Now we have arrived at concrete techniques. A warning:
techniques without a proper quality management system, both in the classroom
and at home, will yield significantly less results.
If I had to choose between techniques, quality
management and mindset, I would prioritize them in inverse order.
Without having a proper attitude towards the process
(patience, adopting a long-term perspective, constructive responses towards
failure and obstacles), only few will see sense in systematizing their learning
process, and without a system, there will be less chances that suitable techniques
will be applied, evaluated, adapted or changed at a regular basis.
Otherwise, we will have the commonplace phenomenon of
sporadic outburst of activity, especially before exams or after exhortations by
the teacher, and frequent slumps, especially around holiday time.
Here are some techniques to play and experiment with
in the classroom. There are many more available on the internet and in language
textbooks. However, those included here have shown particularly good results
with my students. Some of them are actually fun to do.
In general, encourage your students to maintain a
playful attitude while practicing them, to think more of it like playing with
Lego©, assembling model airplanes or painting, than like studying
hard in a school setting.
As you experiment with various techniques, monitor the
challenges and results they bring along. Create a document for your standard
teaching procedure, where you gather tips and tricks, as well as your
experience with the various methods. Sketch out the process of your typical
lessons (for different types of courses and levels). Write it down as a
sequence of exercises and/or themes.
Experiment and find out what works best
for you. Try to order the sequence differently. Vary the length and depth of
each segment.
Personally, I stick mostly to the bottom-up approach.
We start by warming-up working on phonetics and then go up to improvised
conversations at the end of each lesson. However, from time to time I create
disruptions so that my lessons stay less predictable to students.
I start by formulating the instructions I give to
students. You can use them initially verbatim, and then adapt them according to
your students´ needs and understanding.
Then I give advice on how to incorporate each
technique into the classroom, and what the rationale behind it is, as well as
common difficulties and objections.
Reading out loud to a metronome
Student
instruction
A metronome is something
familiar to most musicians. Some of you may have even a physical one at home.
However, using one of the sites below works just as well.
Set the metronome at
moderate speed and read a text in rhythm with the clicks; one syllable per
click. Then, repeat the reading, increasing the tempo each time.
This forces us to pronounce
each syllable more clearly. Especially since many of us have the habit of
clipping syllables.
This is quite a mechanical
exercise. Of course, there is nothing aesthetic in speaking to a monotonous
beat. You should not aspire to always speak in exactly the same tempo. This is
just for clarity and for building up speed.
·
Learn the
rules in your target language as to how you can identify where a syllable
starts and where it ends.
·
Start very
slowly; increase gradually to the maximum.
·
Work with
a short passage and improve your performance.
·
Play with
the rhythm. For example, vary the number of syllables per click (between 1 and
3).
·
Try to
maintain the original stress in every word. You need not put equal stress on
each syllable. This, in combination with the equally loud clicks, creates an
interesting rhythmic experience. My intuition is that it would be a useful tool
for aspiring hip hoppers, too, although I have never had anyone among my
students test it out.
You can use the following online metronomes
Advice for teachers
This is a technique I
rarely use in the classroom with texts, but recommend occasionally for
homework.
Combine this with
explaining the rules for detecting syllables in the language teach. How do we
recognize the onset and coda of a syllable?
However, in the classroom I
often use the metronome for
·
Conjugating
verbs (for building up speed, staying energized and not slumping down);
·
Building
short phrases/word groups based on lists (see this technique in the
corresponding section below);
·
Practicing
words difficult to pronounce, tongue twisters or the main stress in a sentence.
Initially, many students
untrained in music while find it difficult to maintain a steady pulse, as well
as to speak and listen to the click at the same time. Often, it is helpful to accompany
the metronome with you clapping.
If you want
be notified about the upcoming book or more articles and materials on the
psychology and quality management of language teaching, please subscribe to my mailing list.
If you want
to read more about quality management in language teaching, please check out
the other articles on this blog. If you have not read it yet, I recommend those
on student feedback
questionnaires and on how to standardize
your teaching.
Stay tuned!
Gerhard
About the
GO Method
The GO Method applies research
in psychology as well as principles of quality management to the language teaching
process. It conforms to key elements of the ISO 9001 standard, while being more
specific on teaching-related issues. Customers get access to easily adaptable
document templates.
About me
Psychologist and polyglot from
Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in psychology from the
University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as a university
lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre des Hommes,
IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method network, with
representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.
