This is where you will post your refections for our Week 2 tasks.
We did two tasks this week - Draw a Pig and Story Retell. Pick one to reflect on, or do both, but them your overall reflection needs to be longer I would guess.
For week two, we were introduced to two very exciting activities. The first activity, draw the pig, involved drawing a pig, exchanging the picture with a partner, and coming up with a profession suggestion for them. We were able to engage in longer conversations compared to week 1, because we had to explain why we thought a certain job would be the best for our partners. I first thought that explaining wouldnt be so detailed, but as we shared our suggestions, my partner and I were able to go into a deeper conversation by sharing detailed factors about our pictures. By the end of the activity, we even got to the point of talking about what our futures would look like with the job that we chose for each other! The activity was really fun and it was nice to have longer and deeper one on one conversation with a partner.
For the second activity, we got into groups and tried to create missing parts of a story given to us. Each member of the group got a character, and we were then regrouped by our characters to create a backstory to each of our characters. Coming up with the story was fun, since the general plot of the story that was given to us was pretty interesting itself. Everyone actively participated to come up with the backstory, which I highly appreciated. After we came up with the backstory, we then went back to our original group, to put the parts together and finish the story. Because telling a story requires higher level of details, I feel that I was able to enhance my explaining skills. Explaining stories in detail was actually one of my weakest points when it came to speaking, so I was glad that I had the chance to practice.
The most interesting part about this activity was that although each characters decided on same backstory, every single group came up with different stories as a whole. This made me realize that speaking ability as a group and as individuals can vary on some cases. I felt more confident speaking in the environment where everyone agreed with me, and it seemed that speaking competence as a group was above average. However, it was a bit more difficult for me to tell my story when there were others disagreeing with me, and I felt less confident.
Overall, I feel that the two activities we completed in class for week 2 was a lot more effective in terms of speaking than the activities from week 1, since we were actually able to engage in fuller and longer conversations this time, and the topic of our conversation and discussions were a lot more complex compared to just reading off sentences that we have on our paper, which we did on week 1.
This task was a balance between meaning-focused output and the development of fluency. Story Retell was a meaningful activity for the students in three aspects: it caught the students' interests, was purposeful in a pedagogical way, and was comprehensible. Although the activity itself seems adequate only for children, it is also suitable for adults, as the instructor was well aware of the Korean trait that most people were interested in blind-end stories. Thus, the students were deeply interested in creating their own stories in groups. The students were all aware of the fact that they have to write a reflection for the activity, and that the activity is aimed at enhancing their English speaking skills rather than the content of the activities. Students were also able to understand most of the words spoken during the activity, as the others were willing to explain and repeat what they had said for them to understand.
The instructor started the activity by flashing the PowerPoint on the whiteboard. I thought that this action was better than just reading words, as the students could pay attention to the professor and the contents written on the paper at the same time. The instructor showed signs that he was reading the contents of the paper again during the reading session, so that those who have finished could re-read what was written on the paper.
During the activity, a paper with instructions and a sticker name tag was given to each student, which were able to elicit interaction between students. The instructor provided word chunks that the students could use, such as "I want to be ~" to make the conversations more fluent. The students seemed to have fun while they were discussing, as the instructions that were needed for the activity were clear. The instructor went over from table to table, in case the students were having problems with communication or confused with the rules of the activity.
I thought it was a great idea for the students to have time where they could organize their stories, but the time given seemed short. It seemed that the activity could be improved by giving the students more time to organize rather than to think up stories, as students simultaneously altered their stories due to leftover time. However, it was good to see students encouraging others to speak continuously, agreeing with the others and boosting each others' confidence significantly.
Overall, the activity was purposeful in a pedagogical way, but served its role as an activity in which students could freely express themselves.
For week 2, the instructor introduced 2 activities. Both ones were in the balance of a pedagogical purpose and a real-world purpose. It was because those activities were able to contain expressions in our real conversation in common lives; also, they included some components from the pedagogical goals like composing the storytelling or kind of simple reasoning process. Then, let me get into the detailed reflection.
The first one was Draw a pig. The instructor gave a sheet of paper where the pig analysis was written. He told us not to read the written page, but to draw a pig on the empty page freely. After drawing a pig, I exchanged my pig with a partners pig, analyzed her pig, and gave a job recommendation to each other. When we analyzed the pigs each other, we could get not only some proper adjectives and expressions for a location from the paper but also other adjectives synonymous with those words. After that, when I recommended the profession to her, I should tell her why I selected that profession. Through this process, I could improve my paraphrasing skill as well. Additionally, after listening to her recommendation, I could have a chance to add some clarifying questions like Why did you select the job ~?, and reflecting questions like As you said I tend to be conservative, ~?
