(1) Role plays: Stories from Morocco: You are making a movie similar to the Stories from Morocco and are interviewing your partner who is the protagonist (leading player) in your movie. Questions you can ask may include those in Activity 5 of the worksheet, but you can make up your own questions too. Pairs (2)
(2) Discussion: My ideal friend: Questions about friendship (pairs).
morocco-class-worksheet.pdf
M - W9a - My ideal friend.pdf
Replies
Men Yaqiong, why do you wait till the class nearly started before doing your comment?! Your comment can't be well-thought through if you have to rush like that. I hope you would plan better for your future comments.
Sorry that we didn't cover your two questions about friendship today. I think they are valid questions, but unfortunately your comment was too late for me to see your questions in time. But you can start your own discussion here in this group and maybe you can ask your class for the answers to those questions. You can make your topic, "More questions about the ideal Friendship"! ;-)
Of course it is easier to learn and speak English in Morocco which has a multi-lingual environment, Luo Yuanyuan! Because of China's isolation from the outside world for so long (till around 1980), the Chinese only speaks one language and that makes the learning environment for learning a second language very difficult. One can understand why the Chinese students find learning English so difficult.
Yes, that kind of friend is a friend indeed (the one who is also willing to help you when you are in need!). You also said one should be nice to another person if you want them to be friendly to you. Then you know the saying, "do unto others what you want them to do to you", or "don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you"!
Thank you, Zhang Min, for the name change. It makes it so much easier for the teacher with only one Amy here! But if you still wanted an English name here on the website, of course you are welcome to change your name again (just tell me your new name, please!).
Yes, we are not perfect beings; so, how can we expect to have the ideal (perfect) friends? I think I can understand what you mean. I am just glad that I don't have to look at Confucius every time to determine what choices I should make and how I should live! We are all born with common sense and I think that alone can guide us well in life. :)
Wu Ting, I can tell you what most students would answer to your first question ... "no, I don't want to learn English"! My experience is that most students in China don't care about a second language. They only care about getting a job and money, and securing a boyfriend or girlfriend. Seldom one gets it that their ambition stretches further than that. Maybe you are aware of this. My question is: How does one motivate the Chinese students to understand the importance of learning a second language (which would obviously be English I guess, as English is the most spoken language in the world)? And then, how does one get them to start learning the language seriously?!
It is 'role' play, Zhang Tianjiao! My experience is that role plays are more fun ways to motivate students to practice their English. And it is much easier than doing individual speeches, specially when students have to present an oral for grading. Yes, I agree, a balanced friendship is important.
Xi Rui, I suspect that not only the students, but also the teachers and other educators know what methods would be more suitable for learning English, but I believe the problem is that they don't want to implement that. Why not? You tell me! But I think two of the reasons can be that the teachers are unsure about their English themselves and shy away from interactive methods where they too have to address the students in English in the English classes. And secondly, I think there is a problem with attitude among the educators ... I don't think they really care whether the students learn English well, or not. If they do care, they would motivate a whole new positive approach to the teaching of English which would have benefited the students. But as it is now, it is up to the individual students to improve their language skills mostly by themselves. I agree with your views on friendship. Friends can even help one to practice one's English! ;-)
Thank you for replying, Lily. It wasn't necessary to do it before the class today, but thank you any way as not many students bother to reply. :)
Caroline, I think your third question would be more relevant ... "what the aim would be for learning English"? Most students do it because their parents expect it, or the university made it compulsory. But if they had the choice, they wouldn't have chosen English. But maybe your class is different as they are mostly volunteers .. Caroline, why would it be difficult to get an ideal friend? I thought it is easy to get friends!
Jiang Dan, I like the title of your film! It also represents one of the most important questions of learning English! I hope you can get good answers to make your film a very objective and well presented one!
Do you mean friendship to be an eternal topic because it is often so complicated? Yeah, I guess one can ask many questions about friendship and there may even be just as many answers. But true friendship can't be replaced and one should care for those friendships, don't you think?!
Feng Dongli, how would discussing their school help you to get answers about learning English?! And then I know the answer you would get about what they think about the languages they learn! They only know two languages, their own and English, and because English is not properly taught at school to Chinese students, most of them either hate the language, or have a disregard for the language. Once a student told me in class that Chinese is the most beautiful language in the world, but she's only heard two of the world's hundreds of languages! So, her statement was just a nationalistic one without any justification. She hasn't even heard about French which is probably the world's most beautiful language! Point is, you have to include more challenging questions about language if you want to make a popular film about language learning! ;-)
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