In week 7, at the first turn, Terra hosted her materials, which was Guess by the Description. This was also an advanced version of her last hosting. The contents of the activity were very similar to the one before.
We firstly, by rock-scissors-paper, set the order of who is going to be the one making a story with subject and predicate. According to her written paper instruction, there could be very meaningful practices and creations, but it actually wasnt in reality. I think its because there was no emphasis on the very important stage number 3. In stage number 3, there was mentioned that there must be causality and the detailed story. At the first time, we read the paper with the host Terra. However, when we were actually doing this, we couldnt follow the rule properly with a detailed story and a causality. I think it would be a lot better if she mentioned that point every before each turn. The practice addressed a speaking strategy that students can make a short story with causality and detailed descriptions for each scene. I think it devised to be able for students to improve their own creativity and utter not a sentence but a connected story paragraph. For thinking of the goal of this hosting, this was implemented with the well-controlled circumstance for speaking, and the executed situations in the activity were not usually happened in the real world, so I think this was planned with pedagogical goals rather than the real-world ones.
After all, in the activity, my performance was not good enough to achieve the goals that she originally intended to do, because I couldnt remember the most important rule that I mentioned above, I think. For the problems encountered meanwhile, there could be wrong information provided by students. For example, when the given word was a tiger and the speaker described the tiger as living in safari, I was very confused with which I should say as an answer, a lion or a tiger. Though because it was the students fault, it can be solved by the host, I think, it could be not confusing if the given words were more familiar.
2. Secret Word Game
The next part of todays hosts was Secret Word Gameby Yeong-in. The activity was a little revised when compared to the last one. The difference was that we should catch the answers of not only the secret words but also the topic word, and also that the words are restricted to only noun.
We first picked the word card per each person and were having the time about 1 minute to think of the story with hiding the words in it. The time flew very fast, so, though I was the first person to tell the story, I couldnt make the completed story. However, while telling the story, I could complete my story extemporaneously. The materials generated useful practices only when I was the person telling own story. When I was the person only listening to the story, it couldnt generate meaningful things that much except for guessing skill. For my performance, it was quite hard to make the secret words naturally hidden in my story and meanwhile to make it clear to reveal the topic word for my listeners through the story. The practice helped me to improve a skill to speak naturally without pausing and to guess and convince when listening to the speaker. Also, its real-world goal was clear. It was because this kind of speaking can occur when I answer the questions like What did you do yesterday?, How did you feel at the first time in Sookmyung?, and so on, even though there wont be the situations like hiding the secret words in my utterance or catching the words in my friends speaking.
After all, this task was in the process with very clear and concise instruction from Yeong-in compared to the instruction before. Sure, it was caused also by familiarity. However, for the points to be improved, I think, it can be a good trial and the very meaningful works if the topic word is related to the secret words. It is because even in our daily conversation, the words of utterances in our conversation is much more closely related to the topic of it.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 7 Reflections for Amazing
Minhyeong introduced a revised activity about guessing words and making a story with some causality considered. She revised the word cards the way she presented words directly on the card to remind words in pictures on the card. Also, the instructions were further detailed and she provided an appropriate example. Before, we played this game with two in a group, but this time we played a game together and it was more fun. As we did before, we had to explain each subject and predicate word. We could describe only three features of the subject with three sentences, but there was no limit to explain the predicate word. However, there must be a causality and the detailed story to explain the predicate word. Listening to the description of the speaker, listeners could obtain points by guessing the subject and predicate and making them into one sentence.
Through this activity, students could learn grammatical factors of the sentence, and how to explain the meaning of words without referring directly to it. Also, it was an activity that can improve the ability to make sentence instantly because the explanation should begin as soon as the word card is pulled out. When students explained predicate, instructor emphasized that there should be causality in the flow of the whole story, applying the subject into the situation related to meaning of the predicate word. This was not easy to make story, but it seemed to be helpful to practice speaking. In detail, speaking one sentence is a basic step, but creating a causative story is a more advanced way of speaking. In this regard, this activity was likely to be applicable to intermediate level students.
