Week 10 Reflection: Job Interview, Opening a new restaurant/café
1. Job Interview
This week, at the first turn, I was the host of the material Job Interview. In the material, 2 groups of students were given a bunch of cards on which there were various kinds of job. In the group, they set whos going to be an interviewee or (an) interviewer(s), and the interview was started with the interviewees self-introduction.
The materials produced useful practices in a view of formal speaking and attitudes. In all the conversations, participants were tending to be polite to their opponents in maximum, with using Would you ~?, Could you ~?, and these kinds of polite speaking strategy. The task instruction was introduced by a piece of paper per each person, and with reading together & additional questions from participants, the understanding of the task was quite clear and concise as I had expected. However, there was a problem except for that I mentioned in the paper. It was in their self-introduction. In the trait of a virtual job interview, their self-introduction could consist of untruths as much as they can pass the interview. However, there was a misunderstanding between the participants and me, so it went out of line that I had originally planned. The interviewees self-introduction was, as original, planned for their well understanding of job and creative thinking skills. Because my last material hosting was not for real-world but for pedagogical one, I wanted my next to be a real-world one. Thus, while skimming the course book, I found a part for formal speech, and I applied it for my hosting. When this works effectively between the participants, then my real-world goal for formal speech practices can be achieved quite well.
For the problems I encountered in the process, there were several ones because it was pretty something different from what I had tried so far. Firstly, the participants seemed to be a misunderstanding with only pictures, so I think, it would be much better if there were certain settings on the cards instead of pictures of jobs. Next, for each turn of the interview, the participants were confused with when they should make the interview finished, so in the next draft, there should be a time limit for each interview like 5 minutes or 7 minutes per one interviewee. Finally, because there were 5 members without the host, the group could not help but be set in 2 members and 3 members in itself. Because of that, the lasting time of interviews done in each group were not regular compared with each other. Thus, I decided to take part in the materials together in the next hosting of the advanced version.
2. Opening a new restaurant/café
In the second turn of the day, Harin was the host for this fun activity. This was our first time to draw pictures in the hosting, so I was very excited for her to bring a crayon set! Firstly, we talked about our favorite food or dessert. Next, we were divided into 2 groups, and in the group, we made our menu brochure of a new virtual restaurant or café.
This was very good to try to motivate participants to make lots of utterances because the topic was a source of our everyday life. The participants could not hesitate to say anything they wanted. Also, her task instruction was very clear for me to understand well and get into drawing directly. I think it was because it was a kind of drawing activity and speaking sources were familiar with us. For my performance in the practice, I was very satisfied with my creativeness! While talking about my favorite food, because I love eating, it was very easy to tell mine. As I remember, I told Jjamppong, which is spicy noodle in the Chinese restaurant for my favorite food, and it was selected in my group with Harin. Based on my favorite restaurant in front of my home, I shared ideas with Harin. The ideas were that because it was Jjamppong with beef brisket, there should be an option for adding more beef in Jjamppong, and that when there are 3 size types of Kkanpung Yuk, which is deep-fried pork in hot pepper sauce, then there should be a menu option for people eating alone. Also, this activity was helpful for practicing skills to convince people by making my opinions for menu brochure, and I could be convinced by my group member and add more ideas to it.
In conclusion, its real-world goal worked very well because we will be able to open our new brand of restaurant or café. I think this can be a good base of the future! In addition, there was a small problem with it, but it could be solved soon. Each process in the material spent too much time, so we could not finish all the process on time. However, Harin said, we can make it because we have the next time. Thus, I really expect her next hosting to come and to finish our new restaurant open!
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 10 Reflections for Amazing
At the beginning of the activity, the host gave out us a cards with specific jobs.
There were jobs like police, barista and flight attendant and so on.
The activity was to do self PR in front of group members after picking up one card.
The purpose of the activity was to practice formal speaking.
Right after selecting the card, the group member should instantly organize what they should say in a very short amount of time. It was bit difficult activity in that it required creativity and ability to speak. In addition, I had to answer to the questions of rest of the members which also required an ability to instantly say what I think about the answer. Also, since it was important to speak based on the special property of the occupation, it was critical to know somewhat basic information about the occupation.
