One of the most popular on-line games on Yahoo is Literati. It is just like Scrabble. I described this game to this list several months ago and invited everyone to join me for a game which we played one night.
It's a great game to play with friends or students. While you play there is a little 'chat' window where you can talk about words, the weather, whatever. I think the maximum number to play is 4 or 5 but others can join in to watch the game. You could even have the extras join the players and make 'teams' so that you would have 4-5 teams.
I think any activity that works with words is helpful for students. Before a student lays out his tiles for a 4 letter word he has run through his mind hundreds of possible words. Every spelling combination that seems like it could be a word is followed by the thought "Is that a real word? What word is it and what does it mean?" It is a delightful way for students to review vast amounts of vocabulary.
I had a private class with some executives (a banker, a manufacturing CEO, a company president and a head of a law firm). They liked it when I pulled my mini-Scrabble game out but were thrilled when they learned you get points. The lawyer was so enthusiastic he was trying to cheat and the president had to guard the tiles to stop him.
Scrabble is one of the most popular games in the U.S. So I'm sure many students will enjoy it.
Showing posts with label vocabulary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vocabulary. Show all posts
24 April 2009
17 April 2009
Scrabble and Liar Liar for vocabulary practice
SPELLING AND VOCABULARY REVIEWSCRABBLE: It's almost embarrassing to get paid money to play Scrabble but we're professionals and have to be ready to endure anything. As I've mentioned in earlier posts I like to teach from our coursebook for an hour and then like to do something else with the class. I was really surprised at how appealing Scrabble turned out to be. Especially when my students found out they could get points and win. I've had managers jumping up and down like kids and a lawyer so intent on winning he couldn't resist cheating. Students have to think of thousands of words to play this game and it's a great way to get them to review the vocabulary they know.
Photo: 40 students playing Scrabble. The game is projected on a screen. The students are divided into eight teams.
VOCABULARY STRETCHING
LIAR LIAR: Often our coursebooks have a dictionary section in the back. Give the students a couple minutes to study one page of it. Then they close their books and on a paper draw two vertical lines forming three columns. At the top of the left column they write 100. At the top of the middle column they write YES. Then put NO at the top of the right column.
The 100 is their dollars. The teacher reads a word with its' definition or with a definition from another word. The students use their dollars to place bets on how sure they are if the word and definition are true or false. They do this by marking how much they want to gamble under one of the YES?
The game is terrifically effective in winning students concentration and focus on these vocabulary words. And they have great fun in playing the game.
30 April 2008
On using songs to teach vocabulary
I would venture to say it is risky to use any songs that the students themselves don't recommend. Just ask them who and what they like and they are eager to let you know. Remember, if you like it they probably don't.
I believe teaching songs may be one of the most undervalued methods of TESL. Just think: the students usually love them (low affective barrier), they are catchy and easy to remember, they are real language (realia), it is likely that the students will hear them again and again and thus have ample opportunity to review the language, they are culturally informative, they add another media of presentation (music, not just listening to the teacher or looking at a book).
Other teachers had a big discussion (read: argument) about the value of teaching Shakespeare. The claim goes that the bard set a valuable milestone in the progress of English. But frankly, for young people especially, I think Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Dion and Houston would help students make greater progress in communicative skills.
Some care needs to be exercised to select songs with the highest potential of useful language. Many rap songs are hindered with a total absence of grammar and high density of slang or invented language.
I believe teaching songs may be one of the most undervalued methods of TESL. Just think: the students usually love them (low affective barrier), they are catchy and easy to remember, they are real language (realia), it is likely that the students will hear them again and again and thus have ample opportunity to review the language, they are culturally informative, they add another media of presentation (music, not just listening to the teacher or looking at a book).
Other teachers had a big discussion (read: argument) about the value of teaching Shakespeare. The claim goes that the bard set a valuable milestone in the progress of English. But frankly, for young people especially, I think Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Dion and Houston would help students make greater progress in communicative skills.
Some care needs to be exercised to select songs with the highest potential of useful language. Many rap songs are hindered with a total absence of grammar and high density of slang or invented language.
22 November 2007
Reverse engineering vocabulary learning
We hear a lot of advice about how to teach vocabulary, how to bring the mass of vocabulary to the student so the student has the right word when she needs it. But instead of looking at it from the mass to the useful word, let us look at it from the useful word to the mass. In other words, how did that student actually acquire that word?...a sort of lexical forensics, if you will.
I have been pondering the CET4 English test used in China. This is the most important English test in China and it's hard for Chinese to claim they know any useful amount of English if they haven't passed this test. (Following this test is the CET6 and CET8). I'm looking at an official sample test right now and have chosen a question at random to study. This is one line in a long paragraph and we know it's talking about home care for someone who is ill. This is a cloze test question and it goes like this:
The responsible one in the home ___ on with the rest of the care during the _interval_ between the nurse's visits.
(a) works (b) carries (c) looks (d) depends
The answer is "carries".
Now the question is, how did the student come to choose that word? What was the learning process that enabled that student to correctly choose that word over the others? Were those words in a vocabulary lesson? Were those words on the student's vocabulary list of words to memorize? How did our student acquire those words to be able to answer the question correctly? How did the student know she cannot say "...WORKS on with..." That sounds almost possible. How exactly did the student know it is impossible? What lesson was given to the student on this?
If we take a look at the correct word we can see in the American Heritage Dictionary there are many definitions or usages for the word "carry" plus six phrasal verbs with multiple uses as well, these being:
carry-45
carry off-2
carry out-3
carry over-7
carry a (or the) torch-1
carry the ball-1
carry the day-1
And...
carry on-4
To conduct; maintain: carry on a thriving business.
To engage in: carry on a love affair.
To continue without halting; persevere: carry on in the face of disaster. To behave in an excited, improper, or silly manner.
This makes a total of 64. Certainly, our student did not need to know every usage of "carry" to be able to choose it as the correct answer. But the student had to learn many of them. And how did she learn them, did the teacher teach them to the student?
My suspicion is that our student has not had English lessons in the multiple uses of the word "carry" that enabled her to answer correctly. Perhaps the student never had any lesson on the word "carry". I believe that once an elementary vocabulary has been reached, the vast bulk of learning takes place indirectly through vast amounts of input as suggested by Krashen in his theory of "Comprehensible Input".
I have been pondering the CET4 English test used in China. This is the most important English test in China and it's hard for Chinese to claim they know any useful amount of English if they haven't passed this test. (Following this test is the CET6 and CET8). I'm looking at an official sample test right now and have chosen a question at random to study. This is one line in a long paragraph and we know it's talking about home care for someone who is ill. This is a cloze test question and it goes like this:
The responsible one in the home ___ on with the rest of the care during the _interval_ between the nurse's visits.
(a) works (b) carries (c) looks (d) depends
The answer is "carries".
Now the question is, how did the student come to choose that word? What was the learning process that enabled that student to correctly choose that word over the others? Were those words in a vocabulary lesson? Were those words on the student's vocabulary list of words to memorize? How did our student acquire those words to be able to answer the question correctly? How did the student know she cannot say "...WORKS on with..." That sounds almost possible. How exactly did the student know it is impossible? What lesson was given to the student on this?
If we take a look at the correct word we can see in the American Heritage Dictionary there are many definitions or usages for the word "carry" plus six phrasal verbs with multiple uses as well, these being:
carry-45
carry off-2
carry out-3
carry over-7
carry a (or the) torch-1
carry the ball-1
carry the day-1
And...
carry on-4
To conduct; maintain: carry on a thriving business.
