Monday, September 12, 2005
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Evolution of Language
"人類語言到底是怎麼開始的??"
這問題橫跨了生物、人類、考古、社會、心理、語言、民族學等等學科的範疇。這也是我在這裡的研究所處理的問題之一。身為基督徒，我相信上帝創造人類的獨特性。人不是猴子變來的，但是光是去思考為何我們能生為人H. Sapiens，就算從一個接受進化論基礎的角度來看，也是夠複雜的了。如果現在的人類是進化來的，那從什麼時候開始，人除了肢体表情動作以外，開始使用語言? 又是怎麼樣的因素使黑猩猩們到現在還是黑猩猩(註:人和黑猩猩有98%基因相似)? 像Kanzi之類在實驗室長大的黑猩猩(Bonobo)，如果真的承認他們有使用抽象符號思考溝通的能力，這對人類語言(也是種抽象符號)又有什麼啟示?
這問題橫跨了生物、人類、考古、社會、心理、語言、民族學等等學科的範疇。這也是我在這裡的研究所處理的問題之一。身為基督徒，我相信上帝創造人類的獨特性。人不是猴子變來的，但是光是去思考為何我們能生為人H. Sapiens，就算從一個接受進化論基礎的角度來看，也是夠複雜的了。如果現在的人類是進化來的，那從什麼時候開始，人除了肢体表情動作以外，開始使用語言? 又是怎麼樣的因素使黑猩猩們到現在還是黑猩猩(註:人和黑猩猩有98%基因相似)? 像Kanzi之類在實驗室長大的黑猩猩(Bonobo)，如果真的承認他們有使用抽象符號思考溝通的能力，這對人類語言(也是種抽象符號)又有什麼啟示?
times when students couldn't understand...
Part A
This lessen was about using present and past participles such as “boring” and “bored” as adjectives to describe feeling and things. Before the teaching, both Christine and my mentor teacher, Martha had anticipated that students would have problem with the “-ing” form taking a human subject (e.g. “The guy is interesting”).
I started the lessen by showing students pictures of different activities, and then asked them to describe the activity and the feelings of people in the pictures. With this part, I only wanted them to use those –ed/-ing type of adjectives, so I posted 7 pairs of –ed/-ing adjectives (which I had already written on index cards) on the board, and told them to pick an appropriate one from the list.
Students started giving me sentence such as “The roller coaster ride is exciting”, “The woman is interested in the cosmetics”, etc. Then I asked them, “what rules can you see from these sentences?” and I built up the grammar rules from their answers. It’s clear for them to see that activities take “-ing” form, and humans take “-ed” form. But then while I was building the grammar rule on the board, I realized, “oh, crap, students don’t have this grammar knowledge at all, therefore they won’t be able to give me a sentence like ‘the kids are annoying’. How can I introduce the “-ing” form for human subjects?”
So I went back to the pictures, and introduced the sentence with human subjects in “-ing” form. The next 15 minutes I let them play a game deciding which form they should use. More questions came up, and I saw question marks floating on their heads. They got confused with the present progressive and passive voice, which also have the form of present/past participles. Time went by quickly, and I couldn’t even finish the game that I prepared.
Part B
After doing troubleshooting with Christine, I prepared the whole lessen again the next week. We figured out the confusions they had with this grammar point. I came back with beautifully typed up power point. I thought through the steps to bring them back to the grammar points, and to re-clarify the difference between the adjective and verb forms. During the exercise, some students stuck at deciding the sentence “His supervisor is an amazing/amazed boss”. I explained the question by asking them, “are we talking about his supervisor’s feeling or our opinion?” But some of them just hadn’t got the point. In the end Martha jumped in to help me explain the whole concept again. I didn’t even remember how it ended that way…I really appreciate her tho. She always let me try my best, and when I couldn’t handle it, she would come to my rescue. Because we spent too much time dealing with students’ questions, I had to modify my lessen, so that we could move on to next activity that Martha already scheduled.
After my teaching, Martha gave me feedback and told me that she thought my grammar points were extremely clear to her. “They just need more practice to get it,” she told me. I guess I was kinda disappointed after the teaching. When Martha asked me if I wanted to give them more exercise on the same lessen, I told her I wanted to try something else (anything but grammar…=p). Don’t worry, I am totally over it now. After Friday’s class sharing with people my unsuccessful experience and listening to people’s teaching stories, I feel I can start again now. It’s such a great thing to be a student teacher because we are allowed to make mistakes and to not be perfect.
