Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

[WishMaster3K]

Sorry for the title, but this is the best way to describe what I'm doing. I wanted to come to this forum, because I know that there are members who speak multiple languages, and I was seeking some input on my new endeavor.

The premise is this- I volunteered for a programmed called ESL "English as a Second Language." Wherin students of my college who, obviously, are speaking English as a second/third/etc language partake in a group discussion with native English speakers.

I was eager to do this, because I love reading, and I was soooo anxious to help out anyone trying to learn English, or speak it better.

The people in my group are from Taiwan, Thailand, Morocco and Turkey. The book we started today was a personal favorite of mine, Jack London's "The Call of The Wild."

Some observations:
They are obviously eager to learn, that's why they're here.

I also noted that they were a little shy at first to point out words or phrases they didnt understand.

I also noticed how fucking hard that book is to read -.-

I ALSO noticed how fucking RETARDED our language is to foreigners, lol. Anybody that has english as a second language and can speak coherantly (Coherant/Fluidly, either way, it's an accomplishment) gets Kudis for getting over the speedbumps.

There are many phrases in english that just dont make sense, and I thought it was hilarious how absurd they are. "his temper rose to a fever pitch." I see this sentence and understand what it means. They see it and disect it word by word, and end up getting confused. Fever pitch, for all intensive purposes, makes little sense.

And it took me a couple of minutes to explain that fever and pitch were different.(they understood them seperately as words), but when used together, conveys a sense of extreme anger. (Fever being related to hotness, and pitch added on to indicate that "his temper was as hot as a fever") (damn, that last sentence makes even less sense, but I think they understood it, orz)

At the start of our discussion, I told them I had once expressed interest in learning the different Asian languages, but got perplexed because they were too hard. Ya know what, they told me that ENGLISH was hard! >.>;

Anyway, now onto the point. What I'm asking are for teaching techniques. What the program entails is that they get to read with native speakers, asking questions, assosiae words and sounds and etc. What we're doing is reading to them page by page, and having them point out any words they seem confused with.

I'm so glad I wasnt frustrated on my first day. Its wierd being a "teacher", everyone's eyes are on you when you speak, and to hear them go "ohhhhhh" after you explain something warms my heart

So I know Jei is from Thailand (shit, I think, forgive me if I am mistaken ;. And there are multiple users here with knowledge in more asian languages than just Japanese. (i kinda wish I had a japanese person there to crack inside jokes with), so I'm asking for content to help the group grasp english.

They already have basic skills, i'm glad they can at least communicate as long as I keep from using big words. But anywhere I can print out material, like word associations?

Additional: Oh yeah, they asked what "savage" meant, and I explained at first that it could be considered a person without social order, or someone not living in a city, aka, a society. Then ths Taiwan kid Josh said "oh, like a Hillbilly, right?" yeah, i was dying from the internal laughter as I tried to keep a straight face.

Any help appreciated. I'm real eager to aid these nice people.

[Jei]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Sounds like you got some enthusiastic students ^^ That's good. The worse thing I can imagine is complete silence and blank look in everyone's eyes when you ask anything.

In thailand it's a lot different. Students got controlled a lot and asking questions (or even intereact with the teacher at all) is pretty rare. It took me like 2 years studying in the states for me to really feel comfortable speaking up in the class.

savage is a short form of the sword final WS... um... oops just tell them to get a dictionary xD I used to have one called something like "everyday's dictionary" can't really remember. It's an english-english dictionary that explains the meaning in an easy-to-understand manner. I'll hit up some bookstores and see if I can find it (can't find on amazon so maybe the name's wrong)

[Macht]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Well silly suggestion, but I've noticed some Dictionaries focused to people of Teen age like 13+ seem to simplify out many words that may be confusing.

Honestly with the little I have been learning of foreign languages I would have to say English does seem to be overly complicated. Have to be cautious of word combinations like -sci-, -sce-, -scy-, -dg-, -gh-, -h, -ph-, ch- for their hidden character or sound change.

At least to a level they have a set pattern, otherwise creating phonetics for english words would be impossible. Then of course the fabled problem you'll probably always see, is the discriptive words being confused for actual meaning.

Like the "fever pitch" it's a descriptive phrase of the guys temper. Stating that his temper has the same pitch as a fever. With the definiton used for pitch in this case being pitch-A level or degree, 'as of' or 'like' intensity.

For extra clarity in what my last paragraph said. "Stating that his temper has the same pitch as a fever", or "Stating that his temper has the same degree as a fever", or "Stating that his temper is like a fever in how strong or intense it is."

Good luck with those students sounds like you are off to a good start, be intresting to hear more on how it progresses

[Balfree]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

I am portuguese and my first language is ofcourse portuguese, to us and many other countries, english lays out completely different and some people have a real tough time figuring out word placement, sometimes it makes little sense to us. I manage to understand english quite well but when writing in english i have trouble with word placement, i have to read and re-read my writing because sometimes its just senseless.

For japanese people.. it's even worse because their language is like.. backwards then upwards then turn on the next right go backwards jump over the hill go back flip up and bam, you successfully asked for cup of coffee to the butcher.

Anyway, offtopic-ish, is there an online community like a forum or whatever where i could apply to learn other languages? mainly japanese hehe... FFXI really inspired me to learn but up until now ive only been using pre-made senteces, its not like theyre even too expressive... just basic and dull. I know such a place existed and i did apply... and it was really cool how you posted a sentence and lots of people would translate it and form an uptodate japanese sentence that i could use, along with many variations, but then i lost my HD and with it the link that i cant seem to remember.

