English Classroom Introduction
2017 English Classroom Introduction
A. What you need to know about Thai culture
The Wai
Nature of Thai Students
In the Thai Classroom
Your Thai co-workers
Getting to know the teacher
Getting to know each other
- Word tennis
- Team Hangman
- Hot seat
- Slap that phonic!
- Three strikes
- Answer my questions
- This is …
- What is missing?
- Minimum
- Dungeons and dragons
A. What you need to know about Thai cultures.
“Wai” is a traditional Thai greeting of places the palms together over one’s heart and bowing one’s head slightly.
Thai students are mostly ‘shy to speak’ especially in public, implying a strong cultural motivation for their reticence. On the other hand, Thai students are not different from other national groups, everyone experiences anxiety in public speaking, especially in a second language, Thai educators were saying something true and meaningful, and insofar as culture emanates from history and experience. The reticence of Thai students may very well be modifiable by appropriate teaching and learning approaches; this is your challenge during your upcoming assignment.
The typical Thai classroom size is huge. You will need to develop lesson plans that will work in this setting, that will engage a large number of students.
Make an effort to be friendly (wai*)—to all teachers and staff in the mornings, even if you do not know them personally, this will go a long way.
The second thing to keep in mind is that the concept of keeping face plays a big role in Thailand.
You can create a PowerPoint about yourself. You can create a section called "You Think Things Are Weird....They Get Better" and put pictures of you growing up - make sure to put the embarrassing pictures. The kids will love it -- let them know that everyone goes through awkward stages and it gets better. Undoubtedly students will want to know whether you have a relation, one married, have kids, share this odd pictures and possible.
Take five to ten minutes several times during the first two weeks to engage students in activities that help them get to know each other. These activities also provide ways to practice active listening, expressing feelings, and cooperation. Here are some suggestions for ways to get to know each other:
1. What Do We Have in Common?
- Give each student a sheet that has three columns and a place for three students' names.
- Then ask students to pair up with someone they don't know well or use grouping cards to place people in pairs.
- Give each pair two minutes to write down all the similarities they can think of (physical characteristics, family stuff, things they both do, possessions they both own, etc.)
- Then ask students to pair up two more times repeating the process.
- At the end of the activity, ask: What surprised you about what you discovered you had in common with someone else? How many similarities did you find the first time? The last time? Did it get easier foranyone? Why?
- Point out that when we are having a disagreement or having trouble working together, it's especially important to remember what we have in common.
2. Finding Out About Who We Are
- Create an interview sheet, have students find a partner, and choose a question that interests both of them.
- Have them interview each other and jot down their partner's name and something you want to remember that their partner said.
- Give them a few minutes and then have them find a new partner.
- You could end this activity by asking students what they learned about each other.
- Use the following questions:
- Describe your family.
- What is something funny, weird, unusual, or special about one person in your family?
- What's one place you would like to visit in your lifetime? Why do you want to go there?
- What's your favorite TV show and why do you like to watch this show?
- If you had to eat the same meal every day for a month, what would it be?
- What's one thing you would like to change about your neighborhood that would make it a better place to live?
- What worries you the most about the world you live in today?
- Name one thing you could teach someone else how to make or how to do?
- What's your favorite holiday of the year? What makes this holiday your favorite?
- What's one thing that you would like to change about your school that would make it a better place for you?
3. Meeting and Greeting Students at the Beginning of Class
The “meet and greet” that teachers do before class begins seems to be a critical benchmark for many students. They tell me how much it means when teachers hang out by the door saying “Hello” and calling students by name. Furthermore, kids say that teachers who “meet and greet” are the ones who also care about them personally, and this personal interest motivates them to do better in class.
“Meet and greet” doesn't need to happen every day – two or three times a week is fine. And varying what you do keeps students guessing about what's going to happen in class today!
Five Ways to Meet and Greet
- In the beginning of the year when you're trying to match names to faces, ask each student to say her or his name as she or he walks in so that you can hear it and repeat it.
- Shake hands and say students' names as they walk in the door. As students arrive, make comments to individuals that let them know that you notice who they are.
- Say something about their appearance a new hairdo, etc.
- Ask or comment about things that kids are doing outside of your classroom, sports events, extracurricular activities, other events and projects that students participate in inside and outside of school.
- Give students positive feedback about something they've done well in class recently.
Split large classes into two teams. This gives every student the chance to be or at least feel a part of something and it encourages an often ruthless atmosphere of competition where students are firmly focused on using their English and forget about their shy nature. Let the class choose their own team names or give them funny ones yourself.
Do not be worried about repetition. Thai students enjoy activities they have done before, as it gives them a feeling of confidence in knowing how to do something. Subsequent games and activities tend to involve a greater number of students who may have been too timid or unclear about the activity the first time around.
