Okay, here is another one going into my favorites list. What an interesting example of levels of honor.
I am also interested in the training of the students to listen. We've been playing a "game" in my classes. I've been reading to the students from a Reader's Digest in the target language for three minutes, as much at natural speed as possible. During this time the students play a word capture game trying to write everything they recognize as a word. It can be a word they already know, a cognate, or something during the reading that they begin to recognize as a word unit of sounds. We actually made three columns on their paper labeled "Know," "Cognate," and "New." By the third time, the students just want to put everything in one long list. At first they balked, but now they have fun seeing which class can get the student having the highest number of words. The first time, maybe a third of the second year class got at least twenty words. By the third time, 100% of them got at least twenty words. The highest was 67 words. It is hard to write much more than that in three minutes (in every language). (For this game, spelling doesn't have to be correct.They also don't have to know what the word means.) To kick it up a notch now, they are trying to guess the meaning of the new words they are capturing, to see if they can get the gist of what they are hearing. When my first year students tried it, we just did it for one minute. I have a timer that will ring for us.
Now they are even asking what the story is about, so their interest is getting piqued.
Keep us informed of the way you help them through the listening and understanding strategies. I'd like to use that with my students, too. Thanks.
Another favorite
I am also interested in the training of the students to listen. We've been playing a "game" in my classes. I've been reading to the students from a Reader's Digest in the target language for three minutes, as much at natural speed as possible. During this time the students play a word capture game trying to write everything they recognize as a word. It can be a word they already know, a cognate, or something during the reading that they begin to recognize as a word unit of sounds. We actually made three columns on their paper labeled "Know," "Cognate," and "New." By the third time, the students just want to put everything in one long list. At first they balked, but now they have fun seeing which class can get the student having the highest number of words. The first time, maybe a third of the second year class got at least twenty words. By the third time, 100% of them got at least twenty words. The highest was 67 words. It is hard to write much more than that in three minutes (in every language). (For this game, spelling doesn't have to be correct.They also don't have to know what the word means.) To kick it up a notch now, they are trying to guess the meaning of the new words they are capturing, to see if they can get the gist of what they are hearing. When my first year students tried it, we just did it for one minute. I have a timer that will ring for us.
Now they are even asking what the story is about, so their interest is getting piqued.
Keep us informed of the way you help them through the listening and understanding strategies. I'd like to use that with my students, too.
Thanks.