The next one was Story Retell. He handed out a paper. There was a brief situation for storytelling, but there was missed information quite a lot. Our mission was there, which was to fill out the missed information on each roles own, and finally, make the story of each group as a form of an interview with a reporter and 4 characters. After getting enough instruction from him, we determined our role, and I became Simon who hit Gregory badly because I wanted to make the understandable reason for hitting Gregory. After the decision of the roles, each role of each group got together by their role. (e.g. Simon gets together with Simons from other groups.) After making each roles own background story, we were re-grouped again, and our group reporter began to ask us the questions she had prepared. During this process, both the quantity and quality of our group conversation were evidently increased. In addition, though my skill to tell the story with well-detailed points was very bad, I was very impressed on the fact that there were people able to wait for me, and I can finish my statement well.
Overall, through the activities of week 2, I could get improved not only my speaking skill but also my rearranging skill after listening to others. I think this could be achieved because of a lot more developed sophistication rather than the ones of week 1.
We did two activities which are highly related to speaking. The first one was like a personality test. We were ordered to draw a pig on the back of the paper and switch it with a partner. The partner would figure our ones personality based on the drawing and come up with a job that would fit with the personality. By telling the idea to the partner, students could practice speaking and share their ideas with details.
I think this activity was helpful not only for speaking but also for vocabulary because learners have to know some specific vocabularies in order to come up with certain job and describe it with reasons. In my own case, I was somewhat confused with a certain word, but with my partners help, I could remind the word and explain well.
The second activity was about retelling a story. Students read a short story which is missing some significant contents. Thus, they get a role and divide into groups with the same role. In the group, they have to make up stories related to their character and get back to the original group sharing the stories. In this way, students can complete the full story. However, although everyone has the same contents, they can have different stories based on their comprehension and explanation.
I think this activity requires a high level of understanding and speaking ability. This is because they have to comprehend the contents when talking with the people with the same role, and share them with their group members with concrete explanation. With such role play, students get to talk more and learn some vocabularies and expressions. I think the second activity is more helpful for students because it requires active participation as everyones role is important.
In this activity, students draw pig on paper and change the paper with the other students and read about the one's characteristics according to the pig that student had drawn. For example, if the pig is drawn toward the top of the paper, you may have a tendency to be positive and optimistic. Student then recommends a job that fits well with the student who draw the pig.
It seems that students can learn vocabulary related to vocation through this activity. It was fun because it was like a psychological test. But there is something that need to be complemented. I did not come up with a proper job when recommending it to the other person. In my group, students recommended politicians, analysts, professors, and teachers to each other. There are only a few famous jobs. It would have been better if instructor wrote down words related to various occupations on 'Pig Analysis' paper. Especially job that students cannot easily hear. It will be more helpful to learn the words.
story retell
In this lecture we read the story about four characters - Gabriel, Gregory, Sinbad, Simon. Students played a role as characters and reporters. There were five groups of about five to six people in it. Students with the same role gathered together to create an empty part in the story. After that, they went back to the original group and made a story again by compromising each other's claims. Through this activity, while making the story, students can learn how to give an opinion and how to refute the other person's words. However, there are three things that need to be fixed to make this activity better.
First, students did not understand exactly what they should do. At first, I assumed that students create a story in their group. However, when I heard that people with the same role had to come together to make a story, everyone seemed a bit confused and I felt the same feeling. Because I thought that if we did it in that way, all the groups would came up with the same story. But as a result, all the groups created different stories. So it would be nice to instructor to tell in advance that every group will all have different stories anyway.
Next, the characteristics of the students made this activity not run smoothly. After the conversation between people with the same role, they went back to original group. The professor urged us to refute the conflicting information, but the students were so careful about each other. When their character was attacked (e.g. Gregory said "Gabriel is not my girlfriend but she is stalker"), they did not refute. Therefore, there were difficulties in gathering the stories of the four characters. Instructor has to talk strongly about the need for rebuttal.
Finally, interviewer needs some guidelines. There were three questions that interviewer had to ask to fill in the missing part of the information. For example, why Simon used violence against Gregory, and what did Abigail do that makes Ivan did not sympathize with her. However, these questions did not appear in early interview. These questions should be made as a sample questions so that every interviewers can ask. And instructor has to tell interviewer that at least 2-3 questions per person should be asked so that all characters can speak evenly. Because during the interview, the main characters-Gregory and Abigail received many questions while Sinbad and Simon received few questions.
In this weeks class, professor introduced us with two main tasks: pig analysis and retelling a story.Pig analysis was the first task which we had to draw a pig on a blank sheet of paper and compare with the ones others drew. Some pigs hada longer tail with simply two small eyes and a nose, while some of the other pigs had a little ribbon and had more details. After that, we looked at the pig analysis paper to briefly test our personalities and recommend each other jobs based on the personality test.
I personally believe this activity really helpedus easily engage in conversation. The animal pig seemed to be a very intimate animal,and the fact that this task did not require us with a prior knowledge of a certain field made everybody start talking freely without any restriction. I was actually pleased with the performance within our group members. Nobody seemed to sit behind and be quiet; everyone was smilingand actively talking. It could have been better if I included some more details in my pig: just to make it more interesting.
This activity may also be a great activity in classrooms with elementary school students. From my past experience of teaching students, most students seemed to engage in this kind of activity where they can take time drawing and displaying their creativity. This would help them not only be closer friends to each other but also be able to practice grammatical expressions such as You would be a great..., I think you will be....
