Pernicious Prepositions

I worked with some students on phrasal verbs (which more often than not, are combinations of verbs with prepositions) for an entire summer once, and I am seeing the importance more and more as I see how students struggle with the topic. I am offering this list of prepositional verbs and verbs that use prepositions along with other verbs I have noticed in helping a student prepare for the SAT. Even American students are tested on knowing these verb conjugations. Knowing them really increases how natural a speaker sounds.

The beginning of the list was taken from: Evergreen, a Guide to Writing With Readings, International Edition 9th e by Susan Fawcett

The list may be helpful when covering prepositional verbs in high school classes and above.

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)

Apply to (doing something) (One should apply oneself to their studies)

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

Teacher Pitfalls: Making the Most of Teacher Talking Time

The most important part of EFL, to me, in any country is fulfilling my duties as a teacher.

Thus, in every capability, I am working on improving myself as a teacher. So currently I am doing an EFL course online and tutoring as temporary work. I will publish my essays here. The word limit is 700 words and it feels constrictive at times, maybe I will edit them in my free time.

(c) Malia Autio 2011, please cite if the information is used anywhere


New Teacher Pitfalls: Making the Most of Teacher Talking Time

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

On the Role of Teachers

My inspirational teacher (bottom right corner)

The most important part of EFL, to me, in any country is fulfilling my duties as a teacher.

Thus, in every capability, I am working on improving myself as a teacher. So currently I am doing an EFL course online and tutoring as temporary work. I will publish my essays here. The word limit is 700 words and it feels constrictive at times, maybe I will edit them in my free time.

(c) Malia Autio 2011, please cite if the information is used anywhere

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.