Jokes and Riddles

baby-sitting

Grandma was baby-sitting with the three-year-old and the five-year-old when she fell asleep on the sofa. The five-year-old felt that he had to do something about it and he tugged at her arm. "Wake up, Grandma," he said. "We aren't baby-sitting you. You're baby-sitting us and we want to go to bed."

Marriage

The first 3 years of Marriage

. In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens.. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens.. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbours listen.

Cinderella

Why couldn’t Cinderella be a good soccer player ?

She lost her shoe, she ran away from the ball, and her coach was a pumpkin.

Riddles

What do you call a deer with no eyes ?

« No Idea »

What is white when it’s dirty and black when it’s clean ?

« A Blackboard »

What starts with E, ends with E and only have one letter ? An EnvelopE

Debrief

Module 2, Building Language Awareness 

Classroom Techniques.

Here are some suggested directions for answers to the questions for this module. Actual answers may vary depending on local context and the kinds of experience that viewers bring to the task of interpreting and applying video and text concepts.

Activity 1 : match the definitions with the right term.

 

ACTIVITY : Match each definition with the right term.Appropriate  language

Authentic  sources

Collaborative  learning

Comprehensible  input

Conscious  effort

Deductive  techniques

Inductive  techniques

Language  awareness

Meta-language

Pragmatics

Reflection

Skit

-Learners  are  taught  the “rules” of  language  and  then  expected  to apply  them.

Inductive  techniques

-A focus on aspects of language within a given context. Paying attention to or noticing the language detail in a context

Language  awareness

-Learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. Learning occurs through social activity.

Collaborative  learning

-Language  that  is  both  linguistically  correct  and  that  is  proper  for the  situation.

Appropriate  language

-Learners discover the “rules” of language themselves through their experience with the language.

deductive  techniques

-Effort  that  learners  make  deliberately, knowing  and  understanding  the  purpose  for  the  action.

Conscious  effort

-Language which can be generally understood by the learner but which contains linguistic items or grammatical patterns that are slightly above the learner’s competence.–

Comprehensible  input

- Sources used by native speakers or other users of the target language for “real world” communication.

Authentic  sources

- Short dramatic performance.

Skit

- Social and cultural aspects of language use.

Pragmatics

-Thinking critically and analytically about language and learning.

Reflection

-Language used by the teacher and students to talk about language or about learning strategies and techniques.

Meta-language

Activity 1: Pre- Question :

1-What  was  the  task  in  the  third  activity ? 

2-What  were  the  parts  to  the  task ?  

3-How  did  the  students get  the  language  information  they  needed  in  order  to  do the  task ?

Building Language Awareness

Videofile://localhost/Users/ais/Desktop/Session 3 Building language awareness/2- building laguage awareness.avi

 

Feedback : Anwsers to the Questions -The  task  in  the  third  activity  was  to  plan  a  trip. In this class we saw examples of an all-class skit about the pilgrims who first came to the US many years ago. This was followed by a guided discussion in which students related their own travel experiences and how they felt about them. And, finally, students worked in groups—using real travel brochures—to create a travel plan of their own. The teacher, her aides, and various materials posted around the room provided the necessary language support or “awareness” for vocabulary, organization, and writing. Note that this approach and this sequence of activities would also work just as well with teens or adults.

2. The task in the third activity was to plan a trip. The students worked in groups. Each group created a poster to help them explain their trip. They first decided on a destination and then filled out a green sheet with the following information:

• PLACE (Nouns that describe where they were going). • PACKING LIST (Nouns that describe what they were taking in their suitcase.) • TRIP ACTIVITIES (Verbs and phrases that describe what they planned to do when they got there.) • LENGTH OF TIME (How long they would be travelling.)• TRANSPORTATION (How they were going to travel : by airplane, by train, etc .. ) 

Activity 2 : Fill in the blanks while viewing

the video

1. During the skit, the teacher repeats two vocabulary words: “cold ” which is a common word, and connects it with “Shivering” which is a less frequently used word. Using the two words together, repeating them several times, and making motions or movements to demonstrate or act out the meaning helps learners focus and gives them the meaning of “shivering.”This is one example of an effective language focus technique. 

During the question-and- answer activity, the teacher’s aide asked questions that referred, either directly or indirectly, to what the children had learned about the experience of the pilgrims. She asked students to think about their own experiences in going to a new place. Because many of the children are immigrants, this is a meaningful activity for them. It connects their real-life experiences with historical events, and helps frame the activity that follows.

In addition, because of the previous context, the children had the language they needed to answer the questions.The teacher’s aide’s questions were:

Q: Have you ever had to leave your home or country?Q: What were your reasons for leaving your home and going to a new country?Q: How did the pilgrims feel about leaving their friends and going to a new country? Q: Has anyone ever lived in one place and had to move to another? Q: How did you feel?Q: When the pilgrims arrived on land, what activities, chores, or jobs do you think they had to organize to get everything done?

Finally, the teacher and the other aide held up on yellow sheets the target language from the questions, which helped the children understand the questions so they could answer correctly. These were the words on the sheets:“How did you feel?”“Alike or different?”“Activities, chores.”