Teaching Survival Skills

Teaching “Survival Skills” ******* Teaching Assistant Pre–Semester Workshop Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign 28–29 August 1996 *** Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. Time Required to Gain Proficiency in Selected Languages Sample Communicative Activities for Teaching Students How to Speak Sample Writing Activities Sample Activities to Gain Proficiency in Listening, including suggestions on how to introduce a video lab into the language curriculum 5. Suggestions on How to Teach Reading 6. Teaching Culture, a too often overlooked topic in language courses These materials were gathered and prepared by Dr. Jonathan Z. Ludwig, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Expected Levels of Absolute Speaking Proficiency in Languages Taught at the Foreign Service Institute This chart was drawn up by the School of Language Studies of the Foreign Service Institute. It summarizes our experience with students as taught in our own classes rather than our judgments about relative difficulty of these languages for speakers of English, though there is undoubtedly some correlation. The expected speaking proficiency for a student with a given background and a given aptitude, in a given language, after a given number of weeks, will depend not only on the difficulty of the spoken language itself, but also on the amount of time and effort that the student has had to spend in concurrent study of the writing system. GROUP I: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish Aptitude for Language Learning Length of Training* 8 weeks (240 hours) 16 weeks (480 hours) 24 weeks (720 hours) Minimum 1 1+ 2 Average 1/1+ 2 2+ Superior 1+ 2+ 3 GROUP II: Bulgarian, Dari, Farsi, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Urdu Aptitude for Language Learning Length of Training 16 weeks (480 hours) 24 weeks (720 hours) 44 weeks (1320 hours) Minimum 1 1+ 2/2+ Average 1/1+ 2 2+/3 Superior 1+/2 2+/3 3/3+ GROUP III: Amharic, Bengali, Burmese, Czech, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Khmer (Cambodian), Lao, Nepali, Philipino, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhale, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese Aptitude for Language Learning Length of Training 16 weeks (480 hours) 24 weeks (720 hours) 44 weeks (1320 hours) GROUP IV: Minimum 0+ 1+ 2 Average 1 2 2+ Superior 1/1+ 2/2+ 3 Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean Aptitude for Language Learning Length of Training Minimum 16 weeks (480 hours) 0+ 24 weeks (720 hours) 1 44 weeks (1320 hours) 1+ 80-92 weeks (2400-2760 hours) 2+ Average Superior 1 1+ 2 3 1 1+ 2+ 3+ * The number of hours is the theoretical maximum at 30 hours per week. The numbers given are ratings on the ILR (formerly FSI scale), which is the US government rating system: 0 = ACTLF novice; 1 = ACTLF Intermediate; 3 = ACTFL Advanced; 4 = ACTFL Superior; 5 = ACTFL Distinguished. 2 Sample Communicative Activities for Teaching Students How to Speak The core of the communicative approach to language learning is teaching basic oral skills; after all, if our students are to survive in a foreign country, they must be able to express themselves in any given situation. Thus, they must not only know the basics of the language they are learning (how and when to use set phrases in particular situations and the basic grammatical structures), but they must also be able to deal with unexpected situations (use what they know of the language to express themselves in a situation in which they have little practice or familiarity). Thus, we must not only develop their basic grammatical and vocabulary skills, making sure that certain words and phrases become second nature to them, but we must also develop their analytical speaking abilities, enabling them to assess and survive in new situations. Below are some sample activities that will help prepare students both for the expected and for the unexpected. Obviously, these activities will have to be adjusted to some extent depending on the year of instruction and the abilities of the students in the class. One additional point should be kept in mind for all levels: students should move about while participating in many of these activities; if they are creating a dialogue for a given situation, they should be up out of their desks, acting out the situation. This will help to diminish complacency on the part of the students and will make them feel more “involved”. Basic speaking skills 1. Introductions: All students should be able to say a little about themselves as quickly as possible. To achieve this, introduce basic phrases as early as possible, such as “my name is …”, “I live …”, “I study …”, languages spoken, age, etc. Have each student stand up and tell a little about themselves (on the first day of class even, if it’s an advanced class; students in any level beyond the first semester of the language can say something about themselves in the target language). Because new information will be added each week, this monologue will grow considerably over the course of the semester or year. In the past, I have, at the end of each week, asked each student to stand up and briefly reintroduce themselves, adding the new information learned that week. In that way, the old information becomes and stays very familiar, while the newer information is reinforced in their heads one last time for that lesson. As the students progress, you can slightly change this activity, encouraging them to ask each other questions on what was said (and what wasn’t said!). 2. Number, months, days: Basic information such as this must simply be memorized by the students. To facilitate this, have students recite it over and over again, much as in the traditional/classical style of teaching. I, however, add new twists by asking students to recite, for example, the even numbers, the odd numbers, to count backwards, by threes, etc. The same variations can be practiced with the months, days, and any other group of similar vocabulary. 