It was a second class of a second week, and I still needed a time to get used to my classmates. Luckily this activity let me talk with classmates as a team with much fun. I acted as a Gregory, and we made our own stories, and prepared for reporters expected questions together, which made me relax, because it was not alone.
When every characters gathered and talked about their own stories, they focused their characters situation, so they spoke in very carious intonation. For example, reporters intonation was calm, Abigail and Gregorys intonation was resentful, and Sinbads intonation was apathetic. These intonations let us speak more and participate in activity.
However, although a goal was to find Ivan, it seemed all the characters had forgotten this goal. Everyone had concentrated much on their own character, making their own stories or alibi, so they had forgotten their relationships with Ivan. Even reporter spent most of the time trying to identify complex relationships of the rest four characters. Therefore, I think it would have been much more perfect activity, if someone or an activity paper sheet reminded us that our final goal is to find where Ivan is and what happens to him.
This week we had the chance to test two new activities for English learners: Pig drawing and Story retelling. Even though there would be things to comment on the first task, Ill focus only on the second one, longer and more complicated.
The story retelling is an activity requiring lot of effort from the students. The principle in itself is quite complicated: students are divided in groups and have to pick a character to impersonate from a story line quite incomplete, then the students who have picked the same character have to gather to invent their version of the story except for the students who have picked the reporter role, they have to make up questions to interrogate the others, finally the initial groups get together and the reporter have to figure out what happened, to complete the story line. It is basically a role-play.
I think this task has to be addressed to high proficiency students because it requires a lot of talking and so lot of vocabulary and grammar abilities, if we look at it with the idea of task-based instruction, that requires expression of belief, though and ideas, ability to lie, have a controversial conversation, debate.
The first thing that I want to stress is the interest that activity draws to the student, even though overall the task is difficult I couldnt help but notice that everyone look like they were having fun and that is one of the best ways to get better and to learn. Moreover, the group in this activity works as an activator for talking: people wanted to take part in the acting. Thisactivity has a real-life interest and I can imagine it in a second language learning class because it pushes the students to have a complex conversation (questions, answers, interruptions, objections), in other words to gossip.
But even though the activity was fun to do, the main critic that I would make is that it was very difficult in many aspects. The meaning-focused output was very difficult to understand and almost incomprehensible (it was one of the purposes of the activity and necessary to make the deduction works but it was still very confusing and maybe the difficulty could be a little bit reduced).
The difficulty of the exercise varied depending on which character the students are playing and how they have decided to create the story around their character. I have noticed that some of the students after some questions might end up have nothing left to say because they didnt put too many twists in their version of the story. The reporter on the other hand has to manage a lot in the last part of the exercise : leading and regulating the conversation, taking notes, putting back the story together, and talk in front of the entire class; in some ways it seems that the student whohas to play that character should be the one having the best proficiency in English in its group.
A last comment I would make on that task is that because of its difficulty, the teacher should be careful of the length that it takes because the students might want to give up if it is too long and too difficult, and loss of interest is the last thing that this activity should give.
Overall I found this task very interesting and fun to do but after thinking about it I am afraid it might be too complex to pull it off in a real class because I noticed that the teacher had to explain multiple times the same instructions because it wasnt clear to everyone and I assume that our class is highly proficient in English.
to be honest, I was dumbfounded at first. what a picture can help someone improve listening and speaking? alllright, that's a superficial guess I admit. anyways, that was fun. it draws one's attention to painting and psychology perspective. by this way, students could participate in a large extent. nobody does not have interest on themselves, that was what I have read somewhere else.
In some way, language is about communication. The activity needs students not look at oneself's but to another's picture and express what she had known from evidences of the picture. The standards helps students to clear her mind, in other words, gives an outline. I think an outline is very important for someone who requires to deliver a speech or lecture. It is logic that needs in the process of effective communication. At the other side of communication, when you are listening, you are not listening to something that is theoretic (which may bores some people), instead, it is "a job advice" for you from an outsider of your inner world. A bystander is always clear-minded,or is it really the case? We can always think and discuss!
story retell
alllright, I think its an splendid opportunity to let out imagination!!! To infer from clue, which is a limited place, and then draw an interesting picture in freedom and EXPRESS that. it reminds me of the process of writing a fiction. sometime it will still be difficult for a nonprofessional writer to write a fiction even with his or her first language. it is easy to tell a story though, that has happened before because you have all the details but it is not the same case as to express something that is only in your imagination. however, the form of group makes it easier for second language learners. the meeting of same character also makes it involving, though I think its too many people in writing plot which may cause little chaos and it would be better if the teacher gives time to let everyone think for a moment.
anyways, it was reallllllyyyy fun to have conflict with different characters. it reminds me of a Japanese movie called "Rashomon". In wikipedia, it says, The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative, self-serving and contradictory versions of the same incident. what these two have in common is also the similar case with in journalism. And sometimes the most important thing may not be the truth itself, but the process and thinking of the truth. I think we need to figure out ways, not only in English teaching, but also other subjects, to make students participate in thinking not only knowledge itself. I hope everyone can have a "journalist try" in this activity!
thank you, Stephen for preparing this interesting activities!!!
