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."
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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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