In Reply to: My career as a more thoroughly educated high school teacher posted by Alexis on April 26, 1999 at 01:57:14:
: I would definitely try and incorporate as many different effective methods as
: possible in my class so that the students would remain interested. Students really
: don't learn well unless they are interested in learning the language and it's
: presented in a way that catches their attention. This is true of all age groups,
: and relates to Kramsch's ideas about learning context because students often can
: identify with exercises that include contextual information and therefore are
: interested in them. I would like to implement Krashen's library also, with comic
: books and novels of varying levels that would teach context and vocabulary in a
: fun way. I would try to make my classroom environment as relaxing as possible in
: order to keep the affective filters low, and have students engage in casual
: conversation on a daily basis. I agree with Omaggio-Hadley about the exercises in
: many textbooks today not being helpful because they just require students to spit
: out formulaic answers with little relevance to each other, so I would look for a
: text like her examples of answering questions about the same story or a set of
: phrases that must be completed that follow a story, and one that portrays accurate
: contexts (and doesn't make students think, for example, that everyone in France
: plays tennis).
: New information at the i+1 level is important too, presenting new words and
: grammar while still using structures that the students know...I would find i+1
: material in stories and authentic examples of newspapers and magazines. I wouldn't
: just present a new chapter all about the gas station and its vocabulary and never
: talk about the last chapter (the ski resort) again until the final exam. Children's
: magazines and other materials for ages 8-10 would be good authentic material while
: not being too challenging.
: I'm going to send what I have so far and write more later...