<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Speaking in tongues</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Pimmsler's work on language learning is popular. The Internet come-on is: "learn a new
language in ten days without a book or CDs". The
winsome smile of the lady promoting the website caught my attention, and though
I was only methodologically curious (of course), I found out what I already
knew in years of pedagogy; one relies on the way students naturally learn their
native tongue as a child: <i>listen </i>and <i>repeat.</i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">In the years I taught oral English to students at the
Shenyang Aerospace U and tutored children at the Shou Wang weekend school, the
only Chinese words I used were <i>ting </i>(listen)
and <i>chongfu </i>(repeat).</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"><i>Ting</i> denotes paying
attention. There are three major groups
of strokes. The first one on the left is
the "ear" with an emphasis on it being huge (open wide) written below
it. The second is the "eyes"
so that listening involves viewing and watching with intensity, occupying the
top right quadrant. The third brushed
below the "eyes" is the "heart", indicating heartfelt engagement. It makes the one word with many strokes equivalent
to "active listening" in English.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Just this one word had enormous implication in the conduct
of my classroom. It required students on their own volition to
be at full attention all the time since not doing so would be obvious. Normal classrooms had teachers equipped with
mini-microphones and portable speakers so that ze voice was amplified
throughout the room. In lecture halls,
the rooms were equipped with sound systems enhancing the popular Power Point
presentation; lectures were conducted with the lights dimmed save the one by
the green board with the front row appearing to listen in earnest while the rest
of the class fingered smartphones, or caught up with their z-z-z-z-s.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">My class architecture was designed so there was no escape
from the neighbor. On my third year, when
classes had over 30 students, they had two sessions per week so I split them
into two, each alternately attending a session and skipping the other. I assigned them seats, my normal way of learning
to identify each person by their birth names rather than the
"English" ones they chose in other English classes for the
convenience of the foreign teacher. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Assign seats broke-up roommates who tended to stick together;
it also broadened student's circle of co-learners.
I had them work in small groups with
people they did not normally associate with.
It also worked to their advantage since they were assigned work outside
the class, encouraged to "each one teach two" (E1T2) as learning is
best accomplished when one taught what one learned. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Seating arrangements silenced the loquacious and engaged the
shy, in two rows of semi-circles if the class numbered more than 30. Smaller classes were in one row around the
room, cozy since no one looked at anyone's back!</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">On the center of the room was a table covered with a
kerchief (a simple black and white <i>ala </i>Palestinian
head gear) with a hankie centerpiece holding a broken cup and spilled uncooked rice,
local stones from the schoolyard and one or two gems from my collection. (Students invariably asked what the decor
"meant".) Throughout the two-period
session (with a break) I walked around the center table so there was no defined
front of the room. When someone was
called to speak, ze spoke directly to the whole class using "public"
voice.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">The students talked, though reluctant at first. They were asked to leave their "faces"
outside the door. This was hard for many
who were used to be backbench warmers on a hide-and-seek game. They were in a speaking class and if they had
to worry about "face", they would not open their mouths. There was no place to hide. Read and write, they did not hesitate, but
speaking of their sense experience, personal feelings, thoughts and deeds was
"private", not in their normal comfort zone.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4">They listened to the teacher, classmates, and to their own
voice. I had them repeat <i>(chongfu)</i> what they heard</font><i style="font-size: 18px;"> </i><font size="4">so that they can hear themselves, and
get comfortable with their own sound in English. We got them to repeat familiar ads and public
signage, and sang along popular English songs. I got them to talk about themselves by
identifying parts of their bodies that included words they were not too
familiar with like </font><i style="font-size: 18px;">forehead, cheeks,
chin, chest, hip, thigh, calf, shin, etc. </i><font size="4"> Varied games to do this were designed. They learned.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">"Listen and repeat" started babies' natural learning
of any language. The method worked in
the classroom, too. (Unfortunately, the
passing of test is still the mode of learning in China). In class, I described what I saw, heard,
smelled, tasted, and touched as an invitation for students to do likewise in
their assigned groups. A comfort level
was in place because they talked of what they already knew without reading a
book, to persons they are familiar with.
There were no right or wrong answers.
There was only the courage to speak.
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria;">My students and I worked doubly hard, first on
the courage, then, they spoke!</span><font size="4"> </font><br>
<br>
<div style="font-size: 18px; clear: both;"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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