To engage in: carry on a love affair.
To continue without halting; persevere: carry on in the face of disaster. To behave in an excited, improper, or silly manner.
This makes a total of 64. Certainly, our student did not need to know every usage of "carry" to be able to choose it as the correct answer. But the student had to learn many of them. And how did she learn them, did the teacher teach them to the student?
My suspicion is that our student has not had English lessons in the multiple uses of the word "carry" that enabled her to answer correctly. Perhaps the student never had any lesson on the word "carry". I believe that once an elementary vocabulary has been reached, the vast bulk of learning takes place indirectly through vast amounts of input as suggested by Krashen in his theory of "Comprehensible Input".
04 September 2007
Thinking outside the book
One thing that students and teachers really struggle with is boredom. Maybe I'm just easily bored but I have yet to find a book or teacher that really keeps the student's interest from cover to cover, it doesn't matter how good they are.
Sometimes I think that the way English teaching works is that we often trap ourselves into thinking "inside the book". Publishers have little interest in helping teachers think otherwise and because we often lean on manufactured materials we always wind up with a book.
We are basically teaching the same way Socrates, Plato and Aristotle taught thousands of years ago except for the addition of the printed book invented by Gutenberg.
Of course, there are guys who have rebelled against the book. You can find a bunch of them at Dogme. They have a Yahoo group and their leader has published in The Guardian newspaper ELT pages.
But to me, they seem more readily identified for what they are against than what they are for. And from my experience, it really helps to have a course or plan for students as otherwise the training can seem a bit aimless to the students.
So how can we escape the book but still have a plan?
First, let's brainstorm a list of all the new tools and technologies and other things that are available to us since the days of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Gutenberg. Without much order, here is my list:
Computers
Email
Telephone
Phone messages
PowerPoint
YouTube
PDA
Chat rooms
Blogs
Websites
Fax
MP3
MP4
Video
Email spam
Voice spam
Television
Shopping malls
Perhaps your list is longer. Now, just as a thought exercise to stretch us "outside the book", what if you assigned yourself the task of using each of these to provide some part of a training course.
There was once a game called Majestic by Electronic Arts. They described it as "The suspense thriller that infiltrates your life through the Internet, telephone and fax, then leaves you guessing where the game ends and reality begins." To play this game you had to check websites and periodically you'd receive frantic phone calls with clues or cryptic faxes.
I think something so pervasive would be an exciting way to teach and learn. What would a "Majestic" English course be like? The student would be receiving training from so many directions at so many times. Of course, not all of this is possible with every teacher and every student, but employing some of these technologies could really get us "out of the book". Consider the possibilities that a ficticious Chinese student named Jerry Liang would experience:
- Jerry gets a daily Email that has a short lesson, story or MP3. This Email is pumped out to Jerry and all the other students by a program similar to those used by spammers.
- Jerry also receives a daily SMS phone messages that reminds him to study an assignment, do homework or join some activities that the teacher has organized.
- Every week, Jerry is directed to watch a certain TV program or movie which all the other students and teacher will be watching. Jerry doesn't have to participate if he is busy that night but he does need to participate in at least two per week. Jerry tunes in the program and starts the chat program on his computer. While he is watching the program on his home TV, other students and the teacher are watching it and chatting with him about it, about the story, actors, what they like or don't like, etc. ("Don't go in that dark room!...don't do it!...Ugh! I knew it!!!")
- Jerry posts assignments on the blog.
- Jerry gets SMS phone messages with new vocabulary on set days. After first contact with the new vocabulary in a lesson he receives the vocabulary in a message on day 2, 5, 12, 19, 33, 63. He has a look at the words and reviews them.
- He has some specially recorded lessons made by his teacher or other teachers in MP3 format in his MP3/MP4 player or PDA which he listens to throughout the day.
- When Jerry visits the popular local mall he takes a walking tour via MP3. The teacher has made a short recording and guides the him through the mall, describing interesting things about the mall and shops and introducing more new vocabulary. ("Starbucks took its name from a coffee-loving character in the famous American novel called 'Moby Dick', a story about a man hunting a whale. Starbuck's strategy is to become people's 'third place', the main place people go outside of home and work.")
- Sometimes Jerry receives a phone call from the teacher to practice his speaking, but more often than not, the teacher (randomly?) assigns Jerry and the other students speaking buddies, other students, who he calls to practice a particular speaking activity. Every week Jerry recieves an Email with a speaking lesson to practice and his speaking buddy's phone number. Sometimes the buddy is in his class but most of the time the buddy is a student in one of the teacher's other classes, perhaps a manager in a company. It's interesting to have this way to talk to various professionals that he wouldn't normally meet (and Jerry thinks it's always interesting to talk to girls).
- Twice a month, Jerry is given a phone number to a company in an English speaking country that provides information about their services along with one or more questions that he needs to ask about. For example, he once had to call Trump International Hotel in New York to find out if they allow dogs in the room. (They do if the dog is under 10 pounds but the guest must pay a non-refundable $200.) This provides a real English challenge and practice for Jerry.
- Etc, etc, etc.
All of this is possible with current technology but will never be offered by a book publisher. It just remains for the teacher to sort out his content and figure out the different ways to deliver it.
A student, going through a course like that, would have an experience they've never had before. But as I said, maybe I dream up this stuff because I'm the kind of person who is easily bored.
Sometimes I think that the way English teaching works is that we often trap ourselves into thinking "inside the book". Publishers have little interest in helping teachers think otherwise and because we often lean on manufactured materials we always wind up with a book.
We are basically teaching the same way Socrates, Plato and Aristotle taught thousands of years ago except for the addition of the printed book invented by Gutenberg.
Of course, there are guys who have rebelled against the book. You can find a bunch of them at Dogme. They have a Yahoo group and their leader has published in The Guardian newspaper ELT pages.
But to me, they seem more readily identified for what they are against than what they are for. And from my experience, it really helps to have a course or plan for students as otherwise the training can seem a bit aimless to the students.
So how can we escape the book but still have a plan?
First, let's brainstorm a list of all the new tools and technologies and other things that are available to us since the days of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Gutenberg. Without much order, here is my list:
Computers
Telephone
Phone messages
PowerPoint
YouTube
PDA
Chat rooms
Blogs
Websites
Fax
MP3
MP4
Video
Email spam
Voice spam
Television
Shopping malls
Perhaps your list is longer. Now, just as a thought exercise to stretch us "outside the book", what if you assigned yourself the task of using each of these to provide some part of a training course.
There was once a game called Majestic by Electronic Arts. They described it as "The suspense thriller that infiltrates your life through the Internet, telephone and fax, then leaves you guessing where the game ends and reality begins." To play this game you had to check websites and periodically you'd receive frantic phone calls with clues or cryptic faxes.
I think something so pervasive would be an exciting way to teach and learn. What would a "Majestic" English course be like? The student would be receiving training from so many directions at so many times. Of course, not all of this is possible with every teacher and every student, but employing some of these technologies could really get us "out of the book". Consider the possibilities that a ficticious Chinese student named Jerry Liang would experience:
- Jerry gets a daily Email that has a short lesson, story or MP3. This Email is pumped out to Jerry and all the other students by a program similar to those used by spammers.
- Jerry also receives a daily SMS phone messages that reminds him to study an assignment, do homework or join some activities that the teacher has organized.
