable or word in a sentence can drastically change its meaning.

On the right hand side of my whiteboard I have a section for Pronunciation. Here, I write the word, the phonetic spelling as well as the word itself broken up into easy-to-read-and-pronounce chunks.

Eg: "valuable" = "val-yoo-bill"

(Many students are unfamiliar with the IPA, but that's another post altogether. )

I use a different coloured marker and draw a circle over the syllable or word that needs to be emphasized.

I encourage students to do the same when they're reading, especially out loud.

My mother. My blood. My life...

In one of my classes recently, we spoke about patriotism and what it really means. What does it mean to be patriotic? 

Well, this morning, I had a surprise when one of my AY students, Otman Eltalis appeared at my office door. I was surprised because he told me that he wasn't coming to school today as he had to run some errands this morning.

He said: "I just came to give you this," as he handed me a sheet of paper. A piece of writing to mark? Sure! It was nothing out of the ordinary. Until I actually read it. The best way of knowing if something was written from the heart is if it gives the reader goosebumps. It did more than that for me. I could feel Otman's emotions.

With my extra writing sessions that I have with my students, I tell them that they only need to do one thing when they write: Make your words jump off the page and dance!

I interviewed Otman on his very first day at EC Cape Town. He has grown in leaps and bounds, not just with his English, but as a person. I'm so proud of him! With his permission, I would like to share what he has written.

Otman Eltalis from Libya

by Otman Eltalis 

My name: Libya
My nationality: Libyan
My phone number: Libya
My biography: Libya

I am a patient. I am a villager. I am a national. I am a soldier for protect my country. I am peaceful.

I extend my appreciation to my country everyday. It is my mother, my blood, my life. I left because I was forced. I didn't like homesick, but this is for you. I hope to accept my excuse. I can't forget when you gave my nationality, happiness. I am proud if I say I am from Libya. Sometimes, people ask me, "What is your dream in your life?"

I just have one answer. I say, "My dream when I see my country the first country in the world. When I see my people living in the security. When I see many scientists there. If I see illiterate 1%."

I am not frustrated, but when I remembered Japan in 1945, they lost many buildings and people, but now Japan is first world.

If I to speak English, I will fly in the sky, because this isn't for me.
This is for Libya.

Let me, my teacher, write any word in my mind. I can't stop to learn English until I see my country happy for me. I know Arabic language is people's language for paradise, to learn the language of the people of the security of their evil. I wish believe me, my country. It is my mistress. It is before anyone. I will be write, write, write and write.

I hope smell your soil.
I hope send my greeting with the stars.

I miss my country.
I can't forget it.
This is promise.

Written on Monday, 25 August 2014
Your son, Otman (Libya)
I will keep going...

Life Advice from Abdulgader Alsharif

As part of a writing activity recently, my students had to give advice for...life! As we know, life can be complicated at the best of times and and we often wish there was a handbook for us to refer to, right? Using the letters of the alphabet as prompts for each piece of advice, this is what my AY student, Abdulgader came up with. Enjoy...and take heed!

Abdulgader Alsharif from Libya (taken from Table Mountain)

Advise everyone to good ways or avoid people with dangerous ways.

Be smiling everyday, for everyone.

Continue what you started. Don't give up!

Deal with problems in a simple way.

Easy life = huge success.

Feel your own feelings, but don't be selfish.

Good friends guide you to a good life.

Happiness will get a happy life and reach your achievement.

I'm possible = I'm pleased.

Joke around with your friends close to you.

Keep life easy.

Love. Love. Love.

Make fun for yourself and for others to enjoy.

Nothing is impossible.

Old people have quiet wisdom.

Pride of your work leads to success.

Quality is magnificent.

Read before writing or speaking.

Simple = happy = success. Don't be silly!

Try to always have an open heart.

Use your brain for every moment.

Visit your friends and family to live in peace.

Wisdom is your leader.

Xerox [copy] your good memories.

Yield your negative thoughts.

Zero is the beginning of your steps.

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I can speak English

Ahmed Abujarida from Libya

I have many students who do extra writing for me, over and above what they do in class. One such student is my Academic Year student, Ahmed Abujarida from Libya. He left this piece of writing for me to mark and I felt that it was really written from the heart and I had to share it with all to read.

-------------------------------------------

by Ahmed Abujarida (Libya)

I am going to talk about how I learned English.When I came to Cape Town in April, I didn't know how to speak English with people, but I started to learn English. Also, after three months, I started to speak English and learned a lot of things. For example: vocabulary, listening and grammar. I am really very happy at my school. I would advise everybody who wants to learn English just to speak English. If you're Arabic speaking, speak English even with Arabic students!

If someone speaks Arabic (or their native language) everyday, they will not learn English. Also, I would like to advise people to speak English in the streets - while shopping or anywhere. Then they will improve quickly.