Whats more since I should think about my strength in order to get the job written in a card that I selected, I had to connect my personality (though I faked a lot) and the job itself.
For example, I chose the card with barista in it. I made up a new character with lots of working career working as a barista. Then, I connected my personality with a bright smile and politeness which would help me to do the job.
It was a good chance for me to think about the specific occupation itself.
However, one thing I thought it needed an improvement was that there was few choices of jobs that I wanted to make self PR.
<Opening a new restaurant/ cafe>
As we started the activity, the host made us to say one favorite food that we like respectively.
Then grouping two members in one group, we had to make a menu ,pretending were opening a new restaurant or cafe. After sharing ideas about what specific menu we had to write and draw the menu in the paper with colored pen.
It was a fun experience to draw and think about the menu that was created by ourselves.
Drawing and coloring the menu was fun. I think this activity was an easy activity because it required us to share opinions about new menu and have fun as we draw the food.
The one thing that I thought it need improvement is that I think there was bit lack of conversation part in the activity.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 10 Reflections for Amazing
This week, the second material hosting round began. Minju introduced a new activity which was job interview. The instruction she wrote included detailed information such as activity type, purpose of the activity, and procedure of the activity. Particularly, the purpose of the activity helped me to understand why we should do this activity well. She wanted students use formal speaking in the situation of job interview and understand which is important in promoting themselves. So, I tried to answer that is proper to the purpose she mentioned. At first, we made two groups and took turns playing the role of interviewer and interviewee. There were several pictures related to certain jobs, and the interviewee had to pick one of them and have a self-introduction time to talk about the strengths, and the interviewer had to make questions based on it.
Through this activity, students could practice the job interview that was difficult to experience in everday life. Although not as tense and professional as an actual interview, it was quite similar in that we introduced ourselves and answered questions. I also had the opportunity to think deeply about the job I chosen, creating storytelling about it I did not know very well. I chose barista, cabin crew, and hotelier for the interview and it was interesting than I expected. Thinking about the strengths each job required, I appealed to the interviewer. Also, the interviewer asked me good questions that I expected. For example, when I was interviewing Barista, the interviewer asked me a sharp question, Which countrys coffee bean do you like the most? On the contrary, when I was an interviewer, I asked interviewee who wanted to be a firefighter about the advantages of being woman firefighter.
Overall, all parts were good, and this activity was really targeted to job interview. Also, I think it placed a greater importance on output than input, so it had meaningful output. However, it would have been better if examples of interviewer question had been added. That would save the interviewer time thinking about the questions, and I think the point to this activity is to be an interviewee, so interviewee can give better answers if good questions are ready. Even though, it fulfilled both a real world goal and pedagogical goal and make students improve speaking skills in interview situation.
Opening a new restaurant/café
Harin introduced a new creative activity which was opening a new restaurant/café. She gave us instruction about the procedure of this activity. She prepared lots of things to do this activity. At first, we naturally talked about the favorite food each person with the reasons. Then, we made three groups and make a menu to open restaurant. We should draw advertisement paper or the menu with simple explanation. She has prepared a lot of colored pencils and I was really excited. In particular, I thought such activities were really suitable for young learners under elementary school age. They can draw their own menus with colored pencils and become more passionate in activities.
Through this activity, we could share our favorite food with each other and talked about all different foods. I said I like the handmade burger the best and downtowner handmade burger was the best. The other students sympathized with me and talked about food very interestingly. Luckily, I joined a group of people who liked similar food and she said she like pizza. So we decided to open an American restaurant to sell pizza and handmade hamburger at the same time. This activity was really meaningful in that all the decision-making processes were discussed in English. We made the new menu first and decided what ingredients we would use and what price we should set. Also, we discussed what the concept it would be, where it would be located, and what its name would be. It took longer than we expected, and it took 30 minutes to decide the contents and draw the paper.