All parts were good overall, but in the case of the predicate, it would have been better to give the word directly than to provide it in pictures. A noun is clear to mean, but it could be confused to explain the predicate word from the picture because there are several words that come to mind when looking at the picture. Even though, the goal of this activity was clear, which fulfilled both a real-word goal and pedagogical goal because the given picture was easy words used a lot in everyday life, but understanding the use of subjects and predicates and creating storytelling with causality could be the pedagogical goal.
"Secret Word Game
Yeongin introduced an interesting activity which revised a little by adding a scorecard and a new evaluation. As did before, students selected randomly the mission paper with topic word, and secret words. Speaker should make a story about the topic using secret words which are not related to topic. It means that students have to pay attention to hide the secret words and the plot of the story should be natural. Listener must find out through the story which is about the topic and also find the hidden words. In addition, she added a new score, and when the topic was revealed, the speaker could get two points. In other words, the fact that the topic was revealed was considered to explain the content well.
Through this activity, students should create a quite long story by using secret words within a minute. I was the first speaker and then I realized my speech defect. I think that I was difficult to make a storytelling immediately because I lacked English speaking ability, so I made a little awkward story when I used secret words. For example, my topic was Myeongshin building and secret words were smartphone, freedom, and pencil. Because of the lack of time, I started talking unprepared and two secret words were revealed, and listeners could not figure out my topic. I could feel that I needed to practice speaking more. Also, I thought that this activity was more appropriate for intermediate or advanced level students because it needed various speaking skills such as immediateness, ability to organize stories, and initiative.
Last time I gave feedback on score, I was grateful to reflect it. Originally, a single point was given to a person who matches three secret words at a time, but this time, according to the number of words that were revealed, the speaker got points. I liked this detailed rule that she revised. Overall, it was interesting both to create story and to answer by listening to others. This activity helped students to learn how to construct stories, how to make causative story, and how to improve their speaking immediately. In this respect, the goal of this activity could fulfill real-world goal and pedagogical goal because I could improve certain speaking skills, and I could make a story of the materials used in everyday life.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 7 Reflections for Amazing
<Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 7 Reflections>
<Guess by the description >
This activity was speaking as if we are a particular person. As the host started the game, she gave out the papers to each person in the group. In the paper, subject and predicate were given through drawings respectively. What we had to do was to let others know the answer by speaking as if we are a particular person in the subject. Also, the predicate is used to show the behavior that subject is doing. Also, it was banned to use particular given subject and the predicate while speaking.
Actually, looking back, I did a mistake while doing the activity. I should have talked as if Im a subject but I misunderstood the rules, so I just simply introduced subject and the predicate separately. Whats more, I said out loud the predicate in a card, which made everyone embarrassed and deprive others of chance of other members to guess about the answer.
After few mistakes, I was able to continue the activities smoothly adding my acting skills. Though it was bit difficult for me at first to speak without using any predicate, I thought it was a good activity to practice various other expressions to explain the subject and the predicate. Also, it was meaningful in that it made us think about one sentence is made up with two essential factors; subject and the predicate.
<Secret Word Game>
This secret word game was a revised form compared to her previous activities.
Actually, I recommended to revise few things to make her activity before and I was grateful that she welcomely embraced advice from others. She narrowed the type of word into specific word class as a noun. We were able to concentrate in the game in a very short time and enjoy it since it was a game with just a slight change compared to the game we did before. Like I said in the previous reflection, I think this game requires us to make up a story in a very short time. It makes students develop creativity and use various kinds of words or expressions to relate the story naturally. Frankly speaking, this activity is the most advanced and difficult activity in the game Ive done in this group..