3. Controlled spontaneous dialogues: Many textbooks provide basic dialogues for the situations described in the lesson. A good way to ensure that the students have adequately learned the required vocabulary and structures is to have them participate in controlled spontaneous dialogues. For this activity, pair the students up and assign them a particular role, giving them a lot of detail on what they are going to say. Thus, they are performing a particular set role, with set expectations, rather than trying to 3 improvise totally on the spur of the moment. (For Russian, Golosa is designed this way; however the situations therein can be expanded and inproved upon.) I found that this approach worked very well last summer teaching first-year Russian intensive conversation. It helps to reinforce the basic required vocabulary and grammatical elements, without simply doing fill-in-the-blank type grammatical exercises. In this exercise, they are using the language more actively. 4. Necessity: Soon after arriving in the country of the language they are studying, the students will have to express that they need something, need to do something, etc. Such expressions can be practiced simply by having students use the active vocabulary, asking/telling each other if/that they need something, need to do something, etc. Students can answer, always using complete sentences, in the affirmative, “yes, I need …; yes, I need to do …; no, I don’t need …/I already have …; no, I don’t need to …/I already did …”. For this activity, students should not only learn the required vocabulary, but they should also begin to select their own personalized vocabulary, based on the situations they expect to find themselves in and on their anticipated needs. A variation on this exercise is to bring in props, distribute them to the students, and have them ask each other for the items, stating that they need them. Practicing in this way also reinforces vocabulary and the identification of basic items. 5. Rooms/Families: In much the same way as the students introduce themselves over and over again, they should be able to discuss such things as their living accommodations and their families. Again, not only should they master the required vocabulary, but they should also select those words that describe their personal situation. Here, students should be asked to bring in pictures, or design their own, to facilitate understanding. At this time students should also be required to begin asking basic series of questions, to begin moving from strictly learning and reciting the basics of the language to communicating more actively with each other. As with all the other “descriptive” activities in the classroom, I have at times encouraged my students to lie. If they would rather make up a family, room, etc. for themselves, that is fine, as long as they are actively and correctly using the language! Analytical speaking skills 1. 20-questions: Nearly all American students are familiar with the game “20questions”. Think up a topic or have one of your students do this, making sure that it is something that can be discussed/guessed at their particular level, and have the other students ask basic (yes-no) questions about it, up to 20. (This activity works particularly well after you have introduced nationalities, professions, and theme chapters such as movies, music, and literature. If you have small prizes to give out to your students, this would be a good game to do it for. If no one guesses correctly, the one who thought up the topic wins; otherwise, whoever guessed correctly first wins (and gets to come up with the new topic). 2. Less controlled spontaneous dialogues: In this variation of the activity, we change our emphasis slightly from the dialogues created above. Here, you only provide the students with the basic situation: at customs, at the doctors, at a party, in a store, at a restaurant, etc. They then must come up with the entire dialogue themselves, reacting more actively to what the other person is saying to them. Situations I have tried before are to assign the general topics “at a party” or “MTV’s Real World”, where the students 4 are meeting each other for the first time and must find out everything they can about each other in a normal everyday situation. A dating game scenario, where students can decide if they are compatible, is another variation on this theme. 3. Party Quirks: Comedy Central has a wonderful show called “What’s My Line?”, an improv comedy show/contest. One of my favorite parts is called “Party Quirks”. Here the contestants are assigned a particular role, which they must then act out, and the host of the party must guess by asking questions. This activity allows the students to act not as themselves, but role-play someone else, thus thinking like someone else, learning new vocabulary for the situation, etc. Again, prizes can be given to the winners. To make it even more interactive, all the students can be assigned a role and all must try to guess who each other is. 4. Interview with a native speaker: For this activity you, the teacher, should arrange for a native speaker to come into the classroom for a brief, maybe 15-20 minute questionanswer session. The students, pretending to be members of the press, should have a series of questions to ask the native speaker and should follow up with additional questions, based on the answers given to the original questions. This classroom activity can be followed up by a writing assignment, summing up the important information given during the interview. (More on this below.) 5. Story time: This is another completely spontaneous activity. Give each student a picture at the beginning of class and about 3-5 minutes to think about it. Then each student should come to the front of the room and tell what is happening in the picture or make up a story based on the picture. To make this activity more communicative, as before, students should be encouraged to ask questions about the story once it is over. 6. Testing conversation: It is recommended that at least two separate conversation exams be given during the semester. Testing methods may vary from test to test, but students should be expected to know certain key set phrases, to participate in and create dialogues, give monologues on a variety of topics, and engage in a question/answer session on a variety of topics. Memorizing a poem is another good oral activity. Sample Writing Activities Many of the speaking activities can be turned into written homework assignments. If at no other time, I particularly try to assign a writing assignment the night after each test, giving the students one last opportunity to use the vocabulary and grammatical constructions in a more active fashion, before moving on to the next series of information. For example, I might ask them to write a description of their families, their living accommodations, a short autobiography (even an obituary for themselves, allowing them to express what they want to do with their lives and what they hope to accomplish!). Again, each activity should be constructed slightly differently for each particular level. 