Overall, it was a novel and interesting activity, so many young students will like this activity. Also, I think it is not limited to listening and speaking, but it is also helpful for writing skills that can use simple expression while making menu boards. Moreover, I felt that it could inspire students in that they draw pictures on paper and produce the result. However, we did not have time to introduce ourselves to each others café and restaurants because of the lack of time, and the host said we would proceed with this in the second revised session. I think we could have saved time if we had a paper that gave us a layout-ready form of paper and made them fill in the details without asking them to make a menu boards as much as they wanted. Although, it was a really good activity in that it could be applied in real life, but we have never experienced before to open a new restaurant. It is a good activity designed to create a meaningful output.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 10 Reflections for Amazing
After having a week off and returning from all our midterms, we started another round of materials hosting. "Job interviewing" was the first activity. After teaming up into three groups as a pair for each, we had to self-introduce and ask questions back and forth based on the jobs on picture cards.
The thing I really appreciated was "self-introduction" part. Unlike some of the other previous hosting sessions where we had to directly ask personal questions without introducing ourselves first, we were given time to first explain about our motivation and willingness to work for the specific occupation.
This part was where this material seemed both like an activity and a task. Without having any rules or restrictions, we were given the opportunity to express ourselves just like how we do or how we would need to do for possibly any part-time job or a company we apply for in the real world. Basically, it was like any other real-world situation. Meanwhile, we still had to come up with the "made-up", "fake" stories of our passion and effort for each of the different professions where this then leans more towards an activity.
Another positive aspect to point out was that our host brought picture cards with jobs rather than printouts of the word cards. This made it easier for us to actually understand each profession better than how they would have been if they were simply written in words without any picture.
I would say that our host had well-managed her role. However, if I had to give a short recommendation, I would suggest bringing in a few more cards and giving one or two specific situational settings related to each job since many of us spent much of our time repeating the same pattern of self-introduction for each of the professions we chose to talk about. Other than that, it was really enjoyable!
Opening a new restaurant/café
Continuing the second half of our class, I was the host for this session. Simply put, students had to create their own menus: one menu for two people each. As I had explained in my midterm project, what I intended here was more like a task rather than an activity. I wanted to let the participants take an advantage of talking to each other just like how they do or would do in the real-world.
Right after telling my group members to share ideas and create menus, it was nice to see them laughing and talking about their favorite foods. I believe this was possible due to the fact that they were discussing about a familiar topic and that they were not assigned with any specific rule or restriction.
Perhaps one thing I failed here was time management. In order to create a more friendly, more relaxing environment, I intentionally allocated about ten minutes or so talking together as a group about our favorite dish or drinks, good restaurants to check out, and so on. Yet because of spending more than one third of our time with the part in the beginning, everyone had to rush, and we could not have any time to actually share our menus we came up as pairs with the other members of our group. Overall, I hope to allocate time more wisely in my next final round.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 10 Reflections for Amazing
The first activity hosted by Minju was named as a job interview. There were plenty of cards describing certain jobs (ex. flight attendant, Barista, police officer, etc.) Participants were given a situation of an interview for getting a job. After choosing a card, the student becomes interviewee and the others become interviewer. A mission of the interviewee is to answer as logical as she can, and the one of the interviewer is to cast questions as pointed as possible.
The card I choose was a police officer. After I choose the card, I tried to think of the fake story as if I am a real job applicant for the police officer. This is the way I introduced myself : Hi, my name is Janet Jackson. When I was fourteen, there was an incident which made me decide to be a great police officer when I grow up. One day, I was walking down the street, and there was an old lady carrying a heavy bag. Suddenly, an unknown man snatched her precious bag and ran away. At that time, I didnt know what to do but just waiting for the police. Even though the situation was really severe and unpleasant, the police didnt lose her smile and tried to help the grandma recover her comfort. After the incident, I decided to become a great police and give a helping hand to the people just the way she did.
There were also plenty of pointed questions from my partners such as, The real police job can be different from the thing you actually experienced or the thing youve watched on the movie. Are you aware of this?, If there are any current news related to police you know about, please say one of those. Compared to the activities before week 11, the activity held today was much more complicated and required not only English speaking but also deep insight. Students are now able to apply what theyve learned through week 1 to week 10. For instance, on the first activity hosted by Minju, the 20 questions game, it required participants to use interrogative sentences and answer those in a short answer. Compared to the yes/no questions of the prior one, the activity today was asking much more sentences with complicated structure which is open-ended.
