No one enjoys getting sick or going to the hospital but what's worse is having to do so in a foreign land using a foreign language. Smith’s
-Gavin
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Injuries
Ouch!
No one enjoys getting sick or going to the hospital but what's worse is having to do so in a foreign land using a foreign language. Smith’sSchool of English
-Gavin
No one enjoys getting sick or going to the hospital but what's worse is having to do so in a foreign land using a foreign language. Smith’s
-Gavin
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ET: B33 – I sometimes (A) while (B)
Seeing as how the students are returning from a 2 week holiday – Golden Week – it`s probably safe to assume that some of them will have forgotten the previous [One Point]. After some friendly chit-chat to warm up the second lesson of the day, I attempt to guide the student’s train of thought to the One Point that she received two weeks earlier. She looked embarrassed and shook her head. So we spent a bit of time reviewing the One Point, making up some creative sentences along the way. She eventually winds up with a sentence that is both true and representative of one of her favorite habits – “I sometimes eat while driving my car.” I give her a mock look of horror and ask her if she eats a full breakfast to which she answers, “no, just an onigiri.” We laugh over the implanted image of her buttering toast with one hand and juggling a cup of coffee in the other while driving on cruise control.
Routine: R6 – The Baby
It takes me a very short time to get the routine up on the board because this one is fairly straight-forward. She quickly copies down the prompts, pausing to ask a question about the word `diaper` which I explain to her. Then I ask her if she likes babies and she readily answers “YES!” This routine goes a bit slower than expected due to tiny yet repetitive grammar errors. We take a break from the routine to go into possessives before continuing. Afterwards, she goes through the story more confidently, insisting on an extra reading just to make sure that she’s got everything perfect.
Item: Prebuild – Injuries 1
I show her the illustrations of people and body parts and point to various locations like the arm and leg in order to test her vocabulary. She identifies most of the commonly known areas but freezes up on the knees and elbows. I add these words to the vocab box and then move onto the inner organs. She is lost at sea in this realm and relies heavily on the vocab box to guide her. She makes great notes with the English word on one side and the Japanese on the other, asking me to verify if she`s correct here and there. Then I ask her a few scenarios to test if she`s remembered the words. “What will happen if I smoke too much?” I ask her. She answers, “hai… hai ga…” I gesture to her notes and ask her to tell me what `hai` means in English. She says “lungs…” but can’t think of how to finish the sentence. So I give her the sentence, “You will get lung cancer.” Once she has received the proper translation for `lung cancer` she writes it into her notebook, nodding in comprehension. She then goes on to say, “I hate smoke.” We do a few more `What if` scenarios, trying to include as many of the organs as possible before winding down in anticipation of the One Point.
One Point: B20 – Next week, I will probably (A) because (B)
I write the One Point up onto the board and give her an example, “Next week, I will probably (stay home) because (I’m broke), She laughs at this and easily gives her own version, “Next week, I will probably (wash my car) because (it’s dirty). A perfect end to the lesson. Just to drone it in a little, I tell her “Next week, I will probably quiz you on this One Point because it’s important.” She laughs at this and promises to try to remember for next time.
I also found the students at Smith's School of English that I was teaching had trouble with 'knee' and 'elbow' while doing the injuries item when they had to name the body parts. And they also were definitely lost at sea with the organs of the human body.
Going to the hospital in another country can be a challenging experience for Japanese students. I find myself even filled with anxiety when I have to visit a Japanese hospital. So I find this lesson's content very beneficial to ease a student's natural nervous reaction when they have to face sickness in another country.
Usually the students aren't familiar with all the body parts in the pictures so some of the vocabulary is new for them. But they catch on rather quickly. I feel one of the most important things for them to learn in the practice session is how to talk to a doctor. Here they can learn how to identify and communication their sickness by describing their problems like "I have a headache/stomachache/backache/neckache etc. The picture cards are great for this. They set a great example and precident for the student that is easy to follow and understand. By the end of this lesson I feel that the students have progressed beyond their expectations. What seemed like a unbreakable mystery just a few minutes ago has now been easily solved in just 45 minutes time.
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