003.A.6.2 Visit to Chinese Class

Wednesday 1 November 2012

Visit to CHI 1010-001, AD 249 instructor Lin Chen present: 8

9^th student arrives late 10^th student arrives at 8:33 AM

One-word greeting

Lin stood in front of desk. Chair are tiered, in rows

Introduced me in Eng

Opened book, talked about things in Eng

Had one student ask, and another answer several questions in Chinese.

Every so often Lin gave asker help.

Answerer pronounced ‘are’ w/American ‘r’ others did same later

He asked another if she had prepared, she said no. they talked

He told class in Eng he would ask them questions and then they would ask others.

He walked towards and asked 1 person several Q’s with very clear pronunciation. It took her awhile to answer.

He explained in Eng about Utah, the state

He says ‘shieh shieh = thanks a lot.

Female student greets other student, asks her things.

asker needs help formulating questions. Other students join in.

pace is slow. Student next to me puts his head on the table, then lifts it up.

Each time, the one who had answered now asks a new person. They seem to be answering where they live.

Soft laughter. Students’ pronunciation seems careful

But intonation seems word-timed, not phrase-times

Lin models two sentence which both mean the same thing.

Asks if it is possible to omit one word (yes)

Lin points out in Eng, asked had forgotten to ask something.

Lin says, ‘you do not want to keep using ‘no yo’

Each time, they greet each other with ‘Ni hao’ before asking questions.

Answerer makes a mistake; Lin asks class how to say ‘neither big nor small’ & something else.

Lion says something, then ,…and you have a whole bunch of numbers.

Did you ask about the street number?

How do we ask for the street number? A student answers, Lin affirms and models the correct sentence

They keep asking another student, one pair at a time. What if all the students were in pairs and talking at the same time?

Finish

New topic.

Lin says, ‘We talked about the difference between XXX and YY

Can we say XXXXX? Why or why not?’

Models more, explains it in Eng. Asks, ‘can we say xxxxx? Why?

Can we also say xxxx cccc?

Why we can use both?

Like 249

For asking street numbers, phone number, the only thing you can do is, ……

Has a pair ask/answer maybe new questions

Lin talks about yes/no question format. He models, students ask/answer each other

Student next to me is texting.

8:22 am so far 2-3 students have not yet said anything. Would it be a good idea to have the whole class repeat certain good questions and answers, or would it break the rhythm or pace?

New answerer lives (?) in Draper.

Lin helps him to remember how to say ‘What did you say?

She gets stuck.

Lin asks everyone how to say:

Do you have a phone / in your room?

Models correct question to student

Pair continues, goes to next pair.

Lin says, you need to be abel to produce without looking at the book. The whole pint is to say something meaningful w/o looking at book. Point of each lesson is to practice communicative skills, make sense?

Each lesson has its own purpose. Look at each one and practice.

[I have the same problem.]

New answerer, also Draper. Lin helps form a question twice

Second time he asks what he means/wants to say

Lin asks class, ‘how do we say ‘telephone’?’

Answerer has to explain a word in Eng to asker.

Lin says, ‘you forgot something.’

New asker. Lin tells him, ‘other way.

New answerer, ‘It’s the address, right?

Lin says,’ what’s wrong with this sentence? Helps asker to understand

To answerer. Lin says, ‘what’s wrong with xxxx?

He explains, ‘English interference, because in Eng we need the ‘to be verb, but in Chinese, adjectives are verbs.

Asker, ‘can I just say XXX?

Lin, ‘it’s correct, but we want a complete sentence.’

10^th student arrives at 8:33 am

…….

Lin, ‘before we go on, want to talk about what we learned yesterday.’

Lin says in Eng, and they all repeat sentences together in slow Chinese.

He shows quicker versions

‘Are you ok? Look how cute this is.’

Lin has them ask him questions: his address, phone number, room size,

2 students do this

‘How do you say ‘old’?’

He shows his new phone. He laughs and shows his phone. He asks others something.

Lin requests more questions

Lin answers slowly and with lots of emphasis. I’m not sure whether he is correcting as he answers.

Lin repeats the number to call to call in sick

Student next to me is asking more questions than the others.

Lin makes a joke, they laugh

‘something called environment protection.’

I am seeing students asking teacher. What if they were in pairs and asking each other?

Student called ‘Wendy’ or is this a Chinese word

one more question.

He repeats a number.

‘I like you to break in to pair. Do 2 things, first, find out the street number, then the cel phone number then how many members are there in your family. Combine what we learned last time and now.

8:45 AM Lin assigns the pairs. Students move, greet each other, start to converse, some in Chinese, some in English. Some are slow to get on task.

3 minutes later, ‘are you done?

I want to see a real life conversation using all these things, so which pair wants to go first?’ they hesitate

One pair starts, hesitates, say something in Eng, Lin says, ‘too much Eng.‘

As they talk, he helps them.

Slow pace, Lin helps with missing words

Student asks, then Lin asks class, ‘how do you say ’work’?

8:50. Lin repeats, say, ‘we’ll continue this tomorrow .5 minutes warmup, the partners will present.

Reminds them of homework. Says goodbye