First task was a pig analysis. Students drew the appearance of a pig in their mind and other students analyzed the students characteristics according to the pig analysis paper. And then, one student recommended a job to the student who drew the pig according to the result of pig analysis. This task requires describing the appearance of pig and matching with the analysis. Also, students needed to make a claim with the details of analysis.
Overall, it was pretty interesting task to ice breaking and bonding with the group members. I think it is good for speaking task because it lead to make students describing the pig and make a opinion.
Story Retelling
Second task was a Story Retelling and the story was about storm destroys priceless relationship.
Firstly, we divided roles which is reporter and the characters in the story. It gave us the situation and insufficient story. Students were divided into the groups categorized by the same role. Each group was making the story and the details on their own perspectives. So, the reporter should consider each characters situation and make one clear story. Students were back in the original group and made their clear story. Some characters insists was conflicted but according to the story and the reporters mediation, the groups made their own story.
This material was useful because it demands students to make a story and storytelling ability. This tasks method of progress was clear because it divided students with their roles so they can debate and think more deeply on their role.
Overall, I was pleased with the performance of my group members because we all tried to maintain our roles perspective and listened carefully about other roles argument. This practice helped me to develop my listening skill because I was a reporter who should carefully listen to five members insists.
The task we discussed this week was a Story Retelling. Students were provided a piece of paper describing the situation with a picture and a short script. There were four characters: Abigail, Gregory, Sinbad, and Simon. Four out of six students took the role of each character, and the rest of the two were in charge of the reporter. When I first read the paragraph describing the situation, I actually had no idea whos the evil to blame and whos the hero to praise. However, soon I realized that it was the main point of this activity. All of the four characters were having their own backgrounds (which would be recreated by students), and all of their faults and stories could be either justified or exaggerated depending on the description spoken by each of the characters.
I choose a sailor named Sinbad, who seemed to be the worst guy in the story for the first sight. I decided to justify his faults as much as I can by making plausible evidence with other classmates taking the role of Sinbad. The main reason why Sinbad was blamed was that he took gold from Abigail for taking her across the river and exploited the situation Abigail was in to satisfy his greed. The first thing we had to do was making a decisive reason why he really needed to take gold from her: Sinbad had a mother with severe cancer, but he was a starveling sailor. He originally was such an honest man, but his poor surroundings made him do an imprudent behavior. Moreover, considering the fact that the river was extremely long(based on the size of Gregory, he is drawn like a little kid although he is a grown man, which means the distance between the two is very far) and full of dangerous alligators, it isnt a big deal to exact a gold from Abigail since it takes a huge amount of risk and labor to sail from the start to the end. The last evidence we prepared was focused on the system of Capitalism. Based on the fact that most of the world is run under Capitalism, it should be taken for granted that there was a certain compensation for the service one got. After finishing a discussion with Sinbads, I got back to my team and spoke out my opinions supporting Sinbads behavior. Fortunately, everyone agreed on the logicality of the reason why he had to take golds from Abigail, and reporter admitted the innocence.
This was a super interesting and at the same time complicated activity. I had to find out the proper supporting reasons as well as describing it in a persuasive manner. The reason why I think the educator made the script and picture a bit vaguely was that she wanted to leave a room for each character to create plausible reasons for defending themselves. In the beginning, I was a little bit awkward to perform a role of Sinbad, but soon I was totally immersed in the activity that I found myself indicating Sinbad not as he but I. I thought this would be really helpful for L2 learners to practice English speaking for some reasons below: 1) It is interesting, 2) The participants can get used to descriptive speaking through storytelling method, 3) The participants need to carefully listen to others opinion at the same time they are speaking.
Firstly, the activity was interesting. As if we were the detective solving the mysterious case, we were fully immersed in the given situation. According to the thesis of Jung & Kim(2012), English learned through Storytelling method is recognized from students in a much more natural and easy way. Moreover, educators are able to grasp the degree of understanding of each student by checking students facial expressions and body reaction through the activity. Secondly, Students would be able to learn how to speak in a descriptive way by telling their stories in a detailed manner. According to the thesis from Lim (2005), students learn how to switch their words by using synonym when there are similar-meaning words repeated through storytelling in L2. Lastly, students can follow both the speaking and listening process. Since participants need to listen to others opinion and defend themselves from attack, listening becomes essential in the activity. Therefore, they naturally are able to learn how to be involved in conversation by a single activity.
Lim, B & Lim, C. (2005). Developing listening and speaking skills through Storytelling in Elementary school classes, 21(2), 1-20.
Jung Yun Hee, Kim Hyeon Okh. (2012). The Effect of Storytelling-Enhanced English Lessons on Primary School Students Oral Skills and Learning Attitudes. The Journal of Educational Studies, 43(1), 63-89.