- Every week, Jerry is directed to watch a certain TV program or movie which all the other students and teacher will be watching. Jerry doesn't have to participate if he is busy that night but he does need to participate in at least two per week. Jerry tunes in the program and starts the chat program on his computer. While he is watching the program on his home TV, other students and the teacher are watching it and chatting with him about it, about the story, actors, what they like or don't like, etc. ("Don't go in that dark room!...don't do it!...Ugh! I knew it!!!")
- Jerry posts assignments on the blog.
- Jerry gets SMS phone messages with new vocabulary on set days. After first contact with the new vocabulary in a lesson he receives the vocabulary in a message on day 2, 5, 12, 19, 33, 63. He has a look at the words and reviews them.
- He has some specially recorded lessons made by his teacher or other teachers in MP3 format in his MP3/MP4 player or PDA which he listens to throughout the day.
- When Jerry visits the popular local mall he takes a walking tour via MP3. The teacher has made a short recording and guides the him through the mall, describing interesting things about the mall and shops and introducing more new vocabulary. ("Starbucks took its name from a coffee-loving character in the famous American novel called 'Moby Dick', a story about a man hunting a whale. Starbuck's strategy is to become people's 'third place', the main place people go outside of home and work.")
- Sometimes Jerry receives a phone call from the teacher to practice his speaking, but more often than not, the teacher (randomly?) assigns Jerry and the other students speaking buddies, other students, who he calls to practice a particular speaking activity. Every week Jerry recieves an Email with a speaking lesson to practice and his speaking buddy's phone number. Sometimes the buddy is in his class but most of the time the buddy is a student in one of the teacher's other classes, perhaps a manager in a company. It's interesting to have this way to talk to various professionals that he wouldn't normally meet (and Jerry thinks it's always interesting to talk to girls).
- Twice a month, Jerry is given a phone number to a company in an English speaking country that provides information about their services along with one or more questions that he needs to ask about. For example, he once had to call Trump International Hotel in New York to find out if they allow dogs in the room. (They do if the dog is under 10 pounds but the guest must pay a non-refundable $200.) This provides a real English challenge and practice for Jerry.
- Etc, etc, etc.
All of this is possible with current technology but will never be offered by a book publisher. It just remains for the teacher to sort out his content and figure out the different ways to deliver it.
A student, going through a course like that, would have an experience they've never had before. But as I said, maybe I dream up this stuff because I'm the kind of person who is easily bored.
12 June 2007
Know thy student
Yesterday, I passed out a slip of paper to my college students and asked them to write two things, their English learning problem and anything else they'd like to say to me. I also asked them to put their name on the papers.I have only done this with 200 of my students and I'll do another 100 on Wednesday but I don't expect the feedback to be very different.
The main thing they tell me is that they have a real hard time learning new words.
I believe this is because they believe when they "learn" a word then it should be "known". I've been trying to steer my students away from deeply ingrained this idea but I can see how difficult it is for them to give it up.
At best, our students can only be "introduced" to a word in much the same way we introduce one friend to another friend. At that point, the friends will only know each other's name and a couple facts like their jobs and place of origin, etc. They will only know each other about 1%. If these two newly acquainted friends got married and would spend a year together, work together, play together, go through hardships together, they would know each other more completely but still not completely know each other.
So the only way students can really learn words is by constantly coming in contact with them. That is why I favor English learning approaches that lean towards extensive contact with English such as Extensive Reading and also watching a lot of English TV, movies, etc.
The second biggest lament was learning grammar.
I am not the grammar teacher in this school so I don't know how that goes but I can imagine. It makes a lot of sense that our students should be able to learn a lot of words and then learn all the grammar rules and put it all together into sentences and communication. It makes great sense but it doesn't work. The mind is unable to mechanically put it all together at the moment of communication. Again, that is why I favor an approach which leads to massive exposure to the language as well as using language to communicate as per the Communicative Approach.
I was not surprised that my students had those feelings about vocabulary and grammar. I was surprised that despite my bringing this up with them a couple times already they are still thinking they have to do it the old way. This shows me that they haven't bought into the better idea and I haven't done a good job in helping them understand.
Photo: My students giving me feedback.
24 May 2007
Students learn "untaught" language
Students do learn and fluently use language that is "untaught" to them. They do this through Comprehensible Input. Although Jack Richards does provide models of "yeah" in his dialogs he doesn't "teach" students to use it.I don't think that we can attribute the widespread use of "yeah" to Jack Richards, Interchange books or any other practice of direct teaching. It is an "untaught" language feature.
Another example is what Jack Richards[1], in discussing the nature of conversation, calls conversational routines. Examples Richards gives are:
This one's on me.
I don't believe a word of it.
I don't get the point.
You look great today.
What will you have to drink?
Nearly time. Got everything?
Check please!
After you.
Guess I'll be making a move.
I see what you mean.
Let me think about it.
Just looking, thanks.
I'll be with you in a minute.
It doesn't matter.
No harm done.
How do students learn these things? They are examples of untaught learning. These sorts of examples clearly show how effective Comprehensible Input can be.
[1] Jack Richards, The Language Teaching Matrix, Conversationally speaking, p.75, Cambridge University Press, 1990.
07 March 2007
Must we teach the origins of words?
Some teachers recommend teaching our students the origins of words. That brings to mind some reflections on how word origins actually get in the way of meaning sometimes, for example, with some modern word usages.
There are a lot of new words being used in ways that have little to do with their origins in my opinion and I have begun giving the "new" definitions of the words rather than what I think is the whole story of the word.
For example, a rather crass but commonly heard way in movies and popular music of speaking of a "girlfriend" is "ho" or "bitch". Is it really necessary to give all the background to those words? Can't we can just define the word and explain what kind of slang it is? It is becoming more common to hear people say a product that doesn't function well really "sucks" or it is "shit". Those are words for "bad". President George Bush, making a comment to Dick Cheney, was overheard by all when he called a certain reporter an "asshole". This is language that our president, who is a shining light of human dignity, democracy and freedom for all mankind, uses. So how can you define that word? It means someone you don't like.
I never teach these words to my students. In fact, when the subject comes up I teach them NOT to use them as they can be explosive and cause a lot of damage. But as far as telling them how they should understand the word when they hear it I no longer turn red, gag, wonder how to put it so as not to offend the more sensitive ones in attendance, and go into the whole gory ugly story.
Calling someone an "ale-soused apple john" would mean little today but in Elizabethan times it was very offensive.
I'm convinced that many young people, without fully understanding the origins, are using some of these words in a sort of innocent way and that in the future these words will be more accepted into our mainstream vocabulary. But if the word is being used frequently and if knowing the origin of the word is not really necessary then I think it may be best for us to not teach it.
There are a lot of new words being used in ways that have little to do with their origins in my opinion and I have begun giving the "new" definitions of the words rather than what I think is the whole story of the word.
For example, a rather crass but commonly heard way in movies and popular music of speaking of a "girlfriend" is "ho" or "bitch". Is it really necessary to give all the background to those words? Can't we can just define the word and explain what kind of slang it is? It is becoming more common to hear people say a product that doesn't function well really "sucks" or it is "shit". Those are words for "bad". President George Bush, making a comment to Dick Cheney, was overheard by all when he called a certain reporter an "asshole". This is language that our president, who is a shining light of human dignity, democracy and freedom for all mankind, uses. So how can you define that word? It means someone you don't like.
I never teach these words to my students. In fact, when the subject comes up I teach them NOT to use them as they can be explosive and cause a lot of damage. But as far as telling them how they should understand the word when they hear it I no longer turn red, gag, wonder how to put it so as not to offend the more sensitive ones in attendance, and go into the whole gory ugly story.
