and more enjoyable for us too
Re: CHINESE TEACHER - PLEASE CONTACT US HERE NOW!!!!!!
Chai Tea wrote:
You know, making this a more enriching experience for the students?
like sending them money?
Ok, makes better sense to me now.
Perhaps I'm wearing rose colored glasses, but as I scrolled through the Chinese Students this morning, I noticed that many of them seem more fluent in English and more computer savvy than they were last month.
Our contributions may be making a difference.
I'm slapping myself in the head (which is most appropriate) as I've just realized that there is an unexpectedly handy trove of information about Western Breakfasts here
.... so what's for breakfast ....
3+ years of posts outlining Western breakfasts, and a poll!
I know Slappy hates that thread, but it could turn out to be an educational tool. Or maybe I'm just a tool
Code:shrug
Besides the teacher(s) not responding, there still seem to be a lot of repetition in the questions, so it may be premature to pat ourselves on the back. I've also begun to wonder if the students' posts are censored. For instance, there's this one:
zqbd_317飞& wrote:Do you love<The>?
We can't see it in the cinema 'cos it's forbidden.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=77673&highlight=
i remember another post from a week or more prior that resembled this. while the questions generally contain spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistakes, i believe that they are carefully composed, so an apparent mistake like the one above might have a more sinister explanation.
That's just a messup with html coding, far as I can tell.
soz, that's good info. it will be interesting indeed to learn the rationale for this assigment, but jecqueline herself, in the same thread, is skeptical about the prospects for receiving communication from her teacher, and i share her skepticism now.
It certainly sounds like they want the students to become proficient in using a computer, and sufficiently fluent in English, so that their questions can be understood by a native English speaker.
I thought this was the case, and Soz's link seems to support that theory, IMO.
I've done a bit of research on the one or two with whom I am trying to develop a rapport of sorts.
Looking at the frequency of their posts, it seems that they get a slot on a computer once a fortnight, for about half an hour....an hour if they're lucky. Working on this, a student called "chenxi" should be posting again on the 27th (five days time). I see now that it will be quite difficult, and a long drawn out business trying to get to know any of them well.
Lord Ellpus wrote:It certainly sounds like they want the students to become proficient in using a computer, and sufficiently fluent in English, so that their questions can be understood by a native English speaker.
I thought this was the case, and Soz's link seems to support that theory, IMO.
that may well be, but it seems to me that attempting more of a dialog, rather than merely asking questions, might be more effective. i do realize the time constraints the students are under, but the 20 question requirement is overkill, in as much as many questions go unanswered, which doesn't advance the students' learning in any way. for instance, here's one from over a month ago that's still unanswered:
wangguiling wrote: How to explain the phrase "boss someone about"?
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=75021&highlight
Yes, you're right, Yit.
Maybe if we get to talk to a teacher, this could be a suggestion for next time.
If they got to talk on a thread "one on one" for their twenty posts, they would probably have learnt a lot more.
ehBeth wrote:I'm slapping myself in the head (which is most appropriate) as I've just realized that there is an unexpectedly handy trove of information about Western Breakfasts here
.... so what's for breakfast ....
3+ years of posts outlining Western breakfasts, and a poll!
I know Slappy hates that thread, but it could turn out to be an educational tool. Or maybe I'm just a tool
Code:shrug
I gave that link a long time ago, ehBeth, when I was first trying to answer, but only gave it on one post, which I now understand was futile. The link I gave was part of what I now see was way too long an answer, too complicated for the the grasp of english that most of the chinese students have at this point.
Also, it's beginning to sink in for me now that the primary emphasis for them has been on their question wording.
I think the Insidious Educational Australian Professor is trying to promote English as a living language as opposed to English as a series of assigned tasks.
Meanwhile, 20 Questions times "X" number of students is still a finite number. Futher, summer vacation is coming. I can live with finite numbers.
As for difficulties in comprehending web site prose, some of these kids are reading Gone with the Wind and Tom Sawyer and the plays of Samuel Beckett.
I think they can comprehend more than they can write.
I also expect comments from Real Westerners about sloppy grammar and punctuation are more telling than nagging from the Unapproachable Professor.