On the second week, we did two activities: Draw a pig and Story retelling. First, our class drew a pig as an ice-breaking activity. Before we strated this activities, we felt nervous because most of our group members were in the first meeting. Our group members drew each pig on the paper, and we discussed about our personality by analyzing our drawing. My pig faced left, so my partner said I have a tendency to be friendly. I really agreed with this point because I thought I was a friendly person. Also, my pig was really detailed. My partner said I am really detailed person. However, I don't agree with this point because I am not that detailed person. When I was in secondary school, I studied fine arts before. This is why my pig was really detailed. I also analyzed my partner's picture. Her pig faced front and had fewer details than me. Although I don't know about her personality exactly, I thought she tends to be direct and emotional. I thought this activity was really good to break the ice because I already know what ice-breaking activity means. Our group member could get along with each other more than before.
Second, our class did story-retelling activity. We read the original story: Abigail and Gregory. We had to take different roles and retell the story. My role was Gregory, who is Abigail's boyfriend. Classmates who took same role pieced together and we made the character's own story. I and other Gregories made an intersting story: Gregory pretended to be Abigail's boyfriend because he had to get Abigail's money. After making our own story, our group members gathered again. We discussed about each character's plot and made really funny story. My group member's idea was really innovative. Her idea was like this: Simon, who loved Abigail was bi-sexual and he has a boyfriend! Her idea impressed me very much. This activitiy growed our creativity because we had to make a new story by ourselves. Moreover, It was really effective to improve my speaking skills because I had to tell the story very creatively and interestingly. Since the original story was a little bit hard to understand, I and my group members made a funny story. I thought I wanted to use this activity when I teach some students.
These two acitivities were more interesting than first week's activity. The first week's activity focused on whole class, but the second week's activity focused on groups. I could get along with my group memers more than before. Moreover, my speakig skills and idea developing skils were improved. These activities were effective to me very much.
Story retelling activity was interesting and made everybody interactive each other. Each group member played one role, so there was no one excluded from the activity and everygroup members participated in the activity lively. And the given task was interesting because it required imagination and creativity than we thought. I was pleased with each of my group members being active and being faithful to their roles.
It was an activity that required reading, listening and speaking at the same time. Especially, when it comes to speaking, to complete the story we had to ask questions, listen to other people and discuss how to remake the story. Consequently, there were a lot of talking.
However, If I had to pinpoint a problem, I would say we didnt have enough time because we had to wrap up the story in a hurry at the end of the class. If there were enough time, I think it would be more interesting to create a script based on the story and then, present it as a play.
When the professor first asked me to draw a pig drawing on the back of the paper, I was so excited, because my favorite thing is drawing. At first, he asked me to draw a pig painting without any explanation, so I was looking forward to what kind of activity would take place. Everyone laughed and drew a pig. I also drew pictures with as much detail as possible. When the students finished drawing, the professor asked the team members to change the paper. The reason was unknown. When I turned the paper forward, I found an analysis of each pig drawing. It felt like a psychological test. What was really interesting was I knew the characteristics of student through which part of the paper that they were drawn the pig, and the direction of the pig's face showed the the details of each person's character. The professor asked me to look at another student's drawing and analyze her personality and recommend a suitable job for her. The field of job was so wide that it was a little agonizing at first, but I could easily recommend the job through the student's image and analysis of personality. After that, I returned the drawing to the student and said, "This is how the your personality is, so I think this job is suitable." I think this activity was a bit like warm up activity. The reason is that it did not require much speaking and listening, but it first attracted the attention of students with its paintings. The only thing students could talk about was telling other students how to analyze their personality and what jobs would go with them. So, in fact, the conversation between students didn't seem to have worked out very well. Still, it was a fun activity.
Story Retelling
Before starting this activity at first, the students read the writing on paper. There were pictures and writings about what the situation was about, and underneath it was the situation of five characters. Out of a total of six team members, we decided on our respective roles and the professor said that students who played the same character in different groups should get together. Then, he asked students to discuss what kind of story they would use to explain the situation of it needed great creativity. At first, I found it difficult to figure out how to solve the various characters because they were in various situations. The team members exchanged opinions, but each wanted different things and the story wasn't smooth, so it was hard. However, in this difficult process, I think I've said a lot. At the end of the discussion, after deciding to incorporate the best ideas into the students' stories, I came back to my original team. Each student brought a different story. The student in charge of the reporter asked the students in each character what they thought of the question. In this course, there were many conversations between the reporter and the answering students. It wasn't easy to make a smooth story by integrating the story whether it came from thinking of different stories. However, if the stories of different students were good, they would yield and coordinate, and eventually a smooth story was created. At the time of the story presentation, I heard each team's story, and I was surprised because the big points and themes were similar. For example, Abigail was pregnant, this kind of story. I wish there were a lot of different stories, but that was the most disappointing part. However, it has been the most listening and speaking activity I have ever I had to exchange opinions with other students from beginning to end, and if there were any differences, I needed to coordinate them. It seems that he needed a little more in-depth language skills than ordinary conversation because it was making up a story rather than just speaking.