However, I think it would be better if there were more clear missions for students when they make sentences. For instance, if there were provided expressions such as be used to or have no choice but to and let students to include them in their sentences, it would be much helpful for the learners to get used to advanced expressions. Since we werent having any guidelines for making sentences, overall sentences we used was quite monotonous and was with a simple structures.
The second activity was hosted by Harin. The team was divided into three, and each group were in the virtual situation that they are going to open a new restaurant with a new menu. After introducing ones favorite food one by one, our team got into a decision that we will open a dakbal (chicken foot) rice noodle restaurant. The menu was reflecting both of the preferences of me and seoyeong, and we were really excited as if we were actually holding a restaurant. After deciding the menu, the host handed out some color pens and let us draw a poster promoting the restaurant.
Based on the thesis from Jung&Lee&Park(2011), the drawing activity during language classes has a plenty of advantages for students in terms of long-term language acquisition. For instance, if a student draws a chicken at the same time explaining what she drew in English, it brings out a two-layered acquisition of a language which leads to a long term memory. Furthermore, since drawing activity itself is mostly not regarded as studying, students wouldnt feel that they are dealing with boring stuff but enjoy it as a game.
However, I think the activity would become better if the host required students a bit more time for communicating with each other. Since drawing time was taking most of the percent of the activity, there was little time for us to actually practice speaking and listening. Regardless of this point, the overall activity was enjoyable and I thought it would be especially helpful for young learners to get interested in English.
<References>
Mira Jung, Yeongme Lee, Sookyung Park,(2011).A Study on the Development of 5-year-olds` Images of English Speakers based on Drawings,15(4),77-97.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 10 Reflections for Amazing
1.The first activity we had was a job interview hosted by Minju. According to the purpose of the activity written in the instruction, students can understand which is important or not in promoting themselves, which was so true. I havent had chances of having an interview that much, so it was hard to respond to the questions I received immediately. Also, it was such a short time to pretend myself as an interviewee. I had to fake my age, career, and such things but it was hard to make a precise PR strategically within less than a minute for preparing. But the biggest thing I learned from the activity was that I realized what is important or not and what should I promote or not while I was responding to the questions. My mind was not arranged yet before I answered to the questions because I thought that I should not murmur but should answer it as soon as possible. So, I couldnt provide the satisfying answer, but while I was speaking and after I spoke it, I realized what I should say, and thought I could provide a better answer next time. The learner being interviewed should prepare a source of knowledge based on their jobs while the interviewers should have some guidance on what information to look for and ask additional questions based on the answer, so they must listen carefully. It was both challenging but meaningful activity for both interviewers and interviewees. If the host have given a more time to prepare for a self-PR and the answers, it would have generated better questions and answers. Also, since there were some unfamiliar jobs such as programmer or barista that Ive never thought of as my future job, it was quite hard to pretend to be the interviewee for that jobs. The activity would be more meaningful if the host adjust a difficulty level such as putting some familiar jobs for us. For example, jobs like interpreter or English teacher.
2. The second activity was opening a new restaurant/café. Before we paired up to make the brand-new restaurant/café, we had a time to talk about our favorite foods. It was a good chance to share our opinions and communicate each other. Although we had to talk a lot with the partner to generate the new restaurant, we had not much time to speak altogether, so I thought It would have been better to have more interaction by having more time to share our experiences such as some special reasons we chose the food as a favorite. However, it was much easier for me to speak out because we were talking about things that were familiar and interesting to us. Sharing our ideas to make an ingenious and creative restaurant based on our favorite foods were not that easy than I thought though. Since it was not the individual task, we had to cooperate and make the product by ourselves. It was a further step than just communicating like we did in our previous activities since it is the matter of creativity. Also, it was our first time to draw, and I found out some advantages. Furthermore, then the notetaking, drawing could enhance our memory since it is a further step which we should associate the idea and the notes to the drawings. This activity might help for improving vocabularies, so it will be a good idea to add some essential vocabularies to memorize by drawing, for the learning. Due to the lack of time, we could not end up the activity by sharing what we made.