Calling someone an "ale-soused apple john" would mean little today but in Elizabethan times it was very offensive.
I'm convinced that many young people, without fully understanding the origins, are using some of these words in a sort of innocent way and that in the future these words will be more accepted into our mainstream vocabulary. But if the word is being used frequently and if knowing the origin of the word is not really necessary then I think it may be best for us to not teach it.
06 March 2007
Teacher knows "Father Knows Best"!
I have a sort of Krashenistic view on learning. I like to have tons of material to offer my students and let them select what particular items appeal to them. Although Krashen is focused on reading books, I think in our multimedia world we can extend that to films, TV shows, podcasts, etc. One problem is finding enough material to offer that is i + 1.
Here is a website with some "old time radio" shows. The English is about the same speed as VOA Special English but even slower, clearer and simpler and much more so compared to normal speech or movies. It would be suitable for mid to upper-intermediate students. Not all of the shows are at the same level.
Below is a sample of the dialog from "Father Knows Best" , an old radio show but very popular. Although some proper nouns are unique the rest of the dialog is fairly basic and actually very repetitive, all of which contributes greatly to comprehensibility.
Following the sample is a textual analysis, a frequency list of words used in the sample and the vocabulary levels of the words.
See how accessible this language is. Except for "poultry breeder", "gazette", "mining" and "Harvard", I think intermediate students could understand nearly everything.
Jim: Margaret
Margaret: Yes, Dear?
Jim: What’s this?
Margaret: What’s what, Dear?
Jim: This.
Margaret: Oh, that. That’s a magazine.
Jim: I know it’s a magazine but what are we doing with a copy of the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”.
Margaret: Well, we had our choice between that and “Mining Engineers Monthly Manual”.
Jim: So you took the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”?
Margaret: Naturally, we wouldn’t have any use for a magazine about mining engineers, would we?
Jim: Margaret.
Margaret: Yes, Dear.
Jim: Have you developed a sudden interest in poultry?
Margaret: No.
Jim: Poultry breeders?
Margaret: Don’t be ridiculous.
Jim: Well, you don’t just go out and buy a thing like this without some reason.
Margaret: I didn’t go out. He brought it here.
Jim: Who did?
Margaret: Well, I don’t know his name but he was a very nice boy and he’s working his way through Harvard...
Jim: You mean...we bought a subscription for this thing?
Margaret: It was only four dollars, Jim. If I knew you were going to make all this fuss...
Jim: I’m not making a fuss. It’s just that I don’t see any reason to throw money away on things we don’t need.
Margaret: People ALWAYS need magazines.
Jim: Alright, but why did you have to choose the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”?
Margaret: I told you, Dear. It’s because we couldn’t use “Mining Engineers Monthly Manual”.
Find more Father Knows Best at RADIO LOVERS.
==========================
Here are the vocabulary level statistics, the percentage of words in each level. For contrast I included vocabulary levels for NY Times and Voice of America Special English. (These levels could vary as the samplings I used were not very large):
K1 Words - the list of the 1000 most common words:
84.07% (NYT 71.95, VOASE 77.02)
K2 Words - the list of the 1001-2000 most common words:
2.65% (NYT 3.96, VOASE 5.18)
AWL Words - the Academic Word List:
0.88% (NYT 8.52, VOASE 4.76)
Off-List Words:
12.39% (NYT 15.56, 11.94)
==========================
Family Word List
family_[number of tokens]
K1 Words:
about_[1] all_[1] always_[1] and_[6] any_[2] away_[1] be_[13] because_[1] between_[1] boy_[1] bring_[1] but_[3] buy_[2] choose_[2] could_[1] dear_[4] develop_[1] do_[9] dollar_[1] for_[2] four_[1] go_[3] have_[4] he_[5] here_[1] i_[7] if_[1] in_[1] interest_[1] it_[5] just_[2] know_[3] like_[1] make_[2] mean_[1] miner_[3] money_[1] month_[2] name_[1] nature_[1] need_[2] no_[1] not_[9] of_[1] oh_[1] on_[1] only_[1] out_[2] people_[1] reason_[2] see_[1] so_[1] some_[1] take_[1] tell_[1] the_[3] thing_[3] this_[9] through_[1] throw_[1] to_[3] use_[2] very_[1] way_[1] we_[8] well_[3] what_[4] who_[1] why_[1] with_[1] without_[1] work_[1] would_[2] yes_[2] you_[7]
all_[1] away_[1] boy_[1] bring_[1] buy_[2] could_[1] dear_[4] go_[3] here_[1] know_[3] like_[1] make_[2] money_[1] month_[2] need_[2] only_[1] see_[1] take_[1] tell_[1] thing_[3] through_[1] throw_[1] very_[1] way_[1] well_[3] work_[1] yes_[2]
K2 Words:
copy_[1] engine_[3] nice_[1] sudden_[1] nice_[1] sudden_[1]
AWL Words:
AWL families: [1:1:2] manual_[2]
Off-list words:
alright_[1] breeder_[3] breeders_[1] bulletin_[3] fuss_[2] gazette_[3] harvard_[1] jim_[1] magazine_[3] magazines_[1] margaret_[2] poultry_[5] ridiculous_[1] subscription_[1]
Here is a website with some "old time radio" shows. The English is about the same speed as VOA Special English but even slower, clearer and simpler and much more so compared to normal speech or movies. It would be suitable for mid to upper-intermediate students. Not all of the shows are at the same level.
Below is a sample of the dialog from "Father Knows Best" , an old radio show but very popular. Although some proper nouns are unique the rest of the dialog is fairly basic and actually very repetitive, all of which contributes greatly to comprehensibility.
Following the sample is a textual analysis, a frequency list of words used in the sample and the vocabulary levels of the words.
See how accessible this language is. Except for "poultry breeder", "gazette", "mining" and "Harvard", I think intermediate students could understand nearly everything.
Jim: Margaret
Margaret: Yes, Dear?
Jim: What’s this?
Margaret: What’s what, Dear?
Jim: This.
Margaret: Oh, that. That’s a magazine.
Jim: I know it’s a magazine but what are we doing with a copy of the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”.
Margaret: Well, we had our choice between that and “Mining Engineers Monthly Manual”.
Jim: So you took the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”?
Margaret: Naturally, we wouldn’t have any use for a magazine about mining engineers, would we?
Jim: Margaret.
Margaret: Yes, Dear.
Jim: Have you developed a sudden interest in poultry?
Margaret: No.
Jim: Poultry breeders?
Margaret: Don’t be ridiculous.
Jim: Well, you don’t just go out and buy a thing like this without some reason.
Margaret: I didn’t go out. He brought it here.
Jim: Who did?
Margaret: Well, I don’t know his name but he was a very nice boy and he’s working his way through Harvard...
Jim: You mean...we bought a subscription for this thing?
Margaret: It was only four dollars, Jim. If I knew you were going to make all this fuss...
Jim: I’m not making a fuss. It’s just that I don’t see any reason to throw money away on things we don’t need.
Margaret: People ALWAYS need magazines.
Jim: Alright, but why did you have to choose the “Poultry Breeder’s Bulletin and Gazette”?
Margaret: I told you, Dear. It’s because we couldn’t use “Mining Engineers Monthly Manual”.
Find more Father Knows Best at RADIO LOVERS.