When I started studying at, I started at Elementary level and then I moved to Pre-intermediate level after two months.You will be able to practice and do exercises everyday. Guys, I want you to always speak English at school and in class. I saw a lot of people speaking in their native language and not learning English. I learned this from my teacher, my friends from different countries and my host family.I couldn't believe myself after three months. I can speak English!

Guys, please! I want you to speak English as much as possible, because this is very good, worthwhile and important for you!

It's my responsibility

I was prepared to teach the unit on "Medicine" with grammar points and listening exercises. I could instantly feel that the energy levels weren't to my satisfaction. Some students sat there, clearly preoccupied. It didn't take long before the energy affected others in the class.

After I set them off on their first speaking activity, I could see that it was going nowhere.

"Do you trust me?" I asked my class.
"Yes, of course," they replied.

"You know that nothing I do with you will be a waste of your time, right?" I asked.
They nodded.

"Please close your books and clear your desk. You only need a piece of paper," I instructed.
They followed my instructions.

And so...using the same picture as I did with my group yesterday, I gave them 10 minutes to write about whatever emotions were evoked when they saw this.

From Google Images

Some students wrote vigorously. Others sat tapping their pencil on the desk. Paper, blank. I refused to believe that their minds were blank, too. If anything, it was the opposite.

I paused next to one of my solemn-looking students. I could see he was battling. We looked at the picture again. Slowly, I could see him opening up and he started to see beyond the surface. It wasn't planned that my students would stand up and present their pieces with the rest of us, but it turned out to be a really good exercise. Some students spoke with a lump in their throat, while others showed a much softer side to themselves.

I sat there in awe. Beaming with pride. When the class was over, they admitted that their hearts felt lighter.

One of my students, Mohi, happened to be in my office just after my class. I shared what happened in my class with him. He noted that I was very sensitive about my students and their feelings.

"How can I not be?" I asked him.

I thought about this further during the day.

How am I possibly meant to teach (anything) when my students sit in front of me looking and feeling listless. With their minds preoccupied, far far away, of course it affects me, their teacher. I may as well not teach anything.

I sometimes need to break through to them before even attempting any kind of activity. Whether I do this by means of a joke or a short piece of music, it is by all means, my responsibility to ensure that they are fully with me during my lesson.

Anyway, just wanted to shared that today...
Hope YOU had a great day!

Unleashing a creative spark!

I have a few stories to share about my various "light bulb" moments with students. This usually happens when a certain grammar point is finally grasped or if a certain skill has improved because of advice given by me. 

I recently tried something different. Two of my students, Yank Lai (Taiwan) and Mohamed Abogila (Libya) have been joining me twice a week from 08:00 to write. I, too, have been joining in the writing process. The challenge to get as much out in 20 minutes is something of an adrenaline rush.

There is just one rule: No idea or structure is wrong. Apart from checking obvious grammatical structures, I have emphasized the power of words and the effect it can have on a story.

This morning, Yank and Mohamed blew me away! I simply couldn't believe the caliber of work that was produced in limited time! I am known to gush about my students - especially when they produce something amazing. I have taken their writing success quite personally as it reminds me of MY English teacher in high school who unleashed the creative spark in me! 

Dearest Mrs Felton. AKA - The Legend.

Knowingly or not, she is the one person responsible for making me believe that anything...anything is possible! The sky is not even the limit.

After reading Yank and Mohamed's pieces this morning, I felt compelled to get in touch with "Mrs F" and tell her that over a decade later, she continues to have an effect on my life. I dedicate this to her. I have such deep love and gratitude to you, Mrs Felton!

Please read below for Yank and Mohamed's writing.

Prompt: Write about yourself as a 10-year old child

Looking Back
by Yank Lai (Taiwan)
Level: Upper Intermediate

I am 10 years old. I am enjoying extreme happiness in my life. At least, I have been thinking…

Not only can you often see your parents and close friends. Also, you don’t have any stress at this moment. You can do many things. You can be a dreamer and do everything you can imagine: You can cheat girls, stealthily kiss her and confidently escape. You can fight with your best friends and after half an hour you are playing together again. There are no rules in paradise.

Wait! Don’t forget – you have a charitable grandmother who always gives you what you can imagine. My parents are shouting at me, but I can hide behind my private protector and peek with a smile at my parents.

I would really not like to grow up. I want to try to grasp everything and hope it won’t change.

Prompt: Describe how you would like your life to be in ten years time

My Light
by Mohamed Algantri
Level: Intermediate

Actually, I have many plans in my mind.

