A tatami-floored washitsu with a tokonoma (the recessed area with traditional item display) visible in the background.
According to
Acquainted with
Addicted to
Afraid of
Agree on (a plan)
Agree to (something or a proposal)
Afraid of
Angry about or at (a thing)
Angry with (a person)
Apply for (a position)
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Approve of
Argue about (an issue)
Argue with ( a person)
Capable of
Complain about (a situation)
Complain to (a person)
Comply with
Consist of
Contrast with
Correspond with (write) I corresponded with a young lady in Kushiro, Hokkaido
Deal with
Depend on
Different from
Differ from (something)
Discovered by
Differ with
Displeased with
Donate to
Fond of
Grateful for
Grateful to
Identical to
Inferior to
In search of
Interested in
Interfere with
Number of (nouns) I saw a number of new vendors at the Saturday market.
Object to
Protect against
Reason with
Rely on
Reply to
Responsible for
Sensitive to
Shocked at, shocked by
Similar to
Speak with (someone)
Specialize-in
Succeed in (a noun) I succeed in (I am successful in) my language classes.
Succeed in (Verb-ing) He succeeded in petitioning his case before the committee.
Superior to
Take advantage of
Worry about
____________
From SAT (continue to build this list)
Appointed with
Boon for
Conscript to My uncle was conscripted to the army during the Vietnam War
Conferred on
Demonstration of
Deprived of
Obstruction to vs. Obstruction of
Impediment to
Redeemed for
Relegated to
On Teacher Talk Time: Why and How to Avoid It
Teacher Talk Time is so important in the training of educators, especially in the field of EFL, that it has received its own abbreviation of TTT. It is important for teachers and teachers-in-training to consider TTT because of the inverse relationship between TTT and STT, STT standing for Student Talking Time. Student talking time in the EFL or foreign language classroom is the time in which students are able to express their ideas and to receive quality feedback from the instructor. They pay for their time in class, thus when it is cut short by teacher-talking-time it becomes a failure of the teacher. Teacher Talk Time is covered early on not only due the importance of increasing student talking time, but also because that excess TTT is the most common error made by inexperienced teachers while experienced teachers continue to consider it. Efforts to reduce TTT should always be made in conjunction with efforts to improve the quality of the teacher’s classroom communication.
The first step to conquering excess TTT is an awareness of the problem and studied patterns of ineffective teacher-talk. The first, and most cited, is echoing. Echoing is the teacher’s repetition of a student’s response, which is detrimental to the students in two ways. One, they are less likely to listen to one another answer questions and remain overly dependent on the teacher in all class exercises in general. Second, even when answering an open ended question a student may be discouraged from continuing to respond. A far more effective use of teacher talking time would be to provide positive response (yes, good), or provide further questioning. (Springer, 2009) Ilene Springer’s article provided the example of asking “What did you do this weekend?” If a student were to answer “I went to a movie,” the teacher would not ask, “You went to a movie?” But rather, “Where? With who? What movie?” to continue the line of questioning and provide more effective modeling to students. A student may continue to talk, and others will be more likely to be motivated to participate as well.
Other notably noxious forms of teacher talking include self-talk and filling up silence. (Springer 2009) Excess self talk (the teacher talking about him or herself) can easily be eliminated in favor of solid lesson planning and class time to cover new material. Filling up the silence occurs when the teacher completes student sentences at the slightest pause before allowing the student to complete his or her idea. The inexperienced teacher must learn to increase their patience with and faith in the students to reach a satisfactory response when given the appropriate amount of time. When students are given time to express their thoughts completely, the teacher can better assess strengths and weaknesses for future lesson and assignment planning. The video included in the TEFL online lesson included the suggestion of keeping a class journal of common student errors. Such errors will not be observed and learned from if students are not given the opportunity to make those errors in the first place.
