The Language Teacher
July 2002
Thingamajigs
Kim Bradford-Watts
Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
QUICK GUIDE
Key Words: Definitions
Learner English Level: Low and false beginner
Learner Maturity Level: Junior high school and above
Preparation Time: About 2 hours to make the cards
Activity Time: 60 to 90 minutes for each class
Materials: Cards, dialogue on board, cassette recorder and tape ( optional for if you would like to record the students'
test attempts)
In lower-level university speaking classes, I initially focus on communication strategies at the beginning of the course. A significant amount of time is devoted to teaching students how to define things in English, rather than reaching for the conversation-stopping dictionaries they all have in class, but may not have access to when they really need to communicate something in English.
In the first class on definitions, we concentrate on describing Japanese cultural events by giving hints using adjectives and a noun practiced in a game format.
E.g., It's a busy summer Kyoto festival (Gion Matsuri).
Then in the same lesson, students (in groups) write a list of five of the foods commonly eaten over the New Year holiday season (Osechi ryori) and write descriptions of them.
E.g., They are small, black, sweet beans (kuromame).
In the second class, additional ways of defining things are introduced.
E.g.,
It's adverb preposition place.
It's usually in the kitchen.
or
It's used for verbing noun
It's used for cooking pizza
or
It's adverb made of noun.
It's often made of wood.
You can practice this with Japanese artifacts. Recently, I have also adapted an idea from Sion (2001) which works very well since the students don't know what kind of items to expect. The items are also things that they may need to buy if they are traveling overseas or doing a home-stay. Each pair of students gets a set of cards featuring pictures of vocabulary items that at this level, they do not usually know. They take turns at picking a card from the top of the pile and use the patterns above to explain the item to their partner. When the partner thinks they know what it is, they draw a picture of it. If correct, the students swap roles. If incorrect, the student must continue to try to explain the item until the partner understands. Some examples appear below.
The third class is framed as a test where each student is given a different vocabulary card. They write the definition on a piece of paper, and return the card to me.
The students then use the dialogue (which I have already written on the board) to talk to everyone in the class, taking turns as shopkeeper and customer. The students record their turns as shopkeepers by writing their partner's name and drawing their guesses in a grid drawn on the back of their test papers. As the students are moving around and talking to each other, I slowly erase elements of the dialogue, which forces them to remember it. The dialogue is as follows:
Shopkeeper: Yes? / Next please. / May I help you?
Customer: Excuse me. I am looking for something, but I don't know the name in English.
S: Uh-huh.
C: (explain)
S: (draws a picture) Is this it?
Either:
C: No. (try again)
Or:
C: Yes. How much is it?
S: It's number dollars.
C: Here's bigger number dollars.
S: Here's your change. Thank you.
C: Thanks.
Each student needs to talk to everyone in the class. When they feel confident enough, they come to the front and play the role of the customer, with myself as the shopkeeper. At this time they are taped (with name and student number) for my records and subsequent error review.
As the students finish, they sit down and write the dialogue from memory on their test papers. When they have finished this, they hand the test papers to me and write their reflections about the class for inclusion in their learning portfolio.
Having done this series of lessons, students are more confident about communicating even when their vocabulary is sometimes inadequate. The addition of the "shopping" context seems to ground the usefulness of strategies for describing in the students' minds.
Adapted from Sion, C. (2001) Creating Conversation in Class: Student-centered interaction London: First Person Publishing / English Teaching Professional
Graphics from http://www.arttoday.com
All materials on this site are copyright © by JALT and their respective authors.
For more information on JALT, visit the JALT National Website