Welcome to my blog. I use it to share activities with my English students and with teachers in different training workshops. If you like what you see, why not leave a comment?
Work with your partners to complete the Teacher Sudoku puzzle. The idea of the puzzle is to put pictures in all the squares so that each row, column, and 2x3 rectangle contains ONE and ONLY ONE example of each picture. Can you solve it in time? Click the link below and find the page for your group.
Underline the content words. Pay attention to compound words and phrasal verbs and underline the stressed portion. Circle punctuation and mark intonnation patterns in lists of three or more. When you finish CLICK HERE to check your answer. Then read the text aloud to your partner. Remember to use a physical gesture to remind you to stress the conent words.
Click to see full size.
Task 2: Describe a Photo
Click the three dots to put the presentation in full screen. Search the presentation to find a photo you like. Take 45 seconds to prepare. Then click the video timer and take 30 seconds to describe the photo.
Click the three dots and put the presentation in full screen. Practice answering a set of 3 questions. Use the video timers to help you keep track of your time. Go to the next page and let your partner try.
Take a minute to study the graphic with your partner. It is also located in your anthology on page 45. Then ask your partner questions from the list. The idea is to see how many questions your partner can answer in 1 minute. When you finish, move on to the video practice exercises.
Click to view full image.
Do you know what Mr. Biggs is planning to discuss following the break?
Could you give me information about the activites in the morning?
Can you tell me the length of the sessions?
I am interested in learning from women leaders in the field of graphic design. Will there be any presenters by female speakers?
Where and when will this event be held?
Will there be a chance to ask questions or discuss topics with the speakers?
I'm really interested in learning about 3D graphics. Will that topic be addressed in the conference?
I am going to be a little late for this conference. What will I miss if I arrive at 10:20?
I'm interested in attending the conference but I can't pay right now. What is the last day I can register for the event?
Task 5: Video Practice
Click the three dots and put the presentation in full screen. Practice answering a set of 3 questions. Use the video timers to help you keep track of your time. Go to the next page and let your partner try.
Culture of English Speaking Countries - Week 14 - Teaching Culture
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 14 of the course Culture of English Speaking Countries for the bachelor's in English teaching at ULACIT. This is our final regular class of the course. This week you will participate in a culture lesson to explore the practice of tipping in US culture and you will share your reactions to the learning journal article about perspectives in Costa Rica.
Today's Goals:
Participate in a culture lesson about the practice of tipping in US culture.
Describe and react to etic descriptions of cultural perspectives in Costa Rica.
Guiding Questions:
How can I plan a culture lesson for an EFL class?
How would I describe my culture to an outsider?
Warm Up: What's a Fair Price?
Today we're going to talk about food and prices. Click the Jamboard link below and use the Sticky Note function to add what you would consider to be a fair price for the different items in a restaurant.
Learn the situations in the US in which tipping is expected or considered to be a polite gesture.
Listen to interviews with US citizens to hear their personal strategies for tipping in restaurants.
Discuss the pros and cons of the practice of tipping in the US and the possible consequences of eliminating it.
Use the quick tip method to mentally calculate the amount to tip depending on the price of the meal.
Task 1: Video Analysis
Watch this short video clip from the 90's sitcom "Third Rock from the Sun". It is about a family of aliens who move to Earth in order to study and live among humans. Their lack of understanding of human culture leads to humorous situations.
What happened in the first scene?
What did the man misunderstand?
What happened in the final scene?
How did the waitress probably feel? How did his partner feel?
The man says that he is making the process honest. Does he have a point?
What happened to the woman's drink? Why? How might this reflect a cultural perspective about tipping?
Task 2: Class Survey
Click the link below to take a brief survey to decide in which situations it is customary to tip somone in the US.
Now you will listen to some audio interviews from cultural insiders who will explain the practice of tipping and their own personal strategies for determining how much to tip. Click your group link below and complete your graphic organizer by watching the corresponding videos. Remember to use the subtitles and you can also slow the play speed to .75 if any part is difficult to understand.
Pay attention to your teacher's presentation about the process of tipping in restaurants.
Task 5: Vocabulary Builder
In a moment you will read an article about an incident that occured in a restaurant where a waitress was not tipped but first, let's lean some important vocabulary.
Not everyone in the US is in favor of the tipping system. Read this quote from former restaurant owner Jay Porter who abolished tipping at his restaurant and raised his servers' wages.
"Studies have shown that tipping is not an effective incentive for performance in servers. It also creates an environment in which people of color, young people, old people, women, and foreigners tend to get worse service than white males. In a tip-based system, nonwhite servers make less than their white peers for equal work. Consider also the power imbalance between tippers, who are typically male, and servers, 70 percent of whom are female, and consider that the restaurant industry generates five times the average number of sexual harassment claims per worker. And that in many instances employers have allegedly misused tip credits, which let owners pay servers less than minimum wage if tipping makes up the difference."
So now that you have learned about the tipping culture in the US, take a moment to express your reflections and reactions.