With the most notorious of the forms of non-constructive teacher-talk eliminated, the teacher may shift the focus to developing quality communication with students. Directions and explanations should always be as clear and concise as possible. Some specific examples of constructive teacher talk include: explaining and modeling usage of new vocabulary and grammar forms, modeling the days tasks and exercises, retelling student stories (after they are completed, of course), and eliciting responses—which is essentially providing casual chatting to the student that allows them to exercise new forms while reinforcing past learning as they are given enough class time and are given time to use their recall skills. (Ammaranas2005 2010) Excessive teacher talking should always be avoided, but at the same time it does not dismiss the roles the teacher must fulfill when he or she does speak.
Sources:
Ammaranas2005, (2010, June 19). Avoid teacher talking time for a better classroom [Web log
message]. Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/ammaranas2005/avoid-
teacher-talking-time-a-better-classroom
Springer, Ilene. (2009, December 30). How to reduce teacher talk time in efl classes [Web log
message]. Retrieved from
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2521739/how_to_reduce_teacher_talk_time_in_pg
2.html?cat=4
My inspirational teacher (bottom right corner)Role of the Teacher
Section 1.2 highlights many of the roles teachers fulfill as well as their positive qualities. In their main functions, teachers are lecturers, counselors, and great organizers who should always be prepared. The avoidance of excess teacher talking, interrupting students, and over-planning for them should is important to maximize the positive traits. To introduce these qualities and potential trouble areas for instructors in a practical manner, I would like to introduce two experiences with teachers I had during my life as a student.
A great teacher of mine was my high school Japanese teacher. She fulfilled her role as lecturer, counselor, and organizer—as well as exceeding these expectations in many areas. I always felt she was wholly invested in educating her students and helping them achieve their dreams. Class was well organized and we learned through many different formats. She integrated lecturing, listening, and reading and she consistently monitored our progress through providing warm-up activities that stressed continuity as they subtly forced us to think about material we had long since finished. She was always personable and organized, and was never overly serious about the subject. Her teacher talking was brief, informative, and made colorful by cultural references that were, from time to time, familiar—such as integrating pop-icons from Japan that had also had some impact in the US, while sometimes she asked us to push our comfort zones by encouraging us to do research on more challenging and unfamiliar topics.
One role of the teacher that section 1.2 does not mention is Integrator, or the trait of being integrative. Japanese did not feel like an untouchable experience to the students in class. Frequently she invited us to take part in community events such as the local Japanese speech contest. She encouraged us to find pen-pals, or go to community restaurants and venues reflecting the culture, and helped guide us to those connections where it may be daunting for students to find those connections alone. She made herself available during lunch-time and played recorded videos, television shows, and music from her home country. These activities I felt made the subject seem real and the subject became engaging to most students who took the class. When students felt like the subject had a connection to their life, they became motivated to continue to study past the two year language requirement for graduation.
College organic chemistry lecture was a completely different experience. I took two courses of it and experienced two poor educators. The situation was much exacerbated by the tremendous class size of upward of 330 students. Our professors tended to go by the book in both lecture and exercises. We prepared for multiple choice tests and had very little contact with our professors. At office hours or test review sessions there could be upwards of 100 students sitting before the teacher. They were not horrible instructors, always seemed as rushed and hurried and their attitudes definitely transferred into my experience in their classes. When the teacher’s attitude is not confident, students lose confidence in the teacher. It also gives them a sense that the teacher is inapproachable, and based on my experience I agree with Section 1.2 that approachability is a key trait for a teacher as it encourages the student to fulfill their duty to engage and ask questions honestly.
The classes also did not offer any sense of community, as students were not actively encouraged to seek one another’s help. This would help them act independently of the professor. I realize how much the sense of community in the classroom and feeling tied to my peers helped me to succeed in many different fields of study in high school. Even in the university, my performance was much better in classes where peer discussion was encouraged.
Overall, my experiences give me a sense of the role I seek to fulfill as a teacher. I may find myself to be 15% lecturer, and definitely incorporate integration of subjects and knowledge into my classes through the role of counselor and guide, approximately 20% of my efforts. The rest of the energy I will invest in uniting students with effective materials and lesson plans.
Source Link: http://www.121sensei.com/teaching-job-japan.html There are some good links for job listing sites there, but most things having to do with class materials are just suckering you into sites that want you to pay to access their resources. There are too many free resources available to bother with this. In the lessons |
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