‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’

You do not come dramatically, with dragons

That rear up with my life between their paws

And dash me butchered down beside the wagons,

The horses panicking; nor as a clause

Clearly set out to warn what can be lost,

What out-of-pocket charges must be borne,

Expenses met; nor as a draughty ghost

That’s seen, some mornings, running down a lawn.

It is these sunless afternoons, I find,

Instal you at my elbow like a bore.

The chestnut trees are caked with silence. I’m

Aware the days pass quicker than before,

Smell staler too. And once they fall behind

They look like ruin. You have been here some time.

(‘To Failure’, Philip Larkin)

Tuesday 15^th, November, 2011

Sometimes you just have to accept defeat and admit that you failed and today, my grade 3 lesson was most definitely a failure.

I had a proper grade 3 class today for the first time in several weeks. Classes were missed for a variety reasons; first, they were revising and then taking their speaking tests; second, they had to sit their final exams; and third I was told by my co-teacher last week, at the last minute, to play games with them. The reason for the game class being that they had just finished their exams and deserved a break. So the lesson that I gave today, or tried to give today, was ready to be given last week before my co-teacher pulled the plug. Over the past week I have not stopped tinkering and agonizing over it. This is an important lesson because I am going to use it for my methodology assignment. I wanted everything to be carefully planned and crafted.

In the end, isn’t it always the way, all my planning and strategizing counted for naught. I have one solitary grade 3 class on Tuesday. All my other grade 3 classes are at the end of the week, bunched together on Thursday and Friday. But not class 3:3, they occupy the last period of the school day on Tuesday’s; the last class before they are liberated from school for another day and get to go home. Period 7, 3.25 to 4.10. I should have known there would be a problem. Historically, this class has always been difficult to manage. I assume that it being the last class of the day has a lot to do with this; they are tired and restless and difficult to motivate or engage by the time I see them. In other blog posts I have described previous, difficult lessons with this class. The problem is compounded by my co-teacher Mrs. Lee. Mrs. Lee must be getting close to retirement and whilst a nice person and a lovely lady is not as accomplished in classroom management as some of my more authoritarian co-teachers. The students tend not to listen to her a lot of the time and make only token gestures towards following her instructions.

However, today’s class was particularly bad. I arrived early, I was well prepared and organized but immediately I could tell the atmosphere in the room was not going to be conducive to completing a lesson. Straight away Mrs. Lee said she had to go to a meeting and promptly left never to return. Typically, without a co-teacher the students are more difficult to control. However, I don’t think her presence today would have made much of a difference. Like stubborn mules the students refused to do anything; they ignored all my instructions; they didn’t pay attention to anything I said; they didn’t listen or in fact do anything I asked; overall, they seemed completely indifferent to my presence. At one point I counted seven students slumped over their desks asleep, completely oblivious to the lesson happening around them. At another point I realized two students were just sitting listening to an MP3 player. I noticed a girl who was intently reading a ‘Twilight’ novel until I interrupted her. And nearly everyone else was chatting to the people around them for the whole duration of the lesson. Today was the first time I have come close to losing my temper. I was genuinely angry by the time this lesson ended. I was even angrier at myself for letting them make me feel angry.

I think the problem is that they have essentially finished middle school. They have sat their last exams and in a few short weeks they will leave for good. There is simply no incentive for them to participate in class. Both my grade 3 co-teachers told me I should just give ‘easy, game lessons’ from now until the end of the term. I would be happy to do this but as I am still giving the grade 1 & 2 students their speaking tests I needed to give a lesson to the grade 3 students so that I can write about it for my TESOL methodology assignment.

Unfortunately, there is just nothing to write about in relation to this class because they didn’t participate at all. It didn’t matter how I had planned to activate schema or that I had planned to use a variety of MIC and CI techniques. It didn’t matter that I had spent time tailoring the different activities and finding suitable pictures. None of the planning and preparation mattered at all in the end.

I would love to know how this class could have been turned into a successful lesson.

Now I am left deeply concerned about my upcoming grade 3 lessons. I can’t even assess whether there is a problem with the lesson itself because there was just no engagement with it. If my grade 3 classes on Thursday go the same way as today’s class I will have to drastically rethink the lessons I will give on Friday.