What did you learn about the practice of tipping in the US that you did not know before?
What is your personal reaction to this practice?
As a Costa Rican, how do perspectives differ about money, abundance, and status?
How do you feel about the underlying wage difference for employees in the service industry?
Do you think that the practice should remain or should it be abolished?
How do you plan to handle this situation if you go to a restaurant in the US?
Task 8: A Quick Tip
You can use the following method to quickly estimate a 20% tip in your head.
Take the total amount of the bill and round up to the nearest whole number.
Double it.
Then move the decimal point one number to the left.
Example: Your bill is $9.60
Round to the nearest whole number. ($10.00)
Double it. ($20.00)
Move the decimal point one number to the left. ($2.00)
Your tip or a $9.60 meal is $2.00 so you pay a total of $11.60.
Lesson Plan: CLICK HERE to view the lesson plan for this class. It was organized following the four cultureal knowings: knowing how (participation/experience), knowing about (description/information), knowing why (interpretation/perspectives), knowing oneself (response/self-awareness).
Theory Break: The Culture Learning Process
Culture Learning Models: They highlight the adjustment process as learners learn about and change to meet the requirements of the culture, while they are immersed in it. If they progress, learners pass through stages, phases, or passages, gradually accumulating knowledge about the culture, appropriate cultural behaviors, fluency in the language, and ultimately changing their attitudes toward the target culture, their own culture, themselves, and cultures in general (Moran, 2001, p. 123)."
Culture Teaching: "The key to teaching this unique experience is self-awareness, knowing one's self. At some point in this process, learners need conscious awareness of themselves. They need to recognize what they are going through and to purposefully take action. As teachers, we can help learners bring their experiences to the surface, to expression and articulation, so that they can decide how to respond to the culture. When learners do name their experiences - what they perceive, think, or feel - we need to be ready to help them situate this within a larger framework (Moran, 2001, p. 123)."
Moran's Framework: The process of culture learning consists of an ongoing series of encounters with cultural differences presented through structured participation in the language and culture curriculum (products, practices, perspectives, communities, persons). these differences can trigger emotional reactions. Guided by the teacher, the learners engage in description, interpretation, and response, consistent with the states of the experiential learning cycle and cultural knowings. Over time, through repeated encounters and explicit reference to models of culture learning, learners acquire more knowledge of the target culture, develop more appropriate linguistic and cultural behaviors, attain greater understanding, and enhance their awareness of their own culture, their intentions, and their competence as culture learners (Moran, 2001, p. 124)."
This model is based on the following assumptions:
Culture learning can be a conscious, purposeful process.
Culture learning requires managing emotions.
Culture learning depends on cultural comparisons.
Culture learning requires making the tacit explicit.
Learner characteristics affect culture learning.
The relationship between the learner's culture and the target culture affect culture learning.
The instructional context affects culture learning.
The teacher-student relationship affects culture learning.
Task 9: Reflecting on Cultural Perspectives in Costa Rica
Click the group link below and follow the instructions in the document.
Teaching Grammar and Writing - Week 14 - Grammar and the ESL Writing Class
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 14 of the course Teaching Grammar and Writing for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT in term IC 2023. In this class we will close the circle by combining the two major strands of this course in the exploration of the role of grammar instruction in the context of L2 writing courses.
Today's Goals:
Explore controversies, challenges, and opportunities regarding the incorporation of grammar instruction in L2 writing courses.
Present and explain the design features and pedagogical choices made in the creation of your Writing Lesson Plan.
Guiding Questions:
What is the role of grammar in L2 writing instruction?
What design elements are effective in the development of a writing lesson?
Task 1: Reading Response - Grammar and the ESL Writing Class
Let's take a moment to discuss these questions related to your final assigned reading for the course.
Now it's time to share your writing lesson plan design. Walk us through your plan and explain the rationale behind the design choices you made.
Click to view full sized image.
Task 3: Reflecting on your Recent Assignments
Let's take the final minutes of our lesson to discuss your two major grammar assignments, the syllabus proposal and the activity portfolio design.
Grammar Syllabus Proposal
Overall: What were your initial thoughts about the assignment?
Strategies: What strategies did you use to make decisions about the CEFR content, vocab and grammar structures, and suggested tasks? Why did you organize the final product the way you did?
Challenges: What challenges did you face while completing this assignment?
Insights: What insights did you gain through this process? What are your takeaways?
Alternatives: This is just one way to develop a curriculum. What alternatives or variations might also be viable strategies to develop a curriculum with a grammar component?
Grammar Activity Portfolio
Overall: What were your initial thoughts about the assignment?
Challenges: What challenges did you face while completing this assignment?
Insights: How did your participation of this assignment contribute to your growing understanding of the teaching and learning of grammar?
Tell your partners about the perfect amount of the following items.
"For me the perfect amount of ... is ... because ..."