In the second week, we did two interesting activities in class. The first activity was called Draw a pig and it was kind of a personality test. An empty sheet was given to each person and the first step we should follow was to draw a pig that I think on the paper. Actually, we all were at a loss what to draw on the blank paper. Anyway, after drawing a pig, we switched a paper with our partners to analyze each others pigs and we recommended a profession that would fit to each other with some ideas. Of course figuring out ones personality only through the drawing is not accurate, but the main purpose of this activity is more likely to make students to share their ideas freely and practice speaking with using proper vocabularies. Furthermore, I think that we had a long conversation compared with the last week because maybe we spent some time telling several reasons with specific explanation why this job would fit for each other. Thus, it was such a helpful activity putting focus on both of speaking and vocabulary. The second activity was called Story Retell and it was about retelling a story. For this activity, we were ordered to read a short story first, but some of the contents were missing in it. We got a role for each person and we joined with some members having the same role. In that group, we combined each persons ideas and made a story together. After that, we got back to our original group and then shared all the ideas and thoughts what we talked about with the previous group members. Finally, we brought all the ideas together in a full story and each group made up all different kinds of stories. Personally, I think the most important skill this activity is asking us to have is a perfect comprehension and a high standard of speaking. To add, it encourages the students to participate in a conversation, to talk a lot, and to share their ideas or thoughts freely. Moreover, it also enhances the students creativity through making up a new story by themselves. Both of these activities were extremely interesting and they were all new to me. After doing these activities, I strongly felt the importance of comprehension, vocabulary, expressions, and speaking in English. Of course the first activity is indispensable; I think the second activity, Story Retell, is more helpful for the students to develop their speaking ability.
This activity was to draw a pig in a paper that professor had given out to students and to take a counsel to other classmates about an appropriate job that suits the person based on drawings and analytic writing given at the back of the page. It was fun and interesting because every person become happy when they talk about themselves. To advice what job would be appropriate to my friend, I had to match her drawings and explanations in the paper to know her characteristics. So I thought it would be a great practice for students to link the English words and features in a drawing. Also, in order to counsel my friend about her characteristics, I had to organize things like her unique characteristics, her appropriate job and the reason why in a very neat way so that my classmates would understand my idea clearly. Therefore, I think it was a fun activity which made me practice speaking in an organized way with understandable reason.
<Storm Destroys Priceless Relationship>
Professor gave out paper to students and in the paper and in the paper, there was a story which variety of characters showing up. The story was incomplete and vague. What our group members had to do was to discuss and to imagine with people with same designated characters about what might have happened to the characters. After discussing, the members were grouped together as an initial form and they tell the story of their own character. Before moving to another groups with identical characters, the stickers were given and it was used as a name tag which made students get more fo and entangled with the story. What I remember from this activity is that since the group members who had the same role had a goal of making one complete rational but interesting story, every person had to have appropriate and respectful attitude when others were talking by listening carefully to what others are saying. Not only it develops listening skills and attitude of cooperating each other, this group project helped my speaking skills to be developed because it was inevitable to argue with others as I had to assert that my idea has acceptable reasons. I was able to practice logical thinking while speaking in English and had fun through this activity.
Professor introduced two activities in the 2nd week. The first one was a simple task, drawing a pig and analyzing personality based on the picture. Also, based on own personality, the partner recommended a job with some reasons. The other one was a little complicated and difficult activity which was story retelling.
Although it was difficult at first, on the distributed paper, there were some instructions about how to infer the whole story with an illustration. The situation provided were not complete. Moreover, students needed to choose what they take the role, and the reporter should ask the sharp questions to try to track down hidden story. In this respect, I think it was meaning-focused input in that it improved students interest and made them immersed in the story. Actually, I could be immersed in my role as a reporter, and actively discussed with others in the same role to retell the story. Also, when I returned to my group and asked each character questions, they answered as if they were the character of this story. I think the goal of this activity was to retell and recreate the story by engaging the students in their roles, and it was clear. However, the amount of speech was unbalanced in that the role of the reporter was heavily weighted. Also, this activity seemed to be proper for over-intermediate students because it needs advanced skills to understanding the content and discussing it with others. Nevertheless, it was a good activity to improve not only students speaking skills but also their creativity.
This activity requires students to carefully examine another students drawing and analyze it according to a given text. To do so, students must be able to comprehend a text in English, which means that this is an activity that is appropriate for a group that has the capability to at least understand written English. Another part of the activity is to share the analysis of another students drawing to them. This requires students the ability to explain ideas based on already given information as well as to express their own thoughts. The final part to it is listening. Students will need to hear and understand what another student has analyzed from their drawing in order to find out what their personality is like and what jobs the other student has to recommend. The fact that you get to hear someone elses judgement of you makes you engaged and interested in the activity. An example of how the activity works would be: if you are looking at a picture of a pig that is on the center of the paper and facing forward, you have to be able to read the description of a pig that is on the same location and position, and then comprehend what youve read to think of a job that would best suit the student you drew the picture. After you are done, you will explain your analysis to the other student and they will listen to you. This process helps students develop both meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output skills.
