The aforementioned article on Phat in Hall Houston's blog is now up. Here is the link for anyone who cares to check it out:
http://hallhouston.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-guest-post-chuck-johnson-author.html
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
On Self-Publishing...
Recently, I was contacted by Hall Houston, a University EFL teacher in Taiwan, and the author of Provoking Thought about doing a contribution to his blog about my experiences developing and self-publishing Phat English. I'm one of several authors who will be featured in the article, and he is writing it to contrast self-publishing with going through a major publisher, and the respective pros and cons of each. I'm also happy that he is giving me an opportunity to speak about Phat and hopefully continue to introduce it to people who haven't had a chance to see it and/or hear about it yet. Although I've already sent him my contribution, the it will be coming out sometime next month, and I'm really looking forward to reading the whole thing (in particular the experiences of other authors) then.
Phat Private
Was recently contacted about being the private instructor of a hip-hop dancer who is looking for a teacher to work with him privately. Was supposed to meet with him today, but he was unable to make it, so hopefully, I can meet with him soon. As he will be my 4th Phat English private student, and I've been actually teaching with it for 5 years anyway, I don't expect too many suprises when we are actually 'in the classroom'. At the same time however, as I've got all the tracks in both WAV and MP3 formats now, provided he has an MP3 player, he will be the first person to actually be able to carry them with him as he goes, and I'm interested to see if he dedicates time to learning and practicing the songs on his own, and if so, how that will affect his ability to integrate the pronunciation patterns he is learning from them into his usual speech.
This usually seems to take more time than students utilizing them on their own without prompts as they are singing the songs.
The MP3s are also nice because I can simply put it on my Ipod as well, so when I teach with it, we can practice the full listening/rapping exercises wherever we choose without necessarily making too much noise or having to bother anyone.
In general, working with him should be a fun and interesting experience, and as with each and every student, hopefully watching how he deals with Phat will give me insights into tweeking it into something even better.
This usually seems to take more time than students utilizing them on their own without prompts as they are singing the songs.
The MP3s are also nice because I can simply put it on my Ipod as well, so when I teach with it, we can practice the full listening/rapping exercises wherever we choose without necessarily making too much noise or having to bother anyone.
In general, working with him should be a fun and interesting experience, and as with each and every student, hopefully watching how he deals with Phat will give me insights into tweeking it into something even better.
Phat at Toin University
At present, I am working as an accredited English convesation instructor at Toin University Yokohama. Recently, I was given the green light to introduce Phat English as a part of their "English Challenge" (extra-curricular practice) curriculum.
Thus far, they seem to be enjoying it, and are getting it faster than I thought they would. This is encouraging because they are about as low as the students I worked with at ESP and Yokohama Design Gakuen, but without coming from the dance and vocal' majors as those students were.
These guys (and I do mean guys- there's very few women in the program I am working in), are almost exclusively athletes however, and insomuch as I've personally experienced, most high level athletes aren't exactly musically inclined. As such, I figure that if they can do it, and enjoy it, then anyone can. It's also interesting because I am doing the program with a myriad of other teachers from other backgrounds and it will be interesting to see how they interpret and use the text, exercises, and CD as well.
Phat at the BEA.
Recently, I was contacted by lulu, the self-publishing company through which I produce Phat, and they told me that Phat English was one of the books that they wanted to display on their bahalf at the BEA. (Book Expo America). As the BEA is pretty much, the biggest book show in North America, and lulu will have a large booth in a great location (right by the door) I was pretty excited about the prospect. It just goes to show just how far Phat has really come. I'm curious to see how it will be received, and given what I've heard so far, am expecting good things.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Phat in Baltimore!
Just found out that a presentation for Phat English to school administrators in Baltimore went really well, and it’s likely that it will be implemented into school systems there from either this summer or the fall. How or to what degree it will be implemented is still being worked out, but they seem quite excited about the prospect, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about this as it develops.
