This post is inspired by the latest from my #langchat colleague Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell’s excellent blog “Musicuentos” – Gracias for the inspiration!
Ah – the new year. A fresh start and a time to both reflect and look ahead. It is a perfect time to think about changing (gradually changing!) how I do a few things in my MFL (Japanese-language) classes. So what are the resolutions? My “3 for ’13” are…
More Authentic Resources – It can be easy, as a Japanese language teacher, to take the easy road out when it comes to authentic documents. After all I used to think, with 3 orthographies to learn (and only incorporating 280 of the ‘required’1850 Chinese characters needed to be considered literate) there is much realia that is not directly accessible to my students. There is, however, a lot that is – and I have not been using it as much as I should. This semester for the first time I taught ‘weather’ to my Yr2’s using a TV weather podcast. They loved it and were keen to ‘listen’ for the weather word in amongst all that they were hearing. Songs, videos, radio ads, commercials and drama episodes are all fodder for the visual/aural authentic opportunities. This new year will see me start to search out more.
More ‘Linked’ Activities – I have started to link my unit oral and written pieces more. It brings more purpose to ‘why’ we are interacting and more authenticity when writing. My Yr2’s were working on a unit that culminated in a “Activity Centre” oral – pairs of students creating a centre for other students to possibly sign up for. On “Activity Centre Fair Day” they took turns manning their booth and visiting others. All the information that they learned was recorded in English. On the day of the ‘written’ exam this piece of paper was returned to them and they used to write about 2 centres they’d like to join/1 they wouldn’t and why. I was surprised by their ability to justify their choices. They told me they enjoyed it as well as it felt like they were writing ‘for a reason’ and not just to write. More of this to come!
More ‘Speaking/Listening’ Opportunities – As I move to balance my more traditional write/read heavy approach I continue to search out more speaking/listening opportunities. I will continue to use my opening questions strategy that I have blogged about previously. My Yr4 students (the seniors) have been experimenting with reviewing concepts/homework together using the target language. For me the key question will be “what are they doing now that they could be doing orally/aurally”? Equally key will be my role in supporting that learning by providing, and teaching, strategies to further their interaction. I will also be mining #langchat archives for more ideas!
I’m not much of a fan of resolutions but I like the idea of trying to slowly implement change. And if publishing my goals helps me in this then I am all for it!
Colleen
