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Oral Classes Online
Week Eight (November 8-11) |
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This is an online lesson for Blair's Oral English classes at Aichi Gakuin University on:
Monday for the Health Dept. (36名) and Psychology Dept. (29名) at the Nisshin Campus,
1-minute Level Checks
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((Teams Recording ON))
Speaking Skills
Levels 1 to 7
Your teacher has EXPLAINED the structure of English Noun Phrases, declarative Sentences, and Questions. Now is a good time to TAKE a look at the full range of speaking skills that you NEED to PARTICIPATE in an English conversation.
Level 1: Japanese children STUDY English in school, STARTING in elementary school. After GRADUATING from junior high school and high school, you must HAVE some English speaking ability. We will CALL that Level 1. You KNOW some English words and some grammar. You can SAY some things in English. Congratulations ... you SPEAK English.
Level 2: You have LEARNED a lot of nouns, the names of things (table, car, man, coffee, etc.) that you can SEE. You must have LEARNED some adjectives (numbers, colors, etc.) as well. When you WATCH a video clip and someone ASKS you, "What did you SEE?" ... can you ANSWER with a full 1区, 2区, 3区 Noun Phrase? That is Level 2 (and Haruna's Step 2).
Level 3: You probably STUDIED the five Basic Sentence Patterns（五文型）in your first year of high school. When you WATCH a video clip and someone ASKS you, "What HAPPENED?" ... can you ANSWER with a full Sentence CONTAINING Noun Phrases? That is Level 3 (and Haruna's Step 3).
You PRACTICED Levels 2 and 3 (Plan A, Steps 2-3) in Weeks Two, Three, and Five. Hopefully you were able the SEE (PDS Cycle の S) if your Noun Phrases were useful OR not. If you can USE them in sentences, they ARE useful. Do not WASTE time LEARNING and PRACTICING nouns and adjectives that you cannot USE in sentences.
You PRACTICED Level 3 (Plan B, Step 3) in Weeks Four and Six. You PRACTICED MAKING English sentences from Japanese sentences AND connecting them into a conversation. You are CREATING your own sentences. In the process you are LEARNING and PRACTICING useful vocabulary and grammar patterns.
Are the setences that you MAKE interesting? That's the next question. Don't just THINK about grammar ... THINK about content.
Level 4: Yes/ No Questions can be DERIVED from declarative Sentences. All you have to do is MOVE the Subject (noun phrase) into the Verb slot（V区）. The result will be one of two possible verb patterns (m-S-V or V-S). It is a simple, mechanical process, which SHOWS the relationship of the two grammar patterns. PAY ATTENTION to where the past tense, singlular -s, and negation GO in the General Pattern (m-S-V). They GO on the Auxiliary Verb（助動詞）.
Yes/No Questions are very useful in conversations when a person SAYS something that is NOT true. It's a polite way of HINTING (in a clear, rather than subtle way) that they are wrong. Be sure to EMPHASIZE the questionable (wrong) information. The other noun phrases do NOT necessarily have to be REPEATED in full. You can, and native speakers often DO, SUBSTITUTE pronouns.
Level 5: Giving short answers to Yes/No Questions is fairly simple, if the answer is clearly yes or no. If an explanation is necessary, then you might WANT to START with the phrase, "Well, that DEPENDS ..." Otherwise, you can probably answer in only three words ... 「yes OR no」FOLLOWED by a pronoun for the subject AND the auxiliary verb（助動詞）from the Question.
Level 6: ASKING Wh- Questions (Haruna's Step 4) is obviously an important skill to HELP you GET specific information, but it HAS other uses as well. If for example, the pace of a university class is too fast and you can't KEEP UP ... ASKING questions will SLOW the teacher DOWN. Questions also SHOW the speaker that you are INTERESTED in what they are SAYING.
Simply THINKING of questions about vague OR missing information can be helpful, too. It will HELP you CONNECT your sentences to sentences that have appeared in an ongoing conversation. You can USE questions to FIND a path that will KEEP the conversation FLOWING smoothly. You PRACTICED Levels 3 and 6 (Plan A, Steps 3-4) in Week Seven.
Level 7: Finally, you USE the full sentence answer to a thought Question as your next sentence to CONTINUE a conversation. The use of pronouns AND the reduction of information must be BASED completely upon sentences that have been SPOKEN out loud (not the unspoken questions).