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 7 Reflections for Amazing
The first activity we had was guess by the description and I was the one who hosted this activity. The fundamental things were same with the previous one, but I tried to make it more challenged and complex but still pedagogical. Instead of writing down the words on the card, I put some pictures to describe. I just put an additional stage to associate the words and the pictures. I tried my best to select some pictures that are familiar and obvious to guess to not to make them confused (especially for the predicates). I tried to make them create a complete story as if they were the subject written in the card. The main tendency was to make the specific causalities so that they could practice speaking and it could be used to produce large quantities of utterance, and learners could naturally pay considerable attention to the narratives and develop listening skills. But I think the time provided was short for them to create a quite long story. There were some case that learners were keep saying I do this while blah blah which was quite different from what I intended cause the intention was to describe the word by explaining the features but making a whole story with causalities. For example, if the word was brushing the teeth It could turn out like One week ago, I went to the dentist since I had a severe toothache and I could not avoid that nerve surgery, and It was freaking painful. Since that, I never ever forget doing this before I go to bed or right after I eat something but yesterday, I was so exhausted that I just forgot to do this and just fell asleep.
I was keep reminding that you should say the story as if the subject(you) are the main character of the story, and additionally you should speak out the answer with full sentence. At first, the learners seem to be quite confused but as the game was keep going on, they did much better on making ingenious stories and guessing what it is.
The second activity was the upgraded version of secret word game. I thought it was a good try to not show the topic and let the learners what the topic is. However, describing the topic without speaking out the exact word was far more challenging because the secret words were too irrelevant with the topic. I think I screwed up with making the story because I failed to make the overall story using the word bubble tea while the topic was professor. However, it definitely helped me for listening skills. Dictation was also needed to find out the certain words.
Since the dictation makes the learners achieve speaking input and hold it for a short time to figure out the secret words, I thought it helped me focus on the activity a lot.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 7 Reflections for Amazing
Similar to that of our previous class, another two hosts led todays class. Guessing by the Descriptions was the first activity between the two. One of the good things I would like to point out was that almost anyone would take part in this activity without having the burden to have previous knowledge or certain level of proficiency. It can possibly be used in any classroom settings from those with elementary students (third, fourth grade or above) to adults who would be pleased to increase their chances of speaking English in a less stressful environment. Perhaps, it may be one type of an icebreaker activity during the first week of class where students can freely talk with each other.
Just like how she had hosted in the first round, our host brought cards with subjects and predicates on them, and most of her activity seemed to be focusing on reaching pedagogical goals. Last time, most of the subjects were well-known animals or insects: gorilla or ladybug, for instance. However, I liked the part where our host did not remain fixed on animals but rather included professions and characters like a golfer and Ryan (one of the Kakao Talk characters).
Meanwhile, considering the average level of students in our group (intermediate to slightly advanced), most of the sentences each of us generated were somewhat too basic: "I brush my teeth" and "I live in a forest", for example. Therefore if I had to make a change, I would suggest making rules such as only being able to make sentences with -ing (present continuous) on the first round and then moving on similarly. The rest was fine, and I could clearly see the efforts put in by our host.
Secret Word Game
Moving on to the second activity, this one was also more focused on attaining pedagogical goals. We had to use specific words and make sentences with those words, and thus I would personally argue that this activity concentrated more on one-way listening and one-way speaking. Except for the part where we, not including the host and the one telling the story, shared ideas about which three words to pick as the secret words, we mostly payed attention to the story and every specific word we heard throughout the story. In the end, I felt we did not have enough time to talk and interact with each other considering that the host tried to include discussion part into the activity.
In the meantime, sometimes elements, or details, in the stories we have created became somewhat unrelated to each other making it a little bit awkward. (Most were well done, however.) I think this happened due to the fact that we had to put all those three words in our stories while at the same time making it connected with the topic.
I personally believe it would have been better if this was used as a dictation activityinstead of guessing the three specifically designated words. Each student could have read the text with somewhat longer, slightly more difficult words and make others write down as many words or phrases they hear. Afterwards, they could have compared what they have written down and together discuss about the story line and share opinions. Time management and overall preparation were just fine, and her efforts were clearly shown throughout the whole activity just like how the first host had done.
