Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 5

Introduction

Opening class talking about the student's school trip last Saturday, and closing it discussing my trip last week to Hawaii. In between doing textbook activities, hoping to get a discussion going about city/country life. After that, have them practice their hearing with difficult questions about the textbook material.

Lesson Objectives

• Students will enjoy themselves, creating a positive association with the English language.
• Create an atmosphere that's comfortable enough for students to feel take chances speaking English to me and their peers.
• Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about either their trip or city/country life.
• Engage all of them by asking unexpected textbook questions, forcing them to listen closely to really understand whats going on.
• Find a way to make practicing English more appealing to them than speaking to their friends in Chinese.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

• Ask everyone to get into their seats.
• Walk around the room small talking with different students.
• Get the computer turned on if it works.
• Open a blank word document.

Greeting: Yo! What's up?

• Practice the "What's up?" routine.
  • If they don't remember, review.

Opening Discussion: Talk about their trip

• Did you do something special last Saturday?
  • Write all the answers on the word document.
• Where did you go?
• How did you get there?
• What did you do on the bus?
• What did you take pictures of?
• Did you have fun?
• Why did you go on the trip?

Textbook: Page 14 Let's get ready A

• Where would you rather live in the city or the country? and why?
• What kind of job do you need to live in a city? the country?

Textbook: Page 15 Let's listen 1 A Tapescript Page 78

• b4 starting - what is a penfriend?
• Read it correctly the first time, then change around the words to see if they're listening. (Mr. Brown)
  • Instead of "I live in England." Read "I live in France" and so on.

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 78

• After reading, when you ask the questions say "What is across from the school?" or "What is diagonal from the ______?" (Mr. Brown)

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 B (Maybe)

• (Mr. Brown)

Discuss: Talk about my trip

• Chose one of the following depending on my and the class's mood.
  • Traveling from shanghai -> tokyo -> hawaii
  • surfing
  • Hawaiian Culture: flower over a girl's ear, right ear = single, left ear = not single
  • Hawaiian Culture: hang loose hand gesture is the same as 6 hand gesture in China
  • Hawaiian Language: aloha = hello
  • Hawaiian Language: mahalo = thank you
  • Show the pics of my family, including the one of us with the pair of locals and quiz the kids about the hand gestures and flowers.

Extra Time: Number of Letters? Game (Mr. Brown)

• Make two teams.
• Tell them to make a word that begins with one letter, e.g. D, and has 6 letters.
• Go back and forth between the teams making the words.

Lesson Review

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

• Kids were in a good mood, and we got a solid discussion going about their trip.
• Took Mr. Brown's suggestion of reading the textbook wrong, and it got a bunch of giggles from the students.
  • I just kept on reading. Perhaps next time I should stop when I make a mistake and ask them what they think?
• They were not too interested in me talking about my Hawaii trip, but they did like the candy.

Next Week

• Review the Hawaiian culture?

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

• Short discussion about the trip, but a long discussion about the city vs. the country and what jobs they would like to do.
  • In Let's get ready A on page 14, I have a difficult time expressing the activitiy. Many students put "See a film" in the "Only City" list which is fair, but at the same time, it isn't what the activity calls for.

Next Week

• Near the end of class 3 boys came to the front to do a hula dance, but we ran out of time. Ask them if they'd try again?

Appendix

Acknowledgments

• Ideas I got from Stuart Brown, I acknowledged with (Mr. Brown).
• I would like to thank all the 7th and 8th grade classes at Anqing Foreign Language School who had this lesson for their participation and feedback. I would also like to thank the Anqing Foreign Language School for allowing me to teach there.

Changelog

Version 0.3 30 Mar 2010

• Included suggestions from Mr. Brown for the textbook activities.
• Typed up what I've evolved to be doing in class over the first 5 lessons of the week.