Overall, it was a fun activity to get students warmed up for a bigger activity (that requires more skills), which is exactly how it was used in our class. The activity consisted of mostly familiar vocabulary, which made it comprehensible for everyone. Also, the activity being a personality test was interesting enough for students to eagerly participate. Personally, I think another important aspect of the activity that made students participate actively is the responsibility given to each student. Every student was responsible for making an analysis of another student. The idea of having to share your opinions to your peers gives you a good amount of pressure and a sense of responsibility to do better, which results in a more effective language practice activity.
StoryRetelling
Story Retelling is an activity that requires role-play, which means that it puts students into a real-world situation and gives them an opportunity to practice practical English: I personally found this activity quite interesting because it was a new and unfamiliar type of activity for me. Still, there were some downsides to it. Although most students showed interest and seemed to have fun with the activity, some students didnt participate as much. The main problem was the fact that the given story (text) was too complicated and confusing for some students to understand. That is the point of the whole activity, but this uncertainty lead those students to speak little in group discussions. To prevent this, I think it it important to make sure students understand that there is no right answer in activities like this one and that the overall result will be better the more each student gives ideas.
The characters in this activity are: reporter, Abigail, Gregory, Sinbad, and Simon. Students are each assigned a role and each role has different tasks to accomplish. Reporters are like discussion leaders in each group. Their job is to come up with questions to ask each character and lead the discussion. They have to figure out what happened in the story. Skills required for and practiced as the reporter role is reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Students of the report role get to practice all four components to comprehending and producing language. This is because they have to read the given story, listen to other reporters and characters ideas, share their own ideas, and write down notes. Other characters in the story have to discuss with the people who are assigned the same role as them and come up with a story in their (the characters) perspective, and share it to the reporter. Like the job of the reporter, other characters also get to practice both the meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output skills by having to read the given story, listen to other students, and have discussions sharing ones own ideas. This activity helps every participant to practice both of the meaning-focused language skills, which I think is the biggest advantage of it.
It was a group work and demands a lot of speaking.
Firstly, we read the story with other materials such as a picture and the description of the situation. The story took place in small town where a terrible natural disaster has struck and the picture let me more understandable though it is not so clear which characters are on it. The reading was not easy so I needed to read it several times. First of all, several character appeared and there were some vocabulary I hadnt known, such as badly beaten and exploited. Also, the story wasnt so clear because lots of part of story was missing. I think it was meaningful-input in terms of it was really funny and interesting although the story doesnt make sense.
After finishing reading, we picked the character. There were several characters I could take for a role play; Abigail, Gregory, Sinbad and Simon. I picked Abigail because she was in a miserable relationship with Gregory, which makes me sympathetic toward her. I wouldnt want to say, but being dumped is a kind of my job. I thought the more I can sympathize the character, the funnier the play would be.
The four Abigail were gathered in one group and discuss the reason of their acting. For example, why does she so love him though he treated her so badly. However, every Abigail had different idea and point of view towards her and others. The problem was that the degree of understanding varies according to their level of literacy. At first, we talked about the story first and discuss why theyd done certain action. An Abigale wanted to make a story as Korean-style dramatic scenario. We agreed and we built up the story as dramatic as possible. Here is the story we made.
Abigale who is the daughter of rich man in the town. Simon and Gregory was a beautiful gay couple who unfortunately were not accepted by neighbors. Greg was sick of the stigma and bad rumor about him so he decided to date with a normal rich girl whose name is Abigale. She was innocent and totally in love with Greg. He just took advantage of her. Simon thought Greg cheated on him and became furious when he heard the wedding will be held. That was the reason why Simon beat him.
That was a Abigale-point of view. After built up the story, we got back to our team again and the reporter asked a lot of question and the stories we had was totally different according to the characters. I should insist on my story and persuade the reporter to believe my story. I acted as a broken-hearted woman and it was so much fun! I think it was a great meaningful-output though it requires lots of speaking and listening.
Overall, it was a fun and interesting activity though the reading was a bit hard. I wish I would be more comprehensible towards reading. I enjoyed the time and the interview time was the best moment in this activity.
This week, we did a story retelling activity and this activity was useful for me. The first reason is that this helps me to practice communication in real world. In real world, we communicate to find missing information. For example, I ask my brother what did you do yesterday? because I wasnt with my brother and I wanted to know what he did yesterday. Likewise, this activity also has missing information. It doesnt tell every detail in story and it makes us retell the story. In this process, we listen to each others thought, and speak our thinking. In addition, when we want to find some missing information, we ask questions. This is the process of communication in real world. Secondly, this activity improves participation. As this is role-play, every member has their own role and responsibility. It makes us focus on dialogue and try to take part in the dialogue. Additionally, the contents of speaking are prepared, so I dont have to worry about what to say. Interesting contents also increases participation.