Task 1: Listening for Sign Posts
Signposts are phrases that serve the function of guiding the listener's attention during a talk. They help the speaker give a more effective message by indicating what he or she is going to say next. By learning to recognize common signposts, you will improve your listening comprehension abilities for extended texts. Click on your group link below and complete the tasks.
Two or three of the questions in Part 4 will ask you to intepret information from a graphic. Take the mini-test with your group. Click the link below and share your screen and computer sound.
Click the link below to complete a group quiz focused on the following common talk types: Business Announcements, Special Announcements, Advertisements, and News Reports.
Transcript: CLICK HERE to view the transcripts for the talks to check your answers.
Task 4: Auditory Memory Practice
In this task you will read a text to your partner and he or she will answer some comprehension questions. Listen carefully to see how many details you can identify and retain in your short-term memory. If you don't remember the answer to some of the questions, you can ask your partner to read it again.
Culture of English Speaking Countries - Week 13 - Culture Learning Outcomes
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 13 of the course Culture of English Speaking Countries for the bachelor's in English teaching at ULACIT. This week we will hear the analysis of the final folktale presentation. We will also explore the topic of the role of community organizations and institutions in transmitting culture and regulating behavior.
Today's Goals:
Categorize culture learning outcomes in terms of what they involve, how they are achieved, and why they are significant.
Contribute to a group manifesto document to articulate your beliefs about your role as a cultural educator.
Compare family dynamics between US and Costa Rican culture.
Guiding Questions:
What are the possible results of the culture learning process and which do I see as most relevant to my work as a language teacher?
How do I view my role and duties as a cultural educator.
How is my culture represented in family dynamics and relationships?
Warm Up: Riddles
Click the group link below and follow the instructions in the document.
Let's take a moment to discuss some questions related to your assigned reading for this week.
Reasons Why: Why do you think a course like this one, Cultura de Países Angloparlantes, is a required component of your univeristy curriculum? What's the purpose? Is it just to fill in the plan de estudio? What connection does it have with the more general learning goals of the whole degree program?
Learning Contexts: In what circumstances in the real world is it important for people to consciously learn about another culture or to become aware of asepcts of their own culture? Try to list some specific examples.
Learning Goals: Think about the following contexts. What kind of cultural knowledge would benefit the person? Why?
A university student from Spain preparing for a 6 month study exchange program at a university in Texas.
An adult immigrant from Afghanistan who recently relocated to Australia with a refugee visa who is starting a new life in a country he does not know.
A German corporate executive of an international company who was sent to Costa Rica to mange the operations of a medical devices factory. The staff of the factory are mostly Costa Ricans.
A Chistian missionary from Mexico is preparing to move to a rural area of Angola in Africa to help lead a church there.
A Costa Rican tourist in Italy who signed up for a tour of different historical, artistic, and architectural sites of the counry for two weeks.
A group of recent university graduates from different places in the United States are in Costa Rica receiving training and cultural education lessons in San José before being sent to work as volunteer English teaching assistants in public schools in rural areas of the country for two years as part of the US Peace Corps program.
Culture Learning Outcomes: Read the chart below carefully. It lists six possible outcomes of the culture learning process. The chart is a little confusing because it is not sequential. It starts by stating the final result of the learning process. Then it lists the general focus of the learning process as well examples of the kind of content included in the learning process.
Click to View Full Sized Image
Turning it Around: Let's consider this information in a different order. Click the group link below and go to your section of the document.
“To generalize … across all these culture learning outcomes, I would say that all intend that learners confront, comprehend, accept, and overcome cultural differences. This process involves an interplay of mind, body, heart, and self - or, in technical terms, cognition, behavior, affect, and identity. As part of mastering the language, learners need to change the way they think, act, feel, and perceive themselves and their roles if they are to function effectively and appropriately in the other culture (p. 119).”
The particular culture learning outcomes you seek for your students will inform the focus you give your lessons and the model of culture teaching you develop. Moran says, “the key distinction among [culture teaching]... models lies with differing notions of ‘overcoming’ cultural differences. These range from simply changing one’s mind or feelings about a given culture (culture-specific understanding) through recognizing how one’s own culture affects acceptance of other cultures (culture-general understanding), learning to communicate appropriately in a second language/culture (competence), integrating oneself into another language and culture (adaptation), developing a distinct sense of self (identity), to taking action to transform a culture based on one’s own beliefs (social change). Ultimately, the individual learner decides how to respond and develops skills as a culture learner (personal competence) (p. 119)."
Task 2: Culture Learning Outcomes
Your reading this week focuses on the topic of culture learning outcomes; the different possible results of the culture learning process. Moran provides us with a useful way of classifying these outcomes which can help us choose a particular way of focusing our teaching efforts depending on our context. Click the group link below to explore the what, how, and why of the six culture learning outcomes.
Which of these outcomes resonate with you and the way you view yourself as a cultural educator?
What beliefs about culture form part of your learning philosophy that guides your approach to teaching? CLICK HEREto add to the culture teaching manifesto!
Task 3:Family Life in the USA
Click the link below and follow the instructions in the document.
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