(originally posted on C218 discussion board)
This lessen was about using present and past participles such as “boring” and “bored” as adjectives to describe feeling and things. Before the teaching, both Christine and my mentor teacher, Martha had anticipated that students would have problem with the “-ing” form taking a human subject (e.g. “The guy is interesting”).
I started the lessen by showing students pictures of different activities, and then asked them to describe the activity and the feelings of people in the pictures. With this part, I only wanted them to use those –ed/-ing type of adjectives, so I posted 7 pairs of –ed/-ing adjectives (which I had already written on index cards) on the board, and told them to pick an appropriate one from the list.
Students started giving me sentence such as “The roller coaster ride is exciting”, “The woman is interested in the cosmetics”, etc. Then I asked them, “what rules can you see from these sentences?” and I built up the grammar rules from their answers. It’s clear for them to see that activities take “-ing” form, and humans take “-ed” form. But then while I was building the grammar rule on the board, I realized, “oh, crap, students don’t have this grammar knowledge at all, therefore they won’t be able to give me a sentence like ‘the kids are annoying’. How can I introduce the “-ing” form for human subjects?”
So I went back to the pictures, and introduced the sentence with human subjects in “-ing” form. The next 15 minutes I let them play a game deciding which form they should use. More questions came up, and I saw question marks floating on their heads. They got confused with the present progressive and passive voice, which also have the form of present/past participles. Time went by quickly, and I couldn’t even finish the game that I prepared.
Part B
After doing troubleshooting with Christine, I prepared the whole lessen again the next week. We figured out the confusions they had with this grammar point. I came back with beautifully typed up power point. I thought through the steps to bring them back to the grammar points, and to re-clarify the difference between the adjective and verb forms. During the exercise, some students stuck at deciding the sentence “His supervisor is an amazing/amazed boss”. I explained the question by asking them, “are we talking about his supervisor’s feeling or our opinion?” But some of them just hadn’t got the point. In the end Martha jumped in to help me explain the whole concept again. I didn’t even remember how it ended that way…I really appreciate her tho. She always let me try my best, and when I couldn’t handle it, she would come to my rescue. Because we spent too much time dealing with students’ questions, I had to modify my lessen, so that we could move on to next activity that Martha already scheduled.
After my teaching, Martha gave me feedback and told me that she thought my grammar points were extremely clear to her. “They just need more practice to get it,” she told me. I guess I was kinda disappointed after the teaching. When Martha asked me if I wanted to give them more exercise on the same lessen, I told her I wanted to try something else (anything but grammar…=p). Don’t worry, I am totally over it now. After Friday’s class sharing with people my unsuccessful experience and listening to people’s teaching stories, I feel I can start again now. It’s such a great thing to be a student teacher because we are allowed to make mistakes and to not be perfect.
(originally posted on C218 discussion board)
My first teaching experience at Culver City Adult
This Thursday I taught my first lessen at Culver City Adult School. Although it’s not my first time teaching in front of a class, I still got nervous even the night before. Since students usually are not very on time, Martha led a small information gap activity for the first 40 minutes, so that I could start my lessen when everyone’s there.
The exercise was about “past perfect and simple past”, which was adopted from their textbook. The point is to let students get a feeling of figuring out what happened first in two given past events. In order to emphasize my point, I drew a timeline on the board, telling them about a story of an Indian guy coming to America, being separated from his wife in India, to look for jobs. (I found some random picture of an Indian couple online…just to make my story more believable… =p). On the way of telling the story, I stick the strips of different events on his timeline. After that, I started pulling two random events from his time line, and asked them to make sentence using “Before/After/Because…”
I guess my intro story got their attention. They all looked up at me, waiting to see what I was gonna do next, which made me even more nervous. I was glad that I got my verb phrases all written on the flash cards, which saved a lot of time. . I could just pull them out to make combinations (e.g. moved to Houston, quit his job…etc.). My handwriting was so messy, my hand was shaking, and it felt like forever for me to finish writing a sentence. I also thought ahead all the possible combinations that I wanted to give them, since I am not a person who can talk or make up sentences on my feet. However, I still looked very busy on the stage, coz the magnet kept falling from the white board, and I had to adjust them back while I was talking…
I made a mistake showing them the past form of “quit”. I asked them the three forms of “quit”, then one student gave me “quited”. The first thought told me it’s wrong, but I got confused while I was writing “quit, quited, quit”. When I realized, I crossed down the “ed” and told them, “see, this is treaky, remember not to put ed here.”
