As a native English speaker, I have to force myself to think about whether an activity involves speaking, listening, reading or writing. I find I'm more of a task-based teacher, wanting to make everything so interesting and practical, sometimes forgetting about the actual EAL content. I also have a difficult time coming up with lessons that target only one or two language abilities. I have a natural tendancy to include all four abilities since that is how I communicate naturally. However, with this second plan, I feel a bit more comfortable since I received positive feedback from my first plan that should help me to improve.
The difficulty I'm coming across for my specific lesson, on learning how to pay for groceries at the check-out, is finding relevant material for awareness-building. I can't find any videos that are specific to Canada, let alone Winnipeg or Manitoba. The only resources I have found are either a transcript, which is more focused on reading and not listening; or videos about store issues, such as food safety or price-watching, which is not EAL-based. Creating a role-play, acted out by myself and another teacher, might be more specific to my students' needs.
One thing brought to my attention during my research is the ability to stray from the script. What if the cashier says something that my students haven't learned during practice, such as 'Paper or plastic?' As a homestay host, I have to encourage my international students to remember it's more important to communicate, rather than avoid mistakes at all costs. So, perhaps I should include some strategic competence in my lesson to give them tools to survive in a potentially stressful environment. They could say, 'I don't understand' or 'Excuse me?' or 'What is paper and plastic?' Most people are very willing to repeat or try a new way of explanining such as 'Would you like your food put in paper or plastic bags?'. It's more about the social graces rather than being perfect.
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Yes, I sure agree - it is about communicating and no one communicates perfectly, even in her first language. It is okay to make mistakes and our students need to realize this too! That's part of negotiating meaning and communication itself.
ReplyDeleteYou have touched on something that we, as language teachers in a communicative environment must be very conscious of - the balance between content and language. Because we are using the relevant environment to forge communicative, real world tasks, it becomes more challenging to not emphasize content over language issues.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can tell from your ideas of creating role-play to increase awareness of language use in common situations that are specific to Winnipeg, as well as the strategies you mention for variation in common language that you are keenly focused on language!
It sounds like you are achieving a good balance of language and content in realistic, relevant situations.
Thanks for sharing your process and your experience!
Jennifer