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Jay was the sole student today. I’d known that SG wouldn’t be coming to class, so I’d prepared to do the Wagging the Question activity since I’d previously done it with SG when J was absent.
As usual, I started the lesson with the question, ‘How are you?’
Not very well, as it happened. There was an accident in one of his company’s sites, but fortunately the technician survived. Unfortunately, however, it was the second accident that has happened in 2 weeks, though not at the same site. Quite rightly, he was stressed and worried. We talked about this during the whole lesson, but, towards the end, I had time to run through the linguistic problems that had emerged.
Errors were mainly lexical:
the last Monday/week/month (misuse of article)
the former week (instead of last)
signalise (incorrect translation of ‘señalizado’)
ICU for Intensive Care Unit (he didn’t know)
was died (incorrect passive use)
by walking (instead of on foot)
He also made a couple of pronunciation errors:
the /id/ sound was incorrectly used in several past simple verbs: relaxed, fixed, specialised, designed.
In fact, although I’ve explained the rules a few times before, J still finds it difficult to remember. I will have to think of a way to help him. Has anyone got any brilliant ideas?
The other pronunciation error he made was with the word ‘muscle’, pronouncing it /’mʌsk(ə)l/ instead of /ˈmʌs(ə)l/.
Since I had five minutes to spare, I decided, for the first time, to explain the ‘methodology’ behind the lessons, as though I needed to justify the apparent ‘informality’.
His reaction was immediate. He thought it suited him (or them, speaking on behalf of SG, too) to a T. He said that it was rather difficult for them, being senior directors, to disconnect completely from whatever was going on with their work (reports, meetings, etc) to concentrate on the lesson. Bear in mind their lessons are in-house.
So, for him, it’s like killing two birds with one stone, and he thinks, today, for example, he’s learned a lot.
The Dogme Diaries 
Fantastic use of using the learner as a resource and developing/scaffolding emergent language. I suppose you could extend from ‘the former week’ to ‘the previous week’ which could be, correct me if I’m wrong, suitable during discourse or writing. I guess it’s more acceptable in writing. Thanks for sharing your lessons.
Mmm…where did my reply go? I wrote it on another pc…
Anyway, what I said was I could have told them about ‘the previous week’, but I didn’t want to complicate matters at that stage.
Thanks for the comment, Martin.
I have no research to back it up, not even anecdotes. But with the /Id/ problem, I’d be tempted to feign utter uncomprehendsion: “pass it? Pass what? You want me to pass you something? Oh. You said “pass it”, didn’t you? No? So what did you say? Oh! Passed! Sorry. I heard “pass it.”
The hypothesis is that once his brain realises that it’s current understanding of the pronunciation is likely to lead to a breakdown in communication, it will be more amenable to restructuring itself. Let us know how it goes.
Haha. I could try it, I guess. They might get so fed up with it that they just might remember! Thanks for dropping by, Druid. Don’t forget to email me!
I should just add that the stray apostrophe in “it’s” comes courtesy of Apple, Inc. who clearly don’t acknolwedge the possibility of a third “person” possessive pronoun in their iPhone predictive text. I’m mortified.
One reason why I’m anti-Apple 😉
Just as a note on the /Id/ thing that you can throw away if they aren’t useful.
I found that the history of -ed and -ing helped me understand it: they are supposedly celtic structures and for me, phonetic related.
Thornbury has great stuff about aspect for -ing… I find it helps students to notice it sounds like a bell to give the idea that it brings a “stateness” to an action, much like a “ringing” bell.
-ed may come from “did” like, hammer-did, which would eventually got shortened to “hammerd” , but I steer well clear of that to avoid reinforcing the problem of focusing on the “/Id” sound all the time.
I just say: The -ed symbolizes distance, sounding like the noise a thrown rock (that distanced idea) makes. If it hits another rock (a “t” or “d”) it naturally bounces. (collided, batted)
In a one to one on his turf, and depending on relationship, I would demonstrate this by throwing something off his desk at his wall (or something that doesn’t bounce according to sound) every time he repeats the mistake. I’d start with pencils, and then threaten with family photographs once he has it.
Now, why do I think they won’t be left with any family photographs in their possession…? ;-P
Thanks for the comment, Matt. Oh, by the way, do people ever confuse you with Luke Meddings? Or at least as part of the same family? Just switch vowels…
Lol, you must think I’m crazy!
No one has confused me with Luke yet.
(If they do, I will try to borrow money.)
I know, each day brings me closer to the loony bin! And, no, I haven’t got any to lend…
Hi Chiew,
Great post 🙂 I’ve RSSed your blog – looks like a great set of ideas. One thing you could do with the /id/ problem is steal @theteacherjames’ idea: http://theteacherjames.blogspot.com/2011/05/just-one-infinite-elt-idea.html – it’s a great none-intrusive way of bringing the error to your student’s attention.
Good luck!
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for James’ link – will have to bear it in mind, and thanks for popping in!