16 Dec 2008

Work

Back home at last and back at the grind. My other half has gone off to another assignment, this time at Bukit Tinggi Resort. Another workshop.My English class expanded today (3 new students) and four came back from an extended holiday. Teaching adults who are working is so different from teaching young adults who know that getting a job depends on their English results. These students don't really care that their English is not good, especially the men. They come and go as they please - especially when they are already 40 years old and not going anywhere in their jobs. I have a tough time getting them interested - they don't like grammar and yet its so essential. They enjoy the games I do with them, they're quite competitive too. But we can't be playing games all the time can we? No doubt some of the games are based on grammar but we have so little space in the class and we can hardly move. If we had the seminar rooms at the Linguistics Faculty it would be better.

Yesterday we played a board game introduced to me by Alby. Its a little like monopoly, only difference is we buy vowels and consonants to form words. The person with the most number of words wins. Its a great game to teach vocabulary and the class enjoyed it. I think next time I'll introduce Boggle to them. But I'd have to have at least 4 sets of Boggle which would not be cost effective.
Today I have to teach them writing. The syllabus says I had to teach them only business letter writing, but since most of the students do not write business letters they want ordinary letters. I told them we could do stories instead and they agreed. So it'll be story time today.

2 comments:

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Great post, Kat. I can imagine how hard it would be teaching men over 40. All of our minds develop set patterns and it's hard to bump an electron into another orbit.

You might have to start a game of football tackle. :D

I'm sending snowflakes with this post. :D

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and may all of your dreams come true.

God Bless You!!!

Hugs, JJ

Kat said...

Hi JJ,
Yes I know its really tough getting them interested in verbs and tenses. The ladies in my class are more eager to learn English, unlike the men.

OOh I'd love some snow... thanks.

Kat