I didn’t know using overhead as an aid takes skills until Martha reminded me. When I was using them, I totally forgot to look back and see if the slides lined up from students’ perspective. I guess most of the time they were tilting their heads to read my slides. (I hoped their necks were alright the next day). Also, I should have let the slides stay longer before I moved onto next lines. Martha suggested me that I go to the back of the classroom to check my own writing on the board (when students are doing their exercises), so that I could see from their perspective and check my own spelling mistakes on the board.
It seemed that my time pacing was alright. I got full 45 minutes and I finished all the planned activities in time. After I finished the lessen, couple of them came up to me and said, “good job!” One student told me that she could tell I was nervous at the beginning. “But you felt more comfortable in the end,” she said. I didn’t expect to have students encouraging me for my first teaching. But it felt good! Now from my retrospect, I did have a good time in my first lessen.
(Ori. posted on 218 Practicum discussion board)
The exercise was about “past perfect and simple past”, which was adopted from their textbook. The point is to let students get a feeling of figuring out what happened first in two given past events. In order to emphasize my point, I drew a timeline on the board, telling them about a story of an Indian guy coming to America, being separated from his wife in India, to look for jobs. (I found some random picture of an Indian couple online…just to make my story more believable… =p). On the way of telling the story, I stick the strips of different events on his timeline. After that, I started pulling two random events from his time line, and asked them to make sentence using “Before/After/Because…”
I guess my intro story got their attention. They all looked up at me, waiting to see what I was gonna do next, which made me even more nervous. I was glad that I got my verb phrases all written on the flash cards, which saved a lot of time. . I could just pull them out to make combinations (e.g. moved to Houston, quit his job…etc.). My handwriting was so messy, my hand was shaking, and it felt like forever for me to finish writing a sentence. I also thought ahead all the possible combinations that I wanted to give them, since I am not a person who can talk or make up sentences on my feet. However, I still looked very busy on the stage, coz the magnet kept falling from the white board, and I had to adjust them back while I was talking…
I made a mistake showing them the past form of “quit”. I asked them the three forms of “quit”, then one student gave me “quited”. The first thought told me it’s wrong, but I got confused while I was writing “quit, quited, quit”. When I realized, I crossed down the “ed” and told them, “see, this is treaky, remember not to put ed here.”
I didn’t know using overhead as an aid takes skills until Martha reminded me. When I was using them, I totally forgot to look back and see if the slides lined up from students’ perspective. I guess most of the time they were tilting their heads to read my slides. (I hoped their necks were alright the next day). Also, I should have let the slides stay longer before I moved onto next lines. Martha suggested me that I go to the back of the classroom to check my own writing on the board (when students are doing their exercises), so that I could see from their perspective and check my own spelling mistakes on the board.
It seemed that my time pacing was alright. I got full 45 minutes and I finished all the planned activities in time. After I finished the lessen, couple of them came up to me and said, “good job!” One student told me that she could tell I was nervous at the beginning. “But you felt more comfortable in the end,” she said. I didn’t expect to have students encouraging me for my first teaching. But it felt good! Now from my retrospect, I did have a good time in my first lessen.
(Ori. posted on 218 Practicum discussion board)
Saturday, March 05, 2005
每日一推
今天所要推的主題是"笑話"
不知道現在的高中生是否還是在背那本迪克生片語。這幾年下來我發現那本書除了一些phrasal verb 像pick up, take off有點用之外，其他還真是無用的東西。不過就算這樣的片語動詞如果不放在使用情境中看真正的語意是什麼，也是搞不清楚人家在講什麼。像是pick up除了撿起來之外，也可以是去接回某人，或是像pick-up line("吊馬子/帥哥"的開場語)。
有一陣子我會注意別人所用的俚語，有些時候從談話的內容可以大致猜到俚語的意思。不過後來發現，除非是私底下或是家人間的談話，在學校裡用俚語的程度並不是很高。大家對老師講話也是客客氣氣的 (不過這也要看俚語的"俚"有多俚。有的俚語可能滿俗的，而且是區域性用語，用的時候絕對要看場合)。ESL學生有的時候跟同年紀的朋友在一起學會了這些用法，但是沒學到使用的場合，就會發生那種跟教授講話fucking來fucking去的尷尬場面。
最近我發現一塊值得探討，卻很少ESL學生注意的領域--笑話。
A: Knock, knock.
B: Who's there?
A: Radio.
B: Radio who?
A: Ready or not, here I come.
有一次上第二語言習得的時候，老師用這個笑話(其實也不算笑話，比較像是文字遊戲)測試我們
老師:Knock, knock.
高中以後才來美國念書的外國學生:…(呆呆的望著老師)
Native speaker: Who's there?