Keep in mind that you can do a lot of things with Thai students—even older ones nearing graduation—that you probably could not do with students from Western countries. For instance, many of the students love singing songs, when Christmas rolled around, everyone clamored to sing “Jingle Bells,” you can bring them CDs or youtube played on your phone and teach them how to sing a modern pop version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” They will love that even more—so much that they want to sing it over and over again for a whole period, This is a fun thing to do at Christmastime, but the experience also the songs can be an engaging way to focus on proper pronunciation and to learn new vocabulary.
Here are some examples of games to play:
The first team to reach three points games:
Activity Word tennis is an excellent way of encouraging children to develop their vocabulary. The game can be tailored to any theme that is being taught, and can be a good way of demonstrating subject knowledge. *Students are NOT allowed to write or use dictionaries during this game. Each team must shout out a new word. The first team to repeat a word is out and the other team is awarded a point. The next round then moves onto a different theme or letter.
Divide the class into pairs. Each pair will play the game between them. Explain what the theme and rules of the game will be. The game’s difficulty can be altered to suit the age and ability of the children; themes can be chosen to promote responses which are nouns, adjectives etc. Each child takes it in turn to say a word based on a theme; then, according to the particular rules of the game, the other must respond with a suitable word of their own: if they cannot their partner scores a point. The aim of the game is to score three points.
Two rules for word tennis can be used regardless of the theme:
1. Each player has five seconds to think of a word
2. Each word can only be used once
Other rules can be added to make the game more complicated, such as:
1. The words must rhyme
2. The word must begin with the next letter of the alphabet
3. The word must begin with a different letter of the alphabet
4. The word must begin with the same letter of the alphabet
5. The word must begin with the last letter of the previous word
6. Each letter of the alphabet may only be used as the beginning letter once
7. A player only scores a point if they can give an acceptable word when their opponent can’t
This is great for reviewing new vocabulary, tenses and Q&A. Write two identical words or sentences [as blanks] on the board, one for each team. Each team calls out a letter in turn. Just play it like normal hangman. The first team to guess the word or sentence is awarded a point. Students will only ever reach hangman in this game if you give them something they've never seen before. It's fun to write up just three blanks with a new M5/6 level class though because first they'll go through all of the vowels, then they'll go through common consonants. They usually lose because the word is KFC!
How to play hangman:
- Choose one person to be the "host." This is the person that invents the puzzle for the other person to solve. They will be tasked with choosing a word or phrase that "the players" will have to solve.
- If you are the host, choose a secret word. The other players will need to guess your word letter by letter, so choose a word you think will be difficult to guess. Difficult words usually have uncommon letters, like "z," or "j," and only a few vowels. For longer games, you can also choose phrases.
- Draw a blank line for each letter in the word. For example, if the executioner chooses the word "zipper," she/he would draw six blanks, one for each letter ( _ _ _ _ _ _ ). The host does not tell anyone else the secret word.
- The players start guessing letters by asking, "is there an 'e' in your word?" Generally, start by guessing common letters like vowels, "s," "t," and "n."
- Fill the letter in the blanks if the players guess correctly. Whenever the players guess a letter that is in the secret word, the host fills it into the blank where it occurs. For example, if the word is "zipper" and the players guess "e," then the host will fill in the 5th blank with an "e:" (_ _ _ _ e _).
- If the players guess a letter that repeats, fill in both letters. If they guess "p," you would have to fill in both "p"s. ( _ _ p p e _ ).
- Draw part of the "hangman" when the players guess wrong. Whenever the players guess a letter that is not in the secret word they get a strike that brings them closer to losing. To show this, the host draws a simple stick figure of a man being hung, adding a new part to the drawing with every wrong answer. This is also where you can adjust the difficulty of the game -- the more marks you make, the more wrong guesses the player gets and the easier the game is. The classic order is:
First wrong answer: Draw and upside-down "L." This is the post the man hangs from.
Second: Draw a small circle for the "head" underneath the horizontal line of the "L."
Third: Draw a line down from the bottom of the head for the "body."
Fourth: Draw one arm out from the middle of his body for the "arm."
Fifth: Draw the other arm.
Sixth: Draw one diagonal line from the bottom of the body for the first "leg."
Seventh: Draw the other leg.
Eighth: Connect the head to the post with a "noose." Once you draw the noose the players have lost the game.
8. The players win when they guess the correct word. If the players get every letter of the word before the host finishes drawing then they win. At any point a player can try to guess the entire word instead of a single letter, but if they guess the wrong word then the host should treat it as if they guessed a wrong letter.