1. Follow-up writing assignments: After the interview with the native speaker described above, the students should continue in their role of newspaper reporter and write a column about the interview. Tell the students that this is the assignment ahead of time and be sure that they are taking notes while the interview is being conducted; 5 emphasize that they need to ask a number of questions while the speaker is available, so that they can write an adequate article, because they will not be able to ask later. 2. Stories: For a break from simply writing about themselves based on what they learned in the previous lesson, ask your students to write a story/fairy tale, using the grammatical elements and vocabulary from the past lesson, but with an added fantastic element to it. This allows them to be a little more creative than they might otherwise be. Be sure to warn them about the dangers of exceeding their limitations too far and of using a dictionary incorrectly, however! 3. Keeping a journal: While at St. Louis University, I had my students write a weekly journal entry. Each Friday they were to turn in an at least one page, double-spaced essay. Either I assign topics—topics have included answering the questions “Who are you?” and “Describe your families”, topics a student on any level should be able to answer to some degree—or I leave the students free to choose their own topic for the week. Over the weekend, I read through and corrected their journal entries, which they were to correct and return to me at the end of the semester, at which time I assign them a journal grade, which figures significantly (10%) into their semester grade. The journalentry assignment allows both me and the student to see progress in writing skills over the semester. 4. Testing writing: In addition to the homework assignments, it is possible to include a brief writing passage on select exams, particularly the midterm and final. For this, I often return to the picture idea. Have a stack of pictures on your desk during the test. Once the students have completed the other parts of the test, have them come and select a picture and write a brief story about it, length depending on the level of the students, of course. Be sure to have more pictures than students, so everyone can have an ample number from which to choose. If you want to ensure that certain phrases are used, mention them in English. For example, your directions might read “Describe the following picture, being sure to use the following expressions: stand, lie, sit, on the edge, under, to the right of, near, to the left of, in the middle of, next to, in front of.”. Sample Activities to Gain Proficiency in Listening, including suggestions on how to introduce a video lab into the language curriculum Students are amazed that by the end of the semester or year they can say so much about themselves and ask so many questions. The problem that persists is that while many responses that they receive in the classroom are textbook-type responses, and hence expected, many of the responses in the real world will not be. Hence, quite often, our students can ask a perfectly worded question, but they cannot understand the answer. While the analytical oral activities will help in this regard as the semester progresses and especially as the students slowly remove themselves from strictly textbook answers, other activities can greatly increase listening skills. The past three summers teaching Russian, I have taught a Video Lab course, which, according to the evaluations of my students, has greatly increased their listening comprehension abilities. Video lab has one distinct advantage over language lab activities: the ability to see what is going on greatly increases the ability to comprehend the situation. One way to begin the video lab lesson is to show the film without the sound and have the students guess 6 what is happening. Show the film again, this time with the sound, discuss what the students understood—I find that by asking somewhat leading questions, the students will, as a group, have understood nearly everything—and whether their guesses were right or wrong. Once you have discussed what they have seen, play the film again, this time giving them a copy of the text, with certain words missing. Have the students write in the missing words, while listening to the film again. This will help train their ears to listen for certain key words and demonstrate to them that to understand a given situation, they do not have to understand each and every word. Most situations can be comprehended simply by understanding key words. These activities can be varied with others, such as watching the film and then having the students act out, in their own words, what they have just seen. A final possibility is rather than discussing what they have seen at first, give them a series of questions, at times leading, and have the students answer them as they watch the film. This is a good test to discover exactly how many students, as individuals, are understanding what they are seeing. For all of these activities, it is important to keep the film segments rather short, no longer than five or six minutes, a brief self-contained scene out of a movie, for example. Having the students do an occasional transcription is also good practice for listening comprehension. In the past, I have read a series of sentences, often with somewhat tricky elements, so that the students have to not only transcribe what they hear, but they have to check it carefully to make sure that it makes grammatical and semantic sense. None of this should completely take the place of sending students to the language lab; rather, these activities should be used to supplements language lab work and provide a nice change of pace for the students. Suggestions on How to Teach Reading Reading is another activity that students who are going abroad must be able to do with a certain amount of fluency. After all, to see a movie, to figure out a bus schedule, to ordera meal in a restaurant, or just to keep up with day-to-day events by reading a newspaper, our students must feel comfortable reading the language that they are studying. In some ways this is an easy skill to attain, for students can always resort to a dictionary if they do not understand a particular word, in ways that they cannot in the middle of a conversation. Nevertheless, we should strive to teach our students to read, utilizing a dictionary as little as possible. Thus, we must make a clear distinction between teaching translating (which we should do from time to time, for a change of pace, and because it too is a necessary skill) and teaching reading solely for basic comprehension. 