因為這是小孩子必有的經驗之一，"Who's there"是標準的反應。但是即便語言溝通無礙，不在這裡長大的學生便少了這個經驗與反應。
我到現在都還記得幼稚園時後的押韻歌:
"炒蘿蔔炒蘿蔔切切切，
包餃子包餃子捏捏捏。
壞孩子壞孩子打一打，
好孩子好孩子摸一摸。"
"小姐小姐別生氣，明天帶妳去看戲。看什麼戲，看妳爸爸流鼻涕。涕，剃，剃光頭，頭，投，投大海，海，海，海龍王，王，王，王八蛋。蛋，盪，盪秋千，千，牽孩子。你是我的乖孫子，天天幫我洗襪子。"
忘記是誰提出來的，不過有人說過，孩子在邊玩邊念這些押韻歌的時候，也正在為他們的語言能力和學習做預演。語言溝通能力就是在這種狀況下越磨越光。而且孩子很容易被聲音，押韻吸引覺得有趣，他們也喜歡玩這樣的文字遊戲，學習去操弄文字和聲音。
不知道現在的高中生是否還是在背那本迪克生片語。這幾年下來我發現那本書除了一些phrasal verb 像pick up, take off有點用之外，其他還真是無用的東西。不過就算這樣的片語動詞如果不放在使用情境中看真正的語意是什麼，也是搞不清楚人家在講什麼。像是pick up除了撿起來之外，也可以是去接回某人，或是像pick-up line("吊馬子/帥哥"的開場語)。
有一陣子我會注意別人所用的俚語，有些時候從談話的內容可以大致猜到俚語的意思。不過後來發現，除非是私底下或是家人間的談話，在學校裡用俚語的程度並不是很高。大家對老師講話也是客客氣氣的 (不過這也要看俚語的"俚"有多俚。有的俚語可能滿俗的，而且是區域性用語，用的時候絕對要看場合)。ESL學生有的時候跟同年紀的朋友在一起學會了這些用法，但是沒學到使用的場合，就會發生那種跟教授講話fucking來fucking去的尷尬場面。
最近我發現一塊值得探討，卻很少ESL學生注意的領域--笑話。
A: Knock, knock.
B: Who's there?
A: Radio.
B: Radio who?
A: Ready or not, here I come.
有一次上第二語言習得的時候，老師用這個笑話(其實也不算笑話，比較像是文字遊戲)測試我們
老師:Knock, knock.
高中以後才來美國念書的外國學生:…(呆呆的望著老師)
Native speaker: Who's there?
因為這是小孩子必有的經驗之一，"Who's there"是標準的反應。但是即便語言溝通無礙，不在這裡長大的學生便少了這個經驗與反應。
我到現在都還記得幼稚園時後的押韻歌:
"炒蘿蔔炒蘿蔔切切切，
包餃子包餃子捏捏捏。
壞孩子壞孩子打一打，
好孩子好孩子摸一摸。"
"小姐小姐別生氣，明天帶妳去看戲。看什麼戲，看妳爸爸流鼻涕。涕，剃，剃光頭，頭，投，投大海，海，海，海龍王，王，王，王八蛋。蛋，盪，盪秋千，千，牽孩子。你是我的乖孫子，天天幫我洗襪子。"
忘記是誰提出來的，不過有人說過，孩子在邊玩邊念這些押韻歌的時候，也正在為他們的語言能力和學習做預演。語言溝通能力就是在這種狀況下越磨越光。而且孩子很容易被聲音，押韻吸引覺得有趣，他們也喜歡玩這樣的文字遊戲，學習去操弄文字和聲音。
Saturday, February 26, 2005
跟流浪的人們一起吃午餐
因為昨天晚上的查經我們才剛教了"好撒馬利亞人的故事"，正是為了今天的行動作預備。我本來以為只是像以前一樣發放午餐，後來Bo宣布說計畫改變，每個人帶10元到westwood街上找一位流浪者一起去吃午餐。大概是沒有事先知會大家，很多人週六都排了計畫，結果就只有我們五個女生出現一起行動。
