[Oe List ...] Fwd: August 27 for ST

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Number three.



-----Original Message-----
From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031 at aol.com>
To: editor <editor at saipantribune.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 2:59 pm
Subject: August 27 for ST



Listen (ting) and repeat (chungfu)
 
Pimmsler's work on language learning is popular.  The Internet come-on is the by-line oflearning a new language in ten days without a book or CDs, though I suspect,the winsome smile of the lady promoting the website probably got our attention;I clicked more than once!  I was only methodologicallycurious, of course, only to find out what I already knew in my more than30-years of pedagogy; one relies on the way students naturally learned theirnative tongue as a child: listen and repeat.
 
In the three years I taught oral English to students at theShenyang Aerospace U and tutor children at the Shou Wang weekend school, two ofthe only Chinese words I used were ting (listen)and chungfu (repeat).
 
I used the classic character ting, not the simplified one currently used to denote payingattention with one's ears.  The earlierversion began with a radical that set the meaning of the word.  In this case, there were three major groupsof strokes.  The first one on the left wasthe "ear" with an emphasis on it being huge (open wide) written belowit.  The second was the "eyes"so that listening also involved viewing and watching with intensity.  This occupied the top right quadrant.  The third written just below the"eyes" was the "heart", thoroughly engaged.  I called it the hooker.  The one word was equivalent to "activelistening" in English.
 
Just this one word had enormous implication in the conductof the classroom.   It required my students to be at fullattention all the time.  Normal classeshave teachers equipped with a mini-microphones and portable speakers so that zevoice was amplified throughout the room. In lecture halls, the room was equipped with a sounds system and giventhe popularity of Power Point presentations, lectures were conducted with thelights dimmed save the one by the board; the front row listened in earnestwhile the rest of the class behind them did something else, or caught up withtheir z-z-z-s.
 
Thus, my class architecture was designed so there was noescape from the gaze of the neighbor.  Classnumbers varied in size from 30 to 60 students. When it was over 30, they had two sessions per week so I split them intotwo, no more than 30 per, each attending a session and skipping the other.  I assigned them seats, my way of learning toidentify each person by their birth names rather than the "English" onesthey chose or acquired in other English classes, usually for the convenience ofthe foreign teacher. 
 
Not only did assigned seats break roommates who tended tostick together (there are four in a room in the dorm) but it also broadened student'scircle of co-learners.  I had them workin small groups with people they did not normally associate with.  It also worked to their advantage since theywere assigned work outside the class, each one encouraged to teach two aslearning is best accomplished when one taught what one learned, in this case, learninghow to learn.
 
Seating arrangements silenced the loquacious, and engaged theshy, in two rows of semi-circles if the class numbered 30.  Smaller groups were in tight but cozy one rowaround the room.
 
On the center of the room was a table covered with akerchief (mine was a simple black and white alaPalestinian head gear) with a hankie centerpiece laden with a broken cupand spilled uncooked rice, local stones from the schoolyard and one or two gemsfrom my collection.  I walked around thecenter table so there was no defined front of the room.  When someone was called to speak, ze spoke tothe whole class, and discovered "public" voice.
 
And talked, they did, though not at first.  They had to overcome "face" so theywere asked to leave their "faces" outside the door of the room.  This was hard for many trained to bebackbench warmers.  They were in aspeaking class and if they had to worry about "face", they would notopen their mouths.  Read and write, they didnot hesitate, but speaking from experience, of personal feelings, thoughts anddeeds was "private", not in the normal comfort zone.
 
They listened to the teacher, their classmates, and to one'sself.  It was on the last that we askedthem to speak, first, to repeat what they heard so that they can hear their voice, and get comfortable with theirown sound in English.  We get them torepeat familiar ads and public signage, but mostly, sang along popular English songs.  Then I got them to talk about themselves byidentifying parts of their bodies that included words they were not toofamiliar with like forehead, cheeks,chin, chest, hip, thigh, calf, shin, etc. I designed varied games to do this and they had fun learning.
 
Listen and repeat begin the learning of languages.  In class, I described what I saw, heard,smelled, tasted, and touched over the weekend, and asked the class to do thesame individually in their assigned groups. There were no right or wrong answers. There was only the courage to speak. 
 
Everyone worked doubly hard on the courage!


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!


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