'Everybody's Talkin' Part 3

Speaking Tests Revision Lessons

The revision lessons for the speaking tests are all the same regardless of grade or level. They are basically cramming sessions. I have discovered that time is short and covering all the questions can be challenging. Earlier mistakes in managing time have taught me that I have no time for a warm up or for much pair work or group activities. I give the briefest of introductions and launch straight into the questions.

At the beginning of the lesson I have to explain what is actually happening – they are going to have a speaking test in their next lesson with me and in this lesson we are going to practice. The fact that they have a speaking test is often news to the students. It’s as if they can’t believe it sometimes. They say ‘oh no!’ and ‘oh my god!’ I tell them not to worry, ‘it’s easy!’ I hand out the test questions and explain that when we practice today I want them to write answers. I want them to write answers so they can study them later. Throughout the lesson I will constantly go around making sure they are writing example answers for each of the questions and correcting errors, making suggestions.

These lessons require a lot of energy on my part for a couple of reasons; there are no activities apart from some pair work, so I have to keep the students interested and engaged by expressive behavior and enthusiasm; and there is a lot of teacher talking time. I think these lessons can be quite intense for the students too. The evidence of past classes indicates that the affective filter rises immediately when they are told they are going to be tested – many students seem to get anxious so easily. Furthermore, the simple fact that they are practicing and writing for the whole lesson must be difficult for them too. My main tool in overcoming this anxiety and the monotony of the revision classes (besides my own behavior) is the PowerPoint I make to accompany the lessons. Last year I made the mistake of using a PowerPoint that literally just had slides of different questions and some examples. I found that once I ‘livened up’ the PowerPoint with pictures and photographs of things I can use to elicit answers or discuss examples it makes a world of difference. I’m happy to note that with my new improved PowerPoint and my slightly improved confidence in using 'making input comprehensible' techniques the revision lessons this semester have seen a big improvement on last year.

Some of the niceties of normal lessons have to be dispensed with for the revision classes. The preview, present, practice, produce model is pretty much out the window. I don’t introduce any new L2. Theoretically everything in the lesson should fall into the category of linguistic schema because it has been studied and covered already. There is no top-down bottom-up structuring. There is no ‘topic’ to hook the students to. Overall, the questions, language and grammar we practice are not authentic because the context is cramming for a test. Furthermore, because I’m not introducing new input or language I suppose I’m not really using ‘making input comprehensible’ techniques. However, this can’t be correct (a problem with definition?) because I have been specifically repeating, rephrasing, using visuals and providing examples throughout all the revision lessons. Perhaps in this context I should refer to these as ‘classroom interaction’ techniques.

In fact after Saturday’s methodology crash course revision in 'making input comprehensible' and 'classroom interaction' techniques I was determined to make a concerted effort to use more in my revision classes. I have been modeling, gesturing, repeating slowly, chunking, role-play modeling with co-teachers, rephrasing, asking questions and making corrections. After four classes of this in a day I’m exhausted. Where is my stamina? But it does appear to help and really propels the lessons along.

Here is an example of a test question from the grade 1 paper:

3. Did you eat breakfast this morning? (Page 125)

· What time did you eat breakfast?

· What did you eat?

Before I ask them the question I put on a PowerPoint slide of a full English breakfast – bacon, sausages, eggs etc. I ask, gesturing, ‘what is this?’ Pretty quickly they answer ‘breakfast’ or name ‘sausage’ or ‘tomato’ or something. Once they say ‘breakfast’ I ask ‘is it a Korean breakfast?’, ‘Nooooo!’ ‘Where do they eat this breakfast?’ ‘America.’ ‘England.’ I tell them ‘that’s right, it’s an English breakfast.’ For fun I ask them what all the different parts are. (They always say the beans are spaghetti) It’s surprising to me how engaging for the students this little interaction is – it always generates enthusiasm and elicits lots of responses. Finally, I ask them ‘does it look delicious?’ They almost all say ‘noooo!’ So I ask what is delicious for breakfast but before they answer I say ‘wait! First…’ and I put the next slide on which has the question ‘did you eat breakfast this morning?’ and the answer ‘yes, I ate breakfast this morning’ and go into modeling the question.