The first activity we had was drawing a pig. At first, it was kind of awkward to draw a pig without any instruction, but later, it turned out to be figuring out someones tendency by looking at how they draw the pig. Eg. if you draw the pig toward the top of the paper, you have a tendency to be positive and optimistic. Then, we recommended the job that would match with the person based on the written personalities and tendency. It was an activity that helped for me to associate the jobs with the tendency on the paper. For example, the job judge came out in my mind when I saw the sentence you have a tendency to be secure and to stick to your ideals, and I thought of the job professor for the sentence Indicates how intelligent you are. It was a new experience for me because I had to first look at the drawing and match the drawing with the written forms of English. Then I had to keep thinking what kind of job that would match the person best. The process existed. However, it was hard to think of which job to advice because not all personality and tendency perfectly matched each other. Still, I had to think of the job that would match most by looking at all the sentences chosen. By telling her the most suitable job, I could also hear her respond toward my advice. She said that the job did not match up at all. However, I think that it was not that big deal because it was not the activity to say thecorrect answer but was the activity to think of and speak out using the picture and written sentence that worked as a guide line.
Secondly, we had an activity called story retelling. We each had a role shown in the story and had to retell the story to the reporter. Before I read the story, I looked at the picture and then read the story. However, after I read it all, I had no choice to go back to the picture. I guessed how the story would go on by looking at the picture, but the picture and the story did not match up exactly than I expected. First, I could not even find where Simon is , and Gregory was way smaller than I expected. Also, his face was too smiley compared to the story which described him as a person who was blinded by anger. But it made me to reorganize the story in more possible ways. Additionally, there were plenty of characters playing and the story was very confusing, so it required the high level of comprehension. To be honest, I misunderstood some part of the plot so others helped me by explaining the that part again.
I played Sinbad and my role was to justify myself that I did not exploit Abigale. I could make many possible reasons that I had no choice to receive the gold from Abigale, such as taking advantage of my family situation. However, the problem was, not to be the bad character, the collision between other characters were unavoidable. Gregory was keep saying that he got the coin from me but I could not agree with that because I was keep arguing that I never saw him and I dont even know who he is. Simon also said that I am a bad guy who exploited Abigale to satisfy my greed, and scolded me for the monopoly. But, since I had to show them I was not the one who would satisfy my greed but the devoted son who has an innate disability on my face that appears like the greedy person, we could not even conclude the story. So, our story just turned out to be mysterious and the reporters role became more challenging than we originally expected.
Despite to all the difficulties, we did our best to reorganize the story and negotiated each other to retell the story. Also, to escape from the prejudice of me described as a greedy person, I should think of new situation, and had to persuade others. Moreover, I had to prepare against the questions of the people who needed me being the greedy person for themselves. Even though they could not abandon the suspicious attitude toward me, I could actually persuade them by repeating how innocent I was.
It was a good opportunity to experience how creative they were and even though it was not easy at all to reorganize the story in mind and explain the stories behind the scene, and defend the doubts in English, I can say in confidence that we did our best. I thank all my teammates for enthusiastically taking part in.
In the first activity Drawing a Pig, we all drew pictures of a pig and after that we recommended an occupation to our peer students. Through explaining and listening about the characteristics of peer students before recommending a job, we were able to practice the vocabulary and expressions contained in the worksheet. To illrustrate, we analyzed the picture that were drawn by the peer students and read the explanation written on the paper. I felt that we could practice the language items written on the paper in that we had to keep on referring on what was written. Therefore, in this aspect, this activity can be related to the third strand, deliberately focusing on forms.
Of course, in this course, all four strands are completely balanced together, but the reason why I mentioned only about the third strand is that this activity let the students focus on forms without direct instruction. In other words, instead of letting the students memorize the vocabulary items by routes and drills, this activity let the students acquire the expressions with continuous use, not with purposive memorization. In the traditional Korean English education that I had received when I was in high school, rotes, drills, and memorizations were so common. This activity made me realize that teachers can draw students attention to the form without mandatory memorization.
Also, this activity was helpful for drawing attention because this was interesting and the expressions and vocabularies were quite understandable. There are principles which can be abbreviated to MINUS, which means meaning, interesting, new language, understanding, and stress-free. I think this activity qualifies all those principles, but to me, when I was working as a teacher in a English institution, it was not easy to develop teaching materials which were interesting and understandable. If I gave something that I thought was interesting or understandable, the students didnt feel the same way. This activity made me think about how I can provide my students with materials which can qualify MINUS.
For the second activity Retelling the Story, we had to carefully consider the context between the stories that people came up. What students of a group said was accumulated to be a one whole persuasive plot, so we had to carefully consider the context in order to maintain the consistency of the story. I personally thought figuring out the context was not easy. I think it would be important to make these kind of information sharing task easier to do. If the students have to think too much energy and time thinking about what makes sense, that would lead to backfire effect of students losing interest toward the task. That is, the activity was good in that it helps students think about the context of the stories, but it may lead to the loss of interest.
Moreover, it involved a lot of interaction, so we could see how face-to-face characteristic of speaking can affect how messages are accepted. This activity was also about figuring out what was right and what was wrong. In the procedure of our stories being accepted or rejected, not only linguistic but also extralinguistic things affected the choice of other students. Therefore, students used better strategies in order to persuade other students to believe that their stories were right.