Firstly, I would like to be a famous pilot I want to be intelligent, optimistic and self-confident. I will be ecstatic when I have made all my dreams come true. So, I want to work in a massive company and I would like to earn a lot of money in my job. I want to travel all over the world. I want to be like a falcon. I want to fly. I want to feel free. then, I would like to be someone who is hard-working, because my family told me that they want to see me as a famous pilot – lively and reliable.

When I hear something like that, I feel strong. I will fight to get my dream.

After that, I will get married to my princess. We will live in a castle and have two children. I want to live my life as a warm person. I want to be happy. Also, I would like to be a teenager. I will think just about love – play – dream! I want to be an amazing man and a wonderful father for my family. I want to be like fire for my wife and I want her to be like water. 

I love life. I don’t want to think or feel angry. I would like to delete this adjective in my life. I want to say goodbye to my sadness and tears.

I want to die after I would be a father and I want to see my family. Then, I can die after when I was a pilot, with my children, wife and parents.

I will be ambitious all in my life and I will love and think under the earth when I die, so my life, my blood for you…forever.

TEACHING IDEA: Interview warmer

In pairs, interview each other and say 3 interesting things about the person.

Good for first day activity

*Not created by me.

TEACHING IDEA: Express(o) Yourself

On A4 paper, Ss draw coffee cup with steam. On steam, write what they learned in lesson. Swap papers with others

*Not created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Me - the Movie

Individually, Ss list 3 movies everyone must see. Why?

Tell them a famous director wants to make a movie about their life. Ss must choose:
-Director
-Genre
-Settings
-Write 4 scenes which will be included

*Not created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Love Letters

Ss must list 3 things they love
Rank it: Most - least precious
Write a love letter to the item

*Not created by me.

TEACHING IDEA: I'm OK (good + -ing)

Pair ss (A & B)
List things they think they're good at.
"I'm good at playing tennis."
"I'm good at cooking."

A's must tell B's list (B's listen)
B's repeat back.

*Not created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Letters to the Editor

Ask ss if they ever wrote to an editor. If not, why not? What prompted them to write? Was their letter published?

Hand out letters to ss and ask:
-Why did they write? Complain? Share? Vent?
-General mood?
-Who or what made them angry?
-Who or what made them happy?

Pair ss & compare answers

Pick a letter & write a concise report

*Not created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Tabloid Titles

To introduce passive voie, ss must write about their class in tabloid titles.
Tabloid = news that isn't news, but entertainment.

eg: Class is contacted by aliens!
> Reading, writing, speaking and vocab development

*This wasn't created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Lingo Novo

Ss work in pairs
-10mins to invent new language
-greeting, farewell, thank you, please, sorry, why, because, if

*This wasn't created by me

TEACHING IDEA: Lingo Novo

Ss work in pairs
-10mins to invent new language
-greeting, farewell, thank you, please, sorry, why, because, if

*This wasn't created by me

TEACHING IDEA: The Best 15 Mins

Ss must think about the best 15 mins of their day so far
-Who they were with
-What time of day
-Smells
-Sounds
-Voices around them
-Did something unique happen?

*This was not created by me

Malta: The Meeting

The week long meeting turned out to be a super success. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet others, swap ideas and standardize much of what we already do.

I have no doubt that despite timezones, we will all continue to be each others primary resource and support system.

Really grateful for the opportunity!

How I became RICH & why I DON’T like my job

As the saying goes, a woman is like the weather – unpredictable! I’m no exception to this rule.  On my way to the movies this evening, I took a detour and ended up sharing dinner with two special people.

I know that by judging by my photo uploads, it may seem as if ALL my students are special. They are. And I pride myself on having unique relationships with each of them. Essentially, my students are clients. Yet, for me – they are first people. Before they’re a student in my class or one who visits my office, I have to remember that they are a son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, father or mother to someone else.

So, back to my story of dinner this evening…

“What is the benefit of your job for you?” one asked me.

“Wow – do you have enough time?!” I replied.

My job has made me super rich. I kid you not! I consider myself rich in knowledge of cultures, religions and lifestyles of people throughout the world. Most importantly I’m rich in love. There are days I can’t fathom the love I receive from the people I work with. I mean genuine caring for me! How can I not feel fulfilled with a job like this?

While teaching, I maintained a strict rule of boundaries with my students. Work + Play = No.

However, since being in my current position of AY Coordinator this year, I have come to know a number of students on a non-academic level. I’ve spoken to people who are terribly homesick and afraid to tell their families, people who are lonely and unwilling to make friends, people who are ill, people who have ended long-term relationships and are here in South Africa trying to “find” themselves.

Whatever the reason may be, there are few with whom I have felt a strong connection with.

This evening while chatting to Yousef, he told me that he will most likely be leaving Cape Town at the end of October. For a reason unbeknown to me, I have come to regard Yousef as a brother. I just stared back at him and that is when I made the realization of why I DON’T like my job.