I have been trying hard to improve the modeling. First I say ‘everyone’ and gesture for them to repeat as I ‘chunk’ the question into three parts – ‘did you’ (students repeat) ‘eat breakfast’ (students repeat) ‘this morning?’ (Students repeat) Then I break it into two parts – ‘did you eat breakfast’ (students repeat) ‘this morning?’ (students repeat) I point and ask ‘what is morning?’, 'what is breakfast?’ I give them a little time to write the answer and move onto the next slide.

The next slide is a picture of an alarm clock. I ask ‘what is this?’ ‘Watch’, ‘clock’. ‘What kind of clock?’ ‘An alarm clock’. ‘What time is it?’ ‘6 o’clock.’ ‘That’s right’. The next slide is a picture of a digital clock displaying ‘7 am’. I ask the same set of questions for this slide as for the alarm clock but I also ask ‘when is am?’ ‘Morning!’

The next slide has the next question and three example answers:

• What time did you eat breakfast?

• I ate breakfast at 6 o’clock

• I ate breakfast at 7am

• I ate breakfast at 7.30

Again I use chunking, choral repetition, gestures and slowing down my rate of delivery to convey the examples. I ask ‘is this too early for breakfast?’ and they almost always say ‘yes!’ So then I ask ‘when is a good time for breakfast?’ and write some of their answers on the board. I gave them some time to write an answer and go around checking whilst they are scribbling.

The next 3 slides show ‘bread’, ‘cereal’ and 'rice’. I ask what each is and then show the slide that explains the questions and examples. I go through the same process as before but this time also ask ‘so what is delicious in the morning?’ I can’t believe so many people eat kimchi for breakfast.

This is essentially the same system I go through for each question. If there’s time I will get the students to practice each question with their partner. Often there is not time. I try and include some visuals that I can use to introduce each question and elicit some answers instead of jumping into the question straight away. It helps if I can engage their interest before practicing the question, whatever it may be. Without this visual stimulus the revision is a real grind for the students. I try and break it up as much as possible.

I have been trying to think of structural ways to improve the revision lessons but so far haven’t come up with anything. Time is again the enemy – I have to cover all the questions in one 45 minute class. If I had more time I could design activities and exercises for revising the dialogue. What else can I do to improve the revision classes for my students?

Everybody’s Talkin’ Part 2

Designing Speaking Tests

When I was first asked to do the speaking tests last year I really wasn’t sure exactly what to do. My co-teachers told me the basic guidelines regarding time limit and criteria but apart from that I was left to design them myself. I was surprised by how little input and guidance I received from my co-teachers, especially the first time. I tried asking them for advice but they were remarkably unforthcoming. At the time I thought this behavior was very strange but have since learned this ‘passive resistance’ is quite common in Korea. Luckily the previous NET had left some files behind that included the speaking tests he had given during his time at the school. Having nothing else to go on I used those as a basis for designing my own. I did briefly consider focusing the tests on a specific interaction like ordering food in a restaurant or booking a flight somewhere. But instead of this I opted for a relatively unrelated series of questions like the previous teacher had done.

I decided to take all the questions from the chapters in the textbooks that the students had recently studied. It seemed only fair to use questions they had already encountered and theoretically already studied although this turned out to not necessarily be true. One of the problems I have is that I can’t make leveled speaking tests – the students, regardless of level and proficiency, have all meant to receive the same test. Therefore the questions I choose from the textbook have to cater to all levels of proficiency. This does not seem practical to me but I suspect there must be some official reason of which I am unaware. In practice though I have to remove some of the questions for the low level students.

As I said I use the recently studied textbook chapters as the source for questions. For example in this year’s grade 3 test I took two questions from a ‘listen and speak’ exercise in the textbook. I didn’t teach this exercise in my classes as it was covered by my co-teachers in their own classes so I don’t know if the students had any specific problems with it. I don’t know exactly how the teachers deliver it either. Basically though the students listen to the following dialogue:

Girl: What do you like to do?

Boy: I enjoy camping.

Girl: Do you enjoy fishing, too?

Boy: Yes, I do.