Let's TAKE a look at an example
| 1 | Watch | Video title and card => |
Saijo no Meii episode 1 [5] of diamonds | ||
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| Micro-文法 | 1 区 | 2 区 | 3 区 | +a 区 | |
| 2 | Full N Phrase |
a | plastic | straw | |
| Macro-文法 | S 区 | V 区 | O/C 区 | +A 区 | |
| 3 | Full Sentence |
Dr. Saijo | saved | Makoto's life | with a plastic straw. |
| 4 | Yes/No Question |
Did Dr. Saijo save | Makoto's life | with a plastic straw? | |
| 5 | Short Answer |
Yes, he | did. | ||
| 6 | Wh- Question |
Where | did he get | the straw? | |
| 7 | Answer (Sentence) |
He | took | it | out of Dr. Sena's lunch bag. |
The Next Video Story
Next week you will HAVE a new story to TALK about. As you LISTEN to these English videos at home, you should WRITE DOWN Japanese sentences（4区和文）about what is HAPPENING. These can be your Conversation Starters. FIND some quiet time after watching the videos to REVIEW your sentences and THINK about how to PUT the ideas into English sentences（4区英文）. WRITE the English sentences DOWN on a separate sheet of paper (click here for details). USE the Japanese sentences to HELP you with your Groups conversations "online" and in the classroom.
Your homework for this week is to WATCH another video about Dr. Mikoto Saijo and the staff of Heisei Central Hospital. After you SEE it, please WRITE 4区和文 Japanese Conversation Starters. You can NAVIGATE from the Class Bulletin Board（掲示板）to the Saijo no Meii webpage. Then CLICK the link for episode [3] (see below).
CONCENTRATE on the people and the story, not the dialog. You are PREPARING for a conversation about the story. It is something to TALK about and good listening practice ... but NOT a listening comprehension exercise. USE your imagination, so you can TALK about what you THINK HAPPENED in the story.
Fluency and Confidence
Come from Speaking
After LEARNING people's names and WATCHING an English video, you can START to FOCUS on LISTENING to the dialog. You will be able to ANTICIPATE what people might be SAYING, and that will MAKE listening comprehension much easier. Listening to English is an important key to speaking it, but you must LISTEN again and again for the ideas, not the words. THINK about how YOU can EXPRESS (a) those ideas and also (b) what you SEE HAPPENING.
Listening and speaking REINFORCE one another. Once you LEARN how to SAY something, you are much more likely to UNDERSTAND it when you HEAR it. Your listening comprehension will IMPROVE and you will be able to PICK UP new expressions and grammar patterns from the English that you HEAR.
It is important to PUSH yourself and the students in your Group a little, so that conversations do NOT slow down to the point where everyone BECOMES bored. You can PRACTICE and CHECK the level of your conversation skills at the same time. Let's TRY it today.
During the Group Work Leaders should MAKE SURE that all students that are online KEEP their microphones ON (so that they can SPEAK) AND their cameras ON (so that they can SEE each other).
| 会議 Chat |
| Group X2 Week 8 |
| Leader: Hanako |
| Plan A: Speak English, then write English |
| Steps 2-3: Noun phrase/sentence pairs |
| a // small steel // ball [21:00] |
| A small steel ball // was stuck // in a little boy's narrow windpipe. |
| a // beige // cup [26:41] |
| Ayame // drank // some coffee // from a beige cup. |
At the top of your report WRITE
(message #1) your group's name, "Week 8",
(message #2) the leader's name,
(message #3) Plan A: Speak English, then write English, and
(message #4) Steps 2-3: Noun phrase/sentence pairs.
THEN START WRITING your phrase/sentence pairs about the assigned video. First SAY a phrase, then WRITE it (while everyone REPEATS). DIVIDE each phrase into 4区. Also WRITE the time that the noun (person, place, or thing) APPEARED in the video [ 時刻 ] .
Then MAKE a sentence USING that Noun Phrase. WRITE it (while everyone REPEATS). DIVIDE each sentence into 4区. The Noun Phrases and sentences should be about Saijo no Meii episodes [1] or [2].
If you HAVE any questions about what you are supposed to be DOING, first DISCUSS the problem with your group, then ... if you are still in doubt, DO what you or your group THINK is right, (RAISE your hand if you're in the classroom) and SHOW it to the teacher (the PDS Cycle).
((Teams Recording OFF))
((confirm online attendance
with camera/microphone functions))
| These lessons are DESIGNED to HELP Japanese students
to LEARN to SPEAK English as a foreign language. They could be REVERSE ENGINEERED to help English speakers learn to speak Japanese as a foreign language. I would be thrilled to SHARE my ideas about teaching foreign languages with other teachers. You can CLICK the link above to FIND my contact information. |