==========================
Here are the vocabulary level statistics, the percentage of words in each level. For contrast I included vocabulary levels for NY Times and Voice of America Special English. (These levels could vary as the samplings I used were not very large):
K1 Words - the list of the 1000 most common words:
84.07% (NYT 71.95, VOASE 77.02)
K2 Words - the list of the 1001-2000 most common words:
2.65% (NYT 3.96, VOASE 5.18)
AWL Words - the Academic Word List:
0.88% (NYT 8.52, VOASE 4.76)
Off-List Words:
12.39% (NYT 15.56, 11.94)
==========================
Family Word List
family_[number of tokens]
K1 Words:
about_[1] all_[1] always_[1] and_[6] any_[2] away_[1] be_[13] because_[1] between_[1] boy_[1] bring_[1] but_[3] buy_[2] choose_[2] could_[1] dear_[4] develop_[1] do_[9] dollar_[1] for_[2] four_[1] go_[3] have_[4] he_[5] here_[1] i_[7] if_[1] in_[1] interest_[1] it_[5] just_[2] know_[3] like_[1] make_[2] mean_[1] miner_[3] money_[1] month_[2] name_[1] nature_[1] need_[2] no_[1] not_[9] of_[1] oh_[1] on_[1] only_[1] out_[2] people_[1] reason_[2] see_[1] so_[1] some_[1] take_[1] tell_[1] the_[3] thing_[3] this_[9] through_[1] throw_[1] to_[3] use_[2] very_[1] way_[1] we_[8] well_[3] what_[4] who_[1] why_[1] with_[1] without_[1] work_[1] would_[2] yes_[2] you_[7]
all_[1] away_[1] boy_[1] bring_[1] buy_[2] could_[1] dear_[4] go_[3] here_[1] know_[3] like_[1] make_[2] money_[1] month_[2] need_[2] only_[1] see_[1] take_[1] tell_[1] thing_[3] through_[1] throw_[1] very_[1] way_[1] well_[3] work_[1] yes_[2]
K2 Words:
copy_[1] engine_[3] nice_[1] sudden_[1] nice_[1] sudden_[1]
AWL Words:
AWL families: [1:1:2] manual_[2]
Off-list words:
alright_[1] breeder_[3] breeders_[1] bulletin_[3] fuss_[2] gazette_[3] harvard_[1] jim_[1] magazine_[3] magazines_[1] margaret_[2] poultry_[5] ridiculous_[1] subscription_[1]
We know words but do we know "know"?
In discussing the question of how many words does someone know or need to know I think we need to begin at the beginning and ask owurselves if we know "know"?
What does "know" mean? I read your Email messages that you send to me and other teachers. Do I know you? Do I know the Frenchman who asked me to write some copy for his industrial cosmetics supply business in China? Do I know my Chinese friend I met six years ago? Do I know my wife? In other words, if I asked you, "How many people do you know?" Would you be able to reply with a figure of some degree of precision?
How do we know words? By being familiar with their dictionary definition? By being able to recognize them in a text or conversation? (Passive) By being able to use them in writing or speaking? (Active)
Do we really "know" words or are we mostly "getting to know" words and our knowledge of words is constantly developing or deteriorating depending on the amount of use and the variety of use.
Krashen's idea of getting to know words would be through a tremendous amount of input. This way the most frequently used words do not have to be taught from an artificially developed list as the student will be exposed to them in a natural way through all of the reading the student does. The student would see the words in their natural environment.
Some of my upper-intermediate students still call females "he" and males "she" from time to time. How well do they know these pronouns? They know the rule 100% but they still make systematic mistakes in usage. Do they know these words 70%?
In any given sentence how well does an intermediate level student know each individual word? If we say,
The tractor-trailer overturned on the highway.
How well would our student know those words? I’m just guessing but maybe,
The(80%) tractor-trailer(30%) overturned(60%) on(90%) the(80%) highway(90%).
Students make a lot of errors with "the". Now, "tractor-trailer" may be very unfamiliar to those who don't know American English but the student may be able to guess something from the word and understand its' a vehicle, prepositions are always a problem for students, "highway" may be somewhat familiar. Which of those words would we say the student actually "knew"?
What does "know" mean? I read your Email messages that you send to me and other teachers. Do I know you? Do I know the Frenchman who asked me to write some copy for his industrial cosmetics supply business in China? Do I know my Chinese friend I met six years ago? Do I know my wife? In other words, if I asked you, "How many people do you know?" Would you be able to reply with a figure of some degree of precision?
How do we know words? By being familiar with their dictionary definition? By being able to recognize them in a text or conversation? (Passive) By being able to use them in writing or speaking? (Active)
Do we really "know" words or are we mostly "getting to know" words and our knowledge of words is constantly developing or deteriorating depending on the amount of use and the variety of use.
Krashen's idea of getting to know words would be through a tremendous amount of input. This way the most frequently used words do not have to be taught from an artificially developed list as the student will be exposed to them in a natural way through all of the reading the student does. The student would see the words in their natural environment.
Some of my upper-intermediate students still call females "he" and males "she" from time to time. How well do they know these pronouns? They know the rule 100% but they still make systematic mistakes in usage. Do they know these words 70%?
In any given sentence how well does an intermediate level student know each individual word? If we say,
The tractor-trailer overturned on the highway.
How well would our student know those words? I’m just guessing but maybe,
The(80%) tractor-trailer(30%) overturned(60%) on(90%) the(80%) highway(90%).
Students make a lot of errors with "the". Now, "tractor-trailer" may be very unfamiliar to those who don't know American English but the student may be able to guess something from the word and understand its' a vehicle, prepositions are always a problem for students, "highway" may be somewhat familiar. Which of those words would we say the student actually "knew"?
04 March 2007
Should we teach our students Shakespeare?
Some teachers advocate the teaching of Shakespeare to our students. Shakespeare had a tremendous impact on the English language. There are many idioms and turns of phrase that originated in the writings of Shakespeare. So they feel teaching the old bard would really benefit our students.
It may be useful for a very small portion of advanced English students who are interested in literature studies. It is difficult to see how lower level students, business or non-literature academic students would benefit from such studies as it is likely they have many other basic English needs to develop.
If we take a look at a sample of Shakespeare and the complexity of the language we can see why. Here are the opening lines of Twelfth Night:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
We can see how archaic Shakespearean English is to any contemporary purpose beyond the study of literature. As EFL professionals, we speak at length on the desirability of authentic English samples to use with our students. Personally, as I am not a literature teacher, I would sooner use any ole studio hammered dialog over dear William's finest.
Sitting here in China I wonder if we haven't realized that there has been a divide in the motivation behind English learning today. Some students are intensely interested in understanding the historic culture and the roots of the English language. But I would suggest that 95% or 3-4% more of our students are learning it for employment or travel purposes. I think Shakespeare teaching belongs to the first camp.
Why should it not be taught to the second group? I think it would be nice to teach it to the second group...after they have learned how to introduced themselves and a friend, go the bank, negotiate a contract, make a report to the police about being robbed, give a presentation, make a marriage proposal and talk intelligently with a doctor about their patent foramen ovale. Alas, we may never have time to teach it to this group whose motivation is related to practical daily purposes in our short 3-9 month courses.
It may be useful for a very small portion of advanced English students who are interested in literature studies. It is difficult to see how lower level students, business or non-literature academic students would benefit from such studies as it is likely they have many other basic English needs to develop.
If we take a look at a sample of Shakespeare and the complexity of the language we can see why. Here are the opening lines of Twelfth Night:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
We can see how archaic Shakespearean English is to any contemporary purpose beyond the study of literature. As EFL professionals, we speak at length on the desirability of authentic English samples to use with our students. Personally, as I am not a literature teacher, I would sooner use any ole studio hammered dialog over dear William's finest.