And then they listen to this dialogue:

Girl: What do you like to do?

Boy: I enjoy hiking.

Girl: Do you enjoy traveling, too?

Boy: Not really.

So you can see the basic structure it is trying to teach. Once they have listened to the dialogue they are to practice with a partner. Again I don’t know exactly how the teacher arranges this in the classes. There is vocabulary to go with the exercise in the textbook too: Camp, hike, fish, travel, cook, take pictures, swim, ski, and shop.

From this exercise I made two questions for the speaking test. So my question 6 is:

6. What do you like to do? (Page 111)
• Why do you like doing it?

The first part, ‘What do you like to do?’ comes directly from the textbook and the second has been added by me. For my question 7 I ask 1 or 2 of the following:

7. Do you enjoy cooking? (Page 111)
• Do you enjoy taking pictures?
• Do you enjoy hiking?
• Do you enjoy shopping?
• Why / why not?

I feel that this is relatively fair. The first part of the question is quite straightforward and has been covered in class. The second part gives the students room to say what they want. It is here they can impress me and really display their ability, or not as the case may be. Some students shine in these sections – They often come up with interesting, idiosyncratic answers. I love it when the students reveal their individuality. Even though they are stressed by the experience many inject humor into their answers. Of course some students are less successful. Whilst the first part has been covered in regular class I do give examples and practice reasons they can give for the second part in the revision class that precedes the tests. However, when a student comes out and is stumped I always try and prompt them for answers. In fact I am sure if my co-teachers could hear me they would say I help them too much. For example, if a student has said ‘yes, I enjoy cooking’ but freezes when I ask ‘why?’, I will, after giving them some time, say something like – ‘because of delicious food? Do you like eating delicious food?’ This is along the lines of what we practiced. If they the say ‘yes’ I say ‘so, ‘I enjoy cooking because I…like…eating…delicious…food.’’ But hopefully they follow the prompt and take over the sentence before I finish it. They won’t get a top mark for this but I can still give them a mark.

The textbook exercise I took these questions from also tries to focus the students’ attention on an aspect of pronunciation regarding stressed and unstressed vowel sounds. For example:

Focus on Sounds Listen and Practic

_________o__0______O__________o_O
A: Do you enjoy surfing the internet? ↑ B: Not really. ↓

Here the unstressed ‘o’ and ‘u’ from ‘enjoy’ and ‘surfing’ are contrasted with the stressed ‘i’ in ‘internet’. I should really be listening out for this in the tests but have to admit I didn’t notice it once. It is as if my ears are simply not trained to pick up on this kind of thing. I will have to train them!

I also try and include a visual element in the test paper as well. So for example the grade 1 test paper includes the following questions:

8. Do you know this symbol? What does it mean? (Page 92)

[Photograph of the recycling symbol]

9. How does he go to school? (Page 91)

[Photograph of a boy on a bike going to school]

10. What are the girls doing? (Page 90)

[Photograph of two girls playing table tennis]

I hope the visual element provides a kind of stimulus for the students. It breaks up the test and means they are not just listening to me. They have an image to go with the questions.

In conclusion I have to say I am not satisfied with the way I put the tests together. I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with the questions. But I think I could be designing it better and choosing questions that would better help me gauge proficiency in grammar, understanding, vocabulary and pronunciation. The ‘testing’ aspect is challenging. Obviously I know when a student’s pronunciation is off or their grammar is not right but sometimes I think I’m not that attuned to identifying these things. I constantly worry that I’m not giving students appropriate marks. I wish I had even a minute to process and think about each test once I have given it. Instead what happens is as soon as one student stands up another one sits down. This means I’m making my grading decisions very quickly without any real reflection. However if I had 1 minute in-between students the whole process would take twice as long. My co-teachers are not going to agree to that.

I didn’t think I had that much to write about concerning the speaking tests but it turns out I have more to say than I thought. In tomorrow’s blog post I will talk about ‘question types’ and the revision classes. I would really love to hear some comments and suggestions about designing the tests. I wanted to attend some lectures at the KOTESOL conference about designing tests but they were on at the same time as other lectures I wanted to attend more. Maybe next year I can attend some.