Saturday, October 29, 2016

Use of Films in the ESL Classroom




Films in the ESL classroom, or any classroom for that matter, can be a good or bad thing.
Sometimes they can be a sign of laziness. Lazy? Yes and that’s bad.  If one gets the chance to see the amusing (but ultimately forgettable) film, “Bad Teacher,” Cameron Diaz plays the eponymous “Bad Teacher.” She hates her job and instead is focused on her life’s goal of raising funds for breast implants in order to better enable herself to catch a rich husband and never have to work again. (Yes, in this film Cameron Diaz wants breast implants. It’s not exactly the most thought-out, intelligent, or deepest film ever made. I only saw it once and while I did enjoy it, I have not seen it since.)

         Therefore, instead of actually teaching her English literature class,  she simply sits in the back of the room, snoozes, and plays movies each day. Each and every day. With no exceptions or any other activities of any kid.

          She is, as the title says, a bad teacher. (By the way, I have never used this film in the classroom. I doubt very much if I ever will. )


           Don’t be a bad teacher. Don’t show films each and every day in your ESL classroom.
But does this mean you can’t use any films at all in the classroom? No, of course not.  There are many ways to show films in the classroom and do so in a way where you remain an active, engaged teacher and your students benefit from the activity.

           Over the years, I have used several films in my classrooms. The tip to using them successfully, I feel is to choose a film that is useful and relevant to the student’s interests, concerns, and goals. It should go without saying that it is best to choose a film that will not offend and will make students comfortable in the classroom. Then stop and teach from it.  In other words, 15 to 20 minutes of film per class with the film spread over several classes is not a bad way to do it.

            It is a good idea to prepare ahead of time

Consider handouts or at least make a list of the following that students will gain from the film:
  • ·         Vocabulary
  • ·         Idioms
  • ·         Cultural references and customs


Discuss these. You might wish to have supplemental materials prepared ahead of time.

          Of course, it helps to know your students. In my last class, we started watching the film, “Pieces of April.” This small independent film involves a dysfunctional family that tries to get together for one last Thanksgiving together because mom is dying from cancer. April, the problem daughter, has invited everyone to her place for Thanksgiving dinner. There are only two problems, the first is April really does not know how to cook. The second is that when she does sit down and get ready to roast her turkey, she discovers that her stove is broken and the finds herself running up and down the stairs of her run-down apartment building desperately asking people if she can borrow an oven on Thanksgiving morning.  



            In the film people speak relatively standard American English but the idiom “nip it in the bud” as in “I am nipping this in the bud right now” needed to be taught.

             As the film is from 2004 the reference to “collect calls” and “calling collect” needed to be explained.

            Curiously the phrase, “Eddy the drug dealer is history” which is used when the father is trying to give reasons as to why they should be optimistic about April’s life and their upcoming visit, was quite confusing to the students.

             When it was all over, they had many questions, but a surprising number of them were about how to properly cook a thanksgiving turkey with stuffing. Next week I hope to bring some youtube videos on how best to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey.     
A few other films, I have used in the ESL classroom include:

Bright Lights, Big City





Hair Spray



My Name is Earl –Sold a Lemon Car (Season 4, Episode 9) 




Sunday, October 23, 2016

Halloween and Pre-Christian Influence on English and English speaking cultures. ESL lesson

Pagan or Pre-Christian influence on English and the English-speaking or "Western" society are subjects little covered in ESL curriculum. As Halloween, a holiday with pre-Christian origins, is  coming and the students as me to talk about it I decided that this would make a good subject for my advanced ESL class at William K. Sanford Town Library.

I focused on several different topics and loosely linked them together.

The first was a rough map of Europe circa 800AD (ish) on which I had marked the lands of the Celts  or Celtic peoples as well as the Vikings / Norse and a big circle labelled German tribes.

I pointed at the circular area labelled "Celtics" and asked if anyone knew the name of the Boston professional basketball team. (the "Celtics") and waited for answers. Some guessed "Red Sox" and there were other guesses but soon I just went to google and typed "boston professional basketball" on the board.

Then I decided to talk and teach a bit about the history of the English language. I used three youtube videos for this.

Old English poem of the Battle of Brunanburgh

This is interesting, but, of course, there's no need to play the whole thing.

How Far Back in Time Could You Go and Understand English?

Quite good, but I take exception to the portion where they refer to the King James Version of the Bible as "the Bible" (It is one of many versions of the Bible, not "THE" version of the Bible.)

Old English Greetings

This one is a bit amateurish, I thought (not how he often seems to be reading from cue cards) but it is kind of fun. Also there is the portion where he teaches the phrase "Gode Niht" or "Good night" and pronounces "niht" sort of as "ni ccckk t" with a sound like the German or Scottish "ch" in "ach!" --this is a good place to address those pesky, oddball "gh" letters that keep cropping up in English spelling.

i.e. night, knight, through, rough, though, etc.

In all of these words, the "gh" was originally a "ch"as in the Scottish or German pronunciation of the "ch" and, by the way, it is my undertanding that all of the "ough" s at one time ha d a uniform pronunication a bit like "ooooooccckkk" but with the German / Scottish "ch" on the end.

Also worth noting, and again these were very advanced students, I would not do this with lower level students, is the way in which some English words show plurality with a vowel shift instead of an attached "s."  i.e. man/ men, woman/ women, tooth / teeth, foot / feet, mouse/ mice, etc. I just found it interesting that the roots of this practice lie back in the British languages.