[InuTrunks]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

For japanese people.. it's even worse because their language is like.. backwards then upwards then turn on the next right go backwards jump over the hill go back flip up and bam, you successfully asked for cup of coffee to the butcher.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA that is so ture, I don't know how many times I've asked my teacher for directions to the butcher shop that's in my house ; ; haha.

[DakAttack]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

I a lot of English words have multiple meanings so if you explain that to them it might make more sense to them; they probably wont associate a word to an incorrect meaning without thinking about what else it could mean.

To take fevered pitch for example: Having a fever can mean you're sick, but a fever most means a high temperature. A pitch can mean throwing a baseball, or could pertain to singing, but most commonly refers to a scale. "His anger rose to a fevered pitch" which means on a scale of anger he's risen close to the top, but basically he's become very angry.

If they know that English words have multiple meanings and that these meanings are used very loosely they'll probably have an easier time grasping it. There's also the recognition of each individual odd phrase you hear the more you hear it, so they'll get used to it.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Another session, just left, gonna try and jot down thoughts while I'm still fresh. I'm in Programming Class, so I dont want to fall too far behind again.

I'm gonna write down all the words the don't know, and keep a running list. I realize this now, because it'll be better if I get outside input on the words

One thing fresh in my mind was going over the word "prophet". It started when they asked what a prophecy was, and I explained what a profit did and what they told was a prophecy. Then I also put the word "profit" on the board, and I quickly realized how retarted the English language is -.-

Anyway, I think what I'm going to do now is look up Synonyms and Homonyms and give them sheets.

If i can recall anything later, i'll post it.

[Macht]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Hehe, yeah synonyms and homonyms that'll be intresting to explain.

I'd love to see the explination with a word like faze, phase, fays, and faze >.>

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

what about Read, Read, and Red?

or Ant and Aunt?

*cries a bit inside*

Anyone wanna try spitting some out? I'll start the list soon.

[Macht]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

You can find a few sites if you do a search that lists out some of these.

For example: Alan Cooper's Hymonyms List

There's quite a few others to select and grab from to make up whatever you are planning to with it.

Lol, best one probably will be explaining to, too, and two.

[DakAttack]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Usually you figure it out by the context of the conversation.

"Our annual prophets have fallen 13% since last year." doesn't really make much sense >_>

You could also stress the pronunciation, a dieing art, which might help them discern the difference between certain hymonyms.

[Blood Red Poet]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Dude, what the hell is going on in this thread? My mind is blown away.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Ok, havent updated in a while, cause I havent had any problems. I decided to nix reading, and just converse with them. It was fun.

We talked about American Culture compared to European and Asian culture.

American Cars versus Asian versus European

Foreign policy

Racism

Etc

I was late to my class at 4:30 cause I had so much fun just TALKING to them. Only 2 more sessions left with them, but I can honestly say that I'm touched that I had some role in helping them understand american things

Oh, and I had an in-depth 20minute lecture on the usages of the word "fu**" and how it is a verb, noun and adjective.

Good times.

[bside]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Ok, havent updated in a while, cause I havent had any problems. I decided to nix reading, and just converse with them. It was fun.

We talked about American Culture compared to European and Asian culture.

American Cars versus Asian versus European

Foreign policy

Racism

Etc

I was late to my class at 4:30 cause I had so much fun just TALKING to them. Only 2 more sessions left with them, but I can honestly say that I'm touched that I had some role in helping them understand american things

Oh, and I had an in-depth 20minute lecture on the usages of the word "fu**" and how it is a verb, noun and adjective.

Good times.

when it comes to learning english, or any other languages, it's very important that we, students, have strong interest in what we use as learning materials. the more familiar w/ the topics we r, and/or the more interested we r in them, the better we understand what's covered, and possibly even faster. for that, i'd say the topic use chose, the cultural "difference," was a nice one.

sadly, many ESL classes at colleges tend to just follow some textbooks, and lack the great degree of "in-life" communications, whether it's about the party u had last weekend, or maybe about the girlfriends/boyfriends. rather than having "how are you doing, mike?" "i'm fine, thank you." kinda nothing-beyond-lessons talks, making examples of "how it is a verb, noun and adjective" w/ the word "fu**" surely looks more interesting to me. not to mention at colleges, we're more familiar w/ "what's up?" than "how are you doing?"


one thing i've always been careful about, is that when i come across a word that doesn't make sense, i don't just look it up in the dictionary, but read the whole sentense and try to make sense out of it. knowing words is obviously an important part of learning, but what makes it a language r not words, but sentenses. and if u understand the sentenses well enough, it's easy to "substitute" the words within to make a different sentence of the same structure, but if u just know the words and don't know how to "create" a sentense, that won't be possible. this helped me a lot and it still does.


btw, some ESL students have more than enough proficiency in english, because we almost automatically get forced into ESL just because english isn't our 1st language, for the first semester or two. and the larger the college/university u r in, that becomes more obvious; even the advisors talk to us on an assumption that we don't have enough proficiency. i was put into ESL for the 1st semester at college, w/ no questions asked. my list of registered classes already had it included. and what bothered me, was that they let me take ENG 101 at the same time, and i got A in it. not to mention ESL credits were not considerd even for the electives.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Teaching Asian Schoolmates English

Ya, and it was tons more interesting for me. I love speaking, I'm a natural born orator. But even I admit that reading books and explaining it to them wasnt interesting for me. =[

I noticed that when I would explain the words and make references to things in american culture that you could draw parallels to, they were way more interested than when I was reading the stories, despite my supreme reading skills ^^

We also have a program called "Conversational Partner" and i think that is an important thing. All in all, its of no real labor to us, and if you're willing to help out, you get so much more than community service points.