1. Using real materials: During the course of various situation dialogues, introduce items such as movie schedules, menus, personal adds (students also like to write their own!), etc. to be used in the course of the dialogue. That way, not only must the students understand them, but they must also then discuss them, demonstrating to you that they both understand them and can react to and use them. 2. Using newspapers: At the beginning of a class hour, pass out a brief newspaper article to your students, giving them 3-5 minutes to look over it. Stop them from using a 7 dictionary, but gloss a few difficult vocabulary items for them. At the end of the time, ask them what they could understand about it. As with the video assignments, the students, as a whole, will undoubtedly understand a great deal. You can also do spot translations of passages which you think they should understand perfectly or those that use an important grammatical structure and ask about certain grammatical constructions. If you concentrate heavily on reading in a portion of your course, do not choose all the articles yourself. Have each student find their own article, in their own particular area of interest, so that they can work on vocabulary acquisition in their area(s) of specialization. You can then design a portion of a test, either a mid-term or a final, for each student based on the individual article. 3. Using real literature: This is difficult to teach, because of the complexity of the material. Nevertheless, students often really want to read literature in its original form. Therefore, you should try to work brief excerpts of literature into the course from time to time. If readers are available, this is the easiest way to introduce these texts—they are already heavily glossed; otherwise, you will need to do this yourself for the texts you introduce. Having students memorize a poem and research a little about the poet is another activity many enjoy. This also provides a brief introduction to the culture of the country as well. 4. Testing reading: For testing purposes, try giving the students a short passage, somewhat heavily glossed, and have them answer a series of questions on it. Include either a spot translation of a phrase or sentence and/or underline certain elements and ask the students to parse them (give case, number, gender, person of verb, tense, aspect, etc.), ensuring that they understand the grammar behind the vocabulary. Teaching Culture, a too often overlooked topic in language courses The teaching of culture is often overlooked in language courses. Many textbooks will have cultural notes here and there, but teachers, usually because of a lack of time, will brush over them or tell the students to read them on their own. This is unfortunate, because often it is wanting to learn about a foreign culture that draws our students to the language as much as learning the language itself. Therefore, it is important to introduce as much of the culture as we have time to. Teaching culture here extends from explaining the little things that will either endear you to someone or offend them, to the history and literature of the country. I briefly mentioned introducing literature into the syllabus in the reading section, but there are several other ways of introducing cultural activities into the classroom. 1. Cultural notes: If there are cultural notes in the textbook, do not simply brush them aside. Either go over them in class, explaining them in more depth, or have the students read and study them and then quiz them on the information during the course of another test of quiz to ensure that they completed the assigned task. If there are no cultural notes in your textbook, create and introduce some yourself. 2. Music: Along with literature, my experience has been that students would like to learn some of the music associated with the language they are studying. I have used both Russian folk and rock music in my classes, transcribing the lyrics, translating them, and using them at a point in time that the grammar, if not the vocabulary, will be 8 comprehensible to them. I even try to encourage my students to sing along, when I play the song a second or third time. If dances accompany a particular song, try introducing them as well. 3. Slides/pictures: From time to time, perhaps after a test, if the test does not take the entire hour, try to show some pictures of the important landmarks of the country, telling the history behind them. This will allow you to introduce the history of the country to your students. Also show pictures of city/country life to help prepare your students for spending time there. 4. Food: Over time, students become very interested in trying the food of the country they are studying. If you are willing and able (and if there is no authentic restaurant in town), consider inviting your students over for an authentic dinner. Involve them in the planning and preparation stages of the dinner to give them the complete experience. 5. The World Wide Web: The latest in Internet technology is an invaluable tool in teaching culture. More than 75% of the world is hooked up to the net for more than just electronic mail. Many universities, organizations, and museums around the world have set up web pages, complete with information about their countries and holdings. If time is short in class to introduce culture in depth, you can surf the web, find informative sites, and assign your students, as part of their homework, to read through these sites and complete assignment sheets or write summaries of what they have learned from the particular site. If there is not an adequate amount of information about your country on the web, consider making your own web page. 6. Hypercard Stacks: If you are a Macintosh user, with some programming ability, you can create your own cultural Hypercard stacks. These make the cultural study more interactive, and you yourself can control the content better than you can on a web page, and you can add any readings and music that you want. 9