I taught my first class last night--Business English--to a class of soaking wet 20-somethings. There was a quick downpour just as the students were arriving (I missed it by about five minutes), and they came in dripping and laughing.
The class was great, once I realized that their level of comprehension was much lower than I had expected from an intermediate business course. I introduced myself and, speaking very slowly, gave them a little background, then asked for questions.
"Can you speak more slow, please?"
Yes, I could. Over the course of the evening, once I was able to get them engaged with the case sudy we were working on, I realized that their comprehension is actually pretty good for written English. Their difficulty is with listening and speaking. This, I think is because they have mostly learned from Vietnamese teachers who may know how to read, but don't speak nearly as well.
Since I have the same difficulty in Spanish--I can read it far better than I can understand a native speaker speaking it--I have sympathy. So I realized that I have to speak slowly, in short, simple sentences, repeat multiple times, and act out definitions of the words they are having difficulty with.
It was fun.
P.
3 comments:
I've been s-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-y learning Spanish and, like your students, my reading comprehension is way ahead of my listening comprehension. The reading and hearing centers of the brain are separate and my connections between the two aren't much more than a dirt path at this point. Learning a language that has nothing in common with your own must be doubly difficult.
This is exacty how you described what you expected and what my hairdresser from Viet Nam described. That written comprehension was quite good but they have no one to speak with, so pronunciation is what you are there to teach.
you are right. Esp with the adults who want to learn English for their business, it is challenging to listen and speak E smoothly. Thus lots of families in HN are investing for their kids to study E asap
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