The first team to reach ten points games:
Place two chairs at the front of the class facing away from the board. Have one student from each team volunteer to come and sit down. Write a word up on the board. The teams can then use gestures and language to help the two students guess what the word. This is great for reviewing opposites. Teams must not say the actual word or speak their first language. The first student to guess the word wins the point and then two more volunteers are selected. This game goes down a storm in SE Asian classrooms.
Write the alphabet, using upper- and lowercase letters, across the board. Pick two volunteers one from each team and then pronounce a phonic sound. The students then have to race to slap the letters associated with it and say a word that begins or ends with it. The winner receives a point for doing so. Keep selecting different students to take a turn. This is one of the best ways that I've found of teaching young learners and beginners the phonic alphabet.
This is good for reinforcing new vocabulary. Choose eight words and write them up on the board and on eight pieces of paper. Flip a coin or play 1, 2, 3 to see which team goes first. Hold up your pieces of paper so that students can't see the words and ask them which one you are currently looking at. Each team gets three guesses. If they guess correctly they get two points otherwise the other team is given one point. Then it's the other teams turn. Keep shuffling your pieces of paper.
This can be anything, i.e. "What am I?" [mime an animal or a job], "What am I eating? [give verbal clues and gestures], "Where am I?" [give descriptions of surroundings and what you can see], "Who am I?" [give descriptions of famous people, superheroes or even class members], etc.
Make up a fictional character and give details about their name, age, country, likes and dislikes etc. Then play true or false, i.e. "She lives in Vietnam". If there's one game that gets a class to be quiet, this is it because if they don't listen they can't win.
Choose a theme, i.e. food, and write this up in a bubble in the center of the board. Draw a line out from the bubble and write an example word, i.e. ‘hot dog' and then have students populate the rest of the bubble with words that they call out. Get the students to stand up and turn around and wipe one word from the board and then call out "What's missing?" The first team to say what word is missing wins the point.
Games that don't involve any points:
For first graders you need to start the minimum number of letters at three, for all other levels you can start at five. Write up one word at the top left of the board, i.e. ‘chair'. Teams take it turns to call out a single word that begins with the last letter, i.e. ‘rabbit'. Word must meet or exceed the minimum number of letters but not end with ‘y' because it limits the game. Students can use plurals to meet the minimum but they are not allowed to repeat words. As you start a new line on the board, increase the minimum by one letter. When a team gets stumped, begin a countdown from ten. The first team to be get to zero is out. I had a great fourth grade class once that could go up to a minimum of twelve letters [eight lines] and an advanced class that could go to thirteen. I have always found this game to be very popular in SE Asia.
Plan out two small dungeons on a piece of paper, say 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 squares and populate each ‘room' with things to do, find, interact with or fight. Write up the maps on the board as well as basic commands, i.e. Go_____ [north, east, south or west] / Look / Get the_____ / Use the_____ / Talk to the_____, Eat the_____, etc. Flip a coin or play 1, 2, 3 to see which team goes first and then have teams take turns to move their way around the dungeons one turn at a time. Each team starts in the top left hand box and the objective is to reach ‘home' in the bottom right hand box. The game doesn't have to have fantasy or horror themes either. I've created maps of home towns, fun parks, movies and cartoons. This game really captures the imagination of second to sixth graders, so use yours when designing maps for it.
Another very successful activity is practicing and performing short plays. With younger students, it is necessary to have a play prepared for them, and then have them practice it in groups. But older students will enjoy writing their own plays. When it comes time to perform the play, if the students have worked hard, memorized their lines, made props, and have done a good job, there is a profound feeling of accomplishment, not only with their proficiency in English, but with their own creative work. This will be building of self-confidence is as necessary (if not more so) as teaching rote aspects of learning English. You can invite representaters of Fund Isaan to the final performance.
D. ICEBREAKER QUESTIONS
There are questions that you can ask people to help them feel more part of a group or team. These questions are fun and non-threatening. You can use them as an icebreaker for meetings or classrooms, written on notecards and adapted for other games, or simply as a fun activity to help people get to know each other better.
- If they made a movie of your life, what would it be about and which actor would you want to play you?
- If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
- What is one goal you’d like to accomplish during your lifetime?
- When you were little, who was your favorite super hero and why?
- Who is your hero? (a parent, a celebrity, an influential person in one’s life)
- What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?
- What’s your favorite cartoon character, and why?
- If you could visit any place in the world, where would you choose to go and why
- What’s the ideal dream job for you?
- Are you a morning or night person?
- What are your favorite hobbies?
- What are your pet peeves or interesting things about you that you dislike?
- What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
- Name one of your favorite things about someone in your family.
- Tell us about a unique or quirky habit of yours.
- If you had to describe yourself using three words, it would be…
- If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?
- If I could be anybody besides myself, I would be… .etc.