I also, just in passing, mentioned Gaelic and Welsh.

I showed clips from Ashley MacIsaac and Mary Jane Lamond's 1990s version of "Sleepy Maggie." I noted that it is in Gaelic and not English and said, truthfully, that it was once one of my favorite songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoApELfgWcg

The students were a little confused by the role of Gaelic but a segment or two from this delightful short film, Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, put it in perspective for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYtG9BNhfM

There's a wonderful part where a Chinese man who has learned Irish Gaelic actually tries to use it in a bar in Ireland. It's about 8:00 minutes into the film.


Next we got to the part on some pre-Christian / Pagan influences on our society.

These were, first, the "strange" practice of "knocking on wood" for luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc4khyR6yBk

I explained that although this custom had origins in a belief in tree spirits and tree gods. I also mentioned that most Americans do not know this and I had only learned it when I was about 27 years old from a friend.

I then went to the names of the days of the weeks.

While Sunday and Monday are named after the Sun and the Moon respectively, the other five days of the week are named after pagan / pre-Christian god.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named after the Norse / Viking gods Tyr, Wodin, Thor, and Freya respectively. I used Google images to explain and show pictures of who they all were and, of course, mentioned the Marvel Comics film. I also mentioned that now they knew why there was a "d" in the middle of the word for "Wednesday."

Of course, i had to share this too.

 


I also mentioned that the names of the planets came from Roman Gods.


And then, and only then, did I actually get into Halloween which I explained with this video. I did stop the video from time to time to clarify or explain a point. 



I then mentioned the Easter bunny and Easter eggs (pre-Christian influences) and Santa's elves, another sort of pre-Christian borrowing. 

To finish the class and give the students a chance to talk to each other and not just listen to me, I asked them to offer their solutions to the following advice column questions, each of which had a Halloween theme. 



http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/10/11/1-cowgirl-right-to-speak-up-about-halloween-costume.html

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/10/19/cheap-candy-might-work-magic-on


http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/10/20/halloween-cowgirl-can-leave-her-pistol

This one I did not actually use in class as it contained sexual content but I did find it funny. 

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/12/10/wifes-birthday-gag-gift-turns-out

Friday, October 7, 2016

Dear Abby -- The English (or busy and over-worked) English teacher's friend.





Dear Abby -- The English (or busy and over-worked) English teacher's friend.
Advice columns such as Ann Landers or Dear Abby.
Show them to students, cover the answers, and ask them what they would do.

DEAR_ABBY_12880069-e1420416724734-655



Very useful but you must read them in advance or you may find (to your surprise and shock) that they contain sexual situations or other situations that you do not wish to discuss in class.


http://chicago.suntimes.com/lifestyles/dear-abby-after-7-years-should-we-wed-or-wait/

Thursday, October 6, 2016

English as a Second Language Lesson plan --Giving Advice



Tomorrow is my advanced class at the William K Sanford library.
The subject will be on giving advice. I may try to tie the lesson in with the recent election debates. (Although if I do that then I guess I will have to actually watch at least part of the debates, something so far I have done successfully.) I suspect I shall suggest the students give advice to the candidates on how to act better in the debates.



Sample lesson plan



goal




Student will be better prepared to give advice using modals.

Objective


Students will be able to make sentences with the following modals used in both a positive and negative way.
1.       Could    / couldn’t
2.       Should  / shouldn’t
3.       Must  /mustn’t



Ice- breaker
Review



Introduce self to students
Tell the students I am here for a job interview.
What should I do?
(NOTE THAT THIS IS INCORPORATED INTO THE LECTURE)

Lecture / explanation





SEE NOTES

Exercise / practice




Pass out worksheet


Assessment



Look at worksheet

Possible Homework




???

Materials not covered that could be used for follow up, review and expansion:
1.        Unreal conditionals (two great songs for this are “If I were a rich man” and “If I had a million dollars.”)
2.       Dear Abby  




The lecture notes


Lecture –Giving Advice

         1.   Introduce the subject of giving advice
Explain my problem –job interview
INTERACTION: Explain I will need advice, but that comes later. 

          2.   Ask them for examples of problems. 
INTERACTION:  Write them on the board.  

           3.   Introduce the constructions “should,” “shouldn’t” and “should not.”
INTERACTION:  –PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE
               
Explain how to use them in a phrase or sentence.
Give some examples.
“if you are hungry, you ______________ eat.”
“if you are thirsty, you ______________ drink.”
“If you are tired, you ____________ sleep.”

AND THE
“If you are tired, you ______________ drive.”
“If you are angry, you ______________ speak.”
“if you are sad, you _____________ watch sad movies.”  
LOOK AT THE EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS
INTERACTION: Discuss what people should and shouldn’t do.

IF TIME ALLOWS EXPLAIN  “must” and “must not” and “could”

GO BACK TO THE EXAMPLES AND PRACTICE  

Here's a useful link on how to teach this.:    http://busyteacher.org/3903-how-to-teach-giving-advice.html

And here's a useful worksheet you can pass out to your students:  http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar/2g18-should-shouldnt-exercise.php



Good luck, if you use this, please give credit where credit is due. (Including to the folks I linked to,) and leave your comments please,