Sitting here in China I wonder if we haven't realized that there has been a divide in the motivation behind English learning today. Some students are intensely interested in understanding the historic culture and the roots of the English language. But I would suggest that 95% or 3-4% more of our students are learning it for employment or travel purposes. I think Shakespeare teaching belongs to the first camp.
Why should it not be taught to the second group? I think it would be nice to teach it to the second group...after they have learned how to introduced themselves and a friend, go the bank, negotiate a contract, make a report to the police about being robbed, give a presentation, make a marriage proposal and talk intelligently with a doctor about their patent foramen ovale. Alas, we may never have time to teach it to this group whose motivation is related to practical daily purposes in our short 3-9 month courses.
21 February 2007
Finding suitable authentic newspaper materials for reading
It is not easy to find authentic newspaper materials that are at an accessible level for students and interesting as well. Krashen always recommended reading materials that were L+1, a level just slightly above the student's level which causes the student to have to "reach" a little.
I have scoured the Internet for years for such things. Something I like is from a column called "The Boss" in the NY Times. They have a simple life story of a top boss. Typically the story touches on things about the person's childhood, school, influence of parents, first jobs and the lessons of life.
They are also success stories and lots of students have some hopes to be successful in life and find these stories interesting. At the bottom is an example of one of "The Boss" stories that you can find in the NY Times.
HOW TO USE THEM & THE PROBLEMS WITH PRE-TEACHING
There are a couple approaches involved in reading. I don't recommend "pre-teaching" the vocabulary from the text as many course books do, notably in China is "New Concepts" (which is actually a very old concept course book being written in the 1960s and only receiving superficial modifications just recently.)
Although pre-teaching sounds like a practical idea it is very boring for the students. Good teaching allows an element of mystery and curiosity and the thirst for knowledge. Good teaching provides the salt first and then the water. The good teacher gets the student to search his memory, his personal resources in his recollection, and draw on what the student already knows to apply to the problem. Good teaching also gets him to personally recognize what he doesn't know which causes him to be curious and want to learn it.
So typically, before letting the students look at the material, get them to talk about what they know about some of the points in the story.
Pre-teaching sort of digests the text for the student leaving little mental exercise beyond simply trying to remember what he was told a couple minutes ago.
Encourage the students to guess the meaning of what they don't understand. You'll find, in a text as below, that there are a few words the student may not know and may not really need to retain.
GUIDING THE STUDENT'S VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
I think it was H.D. Brown who talked about the Active Vocabulary, Latent Vocabulary and the Unknown. Some vocabulary the students encounter is destined for their Latent Vocabulary, words that will be important for them to be able to read or recognize when they hear them but are not necessary for them to be able to produce them on the spot like their Active Vocabulary. Some words they may only see once or twice in their lifetime and could well do without ever learning them. So equal stress should not be made on all words that students will encounter. Some words should be pointed out more than others because they will be more useful for students.
I've always said that language learning is like packing a suitcase. You've got to choose what you will likely need and leave the rest behind. Our students don't have an unlimited capacity to retain everything and that's one place where the teacher is most needed. Decisions about what to teach are as important as decisions about what NOT to teach.
It is not a sin to finish a reading exercise with the student not understanding 100% of the words. The teacher has to remember that sometimes English is a buffet. The student does not need to eat everything but he should eat enough to grow.
In the sample text below the intermediate student might need to acquire vocabulary like: headhunter, recruiter, certified, pulled me out of school, over the course of my career, I was No. 2 for eight years, early on.
However, this following vocabulary may not be as important to retain in the student's Active Vocabulary: Amgen (company name), squadron commander, adventurer, overstate, hammered people, flight physical, class of ship, at the top of his lungs.
Still, the student could be encouraged to guess some of these and should be encouraged to find that he can figure some of these out without a dictionary. He may be able to figure out: adventurer, overstate, hammered people, class of ship.
Some words the student can easily forget without serious damage to their English competency like: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (name).
AND SPEAKING?
Of course it is an ideal time to do some speaking after all the time invested in reading the text. There is a lot of vocabulary covered in what they just read and some speaking can help to consolidate it and allow the student to test his understanding and usage of it.
If my goal was solely speaking and I wanted to use a text I'd use a very short one. "The Boss" is too long for that purpose. But if we used a long text for something else then let's roll into a speaking exercise. Here are a couple ideas that could be done in pairs or small groups:
1. Students could be asked to talk as if they were the characters. In "Say It" fashion, they could do a short monologue explaining themselves and what happened and why they felt the way they felt and adding in made-up details and parts of the story.
2. They could try to isolate various aspects of the story such as the lessons of life and people of influence and discuss those. Then they could follow up with their own personal lessons of life and people of influence.
================
THE BOSS
Ready for the Admiral
As told to GLENN RIFKIN - June 20, 2004
I had no background in health care or biology before I came to Amgen. The only time I touched biology was in ninth grade, and I didn't do very well.
I was working at MCI when I got a fax one day from a headhunter, asking if I knew anybody who wanted to be president of Amgen. I had never heard of Amgen and didn't know what it was. This was 1992. I checked it out and asked some friends, and called back the recruiter and said, "Yes, I want to be president of Amgen."
It was already a 12-year-old company with 2,000 employees, two successful biotech products, and it was clearly going to be a success.
I was ambitious, and I wanted to be a C.E.O.
My dad, who is still alive, was a naval aviator and a career naval officer. He flew jets early on and was a squadron commander. It's hard to overstate the psychological impact, as a young boy, of seeing airplanes come out of the sky, knowing that your father is flying one.
My mother was a very strong, independent woman who was a real adventurer. She loved travel, the arts, literature. When I was a senior in high school, my mother pulled me out of school to go to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to see Isaac Stern play the violin.
I went to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and studied aeronautical engineering on the misconception that it had something to do with flying airplanes. When I failed the flight physical in graduate school because of poor eyesight, I had to decide, at age 23, what to do with my lifelong ambition thwarted.
A friend had joined the submarine force, so I decided I'd go see Admiral Hyman G. Rickover about that option.
Rickover was famous for grilling people, and he asked me why I hadn't come to see him when I was at Annapolis. I told him that I wanted to fly, but since my eyes didn't work, he was the second choice.
It was not the answer Rickover was accustomed to getting. He usually hammered people for failing grades or poor performance, and I had none of those things.
After about 45 seconds, he said, "Get out."
In those days, that was the highest praise you could get from him. It meant you'd been accepted.
Later, when I was the chief engineer of the Memphis, which is in a certain class of attack submarines, on its initial sea trials, I encountered Rickover again. Admiral Rickover would ride every ship on its initial sea trials. So there I was in the control room and Rickover was screaming at the top of his lungs, "Where's the chief engineer?" He thought the ship wasn't performing properly.
I told him: "Admiral, you're wrong. I'm the chief engineer of this ship, and you certified me, and I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. The performance you are looking for is from another class of ship, and here's the data."
There was a real twinkle in his eye before he went on to attack me on another point.
That experience paid off when I left the Navy and was interviewing for a high-level job at General Electric. Jack Welch asked me, "Have you ever taken a risk in your life?"
I replied that at 27 years old, when you are guiding an attack submarine all alone in the teeth of the Russian fleet in the North Atlantic, that was a risk.
I mentioned Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October," which gives a pretty accurate depiction of what it was like.
I guess he agreed because I got the job at G.E. and later became part of Welch's staff. I left the Navy because I was a typical young guy in a gigantic hurry.
In fact, over the course of my career, the one place I've been patient is at Amgen, where I was No. 2 for eight years before becoming C.E.O.
