Introduction to Communication Skills

Reflection: Mary Jo

My Thursday morning Intro to Communication Skills class really is the highlight of my week. I've got such a nice group of students that really do seem to be "language hungry"! They're less worried about making mistakes than my Basic Discussion Skills class, and I don't have to remind them to "keep it in English" very often. Part of that is probably them, and part of that is probably the lesson content.

We always start the class with about 20 minutes of the "paper ball game". (Student A says something about his/herself - anything - likes / dislikes / friends / school / family, etc. - then throws the ball to Student B - who does the same. After 5 minutes they switch to questions. Change partners, and repeat.) Some of the students like to gravitate towards the same partner, so I get them to walk across the room and talk to someone they don't usually talk to for at least one round. I think the students are really comfortable with this routine, and it gets the class off to a positive start.

Their first "assignment" was to interview a partner, make a poster with key words/pictures about their partner, and introduce their partner to the class. It was a good chance for them to get to know each other, and for me to get to know them.

They've been reading graded readers since before Golden Week. About one book a week. (I've asked them to read at least 8 total, a few of them have read more.) Again, we kind of have a routine down. After the paper ball game the students write a reflection on the book:

· What book did you choose?

· Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?

· How much time did you spend reading it? How did you divide your reading time?

· Was the level of the book appropriate for you?

· Would you recommend this book to a classmate? Why, or why not?

· Who was your favorite character? Why?

· What was your favorite part of the story? Write a short paragraph summarizing your favorite part.

After they write the reflection I have them spend a couple of minutes discussing it with a partner. I collect the reflections and write a few comments on them and hand them back the next week. The reflections have been almost all positive. Surprisingly, the few times students didn't like a book they gave reasons like, "It was too scary." or "It was too sad."

After the discussion they pick a new book and sit down and spend 15 minutes reading it. I tell them to exchange it if it doesn't seem interesting. I always sit down and read with them. (Much better than staring at them for 15 minutes!)

The last couple of weeks I've had the students take notes on the books. They then try to use the notes to explain the story to a partner. I'm hoping that this will be a good lead in to note taking / discussion of more challenging material in the second term, but the students know the stories so well that they don't really need to use their notes to explain them.

After their 4th or 5th book the students gave mini presentations in small groups. They'll do it again next class. They seemed to like the mini presentations.

In addition to the routine above, we worked on one unit from "Good News, Bad News". The one about the Japanese guy that bicycled around the world. The students listened to the story, talked about it, got into groups, and planned their own trip. (I got the idea off the website, as you can probably guess.) They brought in travel brochures and had fun making posters and planning their trips. They gave presentations at the front of the class - which were pretty good. A couple of problems with this activity though... One was that since we did this in addition to the other activities (paper ball and book activities) it took a few weeks to complete. Next time, I'll try to do it on its own, or combined with one other activity. The other problem was that while they're really good at working in English in pairs, they had trouble when they got into a group. The less controlled nature of the activity - planning and creating - also made it harder for them to keep it in English.

Overall, I've been really pleased with how this first term has turned out. I'm not quite sure what to do after the summer break. The graded readers were so successful they will be a hard act to follow. I'll welcome any ideas!

Thanks for reading.

Mary Jo

Reflection: Andy B.

I’ve put great emphasis in the first semester on the development of fluency and confidence. I see the second semester as becoming more focused on self-directed & collaborative learning, & vocabulary development and discussion (doing personal English learning projects, reading lexically simplified newspaper articles on social and legal issues to develop note-taking, developing discussion skills, building vocabulary on social and legal problems, and doing further presentations in English). Below I give a quick overview of the course in the first semester, before reflecting on some aspects of this approach.

Course organization: (1^st semester only)

In the first two weeks, we focused on the students’ English learning histories, and they gave a short poster presentation in Week 2. After that, each week, students have chosen one graded reader at the end of class and read it outside class. They have also made a double-page of notes about key points from the book. Students complete a short learning diary on a weekly basis, too, about their learning and performance, as well as write down their goals at the start of class. In the last few weeks of the semester, we have started working on “Personal English Learning Projects” (PELPs), where students plan how to keep contact with English regularly outside class and complete a short log each week. This will move into a summer project and then become a major component of the course in the second semester.

Stage One 15 minutes

At the start of each class, students read their own learning diaries and explain in pairs what they have done to learn / keep contact with English in the last week. They then write down their learning goals for the class and explain their learning goals to each other.

Stage Two 45 minutes

In pairs, students play “the paper ball game” (see below for further thoughts about this). This lasts for 15 minutes before students form new pairs twice (= 3 rotations). The paper ball game involves students standing a few steps apart in pairs, and throwing a paper ball to each other. Each time they throw the paper ball, they speak.

Ø Step One (3 minutes or so): Say any word in English at all and throw the ball (e.g., banana-table-TV-hot-tired-hungry-food etc).

Ø Step Two (4-5 minutes): Say a sentence in English about yourself and throw the ball (e.g., “I live in Hachioji and get the bus to university”/ “I went to bed at 2 o’clock last night”/…).

Ø Step Three (4-5 minutes): Have a conversation in English and throw the ball after each turn (e.g., “Hello”/ “Hi” / “Do you belong to any student clubs? /…)

Stage Three 30 minutes

In pairs or trios, students use their 2 pages of notes about their reader to explain the book and have a discussion. Sometimes, they finish the lesson by making a new pair and talking without any notes for 5 minutes off-the-cuff about the book that they have read. They also use the class library in this third stage and check out a new book.

Thoughts

Like Mary Jo, I feel that there is a great sense of energy and enjoyment among the students, and they are making wonderful progress. The paper ball game is a large part of that success. I see this 45-minute phase as a space in which the students are secure to produce English and communicate without any external pressure – except that they need to say at least something and throw a ball. That space – and the silence within it -- allows them to recover the English they have learned before and use it, without feeling any pressure or fear of evaluation. Watching students play the paper ball game has made me realize that they need both time and space in which to become comfortable and confident with using English.

The use of the class library has also been a great success, and the students enjoy explaining and discussing the books that they have read. Most students will have read 10 books by the end of the first semester, as well as made a double page of notes for each book each week. Earlier in the semester, I noticed that some students getting buried in their notes as they were talking about their books. To help overcome this, I now ask the students to take a few minutes to look at their notes before they start speaking and to imagine what they want to explain and express to their partner. They then close their notebooks and start, and can simply open their notebooks and have a quick check of their notes, if they get stuck. The focusing phase seems to have had a beneficial effect for them.

Each class is stage-directed by me, so I have questions about whether such an overtly directive framework helps students become more autonomous. At the same time, the students take over and manage what they do in English for almost all of the class, and they have a great deal of space in which to make decisions and organize what they do. They are fluent within their own English proficiency, and with that fluency comes greater confidence. I guess I see the PELPs as a bridge to their making many more decisions about their own English development from the end of the first semester onwards. Perhaps then my focus has been to help the students achieve confidence and fluency so that they may later take greater control in English of what they want to do in English for themselves. Mmm…Am I assuming too much?

Thank you also for reading this far!

Andy