Goodbyes are unpleasant for anyone. But if I think of the past 3 months at least, I’ve had to say goodbye to people like Serif, Meral and Ho-Yong – who I felt a personal responsibility for. Having lived in Korea for three years, I felt responsible to take care of him here just as I was when I was in his country a few years ago.

This is it. This is the reason why I DON’T like my job. Saying goodbye to these people who have made a lasting impression on me.

Some may argue that I get emotionally attached too quickly. Perhaps. But I refuse to let my heart prune up and become hard.

In conclusion, the reason I have become rich is through the genuine love I have for the people I work for and teach. Everyday feels like a trip around the world and I thank them for allowing me into their space, their homes and their heart.

Yet…the number one reason I DON’T like my job is bidding someone farewell. It's the nature of my job. Students are here for a limited period of time and ultimately - if there is no other reason for them to stay here - they return to their home countries. Back to their own life as they know it!

But this is the cycle of life, not so? There isn’t a single person whom I’ve met who has not taught me something. For this, I thank each and every one of you. And believe me when I say that I have a special place in my heart reserved for every individual! J

Teaching Tuesday: English Teaching Daily

I was approached by the founder of English Teaching Daily and asked if I wouldn't mind having my blog posts republished on their site.  According to its info:

English Teaching Daily features the latest blog posts, news, newsletters, videos, event updates and  much much more – everything for the teachers of English.

I'm looking forward to extending my pool of resources in the EFL field and hopefully this site will be a starting point for such.

Thank you for inviting me to be part of your wonderful site :)

Teaching Tuesday: (TEFL) Thanking Activities

As someone who promotes giving thanks as often as possible, I was happy to come across this article by Alex Case:

Thanking Activities

Entertaining ways to practise expressing gratitude.

Written by Alex Case for EnglishClub.com

1. Who am I thanking?Students are given a list of people that they might want to thank, e.g. Santa Claus, their parents, the postman and Walt Disney. They choose one of the people and thank them with phrases like “Thanks for working so hard” and “Thank you for coming all this way” (for Santa) until their partner guesses who they are thanking.

2. Real thanksStudents think of things that they can really thank each other for, e.g. “Thank you for usually answering the teacher’s grammar questions” and “Thanks for being so patient with me when I couldn’t think of a word.” This is good to do at the end of a course.

3. Thank you, reallyIn groups of three or four, two students take turns thanking each other, choosing any subjects they like e.g. “Thanks for lending me your dictionary last week” and “I’m so grateful to you for introducing me to my wife”. When they have finished, the people who have been listening to them try to guess which of the thanks (if any) are for things the other person really did. This works best if the people thanking each other know each other fairly well.

4. No no no, thank YOUStudents compete to thank the other person more than they are being thanked. This could be:

• Thanking each other for different things (real or imaginary) until one of them runs out of ideas
• Thanking each other with more and more passionate, longer or polite phrases
• Thanking each other for bigger and bigger (probably imaginary) things, such as giving them a job and saving their child’s life, until they can’t get any bigger

5. Thanking roleplaysOne possibility is just to ask students to imagine they are in situations in which they will probably need to thank people, e.g. leaving their host family, in a newsagent’s or after hospitality from a business contact abroad. Making these realistic is obviously useful, but you can also make them more fun by adding some more unlikely ones like “Thank your boss for saving your life during the team bonding mountain climbing session and try to find a way of repaying him/ her”. You could also tell them how many times they have to use thanking phrases before they are allowed to finish the roleplay, e.g. six times between them for the newsagent situation.

6. You call that thanking?Give students many different examples of mess ups in the language of thanking, e.g. “Thank you for coming”/ “You’re welcome” (It should be “Thanks for inviting me”), flat intonation, and “I am very gratitude”. They must identify and correct the mistake each time

7. Answering thanksStudents match thanking sentences and responses, e.g. “I’ve photocopied last week’s notes for you.” with “Thanks, that’s a great help.” and “I’m afraid I can’t”/ “Thanks anyway”. To make it more interesting you can give it to them as a pairwork dictation or cut up into little pieces of paper.

8. Thank you for the musicThere are plenty of songs which are about thanking people, e.g. the Abba song with the title of this section. You can do all the usual song activities such as gapfills, or you could give them two different thanking songs on mixed up slips of paper to sort out, put in order, and then listen and check.

9. Thank you for the dialogueThere are also plenty of scenes in movies and television programmes where people thank each other, e.g. thanking a mafia godfather for a favour, a woman thanking the queen for sparing her husband from the executioner, or an old woman thanking a policeman who has just saved her cat. You could give the students part of the dialogue and ask them to guess the situation, relationships and what they are thanking them before they watch and check.