I have scoured the Internet for years for such things. Something I like is from a column called "The Boss" in the NY Times. They have a simple life story of a top boss. Typically the story touches on things about the person's childhood, school, influence of parents, first jobs and the lessons of life.
They are also success stories and lots of students have some hopes to be successful in life and find these stories interesting. At the bottom is an example of one of "The Boss" stories that you can find in the NY Times.
HOW TO USE THEM & THE PROBLEMS WITH PRE-TEACHING
There are a couple approaches involved in reading. I don't recommend "pre-teaching" the vocabulary from the text as many course books do, notably in China is "New Concepts" (which is actually a very old concept course book being written in the 1960s and only receiving superficial modifications just recently.)
Although pre-teaching sounds like a practical idea it is very boring for the students. Good teaching allows an element of mystery and curiosity and the thirst for knowledge. Good teaching provides the salt first and then the water. The good teacher gets the student to search his memory, his personal resources in his recollection, and draw on what the student already knows to apply to the problem. Good teaching also gets him to personally recognize what he doesn't know which causes him to be curious and want to learn it.
So typically, before letting the students look at the material, get them to talk about what they know about some of the points in the story.
Pre-teaching sort of digests the text for the student leaving little mental exercise beyond simply trying to remember what he was told a couple minutes ago.
Encourage the students to guess the meaning of what they don't understand. You'll find, in a text as below, that there are a few words the student may not know and may not really need to retain.
GUIDING THE STUDENT'S VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
I think it was H.D. Brown who talked about the Active Vocabulary, Latent Vocabulary and the Unknown. Some vocabulary the students encounter is destined for their Latent Vocabulary, words that will be important for them to be able to read or recognize when they hear them but are not necessary for them to be able to produce them on the spot like their Active Vocabulary. Some words they may only see once or twice in their lifetime and could well do without ever learning them. So equal stress should not be made on all words that students will encounter. Some words should be pointed out more than others because they will be more useful for students.
I've always said that language learning is like packing a suitcase. You've got to choose what you will likely need and leave the rest behind. Our students don't have an unlimited capacity to retain everything and that's one place where the teacher is most needed. Decisions about what to teach are as important as decisions about what NOT to teach.
It is not a sin to finish a reading exercise with the student not understanding 100% of the words. The teacher has to remember that sometimes English is a buffet. The student does not need to eat everything but he should eat enough to grow.
In the sample text below the intermediate student might need to acquire vocabulary like: headhunter, recruiter, certified, pulled me out of school, over the course of my career, I was No. 2 for eight years, early on.
However, this following vocabulary may not be as important to retain in the student's Active Vocabulary: Amgen (company name), squadron commander, adventurer, overstate, hammered people, flight physical, class of ship, at the top of his lungs.
Still, the student could be encouraged to guess some of these and should be encouraged to find that he can figure some of these out without a dictionary. He may be able to figure out: adventurer, overstate, hammered people, class of ship.
Some words the student can easily forget without serious damage to their English competency like: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (name).
AND SPEAKING?
Of course it is an ideal time to do some speaking after all the time invested in reading the text. There is a lot of vocabulary covered in what they just read and some speaking can help to consolidate it and allow the student to test his understanding and usage of it.
If my goal was solely speaking and I wanted to use a text I'd use a very short one. "The Boss" is too long for that purpose. But if we used a long text for something else then let's roll into a speaking exercise. Here are a couple ideas that could be done in pairs or small groups:
1. Students could be asked to talk as if they were the characters. In "Say It" fashion, they could do a short monologue explaining themselves and what happened and why they felt the way they felt and adding in made-up details and parts of the story.
2. They could try to isolate various aspects of the story such as the lessons of life and people of influence and discuss those. Then they could follow up with their own personal lessons of life and people of influence.
================
THE BOSS
Ready for the Admiral
As told to GLENN RIFKIN - June 20, 2004
I had no background in health care or biology before I came to Amgen. The only time I touched biology was in ninth grade, and I didn't do very well.
I was working at MCI when I got a fax one day from a headhunter, asking if I knew anybody who wanted to be president of Amgen. I had never heard of Amgen and didn't know what it was. This was 1992. I checked it out and asked some friends, and called back the recruiter and said, "Yes, I want to be president of Amgen."
It was already a 12-year-old company with 2,000 employees, two successful biotech products, and it was clearly going to be a success.
I was ambitious, and I wanted to be a C.E.O.
My dad, who is still alive, was a naval aviator and a career naval officer. He flew jets early on and was a squadron commander. It's hard to overstate the psychological impact, as a young boy, of seeing airplanes come out of the sky, knowing that your father is flying one.
My mother was a very strong, independent woman who was a real adventurer. She loved travel, the arts, literature. When I was a senior in high school, my mother pulled me out of school to go to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to see Isaac Stern play the violin.
I went to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and studied aeronautical engineering on the misconception that it had something to do with flying airplanes. When I failed the flight physical in graduate school because of poor eyesight, I had to decide, at age 23, what to do with my lifelong ambition thwarted.
A friend had joined the submarine force, so I decided I'd go see Admiral Hyman G. Rickover about that option.
Rickover was famous for grilling people, and he asked me why I hadn't come to see him when I was at Annapolis. I told him that I wanted to fly, but since my eyes didn't work, he was the second choice.
It was not the answer Rickover was accustomed to getting. He usually hammered people for failing grades or poor performance, and I had none of those things.
After about 45 seconds, he said, "Get out."
In those days, that was the highest praise you could get from him. It meant you'd been accepted.
Later, when I was the chief engineer of the Memphis, which is in a certain class of attack submarines, on its initial sea trials, I encountered Rickover again. Admiral Rickover would ride every ship on its initial sea trials. So there I was in the control room and Rickover was screaming at the top of his lungs, "Where's the chief engineer?" He thought the ship wasn't performing properly.
I told him: "Admiral, you're wrong. I'm the chief engineer of this ship, and you certified me, and I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. The performance you are looking for is from another class of ship, and here's the data."
There was a real twinkle in his eye before he went on to attack me on another point.
That experience paid off when I left the Navy and was interviewing for a high-level job at General Electric. Jack Welch asked me, "Have you ever taken a risk in your life?"
I replied that at 27 years old, when you are guiding an attack submarine all alone in the teeth of the Russian fleet in the North Atlantic, that was a risk.
I mentioned Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October," which gives a pretty accurate depiction of what it was like.
I guess he agreed because I got the job at G.E. and later became part of Welch's staff. I left the Navy because I was a typical young guy in a gigantic hurry.
In fact, over the course of my career, the one place I've been patient is at Amgen, where I was No. 2 for eight years before becoming C.E.O.
The real challenge is to not demotivate the students
Shoppers 'set their own prices'
A supermarket reportedly let customers pay what they liked for their shopping after a thunderstorm knocked out the cash tills. The Mirror says the Asda store at Monks Cross in North Yorkshire was soon packed as word about the give-away spread. Bosses reportedly let people guess their shopping bill rather than make them wait for power to return. Manager Colin Storey said: "It was worth it to keep our customers happy."
The question is not IF vocabulary should be taught but HOW. Those of us who adhere to more communicative approaches believe it should be presented in an authentic way that interests and engages the student. We believe that once the interest is aroused it will allow vocabulary to be retained much better.
After reading the above story the students will be very interested in understanding: thunderstorm, knocked out, cash tills, packed, give-away, worth it.
Imagine one teacher asking this:
"Students, remember the ten words we learned on Monday?" or
"Students, remember the story about the supermarket that let customers pay what they want?"