Westwood其實還是有homeless的。常常走在街上有時迎面一陣惡臭，一個流浪漢走了過來。今天天氣特別好，路上居然充滿各式被主人拉出來逛街的名犬，可是卻找不到homeless可以跟我們一起吃午餐。我其實有點怕，到底要怎麼樣開口呢? 經過一處停車場後的騎樓，我跟Hellen發現一位女士拉著一條破毯子，坐在角落休息。Hellen馬上迎上去自我介紹，邀請她跟我們一起吃飯。也許是太唐突了，她很客氣的說謝謝不用了。我們才意識到也許在街上討生活的人，特別是女性，大概對於我們這種突然的邀請會有所防衛。我們決定先啦咧一陣再提出邀請。離開了停車場，我們轉往大街。在週六的中午，陽光暖暖的曬在身上，非常的舒服。有一位大叔坐在人行道的椅子上，靠在他的家當上打盹兒。我們決定不打擾他，繼續往前走。有另一位大叔也坐在涼椅上，斜靠在他的背包旁。我們不太確定他是否是homeless,但是以westwood這樣的區來看，環顧週圍不是穿著入時的學生就是一身休閒的雅皮，這位先生是流浪漢的機率還滿大的。我們還先坐在隔壁的涼椅上打量，決定是否要走上前去。後來我們鼓起勇氣上前問候他向他自我介紹，Hellen很大方的表示我們兩個人正要去吃飯，想要邀請他當我們的guest一起吃。沒想到這位先生很爽快的立刻站起身來說"好啊"。於是我們一起到了一間比薩屋。
坐下來之後，我真的不知道該說些什麼。因為這位先生說他是作家(他叫Scott)，於是我問他寫些什麼作品。他說他寫詩，他也念過大學，主修生物。工作了一陣子，有過車子，喜歡跑步。但是我們不敢問他到底現在怎麼樣。一邊吃飯，他問我從哪來的。我說我來自台灣。他說"喔，我記得你們的棒球隊很厲害，打敗我們美國的棒球隊拿到冠軍。"我心想，這該不會是紅葉少棒的時代吧。Scott吃得很客氣，我們得一直叫他多吃點。離開的時候，他提到他的腳受傷了，現在只能散步不能慢跑了。Hellen問他我們可不可以為他禱告，求神醫治他的腳。他有點不太習慣的樣子，但還是答應了。於是我們兩個輪流為他禱告。走出餐廰的時候，我們向他道別。Hellen說，"也許我們下次可以再一起吃午餐呢!" 我心裡想著，這真是奇怪的經歷。不知道他的感受如何。
Westwood其實還是有homeless的。常常走在街上有時迎面一陣惡臭，一個流浪漢走了過來。今天天氣特別好，路上居然充滿各式被主人拉出來逛街的名犬，可是卻找不到homeless可以跟我們一起吃午餐。我其實有點怕，到底要怎麼樣開口呢? 經過一處停車場後的騎樓，我跟Hellen發現一位女士拉著一條破毯子，坐在角落休息。Hellen馬上迎上去自我介紹，邀請她跟我們一起吃飯。也許是太唐突了，她很客氣的說謝謝不用了。我們才意識到也許在街上討生活的人，特別是女性，大概對於我們這種突然的邀請會有所防衛。我們決定先啦咧一陣再提出邀請。離開了停車場，我們轉往大街。在週六的中午，陽光暖暖的曬在身上，非常的舒服。有一位大叔坐在人行道的椅子上，靠在他的家當上打盹兒。我們決定不打擾他，繼續往前走。有另一位大叔也坐在涼椅上，斜靠在他的背包旁。我們不太確定他是否是homeless,但是以westwood這樣的區來看，環顧週圍不是穿著入時的學生就是一身休閒的雅皮，這位先生是流浪漢的機率還滿大的。我們還先坐在隔壁的涼椅上打量，決定是否要走上前去。後來我們鼓起勇氣上前問候他向他自我介紹，Hellen很大方的表示我們兩個人正要去吃飯，想要邀請他當我們的guest一起吃。沒想到這位先生很爽快的立刻站起身來說"好啊"。於是我們一起到了一間比薩屋。
坐下來之後，我真的不知道該說些什麼。因為這位先生說他是作家(他叫Scott)，於是我問他寫些什麼作品。他說他寫詩，他也念過大學，主修生物。工作了一陣子，有過車子，喜歡跑步。但是我們不敢問他到底現在怎麼樣。一邊吃飯，他問我從哪來的。我說我來自台灣。他說"喔，我記得你們的棒球隊很厲害，打敗我們美國的棒球隊拿到冠軍。"我心想，這該不會是紅葉少棒的時代吧。Scott吃得很客氣，我們得一直叫他多吃點。離開的時候，他提到他的腳受傷了，現在只能散步不能慢跑了。Hellen問他我們可不可以為他禱告，求神醫治他的腳。他有點不太習慣的樣子，但還是答應了。於是我們兩個輪流為他禱告。走出餐廰的時候，我們向他道別。Hellen說，"也許我們下次可以再一起吃午餐呢!" 我心裡想著，這真是奇怪的經歷。不知道他的感受如何。
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)