I'm also happy about this development as it marks the first step to Phat's working it's way into the American ESL market, where ultimately, I feel it can shine the most, and do people the most good.
As the text and story center around American characters working their way through a 'typical' American college life, it is my hope that those studying with it will not just learn how to 'sound' more American, but also gain a stronger understanding of American culture as well, and as a function of that, have an easier time integrating into American society, making friends, understanding humor, and ultimately have a more positive and fulfilling experience in the states.
That may be a bit of a tall order for one textbook... but as a great friend and fellow author once told me, "Shoot for the moon, and in the least, you will fall amonst the stars."
I'm also happy about this development as it marks the first step to Phat's working it's way into the American ESL market, where ultimately, I feel it can shine the most, and do people the most good.
As the text and story center around American characters working their way through a 'typical' American college life, it is my hope that those studying with it will not just learn how to 'sound' more American, but also gain a stronger understanding of American culture as well, and as a function of that, have an easier time integrating into American society, making friends, understanding humor, and ultimately have a more positive and fulfilling experience in the states.
That may be a bit of a tall order for one textbook... but as a great friend and fellow author once told me, "Shoot for the moon, and in the least, you will fall amonst the stars."
Tokyo Fire Department Seminar
Just finished a 4 day seminar for the Tokyo Fire Department. Much like last year, the program consisted of 14 hours of advanced language training for two groups of 6 firemen/women. This year however, as I had much more experience teaching with Phat, it was integrated much more thoroughly into the curriculum, and constituted about half of their training (the rest consisting of differences between English dialects such as GAm, AAVE and RP, oral and written presentation skills, and answering dealing with language / cultural issues that they may have to face while working with foreigners.)
Their Toeic stores ranged from about 630 to 990, so given the fact that most of my experience in teaching with Phat has been at relatively low levels, I also thought this would be a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast the speed at which they could grasp the concepts.
As one would expect, they could grasp both the concept of the reductions and the logic of figuring out how they are applied considerably quicker than my students at ESP or at Yokohama Design Gakuen. Additionally, their reading and speaking fluency also made it considerably easier for them to grasp the songs as well, and while it might take 5 sessions to be able to perform the karaoke version of the song with my lower level students, they were able to get it in a single day.
Their Toeic stores ranged from about 630 to 990, so given the fact that most of my experience in teaching with Phat has been at relatively low levels, I also thought this would be a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast the speed at which they could grasp the concepts.
As one would expect, they could grasp both the concept of the reductions and the logic of figuring out how they are applied considerably quicker than my students at ESP or at Yokohama Design Gakuen. Additionally, their reading and speaking fluency also made it considerably easier for them to grasp the songs as well, and while it might take 5 sessions to be able to perform the karaoke version of the song with my lower level students, they were able to get it in a single day.
At the same time however, even if they understand the concepts, applying the reductions to naturalize their speech still seems to be something that will require continual commitment.
Overall, it was a great experience though, and many students said that they are already looking forward to next year.
Overall, it was a great experience though, and many students said that they are already looking forward to next year.
2010 Graduating Class of ESP
The class of dance and vocal students who I teach at ESP Performance Village recently completed their graduation requirements and will be graduating at the end of this month. I’d been working with them once a month or so for about a year now, and despite the fact that most of them were absolute beginners (i.e. didn’t understand ‘How are you?”) I am really happy and proud of how well they have progressed. For the last round of classes together, we went throught the song “Decisions, Decisions” and I had the students sing the lyrics of the song on their own using the ‘Karaoke’ (instrumental) track on the listening CD. (Track #4), and they all managed to not just get through it, but to actually get into it, and do it with gestures as well.
As always seems to be the case, the song practice is what students retain the most (see links at the end to to read about why), so if they do go on to continue studying English (as I hope they will) hopefully these patterns will stay with them as well.
As always seems to be the case, the song practice is what students retain the most (see links at the end to to read about why), so if they do go on to continue studying English (as I hope they will) hopefully these patterns will stay with them as well.
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