In which case will the students best be able to retrieve the words and use them in a proper context?
The story above came from the Ananova news website. They have a special section called Quirkies and it's full of curious news items under the categories: Eccentrics, Quirky gaffes, Strange crime, Sex life, Animal tales, Sporting quirkies, Showbiz quirkies, Business quirkies, Heartwarmers, Rocky relationships, Bad taste and Unlucky.
Of course, the teacher should create some opportunity for the students to use the words they learned. Perhaps they could talk about what they would do if they were a manager or customer in that situation or if they were a business consultant examining it.
People have a natural curiosity and motivation to learn things. As Andrew Littlejohn, author of Primary Colours and Cambridge English for Schools, said when he visited us in China, "It is not the teacher's job to motivate the students - it's the teachers job to not de-motivate them."
A supermarket reportedly let customers pay what they liked for their shopping after a thunderstorm knocked out the cash tills. The Mirror says the Asda store at Monks Cross in North Yorkshire was soon packed as word about the give-away spread. Bosses reportedly let people guess their shopping bill rather than make them wait for power to return. Manager Colin Storey said: "It was worth it to keep our customers happy."
The question is not IF vocabulary should be taught but HOW. Those of us who adhere to more communicative approaches believe it should be presented in an authentic way that interests and engages the student. We believe that once the interest is aroused it will allow vocabulary to be retained much better.
After reading the above story the students will be very interested in understanding: thunderstorm, knocked out, cash tills, packed, give-away, worth it.
Imagine one teacher asking this:
"Students, remember the ten words we learned on Monday?" or
"Students, remember the story about the supermarket that let customers pay what they want?"
In which case will the students best be able to retrieve the words and use them in a proper context?
The story above came from the Ananova news website. They have a special section called Quirkies and it's full of curious news items under the categories: Eccentrics, Quirky gaffes, Strange crime, Sex life, Animal tales, Sporting quirkies, Showbiz quirkies, Business quirkies, Heartwarmers, Rocky relationships, Bad taste and Unlucky.
Of course, the teacher should create some opportunity for the students to use the words they learned. Perhaps they could talk about what they would do if they were a manager or customer in that situation or if they were a business consultant examining it.
People have a natural curiosity and motivation to learn things. As Andrew Littlejohn, author of Primary Colours and Cambridge English for Schools, said when he visited us in China, "It is not the teacher's job to motivate the students - it's the teachers job to not de-motivate them."
Why we don't need to teach specialized vocabulary
One teacher wrote: "I was lucky to hear a lecture by Paul Nation and he said we all have a different vocab. It's very hard/impossible to test over 6-9000 words cos we all specialize. Law majors should know legal words, another should know about culture, IT in digital stuff etc. So how do you test that fairly?"
But let's take a step back and ask ourselves an interesting question, Why test it?
All of my students who are professionals (managers, department heads, engineers) have no problem with the vocabulary of their profession yet they don't seem to have actually "studied" it. Their professional vocabulary is actually stronger than their general vocabulary. This is most noticeable in the IT field but happens in all professions. Logistics people know all about "bill of lading", "supply chain management" and "port of entry". Accountants know all about "accounts receivable" and "double entry ledgers".
In the extreme I call this McEnglish. If you go to a McDonald's in any country they can usually take your order in English without too much trouble. However, if you ask them if they think it is going to rain today they are totally lost.
So I'm wondering how necessary it is to worry about teaching professional vocabulary. People will learn it naturally in an Extensive Reading or Comprehensible Input sort of way in their work. If they are already working then they seem to already know it.
However, they are often weak in the grammar around that vocabulary. "It come to a new port of entry" type of thing or "Supply chain management is a big important to our company."
But let's take a step back and ask ourselves an interesting question, Why test it?
All of my students who are professionals (managers, department heads, engineers) have no problem with the vocabulary of their profession yet they don't seem to have actually "studied" it. Their professional vocabulary is actually stronger than their general vocabulary. This is most noticeable in the IT field but happens in all professions. Logistics people know all about "bill of lading", "supply chain management" and "port of entry". Accountants know all about "accounts receivable" and "double entry ledgers".
In the extreme I call this McEnglish. If you go to a McDonald's in any country they can usually take your order in English without too much trouble. However, if you ask them if they think it is going to rain today they are totally lost.
So I'm wondering how necessary it is to worry about teaching professional vocabulary. People will learn it naturally in an Extensive Reading or Comprehensible Input sort of way in their work. If they are already working then they seem to already know it.
However, they are often weak in the grammar around that vocabulary. "It come to a new port of entry" type of thing or "Supply chain management is a big important to our company."
17 February 2007
You're a nice word...I'd like to get to know you!
Last night a student, CEO of a Hong Kong company, asked me how many words did he need to know to get a Band 7 on the IELTS test. This is an interesting question and seems to be a special focus of Chinese students to ask "How many words" for this or that. At another electronics company the training department has decided they would like the students to learn a certain list of 3000 words.
How do we learn words? How do we know words?
Some people seem to think words are something that we know or not know. It is like a switch, on or off. No or yes.
I don't think it is like a switch, off or on. I think it is more like a dial that controls the volume, louder or softer or quiet. It is not off and on but more like a scale of 1-9. Our understanding of the words grows. We can also say that when we are first introduced to a word the word has been planted, just like a seed. With proper attention the word will grow.
"YOU'RE A NICE WORD...I'D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU!"
Counting words that a student knows is the oldest form of vocabulary research. The question is: How are the words counted? Are we counting words or word families? (If a student knows Write, Writing, Written, Writer, does he know one or four words?) Is being able to select the correct word in a multiple choice question the same kind of knowledge as being able to give the dictionary definition of the word or being able to use the word in a sentence?
Learning new words is like meeting new people. Someone may introduce you to someone but you don't really know that person, only his name and a few facts. Would you be ready to marry this person? No, not at all, you don't even know if you want to go to dinner with them. Why?
You don't really know them or maybe you only know them at #1 on the 1-9 scale.
In English learning this would be like looking up a word in a dictionary. You know the definition of the word but you really don't know how to use it, if you want to use it or if you can use it. You may know it at only #1 on the 1-9 scale.
Let's go back to meeting people. Let's say you go to a party and there is that person you met before. You say hello and learn a little more about them. You find out you both like Japanese movies and there is a new one showing in town. You decide to go see it together. Now you know them at #2 on the 1-9 scale. It was fun spending time with this other person and you learn there is going to be another party next week so you decide to go together and you talk a lot about many things. Now you might know them at #3 on the 1-9 scale.
As you spend more and more time together you get to know them better and better. Perhaps you will become best friends, decide to go into business together or even get married. And you will continue to get to know them better.
It is the same with the words we learn. What does it mean to know a word? Know it how well?
This student I was talking to, a general manager of a small company, spoke English quite well. But at the same time he sometimes called the other student, a female, "he". Why did he make that mistake? Didn't he learn that males are "he" and females are "she". On the scale of 1-9 how well does this student know the word "she"? Perhaps #6 or #7 ? And all the words that he knows are actually on a scale of 1-9. So if learning words is not an off or on thing, if it is not yes or no, then how do we learn new words?
We need to "meet" the words over and over in different situations and get to know them better and better, see how they are used and learn to use them in different situations.
This is true for even simple words like "he" and "she" and special complicated technical words. We need to read lots of materials. We need to hear lots of materials. We need to speak with these words. And our understanding of the words will grow.
So keep yourself in English. Get to know your words better and better.
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